Hoove-steps echoed through the crystal cavern. The sound echoed off the walls, slightly disturbing some sleeping bats that darted out of hiding to find a new perch. They flew high up in the air, screeching and flapping their wings as they did so. The sound was like a warning signal for the inhabitants of the cavern to move on.

Starting down the tunnels was a light pink coat alicorn mare sitting with their back facing the visitor. Their candy mane traced down to her hooves, barely touching the ground and another tracing over her wings. She wore a small golden crown atop her head with purple gems encrusted around its rim. Her neck wrapped with a golden necklace, and wears golden hoof shoes. Her flank plastered with the crystal heart as a cutie mark, and her purple eyes glowed like embers while her face seemed impassive, unmoved by the sounds around her. A slight smirk curved upon her lips at the sight.

She turned her gaze towards a steel door, painted with red runes along its surface. The door looked worn and dull from the amount of time it had seen use. It was slightly chipped with one corner coming loose, a sign of how long it’s been here. As she walked towards the large keyhole that covered one of the sides of the door, her horn lights up with a faint green. The light emitted a faint misty aura. A small, yet heavy set of iron keys jingled in her magic as she pushed them against the lock, causing it to slide to the right. With a quick flick she removed the keys from the lock and tossed them to the side before pressing down firmly on the lever. An audible click filled the room as the door opened.

She entered and closed the door behind her, locking it once again. Her hooves clomped lightly against the ground, mane swaying gently as her footsteps reverberated throughout the chamber. She smirked again, this time a little wider, a bit devilish. It brought an eerie sense of satisfaction within the being.

“Good afternoon, cotton ball.”

There, sat with their back facing the visitor was a light pink coat alicorn mare. Their candy mane was wild and unkempt, the fur was dirty and her tail drooped sadly in front of them, and her flank plastered with the crystal heart as a cutie mark. The alicorn mare turned to see who entered, their purple eyes meeting the identical ones before them. Immediately they narrowed their eyes, scowling at the intruder.

“I must say though I’m impressed. After all the torture I’ve put you through I’m surprised your mind hasn’t brake by now.” The intruder teased. A snort left the mare’s nose as her ears flattened against her skull. Despite not having spoken she could read the mare's thoughts. She had no interest in talking with the creature in front of her.

“Oh? You got nothing to say? Come now, I expected more from the Princess of the crystal empire.” The figure jeered as she moved closer to the mare, a sickening grin growing onto her face. “Or, is it that you’re still mad at the fact that I have your dear future husband in my clutches? He does seem quite fond of me, don't you think?”

The alicorn mare didn’t respond, instead continuing to stare at the other in silence.

“Come now, I would think he'd be grateful at least. You can be a very generous pony after all! Why else would I need to go through all that trouble to kidnap him and keep him as the perfect tool for my next phase of conquest.” The figure chuckled, reaching out to stroke the mare’s cheek. The mare slapped her hoof away, glaring angrily to the ground.

“But that’s not why you’re here isn’t it, Chrysalis?” The alicorn prisoner said in a well composed tone.

“Well, aren’t you a smart cookie.” The imposter known as Chrysalis chuckled. “I can see why he likes you, Cadance.”

The prisoner revealed as Cadance sighed. “Well, why are you here?” She inquired turning away from the tyrant.

“Alright, I’ll push aside my games.” Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed. “Where are the hidden elements?”

Cadance closed her eyes. “Even if I knew, what makes you think I’m gonna tell you?”

Chrysalis let out a chuckle. “You think I’m a fool? You may be clever, but that doesn’t mean anything to someone like me. Don’t play dumb with me, Cadance. We both know that you know their whereabouts. Give it up already.”

Cadance scoffed. “And betray my aunts, and doom all of Equestria? No, I will not. I would rather perish then let other ponies suffer under the heel of the false ruler you call yourself queen!”

“Don’t make me laugh!” Chrysalis shouted, taking a step towards the other. “I am far superior to you, you worthless lump of flesh and blood! I am your worst nightmare, a nightmare that haunts every single one of your nightmares.”

The two glared at each other in silence. A tension hung in the air between them, as heavy as a stone in the riverbed. Finally, Cadance broke the silent spell. “Then go ahead and execute me, if you think you could get anything done anyways.”

Chrysalis slowly smirked. “No, I won’t kill you. Not today anyway. I still need you after all, you’re a second tool for the next phase.” She backs away from Cadance. “But until that time is ripe you’ll remain here. With no hope of anypony coming to rescue you.”

