Chapter 37
*?*
It's been days and neither of the 5 have seen her, where could she have gone? They were worried for her at first, but they had assumed she was just isolating herself by staying in her house. Of course when they found out the truth, they knew regardless if she wanted to see them or not, they had to visit her and apologize, for everything. After class they all agreed to see how she was doing. Reluctantly Rarity knocked on her door.
"Sunset?" Rarity called, the only response she got was silence and she turned to the others behind her with a worried expression. Rainbow sighed and walked in front of the door and knocked.
"C'mon, look we're sorry alright? We found out that it wasn't you that leaked those pictures, we feel horrible for accusing you like that. Can you open?" Rainbow asked, she got the same response as Rarity, silence. She growled loudly and kicked at the floor.
"Please darling, let us make it up to you" Rarity pleaded as she tried working the door. To everyone's surprise, the door was unlocked and Rarity let go as the door creaked slightly open. They eyed each other with confused and worried expressions, then Rarity slowly opened the door.
"Sunset?" Fluttershy called as Rarity turned on the lights. Mostly everything looked normal, like nothing happened, but the bed was messy and her school books were on the table, where did her book bag go?
"She's not here!" Pinkie gasped as the all stepped inside.
"Where could she have gone?" Applejack asked, picking up one of the textbooks labeled 'Geometry' and flipping through it.
"Maybe she left a note" Fluttershy theorized, as she opened the drawer. It was full of blank pages and the occasional 'grocery list' on it, no notes.
"You don't think she ran away right?" Rarity asked with a worried expression as she placed a hand to her heart and looking very worried. Rainbow flinched at this, they all argued with her yes, but did they really drive her to run away?
"No way! Somebody has to have seen her!" Rainbow disagreed immediately. Besides, where could she have gone? Well maybe she knows a friend she can stay with.
"Maybe Principal Celestia knows something" Fluttershy thought out loud.
"Yeah! I'm going to go ask here!" Rainbow declared as she stormed out the room, wiping her eyes along the way. Pinkie's hair began looking… dull somehow. Almost like her hair reflected her mood or something, but that's ridiculous.
"Don't you worry, we'll find 'er" Applejack said as she hugged Pinkie, to which she returned the hug and tried her best not to cry. Fluttershy began looking out the window, it was such a big world out there, where could she have gone? Wait, world. It then clicked for Fluttershy as she jumped up a little.
"What if she went through the portal?" Fluttershy asked.
*Meanwhile*
"Perhaps some tea will calm your mind" Zecora began as she began pouring the potion she originally made for Discord into a new glass and held it out to the royal sisters. Celestia shook her head.
"We appreciate it Zecora, but-" Celestia began.
"I insist, the pleasure is all mine" Zecora interrupted, she knew Celestia and Luna were both having issues with all of this, they have been doing nothing but looking at the floor, lost in thought. Celestia frowned a little but gave a pained smile as she took the glass.
"Thank you" Celestia thanked as she took a light sip of it. Zecora then poured a glass for Luna and handed it to her also, she eyed the drink confusingly as if she was wondering if it was safe to drink.
"What do you plan to do? Doing nothing is unlike any of you." Zecora said as she poured herself regular tea and took a sip along with Luna.
"For the first time in centuries, I have no clue how to help my citizens" Celestia said with a worried expression on her face, they barely defeated Havoc last time and that was with both Starswirl and their parents, what chance did they stand now?
"Sometimes life will seem difficult, troubles and turns with no clear path to take, but I assure you if you look at thing the right way, it'll go steady like a clear lake." Zecora assured as she placed her cup down and smiled.
"Zecora my friend, we have seen the extent of Havoc's magic. We'd be lying if we said that even the Elements of Harmony could work on him." Luna said, knowing very well the elements weren't an option anymore.
"Even if we did have enough magic, we wouldn't be able to use it anymore because of the deal we made" Celestia added, taking another sip to try and calm herself.
"I know that the deal may seem to seal our doom, but the deal was he may not harm 'anyone in this room.'" Zecora said, earning a confused look from both Celestia and Luna.
