For what felt like hours, I sat in the darkness of Twilight’s basement, one hand resting reassuringly on my sleeping unicorn’s side, and the other tightly gripping my revolver, the thumb positioned on the hammer, ready to pull it back at the slightest hint of action. Every little sound that reached my ears made my heart stop for an instant, as I set my mind to putting together what was going on.

“Alright, so here’s what I know so far,” I whispered quietly to myself. “Whatever is making Twilight all messed up, is something big enough to worry the Princesses enough to warrant an appearance by them, and by the captain of the Royal Guard. Now, apparently, even though it’s serious, she doesn’t want to have the entire world knowing about it, hence the reason she didn’t say she was bringing a squadron of guards. She also told us to stay where we are; meaning that she doesn’t want us to be spotted…secrecy is the key in this scenario.”

I adjusted Twilight more comfortably on the floor, and covered her with a small blanket that I had had the sense to snag on the way down. As soon as I was satisfied that she was good enough, I went back to my thinking. “Now, what else…Spike was sent to gather the others. Now why would he be sent, and not me, unless she thinks that Twilight needs to be guarded? The question here though, is what does she need to be protected from? Also, now that I think about it, with Spike getting the girls (way to go, you finally get the girls! ZING!), that also means that she doesn’t want things to look out of the ordinary, as Spike frequently runs errands such as these…and things that are out of the ordinary attract attention.”

Suddenly, I heard the clopping of hooves on the floor above me, and I gently thumbed the hammer of the revolver down. As I heard the door up above me creak open, I asked myself one last thing:

Who would be paying attention in the first place, and why?

“Omnius? Twilight?” I heard Spike call out from the top of the stairs. “It’s me! I brought the others!”

“Get down here then,” I hissed. “Wait! Spike, what did I do to the guard ponies we met at the Grand Galloping Gala?”

“Why are you asking me that?” he asked, a hint of confusion in his voice.

“I’m paranoid that you’re some sort of changeling!”

“What? Why would I be a changeling?”

“…You raise a fair point there, Spike.” I then cracked my neck, and added, “Just answer the question though.”

“Ugh, fine. You tried to do something called a ‘Vulcan Neck Pinch’, and then punched one in the face,” answered the small dragon.

“Yep, that’s you. Alright, come on down.”

“What’s with the paranoia, anyways?” Spike grumbled as he walked down the stairs, the rest of the girls in tow. As they neared the bottom, I let loose a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, and gestured for them to sit down.

“Sorry, but after a combination of the response from the princesses, and my experience with living through the Holocaust a few times…” I left the rest unsaid, as they could guess what I had meant by, “Holocaust.”

After exchanging pleasantries with the rest of the girls, and getting them up to speed on what was happening, I leaned against the wall, while Pinkie asked, “Wait, if the princesses are coming, when do you think they’ll get here?”

“That’s a good question.” I glanced at the door, and thoughtfully said, “Maybe one of us should be at the door. Make sure we know they’re-YE GODS!”

Right in the center of the floor, a bright flash of light erupted forth, and I quickly threw my arm up to shield my eyes, instinctively shifting into unicorn form. My revolver fell to the ground, before it was encased in the navy blue aura of my magic. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually kinda hard to hold a gun, and use it, with magic. Mostly because since you’re grabbing pretty much every part of it, you have to make sure that you also pull the trigger, while turning the reloading mechanism, etc, etc.

“You can put the gun down, Omnius,” A regal voice said softly.

“Sorry, Princess,” I apologized, slipping the revolver back into its pocket dimension. As my eyes adjusted, I recognized the forms of all three princesses, along with the…angered…glare of Shining Armor.

Oh. Shit, we haven’t told him yet, have we?

“It is quite alright. Hello everypony,” Princess Celestia, greeted the others.

“Howdy there, Princesses!” Applejack said. “Uh, iff’n y’all don’t mind me askin’, but what’s wrong with Twilight?”

“Yes, she looks absolutely horrid!” Rarity stated. “And her horn is burning to the touch!”

Luna nodded, and she trotted over to Twilight’s slumbering form. Frowning slightly, she touched the tip of her own horn to Twilight’s, and Cadence smiled at me. “So, Omnius…how’ve you been?”

“Oh, pretty good so far. You know, kicking flank, taking names. Howzabout you two?”

“Great! Shining Armor really managed to-”

Said unicorn husband rudely interrupted her, by saying, “When did you start going out with Twilight?”

“Oh, a while ago. Why do you ask?” I said cheerfully.

Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and a spark of magic appeared for an instant, before disappearing. Cadence looked at him worriedly, and said, “Um, Shining? We talked about this. You said you weren’t going to get mad…”

“Oh, I’m not mad,” he said unconvincingly. “I’m just peachy.”

