Twilight and Starlight were loaded into the back of a cart pulled by pegasi after their capture at the hands of Charcoal and Sugar Belle. The paralysis spells wore off just as they were bound in shackles and fitted with inhibitor rings.

They dully felt the cart they were in lift off the ground and take to the air northwards. "Where are we going?" Starlight asked Twilight nervously, turning left to right anxiously, expecting the worst.

"They said something about an Emperor Spike... That probably means we are heading to the Crystal Empire. Spike loves that place." Twilight replied, acting oddly calm.

"How are you so relaxed right now?" Starlight asked in a mild panic, before Twilight silenced her with a finger to the mouth.

"Shh, don't worry. Clearly you haven't read any bad sci-fi novels before. We are obviously in some kind of alternate universe where everyone who is good is evil, and everyone evil is good. That is the most cliché alternate dimension story in existence. We are probably going to be saved last minute by a rag tag group of all our previous villains who are now heroes or something." Twilight said idly waving her hand through the air like it was no big deal.

Starlight barely noticed the sweat beading on her forehead and the slight quiver in her voice.

"We're gonna be fine."

Starlight opened her mouth to interject before she was interrupted by the loud banging of a hoof against the front of the cart. "Be quiet back there!"

The two ponies followed the request and quieted down. There were no windows in the cart. The only indication that they were moving was when they noticed the temperature drop slowly until they couldn't stop from shivering.

Just before they had to worry they might catch the flu or something, they were greeted by an overwhealming sense of warmth, signaling that they had arrived at their destination. The Crystal City.

The cart landed rather harshly on a crystalline roads of the empire, skidding to a halt slowly. The two of them were alone in the still back of the cart for a couple minutes before the doors at the back of the cart was harshly pulled open by a red dragon, Garble, who hissed at them.

"Good job Charcoal." Garble growled as he stared at them with narrow eyes.

"I captured them all by myself. Clearly The Emperor will give me a promotion!" Charcoal shouted.

"Bleh, you don't want to get a promotion. He can kinda be a dick when you work close to him. He threatened to take off my hand earlier." Garble said as he reached into the cart and grabbed Starlight by the wrist. The unicorn knew not to struggle for risk of the dragon breaking it.

"What'd you do?" Charcoal asked as he did the same to Twilight.

"I called his changeling pet a beast." Garble said which earned a gasp from Charcoal.

"You did what?!? You realize the Emperor claimed he would behand anyone who even touched one of his slave right? The fact that you got off calling one of them an animal definitely shows favoritism on the Emperor's part!" Charcoal said as he began to drag Twilight out of the cart.

Twilight threw a glance to Starlight before she saw where they were. The center of the Crystal City, just outside the plaza which contained the Crystal Heart. It was still there, but was contained behind a massive transparent wall and guarded by dozens of dragons and ponies.

Starlight was soon pulled out next to her mentor as the two began to be rather harshly dragged towards the closest entrance to the castle on stilts.

"Says you, The Emperor also choked me out when I told him about these two bitches." Garble said as he grouped Starlight's rear. Starlight tensed up and gasped in response but again, couldn't really do anything without her magic. She and Twilight were not the strong ones of their group.

"Unf, I hope the Emperor doesn't turn these ones to stone, I would really like to hear how they scream." Garble darkly whispered before running a forked tongue along the side of Starlight's face.

"Leave her alone you bastard!" Twilight shouted. She was quickly silenced when Charcoal twisted her arm behind her back.

"Shut it." He hissed.

The two soon found themselves inside the castle proper. One major change really caught their attention first. There were a lot of slaves in the castle. The only bit of clothing they all wore were metal collars around their necks signifying their status.

The slaves were of all races on Equestria, barring Yaks and dragons, but the vast majority of them were ponies, clearly showing the class and racial divide of the new Equestria.

Some lined the walls of the hallways, their heads dutifully lowering and hands behind them, forced to show off their bodies to their masters. Others were being pulled along by leashes, either standing up right or shoved onto all fours, their tails either raised or tied up.

