Invidia tried his best, but he was too weak. The umbra was too strong. He had no chance.

With a fiendish laugh, the umbra sent Invidia flying. Invidia landed on the catwalk leading to the platform.

The impact hurt. One would not expect a creature of smoke and shadow to be able to hurt that much from being thrown against something solid. But Invidia, in his current state, was proof that it was possible. He lifted up his head and his white eyes looked to the platform, where he saw his Empress, Radiant Hope. Or rather, the being – though perhaps the word "being" gave it far too much credit – that had taken over Radiant Hope.

It slowly took a few steps, getting used to Hope's body. Invidia could see the purple smoke rising out of the eyes that had once been Hope's. He looked away. He knew, even if he managed to get himself up, that there was little he could do. His Empress was gone, replaced by this new thing. The other umbrum may call it, "Empress," but Invidia knew that it was not. And he could not do a thing about it.

Invidia shook his head. What he felt inside him should not have been unusual for an umbris. But there was a pain to it that he had never known before. Invidia felt despair.

"Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Not a pretty sight, is it?"

Invidia twisted his head at an angle that was only natural for the umbrum. He saw first the little, purple light. Then he saw the beige unicorn beneath it.

"You're that friend of the Empress," he said. "Dr. Fie."

"Never mind that now," the doctor said. "You look like you've taken quite the beating, dear boy."

“Why are you calling me ‘dear boy?’” Invidia responded. “I’m thousands of years old. I was before Celestia and Luna were born!"

"Oh, spare me the technicalities, you translucent troublemaker. What is important now is that we save dear Hope."

"I fear that we cannot save her," Invidia said.

"Oh, pish-posh!" Dr. Fie responded. "Such defeatist thinking explains why how your kind got locked up in that dreary Prison of Shadows in the first place. Come now, there must be something we can do! What have they done to her, anyway?"

"They have inserted a parasite into her mind and body."

Dr. Fie looked at Invidia and almost sneered. "I thought all you umbrum where parasites."

"It is not like us," Invidia responded. "We are living things, even if our ways of life and survival seem the opposite of you ponies. But that thing which is in the Empress is not an umbrum. It is more like a virus, a weapon designed to carry out whatever has been programmed into it. We umbrum learned our lesson with Sombra. We vowed never to use a being with free will as our weapon again. Instead we created this. Then, Empress Hope released us, so it went unused. Until now."

"You mean, during the Siege?"

"No."

Dr. Fie was indignant. "Oh, don't be a ninny! The only time Hope and Sombra released you was during the Siege."

"No, not the only time. But the second one hasn't happened yet."

"The second one hasn't... but that would mean...."

Invidia nodded. The doctor threw his hooves to his chest.

"Oh, dear. Oh dear. As if ghosts and shadow-monsters were not enough! Now Dr. Fiddly Fie must bring his incredible abilities to bear against time-travelers as well? Oh, cruel fate! Haven't I suffered enough?"

Dr. Fie leaned against a railing and shook his head in sorrow. By the time he turned around, Invidia had risen.

"Still, I suppose it cannot be helped," Dr. Fie said. "After all, what is the purpose of a great pony such as myself if not to sort out crisis after crisis as fate presents them before me? Oh, dear, dear Hope, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

"I fear that the Empress is lost to us," Invidia repeated.

"Oh, stop with that 'Empress' nonsense, you sycophantic psychopath! Just call her by her name. 'Radiant Hope' is a noble enough title without you adding anything to it."

"Very well, but I still fear that the Empress – I mean, Hope – is lost to us."

Dr. Fie raised a hoof. "Ha! There is where you reveal how limited your understanding truly is! I know dearest Hope, and I know she would never succumb to this! I am an excellent judge of character, after all, and I have never been wrong! Except, of course, where a certain unicorn named Swift Strike was concerned, but even the greatest must have an off-day sometime."

"It is not a question of what Hope herself would do," Invidia responded. "The parasite controls her now. She is still there, somewhere, but she has no choice in her actions. She's not even doing them. It is the parasite."

Dr. Fie looked down as he considered Invidia's information. "I see. Still, I say that Radiant Hope is not so weak-minded or weak-willed as you would make her out to be. No parasite is going to keep control of her if she doesn't want it to!"

Dr. Fie then looked to the scene on the platform, where Roaring Storm, Radiant Hope, and the umbrum where gathered. Hope trotted around, the thing inside of her having quickly gained more mastery over it's new form, while the others looked on approvingly. Dr. Fie's expression became on of unease.

