“Aargh!” Twilight shouted. “Why the hay did the princess send me here!? All that’s up here is this stupid snow!”

Honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure why she had agreed when the princess asked her to come up to this place. Not only was the Frozen North lonely and unforgiving, but it was, well... frozen. Celestia wanted her to study the ecosystem of the tundra, but there simply wasn’t anything here worth studying. Aside from the random snowy owl, she was the only living creature up here. At least, the only one that she was aware of.

Of course, the lack of subjects to study left her with minimal notes. Needless to say, this frustrated her to no end. After looking down at her compilation of papers, she forced a sigh. Not only were her scribbles few and far between, but they were just that: scribbles. Nothing of any intellectual value. Celestia would be ashamed.

Now that she thought about it, wasn’t she supposed to be studying friendship? Last time she checked, the frozen wasteland was anything but friendly. In fact, it was the dead opposite of friendly. It was downright hostile.

Twilight Sparkle shivered, the icy wind shaking her to the core. The sun had begun to dip below the horizon, its fading light encompassing the wintery wonderland in a surreal trance. But as beautiful as the sunset was, the temperature was dropping dangerously low. It was already below zero and still falling.

This thought in mind, Twilight grabbed her notes and headed back to base camp. Thoughts of a warm campfire and a cozy sleeping bag prominent in her mind, she quickened her pace. The sooner she got back, the better.

Reaching the summit of a hill, she paused to take in her surroundings. The way that the orange light from the sunset reflected off of the gently falling snowflakes was breathtaking. She could see rolling hills for miles and, if she looked hard enough, she could just barely make out the peaks of the Crystal Mountains in the distance. Honestly, the view was the only thing Twilight enjoyed about this whole mess.

She could have sat there and stared for days, but she was more concerned with the base camp resting at the bottom of the hill. It was fairly rudimentary, but for the moment, it was home. And home was just what she needed right now.

Home currently consisted of a hastily-erected tent, a couple of winter survival guides, and a small purple dragon tending to a roaring fire. A smile crept onto Twilight’s face. She was eternally grateful that Spike had agreed to come with her. She hadn’t wanted to inconvenience her other friends by asking them to come with her. They all had lives outside of her ridiculous antics.

She did feel bad for Spike, though. He would never admit it, but she knew he was growing tired of staying at base camp while she explored the winter wonderland.

And it was only their fourth day up here.

A particularly strong gust of wind jerked Twilight from her thoughts. She trudged through the fresh powder down toward her number-one assistant.

Spike jerked his head around and spotted Twilight. Waving her over, he said, “Find anything interesting?”

She shook her head. “Nope. At least, not anything worth including in a report to the princess. I saw what I thought were some fox tracks, but the snow covered them up before I could study them in any detail.”

He threw another log onto the fire. “I’m sure you’ll find something tomorrow.”

“I hope so.”

After that, they lulled into a companionable silence. Each of them was immersed in their own thoughts.

Twilight rubbed her forehooves together in an effort to warm them up. Staring into the flickering fire, her thoughts wandered.

Why had the princess wanted her to be the one to research the Frozen North? There were plenty of ponies more qualified than she. Everything about the whole assignment was strange, especially Celestia’s letter asking her to take on the task. She would have gotten it from her bags to examine once again, but she had read it over so many times that she had committed it to memory.

Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

I hope this letter finds you well. Things at the palace have been rather slow lately, so I’ve taken to studying econ ecology with my free time.

I apologize for the abruptness, but I have an assignment for you, should you choose to exc accept it. Field notes on the ecosystem of the Frozen North are few and far between, and often lack both quality and quantity. As a fellow student of scin science, I know that you’ll be just as concerned about this lack of information as I am.

This is why I am asking you to take a two-week excursion up to the lands north of the Crystal Empire. You are to take notes on the indigin indigenous flora and fauna and write a comprehensive report on them upon your return.