Twilight averted her eyes while Starlight only cringed as they passed a dragon shamelessly holding a slave down and fucking them for the whole castle to see.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing things was that it wasn't just dragons who owned slaves. They saw plenty of ponies treating their fellow creatures as playthings. One thing they saw which made both of them visibly upset was the glimpse of Sunburst forcing Flash Sentry on his knees in a room they passed.

Garble shoved Starlight into Charcoal's grasp when they arrived at the entrance to the Throne room. "Wait out here. I will alert the Emperor."

The Dragon pushed open the gate, allowing the two of them to breifly see the petrified forms of the alternate universe selves and friends. Garble closed the door behind him and Charcoal grinned.

"I really hope The Emperor allows me to use you two first..." He darkly whispered to them which caused them to freeze up. Twilight held her breath as she looked around the room for some means of escape.

Her eyes came across two massive dark grey plaques pinned to the wall. They were two rather long lists of rules.

The first one a rule list for slaves, and the second one for their masters. Twilight was rather sickened as she the propaganda of this new regime;

Rules for Slaves:

-You are property nothing more. Being property is not a bad thing. No freewill, means no stress, sadness or hardships again. Enjoy your new privileges.

-Your tail must always be raised to show your master your assets.

-Your master is the only thing left in your life. Love them, for they own you. You are a servant and a plaything.

-Never take off your collar, or you will be disciplined.

-If you are a magic user, never take off your inhibiter, or you will be disciplined.

Rules for Masters:

-Your slaves are yours to do with as you wish, however keep the Emperor's caste system in mind. Changelings are to be used solely for pleasure and Yaks for physical labor. Other races are fair game. Only the Emperor may own a dragon.

-Magical build up will harm slaves wearing inhibitors. Make sure to give biweekly horn jobs to expunge the build up.

-Any lasting or permanent damage done to your slaves will be done to the master as well. Pain is not to be encouraged.

Twilight shook her head. At the very least the slaves were not allowed to be harmed much. It was still horrible. Were they really trying to convince creatures that being owned was a good thing?

Also, what was this mention of a caste system? Was this universes Spike insane or something?

She locked eyes with Starlight who had just finished reading the list as well. Something was definitely wrong.

The doors to the throne room opened and guards quickly walked passed them leaving the room alongside Garble.

"The Emperor wants to speak to them alone." Garble told Charcoal who nodded and tossed the two into the room, slamming the doors behind them.

The two of them took a couple seconds to re-orientate themselves before slowing pulling themselves up and stared passed the statues in the room and at the Throne.

Sitting on one of the throne's arms was an otherwise nude Ember, baring a metal collar. A dark smile was on her face as she kept her arms wrapped around the dragon sitting next to her.

In said throne however, sat Spike the Dragon. Except he was much taller and bulkier than their Spike. He wore a suit of dark grey armor and a black crown. His eyes glowed a light green, with red pupils in the middle.

"Welcome. I've been expect-" Spike started in a deep voice before he was rather rudely interrupted.

"AHA!" Starlight yelled, standing up and pointing at Spike who raised an eyebrow at her, glancing to Ember. "I knew that Spike couldn't have done this! That is obviously Sombra using his body!" She shouted to Twilight.

Twilight's eyes widened. "EXACTLY!" She screamed standing up as well. "Let Spike go Sombra!"

Spike and Ember's mouths fell agape, glancing from each other to them several times for a couple moments. Then they started to break down in laughter, Ember falling off the throne, and Spike bringing a claw to his face slapping his armored knee.

Twilight and Starlight awkwardly deflated in confusion. "W-what?" they both asked.

Spike was the first to calm down wiping a tear from his eye and standing up. "Heh, That was actually really funny. To think I was originally scared of you two." Spike said as he started to walk towards one of the statues.

They noticed the statue of Celestia had the bloodstone scepter in her petrified hands, except, for some reason, the Scepter had a rainbow pattern in it's central gem rather than being a solid red.

