"There," Zecora said finishing her work on Rainbow's wing, "now I would advise that you be more careful when you take to the skies," she said rhythmically.

"I'll try to keep that in mind, thanks Zecora!" Rainbow said as she walked towards her friends who were standing in the middle of the hut talking to Gates. She stretched her wing - it felt better, not perfect, but better. She couldn't wait to fly again and see how her wing would hold up, but the pegasus knew it was best to follow Zecora’s advice for as long as she could help it. She didn't like the idea of not flying at all for even a few hours, not to mention a few days, but Dash knew Zecora was right - it was best if she kept her hooves on the ground for a while. The cyan pegasus entered the circle of ponies and listened in on the conversation that had kept them all busy for nearly half an hour.

"That's when I ran into you girls," Gates finished the story he had been telling," and then, well you guys know the rest." Everyone but Rainbow Dash remained silent after hearing the grim news.

"Hey everypony! What's up?" she asked with an excited curiosity,"Is everything okay?"

"Oh yeah," Pinkie Pie started," Goldie here was just telling us what happened before he met us, it's a doozy!" Pinkie chirped.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I missed it, I'll have to hear it sometime," Rainbow Dash responded.

"I'll make sure to tell it to you when we have more time," Twilight said, adding, "How's your wing?"

"It's seen better days, but Zecora made it a whole lot better," Rainbow Dash

replied happily.

"That's good to hear," Gates said. "But it looks like you'll have a little more time to rest up. I'm having trouble fixing the brace that lets me use my staff," he explained, pointing at the broken piece of metal.

"I can fix it!" Applebloom chirped as she grabbed the brace from Gates' hooves and rushed back into the corner.

"Applebloom!" Applejack yelled at her little sister.

"Don't worry about it," Gates stopped her. "It's not like she can make it any worse. Plus we need to plan this out if we want to get the elements without anypony else getting hurt."

"You're right," Rarity commented. "All six of the elements are spread across town in our homes."

"And who's to say that they haven't found them already," Twilight added. "We barely got away from the library."

"Ah reckon they tore the farm apart after we got away," Applejack said, concerned.

"Then we'll have to move fast if we can even hope to get all of them," Gates concluded. "Without one of the elements the rest are powerless, and we're running out of time."

"Alright everypony," Rainbow Dash called out. "You heard him, let's go!"

"It's not that simple," Gates stopped the cyan pegasus, continuing"There are six elements, and if we all run in there, they're gonna be ready. We need an actual plan, one that they won't be bale to counter before it's too late." The seven ponies thought for a short while.

"Well I suppose if we split up, we could get the elements faster before they could notice," Rarity proposed.

"Split up?" Fluttershy asked. "After all the trouble we just went through to get back together?"

"Well if we all go at once there's a greater chance we'll be caught," rarity countered.

"Rarity's right, unfortunately," Gates commented. "Moving together will draw too much attention - but I'm also afraid moving at all will do just the same. Considering we don't know how many more ponies they've brought in for the search, they're most likely spread throughout the entire town."

"Well I reckon there ain't much we can do about that," Applejack said, looking at Gates.

"Maybe there is," he said," I can probably draw their attention for long enough that the six of you can get the elements and meet back in the center of town, where I'll be."

"You think you can keep them busy that long without getting hurt?" Rainbow Dash questioned.

"Yeah, and you don't have your shocky thingy," Pinkie added.

"It won't be easy, and the fact that I won't have my staff certainly won't help," Gates explained, weighing all the options. "But I'm perfectly capable of handling myself without it. As long as you guys get the elements quickly, and get to the center of town, I should be fine."

"Y'all won't have to go without your shock stick," Applebloom said as she dropped the now completely repaired brace at Gates' hooves.

He looked at it, amazed, "How did you..."

"Ah've always been good at fixin' stuff - this was easy!" the yellow filly drawled happily.

"Well, thank you, this should make things quite a bit easier," Gates said graciously, still impressed that the young filly was able to mend the brace.

"Well I say we've spent enough time talking everypony," Twilight said. "Let's get going." Six of the ponies followed Twilight, while Applejack stayed put.

"Zecora," the orange pony said, slowly. "Ah hate to impose, but would you mind if we left these fillies here? Ah hate to leave em' behind, but this sounds awful dangerous and..."

Zecora stopped Applejack, "It is no problem at - have no fear, as your young friends will be quite safe here."

"Thanks a million Zecora," Applejack said, turning to her sister, "I'm sorry I'm leavin' again, sis’, but we gotta stop these ponies, and if Gates here is right, Ah reckon we're the only ones who can."

"Don't worry 'bout it, sis!" Applebloom responded," Ah know you got to do this, just promise you'll be careful."

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Applejack promised as she walked out the door, and galloped up to her friends.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Gyro flew into the throne room, and streaked like lightning to the leader of his search team and his chief advisor, "Hazel, I need a status report," Gyro ordered.

"Well," the light brown pegasus responded, "Sterling's search party is making good progress in Ponyville, she says that it shouldn't be long before they find the elements."

"Good, good," Gyro said," and what about the elite guard? Do we have them locked down?"

"Yes, well, most of them," Hazel said quickly.

"Most?" Gyro asked," I thought we had them all in Canterlot when we attacked?"

"We did, but we couldn't keep all of them from escaping," Hazel explained," we have most of them taken care of already, and we have a good idea on where to start looking."

Gyro stomped his hoof on the ground, and demanded" How many are we missing?"

Curtly, Hazel said: "Two.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Spark and Celestia walked up to the gate, standing in front of a large mass of stone.

"I don't see how you did it Spark. The magical seal on the gate should only have broken when the pony who cast it was no longer living," Celestia said perplexed.

"Well as we both know, Luna cast the spell over a thousand years ago, even before she took the form of Nightmare Moon," Spark explained," But over the course of her imprisonment in the last millennium, the spell weakened, not completely breaking. Now when you noticed this, you gave me and my team time to work on the door with no interruptions, and when we opened it, I simply took control the power that had been locked away for the Triumvirate."

"The Triumvirate?" Celestia questioned, trying to learn all she could about Spark's plan.

"Well even with the power, I am not enough to run the kingdom on my own, so I tethered the power of myself, Gyro, and Sterling together through the great power I had unlocked." He said as they stood just outside the massive door.

"You’re making a huge mistake. You can't do this," Celestia said.

"Of course we can Celestia - we already have. Yes, there are details like raising and lowering the sun," Spark said slowly," but the sun is up now, and I should have the time to figure out a solution before it causes any major problems." Spark began strapping a magic blocking chest plate on the princess. Though it wouldn’t be able to contain Celestia’s magic completely, its power combined with Spark’s would be more than enough.

"Do not worry Celestia, I have Equestria's best interest at heart," Spark soothed Celestia as he guided her into the cell. "Let this mark the end of the rule of the Royal Pony Sisters," Spark said smiling as he closed the gate.

"And the beginning of the rule of The Triumvirate."

Next Chapter: Chapter Nine - Insidious Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 43 Minutes