At the edge of Everfree Forest just outside of Ponyville, there is a small woodland cottage that has various birdhouses and small animal holes nearby it. It is where Fluttershy and her many animal friends live, including her pet bunny named Angel. And sometimes Discord pays Fluttershy a visit since they both became close friends after those times the spirit of chaos was the adversary of the Mane Six. But since Discord learned the meaning of friendship and sees it as an important thing between him and Fluttershy, he set aside his chaotic doings for good and is on good terms with everypony.

While the night went on, upstairs in Fluttershy's room of the cottage, Discord was preparing Angel's little bed as the white bunny kept a watchful and stern look at his work. Discord moaned a bit as he finished and looked at Angel, "Is this better, now?"

The bunny leapt onto his bed and checked it carefully, while Discord had a worried frown on his face. Eventually, Angel looked up to Discord, and gave a nod while closing his eyes.

"Finally!" Discord wiped his forehead with his paw, and he winced due to the lingering pain from earlier today. "Ow!" he yelped, keeping his paw still for a moment, "I guess the baby Alicorn's strength is more grand than I thought."

Angel's ears perked up and looked up at Discord with a surprised expression. Discord notices this. "What? Didn't Fluttershy tell you?" he asked. The bunny shook his head. "Guess I'll tell you then," the spirit of chaos disappeared in a flash then reappeared on a bit smaller scale leaning onto the edge of Angel's bed, "Shining Armor and Princess Cadance had a baby named Flurry Heart, and what is shocking is that the little filly is an Alicorn! Can you imagine? A baby Alicorn being born after so many centuries in Equestria!" Discord chuckles as Angel is perplexed at what he heard.

"Anyway," Discord goes back to his original size, "I'm sure Fluttershy will go into more detail on that once she comes back. In the meantime," Discord snaps his fingers and two carrots appeared in his claw, "how about a toast?"

Angel sees Discord being in a happy mood, which is unusual to the bunny, but he shrugged and takes a carrot from him. "To the first born baby Alicorn," Discord announces while tapping his carrot with Angel's, "Equestria and beyond ever witnessed!" Angel smirked at Discord's usual dramatics, and they are about to take a bite of their carrots...

ZING!

When a sudden and terrible feeling runs down their spines making them look shocked. Soon, the animals inside and outside the cottage are scurrying and crying about in panic, even Angel hid inside is bed feeling scared. Discord attempts to calm down the animals but to no avail. "What in Equestria was that?" he said aloud to himself, "It's like something bad, something terrifying, which is unusual for me to feel, and something more evil than my old self is making its move!"

Discord floats outside to see the animals around the cottage running about and trying to take shelter while some came out of the Everfree Forest and ran from it like a forest fire erupted. "Oh, I do hope Fluttershy and her friends are alright." Discord said worryingly.

Back in the baby bedroom of the Crystal Castle, Flurry Heart the baby Alicorn struggles in her sleep while a black coated Unicorn comes in through the window. He steps close to the baby bed and stares down with a grin on his face on the baby. Then, Flurry Heart attempts to cry, but only lets out short breathes, like she was coming down with a fever. The Unicorn chuckles evilly.

"Try to cry all you want, baby Alicorn." he says, "You are under Azerrad's spell now. Even though you are an Alicorn, your mind is so fragile it is so easy to break down nice and slow."

Throughout the areas of the castle, insect like ponies silently take down the royal guards while Azerrad talks, "While the Changelings are busy keeping the guards at bay, some of them including their Queen, Chrysalis, will capture Twilight Sparkle and her friends. That way they won't try anything unexpected while I take you to your new and better father, who can provide more then what your pathetic excuse of rulers of this empire can."

Then, two Changelings come in through the window, and one of them makes some snarling sounds which Azerrad seems to understand. "Excellent," said Azerrad, "the guards didn't know what hit them. Now we must wait until your Queen secures the Princess of Friendship and her friends down."

In one of the bedrooms, Twilight Sparkle rests with the same lonely expression that made its way onto her face some time ago. Then, she squints her face like she is in pain and rolls a bit left and right while taking quick breathes. It seems she is having a nightmare. "Ah, no!" Twilight mumbles in fright in her sleep, "Why? Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?"

In her dream, in her point of view, three colts are harassing Twilight. One of them laughs, "Ain't it obvious? You are with the high class snobs of Canterlot!"

"Yeah!" the other colt joined in, "All you care about is keeping to yourselves and not giving the proper respect to us regular ponies or 'blank flanks' as you like to tease us about!"