"Anyone in this room?" Luna asked. The deal Celestia made was she couldn't use her magic and in exchange Havoc couldn't hurt Celestia, Luna, Spike, nor Zecora. No wait, she said 'anyone in this room!'
"Of course, the deal applies to anyone who is in this room" Celestia realized as she looked around the place, there was definitely a faint chaos spell placed in the room. She couldn't believe she didn't realize it before!
"So we must bring them here and Havoc won't be allowed to hurt them" Luna thought, they had a leverage on Havoc after all.
"We must gather everypony here" Celestia said. One problem though, how could they do that? Normally she'd contact them with Spike but- Wait, Spike!
"We forgot! Spike left!" Luna exclaimed, she must've thought the same thing as Celestia.
"He could get hurt, we must find him immediately" Celestia said.
"Find Spike? But he's right here." A sinister voice said. They all turned to the door and gasped.
"Sunset Shimmer!" Luna growled, Sunset didn't flinch though as she casually stepped towards the middle of the room, a relaxed smile on her face. Zecora and Celestia just frowned at her, but Zecora has never met Sunset before.
"What's wrong Princess? No greeting for your student?" Sunset teased at Celestia, she hasn't seen her in a long time. Well, not the Equestria version of Celestia anyway.
"What are you doing here?" Celestia asked sternly, earning an exaggerated gasp from Sunset.
"I'm shocked, I thought you'd be happy to see me." Sunset joked. Suddenly Luna stepped in between Sunset and Celestia, to which Sunset responded with a look of amusement, like if she was a puppy playing guard dog.
"Perhaps you've come for a rematch?" Luna asked with a determined smile, she knew she could win against her again, regardless of how much she's improved in the short time.
"Sorry Luna, but I'm here for Celestia, not you" Sunset said as her smile faded into a frown. Luna met her gaze with a frown of her own.
"We won't allow you to hurt our sister" Luna growled as her horn began glowing. Sunset chuckled at this.
"Fine, I'll fight you instead. I guess Celestia can go fight Shining Armor." Sunset sighed, her horn began glowing as well. Before Luna could question her she heard a grunt from behind followed by the sound of a body hitting the wall, making her turn around to see her sister knocked against the wall.
"Tia!" Luna yelled but was soon hit with a powerful beam as well, sending her towards the wall close to Celestia. Both the sisters quickly glanced up, a little fazed but not very harmed. A familiar figure then walked over to Sunset Shimmer, making both the royal sisters' eyes widen.
"Change of order, defeat Celestia" Sunset said without looking at the figure, then said figure nodded in response and his horn began glowing as well.
"Shining Armor?" Celestia called out. He didn't respond, in fact he didn't even seem to react, like he didn't hear her at all. His horn began glowing and in a chilling monotone voice and expression, prepared to send another shot at Celestia.
"Orders, defeat Princess Celestia." Shining Armor recited.
"We're *pant* here" Trixie said with a smile as she wiped the sweat that was coming down from her horn. She usually just rolled her cart to her destinations, but in situations where she needed to get somewhere quickly, or escape quickly, she'd teleport the whole thing. Needless to say, it took a lot of effort from her, especially if it was very far away.
"Good work sis'" Screwball said as she handed her a cup of chocolate milk she summoned, to which Trixie quickly grabbed and gulped down the whole thing. It wasn't exactly thirst quenching, but at this point she didn't care.
"Thanks" Trixie said as she handed her the cup back, to which Screwball tossed the cup into her mouth and swallowed, she remembered not to actually chew the glass. She learned that the painful way.
"Will you be alright?" Twilight asked, looking worried for the still sweating Trixie.
"The Great *pant* and Powerful Trixie *pant* will be alright" Trixie said, not convincing any of them. Screwball then summoned a fan in front of Trixie and turned to the others.
"Maybe I should wait here with you" Screwball suggested, earning a weak smile from Trixie.
"You two can wait here, we'll go inside to see Cadence" Twilight said with a determined look on her face, she knew her childhood foalsitter would be able to help.
"Actually it's probably best I wait here also, I'm just extra weight at this point. Plus, I don't think the Princess of Love would enjoy meeting the Spirit of Chaos." Discord joked.
"Alright, c'mon girls" Twilight said as she opened the door.