"Yes, well, maybe we should help dear Hope along with that," Dr. Fie said. "There must be some way in which we could do away with these menaces and provide her some support."

"How do we do that?" Invidia said. "With how powerful they all are, it would take a tactical genius to defeat them."

Dr. Fie rubbed his hooves together indignantly. "Oh, you ninny! Have you no idea who it is that you are standing next to? No, we don't have time for stating the obvious. After I had broken in that accursed pool – which was much sturdier than everypony thought – and was crawling down here on a pipe, I couldn't help but overhear you and Hope. You said that, if you were to destroy the collars around their necks, they would have to obey her and not that yellow cad over there?'

"Yes. But I don't see how we can damage their collars now."

Dr. Fie's eyes narrowed. He raised a hoof. "Never fear, Fie is here."

“So what do we do first, Your Majesty?” an umbra asked. “Shall we go home and free our brethren?”

Radiant Hope, or rather whatever was now in the body of Radiant Hope, smiled wickedly. “They’ve kept for thousands of years. They’ll keep for a little while longer. I’m practically a new-born. I need to learn how to control this body and the magic flowing through it. Let’s have some fun with this town first.”

The umbrum all looked to Roaring Storm. He smiled and shrugged. "Fine by me. Have a little fun, cause a little destruction. Though, if I might make a recommendation, find all of Radiant Hope’s little friends and let her watch them die. What does she think of that?”

The Empress listened. “This is going to get annoying really fast, I can tell,” she said. “She’s pleading with me not to do it. She’s begging me not to hurt any pony. ‘You don’t have to do this!’ she’s saying. ‘You don’t have to be a monster.’ Of course I do. I was born for this. But you know what, honey, I’ll gut them all personally, just for you.”

Hideous cackling rung through the darkness of the boiler room.

In another kind of darkness, Radiant Hope tried to make sense of things. Everything was still fire, everything was still pain. She still looked out of her eyes, she still felt the metal beneath her hooves, she still heard her own voice as it spoke. But it was not her that moved her body now. It was not her that spoke those words. It felt like her, almost, but it was not. All Hope tried to will herself to do, she could not. Some other force was controlling her.

She could feel its presence. It wasn’t umbrum, exactly. It didn’t even feel alive. Whatever the umbrum where, Hope had always been able to sense life within them. It might not have been life like the other creatures of Equestria, but it was life. This thing, this presence, felt cold and dead.

Hope had tried reasoning with it. It could not be reasoned with, any more than a stone or the sky could be reasoned with. It had a mind, perhaps, but not one that functioned anything like a normal pony’s mind. It could not be asked why it was doing these things – Hope tried, as best as she was able – nor if these were the right things to do. It just did them.

Whenever Hope did try to say anything to it, the pain she felt increased exponentially. It was trying to keep her quiet. It did not care for her presence any more than she did for its. And maybe keeping quiet was the best thing to do.

Hope retreated into what little of herself remained. I let them use me again, she thought. I let them use me as their pawn, and now the Siege is going to happen all over again.

This is my fault. I said I’d never hurt anypony ever again. I was wrong. I do just keep hurting everyone. And now they’ll all die. Because of me. If only I had never been born, maybe Sombra would have turned out alright. Maybe the umbrum would have stayed imprisoned. Maybe none of this would have ever happened.

“What’s wrong?” Roaring Storm asked the Empress.

She looked at him, confused. “What? Nothing’s wrong?”

“Then why are you crying?” said an umbra.

“I’m not.” The Empress felt her face with her hoof. Tears were streaming out of both eyes. “I’m not doing that!” she said.

Even deep in her misery, Hope was still aware of what was going on outside her body. That was the nature of the prison the umbrum had designed for her, after all. She heard what the Empress said.

Tears?

Hope had felt like crying at that very moment. She had even felt as though she had been crying. But that was impossible. If she did not control her own body anymore, if she was just a psychic passenger, she could not cry.

Unless….

The Empress wiped the tears away. “I’m still getting used to this body,” she said. “I just need some time to figure out how everything works.”

Roaring Storm nodded. "Yes. No doubt that is what it is. But, as I was saying, we should start to focus on Hope's friends. I need to find Starlight Glimmer. She has something that I would very much like to have instead.

Just then, there was a flash of turquoise light in the middle of the platform. And there was Starlight Glimmer, wobbling back and forth.

