Chapter thirty nine

A simple meal is prepared by each of them to their selves from the rations that each brought with them. While a small fire has been struck alight between them all, as the ponies and the single dragon take their time to eat now and relax after the day, careful to watch the surrounding area for anything that may be there watching. The guards have the changeling tied down to a tree with enough rope that it would take till the morning to even chew through with his fangs, although even he isn’t stupid enough to try and break free and run off in to a forest that he doesn’t know very well, but has heard more than enough rumors about the creatures that lurk over the years. Never the less though, even the prisoner is taken care of and the few injuries that he sustained patched up.

Although he may be an enemy at the moment, the ponies won’t be cruel and leave him unattended… plus if he were to die then it would all be for nothing in the end.

The only thing the group can walk away with from this little trip, is the new knowledge that King Sombra, the one that had taken over the entire Crystal Empire and held it under an iron hoof, has returned. On top of this, he’s working with Queen Chrysalis, the leader of an entire changeling hive at the moment. Plus to twist the knife deeper still, they now have the most powerful magical artifacts known to Equestria… The Elements of Harmony. Spike lays down next to the fire on his back, as the alicorn of the bunch uses her magic to work on him in the light of the blaze as she looks over his wound from previously.

“Oh hold still now, Spike…” she tries to calm him a bit as the reptilian cousin squirms.

“You would be fidgeting about too if you had a spell working on your insides…” he comes back with. Fully feeling the aura of magic going to work on his soft tissue underneath the scales as bit by bit Spike can sense the heat produced from the energy reconnecting his parts. This is something that he will never get used to, no matter how many times Twilight had done while he was younger, though the drake knows that it will be better for him in the end.

“Is he going to be alright?” Rarity asks concerned over her fire breathing companion as she sees small spurts of blood still come from the wound as the princess does her work.

“Rarity, I can assure you that he’ll be just fine,” Twilight promises her apprehensive pal, taking a few things from their past to remind her, “seriously you should know this isn’t the first time I had to patch up one of you with a healing spell, or even for that matter use it on myself as well.”

“Rarity… I’ll live,” Spike lightly takes the snow white unicorns’ hoof in claw, “seriously this isn’t the worst thing that has happened to me in my more adult years.”

“I know Spike, I still recall how you treated the Diamond Dogs the second time around,” Rarity starts to giggle to herself, recalling the look on their faces as they went back in to their holes with their tails between their legs.

“What can I say,” he chuckles to himself, “they were trying to nab my favorite mare… again.”

Rarity’s cheeks in the light of the fire give way to the small flush of blood pouring in to them as she pauses for a moment and only replies with a soft kiss to the top of his forehead. Not even caring if her friends can see, or the smirk that Twi gives the pair as she rolls her eyes. After being sure that her cold blooded, but warm hearted, friend will live. The unicorn goes back to the rest of the group, only to see a royal guard come and join them with some blood now on the helmet piece that he wears over his head.

The lavender pony among them out the corner of her eye, takes notice of the colt’s treatment by the prisoner, “Well I assume he still isn’t talking, is he?”

“That isn’t entirely true your majesty, I did get a few things out of him,” the guard answers respectfully before going on, “in cleaner terms at least… my mother was the whore of my town, which lead to my birth, and my ‘father’ was a flaming coltcuddler. So needless to say some, reprimanding, with my helmet was required.”

Twilight nod to him in approval, before she shoots a glare over to the changeling off to the side of them, “Insulting isn’t going to get you anywhere you know!”

To her surprise the changeling actually raises his head with a reply, albeit not the most pleasant one, “Go to Tartarus you cankerous skank! You and your friends can take the precious elements and shove them up your-” a rock is hurtled by a blue aura with enough speed to silence him for the time being and give them a moment of peace.

