No, it couldn't be true.

"You're kidding! That's impossible!" Twilight cried, falling to her knees in doubt and holding back an outbreak of tears kept prisoner by her tearducts.

The news hit her too fast for her to react or accept it, and it seemed as though a spy was acting to be a river flowing source of valuable information.

"These have to be lies! Are you lying to me?!" Twilight shot up back on her hooves and poked the Canterlot pony on his chest with enough force to push him back some. The pony bowed in somewhat shame for what he had said, though it was true.

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have been taken captive by Effiela Claire, I was there, I saw the entire thing," the pony said, looking back up to Twilight. "Under direct order of the Book of Secret United Unicorns, I am to serve the oldest princess available if Princess Celestia and/or Princess Luna are killed or captured. I take it that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is here as well?"

"Book of Secret United Unicorns?" Twilight questioned the unicorn stallion before her. "I've never heard of such a thing..."

"Then don't mind it, you will not know of it unless directed of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza," the stallion said, "but I will tell you my name... I am Dr. Denarius. Julius J. Denarius. The Director of the United Unicorn Service. "

"Well, nice to... meet you?" Twilight sighed, looking to the distance where she could spot Effiela's new kingdom, made from parts of the others around her. "I can't believe it... she actually beat Celestia and Luna?"

Spike and Cadance were the first others to come outside of the hideout. "Twilight! Are you okay out here?" Cadance asked her, coming immediately by her side and noticing she was nearly in tears. "Whoa... what happened?"

Denarius stepped before the two princesses, and Spike, and bowed. "Hello, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, I am Dr. Julius J. Denarius, the Director of the United Unicorn Service. I am obligated, by the Book of the Secret United Unicorns, to now serve you as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are incapacitated."

Cadance and Spike both were surprised to hear that, just as much as Twilight had been. "What?" they replied quickly, as Denarius sighed in annoyance.

"Is there water in your ears? Should I make an effort to dry your ears?" Denarius said in a slightly more serious tone. "If I must, then I shall. The enemy, the Witch Pegasus Effiela Claire, has defeated and imprisoned our Regal Princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I, and any other surviving United Unicorn Service ponies, are required to serve under the most experienced and oldest Princess available. This Princess is you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."

"So, where are these others?" Cadance asked, trying to see if any other unicorns were with Denarius, but none were present.

"Most of them are already here," Denarius answered. "I suppose I was the only one in Canterlot who was still spying upon the battle. But that's what I do, I can't get into the trouble, I just watch it."

"Already here? But we didn't let anymore ponies in after we closed up yesterday," Twilight replied. "How could they be here?"

Denarius chuckled, "They must have blended in with the refugees you let in, I suppose. They were mostly in the Crystal Empire and some even used the Cloud walking spell to hide in Cloudsdale. How they got down without being incinerated is out of question, because I don't really know." He used his horn to scry the area for any changelings that might have been lurking about. "We have to go into this hideout of yours, I sense a great multitude of the enemies coming from the south." The ponies went into hiding once again, taking heed of Denarius' words.

Twilight had gone to her special room where she had kept a living sample of the alicorn changelings which she and the Mane Six had fought, defeated, and captured. Cadance had followed, and due to Cadance being there, Denarius was also there. Three more unicorns had joined upon catching sight of Denarius, and these ponies were

Ember Serenity; a mare who had golden brown fur and a straight scarlet mane with sky blue eyes. She wore excessive jewelry of gold and emeralds around her neck. Her cutie mark was a white feather pen.

Berrytarte; a mare who had hot pink fur with dark freckles around her nose area and cheeks, and a dark, strawberry red mane in blunt bangs. Her tail was slightly unkempt and curly. She wore white bows with red polkadot patterns behind her head and at the base of her tail. Her cutie mark was five strawberries in a pentagram formation.

Pumpkin Vine; a mare who had light orange fur and a dark black mane worn to the left, covering that side of her face, with streaks of orange in her mane and tail. She had dark orange eyes that reflected a playful attitude in her being. Her cutie mark was three jack-o-lanterns.

