Chapter 21

The battle between Twilight and Chrysalis. Horns were clashing, feathers were plucked from wings, magic went flying. The element of magic versus the queen of an love-munching race of changelings. Nearby, the Equestrian group of Twilight's friends called out to their human-turned-pony counterparts, heeding to each of them to give Twilight help.

"Not on my watch, you don't!" The creature roared, using dark magic to freeze the human counterparts and trap them. They weren't fully frozen though. The only frozen portion of their bodies were their hooves and - in the sirens' case - their wings, mouths, and claws.

The human-turned-ponies tried flailing around, attempting to destroy the thick ice, but nothing was of good use. Soon after, the unicorns all found their horns being frozen by the creature.

"Give my dear a fair chance," he beamed, "although, Nocturnal knows that Chrysalis is already more powerful than Twilight Sparkle! Hahaha!"

"Twilight!" called out everyone at the same time, voices echoing throughout the throne room.

Twillight couldn't answer back, for she was far too busy trying to overcome Chrsyalis and her changeling magic. However, the longer the battle dragged on, the most stronger Chrysalis seemed to get - opposite of Twilight, who was being worn out by the length.

Chrysalis stopped and laughed at Twilight. "Give it up, Princess," she teased, "you are no match for me and my magic!"

"I will never give in to you!" Twilight panted, shooting Chrsyalis with a close beam of magic, blasting her back a few steps. Twilight got back up and stared into Chrysalis' eyes with the motivation of bringing her down driving her to continue onward in the battle.

Seemingly impressed by the second wind Twilight showed her, Chrysalis smirked, approaching Twilight once more, who simply stood there, waiting for the next attack, which was delayed slightly.

"Impressive power you have there, Twilight," Chrysalis praised, walking around Twilight slowly.

Twilight was on edge, unsure of what Chrsyalis would do next. The clouded strategy Chrysalis was providing was a most unusual battle tactic, throwing Twilight off mentally and physically. Unable to properly compose a defensive strategy, all Twilight did was simply stand in the center of the room, collecting her breath, hoping for the second wind to brush into a third wind.

Chrysalis smirked, pelting Twilight with her horn, knocknig her down and showering her with heavily magic-aided pain. "But you have a lot to learn!" she spoke as Twilight collapsed to the ground, eyes shutting slowly and vision becoming blurry.

"TWILIGHT!" all the ponies cried, unsure of her condition and all seemingly worried that Chrsyalis had just performed the absolute worst possible outcome.

Chrysalis left Twilight and her body to rot in front of all of her friends, even the newly befriended sirens. She approached Nocturnal Nights, whom was nothing other than proud that Twilight Sparkle had been dealt and was no longer a pesky thorn in their plans.

"Excellent work, Chrsyalis," he smirked evilly, "now there is nothing that stands in the way between us and total domination!"

"Pathetic alicorn," Chrysalis replied, aiding her words towards the downed pony princess, "you were the best Celestia had? I had expected a much better fight from the pony that supposedly defeated Lord Tirek on her own."

She defeated Lord Tirek? Nocturnal told himself, slightly impressed. And Chrysalis just defeated her...Chrysalis is more of a threat than she was.

Looking over to Chrsyalis, Nocturnal started planning a backup plan, just in case Chrsyalis wanted to try something funny on him, ending him in the process.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Sunset Shimmer sarted calling out Chrsyalis on her words, claiming that Twilight was indeed Princess Celestia's best student. Unamused, Chrsyalis spoke out against Sunset Shimmer as well.

"Silence, traitor!" Chrysalis shouted, pointing in anger towards Sunset Shimmer. "I remember you from my undercover days."

"I am not a traitor!" Sunset Shimmer defended.

"You, yourself was once a student of Celestia and you claim that this pathetic pony is better than you?" Chrsyalis went on, pointing down to Twilight's collapsed body.

"We may be neck and neck in terms of magic," Sunset Shimmer claimed, looking down slowly, "and I may know things that she doesn't know, but it's the other way around too! Princess Celestia saw the light of friendship in Twilight that-"

"UGH!" interrupted Chrsyalis, gagging in the process. "Friendship this and friendship that. You ponies are all the same, and now you too shall feel the wrath that young weakling here felt moments ago!"

A dark wave of magic erupted from Chrsyalis' horn, headed straight towards the trapped party - both Equestrian and human. Nearing Twilight rapidly, Sunset Shimmer acted quickly and managed to break free from Nocturnal's magic trap, running in front of Twilight and casting a mega-defensive spell, saving not only Twilight, but all her friends as well.

Angered, Chrysalis stopped the magic and scolded Nocturnal. "She broke free!" she yelled. "Do something!"

Trying in the process to re-capture Sunset Shimmer, Nocturnal claimed that he couldn't because her unicorn magic was too strong to break through.

"Then I shall dispose of her myself!" Chrysalis heeded, rising from her throne and slowly making her way down the center of the throne room.

"Come on, Twilight," Sunset Shimmer grunted, having a difficult time maintaining the spell, "wake up!"

"Huh? What happened? Where am I?"

Inside a void, Twilight was looking around for a clue to help her identify herself from where she currently stood, but was unable to find anything yet. Very quickly after starting her search, she had begun to hear a set of hooves hitting the ground - the nonexistant ground. The sounds were getting louder, finally grabbing Twilight's attention.

"Be not afraid, Twilight Sparkle," a voice called.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight replied, still unable to see anything in front of her.

"Twilight Sparkle," the voice continued, ignoring Twilight's call, "do you know where you are?"

"No," answered Twilight, "where am I?"

Revealing herself, Princess Luna finally locked eye contact with Twilight. She began explaining to Twilight where she was - purgatory.

"Purgatory?" Twilight repeated. "You mean...I'm dead?"

"Not necessarily," Princess Luna exclaimed, "in Equestrian purgatory, you are still alive, but your physical body is brutally beaten."

"Brutally beaten..." slowly came Twilight, remembering the fight that wore her down. "Princess Luna, I need help."

"Why do you think I'm here?" Princess Luna remarked.

"But what can you do from here?" Twilight wondered.

"Help you out as best as I can before sending your spirit back to your body." Princess Luna answered, smiling in the process. "Art thou ready for us?"

"Ready." Twilight answered.