As Rarity calmly licks the tip of her hoof before snuffing out her horn, “Little ruffian…”

Twilight finishes up with Spike by her side and puts a single bandage over the wound to keep infection at bay as they sit next to the fire. The day has been a long one and having the changeling in the back making insults to them for the better part of his capture doesn’t help. Deciding to calm down for the night, Twi just gazes in to the fire before her. The flames flickering in her wonderful eyes as they seem to dance for her enjoyment while she starts to picture them in her mind, with now the king and queen in there as well amongst the flames.

‘Two of them working together towards some kind of plan… what does it all mean?’ she asks herself before realizing that her friends now start to glance at her while she sits there in a trance. “What is it?” Twilight snaps out of her mind set while quickly rubbing her muzzle, “do I still have blood on my face still?”

The look on a few of her friends faces start to turn away, they are all thinking the same question, but none of them want to bring it up. Eventually it falls on the honest one out of the group to finally raise it up, “No Twi your face is clear. It’s just, well … we ‘ave never seen ya like this before,” Applejack says to her, trying to think on her hooves for the best way to put it in perspective “fightin’ an all, sword play, combat… you’ve always been the level headed one.”

“And I’m not level headed now?” a single eye brow raises up on her face while she flatly glares at the bunch.

“That’s ah… not what I meant now,” AJ tries to come back with.

“Twilight, we just have seen you as the one ready to get her hooves in the dirt,” Rarity tries to explain better as she starts to cringe a bit, “though your hooves caked in blood is just a different …brutal look, that we’re not used to.”

Twilight looks back to what they have been talking about. Normally she wouldn’t have raised a sword to another creature, it’s against her nature. Yet now she is willing to do so, and just regret it later wishing there was another way.

“I have to learn to make these choices now…” she answers recalling some of Celestia’s advice, “whether I like them or not.”

“To learn to lead your own kingdom?” Fluttershy asks her. Watching the slow nod from her friend.

“Yes… I don’t like to hurt others, duh, you all know that,” she gestures to her friends as they stick around the fire, while the guards sit and keep watch or get some shut eye in turn with one another, “I just can’t stand to see a chance to possibly save more ponies from hard ship and trouble. Then to let that chance slip by when it’s so close,” Twi turns her eyes to the changeling, still fast asleep in even the uncomfortable position that he’s in, “If he would give us what we wanted to know, imagine those that wouldn’t have to lose their lives, those that would be spared the death.”

They all can see that this is a subject that Twi takes close to heart. The senseless slaughter isn’t something that any pony would like to contend with. At the same time though the young princess is ready to do what is asked of her, and has so far. Although it’s not one of Twilight’s most favorite past time, fighting with other creatures. But as the princess, she may just have to do some things that she doesn’t like, even if they will haunt her.

“Twilight, you’re a sweet mare, a great princess, but you’re an even better friend,” Rainbow puts a hoof on her shoulder. Pushing her toughness out for a second at the risk of sounding sappy, “sometimes there are things out there that you can’t really reason with. Something’s will want to fight, and the only thing you can do, is fight back.”

Twilight looks up to her friend’s sincere face, catching the truth in every word spoken, “you sound so much like Celestia right now. We had this covered a while back, but I put it out of my mind still…”

“It’s okay, Twily,” Pinkie starts to beam before pulling out a dozen or so cupcakes somehow from her bag to lighten the mood a bit. Passing them around to both the guards that are awake and accept, and her friends, “we know that you try you hardest being a princess and all… no matter what choices you may make in that duty, we’re sure to be here… and with desert too!”

The friendly reminder of this by her friend is enough to hold the still quite new princess over for the night. Finishing up with their small meal and nesting down for the night. The group gets as comfortable as possible. Rainbow leans up against a tree with AJ next to her as the latter covers her face with the tip of her hat. Fluttershy wraps up in a blanket and her wings as Pinkie pulls a simple sleeping bag out, filled with a minor amount of confetti. As expected, Spike lays there with Rarity snuggled up close to him, and holds a scaled wing around the unicorn. Leaving Twilight to rest there, with her face towards the sky.