Cadance watched the proud imposter starting their way down the door. The alicorn’s lips slightly smirked with confidence. “You know, I bet you'd be a lot shorter than me without all that seaweed you call a mane.”

Chrysalis stopped dead, going completely silent. She stayed like that for what felt like eternities before Cadance added insult to injury.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I struck a nerv—“ Her sentence was cut short when a beam of eerie green magic fled out from the imposter’s horn, engulfing Cadance.

Pain exploded through her whole body as she began convulsing and shrieking out in agony. Tears sprung from her eyes as every inch of her ached in pain and her mind was filled with screams of agony. It felt like hours before the pain finally abated, falling to the ground breathing heavily.

Every breath burned in her lungs like fire. She could barely make out her captor laughing at her as she laid panting in front of her. She tried to force herself to her feet but collapsed again, unable to even take a single step. She stared into the other’s eyes, glaring at Cadance with sheer contempt.

“Let me make this clear to you, princess,” Chrysalis said, her tone unsettling while slowly creeping towards the stunned alicorn, “if I wanted to escort you six feet under I could; but I brought you here as my prisoner, and the only reason that you’re still alive is because you are the last piece of the puzzle so if I were you I hold your tongue!”

Cadance let out a groan as she slowly lifted herself up off the ground.

“Say what you want, it won't work.” Cadance turned at the tyrant changeling with determination. “Evil can never win, especially evil ponies like you. I still have hope. Hope that somepony will come and stop you.”

Chrysalis smirked at the determined mare.

“Ha, alright humor me who is this mare you speak of?” Chrysalis asked, looking at Cadance curiously.

“Her name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“You mean that little slag bookworm that spends all her time reading books twenty-four seven?” Chrysalis was disappointed. “She couldn’t even best against Nightmare Moon on her own and yet you think she could best me?”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my source says she wasn’t alone. She made friends that helped her along the way and together they were able to defeat Nightmare Moon; and it’s because of their aid that when united they make the impossible possible.” Cadance answered confidently. Do not underestimate them.” She narrowed her eyes at the tyrant imposter. “But most of all, do not underestimate her.”

Chrysalis remained quiet, staring intently at the prisoner, before nodding curtly. “I suppose I shouldn’t waste anymore time talking to you. Your hope for your friend is futile, and your hope for a happy ending …is meaningless. All that matters right now is the end result. If the outcome of victory pleases me then there is nothing you can do about it. And I am the one who has power over destiny?” Chrysalis clicked her tongue. “What a naïve notion, you worthless cotton sop. You should be smart enough to know how pointless your wishes are.”

Chrysalis rolls her body around, walking towards the steel door . She placed her hooves on either side of the entrance. She raised her head to look back at Cadance.

“Oh, and as for Twilight Sparkle, well, we shall see if she is as you claimed her to be.”

With that she pressed against the door, the large metal slab slowly sliding back into place sealing the prisoner inside once more, leaving her lying helplessly on the cold floor.

Fluttershy panted like crazy, air rushing to her lungs. Tears swept across her face as every stride of her desperate gallop sent pain shooting through her hooves and legs. She had to do something. She must open up her wings and fly away quickly, she thought but, when she tried, she found them stuck, glued to her sides by fear. Despite every ounce of her being telling her to stop, she tried her best to keep running as her heart continued to pound against her rib cage. Her whole body was crying out for relief, her legs aching badly.

Fluttershy nearly had a panic attack when a loud roar pierced her ears, shaking her whole being. Her head whipped around to look behind her, as not one, not two, but an unnaturally large group of dragons appeared from behind the clouds, flying at a high rate of speed straight for her. In that millisecond she counted at least ten of them. She heard a snapping sound behind her, looking over her shoulder as she saw that a dragon had tried to bite down on her, it quickly recoiled its head, letting out an annoyed roar as it continued flying again. The large beast opened its jaws, trying to close them on her a second time but missed when the butter yellow pegasus took a quick turn causing its head to collide with a large boulder.

She took another turn, stopping dead in her tracks facing a rather large wall. Her head darted up—side to side, looking for anywhere she could climb on, her chest rising and falling due to her heavy breathing. Fluttershy felt her heart leap|| to her throat when she heard ten tremendous thuds shake the ground. Fluttershy ventured a slow, robotic motion around her shoulder. Fluttershy felt her heart almost stop as her eyes widened at the sight before her.

