Twilight walked at a stiff pace, changelings flanking her on both sides. Just ahead of her were Vinyl, who shuffled along slightly faster and Derpy even ahead of her. Giving a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw Lyra, Bon Bon, Spike and Octavia respectively, with Nightmare Moon bringing up the rear. She currently couldn’t see Shining, but when she concentrated she heard the faint dragging sound of hooves against rock.

He’s still knocked out.

She bit her lip and turned her head back. An opening had appeared in the tunnel not too far down, likely meaning they were approaching the end of their trek.

With each step, a whirlwind of ideas blew its way through Twilight’s head. They needed a way to escape, save Cadance, and get the Elements back. Not to mention contact Celestia. Whatever she had put in the letter must have been important for her to send it during their mission. Chrysalis burning it just to spite her left them completely in the dark about it, but she couldn’t imagine it was anything good.

She racked her brain, trying to think of any escape attempt that might work. Unfortunately, most of the plans she thought of relied on using her magic, which was not an option.

They reached the end of the tunnel moments later and the changelings stopped. The one at the front pushed Derpy into the exit, eliciting a yelp from her. Vinyl flinched as she was grabbed and yanked forward half a second later.

“Uh, hang on a sec,” she asked. Surprisingly enough, the changeling paused. It shot her a glare, demanding that she get on with it. “So, like, one of you guys bit me on the back of the neck, and I just want to make sure you don’t operate on vampony rules or anything.”

The changeling rolled its eyes and tossed her through the exit after Derpy. The two surrounding Twilight poked her forward, giving her a choice between a peaceful or violent entry. She pressed her lips together and walked forward.

Crossing the entryway, Twilight got her first glimpse inside. It was a dead end; just a large, empty room with dirt walls and a rocky ceiling. The way they came in was the only way out.

The only hope of escape.

Derpy was already helping Vinyl up, so Twilight trotted away from the opening and towards them. With her peripheral view she saw Lyra wasn’t far behind her.

One by one, the rest of the group trickled in: Bon Bon, Spike, Octavia. When it was Nightmare’s turn, she was forced to duck to fit her head under the roof of the entrance. After the last of her ethereal tail was in, Twilight saw her brother.

Two changelings were holding him by each foreleg. His head hung limply between his shoulders, eyes shut. They chucked him in, his body hitting the ground with a thud.

“Shining!” Twilight quickly ran over to him.

“H-He’s going to be okay… right?” Spike asked.

Twilight’s eyes darted over her unconscious brother until she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. She breathed a sigh of relief. “He’ll be fine.” Spike furrowed his brow with uncertainty. “Are you all right?”

“I…” Spike swallowed what looked to be a fairly sizable lump in his throat. “I’m a little scared, honestly.”

Poor Spike, he wouldn’t be in this mess at all if it weren’t for me. She patted his back, offering a hopeful smile. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.”

“...Yeah,” Spike perked up a little bit. “I trust you, Twilight.”

Keeping the smile up as long as she could, Twilight gave him a quick squeeze before her gaze shifted to the changelings that had led them here. With their job done, most had left. Only three remained, two on the outside and one that stepped inside to keep a close eye on them.

Twilight turned back to her acquaintances. “Is everypony all right?”

Derpy offered a hopeful smile. “None of us suffered permanent damage… I think.”

“How about you?” Octavia asked. “You took a pretty nasty hit to the head.”

Instinctively, Twilight put a hoof to her temple, hoping not to find a bump or a cut of some kind. Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Octavia was already talking again.

“Here, let me see.” She moved close to Twilight and put a hoof on her head, pulling her in even closer. “Okay,” she suddenly whispered. “Any plan to escape?”

Twilight blinked with surprise at the sudden topic switch, but then she remembered they were being watched. Octavia clearly knew this would be one of their few moments to speak freely. Crafty.

“None yet,” she admitted. Followed by a hasty, “but I’m sure I’ll have something soon.”

Octavia smiled. “Take your time.” She leaned back and spoke a little louder for the sake of the changeling at the door. “Looks like you’re all fine then.”

“Thanks.” Twilight poked at the ground as Octavia gave her some space. She had no idea if she could even come up with an escape plan, but she knew she had to try. Redoubling her efforts, Twilight began examining the room they were in, looking for weak points in the walls and anything of the like that might help them out.

Derpy looked over to Nightmare Moon, who had claimed a corner all to herself. Her intense staredown of said corner didn’t allow her to see the gray pegasus’ approach and she only noticed when she spoke up. “Are you doing all right?”

“I’m fine,” Nightmare grumbled inwardly. She narrowed her eyes, looking to the floor and then back to Derpy. “Why did you try to save me?”

