Twilight woke violently, falling out of the bed she was in onto the cold, rock floor below. She managed to not fall horn-first to cause herself an unimaginable amount of bloody pain and saving her vocal cords from what would have been a morning of blood curdling screaming. It had happened before, however. It happened just yesterday, when she saw the explosion that was given birth to in the sky a distance away. The cloudy sky over Ponyville was swept away by the violent, unrelenting turbulence from the north winds. It blew the many ponies walking outside away, and the  light that had distracted them long enough for the rest of the force to destroy the outer edge of Ponyville which pointed to the direction of Cloudsdale. Twilight could remember it so clearly, and the memories haunted her like a thorn in her side. She had received a letter from Princess Celestia telling her to protect the entirety of the survivors of Ponyville, The Crystal Empire, and Cloudsdale, and to watch out for any outsiders who seemed suspicious. She could not react fast enough to brace Ponyville from the impact of the Silver Nuke which Effiela landed upon Cloudsdale, and she could not quell the chaos which was ensued on the village. Everypony sprinting around in confused masses of uncertainty and sorrow, worrisome of what could come to them next if they did not act fast enough.

Twilight stood, seemingly alone in the chaotic unroar of the Ponyville crowd, and tried to muster up the courage to display her authority, but she could not bring herself to control them. They kept running, crying, falling to their knees in pain, and endlessly spouting nonsense of the end of the world. The apocalypse was brewing upon their unprepared tails, and they were drowning in nothing but fear and ail. Twilight soon was pushed back and trampled by her ponies. Her own subjects used her as a coat in a mud puddle to get themselves to a blind safety. They had proven to her that running was pretty much all they were good for. Twilight could not stand for their turmoil and complaining, surely the end of Equestria was neigh, but if they only listened to her, then they could find out a way to survive through it all. If only they listened...

She hit her head against the ground, horn first, and she unknowingly blasted a laser in her fit of discomfort and rage. She rose up from her fall and kicked a rock far until it hit a stray building in the distance. Taking her stance, Twilight screamed in  what Luna would call "The Royal Canterlot Voice",

"Stop it! All of you!"

Twilight was panting in tiredness and pain from her sprained horn. She glared at the ponies around her, now in control of their attention. "If you all run about mindlessly and aimlessly, then we'll end up like the cities our enemy has destroyed already! If you keep doing what you're doing now, then we all will die! Is that what you want?! Think about the children, these poor, innocent foals, do you want their minds to be plagued with your hopeless screaming? Do you want to destroy any hope they have for survival before they even have any? Or do you want to be saved?!"

The ponies of Ponyville made their sorrowful eyes feast upon the sight of the ground, they merely began to wail and cry out to Twilight, begging for her to help them in any way she could. Twilight had no plan whatsoever, but she needed not to think, as Applejack had run through the crowd to Twilight's side to speak on her behalf.

"We Apple Clan members have long had an escape route to an underground bunker to hold all of Equestria in a time like this, since our cities and landmarks are being destroyed," Applejack said to the crowd, looking to Twilight and winking with a smile, prompting Twilight to smile back. "Now, if we could all get there in a nice and orderly fashion, then we won't have to worry about anything."

Then Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all managed to join them in the center of the group, all smiling and happy. Twilight giggled in hope that this would be the step that led to peace. "Now, what are we all waiting for? Let's go!"

The ponies all stood together and began to make their way upon following Applejack and the rest of the Mane Six, now happy and full of hope, despite the obvious hopelessness all around them. Spike had managed to grab the box holding the Elements of Harmony before leaving the castle, just in case the Mane Six had to use them. However, nopony knew the secret behind their power and how often the Elements could be used. Surely, what Celestia had explained about them was correct, that the more Harmony had to be distributed then the more the Elements themselves had to harmonized. Their cores were now so concentrated with orderly magic, that the could not stand to be in the same place any longer. Even one more usage of them, and the worst possible thing could happen to the users.

The alicorn changelings flew down in a dense formation down from the sky. The buzz of their wings and their grunts and groans of starvation's song emanating from them put great distress within the ponies' hearts. Twilight was about to give an order to them, but the overwhelming force pushing out of the alicorn changelings and onto the village of Ponyville was ungodliness incarnate. Twilight could do nothing but stare at the incoming attack, frozen in her fear, clueless on what to do. Rainbow Dash dropped down beside them, her eyes still fixed upon the enemy, she gritted her teeth in anger, holding back a scream of despair. Fluttershy's eyes slowly began to close, as the yellow pegasus' legs could barely support her weight, and she flopped over, unconscious to the events.

