Queen Twilight Sparkle's entire body crackled with lightning and her mix of purple and green magical aura enveloped her. Her magic shot not just from her horn but from every part of her being. She knew it was futile, but she had to try anyways. This wasn't a matter of the amount of magical energy she could harness. It was a matter of physics and velocity matched against time and mass. Brute magical force would not be enough. Not even if she had the combined powers of the other three alicorns.

The only thing that could save Cloudsdale now would be if it were completely teleported elsewhere. Even the Queen of Equestria did not have that kind of power, so she cried in agony. Not just as her body strained in the air under the magical release but as pegasi fled by the tens of thousands from a home their race had known for as many years. Generations and generations of history and legacy was in every tuft and puff of cloud that made up that city.

Twilight tried using her hivemind to come up with an idea. Some way of rescue. But none of their powers could be used against such an enormous force of raw nature. Rainbow Dash’s incredible Hive Power over the forces of weather would not be enough. Still the blue pegasus tried to no avail. She sustained three massive hurricanes snapping with green-lit fury. But the foundations of Cloudsdale cared little and only shred apart when they did.

Canterlot below watched in horror as the great cloud city plummeted from the sky to the fields at Mt. Canter's foothills. The direction of the wind might have been the only savior of the unicorn city, having kept Cloudsdale from smashing back into it. Green lightning lanced from the alicorn queen, doing little to slow the massive city. The first edge of the massive pegasi construct hit the ground.

BOOM!

Specially constructed cloud burst apart, splintering upwards as the city drove itself into the ground hard. The most pure elements of cloud ruptured into fog, but much of the city was more than mere cloud. Everything not made of the soft white fluff, blasted into the Earth like an unending spray of miniature bombs. The thousands of pegasi who were giving everything they had to reverse the momentum cried out in pain as the impacts began flowering up from the edge towards them. Everything they knew from foalhood was being destroyed and nopony could do anything to stop it.

Twilight Sparkle exerted more than what she had, feeling the horror and suffering of those around her. She was crying too, but it was not only for the city. It was because, after all this time and all she had gone through, she was still helpless. Still powerless. Saving this city was one thing she couldn't do that resulted in unmeasurable suffering.

The queen passed out where she had been hovering in the air below the market district of the crashing city. She would have fallen into and been crushed by the ensuing carnage if not for a multi-colored flash that dove and caught her. Twilight saw nothing more until the ordeal was well over. Or, at least, the impact.

“Twilight?”

“Twilight?”

“Twilight!”

The purple pony groggily opened her eyes. Her mind raced to catch up. Where was she? Under a tree in a field. Or what was left of it. The leaves were gone and the blackened branches were smoldering. Near Canterlot? It was hard to tell because the air was so thick with fog.

Fog?

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash shook her beloved queen with fear deep in her magenta irises. “We need you now! Cloudsdale is...Cloudsdale...”

Fog? The crash! Twilight's mind found itself again. The fog was what was left after the clouds broke up. She cast a sensory analysis spell and got immediate results in spite of the sharp mental pain she also got for it. The crash site was enormous. Mt. Canter's foothills were a wreck. Touchdown had created a massive crater with a wide rather than deep midpoint because of the dispersed nature of the non-cloud elements of the city. Twilight could only rely on her magic because she couldn't physically see five hooves in front of her face. None in her hivemind had a clearer vision of it.

Rainbow's nose was almost touching hers. “What do we do?!” the pegasus cried, adding to the wails that could be heard through the thick fog. It smelled like char...and worse.

Many ponies could be heard beyond the veil of fog. Some shouting in fear or confusion. Others in pain. All weeping.

“Emergency response...” Twilight tried to sort her thoughts. Rainbow’s own thoughts hit her before even that idea could form. The Emergency Response Corps that was reserved for such cataclysmic events was stationed in Cloudsdale. It was a pegasi regiment.

“Chrysalis is looking for the Corps Director,” Rainbow said, trying to soak her panicked emotions into the calming organization of her queen’s hivemind.