Looking up in to moon at Luna’s domain of night, she sees the stars twinkling high above her as she can only hope that Flash remains back in Canterlot, safe and sound. “I hope, Flash, that you’ve been having a better time than me…” Twilight smiles up at the sky before resting her head back against her own ruck sack for some shut eye till the morning.

The night is a cool one, and not even a single insect is heard in the background. Normally this would be something that would make your normal pony goer question if anything was out of the ordinary or not, but at this point, to those out in the forest at the time. A lot has been out of the norm lately, so anything more to add to that growing list, is expected.

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The morning has come and gone by this point at mid noon. The bright sun shining high above in the sky over Ponyville as the gang from the woods make their way out in to town to get to the train station there so they can reach Canterlot as fast as possible. After sleeping in for a bit longer than they probably should have, they all agreed to hit the train ride once they got there. Especially considering that they have an extra traveler with them, which no pony is ready to have as a house guest at the moment. It’s best to get to the capital so as to get the record straight and feed the information they found out right now. Looking out the window from the train at the land passing by them, Twilight sparkle sits there twiddling her hooves as the others joke with one another to pass the time.

“Okay, okay…” the Pinkie settles down for a moment, “What does a buffalo dad say to his son when he leaves for college?”

“What?” she gets a unanimous answer from both her friends about, and even the guards that aren’t looking after the prisoner in the separate cart.

“Bye-son…” she says getting a stumped look from the others at first before it finally clicks to them.

The whole car, even the guards, start to laugh to the point of almost tears as the pony of laughter keeps them doing what she does best… that’s all except for Twilight. She is laughing on the inside, but she’s heard this joke before. On top of that she has more pressing matters right now, as the pink earth pony continues with her antics, even going in to some of the rather crude ones that she has up her hoof.

“What does a gay horse eat?” she looks at them before putting her hoof down at an angle, “Haaayyy,” Pinkie says giggling while the others soon follow suit even at the nature of the joke.

No matter what the princess may be thinking, it’s still pretty funny at the time. As a slight chuckle comes out Twilight even, as she wasn’t expecting the mockery to come out from her friend, though the truth soon comes crashing down when she catches the sight of extra guards there at the station in Canterlot. Looking around she can see them all in full combat gear, loaded in armor, weapons, and even personal medic bags for war wounds. The train stops and they all freeze for a moment while the guards stand there motionless as the doors open up. Bowing and saluting to the princess, they soon rise up to her.

“What’s going on here?” Twilight asks the nearest guard, “has something happened?”

“Princess Twilight, we were sent here to fetch you when you arrived,” the major answers her, lowing his salute, “there was an attack in your absence…”

“What?!” she flips out as some of her mane erupts in flame, even hovering for a second and notices that Canterlot city itself is in one piece. The castle is the next place to be a concern about. “Where are Princess Celestia, Luna, and Prince Discord?” Twi concerns herself with the royalty, seeing as this guard probably wouldn’t know the status of a bright orange Pegasus in the med bay.

“They are at the castle, your highness…” he answers, signaling a few of the guards, “They will escort you and take you to them.”

“Thank you, sir…” she answers ready to trot off with her friends, before pausing for a moment and turning back to the same guard there, “you might want to help the guards that came with us, they have some pony else that might need some extra… care” Twilight says sternly, “bring him to the cells in the castle, and make sure he isn’t killed,” the guard salutes to her and follows through, watching the mauve flank gallop off in the distance as he attends to what she brought.

The castle itself has gotten superficial damage to its outer structure. Broken windows in random places, and craters in the ground from the changelings landing in the yards. Statues shattered, columns marked up, decorative banners sliced all from the fights that ensued as the attack continued around them all. This wasn’t the first time the same enemy came crashing in, but during the wedding they weren’t armed for combat. This time there were trained soldiers sent in ready for battle, even if it wasn’t a full blow war. The further they are taken in to the castle, the more bodies are starting to pile up. Both that of changeling, and pony alike, left and right strung out dead along the hallways and in the openings. Thrown about from the post battle after cutting down one another.