Pausing to think, Derpy tapped the ground a little. “Oh, you mean during the ambush?”

Nightmare nodded.

“Well, duh. You needed help. I couldn’t let them get you.”

“And yet they got me anyway.” Nightmare pointed out.

Derpy frowned. Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what she’d been hoping for from the demonic alicorn, but that certainly wasn’t it. “Well, yeah… But I tried, didn’t I?”

Nightmare snorted and looked away. “I guess, but that doesn’t really matter now, does it?”

“B-But I—”

“Just leave me alone. I don’t care about you, all right? I’ve never cared about you, or your stupid friends, or your frivolous attempts to reform me, and I especially don’t still care for my treacherous sister, no matter what that overgrown gnat says!”

Derpy’s jaw hung open, lower lip quivering. Twilight was snapped out of her thinking coma by the shouting and managed to raise an eyebrow. Nightmare was breathing heavily, her features compressed into a scowl.

“S-sorry…” Derpy murmured. She took a few steps back to give her some privacy. Nightmare shuffled awkwardly into a sitting position—cursing her restraints all the while—and kept her back facing the group. Either she was really invested in the riveting entertainment brought about by that corner of the room, or she simply preferred its company over everypony else's.

“Don’t let her get to you, Derpy,” Bon Bon suggested with a reassuring pat on the back. “I’m sure she’s grateful… In her own way.”

“Probably… maybe…” Derpy nodded.

“She better be,” Vinyl threw in, clapping the pegasus on the back. “You were insane! I think I even saw you give an uppercut to one of those things. Man, I bet its face still hurts.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw the changeling guard at the door rub its jaw a little and wince.

Octavia giggled. “And here I thought you ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’.”

Derpy gasped in mock offense. “But changelings aren’t flies! Uh… Maybe?”

“They do look a lot like bugs,” Spike mused.

Vinyl tilted her head and shot a glance to the changeling at the door. “You guys aren’t flies slash related to flies, are you?”

“Uh…” The guard blinked. Twice. “No.”

Lyra grinned. “Well it looks like you’re in the clear then, Derpy.”

They all burst into a fit of laughter and even Twilight found herself smiling a little. It was nice to think that even in this situation, the girls could keep their spirits up. Now if only she could make sure their spirits stayed up by finding a way out.

So far no ideas had come to her, but that didn’t mean nothing would come to her. Looking around again, Twilight brainstormed.

With the guard there we won’t be able to do much without raising the alarm and we won’t be able to get rid of it...him? We won’t be able to get rid of him without alerting the other two. We’d need a synchronized and well executed attack just to get all three of them, but how are we supposed to plan that when they’re watching?

She bit her lip, wishing they still had magic. It would make everything so much easier. Her eyes darted to her brother’s unconscious body, which Spike was propping up against the wall to make him a little more comfortable. If only he was awake; Shining would know what to do.

...I feel so useless.

Her attention turned back to the girls as their nervous giggles died down. They were stuck here because of her, weren’t they? Sure, they’d wanted to come along, but she should have sent them away like she meant to. Spike too, he was just a kid after all. Not even to mention Cadance… None of them should have had to deal with this.

She took a seat as a sudden, a guilty feeling bubbling up inside her.

“You know what’s funnier though?” Vinyl turned to her. “Queen What’sherface actually thought your name was—...Smart Mare?”

She looked up, noticing that all of them were looking at her. “Huh?”

She was met with scattered blinks and concerned frowns. Even Spike looked worried. Bon Bon was the first of them to say something. “A-are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said, ignoring the slight crack in her voice.

“Are you sure? Because it looks like you’re crying,” Lyra told her.

“Don’t be silly.” Twilight instinctively wiped her eyes. “I’m not…” She paused, bringing her hoof down only to see fresh tears dotting her lavender fur. “...crying.”

She tightened her lips. Of course, why not? Everything else had been going wrong today, so why not this, too?

“Sorry,” she murmured, dragging her hoof across her face again. “I just… I was supposed to be able to fix everything.”

“Twilight…” Spike whispered. Watching the pony who raised him break down in the worst possible situation probably wasn’t good for raising his spirits, but she couldn’t help it.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m so sorry I got you all in this mess.”

“I-it’s all right,” Lyra tried to console her.

“No it isn’t!” Twilight practically yelled. She felt a hot tear leaking down her face but did nothing to halt its progress. “I was so sure that I could fix the Elements of Harmony! So sure that I could make everything right with the Princess, so sure that I could get my old life back… but the truth is I’m worthless. I don’t even know why some of the Elements were showing signs of life, I don’t know what I was supposed to do when we found the Tree of Harmony… I’m not even sure now that it was the Tree we were walking towards at this point.”

