Night Mist didn't know what do. Technically the mystery had been solved, but now the mastermind of the scheme had both Sharp Wing and Rarity hostage. In the past, whenever Night Mist had exposed a plot and the bad guy tried to get away or kill sompony, it was usually Sharp Wing who wound up being the one to knock the bad guy unconscious. Arguably, a wizard or a royal guard would be even more capable of such a feat, but nopony dared to make a move. After what seemed like forever, the two guards who had left to retrieve the prisoner for Aurora returned. From where he was standing Night Mist was able to get a good look at the mare who must have been Star Bright. She was a green-eyed white unicorn with an orange mane and tail. She certainly didn't seem like a dangerous criminal who deserved to be locked away. If anything, she seemed rather meek. Night Mist wondered what she had done wrong in the first place.

"Aurora, what's going on?" she asked.

"What does it look like? I'm breaking you out!" Aurora answered her.

"You're breaking me out?! But I didn't ask to be broken out! I still have three months left on my sentence!"

"You never should have been imprisoned in the first place," Aurora said gently.

"What are you talking about? I deserved the sentence I was given!"

"Remove the spell you placed on her!" Aurora snarled at Princess Celestia.

"What spell?" asked Princess Celestia feebly, still feeling ill.

"The mind control spell, I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense about my Star Bright being a criminal."

"But she isn't under a mind control spell, or any kind of spell," Princess Celestia pointed out.

Aurora wasn't having it.

"That's a lie! You change her back right now or sompony dies!"

Rarity didn't show any reaction to the threat against her life. Like Sharp Wing, she was completely under Aurora's magical control.

With a frown, Princess Celestia cast a green light from that touched Star Bright. Unlike the green light that had hurt Sharp Wing and Rarity, it didn't appear to cause the subject any pain. Star Bright's already green eyes began to glow greener, just like Sharp Wing's and Rarity's. It was apparent to Night Mist that Princess Celestia had just placed a mind control on Star Bright, not removed one.

"Can you understand me, Star Bright? I'm here to rescue you," Aurora said.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Star Bright replied mechanically.

So that was the game Princess Celestia was playing. She couldn't have done exactly as Aurora asked, so instead she had given him what he wanted, a prisoner happy to be rescued. Perhaps that was why Aurora didn't seem to notice the obvious effects of the spell.

"Listen up everypony, I'm leaving now, with Star Bright and these two ponies. If nopony tries to follow us, I'll eventually let the hostages go. If sompony does, there will be consequences," Aurora announced as he stared down the crowd.

Once satisfied his point had been made, Aurora's horn glowed as he and his three mind controlled companions vanished in a flash of magic. Princess Celestia gave an audible moan of misery and slouched in her throne. After a minute of silence Princess Luna spoke.

"Twilight Sparkle, we strongly desire that you and your fellow spirits of harmony meet us and the royal wizards in the chamber where the Elements of Harmony are kept so that we can plan a rescue," she bellowed in her royal voice. "And sompony, we don't care who, finish making the next potion so that our sister will make a full recovery."

Several servants rushed out to fulfill the potion request as Twilight and her four remaining best friends along with the wizards followed Princess Luna out of the throne room.

"They're going to try and rescue Sharp Wing and Rarity? But I thought Aurora said would hurt them if anypony tried to!" protested Frazzle Spark.

Night Mist thought he understood Princess Luna's reasoning.

"Aurora is clearly not stable, and it's only a matter of time before he notices something is wrong with Star Bright. There's no telling what he'll do when that happens," he explained.

"Oh, okay. But why weren't we invited then?"

"I don't know, but it's out of our hooves. It will take same serious magic to defeat a rogue wizard."

"But Sharp Wing is our friend!"

"And they'll rescue him. The best thing we can do right now is wait."

"Excuse me," said a small voice from behind Night Mist and Frazzle Spark, causing both of them to turn around. It was Fluttershy.

"Princess Luna wants both of you to come right away."

Before too long, everyone was gathered in the chamber. It was even fancier then Night Mist would have guessed. It was a round room with walls decorated with gems and bright colors, with a short glass column in the middle with an elegant looking box sitting on top of it. Most likely it contained the Elements of Harmony.

"Here's the plan we came up with," Twilight informed the newcomers. "The wizards have determined that Aurora is at the top of a dormant volcano. We think he picked it so that both Rarity and Sharp Wing could both easily take their own lives by jumping into the lava if sompony gets to close. Aurora and his hostages will be able to see anypony coming because of their height advantage, so we'll have to convince them all to come down without alerting them to our presence. That's where you come in, Frazzle Spark."

"Me? What am I supposed to do?" questioned Frazzle Spark.

"Your cutie mark talent is making explosions right? Would it be possible for you to make the volcano erupt?

"Yeah, I did that with my pressurization spell when I first earned my cutie mark. But wouldn't that kill everyone?"

"Not if you do it slowly enough for them to escape. Right now, Aurora is off balance because he had to suddenly change his plans. Hopefully he'll decide to keep his hostages alive and tell them to follow him down the volcano. If he leaves them behind, Rainbow Dash can swoop in and save them. The rest of us will be will be hiding in teams near the most likely routes they'll take down. When they pass a team, we'll subdue Sharp Wing from behind and take out Aurora at the same time. Rarity shouldn't have any way to hold herself hostage without Sharp Wing or lava, so she'll be safe. Once Aurora is taken care of, we'll use magic to return Rarity, Sharp Wing, and Star Bright to normal. You understand all that?"

"I think so," confirmed Night Mist.

"Good, here's your headset. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Luna will be hiding in clouds and watching the whole thing with binoculars from the sky. They'll keep us updated on Aurora's movements by radio. You'll be with me and Apple Jack hiding near a path," rattled off Twilight Sparkle as she tilted her head at Apple Jack.

Night Mist's head swam with the heavy load of information as he took the headset.

"Wizards, teleport all the teams to the base of the volcano!" ordered Princess Luna.

The Wizard's horn's glowed from underneath their hats levitating above their heads. Night Mist's heart hammered in his chest as the room faded away.