Many ponies are taking care of the bodies and starting to pile them up and remove them. Trying to find a place at the moment to put them is becoming the issue right now, along with the injured among them. As the lunar princess runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, to try and lend aid and give the best direction she can at the time of need.

“Move the changeling bodies from the morgue to the court yard, allow that space for our own fallen,” Luna sends off another guard to tend to it, while turning to another, “as for the ones in the gardens, clean them up when we can, but for now close off that area. The main passages should be cleared first of all…help cart off the casualties to the med bay and bring out the nurses from there if need be for those that can’t be moved right now.” Another guard acknowledges before trotting off.

“Princess Luna!” the dark mare turns her head to see the one mare now calling to her in this conundrum.

“Twilight…” Luna starts to gasp at the sight of her fellow royalty now stepping in to the room while her friends follow behind her looking around at the sight to behold, “I didn’t think you would be back this soon,” she gallops up to the young mare and throws her fore hooves around her in a warm embrace, as the lavender coat hits her chest plate, “thankfully you’re here and safe.”

“What happened here Luna? Was it the queen?”

“As one would have expected, she didn’t wait for us to get ready for a fight,” Luna rolls her eyes about in her skull as she leads the group now as they start to attend to things together, making their way through the hall, “Chrysalis brought only a small force, not enough for a full attack. But unlike her previous visit, those that were with her this time were highly trained fighters and not so easily brought down like their earlier counterparts.”

“I… ahh… hate to be the bearer of bad news Luna, but the Queen isn’t the only one we have to contend with at the moment,” Twilight answers her while she watches a curious brow rise up on the older princess’s face, better to get the bad news out sooner, “King Sombra, has also made a return here as well, we found him in the cave that houses the Tree of harmony.”

“Oh dear…” she draws in a quick breath of air to her chest, “Did he hurt you? Did he escape? What of the elements?”

“Myself and the girls are okay, he brought back up with him, and a few of the guards were brought down…” Twilight takes a deep breath, “but in the end he managed to get out of there, and he had already removed the elements by the time we got there.”

The gravity of what has already happened in Canterlot, to her sister, and her nephew. Along with the news of what Twilight has uncovered out in the forest, hits the crescent princess like a ton of bricks to her head as she lets out a long exasperated grunt. “No… this. Can’t. Be. Happening!” Luna punches a hoof in to the wall next to her, leaving a princess hoof sized hole in the marble while her own hoof remains intact.

“I know Princess Luna… I know,” her fellow alicorn feels her pain, knowing full well there is more to come, “But there is another issue…”

“What is it?” Luna asks while rubbing her temple, almost sure that she doesn’t want to know.

“Sombra has gotten a lot of his power back to him, even after being killed… and from what I saw, I think I know why,” Twilight goes in to detail about the suit that he wears and how it has the crystals built in to it to supply him with the strength that he needs.

Seeing as she was the one who was fighting him after all. Meanwhile her friends tack on the subject that the two villains are working with one another on a more intimate level, than some of them could have guess at first… or wanted to know for that matter.

“So there’s a king that now seems to have an unlimited source of power, a queen with an army to command at the tip of her hooves,” Luna starts to summarize their predicament, while at the same time ramming her head in to the wall, “Both of them share a bed together, and now they have in their possession, the single most powerful magical relics in all of Equestria.”

“But she shouldn’t be able to use them, should she?” Spike pipes up after listening to the mares go back and forth, “the Elements of Harmony are bonded to Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, Rainbow, and Pinkie… Chrysalis shouldn’t be able to use them. Just like how you and Celestia couldn’t when Discord first got out.”

“He’s got a point there now,” Rainbow recalls a previous thought from Twilight a few years back while on a similar subject, to back up the dragon, “and again when Twi went through that mirror thing to get her crown, and had to deal with Shimmer. She said Sunset tried to use her crown against them, but it didn’t work for her and was still brought down.”

“Valid argument, Spike and Ms. Dash…” the eldest princess of the two concurs with them, “though even if the elements don’t respond to them, we still are unable to use them if need be to defend ourselves.”