The director hadn’t been found yet, Twilight knew after having focused on Chrysalis’ mind. She had found something in the fog that looked like the remains of a hospital. Then Twilight had to turn her focus away. There were medical staff there with patients, but the staff had crashed there along with their patients. The ponies that needed to do the helping were in need of help themselves. Medical response would have to come from Canterlot.

Twilight despaired. It wouldn’t be enough. Fluttershy was also out there, flying in the fog. Gathering what she was seeing as well, the queen could extrapolate the scale of the issue. Thousands injured. Her estimates were rising to ten thousand too quickly.

Rainbow continued trembling against her. Her own sense of urgency that had snapped Twilight from unconsciousness was now lost as she continued hearing the cries and screams around her. She lost focus on her queen.

Get the Canterlot meds here as fast as you can, Twilight ordered.

When Rainbow hesitated with tears, Twilight gripped her. “We have to help them!”

The pegasus snapped back into focus and became a blue blur once more, dissipating fog in the speed of her wake. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was already giving as much aid as she could. The impact had not only hurt countless ponies. It had also hurt countless animals that had called the foothills home. She carried as many as she could to safety and patched up the ones that time allowed and need demanded.

Chrysalis, aware of her queen turning her focus from her mind and eyesight, insisted upon investigating something she found more disturbing than the suffering ponies around her. It was a black sludge, not of charred Earth or perhaps mud. She knew it upon sight and brief magical probe.

My queen! the tall changeling shouted in concern into their shared mind. Our enemy is behind this. We are vulnerable!

No kiddin’! Applejack’s reply burst through sarcastically. That’s old news.

No, now! Chrysalis tried to force her formulating thoughts specifically into the farmpony who had missed them. This confusion is an opportunity for a strike! My queen, retreat to the castle at once! We have to regroup!

The alicorn was stressed beyond limit. “The pegasi need us here, Chrysalis!” she found herself shouting to the burnt-scent of the dark fog around her and the wailing voices therein. “I won’t abandon them!”

Chrysalis saw her queen racing towards distressed voices in need and cursed her royal pony’s selfless nature. She turned from those injured upon the ground around her and sped to her queen. A flash of her magical aura around her long jagged horn was enough to inform her that her suspicion was correct. A black void was swimming through the fog, easily passing by the thousands left helpless either by injury, shock, despair, or all three. It headed straight for her queen.

Queen Twilight used her magic to transform a rudimentary bandage out of some half-burned curtains she had seen nearby. She bound the pegasi’s leg hard to ease the pain of it, and she held the crying pony’s hoof to assure her before moving to another pony close by. The rest of her hive was beginning to help in various ways to get medical staff and supplies there. Applejack was focusing on getting the rallied firefighters down to the foothills, since fires were sparked from the crash and might threaten to overtake the survivors should the injuries fail to prove fatal.

There was no time left, though. The black mist that had plotted with the old changeling hive was here. It filtered through the fog into Twilight’s eyesight. Having intentionally blocked her mind from Chrysalis’ perceptions, she had heard too late her changeling’s cry of warning.

“Watch out!” Chrysalis screamed out in physical form as she too darted to her queen.

She was not fast enough. The black fog condensed into a misty spear and shot straight through the alicorn. But it was not as a physical piercing. Twilight was thrown backwards hard onto her spine, scraping herself on jagged bits of hot debris and rough rocks. No immediate wound came from the spear, though. Instead, the black mist formed again over her while black crystals materialized and hardened all around her royal changeling breastplate. The green glow of it flickered and failed. All of her connections save for the closest that could naturally reach her were lost.

Stinging in pain first from being thrown back and scratched up, Twilight cried out more intensely from the death of her mental connections. Her mind felt hot, as if seared by a glowing red brand. Her heart followed in that manner and her throat choked. The black mist began to envelop her and she could hear words in her injured hivemind. It was a voice she did not know.

Hello, princess, it hissed as if spoken through clenched teeth. Do as I command and I will grant you-

The voice was cut short, though. Twilight beheld the reason above her. The mist was pushed back by a green-glowing changeling.