Upon introducing themselves to Twilight and Cadence, they observed closely the experimental procedures which Twilight performed on the alicorn changeling she had captured. She noticed that her feelings of love were being absorbed through her skin by just being too close, and prolonged exposure proved to make her slightly lightheaded. She measured the distance needed to avoid the effect, which was five meters exactly or more. Making a magical barrier around the changeling, she tried to see if she could deprive its ability using her own magic, and it worked beautifully. The unicorns and Cadance watched intensely at Twilight's monstrously focused experimenting, in utter amazement at how much effort she put in to this. Twilight was humming a tune which none of them had ever heard, and then they noticed she had her eyes closed. The tune was a soothing one, with a not to gloomy tone, but not uplifting other than the fact it soothed the nerves. Twilight got close to the changeling again, using a scalpel to make a small incision on its chest, noticing pony skin under it. She took a small sample of the changeling skin and put it in a sealed container, using magic to magnify the power of the seal. Putting the container in an analyzer upon a table, she further experimented on the alicorn changeling by now making an incision in the skin of the pony, taking notice that the cut in the changeling skin was glowing with green magic, and made a flap of skin pushed to the side as she took a look in the cut of her subject. Green crystalline veins replaced the veins of the pony, and all of its organs were entwined with red strings, especially around its major organs, as Twilight noticed after making a bigger incision to spectate the rest of the body. Twilight began to write in a journal, documenting everything which she had seen and experimented on during the duration of this session. Taking extensive notes on how the subject was breathing and obviously still alive, but yet it did not respond to pain, if it felt pain at all. The subject did not try to escape, and its wings and horn were perfectly rested, it breathed as if it were calm, and it made no sound or sudden movements. Escape was obviously not on its top priorities.

Twilight opened her eyes after thinking in silence for a while, and said nothing to the others who were there with her. She guided them out of the room, not telling them why, and closed the door behind them, staying behind. She locked the door, and they noticed that she even turned off the lights. They decided to leave and go check up on the other ponies there. Twilight remained in the room for hours, using dark magic to amplify the DNA which she had harvested from the alicorn changeling, but after another hour, the body of the alicorn changeling began to decompose quickly. Its under body host turned to dust, and the outer skin untwined as if it were vines and burned away like wood to a flame. Only black, charred pieces remained of the subject, and Twilight noted this all down. She was calm and collected, expecting herself to do yet another experiment in the future. The DNA she took to analyze still was alive and well, and Twilight knew that the skin was just as much of a changeling to do harm as the entire body was. The body was only a body, but this skin was a parasite. It fed off of flesh to sustain its form, but love was used to give it life and vitality. Once deprived of life from the body it drank dry of resources, the skin would begin to die unless fed love. At least, this was what Twilight wrote down in her journal. She also wrote that maybe when they (the changelings) were together, they could survive for a longer time, as they could give love to one another and feed off of one another's sources, and that would explain why they did not attack them immediately yesterday. After traveling for so long to reach them, they had to have used a great amount of energy, so they needed to recharge for the battle which awaited them in Ponyville. For this same reason, they also lost, and the one which was captured only survived as it did by feeding off of the love and feelings of those around it who had defeated it. She concluded this session by putting the DNA sample in a capsule hidden away in a ruby heart necklace. She used dark magic to cut the edges and melt them in a smooth covering, sealing the capsule completely within the gem. The kept the gem frozen in a freezer of liquid nitrogen, and would comeback to it later. The experimental procedures were over now, but they left her intrigued and literally starving for more. This scientific research was like reading books, which obviously the purple smart loved to do... or maybe the alicorn changelings were like books, and she was reading them? She could not be so sure the first day, and felt this overwhelming urge to study more. Now the changelings were as fascinating to her as dire this situation was.

"Rainbow! May I have a word with you?" Twilight asked the blue pegasus as she played catch with Scootaloo, in the hopes that Scootaloo would discover some awesome talent related to the matter, but it was a bust.

Rainbow turned to Twilight and approached her. "What is it, Twi?" Rainbow really hoped it would be a request to do something amazing like create a storm to kill the changelings off in the area. And this thought immediately scared her... sure, fighting and killing the enemy was a must, and surely this was the only way to defeat them for now... but the thought of herself killing them, as they still held the souls and bodies of the dead ponies under their skin (on top of the fact that their voices were sounding prominently in anypony who opposed them's heads), kind of bothered her. She knew she should not be so eager to destroy them, relishing in their deaths in war, but she found that as this task was completely necessary, she could not resist the urge. She began to sweat and gulped once, flapping her wings to fan her face, as she suddenly felt rushes of heat running through her body.

"You okay, Rainbow?" Twilight questioned her, and the pegasus nodded yes, to steer her away from the thought of not including her in whatever she had planned for them to do. "Well, if you want, I think we should go out and find more samples of the changelings, see how they act in groups, and see how much of use they truly are."