"You know what this thing is?" He asked as he pulled the scepter out and twirled it as he walked back towards his throne.

"The b-bloodstone scepter?" Twilight Sparkle said with uncertainty in her voice.

"That's what it used to be before I gave it a little upgrade. Now it's called the Scepter of Domination. Let me show you what it does." He smugly said before quickly whipping around and firing a rainbow colored laser from the tip of the scepter.

Starlight quickly tackled Twilight out of the way of the laser, which turned the crystal floor it hit into a grey white stone.

"What?" The two asked as they stared at the now stone ground.

"Y-you're using the elements of Harmony!" Twilight shouted in fear. "H-how is that even possible?"

Spike deeply sighed. "Great, I missed and now I need to explain my plan to you so you have time to escape." He grunted with an eye roll before smiling. "Not!"

Once again he fired the laser. They weren't as lucky this time, and the laser clipped one of Starlight's hooves, turning it to stone and immobilizing her in place, and trapping her. Twilight ran up to her, realizing too late that she had just made herself a prime target.

Spike smiled darkly as he lowered the scepter one more time, pointing it at the both of them. "I think I'm going to have you two turned into fountains." He darkly hissed before he was suddenly shot in the side of the head by a light green beam of magic.

The Emperor collapsed, paralyzed by a spell he quickly realized. Ember screamed in a panic and rushed to his side to make sure he was alright.

Twilight and Starlight stared at Spike for a couple minutes before a wall to the room exploded inwards and a dark purple mist seeped into the room. The mist subsided to show armored forms of the Former King Sombra, and a changeling with purple eyes and a red headfin and tail standing before them.

The changeling unsheathed a sword and slowly turned towards Ember and Spike. "You get those two out of here. I'm going to finish this." He said in a gruff voice.

"No!" Sombra shouted to him as he crouched next to Starlight, his horn glowing. The stone trapping Starlight's hoof started to slowly flake and fall off like ruined concrete. "Help me get the stone off her leg!"

The Changeling didn't listen as he approached Spike. Ember stood up and roared at him, she charged at the changeling but was quickly paralyzed as well by another spell from the changeling. She collapsed backwards and fell into Spike's throne.

"Ember!" The paralyzed Emperor shouted in concern before the shadow of the Changeling fell over him.

He raised his blade into the air and prepared to bring it down on Spike's head. "This is for my brother."

"P-pharynx?" They all heard from the side of the room.

Standing in the door frame to a bed room on shaky legs was Thorax. He, like Ember, was nude, but wore a similar metal collar.

"Thorax?" Pharynx said taking a couple steps towards Thorax. "Wh-what did he do to you?!?"

Pharynx didn't notice his spell wear off. Just as Pharynx was about to make a move towards his brother, Spike rose up with a roar and punched Pharynx as hard as he could in the chest.

Pharynx had the wind knocked out of him as he was thrown across the room landing next to Sombra.

"Damn it!" The dark king shouted before the throne room door suddenly burst open and Garble, Charcoal and several guards started to rush in.

"Arrest them!" Garble shouted as Spike picked up his scepter again.

The dark king frowned, before turning into smoke. He picked up Pharynx and Twilight in the smoke and rushed out of the room, narrowly avoiding a blast from the Scepter of Domination.

Starlight found herself the only pony in the room as Spike stood up and checked on Ember.

"They got away sir." Charcoal said quietly as Ember was roused from paralysis. She pulled herself up as Thorax shakingly pulled himself up next to her and wrapped her in a weak hug which she reciprocated.

"I am aware Captain." Spike said as he held the staff up. The stone in the room, barring that on the statues and Starlight's leg started to slowly liquify and flow through the air back to the crystal tip of the staff.

"They won't be gone for long though." He said staring at Starlight.

New chapter woot woot!

What a sudden bombshell at the end though right? Why ever are Pharynx and Sombra trying to stop Spike? Why are Spike's eyes glowing? What's gonna happen to Starlight?

Find out next time I actually manage to find the time to update lol