Chrysalis ignited her own power and charged the mist. Her green aura not only enveloped her horn now but blossomed from her entire body in a large dancing flame. She bore her teeth and her eyes were wide with a ravenous fury. The magic she used was able to push against the mist.

“Get out of our mind, scum!” Chrysalis barked at it. Glancing for less than a second to Twilight, she saw her queen still paralyzed and now gasping for breath. “Release her or I’ll make you suffer worse than death!”

I fear no changeling, nor an empty threat, the mist seethed venom in return.

Not patient for her queen’s sake, Chrysalis screamed out in exertion as her green flame erupted into a thick lighting bolt that struck into the black mist with a thunderous crack. The blast sent debris flying out from around them, dirt kicking back up into the air from where it had recently settled from. Fog dispersed for only a moment before filling back in.

The mist had expected less than what it received. The bolt seared it. Sounds of howling pain came at Twilight and Chrysalis through their hivemind. It had been hurt badly when it thought its physical state left it immune from injury.

“I’m not a helpless pawn, scum of a prince!” Chrysalis shouted in fury again, reinforced in her stance. “I know who you are, filth! Release her or I’ll turn you back into a pony just to break you!”

Twilight writhed, near losing consciousness.

Kill me, kill her! it threatened back. I will have what I want!

Chrysalis had to act fast. She had to make a reckless gamble. But then something incredible came into her mind that changed the situation entirely. Fluttershy. She had just flown close enough to them to enter into a connection with their hivemind again. She was getting close and already igniting her Hive Power. Her power materialized an alternate dimension. It would blow away the black magic of the mist upon Twilight.

“Actually,” Chrysalis corrected with a smirk, “I kill you, I kill you.”

The mist was in their mind. It knew what she did and panicked. Fluttershy would be in range in seconds. It would get sucked in either by the dimension or by Chrysalis’ magic and be laid vulnerable. It was still mortal. Chrysalis’ raw power would kill it. She would kill...him.

The dark mist began to race away as fast as it could. When Chrysalis flew at it to grab and contain the mist with her magic, it ignited a black fireball towards Twilight. This caused the changeling to duck to deflect the destructive flame and allowed the mist to escape back into the wretched fog.

No more than a second after the flame extinguished in Chrysalis’ hole-ridden hooves, the world around her disintegrated into an old familiar dream. A green meadow with a great tree. Twilight laid there by the stream, the black crystals gone. Fluttershy got to her even before Chrysalis, horror still upon the yellow pony’s face as she fought to realize she had indeed arrived in time. Twilight breathed.

Chrysalis almost fell upon both Fluttershy and Twilight, grabbing her queen gently but firmly. “My queen.”

Twilight groaned in pain. Everything hurt. Her wings, her scratched back, her tight throat, her throbbing mind. Her distant hivemind connections were returning. All of her hive members were in chaos too. They scrambled back into her mind at once with a flood of distressed emotions and troubled questions. Except for Spike and Rarity, who were still absent.

Rainbow blasted into Fluttershy’s created hivespace and held Twilight with tears returned to her from earlier. What emotional resilience she had built up by focusing on her queen’s order for assisting aid was now ruined by her nearly losing Twilight in addition to Cloudsdale.

I’ll be fine, Dashie, Twilight assured, thankful to not need her physical voice. She swallowed reluctantly and winced from the pain. We need to get back to aiding Cloudsdale.

Neither she nor the others wanted to add “or what’s left of it.”

Spike held on tight to the edge of the chariot. It bounced furiously at the reckless speed they were traveling and threatened to break apart. Only Rarity’s magic held it together as they hit a rock and a wheel nearly broke clean off.

“Faster!” Spike cried to the six Crystal ponies pulling the chariot. They were the best and swiftest of the empire. Champions from the Equestrian Games. They were the only way for Spike and Rarity to get to Canterlot with any urgency. It all happened so quickly. All at once.