The aura of the thousands of alicorn changelings was dark, and depressingly deep, just like the ocean of Celestia's magical energy which Effiela had felt. This was not magic however, this was the despair, hatred, and negative feelings of the trapped souls within that were from the ponies devoured by the changeling skins. Now feeding off of the ponies' love and magic, they had to get rid of the waste, which were the negative feelings, and this resulted in the air which the ponies of Ponyville stood under now. This was truly darker than anything they had dealt with before, and they were ill-equipped for this situation. Until Twilight remembered that Spike had the Elements of Harmony in the box.

"Spike! Quick! Give me the Elements!" Twilight demanded, as Spike acted quickly and threw to her the box, out of which she took the Elements of Harmony and distributed them among the rest of the Mane Six... "Fluttershy! Please! Get up! This is no time to blackout! I know you're scared out of your mind, but for once, we all feel that way!"

Pinkie Pie took it upon herself to wake up Fluttershy, as even Pinkie seemed to only be partially affected by the dark aura emitting from the alicorn changelings floating above them. She shook Fluttershy like a rag doll, even slapping her once. "Flutters! Remember, we will smile in the face of danger! We can't give up in a time like this, especially when we're like the newly appointed protectors of Equestria!"

Pinkie's shouting immediately awoke Fluttershy, who still had bags of fear under her eyes. She could not bear to look up at the resting danger before them. She could not help but remember the terror which the changelings had inflicted upon Canterlot, and the helpless screams of the ponies who were attacked. This all flooded within her mind, and her psyche rejected the Element of Kindness, even as the other Elements were completely harmonized with her friends. She dropped down to bury her sight onto the ground. "I....I can't do this! They'll just come back again! If we couldn't beat them completely once, then what makes you think that we can do it again? I know it's been so long since then, but if... if it even took this long for them to come back, it doesn't matter what we do! They'll keep coming back like a virus!"

Twilight clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to yell at Fluttershy as she was already broken by the constant violence erupting within her life. This was not the time for calm words however, the cause was loud, so the response had to be loud. "FLUTTERSHY! This is no time to cower in fear! Please, you must rise so we can defeat the enemy!"

Fluttershy looked up to Twilight, then began crying in fear, almost rejecting the upbringing statement which the Princess had made. She then glanced to the alicorn changelings, and felt their auras of hell and their tormented souls' cries. The screams of the trapped souls within were crying out to her, almost as if they knew her Element of Kindness.

"Help me! Please! Help me!"

"Nopony can save me now, there's no hope! All is lost!"

"I can't stop this pain... it hurts... please, make it end!"

"I see you all trying to kill us. You don't know how it feels to be like this! If you know what's good for you, you'd better spare us!"

Fluttershy began hyperventilating, she tried to run away, but Rainbow Dash stepped in front of her and kept her back. She did not even have to touch her to make her stop. Fluttershy tried to speak through her tears and her cracking voice, "Please, Rainbow Dash! Get out of my way, I've heard those voices in there! Those are actual ponies in there! We can't hurt them!" she pleaded, trying to push Rainbow Dash out of the way, but Rainbow would not budge.

"I can hear it too, Fluttershy, and I'm pretty sure everypony else does too," Rainbow Dash said calmly, "but that's no reason to run away! If we sit back and let them kill us, that's no better than fighting back! At least then, we'll be doing something to save ourselves! If we run away, they'll come back, but if we get rid of them here and now, they will never come back! But we need you, if we're gonna fight, we need all of the Elements here to have all of them work, and if one is out of whack, they're all out of whack!"

Twilight added, "Rainbow Dash is right, Fluttershy, if we aren't doing this together, then we can't do it at all!"

"Yeah Fluttershy," Rarity said, "Isn't it so much better for us to do this together than to do it alone?"

Fluttershy looked to her friends, at how they wanted to encourage her to battle against the enemies alongside with them, she specifically noticed Rainbow Dash, who she remembered fought for her in Cloudsdale when they were foals. Though she never got to notice the full race, and nearly died because of it, she still appreciated what it did for her. She got to see in that moment that Rainbow Dash really cared for her enough to risk her reputation to protect Fluttershy's, but now, it wasn't just Rainbow anymore. It was Pinkie, it was Twilight, it was Rarity, it was Applejack, and soon she saw it was even Spike and everypony else in Ponyville, all looking and depending on her to use her Element. She smiled through her troubles and joined her friends once again. Rainbow Dash sighed in relief.

The Mane Six came together with their Elements of Harmony, all in formation to attack and seal away the alicorn changelings, and the power of the Elements of Harmony circled around them in their rainbow colors, about to give them their rainbowfied transformations. The ground began to shake under them and the wind began to blow, and the ponies of Ponyville stared at the radiance of the power of the Elements of Harmony. Finally seeing it up so close and about to spring into action, they could do nothing but stare, now humbled from their powerlessness in the presence of such strength. The resonance and aura given off by the Mane Six in these forms was as graceful as a ballroom dancer, spinning like a pinwheel pushed by a soft breeze of wind. The aura made it easier to breathe, and it gave off a sense of happiness and safety among the ponies around it.