Also, please don’t bother writing back. I don’t want to trouble Spike with having to send another letter.

Sincerely, Celestia

Several things about the letter bothered Twilight Sparkle. It was hastily written, much different than her mentor’s normal cool and calculated penmanship. Errors littered the page, each one crossed out and rewritten correctly. There were ink smudges everywhere, as though the letter had been handled roughly.

But none of that bothered Twilight. What did bother her was Celestia’s signature at the bottom of the page. Her first time reading it through, she hadn’t even noticed it. It was only on the third or fourth time that she finally picked up on it, and now that she had, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Celestia always signed her letters with her full title. Not just Celestia, but Princess Celestia.

She had a sinking feeling the letter wasn't actually from the princess.

Sure, chances were that it was just Rainbow playing another prank on her, but she couldn't quite shake that heavy feeling deep in her gut.

She sighed. In thinking Celestia’s haste had meant the project was urgent, she had packed quickly and taken the first train out of Ponyville. She barely had time to ask Fluttershy to watch over Owlowiscious and the library, and then she was gone. She had wanted to respond to Celestia to tell her that she was leaving, but ultimately she decided against it. The princess had asked her not to, so she wouldn’t.

Extracting herself from the warm embrace of the fire, Twilight plodded over to the tent. She pulled herself into her sleeping bag and curled up into a ball. Listening to the crackling of the fire, she eventually drifted into a fitful sleep.

That night, she dreamed of a nice, reassuring letter from her beloved princess.

---

Princess Celestia slowly lowered herself into the warm waters of the bath. With a contented sigh, she allowed the heat to melt away all the troubles of the day.

Most days were trying in their own right, but today had been particularly insufferable. Even the most seasoned of bureaucrats were unable to keep their expressions level when a stallion stormed into the court and proclaimed, “I swear upon Star Swirl’s grave, the world does not exist! We are all just figments of Discord’s imagination!”

Seriously, where did ponies come up with this stuff?

But she chose not to dwell on such things. She was supposed to be relaxing right now, not stressing.

Of course, there were other factors that contributed to her unease. Namely, Twilight Sparkle. She had suddenly fallen off the map, with only a short letter to Celestia in explanation.

Celestia turned to her bags, wrapped her magic around the letter, and levitated it over. She didn’t need to read it—she had read it over so many times that she had it memorized—but she preferred to have the tangible letter in her grasp. Otherwise she might not be able to convince herself that it was real.

Dearest Celestia,

I hope this letter finds you well. Things in Ponyville have been rather slow lately, so I’ve taken to studying biology in more detail. I was researching the ecosystem of the Frozen North, when I realized there was no solid data on the tud tundra. There was merely speculation and educated guessing.

I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be writing any friendship reports for the next two weeks. I’ll be sure to compile a large report on erey everything I’ve learned upon my return.

Also, please don’t bother writing back. I don’t want to trouble Spike with more letters. He der deserves a break.

Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle

The letter wasn’t right. The writing was messy and there were multiple errors interspersed throughout, which were two traits very uncharacteristic of her personal student. The parchment was tattered and torn, as if it had been tossed about roughly.

That wasn’t what bothered her, though. The little error that sealed the deal was Twilight’s signature. Twilight always closed her letters by saying Your Faithful Student. Celestia had grown to love that line. It was a little something Twilight had adopted at a very young age and stuck with into marehood. Without it there, it felt like something was missing.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that the letter wasn’t actually from Twilight.

It was a stupid thing to think. She was probably just in a hurry to catch her train, so she didn’t have much time to write a well thought-out letter like she usually did. There was a logical explanation for all of this.

Still, the thought lodged itself in the back of her mind. No matter what she did, she just couldn’t seem to get rid of it.

When she brought her concerns up with Luna, she just shrugged her off. "Twilight’s a smart mare," she had said. "Even if she was in trouble, which I doubt she is, she would be able to handle herself."

