Starlight was torn from her thoughts when she heard the stirring of Thorax behind her. She turned around, to see the changeling she had 'liberated' start to wake up, pulling himself up slowly. He put a hand on the side of his head and gave it a small shake.

His cyan compact eyes blinked open, as he started to look around. Starlight noticed him start to shake. His breathing became rapid as his body quivered and shook. She took a step towards him her arms raised non-threateningly.

"Spike!" He squeaked, his voice a mix of panic and shock. "Where is Spike?!?"

"It's ok... It's ok... I got you away from Spike." Starlight said as she reached him, gently reaching down to him. "You are far away from the Crystal Empire now, he won't find you."

Thorax's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. He tried to scramble to his feet as his hyperventilating only got more and more violent. He scanned the wood line, as his entire body shook.

"No! No no no!" Thorax cried as he started fearfully thrashing, his hands digging into the dirt he was lying it. "You have to take me back! You have to take me back!!!!"

"Spike can't hurt you anymore." Starlight said with a slight frown, grabbing him by the wrists to prevent him from hurting himself. "You are safe now."

"No I'm no-ho-hot!" He cried loudly between loud sobs, trying his hardest to pull himself free of her grasp. He wasn't very strong.

"What... what do you mean by that?" Starlight asked hesitantly.

"He is right you know." A third, deep and dark voice said. Starlight and Thorax spun around to see an armored unicorn walk up to them. He was dark grey, with smoky black hair and two green and red eyes, a deep smile on his face, showing off his fangs.

"Sombra…" Starlight said, he brows furrowing slightly.

Blueblood narrowly avoided a magical beam aimed for his head, ducking back into cover. It sailed over his head, burning the tops of his mane.

He popped his head back over the rim of the cart he was hiding behind, returning fire. A beam of blue magic shot forth, and struck the unicorn firing at them, a former royal guard in purple armor who was perched on top of one of the palace walls. His bolt went straight through his head and he tumbled backwards, falling off the wall out of his sight.

He and the three other members of his squad were pinned down in the palace court yard. Stellar Flare and Lyra were taking cover inside a drained and shattered fountain, returning passionate but ultimately inaccurate beams of magic at their assailants, a squad of Imperial Unicorns who had surrounded them, standing atop the palace walls or spires, raining down fire upon them. Moondancer was taking cover behind a cart, right next to him, frantically reading a map while keeping her self covered by a bubble shield.

Blueblood jerked his head to the side in time to avoid a second beam of magic fired from a flanking position. A smoking hole was burned into the cart right above his right shoulder. He fired back, taking out another guard.

"I really hope you know a way out of this!" Blueblood shouted at her.

"Your maps are out of date! Not much I can do to fix that!" Moondancer shouted back, as yet another beam struck her shield and bounced off it at a random angle.

There was a banging noise which caused Blueblood to peek his head over the side of the cart again. Two large, bulky dragons in purple armor were now approaching them from the ground, the banging being them landing in the court yard. He hoped Twilight and Pharynx got here soon. He didn't know what he would be able to do against those.

"You really aren't that good at this are you?" A feminine voice taunted. He looked up to where it came from with a snarl.

An orange dragoness in a purple tuxedo stood atop a balcony of the palace proper, a smug smirk on her face. She wore jackboots and an arm band around her right arm showing the symbol of Spike's Empire. Two gryphons wearing nothing but loincloths knelt at he feet, arms wrapped around their master's legs. One was a blue male, and the other was a grey female.

Smolder was her name, the regional governor of Canterlot and brother to General Garble, the head of the Empire's military.

"Should I call off half my guards and make this a fair fight? You look like you could really use the help!" She chuckled as yet more dragon and pony guards started to flood into the courtyard and atop the surrounding walls.

Her smug smile didn't go away when he shot a beam at her. A dragon guard threw himself in front of her, and the beam uselessly pinged off his armor, like a flashlight's cone of light reflecting off a mirror.

There was a sudden flash of purple and white light. Blueblood felt his eyes were deceiving him when a cheetah suddenly darted across the courtyard towards the two dragons who had been steadily approaching Blueblood's team.

The Dragons were equally taken aback and barely had time to react when it leaped at one of them. In a flash of green fire, the cheetah turned into the armored form of Pharynx.