"Now, let's show these things what we're made of! Let's show them the might of Ponyville!" Twilight shouted, springing towards the alicorn changelings with the rest of the Mane Six, using the power of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight's mind was clear, without worries or concerns about anything else happening outside of what she and her friends were dealing with now. She could feel the peaceful mindsets of them, and could tell they could feel her's as well. It was a warm, fuzzy feeling that brought them together as one, and it grew stronger by the second.

But, the Elements of Harmony gave one last wide burst of energy and scattered faster than light itself. Each one flying off in a different direction, so fast they disappeared from sight faster than anypony could notice they were gone. Some even questioned if they were there to begin with. The Mane Six were only inches away from their target, and the sudden loss of magical empowerment from the magical items stopped them in the space where they were, allowing for the alicorn changelings to swarm over them, driving them all into the ground and dragging them across it with their momentum. The Mane Six were trampled under the feet of the enemy as the enemy targeted the background ponies, scattering them. The other ponies tried frantically to escape, and some were killed and eaten, while others made a gallop for ot straight toward the Apple Farm where the hideout was located. Twilight saw this and immediately stood back up, flying high into the air and darting down to ram a group of alicorn changelings, saving many foals from their jaws.

"I thought changelings only fed on love, not flesh!" Twilight cried, putting a protective barrier around the ponies under attack, but the alicorn changelings used their green magic in synchrony, easily breaking Twilight's shield. "Oh no!--"

"Don't worry!" Rainbow Dash yelled, as she carried Applejack to the scene and proceeded to kick all of the alicorn changelings away from the civilians. The civilians ran away, following the others who were headed towards the Apple Farm.

"Fluttershy! Please, lead the way for the ponies of Ponyville! We can't lose anymore ponies!" Twilight ordered the yellow pegasus.

"What about all of the animals? We can't forget about them!" Fluttershy cried, pointing towards her house.

"We can't deal with that problem now, just focus on the task at hoof now! NOW!"

Fluttershy wiped her tears away and flew with confidence, she ordered for any pony who was not being attacked, or who had escaped with the help of the other Mane Six to follow after her, the others who were saved would follow rest of the Mane Six once the alicorn changelings were defeated. Fluttershy looked back at her friends, who all fought fiercely to protect the ponies of Ponyville, even without the aid of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight could easily use magic powerful enough to pierce the skin of the alicorn changelings, Pinkie was not actually fighting, but on the defensive, mainly to keep the other ponies around her safe as that what she was worrying about, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were using brute force, and Rarity, taking up after Twilight, was using simple magic spells in her novice experience, but still could push away the enemy long enough for the civilian ponies to escape and for her friends to obliterate their enemies. Twilight caught notice of a large sphere of green magical energy flying at them from the left, mainly Pinkie and Rarity, along with ten background ponies, were in that immediate area and would be severely injured if they did not move quickly enough. With only a moment to act, Twilight focused upon that space in her vision and covered it with her magic, using the teleportation spell to move them close to where she was. The spell did not take much energy out of her, but it took a massive amount of concentration. She then used her same spell to teleport a great amount of the alicorn changelings to the sky, where Rainbow Dash used a cloud to shoot them with many bolts of lightning. Upon the clearing of the smoke, she found all of her targets to be dead.

"Well, that's not surprising," Rainbow Dash murmured, taking notice that Rarity and Pinkie were cornered by a group of the changelings. She bulleted down to save them, right at the same time Applejack and Twilight did. Showing the might of the pegasi, alicorn magic, and earth pony strength, the three ponies successfully rescued their friends and defended them as more of the changelings attacked.

"Looks like we can manage without the Elements of Harmony!" Applejack exclaimed, getting into a fighting stance. She saw that the ponies of Ponyville had successfully escaped from the chaos, and immediately hoped for the well being of her family and farm. "We gotta make this quick girls, I mean, who's to say them things ain't out there too?"

Rainbow Dash laughed in triumph, kicking the air. "Then we'll just send 'em all to the oblivion they came from, right?"

"They certainly have no fashion taste, I mean, ugh, wearing skin? Sooooo not my style!" Rarity scoffed.

"Well then, with everypony together in one place, we can throw a party! Can't we?" Pinkie asked them all, hopping in place.

"C'mon girls, we need to get this done so we can accompany our friends, who's to say we won't have anymore refugees to look after?" Twilight told them, stepping forward, looking on to the rest of the changelings before them. "Also, we'll need to preserve a live sample from them, I must find out what caused this outbreak to happen again! Of course, with all of Equestria on our side, we'll find an answer! But as for now, we focus on reducing their numbers to one! And quickly!"