Luna, of course, was right. Twilight was nothing if not competent. She should have more faith in her student, but she couldn’t help but be worried.

She glanced over at the window. She had lowered the sun not even twenty minutes ago, and the moon was already high in the sky. With a groan, she pulled herself out of the water and dried herself off. Lounging around was doing her no good. What she really needed was some sleep.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. “Princess?” a feminine voice called out. “Are you in there? Princess Luna and Captain Armor are requesting your presence in the throne room immediately.”

What could they possibly need her for, and at this hour no less?

She pulled open the door with her magic and smiled down at the mare. “Thank you, miss…?”

“Melody. My name is Melody.”

“Ah, well thank you, Melody.”

Celestia briskly walked down the hallways of the palace. She was going to give somepony a stern talking to for interrupting her soon-to-be rest.

Upon arrival, she panned the throne room. There were several things going on, none of which made sense to the princess. Luna and Shining were talking animatedly of to the side of the room and… was that a changeling tied up in the middle of the floor?

Celestia shook her head to clear her thoughts. So there was a changeling in the room. That didn’t mean anything. It was probably just a straggler from the invasion a few months ago that never left Canterlot. It wasn’t that big of a deal.

She walked over to Luna and Shining Armor, who explained everything with alarming celerity.

“There is a stallion waiting outside. He demands to speak with us,” Luna said.

Shining nodded in affirmation. “He told the guards that he was willing to use force, and when they laughed at him, he sicced this little guy on ‘em,” he said, gesturing to the tied-up changeling.

Celestia frowned. “Did he say who he was?”

“Nope. All he would tell the guards was that he wanted an audience with us,” Shining answered.

Luna shuffled her hooves. “That brings us to our next question. Do we speak with him?”

None of them said anything. This mystery stallion was either completely out of his mind, or knew exactly what he was getting himself into. Maybe even a combination of the two. Either way, this could potentially be a dangerous situation.

Finally, Shining broke the silence. “I think we should go. If we don’t, he’ll probably just send in more changelings. I don’t want anypony else getting hurt because of us.”

Celestia nodded. “I agree. He really isn’t giving us much of a choice here.”

Plan in mind, they headed out the throne room doors and into the royal gardens where the stallion lay in wait.

The gardens were in chaos. Thousands of changelings plagued the area, far outnumbering the guards present. The guards were clearly fighting a losing battle, having to fend off ten or eleven changelings each. The screams of the fight echoed all around, sending a shiver down Celestia’s spine. There was changeling blood, as well as an alarming amount of equine blood, splattered all over the marble walkways.

Amidst the chaos, there he stood. He had an air of calm confidence about him, as if he had been waiting for this moment his whole life. He was completely untouched by the fight going on around him. It was almost ethereal.

At first glance, he looked like your typical unicorn. He had a soft, chocolate brown coat. His mane was a light chestnut color with stripes of even lighter brown running throughout, as though it had been bleached by the sun. He was the kind of pony who looked familiar even though you’d never met him before. Under any normal circumstance, he would have easily blended in with the crowd.

Of course, this wasn’t any normal circumstance.

Then there were his eyes. They were blood red, and burned with an intense fire of determination. He knew what he wanted, and he was going to get it.

He strided over to them with an eerily warm smile. They could hear his words clearly amidst the cries of battle. “Nice to finally meet you three.”

“What in Equestria is going on here?!” Shining shouted.

The stallion rolled his eyes. “Oh, put a sock in it, Whining Armor.”

Celestia had to give the stallion credit. He had guts.

Just then, a changeling bleeding from deep gashes in its sides zoomed between them, flying after a fleeing guard. Celestia was sent reeling. How in Equestria was that changeling still in the air?

Seeing the question form on her lips, he laughed. “Fantastic, isn’t it? It’s amazing just how much a few well-placed spells can achieve. I simply weakened their pain receptors. They could have their heads chopped off and still continue fighting.”