Rainbow smiled, she hugged Twilight and spun in the air with her. "Yes! Yes! I thought you'd never ask!" she exclaimed in joy. She let Twilight go, and Twilight managed to catch herself from falling in the air by flying. "It was getting boring here, under all these walls... When I woke up, I nearly flew into the ceiling thinking I'd go to the sky, but now I actually get to fly around in the sky again!" Then the question struck her. "Are we bringing anypony else?"

This question also strangely struck Twilight, who quickly shook her head and smiled rather nervously. "But we have to go without anypony else noticing, I'll tell Cadance, Shining Armor,  and that stallion and his subordinates, since they saw me experimenting... I feel kinda ashamed not telling the others, but I'm sure they'll understand when we get back."

"Well, I mean," Rainbow began, "with your magic and my strength and speed, all we need is just us two, everypony else will just get in the way, really." It felt awfully wrong to think of her other friends that way. But it was kind of true, and besides, Pinkie was hosting parties to cheer up the emotionally shattered refugees and depressed foals who lost their friends and family, while Applejack and Rarity were handling food, drinks, and clothing and medical attention. Rarity had been taking classes in medical school, because she feared if anything like Tirek happened again, she could be a nurse in that situation. It was mostly her generosity acting.

"You're right, Rainbow," Twilight replied with a long sigh, thinking of her other friends, and also concluding that she and Rainbow were having the same thoughts as the other. With that in mind, the two ponies had gone to the main entrance of the hideout, where they met up with Cadance, Shining Armor, and Denarius, who was with Pumpkin Vine.

"Where do you think you're going?" Cadance questioned Twilight, who kind of reeled back in surprise with Rainbow, who was flying above them. "You weren't planning on going out there, were you?" Cadance's tone frightened Twilight, who immediately began to sweat as she stood ststraight to face Cadance. The pink princess looked into Twilight's eyes and the purple princess immediately felt her sister-in-law's diamond-hard will crush her own. The glare was nothing short in likeness with the Stare. "What is your response, Twilight?!"

Twilight closed her eyes and spoke in a scared tone, "Yes, Cadance... but I was--"

Cadance interrupted her, "You what?!"

"Yeah, Twiliy, it's not safe out there," Shining Armor said, walking up to Twilight and rubbing his head against her's to comfort her. "We should just stay in here until things get better... and what do you plan on doing out there?"

Rainbow, seeing Twilight overcome by her brother's and sister-in-law's authority, butted in, pushing Shining Armor away from Twilight and standing in front of her. "Twilight doesn't have to listen to you if she doesn't want to! She's a Princess just like Princess Cadance is! She can make her own decisions."

"But she isn't as experienced with this as I am, so in a logical thought, I am the leading Princess here," Cadance argued with Rainbow. "And you have no place to decide, you're not a Princess like Twilight and I. You listen to me, not the other way around." Cadance pushed Rainbow on her chest, making her take a couple paces back. "In a time like this, it is important that we stay together to make a plan and strategies to work our way around the enemy so we can overcome them. If you go out with no plan at all, you will be destroyed by them! Do you want that to happen?!"

Twilight was now ready to submit to Cadance's authority, but she felt weak. The only thing she was in this moment was the same thing she was before she was a princess. Just a mere subject to the queen. She stayed loyal to Celestia, but now she was an authorative figure just like the other alicorns! She felt the power they did, and she held the Element of Magic as well. She did not want to give that up, but she could not bring herself to oppose Cadance's decision. It made sense anyways, and she knew she was smart enough to understand and agree. But her pride as a princess still stood firm as stone, it was new and hotly burning like a star. She had to show some backbone as a princess, or else her ponies would lose respect in her, and if this conflict ever did happen to end, she would not be able to control the public if it decided to turn on her. She feared her authority was nothing and would be nothing if she did nothing to protect it. To her pride, it did not matter who or what was right, all that mattered was making herself seem big. Bigger than Cadance. She spent all these years working humbly under the Mare's hooves, and now it was time to have somepony under her hoove, and she made good progress having it start out as Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight is a better candidate to lead us as Equestrians than you, Princess Cadance!" Rainbow shouted at the princess, who nearly shouted back, but kept her composure. "She has saved us time and time again from the baddest of the bad! She is the one who should be leading us! And she has just officially become a Princess with her own Kingdom, and I am her knight. That day we stepped hoof in her new castle, I was pledged to serve another Princess, and this Princess is Twilight! I won't stand for anypony else, and we work as one... We want to go out, so that's exactly what we're going to do!"