The rest of the Mane Six all accepted the task, and without further ado, they charged at the rest of the changelings.

Fluttershy sighed, and heard the commotion in the village behind her and the others as they entered the hideout under the Apple Farm. Between two trees marked by carvings, set aside from the others around them, there was a large boulder, and under it was a steel door that led to an underground shelter with many halls and rooms stored with loads of food like bread, hay, fruit, and vegetables, all stored in a room invented to keep food edible for quite some time. The food was replaced every three months, if it was not used, as the room could only keep it fresh for that long. If the food was accessed from time to time, it would reset its lifespan, allowing it use for many more months. Nopony from the newest generation knew of it, but many older ponies (mainly pegasi) knew of it. The Apple Family had to explain how such a thing existed, and it was simply put that Celestia had made counter measures to protect the ponies of Ponyville long before the creation of the weapons of mass destruction in the other cities. This was mainly because Canterlot was on a mountain and Cloudsdale was floating in the air. The other cities and villages were either very far or very small, and Celestia knew something good would come out of Ponyville, so she tried as hard as she could to preserve it, and she knew the Apple Farm was just the right family to be in charge of it.

Fluttershy could see the dedication of the family and smiled at the kindness which flowed so easily. The remainder of the village of Ponyville was together and in harmony. The magic of friendship not only flowed within the Mane Six, but in the entire population. But she knew all along that this was how it always was. She sat down on a bench built down in the bunker and lay down, blowing the dust from it before her. She could tell that many renovations were made on the hideout, as she saw that the walls were polished and neatly patched over any cracks, sealing all imperfections from immediate sight. The lights were bright, but not blinding, and the floor was white and black tiles, while the walls were a plain ivory white with murals depicting the history of the heroes of Equestria, Celestia and Luna, the Wonderbolts, the Royal guards, and most recently, the Mane Six and even Discord. The picture of Discord was not finished yet. "Discord...what are you doing right now? Do you know of what we're going through, or are you enjoying chaos again?" Fluttershy murmured to herself, growing ever so more tired as time began to pass. She yawned and just rested her eyes, hoping to slowly drift into sleep.

The others began to settle in after receiving their portions of food and being appointed rooms to stay in. And soon, the rest of the Mane Six had made it to the hideout, with refugees from the Crystal Empire and Cloudsdale. Twilight was the one who woke up Fluttershy, nudging her head with her own.

"Fluttershy, you can wake up now," Twilight whispered, watching as Fluttershy woke up slowly, stretching and yawning. She looked over to her friends and all of the refugees from the attacked cities. "Are you feeling okay? Do you need anything to eat?"

Fluttershy shook her head with a smile. "No, you guys were out fighting off the enemy for our good, and I've just been sitting here, resting... I just can't eat before you guys do... You deserve it more than I do."

"That's ridiculous, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash laughed, picking her up and spinning around in the air with her. "We'll all eat together!"

"Yeah, we're all friends, aren't we?" Applejack added.

The six ponies all huddled up together, thanks to Twilight's levitation spell, for a hug, laughing loudly. Fluttershy blushed, and looked down to Cadance and Shining Armor, who smiled at them. She smiled back and giggled lightly, until they all came back down from the hug.

"Well, I suppose we all have a place to sleep? And hopefully, there's enough food for all of us, right?" Cadance asked, on the behalf of the refugees.

Of course there was, and soon, the dinner to celebrate the survivors' new home had taken place in the kitchen of the hideout, and the host was Applejack, who thanked the efforts of the Mane Six, Cadance and Shining Armor, and the Wonderbolts, who all fought to protect their ponies and be sure of their survival. They made toasts especially to Celestia and Luna, who were still fighting to defend Canterlot from Effiela Claire, who was identified by Cadance, Shining Armor, and the Wonderbolts, who all had fought her personally. This was after the pony refugees had all gone to sleep, and the hideout was shut up from the outside world completely. The doors and external shields were closed and deployed to protect the underground bunker from magic, pressure, nature, and even sound. It was completely hidden from the outside world.

But that night, Twilight joined together the efforts of Cadance and Shining Armor and the Wonderbolts, as well as her close friends, to form a group of officials to moniter the ponies until further notice, or from orders of Celestia and Luna. She wanted to call the group "The Sparklers", but immediately admitted that the name did not sound well. But their title did not matter, they only thanked the heavens that now the struggle was over, at least for now. Now they had a night to sleep peacefully, the first night of the battle for Equestria was over.

And that was when Twilight fell out of bed.

Next Chapter: ACT 1. CHAPTER 9: Twilight and Herself Estimated time remaining: 21 Minutes