"Hope was right," Starlight said. "Teleporting this far down really did take it out of me."

Roaring Storm smiled. "Speak of her, and she appears! Ms. Glimmer, so nice of you to stop by. It saves me the trouble of having to come find you. I think you have something that belongs to me."

With his wing, he pointed to the scroll under Starlight's foreleg. She looked to the scroll and then back to him.

"This doesn't belong to you," Starlight said. "It was in the exhibit up above. I stole it fair and square."

Then she paused. Her eyes grew wider and her mouth fell open. "Wait... there really is a yellow pegasus?"

Starlight looked from Roaring Storm to the umbrum. And then she noticed Radiant Hope. Starlight approached.

"Hope, thank Celestia you're alright!" she said. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you about the yellow pegasus. I thought you had just made that up."

It's okay, Starlight, Hope wanted to say. She also wanted to say, This isn't me! Get out of here before it hurts you! Neither was possible.

"But why are you just standing here with these goons? I thought you were going to–"

Starlight Glimmer fell to the floor, the victim of a strong right hook from the Empress.

"There's been a change of plan," the Empress said with a diabolical smile. "I'm working with them now."

She approached Starlight menacingly. Starlight tried to crawl away.

"What are you doing, Hope?" she said. "What's happened to you?"

The Empress picked up speed. "I've finally embraced my true nature."

Starlight managed to dodge out of the way just as the Empress sent a hoof down toward her head. Getting to her hooves, Starlight cast a spell to create a shield around herself.

"This is not your true nature, Hope," Starlight said. "This isn't who you are! I know you think so because of what you've done! But this isn't you!"

The Empress threw her hoof against the shield, only to draw back in pain. Somewhere, deep inside, Hope also felt her foreleg burn from the touch.

I can still feel my body, Hope thought. If I still have a connection, maybe I can still control it.

Quiet, you! the Empress commanded. Pain, far worse than the burn from Starlight's shield, ran through what was left of Radiant Hope.

"She has healing spells," Roaring Storm said. "Heal yourself."

The Empress tried. Her horn lit up. Not blue, this time, but with the purple, sludge-like quality of dark magic. That same type of aura surrounded her. But nothing happened.

"I can't get it to work. I think she's stopping me!" the Empress moaned.

"You probably just need more experience," Roaring Storm said. "But I don't have the time to play nice."

He waved of his wing. "Umbrum, attack that shield!"

The three umbrum did nothing but exchange nervous glances.

"Just do it!" Roaring Storm said as he pushed the blue button on his wristband. All the umbrum writhed in pain. When it stopped, they reluctantly began to throw themselves against Starlight's barrier..

Starlight cringed with each attack. It was not that the umbrum were getting through. They weren't, and it was evident that they were hurting themselves in the attempt. But they kept doing it. And each time, a jolt of pain was sent through Starlight's mind.

Roaring Storm paced around the shield. "You know you can't keep it up. Eventually, the pain will be too much and you'll have to let the shield go. Then you'll be at the mercy of my friends here. And from what I've learned about them, they do not show mercy."

"That is, if they don't collapse from the pain first," Starlight responded.

"That's true. That is a possibility. But there are three of them and one of you. Three incredibly powerful monsters against one insignificant little unicorn. I don't know if you're a gambling mare, Ms. Glimmer, but those are not odds worth betting on."

Roaring Storm was wrong. He did not realize it, all his attention being focused on Starlight, but there were only two umbrum beating themselves against the shield. The third had been doing so as well, until she had been slammed from the side and sent barreling through the darkness.

The umbra only stopped when she slammed against the far wall of the ship. It took her a moment to comprehend what had happened. Then she saw another pair of white eyes looking back into her own.

"What are you doing, you fool!" she said to Invidia.

"Believe it or not, I'm trying to help you," Invidia responded.

He grabbed the collar and ripped it off. For a moment, there was no response. And then, the umbra began to shake her head. Or rather, her head began to wobble back and forth, as though she was coming out of a daze. Invidia let her go and she began to float aimlessly.

"When you feel fully recovered, come join me," Invidia said. He then sped back toward the platform.

"I am not insignificant," Starlight said, trying to hide a wince of pain as the umbrum launched another kamikaze attack on the shield. "I am the most powerful unicorn mage of this generation!"

Roaring Storm let out a little chuckle. "Do you want to know how history remembers you, Ms. Glimmer?"