"T-that's not true!" Twilight says, who sounds more younger than herself and seems to be crying, "I don't even know you!"

The third colt without warning shoved Twilight down to the ground. "That's right! You don't!" the third colt spat out angrily, "You think we 'blank flanks' are the same, but that's hogwash! We are different, and that's what makes us special!"

"And now," the first colt says, stepping up to Twilight, "We'll teach you a lesson about respect, one that you will do well to remember for a long time!"

Then, the colt picked up a rock with his hooves and swung it down on Twilight's head. Everything goes dark for her, and all Twilight could hear next was another colt's voice. "Oi!" was all Twilight heard, and everything sounded faint.

"Oi. Are you okay?"

Twilight's vision returns, and she finds herself lying on the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her head and she winces.

"Oi, take it easy. That rock struck your head pretty hard."

Twilight looks up to see an Earth colt with a gray coat, lilac eyes and a small dark purple spiky mane, and he looks concerned for her. "W-who...who are you?" she asks.

The colt smiles softly, something that makes Twilight gasp quietly. "I'm Zenith," he answers, "What's your-"

The dream abruptly ends, and Twilight awakes to the feeling of being constricted. A green aura surrounds her legs and mouth and even her horn, and she screams, only to be muffled by the aura. She is lifted off the bed by the aura, and to Twilight's horror, standing near the open window is Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.

Chrysalis's horn glows in the green aura as the constrictions are, and she walks up to the angry lilac Alicorn while chuckling. "Princess Twilight Sparkle." says Chrysalis, "I take it you are surprised?"

Twilight's angry shouts are muffled by the green aura, and Chrysalis chuckles more. "I'll take that as a yes." The bedroom door opens, and a Changeling walks in, snarling in a language foreign to Twilight, and Chrysalis grins. "Well done, my pet." she said.

Chrysalis walks out of the bedroom, taking Twilight in the air with her. To Twilight's shock, her friends are in the same predicament as she is, along with the green aura surrounding Applejack's and Pinkie's barrels, around Rainbow Dash's and Fluttershy's wings, and around Rarity's horn. Twilight tries to access her magic, but it isn't responding, which leaves her perplexed and scared as Chrysalis laughs.

"Don't bother, Twilight," Chrysalis cackled, "My spell has you and your friends' magic constricted. Right now you might be wondering, how? How could I cast this spell on an Alicorn, one that she could counter so easily yet for some reason she can't?"

Twilight hears two muffled voices, and she sees to her further shock, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are trapped like she is.

"Well, you see," Chrysalis started to explain while pacing around, glaring at the ponies gleefully, "a certain, acquaintance I made some time ago gave me this power, one that is as powerful as love. Lust."

The ponies are shocked to hear such a word as Chrysalis continued, "By thinking about how that emotion is, pleasurable, I was able to trap you all in this spell."

"By now, most of her Changelings have dealt with the guards." an unfamiliar voice is heard down the hall. The ponies turn their heads, and saw with great shock that a black coated unicorn is levitating the sleeping yet suffering Flurry Heart in his red aura. "Especially your clumsy right-hoofed- oops. I mean, your clumsy and pathetic left-hoofed Pegasus of the Princess of Love." mocked Azerrad.

The muffled shouts of Shining Armor is heard as he glares angrily at the black unicorn, but Azerrad chuckles. "Insult me all you like, you sorry excuse of a Prince," Azerrad jeered gleefully, "You all have nopony to blame but yourselves." He turned to the constricted ponies, "You were so glad and surprised to see a baby Alicorn right before your eyes, it never occurred to you that somepony of evil intentions would intend to ponynap one for their own plans."

"Quite true." Chrysalis said, "It leads me to wonder if you foals are even worthy of being my rivals." The ponies simply glared at Chrysalis. "Well, I'm sure you will come to terms with your realization in due time."

"And it better be soon," Azerrad added, "or this little Alicorn's life will be a very short one."

As Azerrad and Chrysalis laughed, the ponies had a mixture of guilt, fear, and uncertainty on their faces. "Now then," Azerrad turned to the Changelings behind him, "You bring Twilight's friends and brother down to the castle grounds. Only Twilight and Cadance will remain somewhere else with your Queen." He then looked at Chrysalis who is a little agitated at his arrogant tone, "She has something frightening to show them."