Before I could ask him what was up, Luna turned to look at all of us. Clearing her throat, she said, “It is as we feared.”

“What? Is Twilight gonna be okay?” I instantly asked, almost at the same time as Shining Armor. He was just a couple
seconds off though.

“…I do not know how to say this, but…” Luna hesitated, before Celestia nodded, and took over.

“Omnius, how powerful is Twilight’s magic?”

“Pretty damn powerful, I’d say,” I replied.

Rainbow Dash nodded, saying, “Yeah! She’s like the most powerful unicorn ever!”

“Right. Now, when she was tied to Omnius’ life force-”

“SHE WAS WHAT!?” Shining Armor exclaimed in surprise.

Everypony looked at me, and I sheepishly grinned. “We, erm, might not have gotten around to telling him everything yet.”

“Oh…Well, it’s a good thing that we already told him about you being The Traveler of Good,” Cadence joked.

Shining was not amused.

“I want to know why my baby sister had to be tied to that chump over there!” He shouted.

“We’ll explain later,” Celestia stated. At the looks of everypony, most notably myself and Shining, she sighed, and said, “Alright, I’ll get straight to the point then: When Twilight’s life was connected to yours, her own magical power began to increase as a result.”

“Right, I knew that. We found that out after Twilight zapped a bunch of Death Eaters-I mean, Bad guys into a wall.” I mentally berated myself for the near slip of the tongue.

“What you didn’t know is that it also triggered a…mutation, if you will,” Luna cut in. “Her body, in this form at least, can’t withstand that much magic. Starswirl the Bearded almost had a similar problem himself, if you recall.”

“Okay, but what do you mean by ‘mutation’?” My suspicions started to seem more like fact, as new information started coming to light.

“The best way to explain this, is for you to simply feel her back,” Cadence stated. She motioned for me to go over to Twilight, and I gulped audibly.

Under the gazes of everypony in the room (and the death laser glare from Shining), I placed a hoof on Twilight’s neck. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Slowly, I moved it lower, and lower, feeling her back, until I reached a spot where I felt something…harder than the rest of her back. Two something’s, actually.

“Why do I feel bumps here?” I asked.

“Where would you find those bumps on another pony?” Luna asked me softly.

“…Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy…” I said in a trembling voice. They started at the sound of their names coming from me, and I asked them, “Please extend your wings. Please.”

Hesitantly, as if they had already guessed what I needed surefire confirmation of, they did as I asked, spreading their wings until were spread to their full length. I gazed at their wings, and nodded as everypony took note of the spot where the wings connected to the body.

For an instant, there was silence, and then I said, “She’s becoming an Alicorn.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes. Currently, her body can’t handle the raw amounts of magic, and it is changing to adjust for it. Normally, this isn’t a problem in most unicorns, because as they grow they get more powerful. In Twilight’s case, however, her magic exploded in growth, and as she doesn’t age as much as she used to, if at all…” Cadence trailed off, letting us figure out the rest for ourselves.

I looked at Twilight, and fell to my knees besides her. Gently, I brushed a strand of hair away from her face, smiling softly. “Twilight’s gonna be an Alicorn…that’s…SO FREAKIN’ COOL!” I laughed, trying to be happy about the situation.

Celestia smiled, before nodding her head. Her smile quickly disappeared, however, as she told me something that had completely slipped my mind. “Unfortunately, the transformation has the unfortunate side effect of making her temporarily susceptible to almost all forms of magic.”

“What do you mean by that?” Fluttershy asked.

Luna looked up at the door, as if checking to make sure we were still completely alone, before answering, “Do you recall when Torrentican attempted to steal Celestia’s magic?” When we all nodded, she continued. “The spell required to do that is one that comes from this world…and he has been spreading its knowledge to others…Others who would jump at the chance to steal the magic of arguably the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.”

My eyes widened, and I leaped to my hooves. Before my mind’s eye, the faces of everyone with revenge motives we’d crossed paths with on this world flew past it in a speeding blur: Torrentican, Trixie, the griffons, the dragons, Queen Chrysalis, the Diamond Dogs…

All of them would want revenge, or more power, and Twilight was the perfect way to get that…

“No way in hell am I gonna let that happen!” I snarled, feeling a primal rage build up inside of me.

Shining Armor nodded, and he went and slung Twilight on his back, ignoring the confused look I gave him. Without so much as acknowledging my presence, he turned to the three Alicorns, and said, “I’ll take Twilight with me back to Canterlot. I can have the guards there protect her, while I put up another shield around the city for however long it takes for her to finish that.”

