Spike sat in his throne positively fuming. He was angry. No, he was much more than angry. He was furious. His hands dug into the arms of his throne, looking down at his commanders who were standing around a map set up in front of him.

"M'lord, we have begun our search for your changeling," Garble said, standing directly on the other side of the map from him with a salute. "Our search is beginning in Ponyvile, the most likely location of Starlight's escape path. When we are finished searching every nook and cranny of that village, we will branch out."

"Do you have any leads yet?" Spike asked glaring at Garble.

"N-no my lord." Fizzle said looking to Garble. Garble gulped.

Spike growled, his claws clenching down, shattering the arms of his seat. He stood up.

"Then get out there and find him!" Spike roared. The Dragons saluted and quickly shuffled out of the room.

Spike inhaled and exhaled to calm himself as he marched down from his throne and placed his hands on the table staring down at the map. His eyes scanned the parchment as if he could find Thorax just by looking at the map. The longer he looked at the size of his empire, the more he realized how almost impossible it would be to find them in an acceptable amount of time.

His claws dug into the table as he started hyperventilating. He suddenly roared and grabbed the table, throwing it against the wall where it shattered into splinters. A couple of guards scattered to avoid the table and wooden shards. One of the statues, that of Luna, tumbled off its pedestal, hitting the ground with a massive thud.

Spike panted, staring at it for a couple of seconds, expecting the stone to shatter, either leaving him with a dead princess or a free princess. He let out a calm exhale when nothing happened.

He turned with a sigh to sulk back to his throne but stopped when he saw Ember standing between him and his chair. She had her arms crossed over her chest and looked at him, concern and empathy in her eyes.

"They didn't find him yet, I take it?" She asked taking a couple of steps forwards.

"No, they didn't..." Spike mumbled, looking away from her in shame.

"It's not your fault," Ember replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And don't worry, we have the single largest empire in all of recorded history, with loyal soldiers stationed in every city, town, village, and hamlet from here to the edge of the known world. We will find him. It is only a matter of time until that happens."

"It is my fault Ember." Spike said placing a claw on his forehead, clenching it into a fist, letting his sharp nails dig into his forehead. He took the pain as catharsis for his misdeed.

"If I had just killed her when she first got here or turned her into stone immediately she wouldn't have taken my Tho-" He was cut off by a slap to the face from Ember.

The guards in the room gasped and looked to each other. Spike blinked a couple of times, too shocked to react to the whispering of his warriors. He turned his head and looked at her with mouth agape.

"Shut up." She hissed at him. "If you think for one second I would let you bad mouth my Emperor, you are dead wrong."

She stepped forwards, grabbing him by the collar of his armor and pulling his face an inch away from hers. "You have no one to blame but that vile bitch. So grab your damn scepter, help me get my damn armor on, and let's go get our Thorax back together."

Spike blinked several times as she pushed him back upright and walked towards their bedroom. He couldn't help but give a light smile.

"Yes Ma'am!" He said with a smile, snatching the Scepter of Domination from the Statue of Celestia's hands. He turned to follow after Ember, who was already halfway to the bedroom when they were both stopped by someone clearing their throat.

They both stopped and turned to see Governor Starlight walking towards them, one hand on her hip and another holding a rolled-up scroll.

"That is a wonderful goal of yours, and I would be more than happy to aide the both of you in finding your catamite, but we have a bit of a situation that will temporarily delay that." She said, before tossing the scroll to Spike, who deftly caught it with a growl.

"This had better be important." He hissed as he unrolled it, reading it with growing concern.

"Cantlerlot was just attacked by the resistance. Smolder was wounded by some kind of dark magic, and the guards reported that Twilight Sparkle was seen alongside the leader of the Resistance during the combat."

Spike clenched his fist, crumpling up the scroll.

"Ember." He said turning to her. "Get your armor on. We're going to Canterlot."

In a clearing in the Everfree, just at the edge of the forest close to Sweet Apple Acres, there was a flash of light. Pharynx, Twilight, Blueblood, and his compatriots appeared in the center of the clearing.

Twilight inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, putting a hand to her head, cringing at the throbbing headache which pierced through her skull. Teleporting so many people in such quick succession was bad on the mind.

"Where are we?" Moondancer said looking around at the clearing.

"J-just outside Sweet Apple Acres. I thought it would be safer than just teleporting directly into the orchards or barn." Twilight said, sitting down on a nearby tree stump. She glanced over to Pharynx, who wiped the blood off his blade before stopping and sniffing the air.

He sheathed his sword and started stalking towards the edge of the clearing. Lyra and Stellar Flare locked eyes with each other, before shrugging and following after him.

Moondancer simply sat down and pulled out several maps, reading through them. Twilight assumed that with her book smarts and ability to read rather well, she made quite a cartographer.

Her attention was stolen when Blueblood grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her into a standing position, pure rage on his face.