Eight giant dragons had come to land before her. One of the dragons growled softly as smoke billowed from its nose. The leader (Who was to the left of the aforementioned drake) was the calmest of the few, it had darkish grey scales, a white underbelly, snake-like venom green eyes and greyish single-lined spikes on its back and tail. Beside it were twins of the same albino color, the rest of the group though, all had scales in different shades of color.

The fourth; a darkish purple.

The fifth; green tinted in black.

The sixth; lemon yellow.

The seventh; flaming orange.

Finally the eighth; light pink.

“You have no idea how deep you dug your grave, you little runt,” the yellow one exclaimed, cracking his knuckles.

“Darn right boss. I spent too much time trying to get that gem and this little... little pest ruined it by crushing it with her meaty hooves!” The purple one shouted aggravatingly. The group all nodded their heads in empathy and agreement.

“Oh… umm… I… I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t mean too, I was just…,” The yellow pegasus timidly said, trying to hide behind her pink mane.

The lead drake shook his head, “Sorry ain’t gonna cut it missy,”.

The leader then raised his claw, intending to punish her without an ounce of mercy, but then he was struck by a thought.

“Hmm… you know what, I’ve changed my mind, I'm not gonna eat you,” He said calmly, lowering his arm, a toothy smirk now adorning his face.

“Oh…. I… uh… thank you…I guess I’ll just…,” The yellow pegasus was reduced to mumbling trying to step to the side and leave, only to be blocked by a half cupped claw.

“Who said I was letting you go?” The ||leader continued, his lips adorn with a smug smile. “You didn’t let me finish, you little runt. I did say that I’m not gonna eat you, I didn't say anything about other plans though...,”

“Boss! Boss!”

Everyone including Fluttershy paused as they looked to the direction of the sky where a little, sandy tan drake descended upon them, one of the drakes in the group clicking their tongue in annoyance that the entertainment had been cut short by this interruption.

Upon landing, the little drake sprinted up to the leader, bumping into his leg before glancing up at him.

“Boss, thank goodness I found you,” The little drake said, letting out a sigh of relief. The leader just tilted his head in puzzlement though.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay in the cave and guard our gold?” He demanded, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Yes, I know, but that’s just what I came to tell you about!” He suddenly exclaimed, concern clear in his voice. The other drakes just gave each other confused looks though upon hearing this.

The leader again raised a brow at the little one, “Whatever do you mean? Tell me what?”

Fluttershy carefully peeked around the corner of the grey dragon’s leg getting a better view of the little drake.

The tan drake cleared his throat, “Boss you’re not gonna believe this but, while you were away this thing, this creature, came into our cave, we tried to get rid of it but…,” he covered his face with his claws, “Oh Faust the amount of effort we did wasn’t nearly enough, it slaughtered them all, every last one of them!”

The light pink dragon blinked, staring at the little drake with a blank expression.

“It slaughtered all of them..?”

“Yes, but I managed to escape the massacre, I wish I could tell you more but we don’t have much time! That monster could be here any moment, we need to get out of here before!—”

At first Fluttershy didn’t know what happened, there was a massive thud that shook the ground, causing her to flinch and shut her eyes, and then something warm and wet spattered against her coat. As her eyelids slowly opened, Fluttershy gasped, the little drake had disappeared! She could see his remains in a puddle of blood, surrounded by a crimson mist. But nothing could prepare her for what she saw behind that cloud of mist. Covered in crimson fluid was an armored, bipedal creature. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, the proportions looked off and for one, the figure was thicker, with stockier legs, it looked almost like an adolescent dragon, or a minotaur maybe? She wondered as she ran her eyes over the flat, green surface of the armor it wore, her aqua eyes followed down, finding lighter patches across the creature’s chest and signs of battle scars on the arms, only deeper, and more… brutal. Its armor looked battered and worn.

"Are those claw marks?" She thought, her eyes darting from one part of the armor to another, "What could’ve attacked it to create those..?"

“Well don’t just stand there!” Fluttershy heard the lead dragon shout, “Burn the little cretin!”

The purple dragon pulled back, inhaling all the fire it held up inside its belly. The creature cracked its head, reaching down, it then pulled a metallic ball from a pouch on its waist belt, its thumb flicking a small pin from the top before chucking it into the now wide open mouth of the purple dragon, the flaming glow in its neck fading rapidly. The drake brought his claws up, grasping around his neck as his throat contracted, causing him to cough and gag. With this opening advantage, the armored creature lunged into the air, pulling a different strange metallic object from its back, this one having a wooden handle with what looked like two metal tubes connected to it. The creature pointed this device at the head of the purple dragon, a loud boom, like a small explosion, sounded, this was followed by two flashes coming from the tubes, causing the purple drake's head to explode in a cloud of red, his decapitated cadaver falling to the ground with a thump.