"You can't be serious, Twiliy?" Shining Armor questioned his sister. "Were you seriously still planning to go out, without a plan, with those things roaming around out there?!"

Twilight looked up, with a defiant expression painted on her face. "Yes, yes I was," she replied, walking through Shining Armor and Cadance to the stairs up leading to the door of the entrance of the hideout. Rainbow followed her loyally. "And I agree with your choice 100%, if I were to follow it. It seems like a good plan, but Rainbow Dash and I have enough horsepower alone without a strategy to help ourselves. Thanks, but no thanks. We're fine."

Cadance immediately ran to Twilight and grabbed her from behind, forcing her to stop. "You are not! I forbid you to go out there!"

Twilight pushed Cadance off of her and stared blankly at her. She smirked and looked away to Rainbow,  who did the same. "You can't tell me what to do anymore. I am a grown mare, a princess of a Kingdom! I stand alone now... I don't need any authority figures watching over my shoulder anymore!" Twilight yelled loudly. "I am sick and tired of taking orders, I make the orders now! Me!"

The entirety of the lobby was silent. And when Twilight saw she had broken her competition, she left with Rainbow, who did look back to see what the ponies would do. They did and said nothing, just like she had expected. They left and closed the door behind them.

The two ponies flew high in the sky over the forest and orchards, trying to spot any of the alicorn changelings on the ground, when they noticed a massive cloud over the remains of Canterlot and the radiance of Effiela's castle shining right through it. The cloud was dark, and charged with lightning, which discharged upon the mountain.

"That must be where Witch Pegasus Effiela Claire lives," Rainbow said to Twilight, gritting her teeth. "She puts a bad name on us pegasi..."

"She's caused all of this... and now she owns basically the world," Twilight replied, looking to the remains of Cloudsdale in the distance, as the clouds and rainbows had become clumps of colors separated in the sky, scattering all throughout sight. "She's destroyed the Crystal Empire, Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and now even Ponyville! Surely after using that much energy, she has to rest... And she even fought Celestia and Luna! She surely has to be resting now!"

"Hey, Twi," Rainbow said to Twilight, who looked back as they flew. "About, y'know, back there at the hideout... I'm sorry if I made you come to my defense like that... if you didn't want to go, we didn't have to."

"It's okay, Rainbow," Twilight replied with a reassuring smile, "I was thinking the same exact thing in my mind as you said it to them... if anything, I should be apologizing to you. I should have stood my ground before you said anything, and now Cadance will think you influenced me. I'm sorry if I seemed weak..."

"Well, I actually can say I thought it before you as well, maybe we just had to say it at the same time." Rainbow giggled at the thought.

Twilight laughed as well. "Well, it's better either way... as long as the point gets across. We have our own Kingdom now, and we can make our own decisions. We don't need any other figures of authority over our shoulders."

It stayed silent for the next couple of minutes, and the two still did not see any alicorn changelings below. Rainbow broke the silence, "So, about the other cities... like Manehatten and Las Pegasus... are they under Effiela's control?" she asked.

"I suppose so," Twilight replied, "so maybe she sent all of her minions to those places to watch over them while she's in Canterlot. I heard from some ponies that she uses these Sonic Rainboom-like attacks that can decimate cities like it's nothing. If she used one on Cloudsdale, the Crystal Empire, and Canterlot, then fought Celestia and Luna, then she must be resting in Canterlot! With that in mind, she won't be able to fight for herself for a while. She only has those changelings to fight for her, for now at least. We should be fine on our own. The changelings are probably nowhere near here anyways."

"You're right. So, should we just scout for any threats and take 'em out? Setting up traps along the way?"

"No, if we set up traps around the hideout, that would give off the idea that there is a hideout around the area. If the land remains untouched, they'll just suggest we escaped to a different city or settlement. If we run into any, then we just kill them all, but maybe keep two this time, and escape while we can until more come. I'm pretty sure those things can communicate by telepathy or something, using the info I have already, and the fact they use the inner ponies' minds to attack ours."

It was silent for another time, and the two found a mountain to rest in. The mountain was similar to the one that the red dragon from the time it made smoke over Ponyville. It brought back memories, how everypony had tried to get the dragon to leave, and all had failed. But then Fluttershy finally got the courage to stare the dragon down and get him to leave. They talked for a time about it, how Rainbow did not approve of Fluttershy's cowardice, how Rarity tried to steal the dragon's riches, how they all were so scared to face him. They had eachother, and that mostly got them through that time.