"That I do." Chrysalis then uses her magic to levitate Twilight and Cadance and flew out the window with them as some Changelings followed her. The two Alicorn mares make muffled screams as the five mares and one stallion do the same, until they are out of each other's sight. Azerrad lights up his horn in a red aura, and it surrounds the ponies. He levitates them as they continue their muffled shouts, and he floats in the air while bringing the ponies and the baby Alicorn with him as the other Changelings follow him down the hall.

At the base of one of the snowy mountains, at the edge of the forest, a pony sleeps on one of the thick branches of a tree. It is Zenith, the stallion who saved the Cutie Mark Crusaders from the cragadile at Everfree Forest. Then, a voice is heard in his mind.

"Zenith...Zenith..."

Zenith grunts as the feminine and caring voice calls out to him. "What...who?"

In his dream, Zenith finds himself standing in a dimension consisting of various shades of blue and many little stars twinkling around him. The voice continues to call him. "Zenith..."

"Who's there?" Zenith called out.

"The time has come," said the mare voice, "for you are chosen by the forces above to save the world."

Then, a light appears and Zenith looks to his right to see it taking form. To his surprise, it looks like a mare, only taller and so blurry he can't squint his eyes enough to have a clear look at it. "Who are you?" Zenith asked.

"What you need to know," the mare explained, "is that this isn't the first time we met."

"What?" Zenith is taken aback by this statement.

"And," the mare continued, "that the world needs your help. A darkness that appeared in this land long ago is slowly returning from its imprisonment."

Zenith's eyes widen by that explanation. "I-I heard of that tale. But, didn't HE trap that darkness with the Elements of Harmony?" asked Zenith.

"Yes," replied the mare, "But the Elements used for the spell have weakened after a thousand years. The only way to stop the darkness is for the bearers of the Elements to bond with the chosen ones who will help them and protect them."

Zenith looks down in deep thought. Putting his life on the line to save the world without being able to search for his destiny? It seemed large to Zenith, but he didn't know the tale he heard about was completely true.

"There is little time to ponder." the mare said, breaking Zenith out of his thoughts. "The darkness has made its move as we speak." Then, the mare started glowing in a bright light, and Zenith gasps like a lightning bolt struck his head and looks at the mare.

"Wait, y-you're-"

"Let the power of the world flow within you," the mare interrupted as she fades away and many strands of magical energy surrounds Zenith, "and let it guide you in the most amazing ways you could not imagine."

As the mare disappears, the magic strands enter Zenith's body and coats him in a bright light. Zenith breathes deeply as he feels the magic within him...

And he wakes up quickly pressing his chest with is hoof. As he gets up, Zenith feels something different about himself. He tightens his other hoof, and he can feel the strength of it, more than he had all his life. Then he gasps, for he senses something and looks towards the Crystal Empire. Wasting little time, he put on his cloak hood and jumped off the branch and onto the ground, galloping towards the mountain.

At the far edge of the Crystal Empire border, Queen Chrysalis past it as her horn glows, which brings Twilight and Cadance floating behind her constricted in her magic. Eventually, Chrysalis lands near the base of a mountain, and the two Alicorns see a prison like cave with a bar door. With her magic, Chrysalis opens the door and glances with a smirk at Twilight and Cadance.

"This isn't what Azerrad was talking about, if you are worried about it." Chrysalis said, "It is who is inside that you should see."

The two Alicorns raise their eyebrows in confusion. In response, Chrysalis nudges her head to the cave, and Twilight and Cadance are immediately thrown into it. As they fall hard to the ground, the constriction rings disappear off of Twilight and Cadance, including their mouths, and Chrysalis quickly closes the door behind them. Twilight gets up, feeling pretty ticked off, and glares at Chrysalis.

"Chrysalis!" Twilight shouted angrily, "Whatever you're planning, it won't work! I didn't come all the way over here on the day to see my niece just to see you take her away from my sister-in-law! You have done some very bad things, but this just takes the cake!" She then flares up her horn in magic, and Twilight shoots a beam of magic at the door, only for it to be absorbed by the bars. They glow green like Chrysalis's magic, and Twilight is shocked. "What?!" she gasps.

Chrysalis laughs as Cadance gets up, glaring at the Queen. "It is futile!" says Chrysalis with a wicked smile, "These bars are coated with the same magic that constricted you! The whole cave has you trapped now! As long as I wield the power of lust Azerrad gave to me, you won't be able to break out no matter how many times you try!"

"You won't get away with this!" shouted Cadance, "if you lay one single hoof on my daughter, your legs won't be the only parts of your body filled with holes!"

"The baby Alicorn is no longer your concern," mocked Chrysalis, "You'd best save your concern for him." She nudged her head to her right, and Twilight and Cadance look in her direction. To their shock, a stallion Pegasus wearing armor lies unconscious on the ground with his wings both broken.