“What about you and Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy mumbles her question before continuing, “With both of you, Discord, and Twilight all working together. Wouldn’t that stand up against them?”

The face on the mare of the night turns slowly to that of despair, even more so then when she first turned back to her original form from that of Nightmare moon. It seems that no pony had informed the young mares of what happened to both her sister and nephew during the attack. “Come with me…” Luna urges them at the moment with a simple wave of the hoof while they go down the hall. Believing that it’s far better for them to see it, then for Luna to have to be the one to try and explain.

Walking in to a busy hospital ward room is something that no pony wishes they had to do. Simply because its busy for one reason, there are a lot of injured about that need attending. And the only reason you’re there probably to begin with, is that you know one of the injured, or you yourself are the one in pain. Though as they walk past the bustling activity of doctors and nurses doing what they do, the group reaches a smaller secluded room at the far side of the med bay that Flash was being treated in.

At the moment though, Twilight surprisingly doesn’t have the thoughts of her guard come to her, as her mind has already had enough happen to in the last couple hours to clutter everything up. From being filled in about the attack on Canterlot, her mentor getting in a fight with the queen of the changelings, and something happening to her. The mare is left in wonder as they stop at the doors to the single room. Pushing it open ever so lightly, it slides without a fuss and they see one figure kneeling next to a bed side, with a hoof wrapped up in his eagle claw.

Discord has the dried out eyes of a husband who had tears rolling down his face all night while he stays near his wife. Seeing the unconscious image of the lovely princess, his princess, is far too much for him to bear at the time by himself. Yet after watching her go through her own surgery, he would rather be nowhere else, than here, to ensure she is okay.

Luna walks in ahead of them and puts a hoof on his shoulder to let him know of their presence. Turning around and seeing the others there safely, brings at least a tear of joy to his eyes as Dissy goes up to each of them and almost crushes the mares he once called his enemies, in his arms.

“I’m glad to see you all here…” he whispers to them.

Calmly going back over to his wife's side while she rests there. Rosebud even curls up next to her mother, with her ear to her chest so she can hear the heartbeat of her mom. Letting her know, all is not lost. The father slowly stokes his daughter’s hair while keeping a claw on his wives hoof.

“What happened, Discord?” AJ asks the obvious, looking at the motionless princess lying there with wires and tubes running out of her single fore hoof while the other remains covered by a sheet.

“Chrysalis… that’s what happened…” Discord hisses before he goes to explain what happened to his wife while here in the hospital. The other ponies each starting to look at the sheet covering the hoof that just got operated on, and is still in the process of healing from the meds and magic. “She has been knocked out from painkillers, and probably won’t be up till the morning,” he places a gentle claw on her covered fore hoof, “Getting fitted for such a thing can take the breath out of you… and when Tia wakes up, I’m sure she’ll lose it after seeing what has happened to her all over again.”

Twilight places a gentle hoof on the Rosebud’s head. As a reassuring smile crosses her own face, after seeing the happy one on the child. At home with the fact that she is in her mother’s bed. Though something seems off at the moment.

“Wait… where is Havoc?” the alicorn asks.

Both Discord and Luna look at one another for a moment, “you didn’t tell her did you?” Discord asks the sister in law.

“I thought it better for her to see this first.”

“There is nothing better about this whole thing…”

“Well it’s the lesser of two evils, what would she have done?” Luna gestures to her knocked out sister.

“There’s no such thing as ‘the lesser of two evils’, when they are both just as horrible,” Discord answers her.

“You know Tia used to call you ‘the lesser’, when she was debating having you reformed,” Luna throws down her trump card to trip him up as the crazed eyes of her brother in law glares at her for a moment of confusion.

“Stop you two…” Twi gets between them quietly so as not to wake the child, “Where is Havoc?” she asks one more time.

