The hive network belonging to the small swarm of changelings in Pine Hills rang with an order. All Nightmare changelings were to assemble in the main hall. Guiding Light knew she didn't have to do anything else. Her changelings would obey her without complaining.

Recieving the final thoughts of her body double over such long distance had been grueling but the message had confirmed her worst fears. Her following night had been spent by preparing a portal to Ponyville. She had to basically reinvent a teleportation spell from the only piece of magic she knew, the dimension jumping spell, but using the magical ornaments to stabilize energy was fairly simple for her as queen-grade changelings worked as batteries capable of holding massive amount of energy.

She had enough to make the spell work and only thing remaining was to infuse her power into the magic circle which meant she only needed time. Resting after a night full of activity, she waited for her changelings to assemble.

Her seven remaining changelings.

She had to admit that the force was almost nothing in comparison to Nightmare Moon. Still, creatures immune to mind control and manipulation might have value in facing her.

Feeling her energy flow into the circle beginning to glow, she doze off. When she woke up everypony was already present. They hadn't woken up their queen early because they knew whatever she had called them for had to be important but same went for her sleep.

"Which ones of you have a partner here among the villagers?" asked Guiding. She could have scanned the minds of her kind but there was no reason to waste energy.

Two changelings stepped forward.

"You will stay here and live your lives as long as possible. You will also tell the mayor why the rest of us left. There is no need to warn them though. If we fail then there will be nothing they'll be able to do."

"I want to go as well," Shieldbreaker's mate objected, "I know Breaky wouldn't want anything to happen to his princess."

"No. I promised you life and while it might be short you will enjoy your time here. You can help me by giving me the energy drained from your partners."

"Of course," both changelings nodded and aimed their horns at their queen.

Guiding Light felt her power grow.

"That should be enough for the teleportation," she said after a while and the two exhausted changelings left the cavern.

"We're the only ones who know how Nightmare's mind control works. I really doubt she'll be there alone. There's also the possibility of her not following Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville and still being in Canterlot. If that's the case we might have time to organize some sort of defense. However... we all know that the Nightmare is a shifty god and doesn't like to keep things hanging so we might also arrive too late and in a trap. That means that as soon as the smoke clears we attack anypony even remotely hostile. Stay together, cover each other's backs. We're fighting for the chance at having... foals one day."

Not a single word was said by any of her subjects. All of them knew what the outcome of their failure would be. The blue circle glowed and left the cavern completely empty.

Nightmare Moon finally materialized in the Ponyville library. The transfer took time thanks to her immense power flowing through the magic circle in Canterlot but she got there just in time to see a badly wounded white pegasus run out of the building.

She snickered and took a deep breath.

The mercenary was unimportant now. He'd done his job and brought the Bearers to this place. Perhaps she might give him little time to enjoy his money, fill his head with images of herself feasting on the Bearers and watch him torture himself to death.

Even gods had hobbies.

Just behind the door. Nightmare Moon's horn glowed. Correction - just behind where the door had been a second ago.

With power still overflowing from her horn, she aimed it at the five bound and gasping fillies trying to stand up under the stairs. Grinning like a maniac, Nightmare Moon released the energy.

The lightning melted her horseshoes and she coughed up blood.

"Lunaaaaa..." she growled.

I told you... I won't let you... harm... my subjects.

"I can feel you fading, alicorn. Alright, I will play your game for now. I will undoubtedly be hungry later anyway."

Nightmare's horn flashed again and time in the cellar stopped. With the Bearers in stasis the remaining Element of Magic would be drastically weakened and the Tree of Harmony will eventually die even without Discord's intervention.

Nightmare Moon won. There was nothing that could stop her anymore. So...

...time to play.

Perhaps she could show Luna some gratitude by killing the batpony she'd been so set on finding. The one her controlled Nightguards were currently playing with in the library square.

Walking out of the building, she smiled widely at the sight of Nightguards attacking Icy Gaze and Choking Darkness in pairs. There were dozens of guards and Nightmare was feasting on the fear growing in the defending duo as they realized the hopelessness of their efforts.

The tensing of the air in the village was possible to sense only by unicorns and those very attuned even to small changes in their surroundings. With Luna's knowledge, Nightmare was able to identify a binding spell being prepared in the distance.

"Ha ha ha ha, a trap? Come at me, petty creatures! Come and face your inevitable end."

After all, with the Elements gone there was no magic strong enough to stop her.

"Miss Starlight?" Twilight was standing in front of a tent with talismans hanging all over it, "Can I help you with anything concerning the spell? I remember some books about the subject."

"Go away, you noisy, useless hack. You get lucky once by being randomly chosen by a magical artefact and you think you're the center of the universe," was the reponse she got.

"Oh... okay."

Twilight wasn't feeling herself. First of all, her confidence was gone. The encounter with death had shaken her and she couldn't shake off the fear of the same thing happening to her. Deep down she was happy Starlight didn't need her help, that way she could just sit here, on the snowy bench in the middle of the camp, and stare into the distance.

Starlight was right, she couldn't help but feel. Now, alone, Twilight knew she hadn't been able to save anypony. Perhaps it really was true... perhaps she just got lucky she'd been at the right place at the right time. Without her friends... who was she? Princess of Friendship? Yeah, right.

"Thinking about your next step?" a voice she now knew belonged to Shadowstep asked.

"Not really," sighed Twilight, her ears low.

"Why?"

"What can I do? Last time I tried to sort things out three ponies died. My friends are Celestia-knows-where and Nightmare Moon is on the loose."