"Flash!" Twilight gasped and she runs to him. She kneels down and hesitantly places her hoof on Flash Sentry's neck as Cadance looks from behind. Flash is breathing hard, much to Twilight's and Cadance's relief, but his wings look so damaged that such a sight looks disturbing to them. But what Twilight saw is the blood on the ground and around the wings' axillaries and within the feathers. Her eyes followed the blood trail and she saw, to her horror, the big slash wound on the right side of Flash's barrel.

The wound looks nearly dry, so it hasn't been long since Flash lost most of his blood in that area. Such a sight made Twilight and Cadance glare furiously at Chrysalis. "How dare you do this to him!" Twilight shouted.

"Me?" Chrysalis said in a mockingly innocent tone, "I don't recall doing that to the pathetic birdbrain."

"Don't play dumb and insult that pony around me!" countered Twilight. "I take back what I said! Stealing my niece and hurting Flash takes the cake!"

"I agree wholeheartedly on that!" Cadance added.

"Oh, come now. What kind of princess accuses somepony without knowing the facts?" Chrysalis flipped her mane with her hoof, smiling smugly. "My acquaintance Azerrad might have something to do with that Pegasus, though you can believe what you so desperately want to believe."

Twilight glares at Chrysalis as she laughs. "Why, you bad, wretched-ah!" she feels something heavy affecting her head, and Cadance feels it too. "What, what's happening?" Twilight says.

"Oh, yes, I forgot to mention," Chrysalis said, "The spell enchanting the cave is luring you to sleep and draining your magic as we speak."

"She's right." said Cadance, clutching her head, "I can't keep my eyes open."

"Sweet dreams, Alicorns," Chrysalis mocked, taking flight, "I have a baby to, condition, to serve my master!" She then flies off to the empire laughing.

"Wait!" Twilight calls out weakly, trying to resist the spell's effects. But the source powering the spell is too strong for Twilight and Cadance to counter, and they both fall to the ground, losing conscious and drifting off to sleep.

On the other side of the border meanwhile, Azerrad holds the baby Alicorn who struggles in her sleep in the air with his magic while he smirks at Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Shining Armor who are still constricted by the rings. Six Changelings surround them, and Azerrad chuckles.

"Somehow I find this all too easy," Azerrad said, looking at the mad and sad faces of the six ponies, "My plan of capturing this baby Alicorn went so smoothly because you all let your guard down completely." He sees the ponies glaring at him. "Well then, your right to remain silent is revoked. Allow me to give you a new right."

Azerrad's horn glows red, and the rings surrounding the parts of the ponies aside from their barrels disappear. But then, they scream from a pain flowing in their bodies, and after the pain fades, they glare at Azerrad. "What did you do to us?!" Shining Armor shouted.

Another scream is heard, and Shining Armor sees to his shock that Rarity's horn is gone! Not only that, but the wings of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash disappeared, and Applejack and Pinkie feel weak. "Not again!" Rarity spat angrily.

"Are you alright?" Shining Armor asked.

"Kind of," Rainbow Dash replied, "but my wings are gone! And so is your horn!"

Shining Armor raised his hoof to feel his horn, only to feel his forehead, and he gasps.

"Whoa. I don't feel pretty well." Applejack moaned as her legs shook from her weight.

"And I can't keep my balance." Pinkie suddenly fell to the ground, and tried to get up. Azerrad laughs like a crazed pony as Fluttershy shivers in fright from the sound of the laugh.

"Not only did I give you the right to speak once more," Azerrad explains, "But I also took away the important parts of you! The magical horns of the Unicorns, the agile wings of the Pegasi, and the massive strength of the Earth Ponies! It's to ensure that you don't try anything funny, or the baby Alicorn gets it real bad!" He laughs once more.

Fluttershy's eyes fill with tears, and she glares at Azerrad. "How could you be so cruel?!" she screamed at him, surprising the other ponies.

"Nopony's perfect," replied Azerrad. He then walks past the ponies while bringing Flurry Heart with him.

"Where are you taking my daughter?!" Shining Armor tried to run at Azerrad, but the Changelings block his path much to his frustration.

"To my master, of course." Azerrad smirks evilly at the ponies, "Once he 'conditions' this baby Alicorn, the power it wields will be his to command! And there's nothing you pathetic ponies can do to stop him! Not that you bothered to, anyway. I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to think that over once you have a nice 'fall' to your well deserved 'break!'" He laughs as he walks away with the floating baby Alicorn beside him.