Celestia was disgusted. That was cruel on so many different levels.

Instead of disgusted, Luna was curious. “Where did you find this spell?”

“The royal archives, of course.”

Celestia froze. The archives lay deep within the bowels of the castle. They were heavily guarded and only the princesses, and Twilight Sparkle on occasion, were granted access. “How?”

He rolled his eyes, as if she had asked a stupid question. “Honestly, Celestia, I have changelings on my side. It shouldn’t be that hard to piece together.”

He grinned devilishly. “Let me give you a hint. Remember a couple of months ago when Twilight Sparkle came to visit you?”

Leaning in close, he whispered into her ear, “That wasn’t Twilight Sparkle.”

So many different emotions were running through Celestia’s mind in that very moment. Fear. Sadness. Fury. Amidst all of this, she couldn’t think properly. So she did the one thing that came instinctively to her—she swung at the stallion, striking him right below the eye. Hard.

He didn’t flinch, or even try to roll with the punch. Instead, he only laughed.

He began pacing around them. “In the archives, I stumbled across a few dusty old tomes. Tomes that contained the answers to all of my questions… and more. Oh, so much more.”

He smiled. “One of those tomes was titled The Edicts of Ascension. It had all kinds of facts about alicorns: their quirks and mannerisms, their faults and foibles, and all the little nuances of their existence. Above all of that, it explained how to make an alicorn. And, more importantly, how to unmake one.”

He stared at Celestia, completely deadpan. “Unfortunately, the process forbids me from killing you. It’s a shame, really.”

That was when all hell broke loose.

It was Shining Armor who made the first move. He lunged at the stallion, tackling him to the ground. His blows rained down on his adversary, each one drilling home with jarring force.

The changelings, noticing their leader in danger, leapt into action and dragged Shining Armor off of him. Once he was restrained, they went for the princesses.

The changelings were upon them before the princesses even realized what was happening. One of them leapt and sank its teeth into Celestia’s neck. She threw it off as quickly as she could, but the damage had already been done. Looking to her side, saw Luna had been bitten too.

Luna cursed under her breath and spun around on her hooves. As another changeling lunged at her, she lifted her hind legs into the air and bucked it in the face, sending it flying into several others.

The changeling, now sporting a broken face and a bloody nose, rose to its feet as if nothing had happened. It let out a guttural shriek and charged once again, earning a little yelp of surprise from Luna.

Celestia shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her mind was becoming clouded, and she was finding it hard to focus. “Buck,” she muttered under her breath. “stupid changeling venom…”

She turned away from her sister and leapt into the air. Taking deep breaths, she examined the scene from above. The majority of the guards had been subdued, and the ones who hadn’t would be soon. Shining was fighting one on one with the mystery stallion, and Luna was tearing through the changelings with alarming vigor.

She swooped down to one of the slightly less injured guards. “Go alert the rest of the royal guard,” she commanded. “We need reinforcements. Now.”

The guard smiled at her, but made no effort to move.

“Please, this is urgent. I need you to—”

The guard launched himself at Celestia, throwing her to the ground. With a feral hiss, he bared his fangs, ready to sink them into her throat.

With a shriek, she threw the now-reverted changeling off of her. A shiver ran down her spine. “Note to self; anypony might be a changeling.”

She sighed, and shook her head once again. Her mind was becoming fuzzier by the minute. The natural anesthetic in the changeling venom was working its course far quicker than she would have liked.

She took to the skies once again, heading for the for the guards’ barracks. As soon as she left the ground, the changelings were after her and quickly gaining. She spun and flipped around in the air to dodge their attacks, accomplishing aerial maneuvers she had no idea she was capable of. When one changeling came particularly close to landing a blow on her, she grabbed it with her magic and threw it at the ground with all the force she could muster. It landed with a splat, dying on impact. Staring at the nauseating splatter mark its guts left, she let out a shaky smile. At least that was one changeling she knew wouldn’t be getting back up.