"I've been in the army for about seven hundred years. Do you have an idea what it is like? I have seen those closest to me die over and over again. At a certain point... you stop taking it in. The key is not to stop caring though. I felt the way you're feeling now every single time I had to send one of my subordinates to their death. You know what the upper brass of changeling army kept telling me?"

"What?"

"You're just a gear in the machine. Do your part, do what little you can and you will maximize your chances. I got angry and climbed through the ranks, gaining followers. Eventually I deserted with my entire platoon, the goal being to create a small hive somewhere, take control of few griffon villages and just live. Funnily enough, none of our leaders cared or possibly even noticed. In those times there were millions of changelings roaming the entire world and we were just a drop in the ocean."

"Why are you telling me this? You were able to single-hoofedly get into a leadership position but I was just chosen by the Elements. I wasn't even that great at magic. I read tons of books but I wasn't even able to teleport further than I could see before I got the Element."

Shadowstep smiled... very grimly.

"Yeah... I was great. A revered tactician, iron-hooved general beloved by all her soldiers. Then I made a mistake and led about three hundred changelings into a trap. Griffons found about us, deserters, and wanted easy prey instead having to fight the bulk of changeling forces. They lured us into a trap with the only way out being endless stretch of desert. I got baited and outsmarted, causing the death of most of my changelings. That was the easy part. The hard one was watching them waste away one by one in the desert, each one giving me the last remains of their energy just so I could go on and lead the rest. Not even the last one was mad at me when he died. All that because I thought I knew better than anyone else. It was... an experience."

"I don't know what I would have done..." Twilight just whispered.

"Noone or nopony, as you would say, knows until it happens. I was saved by a dragon sorcerer. Well, saved is a strong word because he just wanted someone to experiment on to find out how changeling ability to store energy worked. The key thing is that I lived and I, let's say, acquired Cross in that event. Suddenly I had one... creature with me who relied on me to tell him what to do. I stole most of the dragon's research and we left."

"He didn't go after you?"

"He was dead at the time, long story. I got some maps and led us through the desert back to civilization. Over next few hundred years Starlight and Six joined us."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because it took me centuries to realize one thing - the army leaders were right. I was just a gear and if I did my job none of that would have happened. Everyone has their role, no matter how small it is. I failed in doing mine. In short, mistakes happen. You just have to learn from them and the lesson here for you is pretty simple."

"I still don't understand."

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get up your rump and get ready. Starlight might do the spell correctly but the Nightmare might be strong enough to break it. None of us can tell what's going to happen so you just have to be in your best shape when it happens. You really are weak an inexperienced compared to us but that's no excuse. Starlight had over two hundred years to practice magic and she was a born prodigy on top of it. She might have become the Element of Magic herself but she didn't. You did and... after all the time spent thinking surrounded by sand on all sides... I believe in fate."

"Perhaps I should just give her the crown..."

"Trust me. When you're her age you'll be way more powerful and probably insane as well. You know... power corrupts and such."

Twilight laughed and her head cleared up a bit. In that short moment of concentration she felt a chilling presence from Ponyville.

"Nightmare Moon is here," she grit her teeth.

Shadowstep sighed.

"I know what I have to do," Twilight spread her wings.

There was one thing she could do. Maybe she couldn't fight Nightmare Moon directly but at least she might be able to slow her down to let Starlight finish the spell. It might and it might not weaken Nightmare enough to let her fight her but she had to try.

Bursting upwards, she left a little crater in the snow.

It was easy to follow the trail of power to her library. The square was filled with batponies attacking a strange group of mixed origins. Twilight recognized Guiding Light, shooting bursts of energy at laughing Nightmare Moon, dispersing the projectiles easily using a black barrier she remembered from the castle. The group fighting the Nightguards were Guiding's changelings, valiant but slowly being overwhelmed. One of the remaining two was Choking Darkness whom she'd met when Guiding first arrived in Canterlot. The last one was a heavily wounded pegasus who was still able to hold his own against two batponies. From the looks of it, Nightmare Moon was just messing around and the situation could change any second.

Twilight, still unnoticed, focused her magic in peace and let out a beam of purple energy straight at Nightmare Moon...

...who just chuckled as it hit her shield.

"Finally... all the important pieces are here."

Twilight realized her mistake when a black tentacle tore her down from the sky at lightning speed. Her own shield cracked as she hit the ground.

Nightmare Moon seemed taller somehow now. Black mist bubbled around her and her tendrils of smoke thickened.

"Now to deal with the little pests," Nightmare laughed and the appendages darted to every single target in the vicinity.

Twilight wasn't going to let anypony else die.

Calling upon the power of the Element of Magic, she focused everything into pulling every friendly pony to her and creating a bubble strong enough to protect them.

The Element failed. The power she usually wielded wasn't there for some reason and the tentacles continued unhindered straight at them.

Choking Darkness jumped in front of the group. It was a reflex. Deep down she was a guard and she'd been trained to protect even the young princess with her body. She wasn't alone. Guiding Light was there as well, unwilling to let his father's marefriend get hurt. Her second thought belonged to the princess who had helped her changelings find at least a temporary place to live.

Both of them knew how pointless their effort was the second Twilight's barrier shattered and they were the first bodies in the way.

A sonic boom and an inferno of flames directly in front of them made them shield their eyes.

"That's impossible..." Choking sniffed.

The reddish-golden flames resembling phoenix feathers burned away the black mist and Nightmare Moon screamed in pain. There was a pony shielding both Guiding and Choking from...

...anything. That was the only thing their minds now could understand. The visage in front of them would protect them from anything bad.

"GET YOUR FILTHY TENTACLES OFFA MY FAMILY!" the apparition growled.

Author's Notes:

This marks the end of Diplomatic Relations. Part two will wrap up Horn And Wings