Pharynx pulled his arm back and shoved his longsword into the dragon guard's head, before pulling it out and jumping back as the dragon fell to the ground, having been instantly killed by his attack. The other dragon roared and swung his weapon down at Pharynx, who simply stepped aside to avoid the attack.

The changeling, with one thrust of his blade, dug it into the dragons chest. The guard cried out and doubled over in pain, allowing Pharynx to easily dispatch him with another blow to the head. He then stepped away from the two dead soldiers, and twirled his blade, staring directly at Smolder.

The dragoness took a nervous step back. "D-don't just stand there! Shoot him!" She shouted as she grabbed both her slaves by the collars and stood them up. The guards opened fire, rapidly firing beam after beam towards him, but the changeling expertly dodged almost every beam, and those he could not dodge were merely blocked by his swords.

One beam came closer than any to actually hurting him, so after blocking it, he fired a beam of his own which stuck the unicorn guard closest to Smolder between the eyes, killing her. Smolder looked at the guard as they fell to the ground and clicked her tongue.

"On second thought... Gallus, Gabby, come. The battlefield is not a place for a lady and her concubines." She started speed walking away, and the two obediently followed her, as the dragon guards escorting her took to the air and made a beeline directly towards Pharynx, charging through the air towards him.

"Damn it!" Blueblood hissed, standing up and firing one last beam at her as she made her way towards the door to enter the palace.

He dug his hoof into the ground and stood up. His horn glowed a deathly black as purple mist emerged from it. Similar purple mist emerged from his eyes as they turned a deep neon green, his pupils becoming red.

He fired a deathly black beam which sailed through the air and struck Smolder directly in the shoulder. She screamed and fell to her knees, grasping at the hole which had pierced clean through her.

"NO!" Gallus and Gabby cried out in unison as they dropped down next to their master. Gallus covered her wound with a hand to stop the bleeding while Gabby took her hand into her own, to try and help her with the pain.

Twilight watched the scene playing out before her. She had never seen someone get killed before. She had never seen such violence before from anyone, villain or otherwise, and she had certainly never seen someone attempt a murder using dark magic before. She growled and balled her hands into fists.

"ENOUGH!" She shouted as a pulse of magic shot out from her horn. Everyone in the courtyard was knocked off their feet to the ground and with another final flash of magic, She, Pharynx, Blueblood and his team disappeared.

"What do you mean, he's not safe here Sombra?" Starlight Glimmer asked tentatively as she approached the Dark King. She didn't know if she should trust him or not. He did try to save her earlier, but he was apparently one of the most evil people in Equestrian history. She resolved to play it cautious for now.

"I mean it's not safe for a changeling like him to be so far away from the hive, isn't that right Thorax?" He said with a genuine smile. Thorax didn't respond, he merely started at the dark king with doe like eyes and a terrified expression.

"What do you mean?" Starlight said taking a step towards him.

"I mean, I am going to offer you a trade. You give me Thorax so I can take him back to the hive, and I'll take you to your friend, Twilight Sparkle. A fair deal if you ask me. Everypony wins!" He said, no hint of malice in his voice.

"What? You don't seem to be getting anything out of the deal..." Starlight said with narrowed eyes. "Seems a little suspicious to me..."

Sombra's smile faltered for a second.

"Ah you caught me." He said with a dark smirk and a deep chuckle. "Ok, to be honest, I couldn't really care less about him, but his mother, the woman I love, misses him dearly, and I can't stand to see her sad. So, I want to take him home and reunite the two, and in exchange for letting me do that, I will take you to your friend, Twilight. Deal?"

Starlight looked down at him as he outstretched a hand. She looked up at him, then to Thorax, then back to Sombra.

"You did try to save me earlier... and sending Thorax back to the hive seems like a much safer option than keeping him out here where Spike can get his claws on him again..." She mumbled.

"No... please..." Thorax begged, but his throat was too dry for it to come out as anything more that a pathetic whine.

"Is it a deal then?" Sombra said with a friendly tone.

Starlight hesitated, before raising a hand and taking it, giving it a firm shake.

"It's a deal."

Enjoy this chapter. It had a second name in development: 'Starlight Fucks Everything Up Again.'

Want spoilers for what happens next? Click here!