"Actually, hold up I just remembered something" Screwball said, halting them before any of them exited the door. She then approached Twilight with a serious look.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, looking confused. Screwball's serious face turned into a playful one as she gently poked Twilight.
"Tag, you're it" Screwball announced as her small cloud disappeared and another one formed over Twilight, drenching her.
"You could've at least warned me" Twilight said as she formed a bubble around the cloud and shook herself dry, earning a laugh from Pinkie and Screwball. Without another word Twilight and the other 5 stepped out to get a better view of the Crystal Palace, but something seemed off.
"Where is everypony?" Rainbow asked as they walked through the empty marketplace. Twilight had a bad feeling about this, the usually festive marketplace looked abandoned and ominous, like a ghost town.
"Hello?" Pinkie called out, the only response was her echo. Twilight just now noticed how the sky looked like it was going to rain, this seemed very scary. This seemed very, chaotic.
"C'mon girls!" Twilight exclaimed as she connected the dots and ran for the Crystal Palace, the others following behind. They charged through the door and found no guards, they continued running until they reached Cadence and Shining Armor's room.
"Cadence?" Twilight called as she knocked on the door lightly. The door creaked open and they all gasped.
"C'mon, roll the dice and see what happens!" Havoc chanted as he tossed the dice up and down. Queen Chrysalis frowned at this, he was toying with her and yet he was so powerful. A nearby guard began hissing at the draconequus and Chrysalis held up a hoof to silence him.
"And if I don't?" Chrysalis asked. Havoc with a still (somewhat) playful smirk on his face shook his head disapprovingly as he continued tossing the dice up and down.
"Let's just say, I'll have one less empire to worry about" Havoc said in a low and almost monotone voice. Chrysalis always did her research when facing a new opponent, she'd always feel like she had the upper hand. But this wasn't the case, she knew little to nothing about Havoc, but she could tell he was a force to be reckoned with.
Queen Chrysalis practiced reading body language, it was one of the requirements and training they went through to disguise into Pony society, although Havoc had Discord's body his fur looked messier than normal, one of the first indications that this wasn't Discord she was speaking to. One thing she noted was how easily he got into the palace, even with teleportation magic she and the outside guards would sense it, but he somehow silently entered. Although she didn't know how strong he actually was, she wasn't prepared to take the risk. Besides, she still had leverage on him.
"Alright, I'll do it" Chrysalis said as she held out her hoof and Havoc eagerly tossed the dice to her. The changeling sighed as she rolled the dice and tossed it downwards. When the dice stopped rolling, the symbols on them were of a biohazard sign and the other one had 'X2" written on it.
"Oh boy! Sickness times two!" Havoc cheered as the changeling began feeling ill. Changeling have been trained to endure even the worst of smells and fumes, but this was on a whole new level and the changeling found herself turning slightly greener than normal, earning a laugh from Havoc.
"Satisfied?" She asked as she tried to contain the urge to vomit. Havoc was wiping away tears in his eyes as he smiled down at her.
"For now" Havoc plainly said as he teleported away, to the joy of the sick changeling. Without another thought, 'Queen Chrysalis' formed green flames around her and shapeshifted into, a normal soldier!
"Good work soldier" a voice said, then a previously invisible figure emerged in the middle of the room. It was Queen Chrysalis. The real one, the one Havoc encountered was simply a decoy for him.
"Urk!" The soldier went as he stormed out of the room to look for the nearest bathroom.
"Good work Queen, he fell for the trick" another soldier congratulated as he approached the Queen and bowed, she then sit down on the throne the decoy was previously sitting on.
"This foe is beyond my power, we'll need more power in order to secure our safety" Queen Chrysalis said as she began coming up with a plan. She needed more power, a lot more. According to the scout's intelligence report Havoc had defeated the whole griffin army, she was glad she decided to put a spy there after all.
"We should extract more love from the ponies" one of the guards suggested. Of course in any other situation that would've worked, heck it worked last time when a dragon was approaching them, the last time they tried to 'invade' Canterlot, her original goal was to just extract enough food and power for her subjects. Although they were defeated, no casualties were reported and they had plenty of love leftover.
