The train ride was comfortable; well, as comfortable as one could be sitting down on a hard seat. Hey, shelling out for a room isn't easy on a journalist's salary. During one of the stops at Fillydelphia, Felicity called the Bridle to let them know that she would be sick for a week or two and wouldn't make it in. J.J. wasn't happy with that, but Klon had promised he would keep her from getting fired.

Good, if the world wasn't ending she still had a job.

The entire train ride took a day in a half, and in that time Felicity did some research. Borrowing a portable computer, Felicity decided to look up this turquoise serpent thing.

It didn't really offer a lot of information; all that was there was included what Daring had told her before. The real name of this serpent was Xiuhcoatl, a fire god that guides the sun god, Tonatiuh, across the sky. Xiuhcoatl, at the time of his demise, was immortalized in the stone serpent form.

It was all mythology, all hard to believe; after all, gods and demons? It made her uncomfortable that ponies believe in it, it was even more unnerving to think that all of this could be true. After all, she witnessed a changeling princess be released from a statue, who is to say a god that flies across the sky as a representation of the sun isn't plausible?

She closed the computer and set it aside. Looking around, the carriage was depressingly empty save the colt that gave her the computer earlier. Dare woke up a few hours ago, white as a ghost; she probably had a bad dream because she spent a lot of time in the bathroom.

Felicity suddenly wished she was back in her office, working on some scathing story about Mare Do Well, sipping some coffee while J.J. goes on being the loud obnoxious pony he was. Getting caught up in gods and changelings wasn't part of her career plan, so then… why doesn't she go home?

The part of her brain that was still logical kept screaming at her, telling her to ditch Dare, head home and pretend none of this happened. But she couldn't; she couldn't just leave Dare at the mercy of Danus, much less all of Equestria.

Oh, and Flair as well.

Felicity grimaced, in spite of herself, why was Dare the first mare she thought of? Flair was her friend, Dare attacked and accused her of being a thief. Why is it that when danger comes by, her first thought is Dare?"

Hey, sorry about that," Dare grinned, sitting next to Felicity, making her more self-conscious. "Rough night sleep."

"Nightmare?" Felicity asked.

"You could say that…"

Dare explained all about her dream with Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. The way she described Nightmare Moon was… graphic. Dare seemed legitimately scared of Nightmare Moon, and she had charged Danus without fear!

"All right, the pieces are coming together," mumbled Felicity. "You see, the turquoise serpent was named Xiuhcoatl, some powerful god that moved the sun across the sky. If Danus is going after Nightmare Moon, she's got to get rid of the one thing controlling the sun to both make Nightmare Moon stronger and to get rid of the only one that can combat Nightmare Moon."

"Princess Celestia." Dare finished.

The situation felt hopeless. They were just two mares; one unicorn, one pegasus, against a changeling army and their princess with the strength of a hundred ponies, one Minotaur, and… whatever Ahuizotl was. How could they win in this?

Looking ahead, Felicity saw the generous pony reading a newspaper, the headlines read:

And underneath it the story described the kidnapping of those ponies from the Middle Park party and how Mare Do Well had orchestrated the entire thing to rob them of their money. Even going as far as to say Mare Do Well was so violent against them, she put everypony into a coma.

Great, add salt to the wound why don't you?

Feeling as miserable as ever, Felicity banged her head against the window.

Not only was she faced with a helpless situation, but J.J. has officially made Mare Do Well a social pariah! He even got somepony to replace her, even before she had called in sick!

The world was ending, and she wasn't going to have a job.

Dare put her hoof in front of Felicity's forehead, stopping her from causing more damage to her brain cells. "Come on, this isn't the Felicity I know."

"What do you know about me?" muttered the suddenly aching unicorn.

"Well, for one thing, you aren't a thief!"

"Great. Thanks."

"And you're an egghead who loves reading obscure books, but you also love writing and want to write about Celestia's solar eclipse more than anything in the world. You're a bit shy but a very determined pony who wants to help other ponies despite her cutie mark being a journalistic one."

Felicity smiled; having Dare cheer her up was nice, because usually it was just a clumsy Minotaur. But, she's right, this isn't Felicity; she can't get depressed over every psychopath changeling that comes around with a convoluted plot to rule the world.

Wait, solar eclipse?

Felicity's sat upright quickly, it's the eclipse!

"The eclipse, the serpent! I got it, I know what they're doing! The eclipse is tonight and what happens during a solar eclipse?"

"Uh, the sun gets blocked."

"Exactly! It gets blocked creating darkness, and who gets powerful in the darkness?"