By the time she tore her eyes away from the changeling’s remains, twenty more were upon her. With the extra weight, her wings faltered and she plummeted toward the ground. She tore the changelings off of her and righted herself just before hitting the ground. She let out a sigh of relief.

Her relief was short-lived, as the remaining changelings dove after her. She landed on the ground and steadied herself. As the first one approached, she reared up and bucked it in the side, sending it sprawling. She let out a growl and galloped toward the barracks, which now lay only several hundred hooves in front of her.

Just when she thought she might make it, the mystery stallion teleported right in front of her. She cursed under her breath. Why hadn’t she thought of teleporting?

Unable to stop in time, she plowed into him, knocking them both to the ground. He rolled over, pinning her to the ground. In seconds, the changelings had surrounded them. He climbed off of her, and she scrambled to her feet. As much as she wanted to attack him, she knew that if she did, the changelings would be on her before she knew it. She might be able to take on a bunch of of them, but there was no way she could beat this many, especially in their pain negligent state.

“Where are the others?” Celestia snarled.

“Don’t worry, they’re both taken care of. Shining Armor was easy. Luna… not so much.” He grinned. “I like her. She’s got spunk.”

“What… what did you do to them?”

“Nothing yet. I’ve got some of the changeling higher-ups watching over them until I bring you back. Now, are you going to come willingly, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”

Celestia grimaced. If she went willingly, she forfeited any chance she had of reaching the guards' barracks. If she tried to escape…

He noticed her gaze gravitate toward the barracks. He rolled his eyes. “Please, you think they haven’t been taken care of already? I hit ‘em just as they were getting ready to sleep. They never saw it coming.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “But—”

“Most of them were already changelings anyways, so it really wasn’t all that difficult. Honestly, ‘Tia, do you really think this is spur of the moment thing? The changelings didn’t all leave with Chrysalis. Many remained in hiding. We have slowly been infiltrating your ranks for months. Months. It was over before you even knew it started.”

Celestia was dumbfounded. Not only had this stallion staged a coup on the throne, but he had done so without so much as a whisper reaching her ears. “How did you get the changelings to listen to you in the first place?”

“With Chrysalis out of the picture, they needed a leader. When I showed up, they practically begged me. It was far too easy.”

Celestia shifted her weight. None of it added up. “Why?”

“Why did they need a leader? Well I—”

“No," she said. She was finding it harder and harder to focus on his words. Her consciousness was slowly slipping away. "I mean why are you doing all of this? What do you possibly have to gain?”

He smiled. “Everything. I had absolutely nothing. They all ignored my in my time of need. They put me through hell, Celestia. So I’m going to do the same to them.”

She said nothing.

“Any more questions?” he asked.

“Who are you?”

He faltered. “Do… do you really not remember me, Celestia?”

She shook her head.

He sighed. “You can call me Hecate. Hecate Foul.”

At that, the changeling venom finally took over and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

---

Celestia awoke in a daze. She, Luna, and Shining Armor sat in the throne room. They were tied up and unable to move, the ropes restricting them. The mystery stallion, Hecate, was across the room speaking animatedly with a few changelings.

Shining said, “What do we do now?” He had a big welt under his eye, presumably from his tussle with Hecate.

Luna frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t think there is anything we can do.”

Shining Armor sighed. “Do either of you know anything of that book he was talking about?”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other. Both of them shook their heads.

The conversation lulled into silence. There wasn’t much to say. They were far deeper in this mess than they had realized. There were no two ways around it; this time, they were in over their heads.

Just then, Hecate trotted over to them. His eye was swollen where Celestia had hit him.

After giving them a once over, he said, “Wow, you ponies don’t look too great.”

Luna glowered at him.

He laughed sheepishly. After clearing his throat, he slid the book over to Shining Armor’s subdued form. “Read this out loud for me.”