A pegasus flew into the Crystal Castle and collapsed. Exhaustion mixed with horror on her face. She had brought news that Cloudsdale was falling. The entire city. They should have known about any instability prior. They could have been there. Why did the hivemind tell him that the rest of the hive was enjoying a spa vacation? Something was wrong. And then the hivemind cut off entirely.

Cadance was gone with Shining armor. They had left on their trip. What few pegasi were in the Empire could not manage to carry them. Their Hive Powers were greatly deteriorated with the disconnect. The train was the next fastest transportation, but the railway had just shut down. News came of the railroad’s key bridges having collapsed. It had to be deliberate. It was too much of a coincidence.

So they traveled by a six-pony chariot team. They had already passed Neighagra Falls and seen the warped transmitter. With no way to confirm what was going on in Canterlot, Spike feared for Twilight’s life. Rarity trembled beside him in the chariot, biting her lip while trying to hold the transport together with her magic.

They raced into a mossy canyon that would lead them to Mt. Canter.

It was there that they were ambushed by the changeling swarm.

Spitfire’s eyelids creaked open. Good, she thought. There was at least one part of her that was not broken. Everything hurt. The pain threatened another blackout and came at her in harsh waves. Her training allowed her to focus on what was important, though. Besides, she was only one in thousands by the screams she heard around her.

The blood-stained mare looked down to the young colt in her hooves. He was staining his light green coat with tears and his eyes were still screwed as tight as he was clutching her. He looked unharmed, though. So she had succeeded when she dove to save him at the last moment of impact. He had been fleeing the city and she had been getting ponies out. He was the last one she had gotten to before everything came to a blackout.

She took the damage for him as the lower district they had been in shattered around them, covering him in her hooves and wings. It was her duty. It was also who she was. By the looks of her wings and legs around the colt, she wouldn’t have that duty to carry any longer.

Broken.

She tried to use what was available of her shaky and coarse voice to sooth the child.

She had no regrets.

“Contain it! Contain it!” the fire marshal shouted above the roar of the flames and shouts of his fellow firefighting ponies. Canterlot had an unfortunately sparse brigade in spite of the city’s large size and every one of the sixty gear-heavy ponies was here now with many more who were not fighters but helping in the interest of not burning alive.

Eight hundred. That was the rough estimate the marshal gave when they raced in. That many critically injured ponies in this section of the cratered foothills. They couldn’t move. Not enough able hooves to evacuate them. If the raging fire finished circling them in, they would all go from half a chance to live to none at all.

To Tartarus, the marshal cursed as Applejack lassoed a firefighter out from the front when he passed out from a flare that had lashed at him. Burnout. Now there were fifty-nine fighters. If the injured would burn then he would do so first. When the flames leaped out and trailed towards a downed pegasus, he charged to save him.

Pinkie Pie wiped sweat from her forehead. She was always one for energy but not for this. She laid out beds, cots, pillows, blankets. Canterlot Hospital was long past full. The streets outside of it were now a makeshift emergency hospital. Hundreds and hundreds. They never stopped coming. Each pegasus worse off than the last.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. Everypony was crying. She couldn’t. She had to be the one to make them smile. That was who she was. She tried, but it was hard. It came out weak and when she spoke, it sounded even to her like she couldn’t have meant the words of encouragement she gave to the injured.

She used their hivemind to stay strong. Twilight heard and felt her. She gave her comfort and strength. They could get through this. They had to. Twilight was a great leader. Equestria would be okay...it would be...it would be…

The banner mares were with her. They helped set up the next tent, which they placed at the start of a new street stretching towards the city gate. The rough canvas of the tent went taut under her hooves and she snapped a structural lock in place that was getting harder to see in her grasp. Fog was rolling into the city along with smoke. Though the crash was down at the foothills, the fog and smoke rolled up the mountain into the city.

Soir Soleil, one of the banner mares and maids, exclaimed in her unique accent. “Five more coming! Quick! Open the tent and get the water!”