While they laughed from the memories, they took a stroll through the mountain. They found an awesome passageway within it, but it looked fairly new. As if it were done yesterday. Many of the jewels had been extracted, but few remained in the walls, and the only things there were rocks covered in some black moss. There was nothing really special about it. The silence and emptiness bothered them, and they were just about to turn and leave out, but were greeted by a group of over thirty alicorn changelings.

"What the?" Twilight cried, as Rainbow jumped in front of her and dashed forwards, holding Twilight's head with her back hooves. They sliced through the changelings, but they followed them, blasting lasers of magic at them as well. Twilight got out of Rainbow's hold and created a barrier around them, making it burst with spikes in all directions. The alicorn changelings did the same, and their magic overpowered Twilight's. Twilight was still tired, and had that to blame. "Rainbow!" she cried, as Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight and flew high into the sky.

"Are you ready for this?" Rainbow asked her, and she nodded, and Rainbow bulleted down to the group of changelings chasing after them. She hit the frontlines and continued to gain speed to complete a Sonic Rainboom. But upon getting to the ground, she found that even more Changelings were waiting for her there. "There's more?!"

Twilight stood on her own and concentrated as clear as she could; her horn began to glow with magic, and her eyes glowed white as well. "Alright, Rainbow! Are you ready?!" she exclaimed in zeal.

Rainbow laughed loudly, "Am I? I have been waiting for this all day!" She stood by Twilight, ready to fight the enemy alongside her. They did not cower, even as a group of nearly one hundred alicorn changelings surrounded them. Prepared to take them all out, the two friends shot forward and began to slaughter them all effortlessly at first, though some proved to be a challenge.

Rainbow Dash came in through the front door of the hideout alone, and was immediately greeted by Fluttershy, who booped her nose with her hoof lightly and giggled.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy began, looking around. "What were you doing out there? Princess Cadance told everypony to stay in..."

"Oh, well I wasn't here for that," Rainbow said, trying to walk past Fluttershy, who stepped in front of her and kept her back. The yellow pegasus smiled and made her regular squee sound.

"Were you out flying? Scouting for us?" Fluttershy asked happily.

"Yeah, making sure we weren't being watched by anypony outside of the hideout is all," Rainbow replied. "But, I'm gonna go rest, I've had a long day out there and stuff."

"Would you mind if I come with? Everypony else is so busy, but I have nothing to do," Fluttershy asked her, and Rainbow smiled and assented.

Later that night, Rainbow had left out again, and this time, nopony managed to notice her. Well, the ones who noticed did not notice it was her, and those who had noticed were Cadance and Shining Armor. The two followed the pegasus, with Denarius, Pumpkin, Berrytarte, and Ember Serenity by their side. They saw her fly at a great speed in the south, and they followed her south.

"How can we follow her? She's way too fast!" Berrytarte cried, trying to keep up with the others, as she wasn't a very fast runner.

"Keep up with her? YOU can barely keep up with us!" Pumpkin laughed, blowing raspberries at Berrytarte, who growled in anger.

"Stop it with your bickering, you two!" Denarius shouted at the two subordinates of his. "You are always unfocused! Just focus on the task at hand!"

"Me and Shining Armor will continue ahead," Cadance told Denarius and his subordinates, "the ponies back at homebase will need somepony to lead them, and you are the ones who should do it."

"Are you sure about this choice, milady?" Denarius asked as he and his subordinates prepared to turn back. "Without you, we won't have a princess to lead us."

"But you and your team are the closest thing, and surely only me and Shining Armor can handle to be in the company of somepony like Rainbow Dash," Cadance said, as she and Shining Armor continued to run ahead, leaving Denarius and the others to turn back. She did not want Denarius and the others to come along for one simple reason: with nopony of any significant power to watch over the ponies at the hideout, then there will be chaos even among the people. The Mane Six were barely enough alone, and Denarius had spent enough time with princesses to know how to lead a great number of ponies with help, which the Mane Six would provide for him. Cadance did not really think she could handle leading the ponies knowing that her sister-in-law and one of her best friends were out in the open, for Effiela Claire to pick off like candies to devour. She could not let any more ponies die under her watch, she would not be able to live with herself, especially if any of those ponies happened to be part of the Mane Six.