After shooting Hecate a confused look, he began to read. “ ‘Alicorn magic is not generated from inside the horn of the alicorn like unicorn magic is. Alicorn magic is far too powerful to exist within anything. It exists of its own accord, flowing throughout the universe whenever and wherever it is needed. This alicorn magic is called ‘Harmony’. The alicorn taps into this universal current of energy, and the magic ebbs through them, allowing them to utilize its power.

“As per an age-old treaty between ponies and Harmony, alicorns were given the eternal task of maintaining equilibrium wherever they exist. Alicorns are essentially a supreme race designed to fulfill the bidding of Harmony. With this task came many different stipulations, the most prominent of these being their pseudo-immortality.

“Alicorns run a hierarchical society. If a pony defeats the sole alicorn, then they themselves ascend to alicorn status. It is the survival of the fittest. However, if the victor kills the previous alicorn, the connection to Harmony is lost. If this connection is lost, then the victor does not become an alicorn simply because the Harmony cannot reach them. The loser needs to be spared, at least until the victor has fully ascended.’ ”

Nopony said anything.

Hecate shuffled his hooves. “That was an excerpt from the preface of The Edicts of Ascension. Later on, it even provides spells on how, once the alicorn is defeated, to ‘remove their alicorn status’. I figured I should at least let you know why I'm doing this to you.”

Celestia tensed up.

Hecate laughed. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t keep a better watch on this thing,” he said, gesturing to the book. “It is pure gold. Now…”

He trotted over to Luna. “Hmm… what should I make you? Unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony? You know, I think I’ll make you a pegasus. I’ll let you keep your wings 'cause you've been a good girl.”

Luna glared at him.

He closed his eyes peacefully, his horn leaping to life. A bright yellow light wrapped itself around Luna. Hecate closed his eyes more tightly, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. After a short yelp from Luna, it was all over.

Luna looked… different, to say the least. Her coat was similar to the midnight blue that it was before, only a few shades lighter. Her mane, instead of sparkling like the night sky, was now a gentle blue. She was the height of any regular old pegasus.

Hecate turned to Celestia. “Now for you. Because you gave me this,” he said, pointing to his black eye, “I’m going to make you into an earth pony.”

Celestia jumped as she felt his magic envelop her. It felt as if pins and needles were covering every single inch of her body and, after a moment, as if all of the pins and needles simultaneously pushed deep into her skin, eliciting a squeak of pain. As soon as it started, it was over. All of the sudden, she felt bare. Naked. Empty.

She looked down at herself. Her coat retained its alabaster hue. Her mane, however, did not. The colors of the sunrise were gone, replaced by a warm pink.

Hecate, for the most part, looked unchanged. If anything, he might have grown an inch or so taller, but nothing more. He sighed. “The book did say that it would take a few weeks, but I was hoping there would be some immediate changes…”

He strided over to them. “Now, if I’m going to successfully convince Equestria that I am your chosen successor, I can’t have you rotting in the bowels of the castle. If somepony stumbled across you two in the dungeons, all hell would break loose. But I can’t just have you wandering around Equestria either…”

Celestia’s mind was racing a million miles a minute. He… he wasn’t going to kill them?

Luna shot Celestia a pointed look. “You could always exile us, if you so wish.”

His ears perked up. “That’s not a bad idea. But where to?” he asked, more to himself than anypony else.

Luna gave Celestia another look. “What about the Frozen North?”

Celestia’s head jerked up, having caught on to Luna’s plan. “Actually, I think the Frozen North would be perfect, “ Celestia said. “It’s uninhabited and frozen. If we do survive up there, it wouldn’t be for long.”

He shot them a questioning look. “Why are you two so eager to go to the Frozen North?”

Celestia shrugged. “Honestly, we’re just trying to convince you not to kill us.” It wasn’t a complete lie.

“I couldn’t have killed you anyways, otherwise I would have to risk losing my connection to Harmony. Although,” he said with a devilish smile, “there is nothing stopping the Frozen North from finishing you off for me.”