Twilight ascended above the foothills, still covered in dirt and ash. Chrysalis, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were around her in a protective watch while Twilight gathered her power again. She had exhausted herself before, but Chrysalis had given her some magic in return once ordered. It had very much been against the changeling's will, but she obeyed her queen. The strain from the earlier exhaustion and then the fighting could cause long-term damage to the queen’s body if she kept pushing herself like this.

Rainbow Dash had started to assist by using her Hive Power to blow the fog and smoke away to help those giving aid. Twilight stopped her quick when she realized the fires below would be stoked by such a blast. Perhaps a powerful enough wind could overwhelm the flames and put them out, but she wouldn’t risk torching the survivors below if it went poorly.

Peculiar magic conjured up by Twilight’s combined hivemind knowledge and Applejack’s Hive Power began sucking the fog and smoke instead into a void. The flames would not be encouraged. By now, a thick line of ponies was moving between the crash site and Canterlot, which was up the sorrow-plagued mountain. Within that dense line another thin line moved non-stop as if it were a conveyer belt in a factory. It was the unicorns moving the injured pegasi up to the city. Tents were already being set up closer to the foothills and along the path.

Countless pegasi tried to approach Twilight in the sky. Chrysalis and Rainbow Dash had to fend them off. They were the masses of uninjured pegasi who had successfully evacuated the city. They were the vast majority. Only the sheer size of the Cloudsdale population meant that the tiny minority who had not made it out in the rush were such a numerous amount of ponies.

It was not the fault of the uninjured for trying to get to the queen. They were all horrified. Homeless. With family and friends missing and not knowing if they were even still alive.

The nightmare would end, Twilight told her hive.

They would take care of everypony, she reaffirmed with compassion.

Then her mood turned momentarily to furious hatred. Those behind this would pay dearly.

Morning came the next day. Queen Twilight rose the sun the same as it had been risen every day under Princess Celestia. Nothing much had changed. The injured were still being treated with sparse resources and inadequately trained ponies. Half of Canterlot was filled with them, causing all sorts of new problems besides the obvious ones. Aid began to arrive from other cities, but was hindered by a closed railroad system, which Twilight only now could begin investigating in the interest of getting aid where it needed to be.

Pinkie Pie tied a cupcake-patterned handkerchief to her forehead to keep the sweat from soaking her light blue eyes. She rushed fresh water to the tents to clean wounds and prevent dehydration. Even her Hive Power of quick speed and unlikely teleportation was meeting a limit as she used every trick she could to fulfill the needs greater than her abilities. The maids and guards did likewise, while the others were out in the fields doing their part.

Applejack was now leading the fire fighting in the foothills with her special Void. The major fires had been extinguished and thousands saved for it, but the Canterlot Fire Brigade was no more. All sixty firefighters had joined the critically injured and two hundred more non-fighters, who nearly died taking the place of the properly trained out of utmost necessity. For those in the worst condition, it was yet to be seen if they would survive the day.

An old rusty siren and the firecart it belonged on could just be heard screaming its way off-road towards the ash-covered foothills. The Fillydelphia and Baltimare Fire Brigades had just arrived at the same time. Good, Pinkie thought. Maybe Applejack could help her now. She was a strong pony. They both were. After all, they were Earth ponies and most probably cousins too.

The pink pony took back her assessment. Things had changed for the better. And there was something else that had refreshed her spirits. It was such an odd thing but inescapable of notice.

Canterlot was supposed to be a city of stuck-up unicorns who cared nothing for their fellow ponies. Especially pegasi. There were a number of unicorns for sure, who had hidden themselves away into the upper levels and most gated portions of the city. But the outer districts and the majority of the unicorns were not sealed off in mansions. They were right here with Pinkie Pie.

Carrying the injured whether with magic, or if that was exhausted, by their own shoulders. They wrapped the injured, gave them food, and helped reunite families fearful of having lost their beloved. Seeing the ponies in Canterlot forget and give up everything else to help the pegasi made Pinkie remember this was still Equestria. This was still the place where everypony – or almost everypony – cared about each other. Whether events got bad or worse, everypony was still united in the common good. That was who they were. That was what Equestria was.

It would be okay.