Breaking the two tubes open, the creature slammed a small red cylinder into each tube before slamming the tubes shut again, it then whipped the weapon around behind it, propelling itself forward through the air by firing a couple shots towards the green tinted dragon, its face exploding in a cloud of gore. The creature then threw the weapon to the side, disappearing in a flash. Cocking its right fist back, bawling tightly into a fist, the creature plunged it through the forehead of the lemon yellow drake, creating an explosion of bone, flesh, and brain. His body fell on its back leaving the five other dragons and the butter yellow pegasus stunned.

The creature landed on one knee, turning its head just in time to see another dragon charging towards it, mouth fully agape. It then rolled its body to face the winged lizard, bringing both hands up and taking a step back, curling its fingers into a tight fist. Right as the flaming orange dragon was inches from snapping its jaws, the creature sidestepped, and a loud spine-chilling crunching sound broke through the air.

The creature’s right fist had struck, landing its effortless might straight into its victim’s neck. The drake’s eyes shrunk as his windpipe was crushed, his forward momentum being canceled by the equal stopping force of the punch. His body betrayed itself and swung itself free of the ground, its whole being shifting out from under the overwhelming power of the punch and hitting the ground with a hard thud.

The drake jerked and twitched on the ground, as he tried desperately to get air through his broken windpipe, only for it to be filled with blood that now also poured freely from his mouth. He squirmed and jerked, as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. It lasted for a few seconds though until his body finally stopped squirming, life having escaped it.

Fluttershy stared at the fresh corpse that lay not too far from her. Fear coursed its way through every vein of her body, causing her to curl up shivering on the floor. Never before had she seen such a display of violence and brutality. This creature, this monster was without a doubt from the darkest depths of Tartarus. Watching it massacre the other drakes Fluttershy trembled as she considered what destruction it might wreak upon all she held dear. She wanted to run, more than anything, she really wanted to, but her limbs had been turned to lead by an all consuming terror. Though even if she had the will to turn and run, something in the back of her mind told her that would be a very bad idea…

One dragon among the group, colored in a light pink, stared in horror as the monster stood with blood dripping from both bawled fists. Rather than face the wrath of this bipedal freak of nature, he spread his wings and decided that it was time to flee but he wouldn't get very far with this plan. With speed faster than Rainbow Dash herself, the creature jumped up and grabbed the poor drake's tail, hurling him into the ground. The light pink dragon just had time to scream, before the creature punched its fist clean through the poor firebreather's head with a practiced ease. Gore oozed and dripped from the gaping hole. Looking up, the creature saw the three remaining dragons stare at it in horror.

The creature then started to slowly towards them but stopped halfway when it caught a glimpse of something. With a double-take, it walked backwards slowly and turned its head. They watched as the figure trotted its way towards a bush shoving both arms in and yanking out a large metallic object in both hands.

Both the dragons and Fluttershy’s eyes slowly widened as they all felt their heart sink to their stomach at the sight before them. The creature had another metallic object in its hands, though this one was as big as its torso, with three long sets of barrels, each set having three barrels stuck together in a triangular formation. Slowly the barrels began to spin to life, they spun faster and faster every second, once reaching top speed though, all three of the dragons were struck by a swarm of powerful projectiles, mulching the two albino dragons, and mutilating the lead drake. Steam billowed out of the barrels as the creature watched their bodies collapse to the floor.

For what felt like an eternity the creature stood in silence with the trees and air, its head then turned to look in the yellow pegasus’s direction. Not for very long though did it watch her, before she heard, and felt, a tremendous thud shake the ground, directing her attention instead to what now stood behind the creature. It was another dragon but bigger and one that she had never seen before, its scales were pure white quite like snow, it reminded her of Angel in a way.

Fluttershy felt herself quaking with fear as the figure and the drake approached her. As they strode calmly toward Fluttershy she sat there glued to the ground, her eyes welled up with tears, she was too afraid to move, run, or even fly away. If… this was it, if this was how her life ends, then she was glad that none of her friends, her animals or Angel were here to witness her upcoming doom. Will it be painful? Fluttershy wondered as the duo drew nearer, her wide eyed expression and body remained as immovable as stone, her eyes flickered, her vision began to blur and she promptly fell to the ground, unconscious. . .