Her acquaintances shot each other worried looks that ran the gamut of ‘what do you say to that?’ to ‘how are we going to make her feel better?’. Both were questions without easy answers.

Unable to even make eye contact with them anymore, Twilight buried her face in her hooves. A moment later she felt two scaly limbs wrap her midsection into a hug. She wanted to thank Spike for his comfort, but really it was the equivalent to throwing a life preserver to someone lost at sea: a nice gesture, but not really going to help overall.

A few more tears escaped her eyes and she sniffled into her hooves before she felt someone sit down next to her. She peeked out from her hooves just as Bon Bon put a hoof on her shoulder.

“I… I don’t really know what I can say to cheer you up,” she admitted, looking her in the eye. “But… I know what it’s like to feel worthless. I’ve felt how you’re feeling now… but it’s thanks to you that I don’t feel that way anymore, you know?”

“I guess.” Twilight sniffled. “But why shouldn’t I feel worthless if I’m always going to fail?”

“Well...” Lyra took a seat in front of her. “...I know how terrified you are of failing. I feel like I’m going to fail everytime I try to play in front of ponies, but you… you showed me that I don’t need to be so scared anymore of failure. I’ve kinda risen above it thanks to you.”

“But I’m not just terrified of failing, I did fail.”

“Boy, do I know how that feels,” Derpy said, plopping down on the other side of her. “Like when I tried to improve my balance and wrecked up your whole library, remember that?”

Twilight nodded. Even to this day she still had no idea how that one book could ricochet that many times.

The corners of Derpy’s mouth poked upward at the memory. “Well, one thing I’ve learned through all my constant screw ups, is that it’s important to be around ponies who are willing to forgive your mistakes and I think I speak for all of us when I say nopony blames you, Twi.”

Twilight’s lips quivered from frown to half-smile. It did make her feel a little better to hear the girls tell her all of this, but… “What about Princess Celestia? I’ve failed her twice now, and—”

“Twilight,” Octavia’s voice was as steady as a rock as she took a seat before her. “I’ve tried attempting to please everypony before and—bouncy castle aside—it was dreadful. But thanks to you I learned that most ponies already liked me for me. I’m sure the same is true for you and the Princess; there’s no way she could hate you for trying your best.”

Looking to the ground, Twilight sighed a little. Could that be true? Could all—or at least most—of the pressure she’d been placing on herself these past few weeks been self-inflicted? But even if Princess Celestia wasn’t disappointed in her, what good would that do her now? They were all still trapped and she couldn’t think of a way out. Her frown slowly regained ground on her face, the ever-encroaching self-doubt still making itself known.

“Hey.” Twilight looked up to see Vinyl standing right in front her. She’d removed her sunglasses, placing them behind her horn so she could make meaningful eye contact with her. “You ever wonder why I always call you Smart Mare?”

Twilight blinked, not having expected that question. “I… always just assumed it was an annoying nickname you stuck me with for fun.”

Vinyl nodded her head side to side. “Yeah, that’s how it kinda started out. But after I got to know you more, I realized how amazing you were.”

“Amazing?” Vinyl thought she was… amazing?

“Heck yeah.” Vinyl grinned. “You’re so talented with magic and dedicated to your work and driven... geeze, I was jealous of you for a while there.”

“You were jealous of me?” The words rolled off of Twilight’s tongue, but she couldn’t quite believe them.

“I sure was.” Vinyl joined them all on the ground. “And so whenever I saw you doubting yourself because of a bunch of stupid pieces of jewelry, I would think to myself ‘I’ve got to remind this mare of just how smart she is’.” Vinyl smiled. “I know it’s not the most inspired nickname ever, but I just want you to know that you’re one smart mare, Smart Mare.” She patted Twilight’s shoulder. “And right now I want you to know, that I know we’re going to make it out of this, you hear me?”

Twilight couldn’t help it; more tears trickled down her face.

“Aw come on, don’t cry anymore, Twilight.” Derpy joined Spike in hugging her and was followed by the rest of the girls as well.

As each subsequent hug enveloped her, Twilight’s smile widened. By the end, she doubted she had to tell them that her tears were no longer ones of regret.

She still couldn’t seem to stop sniffling, though. Being smothered by their embraces was nice, but didn’t exactly do wonders for helping her breathe deeply. However, Twilight found that she didn’t mind. In fact, she hardly noticed.

She was way more wrapped up in what had just happened. The girls, all of them, really felt that way about her. Even in their current predicament, they were more worried about her than they were about getting out.