Both Discord and Luna look at one another, and in a singular moment of understanding, they get between the rest of the group and huddle them together so they can whisper out the truth amongst themselves, without Rosebud even having the chance at hearing should she just be eavesdropping like kids to. All of them back away after the news sinks in and cover their own muzzles to hold back the slew of tears that are building.

“Oh…” a tear wells up in Twilight’s eye, “I…Ahh, see,” she tries to keep herself together as best as she can for the time being.

Soon resting her head on Luna’s shoulder whiles she lets out several tears as the others do the same in silence as the news hits home, “We’re here Twilight… we’re here,” Luna assures her, rubbing the back of her with a hoof.

“It was Chrysalis, wasn’t it?” Twilight fishes for that answer.

“Yes…” Discord answers coldly, clutching his knuckles as he pictures snapping the queen’s neck with his own two claws. Or lighting her on fire, or turning her inside out, or gutting her while she lives, or cutting off parts of her piece by piece and making her eat herself… ‘So many possibilities, so little time,’ the chaotic princes ponders to himself in his own mind.

“I’ve sent word to the Crystal Empire…” Luna catches sight of her brother in laws expression about his body, trying to change the subject around to keep him from going ballistic, “Shining and Cadance will be here later with additional guards to help bolster our defenses, if they try to attack again.”

“I don’t think they would right now… they have to have something planned…” all of them look at the pink mare in the room as Pinkie brings up a crucial fact, “after all, they wanted the Elements away from us for some reason? Though we would know what the plan is, if we could get him to talk.”

“Get who to talk?” Luna asks, looking back and forth between Pinkie and Twilight standing there.

“Before we finished off with at the cave, we managed to find a single changeling that was still alive in the remains,” Twi fills them in, “We brought him here to Canterlot hoping to get some information about what is going on. I asked a few guards from the station, as well as the ones that came with us to bring him down to the cells here to keep him till later.”

“Had he said anything yet?” the dark blue alicorn starts to pry, hoping to get more information than they already have now.

“Other than the insults here and there…” Rainbow answers for her alicorn friend, “not a thing…”

Discord calmly leans down to his wife's forehead and kisses her tenderly atop it, running his eagle claw through her mane once more before he does the same act to his only remaining child. Bringing the blanket up close to his family to keep them warm, Discord turns his back and gets a rather evil and bloodlust filled smirk on his face as he starts to crack his knuckles at the sound of what he just heard the cyan Pegasus say.

“So he’s not saying anything?” he asks, showing off his snaggle tooth in the grin, “You said he’s in the cells, right?”

“Well he should be by now, but-” Twilight answers before realizing what he is about to do, now quickly turning to Luna for some back up at the moment, “If he goes down there by himself he’ll kill the prisoner and we’ll never get anything out of him.”

“At this point, Twilight, I would be ready to go down and help him snap the little bastard’s neck, and have him fed to whatever family he may have in the hive…” Luna lets slip from her tongue before she can keep that thought to herself, “Sorry, didn’t mean to say that out loud… but you are right. If we are to help this matter, he has to be alive, I’ll go down there to help keep a level head on him… more or less. This is still Discord we’re talking about,” Luna starts to answer while walking out of the room to give support and restraint to the prince, “he may be tamed now, by what Fluttershy did to reform him, even to the point of being a husband to my sister, and a father… but he is still the master of chaos, so he’s never really had a level head to begin with, and is sure to bring the front doors of Tartarus to any who harm those which he loves.”

That last word starts to resonate in the back of Twilight’s mind at the moment she hears it. ‘Love… ponies will do some strange things for love…’ Twi wonders, having heard it in the past before, ‘…wait a second…’ Twilight’s eyes shoot open in a sudden moment of realization, and in a split second the only thing left in the room with her friends is a gust of wind that rushes past them, as their friend beats her wings frantically, flying out the door and dodging others along her path.

“Shit, shit, shit, and shit!” Twilight starts to curse while galloping/flying along the halls where she can to avoid hitting others, “Please be okay! Please be okay!” she storms around in search for the one particular colt that has her eye. Hoping even to see him in the medical bay right now, rather than the morgue.