"Princess Luna, but I don't see-"

"Luna gets stronger when the moon is out, but, if the moon is out eternally then she would never get weaker, she would stand leagues above Celestia and even more so considering that Celestia is straining herself trying to produce the eclipse."

"Danus would be able to acquire the power of Nightmare Moon and, taking advantage of the eclipse, would be able to overpower Celestia?" The thought too disturbing to condense into words. "But wait. The eclipse wouldn't last for hours, at best it would be for a few minutes, there's no way Danus would take advantage of that small window to do what she plans."

"That's where the snake comes in. Xiuhcoatl was in charge of moving the sun across the sky, which means he is the only one, other than Celestia, with that power. If he could somehow keep the sun out and allow the moon to stay longer then they could have all the time in the world." Felicity was getting excited at this point, the fact that she figured this out made her happy, because if she knows what they are doing she knows how to stop them.

"Which means," Felicity continued. "The entire plan revolves around Xiuhcoatl. If we take him out of the equation, the entire thing becomes a lot simpler!"

"Sure, we would only have to deal with a changeling princess and her army," reminded Dare.

"But this is good; we have a plan of action! We can formulate ideas and produce a fitting strategy to counter Danus and we can win!"

"I do like winning," mused Dare.

"We got this now. Yes we got this, we can beat her!"

Dare chuckled. "See, that's the Felicity I know."

They shared a smile and at that moment things didn't seem so hopeless. They had a shot now, a plan. This is no longer impossible, just really difficult.

They got to Las Pegasus in an expedient manner; according to Felicity they were two minutes and forty-three seconds ahead of schedule. They went into Pegasus Center and the city was intimidating. Now, Felicity is a Manehattan mare through and through, she isn't afraid of big cities but this place felt different.

Everything was big but very spread out; in Manehattan, unless you were dumb, a filly could navigate everything with ease because everything had its pattern. But here, everything was confusing, obnoxious and liked to show it off with how spread out everything was.

"You forgot one little important detail," Dare mentioned. "Your costume."

Danus had torn apart her costume in Middle Park; the wings were absolutely ruined, the hooves were shredded to pieces and don't get her started on the hat. She couldn't exactly go gallivanting around like that.

Looking down, Felicity noticed just how plainly she was dressed. She wore a white blouse that barely covered her cutie mark; the blouse was worn out and frayed with more wrinkles than her grandmother. Daring managed to look good in her beige uniform and stylish with that hat of hers.

"Don't worry," answered Felicity. "I've got plenty of backups."

She pointed at her blouse; using her magic, she levitated a disc-like object with a button decompressed in the middle.

"It's a prototype, but Flair has been working on it for a bit." She said, suddenly wistful for that silly Minotaur. But, she cleared her throat; after all this she'll be able to see him again so there is no need to get teary-eyed. "Anyhow. Let's keep moving."

Pocketing the disc, she levitated the tracking device in front of them. The transmitter, which was placed on a changeling, beeped on the map; they were heading north very fast; in fact, it was too fast to be hoof travel...

Looking up, a swarm of changelings flew overhead. Their wings buzzed like insects and from down here they looked like a black mist.

"There!" Felicity pointed at the changelings, Daring turned and saw as well but they couldn't do anything. If Daring went off by herself she would foolishly endanger herself, but it didn't matter, Felicity is still tracking them.

The swarm flew all the way over to the horizon until the disappeared underneath a pyramid.

"The Luxhoof Las Pegasus!" cried Daring. "But why are they going there? It isn't a real pyramid."

"Whatever the case is, we need to head there fast." Felicity hailed a cab and raced toward the pyramid.

Unfortunately, everypony was so excited for the eclipse that the traffic was nightmarish! They were able to see the Luxhoof from where they were, but they were still at least ten minutes away.

"What's going on here?" snapped Dare.

"Celestia's eclipse has gotten everypony in a frenzy," the cabbie answered. "They are hosting a party at the Luxhoof Las Pegasus counting down to the eclipse."

"Great." Felicity sat down, frustrated. By the time they got there, the eclipse would have already started and ended.

Daring pulled a few bits from her coat and tossed it at the cabbie. "Come on," she said turning to Felicity. "We just gotta run for it."

The mares jumped out the cabbie and high-tailed it to the Luxhoof.

Navigating through cabs and ponies alike was hard enough without having to levitate the tracking device in front of her; Felicity nearly tripped over a pony. But, finally, they made it to the Luxhoof and, according to the position of the sun, they only had few minutes!

"Fleece, you gotta change!" Dare called. "I'll meet you at the top."

Felicity nodded and swerved off to the left, into an alley. Levitating the disc in front of her, she took off her blouse, stuffed it in the trash, and pressed the button. A red light emitted from the button, scanned Felicity, then fabric exploded from the disc wrapping her up entirely.