"We won't gather enough power, I'm afraid we'll need a more, direct approach" Chrysalis said as she stood up and held up a hoof, signaling for 2 guards to follow her. She and her guards then began heading for the door and it slowly opened.
"Where are you going?" A guard asked with a nervous look.
"I'm going to see an old enemy" Chrysalis said as she and the two guards flew off towards Canterlot.
"Tw-Twilight?" Cadence asked, immediately sitting up from her bed. The others altered between the messy room and the clearly tear stained Cadence on the bed.
"What happened?" Twilight asked as she immediately ran to her former foalsitter. Cadence sniffed a little but then her face turned a deadly shade of red.
"SHINING ARMOR STILL HASN'T RETURNED!" Cadence yelled, making everyone in the room jump from the sudden spike in her voice. Twilight sighed a little, she thought she was hurt, of course she was worried for her big brother.
"Wait, if you're fine then why is the place so… deserted?" Rainbow asked, looking out the window to see the sky was still as dark as ever. Cadence's infuriated face turned into an embarrassed face and she smiled sheepishly.
"When I'm upset, I tend to… let my magic go out of control" Cadence admitted as her horn began glowing and the dark clouds disappeared, revealing a sunny day.
"Where is everypony?" Fluttershy asked. Just before Cadence could answer they heard crowds of people outside, prompting them to look outside. Ponies began emerging from their homes, taking a glance up to make sure it was safe again.
"Princess?" A voice asked from the door, guards began crowding the door with worried and scared expressions.
"Has the Prince returned?" Another guard asked. Suddenly the clouds outside re-emerged and the sunny day was covered as Cadence frowned, making them gulp.
"HE BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION!" Cadence yelled, the crystal ponies outside immediately took shelter again. Twilight put a hoof to her foalsitter's shoulder and smiled, soon the Crystal Princess did the same and the clouds dispersed again. Although, Twilight's smile looked a little... pained.
"He does" Twilight said.
It was weird, Shining Armor felt like he was a prisoner in his own body to an extent. Some of his actions were involuntary while others were, he felt like he was controlling a shell rather than his body. He could still hear the first command in his head, it kept echoing as if he needed constant reminders.
Wait for the right moment, then shoot the Princess.
Shining Armor wasn't sure which Princess he was referring too, his memory was very vague for some reason, but he knew he had to obey Sunset Shimmer. He had launched his strongest shot at the Princess with the white fur, then Sunset had did the same with the dark blue one. He had assumed he did his work correctly as he walked next to his master.
Change of order, defeat Celestia.
The new order rang through his ears as he unconsciously stated his new goal as he prepared to launch another attack. Shining armor expected the Princess, who he now assumed was Princess Celestia, to immediately stand up or prepare to counter, but she just laid there with complete horror. Maybe he was just scarier than he was let on to believe.
Keep her distracted while I prepare. Don't let her interfere.
Shining heard this order in his head rather through his ears and he nodded. He then shot his magic at 'Princess Celestia' and right before it made contact, she flashed away and the beam left a burn mark on the wall. Shining began to look around for her, where did she go?
She went outside, don't let her escape. You know the plan, don't mess up.
As Shining walked out he thought he heard the dark blue Princess say something, but it was irrelevant to his mission. That's all that mattered, his mission. Obey the voice. Obey Sunset Shimmer. He expected to have to chase down 'Princess Celestia' but he found her standing outside like a statue, staring at him like he was some kind of wild animal.
Shining let his horn glow to try and intimidate her, he was told to keep her alive if possible. She didn't flinch, in fact she looked as if she was on the verge of crying. What sort of strategy does she have? 'Princess Celestia' then said something. She must assume she'll win already, underestimating him. She said "I'm sorry" as she took up a stance.
Shining felt he couldn't fail. He won't fail. He will win. Obey the voice. Obey Sunset Shimmer.
Sorry but I won't be able to update as frequently, school started again and I'll be as busy as ever. Sorry D:
I hope that last segment was interesting, I tried writing it out from the perspective of a mind-controlled pony. Also, since the changelings were masters of disguise, I made it so they can even trick Havoc. You'll see their significance later.