Although it was awkward and clumsy, Twilight brought her hooves up and did her best to wrap them around the girls to bring their group hug full circle. She couldn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling right now, the warmth spreading through her chest, the smile that she couldn’t fight back even if she tried, the assurance that no matter what, somepony would be there for her…

She may not be able to describe it, but she knew exactly what it was. Friendship. Twilight let her head rest on the top of the hug pile. Her already wide grin just kept getting bigger. So this is what it feels like.

Twilight’s smile suddenly faltered before receding slightly. And all I’ve wanted to do since day one was push it away. Push them away…

Twilight clenched her jaw, not willing to let herself slip back to self-pity. Instead, she squeezed everypony a little harder, building up her resolve. She would find a way to escape, for them.

“Hmm, tasty.”

Twilight stiffened at the voice of their guard. She turned her head, noting that the girls and Spike also looked up from the hug and towards the changeling at the door.

He regarded them for a moment, blinked, looked behind himself and then turned back to them. “Uh… what?”

“Where you… feeding off of us?” Octavia asked, trace of amounts of disgust and horror in her voice.

“A little bit.” The guard shrugged, knowing there was nothing they could do in retaliation.

Vinyl sighed. “Whelp, that just about kills the mood then.” She disentangled herself from the hug and flipped her shades back over her eyes. “Thanks for that.” The changeling rolled his eyes, every bit as offended as that action suggested.

With Vinyl’s absence paving the way, everypony else dispersed. Twilight supposed she should be grateful for the isolation needed for uninterrupted thought, but she honestly missed the feeling of having all her acquaintances—no, her friends—hugging her. Hopefully they’d get the chance to have another one soon.

The last to leave the embrace was Spike, who politely let go once he felt Twilight’s grasp leave. He looked up at her, hopeful. “You going to be okay?”

She smiled at him. “I will now. Thanks.”

He blinked. “For what… the hug?”

Twilight giggled softly. “For bringing them along.”

“Oh.” A smirk appeared on his face. “Heh, yeah, you’re welcome.”

She playfully rubbed his head. “What would I do without you, huh?”

“I wouldn’t even want to think about it.” Spike laughed a little and then backed up. “Okay, I’ll give you some time to think now.”

“Thanks.”

Spike shuffled off as best he could, knowing from past experiences that Twilight thought best in isolation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for him to do in their little hovel of a prison. He eventually wound up taking a seat by Lyra and Bon Bon.

With renewed determination, Twilight started pacing about. She took a fresher look at her surroundings, looking for anything she might have missed previously.

Don’t worry Cadance, we’ll be coming for you soon.

Cadance was very, very worried.

And not without a good reason. All of her limbs were pinned to the wall with the same green sludge that coated her horn. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t bring her hooves up

Moving wouldn’t really help her though. Without magic, she’d be easy pickings for the dozen or so changelings that stood guard around her. The hunger in their eyes told her that they would not be willing to let her just walk out, even if she could.

Her nervousness for their coming feeding was only matched by her nervousness for everypony else. She had no idea what had happened to them after she’d been taken away. Were they alive? Had they managed to escape? She hoped so.

Her attention went back to the creatures before her. “S-so, can we… talk about this?” she asked.

The nearest changeling looked back at his comrades with a can-you-believe-this-one kind of look on its face. “Why bother? There’s not exactly anything you can offer us that’s better than… well, you.”

“Please?” Cadance asked. No response outside of narrowed eyes and frowns. “Pretty please?”

“Gah, I hate it when they start begging,” a changeling towards the back groaned. “It really takes away from the love, you know?” Murmurs of assent rippled through the group.

“Actually, I kind of like it,” a different changeling piped up. The rest of the guards turned to him with inquiring looks. “Well, it does build up the old appetite a bit.”

“I guess so, but my appetite doesn’t need to be built up anymore. I’ve been salivating ever since I heard about this pony.”

Gross. Cadance winced inwardly.

Yet another changeling spoke up. “That’s only because you rarely get to eat good love. You’re always feeding off of lust or attraction, hoping that they’ll suffice for the real thing just because they’re easier to get. Of course you’re going to be left with a hollow feeling if that’s all you have.”

“Well isn’t that just what love really is when you get right down to it?” The other changeling retorted. “Just attraction and lust mashed together.”

“Nah, man,” the changeling in the back grabbed their attention. “Real love’s got something that those other things just doesn’t have. There’s some kind of spark there; something you can’t force, but something you gotta work towards to get and to keep. That’s what makes it so special.”

Cadance blinked. I know they’re talking about food, but… I feel like I should be writing this down. That was some good advice.