"That's...not...funny." Pinkie says weakly. The Changelings then snarl at the ponies, and they nudge them to move. Reluctantly the ponies do so, and the Changelings lead them away from the Crystal Empire.

At the Castle of Friendship, Starlight Glimmer and Spike are sleeping in different rooms side by side to each other. Starlight is sleeping peacefully well, and Spike snores without a care in the world. But then, Spike stops snoring and starts to breathe hard, for something starts to change in his dream. "Huh? What? The...the Crystal Empire?" Spike mutters in his sleep, "What am I doing-" He then gasps, "What? Twilight? Rarity? The girls? They, they are...in-" Spike struggles under the blanket.

"RARITY!" Spike shouts as he awakes. Breathing hard, he holds his claw up to his chest.

Then, the door of his room opens, and Starlight walks in concerned for the dragon.

"Spike?" Starlight worryingly asks, "What happened? I heard you scream."

"I thought it was a nightmare," Spike stammered in between breaths, "yet it felt so real. I saw Twilight, Rarity and our friends being held captive and..." Spike holds his head to recall what else he saw.

"And what?" Starlight lightly stressed.

Spike groans in his attempt, then he gasps. "And the Changelings attacked the Crystal Empire and some bad pony stole a little baby foal!" Spike blurts out.

Starlight gasps. "Are you sure it was just a nightmare?" she asked.

Before Spike can answer, Starlight feels a major pain within her horn and lets out a yelp. "Starlight?" Spike gets out of bed and attempts to keep Starlight on her hooves. "What is it?"

Starlight moans as she regains her bearings. "I, I felt this scary magic, far away from here." Starlight then walks up to the window and looks to her left. Spike does the same. "And I think it came from the northern part of Equestria." said Starlight.

"Then that means," Spike let out a large gasp, "my nightmare is real! Something bad is happening at the Crystal Empire! We gotta go help our friends!"

"But Spike," Starlight demurred, "it's probably halfway morning by now! Even with my teleportation spell we'll just end up in a random place, probably farther than that since we just woke up from a good night's rest!"

"But we gotta do something!" Spike reiterated, "but what?"

"Allow me!" a voice blurted out. Spike and Starlight looked around startled by where the voice came from. Then, a flash of light erupted for a second, and they see to their surprise...

"Discord!" Spike said to the floating draconequus as Starlight stares at the creature.

"Yes, Discord, former spirit of chaos, blah, blah, blah, got reformed by Fluttershy," Discord quickly said, "enough formalities! I hear you two are in dire need to get to the Crystal Empire?"

"Yeah, and fast!" Spike urged, "Something bad is happening there and our friends are in danger!"

Starlight snaps out of her rude staring. "But I can't risk my teleporting spell bringing us to a random location!" she said.

"Never fear!" Discord dramatically stated, "That's part of why I am here! I'll channel my magic into Fluttershy's new Unicorn friend's horn, that way you'll get to where you want to go in a flash!"

"Aren't you gonna help us?" Spike asked.

"I would, but Fluttershy's animal friends are frightened by something terrible!" Discord said, "Somepony's got to keep them calm and collected, but, I wish you two the best of luck! Now, allow me to do the honours!"

Discord held out his claw, and a light yellow aura emits from it, flowing towards Starlight's horn. Spike watches anxiously as Starlight grunts a bit from the magic of the draconequus being channelled into her horn. Eventually, Discord cuts off the channelling, and Starlight feels a bit woozy.

"Whoa." Starlight says, wobbling a bit, "I feel a bit dizzy."

"It'll wear off, but a part of my magic is yours to control now, but only for less than an hour." Discord explained, "Now, if you will excuse me, I must calm down the animals running around Fluttershy's residence. Good luck!" With that, Discord disappears quickly as he came.

Spike looks up at Starlight. "Are you okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, I think so," Starlight replied, "and I think I'm getting the hang of Discord's magic flowing in my horn. With this much magic, I might get us close enough to the Crystal Empire with the teleporting spell."

"Great!" Spike chirped, but then went to his serious expression. "I have faith that you can do this."

"Thanks." said Starlight, "Grab hold, Spike."

Spike holds onto Starlight's leg, and she starts to concentrate. With the light yellow and light turquoise auras flickering around her horn, Starlight and Spike is soon surrounded by the combined magic. Then, in a loud poof, they disappear and the strands of magic flow into the sky towards the northern horizon.

TO BE CONTINUED...