“Just in case, I think I’ll speed up the process…” he strided over to Luna. He touched his horn to her forehead, sapping her of all of her energy. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious. He turned to Celestia.

The last thing she saw before the darkness overtook her was Hecate’s smug grin.

---

Shining Armor groaned in pain, feeling himself stiffen up from the fight.

An hour or so had passed since Hecate had sent his changelings to drop Celestia and Luna off in the middle of the Frozen North, leaving them to die. Why the two of them had been so adamant about being exiled there, he had no clue. But hey, that was their prerogative, not his. Honestly, it didn’t matter much at this point.

Tearing his attention from that wretched book of his, Hecate turned to Shining Armor. “I forgot I still had to deal with you.”

He tapped his forehead contemplatively. “Of course, there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.”

Shining’s eyes widened.

“But you’re far too amusing of a punching bag to dispose of this early on in the game. I think I’ll keep you around in the dungeons,” he said. “In fact, that’s perfect! I can tell the ponies that you betrayed the throne so that they’ll pay attention to you instead of the me.”

Shining wasn’t sure what was worse; the thought of being killed or being tortured by this whack-job.

“Of course, I’ll have to lock up your wife and parents too.”

Shining tensed up. “Don’t you dare touch my Cady!”

Hecate rolled his eyes. “It’s not like she has any chance of saving anypony anyways. She’s not even a real alicorn: just a unicorn with wings. A genetic mistake.”

Shining persisted. "You'll never get away with all of this. My sister and the elements of harmony will set things right again."

"You insolent foal," Hecate spat, circling his prey. "You really think the elements can harm me? I am a god. Using the elements on me would have the same effect as using them on Celestia or Luna. Absolutely nothing."

"They worked on Nightmare Moon!"

Hecate let out a throaty chuckle. "Oh, Shiny. Shiny, Shiny, Shiny. Don't you realize that you've just answered your own question? The elements worked on Nightmare Moon, not Princess Luna. Luna was possessed by her own inner demons. Her jealousy took root deep within her heart and created an entirely new creature."

The stallion shot Shining Armor a devilish smirk. "Tell me, Shining, what exactly do the elements do?"

"They maintain Harmony."

"And what exactly is Harmony?"

"Balance. Stability. Equilibrium."

"Good. Now tell me, what supreme race's job is it to maintain this Harmony?"

"…Alicorns?"

"Precisely. Alicorns are Harmony. If you could use the elements on us, you would be achieving the exact opposite effect of what you desire. You would be eliminating Harmony."

Shining scowled. "You are anything but harmonious."

Hecate grinned knowingly. "Ever heard of a thing called chaotic Harmony?"

Hecate’s grin faded. “But thank you for reminding me about the elements. I had almost forgotten about them.”

He spun around and pointed at the nearest changeling. “Gather up a few more changelings. I have a job for you. You are to bring me the bearers of the elements. Alive.” He shot a grin back at Shining. “How does it feel to know that you sealed your sister’s fate?”

Shining Armor gulped.

He pulled another changeling aside. Pointing at Shining, he said, “You, throw him in the dungeons. As far underground as you can get.”

---

That night, Twilight mumbled restlessly in her sleep.

“No… Princess… don’t… don’t trust him… he’s trying to… to…” she trailed off.

“Ughhh,” Spike groaned tiredly. “Twi, how many times do I gotta tell you everything is fine? I promise you that everything is perfectly okay back home. In fact, I’m positive that everything is fine. Everypony is safe in their beds, sleeping. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“He… he’s gonna… going to…” she sleep-murmured.

Spike let out a gaping yawn. Flipping onto his side, he mumbled, “Don’t worry Twi, everything is fine.”

After another series of yawns, the tendrils of sleep finally reached him. Within minutes, he was snoring peacefully. “Everything is perfectly fine…”