All the changelings nodded their agreement with the one in the back. They all froze with a soft humming reverberated from the tunnel in the far corner of the room. All of them scrambled back into their action-ready guard poses just in time for Queen Chrysalis to stroll into the chamber.

Her humming picked up, giving her a light, carefree feel as she sauntered past the changelings. As she took her time, Cadance noticed the Elements of Harmony strewn about before her. The tiara sat snuggly on her head, while only one of the necklaces was wrapped around her throat. The other four, more sparkly ones, were divided evenly between her forelegs, making her look a little ridiculous. Though, voicing that opinion was probably not the best idea right now.

“Sorry for keeping you all waiting,” Chrysalis said smoothly as she stopped right in front of Cadance. “I trust you’ve been keeping my honored guest entertained.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. She didn’t know why Chrysalis bothered with the feigned politeness. Did she get a kick out of it or something?

“So, Princess, have you started begging yet?”

Cadance clenched her teeth, and briefly saw one changeling nudge another. “See, even Her Majesty enjoys it when they beg.”

Chrysalis grinned. “I hope you’re ready.”

“F-for?”

A scary glint flashed across Chrysalis’ face. “The extraction process.”

Cadance was scared to ask, but as it turned out, she didn’t need to. Chrysalis was all too happy to continue. “You see, they way we take love is a relatively painless process… usually.”

“Usually?” Cadance didn’t like where this was going.

“Yes… usually. You see, Cady—can I call you Cady?”

“Absolutely not.”

“You see, Cadance, I’ve noticed how your love is closely tied to your magic. In fact, you could say that they are one and the same. That, unfortunately for you, means this is going to be far from pleasant.”

Cadance glanced down at her restraints. “Gee, and I was having so much fun already.”

“Ohoho, sarcasm. How adorable.” Chrysalis leaned in and gave Cadance a friendly pat on the cheek. “I have a feeling I won’t be seeing much more of that soon.” She stepped back, preparing herself.

Sardonic quip aside, Cadance knew she was in big trouble. Despite her lack of knowledge on the subject of magic in general, she was aware that losing all of her magic would take a serious toll on her body. The specifics eluded her—curse her teenage self for not paying more attention whenever Twilight rambled on about her homework—but she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“Wait!” she called out. Chrysalis paused right as she was about to cast her spell.

“Yes?” she grunted, clearly vexed about being interrupted. Unless Cadance could think of a good way to stall, she was done for.

“I… I want to know what you did with my friends.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “They’re a few levels below us in a cell. Why?”

“I want you to release them,” Cadance said firmly, putting as much authority in her voice as she could muster.

Chrysalis blinked. And then blinked again.

And then proceeded to erupt with laughter.

Cadance frowned as the Changeling Queen all but doubled over before her and her fellow bugs followed suit. She hadn’t sounded that ridiculous, right?

“You’ve—ahaha—gotta be kidding me!” Chrysalis wiped a tear from her eye. “Do you honestly think you’re in any position to be making demands right now, Princess?”

“Listen, if what you’ve said about me is true, then you don’t need them. Please, just let them all go free; they were doing something really important before your ambush and they need to get back to it.” Cadance knew her pleading would fall on deaf ears, but still had to try. She’d been the one to draw the changelings to them; this was the least she could do.

“How about no,” Chrysalis retorted. She rolled her head on her shoulders. “Now, if you’re done being pathetic, I would like to… huh?”

Chrysalis stopped her speaking, eyes looking down. Curious, Cadance followed the Queen’s line of sight down to her neck, only to be blasted by light. She shut her eyes, retinas already burning. The brilliance of the light faded as quickly as it came. Once it finally did, Cadance cracked open an eyelid, wishing that she could rub her eyes.

Chrysalis seemed to have the same thought, furiously rubbing her eyes and grunting in pain. When she finally pulled away her hooves, she looked down and the two of them experienced shared levels of surprise.

The Element of Honesty was sparkling.

“Well that was… strange,” Chrysalis murmured. “Is that as common as the letter-burping lizard?”

Cadance couldn’t reply. Her mouth hung agape as she realized what she was looking at. All six Elements sparkled in rhythm. They all pulsed once before the sparkling then switched to a dim glow. The air hummed with raw magical energy.

“T-The Elements…” Cadance couldn’t be sure, but it felt like some great change had just occurred in them. Could they be… working again?

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “I’ll have to look into this later. Perhaps that Smart Mare has an inkling about what just happened. For now, though...” In an instant, she ignited her horn in a sickly green aura and fired a beam at her.

And Cadance screamed.