“Wrong-o there Captain Equestria,” I cut in, jumping in front of the stairs and cutting off his path. “If Torrentican is involved, then he’ll definitely spread the word to everyone with a grudge against Twilight, or me. That means the changelings will have heard about it, and they’ll be impersonating some guards.”

“Not the ones that I hoof-pick myself,” he shot back. “I think I know my own troops well enough to know which are fake, or real.”

Am I the only one getting tired of his attitude problem towards me? I looked over to Luna and Celestia, and they nodded, understanding what I was silently asking them. Well. I hope this works.

“Yeah, you did great with knowing your own WIFE was replaced by one of them. Oh, wait, sorry. You didn’t, and technically, she was your fiancée back then,” I spat. The look of rage on his face nearly took me by surprise, but I stood my ground.

“Either way, I’d sooner trust them than I’d trust you!” he angrily shouted, trying to shove his way past me. “I don’t care WHAT Twilight thinks of you. You’re the reason she’s in this mess, and you’re the reason all of those monsters want to hurt her.”

“Now wait just a minute,” I tried to interrupt, but to no avail.

“In fact, you can just go disappear again for all I care! You obviously can’t protect Twilight from any of them. For once, it seems like Twilight didn’t make a smart choice…I’m surprised she was dumb enough to fall for you!” he growled, shoving me aside.

All of the ponies in the room gasped at his show of anger, and the unintentional insult he had thrown at Twilight. I was thankful she was asleep for that.

“If you excuse me, I need to go find a squadron of guards who are actually cut out for the job!” He finished, opening the door in front of him.

And I was thankful she was asleep for what I was about to say…

“…You think that I can’t protect her?” I whispered in a deathly quiet tone. “You think that you could do a better job than I could?” Shaking in rage, I used my magic to slam the door shut on his face, forcing him to turn around and face me. “You...you, ARROGANT, NAIVE, BASTARD!" Everypony once again gasped in shock, except for the Princesses, who seemed to expect what I was about to do. "If you think you can do a better job, then answer me a few questions!” I shouted, trotting up the stairs to look him in the eye. “If you’re so caring and protective of that mare, then where the FUCK have you been!?” He flinched, as if I had just said something he didn’t want to bring up, and I went on. “Where were you when Nightmare Moon returned? And don’t give me any excuses about not having heard of it!” I yelled as he opened his mouth to respond. “I know for a fact that several guards were there already, some of them Pegasi, and they’ve been trained to fly to Canterlot in less than a couple of hours! And yes, you had plenty of guards to spare! I saw all the guards at your wedding! So!” He backed up a couple of steps, and I followed him, pressing him downwards with the pure force of my anger. “Where were you, when she was about to fall off a cliff? When she was attacked by a manticore? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN DISCORD WAS RELEASED?! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN SHE HAD TO BRAVE THE HEDGE MAZE!? AND WHERE WERE YOU WHEN DEMONS ROSE FROM HELL, AND ATTACKED PONYVILLE?!!”

He fell back, looking like I had physically struck him, and tried to answer, but I didn’t care for it. He was standing between Twilight, and safety, and he had pushed me to my breaking point. As he tried to find a good response, I used my magic to lift Twilight off of his back, and onto mine. As I did so, I said, “Now while you think of an answer to that, I’ll tell you where I was.” I pointed first at the girls, and then at myself, and snarled/growled, “I was right there besides her. I fought Nightmare Moon, I held back Discord, I slayed or defeated every single monster that was foolish enough to try and hurt her, and made sure she was safe! And now, I’ll make sure that nothing lays a single claw, talon, or hoof on her, until she can get back on her own hooves!” Stepping aside, I opened the door again, and gestured at it, never taking my gaze off of Shining Armor.

“So you can either get the hell out of this house, or you can finally start making up for missing so much of her life, and help me keep her safe.”

Shining shook his head, and sighed in defeat. Cadence shot me a look, to which I responded with an apologetic grimace, and she rushed to his side. They both looked at each other, silently conversing with each other in the way that only true couples can do, before Shining nodded.

He looked at me, and stuck out a hoof, saying, “I might not have been able to help her out before, but that was only because of bad luck. Even then, I still should have tried harder to help her. Now, I’m going to make sure that we can keep her safe…and I guess you’re the best pony for the job.”

I stuck out my own hoof, and we shook on it. Smiling, I said, “Great. Now then, come on. We need to find a better hiding place than this. Something tells me that someone’ll be smart enough to-”

THUD!

Shining and I glanced above us, as dust lightly fell onto everypony and Spike (it feels awkward to call him 'everypony'). The floorboards creaked, as something moved about, obviously searching for something...or somepony.

“…Called it," I whispered cynically.

Next Chapter: 11) Bubblegum? Where? Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes