Celestia opened her eyes, once again peering at her own throne room through a green haze. She sighed at the unfortunate familiarity. She had been defeated at the hooves of Chrysalis, and now her own throne room was serving as her prison. Again.

But speak of the devil, and she would appear. Chrysalis popped up in front of the cocoon, smirking as always. “Oh Princess, that look really becomes you,” she snickered. “It’s a good thing, since you’re gonna be modelling it a lot more from here on out.”

Celestia grimaced, but kept her muzzle shut, at least until the doors burst open and the Element Bearers were led in by a long train of changelings. She closed her eyes and allowed a single tear to escape. It was all too familiar…she’d failed again…

“Oh, would you look at that?” Chrysalis grinned at her prisoner, spreading a hoof over the line of bound ponies. “I just got the strangest sense of déjà vu, how about you?”

Celestia just looked over the line of ponies, her eyes scanning frantically. “F-five,” she muttered.

“Hmm?” Chrysalis asked, squinting over the line. Her eyebrow arched. “Oh, a very good point, princess. Where is your sixth little pet? And where is my…oh…”

She grinned and turned back to the princess. “Oh darn, I suppose he just couldn’t help himself. He has a few personal grievances with that one, you see, and if he’s alone with her…”

“What!?” Pinkie gasped, stretching towards the Queen as far as her bonds would allow. “What’s he doing to Dashie, you big meanie!?”

Chrysalis arched her eyebrow again, this time aiming it at Pinkie. At the same time, Celestia pondered her words: personal grievances? Now, what could that possibly mean? Had that creature been in Equestria before?

Before she could ponder any further, the doors were kicked open, this time by the edge of a heavy leather boot. She watched as the bipedal creature clomped in, its footsteps echoing heavily in the hall, Rainbow Dash over his broad shoulders like a prize kill. She appeared scratched, an angry white mark flaring across her cutie mark even, but she still found the strength to turn and glare at Chrysalis. Celestia nearly gasped with relief. She was alive. Thank every god, she was alive.

“Oh good,” Chrysalis said while the creature laid the Element of Loyalty out on the tile. “The party’s all here. And this time, there’s not gonna be any last minute rescues by some bullshit magical spell. This time, help isn’t coming.”

She grinned as she spread her hooves out over the imprisoned ponies. “This time, EQUESTRIA DIES!”

A cheer rose over the crowd. Even the creature nodded its approval, its powerful arms crossed over its chest. The Element Bearers all bowed their heads in quiet, angry defiance. Even Pinkie kept her muzzle shut for a rare moment. Then, rather suddenly, Rainbow glared at Chrysalis, her teeth gritting.

“Yeah, only because you cheated and brought your pet monster with you!” She yelled.

The quiet that descended upon the room was almost palpable. The changelings all looked at the bipedal creature, ears folding against their heads.

“Oh, she’s done it now,” one of the changelings near the head of the line whimpered. “May the Queen help her.”

All eyes fell on the creature, standing still as a statue, its arms still crossed over its chest. Its biceps tensed, then released. Then, it was on her, a knife flashing out of a boot holster and inserting itself into her mouth, pressing against the inside of her cheek. It had happened so fast: one moment, the creature was standing there with its impressive arms crossed, and the next, it had its knee against the Element of Loyalty’s throat.

“No! Please!” Fluttershy gasped immediately, stretching against the slime, tears cascading down her cheeks. The rest of the Elements remained quiet, though out of solemn bravery or simple, paralyzing fear was anypony’s guess.

“Careful,” Chrysalis said, not even glancing the other ponies’ way while waving her hoof chidingly. “He doesn’t like to be called a monster. I told you that was a good way to lose your tongue, remember?”

Rainbow glared up into those flat, black lenses, but thankfully nodded, and the creature’s blade retreated without drawing a single drop of blood.

“Very good,” Chrysalis said as the creature pocketed its knife. “You’d do well to remember that, little ponies. Everypony gets one freebie from him, and after that…” she shrugged, a tiny smile playing on her lips as her eyes rolled over to Rarity.

Rarity’s lips sealed themselves as the creature strode past, sparing a quick glance at her before continuing to its master’s side. One could swear it snorted, and though it was impossible to tell, most ponies who heard that snort might have thought it was grinning beneath that mask. All speculation, of course. Who knew what even dwelt under there?