"What do you think you doing?" He roared at her. "I had her! I could have killed her right then and there!"

Twilight glared at him and pushed him off of her. "You used dark magic! That is not ok! What would your aunt have said! Dark magic is evil, using it makes you no better than Spike or Sombra!" She shouted in reply.

Blueblood stomped his hoof and clenched his hands into fists. "I am not using my magic to overthrow Equestria! I am using it to bring it back!"

Twilight opened her mouth to reply but was shut up by a sudden voice.

"Would you two shut the hell up?" Pharynx shouted. They both turned to him. He was at the edge of the clearing with Lyra and Stellar. They had parted a couple of bushes, allowing them to see outside the Everfree to the Apple Orchards they were going.

"We have a situation." Stellar said looking to Blueblood.

"We'll continue this later." Blueblood seethed through clenched teeth before the two approached the group and knelt next to them.

What Twilight saw made her bring a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp.

Sweet Apple Acres was completely different than how she remembered it. The Trees, which had previously been in a seemingly random, natural placement, making the Orchards look like an apple tree forest.

Now they had a large grid-like appearance, cobblestone paths crisscrossing each other around small patches of dirt where the apple trees rested. Pony and the occasional dragon guard in purple armor patrolled the paths, one hand on their sheathed weapons, and another clutching riding crops and whips.

What made her gasp however, were who were working in the field. Gryphons flew through the trees grabbing apples and tossing them down to Kirin, donkeys or mules who sorted them out and put them into large barrels, which yaks or buffalos would pick up and haul.

They all wore nothing but tattered rags or in some cases nothing at all but a loincloth, and metal collars around their necks. They all look worn down and hopeless. She barely caught a glance of a kirin attempting an escape before being cornered by a pony guard, who preceded to draw back their whip. She looked away before they brought it down with a crack.

"This is horrible..." Stellar Flare said a hand covering her mouth.

"Spike's Empire treats those nations and races who refused to simply roll over and bow down without a fight as chattel and slave fodder. They don't get the benefits 'willing' slaves get." Pharynx said with a snarl. "I suppose you made a good choice to not teleport us directly into the middle of the orchard."

"W-what do you think we should do?" Twilight asked glancing over to Blueblood.

"We wait until everypony else gets here. Then we free the slaves." He said with a sigh, sitting down. "It would be good for a burst of numbers."

Twilight nodded at him.

"Oh sweet Celestia," Lyra said, piquing her interest. "Of course it's those two."

Twilight turned over to see two ponies which made bile rush to her throat.

Two unicorns with red manes and yellow fur. Flim and Flam. They each wore red and white striped suits as they sat in lounge chairs near the edge of the plantation, a gryphon slave on either side of them, holding up a drink on a platter for them, or fanning them with those massive stereotypical stick fans or whatever they were called.

Flim was currently talking to a guard, while flam was reading a newspaper nonchalantly. Twilight growled.

"Of course those two would try to take over Applejack's farm. What the hay is their prob-" She was cut off when, with a flash of turquoise light, Starlight Glimmer appeared in front of the two unicorns.

All eyes in the orchard suddenly turned to her.

Sombra smirked when Starlight took his hand. As soon as the shake ended, black shadowy tendrils emerged from his back and quickly shot towards Thorax and wrapped around him.

They dragged the changeling, who weakly tried to resist their pull, towards the dark king. As soon as he was close, Sombra grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him, rather harshly, against his chest, in a feign protective way.

"Your friends are at Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyvile, that is the resistances rendezvous location." He said with a genuine smile.

Starlight nodded in thanks before her horn glowed and she disappeared in a flash. No sooner had she left, then was Thorax knocked out of his fear-based paralysis. He started weakly trying to pull himself free of Sombra's grasp. His clenched fists beat at Sombra's armored chest as he screamed and thrashed in his firm grip.

"Let go of me!" he screamed as he tried his hardest to get free. Sombra merely grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled Thorax closer to him, their faces an inch away from each other. He tapped his red horn to Thorax's and gazed directly into his eyes.

"Relax." He hissed in a velvety smooth, yet undoubtedly vile and dark voice. A spark of magic transferred from his horn to the changelings, and Thorax's eyelids suddenly felt heavy as his eyes rolled back into his head. The changeling went limp, completely unconcious.

"Good," Sombra said as he slowly started to turn into a cloud of black smoke, levitating his prey into the air with him. "Sleep now. Enjoy your last couple of hours of peace. Your mother will most certainly not let you rest in between the torture she has planned for you..."

Sombra chuckled, running a hand down Thorax's cheek before he turned completely into smoke, and rocketed off into the sky towards the changeling hive, carrying Thorax with him.

When you're the Coolest Cervine in the woods:

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the long delay XD

Hope you like the chapter *Dab*

This entire chapter was written while I was listening to this song;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QABTvbv_cw