"Save it," Starlight said. "It's probably a lie. Besides, I'm going to make history. I don't need it recited to me."

Roaring Storm ignored her and continued. "My mother never talked about you much. I don't know if she ever fully accepted you. But she did tell me that Starlight Glimmer was one of Princess Twilight Sparkle's most loyal followers. She told me of how you so-nobly gave your life during the retreat from Ponyville so that Twilight could attempt to escape through the Everfree Forest. Of course, she died in there anyway, so the sacrifice was for naught. But, hey, we can't win them all, can we? I suppose the important thing is how admirable it was of you to accept your fate as nothing more than a footnote to Twilight Sparkle's story."

Starlight froze. "I... I gave my life... for Twilight Sparkle?" The shield disappeared.

Starlight looked to the spell beneath her foreleg. She had managed to hold onto it, despite everything that had come at her. Wrapped in turquoise, it rose up and unfurled.

"I... try to save Twilight?" she asked the scroll, as though it could answer.

The umbrum reared up and prepared to attack. They began to dive. As one did so, he suddenly disappeared, torn away into the darkness. The other, however, found her target.

Starlight went careening from the blow. The umbra hovered over her, ready to finish the job. But then Roaring Storm approached, the scroll now beneath his foreleg.

He stood over Starlight, a taunting smile on his face.

"You can't even use that," Starlight said. "You're not a unicorn!"

"I don't even know if I want to, but I'm sure I could find some pony naïve enough to help me. It seems to be a common weakness among Equestrians of this era," Roaring Storm said. "What were you even planning on doing with this, anyway? Oh, wait.... You had some childish idea about going back and preventing my mother from getting her cutie mark so that Twilight Sparkle's inner circle would never come to be. She did mention that to me once. And, of course, I could never let you go through with it."

The Empress looked on. So that's why that spell was so important to her! Hope said from inside. There was another shot of pain.

"Your mother?" Starlight asked, not even trying to hide her surprise. "That would mean that you're...."

Roaring Storm nodded. "As I was just telling Hope here, I'm from the future. What do you think happened to Sombra? I took him and placed him outside of time. With this spell, Hope and I together can bring him back."

Starlight looked in horror from Roaring Storm to the Empress. "You can't do this, Hope! I know you miss him! I know you blame yourself for what happened! But you can't let it consume you! You can't let it turn you... into a monster!"

I know, Hope thought.

But the Empress approached, her eyes and smile becoming increasingly wicked. "You're one to talk, aren't you? Whatever happened to Starlight Glimmer, 'the Incorruptible'?"

"I know, Hope, I know," Starlight said. "You don't need to point out how far I've fallen. Believe me, I feel it. I was so focused on what I lost that I didn't realize that there were still ponies who cared about me, who could care. And because of my insane need for revenge, I've even lost you! Please, Hope! You once told me not to let the darkness and the anger and the rage consume me. Take your own advice! Don't let it consume you!"

Take my own advice? Hope thought. Realization began to dawn.

It's my anger, isn't it? Hope asked the Empress. That's what's allowing you to stay in control. My body's still mine to command, but as long as the anger and the rage is there, you can use it against me.

So what if you've figured it out? the Empress responded. You'll never get rid of it. You're not that type of pony. You're a pony so filled with anger and rage against the world, that you will always be stuck with me.

"Well, well, Ms. Glimmer," Roaring Storm said. "It's been a lovely chat. But all good things come to an end."

Starlight Glimmer saw him raise his wings. The wings began to vibrate. Starlight then looked above him to see the last umbra hovering there, smiling maliciously. And then there was what looked like dark wind, a purple wind. It latched onto the umbra and both disappeared into the vastness beyond.

"Let me do it," the Empress said.

Roaring Storm looked over to her. He smiled. "Very well."

The Empress stood over Starlight Glimmer. Starlight tried to rise, but the Empress shoved her back down with a sharp stomp of the hoof. Starlight looked into the Empress' eyes, trying to see some last reflection of the Radiant Hope she once knew. But she saw nothing. In those eyes, Starlight Glimmer only saw darkness. Darkness, anger, and rage.

"You're not Hope," she said quietly.

"Don't delude yourself," the Empress responded. "I am Radiant Hope."

Starlight shook her head. "No, you're not. Look at you. Look at your coat. Look at your mane. Look at your eyes. It's all darkness. Radiant Hope was a pony of light."

"Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better," the Empress said. A dark aura surrounded her horn. Black, oozy bubbles appeared from it.

No! Hope screamed from deep inside.

The aura went out.

"We are on a schedule here," Roaring Storm said.

"I know!" the Empress responded. "It's just... getting used to this body and its magic is hard!"

The Empress tried again. Nothing came. Starlight Glimmer did not need another cue.

A turquoise beam sent the Empress flying. She landed on the ground nearby, hard enough to make the grating tremble.

Starlight Glimmer shook her head as she stood up. "I'm sorry, Hope, if you're still in there. But I had to do it."

She turned just in time to see a yellow streak speeding toward her. She readied her horn to fire a blast in its direction. It would be hard to hit, going at that speed. But Starlight had to try. Besides, she was the most powerful unicorn of her generation. She had just said so, after all, and it would be so embarrassing not to be able to back it up.

But Starlight never got the chance. The yellow streak was rammed sideway by a purple mist. Roaring Storm skidded off-course and tumbled right over the edge of the platform.

Starlight Glimmer watched him fall. "Do you think that's the end of him?" came a voice from beside her shoulder.

She turned, half expecting another enemy. She was half-right. "Dr. Fie, what are you doing down here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, madam," Dr. Fie responded. "Weren't you supposed to be halfway to Ponyville with that wretched spell of yours?"

"I had to come back. I had to try and save Hope. I couldn't just let myself escape with the spell and wash my hooves of it. I had to.... The spell!"

There, on the grating, was the scroll. Roaring Storm must have dropped it when he was hit. Now, the purple mist was floating above it, slowly forming into something. One of the umbrum.

Starlight readied her horn, only for the doctor to wave his hoof frantically in front of her eyes.

"No, don't shoot!" he pleaded. "He's a friend! He's a friend! He's the one who, through my expert guidance and tactical know-how, disposed of the other umbrum."

"'Disposed' is not the word, Dr. Fie," Invidia said. He pointed upward, where the three other umbrum were slowly circling. "I merely freed them from the yellow pegasus' control."

"Don't try to argue the finer points of semantics with me, you punctilious pomposity!" Dr. Fie gave one of his characteristically-sharp nods of the head. "You'll lose!"

Starlight Glimmer shrugged. "This has just been too surreal of a day."

Her horn glowed and the spell floated toward her. It unfurled itself and Starlight began to read.

"He'd barely be able to use the thing anyway, even if he found a unicorn gullible enough to help him," Starlight said. "The spell was unworkable when I found it. Luckily, though, I was able to make some quick rewrites...."

The glow from Starlight's horn became stronger. Dr. Fie looked up to see a small bubble beginning to form. It quickly grew, becoming larger and larger. Suddenly, the still air was broken by wind, wind that seemed to be trying to pull everything up into the bubble.

"What do you think you're doing, dear lady?" Dr. Fie asked in alarm.

"Don't you see!" Starlight Glimmer said. "That pegasus is Rainbow Dash's son! If I can just go back and stop her from ever getting her cutie mark, she will never meet Twilight Sparkle and she will never have him! It will take care of this whole mess!"

"The only thing it's going to take care of is your need for revenge!" Dr. Fie said. "There's no guarantee it will actually help us avoid this situation at all. If anything, things might just become worse!"

"I don't think they can become worse, doctor!" Starlight said with a snarl. "If you're too afraid to help me fix them, fine! But you won't stop me!"

Dr. Fie glanced at Invidia. Invidia understood. He began to float up toward the bubble just as Starlight did. Though it took all the strength of his wings to keep him from being sucked in, Invidia managed to block the opening with his body.

"That won't make a difference!" Starlight said. "The bubble will just get wider!"

"Please, reconsider, dear lady!" Dr. Fie called out. "Time-travel is what got us into this mess in the first place! Isn't it obvious to you that, if that pegasus had never come from the future, Sombra would still be here and Hope wouldn't have had to suffer through all this pain? She wouldn't be like she is now! It is becoming increasingly evident to me that time-travel never solves anything! But fortunately for you, one doesn't need my incredible intellect to perceive that it only makes things worse!"

"I'm going, doctor," Starlight called back as she neared the bubble, which was indeed becoming larger than Invidia. "Nothing you can say is going to make me change my mind!"

Dr. Fie was about to say something else. But then he saw the lavender pony approaching him. With a squeak of fright, he quickly ambled back several steps.