“Now then,” Chrysalis chuckled. “In a few short hours, the last pockets of resistance amongst the ponies in Canterlot should be stamped out, so I have to wonder: what shall we do next?”

The ponies all glared up at her, eyes narrowed defiantly, muzzles clenched shut to hold back insults that could only end poorly. Finally, Twilight raised one of her two free hooves.

“Oh, now this is a pleasant surprise,” Chrysalis chortled. “You had an idea, Miss Sparkle?”

“Actually, I did,” Twilight replied, a smart little grin playing on her lips. She looked over to Celestia, who smiled placidly and nodded. “Sixty-three of them, in fact.”

The moment the word “sixty-three” left her muzzle, two gaping sections of the Great Hall dropped away into pitch-dark holes, swallowing an entire platoon of changelings, who immediately found themselves at spearpoint in the darkness below. With half their guards incapacitated and the other half looking around in confusion at the battlecries sounding all around them, the Element Bearers made quick work of breaking their bonds, using borrowed magic and special solvents which suddenly appeared at their hooves courtesy of the stallions in the holes. They joined in the charge as a tidal wave of guardstallions surged out of the pits, overwhelming the changelings with sheer numbers and rumbling through the throne room.

“What is…” Chrysalis sneered amidst the confusion. “At arms! To me my changelings! The ponies have-”

She was silenced by a well-placed shot from Twilight, a purple blast smacking her in the face and sending her sprawling against the steps leading to the throne. The ponies descended upon her, the small army marching and fanning out over the pedestal while a rearguard held any stragglers at bay. The bipedal creature even tried to get in on the action, only to have Pinkie bounce off his chest and wrap her forehooves around him.

“Hussshhhhhh…it’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s all over now.”

The creature looked around, still confused, and then, Pinkie made the biggest mistake of her life. She reached over and pulled off the creature’s mask, her face falling the moment she laid eyes upon what was underneath.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Element Bearers slid into their assigned roles, Rainbow Dash and Applejack using their combined strength to try and free the princess while Fluttershy negotiated with the changeling stragglers from behind a wall of spears, begging them to lay down their arms as Rarity and Twilight aided in the magical runes needed to secure the fallen queen.

“Wow, that worked perfectly,” Twilight mused as guardstallions secured the dazed queen’s hooves in chains. Celestia looked around, finding it hard to disagree. Soon, Chrysalis would be contained and they could all focus on the counterattack.

If only she could get rid of that feeling at the back of her mind that something was still horribly wrong…

“Princess,” one of the guardstallions strode up to her and saluted. “All worked according to your plan. Congratulations on the success.”

“Oh, we’re far from successful, we…” she started to say through her cocoon, then it hit her full force. The feeling of wrongness, accompanied with sound effects. A strange, hissing noise, mixed with some sort of hiccup, like air being let out of a tire with a slow, inconsistent leak.

It didn’t take her long to find the source: Chrysalis, bound in chains looped around her neck and through her legs, biting her lip, fighting back tears. She was…crying? No, no that couldn’t be right. Chrysalis didn’t cry. She was too proud to let the enemy see her cry, even in defeat. A cry of “noooooo” perhaps, but that would be it. Something was wrong. Even as the guardstallions hauled her to her hooves, demanding that she ‘quit her blubbering,’ Celestia could tell something was wrong.

Two streams of teal-colored tears rolled down the queen’s eyes, and she looked over to Celestia, as if begging for help…help…help from what?

“I’m sorry,” Chrysalis whispered, her eyes squeezed shut while yet another magical suppressor was placed around her horn. “I’m sorry, my liege, we’ve fallen short.”

Wait, her liege!? Something didn’t add up. Something was wrong, something was very wrong…

Then Celestia followed the queen’s gaze, all the way across the throne room. Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks. “Oh no,” she gasped. “Pinkie! Pinkie, get away from…”

Too late. Already too late. The pink party pony turned to her princess, tears of absolute horror rolling down her pink cheeks. Behind her, the bipedal monster held the knife balanced in her mouth, its sharpened edge resting against her tongue.