Diametrically opposing her purple outfit, this one was red and black. Over her body black designs covered it, creating a nice aesthetic; on her chest was a Mare Do Well emblem, a circle with a black outline and a red interior and within that was a large "M". Her mask had black eyes over it, with white pupils; her trademark hat was back and matched the outfit's motif of red and black. Her cape matched it as well, red on the outside, black on the inside, and her wings folded in nicely.

This outfit had everything the other one did, except it was charmed with some more… ancient magic. Hopefully, Felicity would get a chance to try out some of that magic.

Taking flight, Felicity stood atop a building and overlooked the crowd below. Her cape billowed in the air, her hat looked immaculate and cool, and despite her costume change, she was instantly recognized by the ponies below.

"Mare Do Well!" one cried.

"What is she doing here?" another asked.

"Isn't she a thief?" asked a third.

"Yeah! Here to ruin the eclipse?!"

But thanks to her bad reputation, everypony began booing her and throwing stuff. Felicity dodged all of the soda cans and tomatoes; she didn't want to get this cool costume dirty. Flying off the building, Felicity made her way up the Luxhoof where, inevitably, Danus stood hoof to hoof against Dare.

Danus laughed evilly as she deflected another one of Dare's kicks, nearly sending her tumbling to the ground. "Foolish little foal! What chance do you think you have against me? You are merely one mare."

"Let's even the odds then!" Felicity flew overhead and dropped three boomerangs along with two bombs. Danus deflected the boomerangs, but the bombs dropped in front of her and exploded, taking down the top of the pyramid.

Felicity caught Daring before she plummeted. "Thanks!" called out Dare.

She flew her inside the actual pyramid and calmly landed inside.

"Think she's done for?" asked Dare.

Danus teleported in front of them, cackling evilly. "Answer your question?" Felicity shot back.

"I'll admit masked mare, you are tougher than you appear. What is your name? History will remember you as the foal that failed to stop me…"

"Mare Do Well, and don't worry princess, you'll be remembered in history as the idiot changeling that was beaten by two foals."

Humming assailed Felicity's senses and a dozen changelings landed in front of them. "If you cannot handle them," said Danus. "You won't even be noteworthy for history."

Danus flew upward to the top of the pyramid while the rest of the changelings growled at them.

"Don't call me Noteworthy." Grumbled Felicity.

The changelings charged the duo and they stood their ground.

Up above, Danus looked at the city below and the ponies gawking at the now damaged pyramid. Corkscrew, the changeling, accompanied Danus.

"Look at these pathetic foals, like cattle they gather to praise an unworthy princess." Danus growled, annoyed at the obedience of these ponies. "We will see how they celebrate when their princess has been dethroned."

Without warning, two large pegasi approached Danus. They wore armor and looked particularly mean; on their shoulders was the emblem for the Las Pegasus Special Forces.

"You there, put your hooves and wings where I can see them!" ordered one pegasus.

Danus sneered, slowly putting up her forelegs and wings. "Oh, you mean like this officer?"

A bolt of lightning discharged from her horn, electrifying both pegasi and they fell out the skies like sacks of cupcakes. The crowd, now carefully watching, gasped in fear as the police ponies were crashing to the ground.

"FOOLISH PONIES!"Danus shouted, addressing the city in the Royal Changeling voice. "YOU CELEBRATE A FALSE PRINCESS AND PARADE LIKE FOALS IN HER HONOR? DO NOT WORRY, FOR THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE SUN HAS ARRIVED!"

Behind her the moon slowly, but surely, eclipsed the sun.

"Ah, ponyfeathers," muttered Felicity.

They kicked and punched their way out of the changeling mosh-pit, but there were too many of them. As soon as two went down, four more popped in their place.

"We don't have time for this," Felicity pressed a button on her belt. "Dare! Fly!"

A small gumball-shaped device popped out of her belt and fell to the ground, at the same time Dare and Felicity floated a bit with their wings.

The ball hit the ground and electricity sprouted out it like tree branches, hitting all of the changelings, electrocuting them. Soon, there were a dozen or so fried changelings.

"Next time, you might want to lead with that," remarked Dare.

They flew up, but what awaited them wouldn't be so hospitable.

Danus and Corkscrew were there, naturally, but what they hadn't expected to be there was that giant egg. Right over the pyramid top was a massive white egg that glowed a sickly green. Felicity didn't have to deduce what was in that egg, "Xiuhcoatl."

"Ah, the mares," Danus said with a big smile on her face. "You are here to witness the birth of a god!"

"Sorry we missed the baby shower," muttered Dare as the two stood before Danus and that giant chicken egg.