"I think we might have another problem, madam," he said.

Starlight looked down to see the Empress, staring back at her. The Empress laughed a little, her mouth widening into a more sinister smile with every guffaw.

"Yes, go, Starlight!" the Empress taunted. "Go, go after your revenge! It won't make any difference anyway. Twilight Sparkle will still find some way to defeat you, just like she and her friends defeated you before. We'll be waiting for you when you get back. Or, at least, I will. I make sure to personally gut you before I go out and make this world burn."

Starlight's head shook. "Hope...."

She looked up at the bubble and closed her eyes. With a click flick of her hoof, Starlight tried to remove any tears that might have formed. She began to lower. Her horn ceased glowing and the bubble began to contract.

Invidia felt things becoming easier. He did not have to struggle so hard to keep the winds from carrying him away. If anything, the winds themselves were dying away. Invidia righted himself and looked above him to see what had become of the bubble.

It was a mistake. The swiftly-contracting bubble closed around his head. Only his head's presence inside prevented it from disappearing completely.

"I understand now," Starlight said as she set hoof on the grating. "I get it. There's so much rage in you. You're all rage. I can't stand to see what you've done to Hope, what you've turned her into. What I've turned her into. Because I helped. I was so consumed by my own rage that I didn't see what I was doing to her, just like I didn't see what I was doing to my other friends. But I don't want to be like that anymore. Let Twilight Sparkle and her friends keep their cutie marks. I don't want to be like you anymore."

"It's not exactly the St. Crispin's Day Speech, but it'll do," Dr. Fie remarked.

"That's nice," the Empress said. Looking to the umbrum, she said. "Take them all out."

The umbrum began to swoop down, circling the ponies. Their arcs became ever-shorter the closer they got to the platform. Dr. Fie quickly threw himself behind Starlight's shoulders.

"Let go of me!" Starlight said. "I thought you said you had broken the control! Aren't they supposed to be on our side, now?"

"Yes, yes, they are!" Dr. Fie screamed frantically. He looked up to Invidia, still struggling to free himself from the time-portal.

"Stop playing around and talk some sense into them, you bubble-headed booby!" Dr. Fie called out.

With a mighty tug, Invidia pulled his head loose from the bubble, which contracted in on itself completely and disappeared. He flew up to meet his fellow umbrum in the air.

"Stop!" he said. "What are you doing?"

"We are following the command of our Empress," the other umbris said.

"She is not your Empress!" Invidia responded. "Radiant Hope is your Empress!"

"That is Radiant Hope!" said an umbra.

"You know it's not because you did this to her!" Invidia said, his voice rising almost to a shout. "You know that is not her. That is the parasite we created, the one that feeds on rage and anger."

"Yes, but it is Hope's rage and anger," the other umbra said. "It is the same rage and anger that led her to free us after Sombra died."

"But Hope is not in control of it now! She is being forced to do this by the parasite! Your Empress is being hurt and you must help her! That is what the spell requires of us!"

The other three umbrum laughed.

"I always wondered about you," the umbris said. "You always seemed a little too attached to the Empress. As though it wasn't just the spell commanding your loyalty."

"Besides," said the first umbra. "The Radiant Hope we replaced was not really our Empress. You saw how she responded to the pegasus' offer. Our Empress would have accepted it. She rejected it."

Invidia shook his head frantically. "She just needs more time! In a few years, she will become the Empress we know! Please, do not hurt her!"

"Sorry, Invidia," the second umbra said. "But we have a new Empress now. That yellow pegasus might have just been using us, but he had the right idea. Let's make Equestria pay now rather than later."

The three umbrum rushed forward, pushing past Invidia and flinging him deep into the vastness. They sped toward Starlight Glimmer and Dr. Fie.

"We're doomed! We're all doomed!" Dr. Fie screamed as he cowered before Starlight.

Starlight looked to the scroll, which had fallen to the ground. She levitated it up.

Starlight's eyes locked with those of the monster that had taken over Hope. "There's only one thing to do," Starlight said quietly.

She cast the spell. The bubble reappeared. Starlight, with Dr. Fie clinging for dear life to her haunches, rose into the air. The umbrum just missed her and the doctor, breaking through the grating below instead.

"What are you doing, madam?" Dr. Fie said. "I thought we agreed this wasn't the way!"

"It's the only way, doctor!" Starlight said. "Now, I can't believe I'm saying this, but hold on! I don't want to lose you in there!"