At the prison cave, two Alicorns and a Pegasus lie on the ground. Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance are sleeping due to the spell the cave is under, and Flash Sentry is in pain from his broken wings. The two Alicorns breathe hard, for they seem to be having a nightmare. In Twilight's dream, she finds herself in a black dimension surrounded by gray doors.
"Where am I?" Twilight asks herself, "And what's with these doors?" Then, the doors open one by one, and Twilight is shocked.
Inside each door is the memories of the bad times Twilight went through, from her young days as a filly to the irrational moments of her time in Ponyville. The doors start to spin around Twilight, and she feels frightened as they get closer to her, the noises of those events getting louder. Twilight tries to light up her horn, but somehow her magic is not responding. Being perplexed and scared of being unable to defend herself, Twilight quickly lies down and covers her ears with her hooves while closing her eyes. "What's going on?!" she shouts in fear, "What's happening?! Help! Somepony help! Cadance! Big Brother! Princess Celestia! Spike! Girls! Somepony help me, please!"
As the noise gets louder, Twilight tenses up from the situation she is in, both the dream and the events at the Crystal Empire. Unable to take it, she screams. "ZENITH!"
Then it stops.
The noise disappears along with the doors, and Twilight opens her eyes to see that they are gone. But what caught her by surprise is the name she shouted out. "Z-Zenith?" Twilight says in confusion, "How do I know somepony named 'Zenith'?"
Then, a faint flash of golden light appears behind Twilight. She turns around as the light gets brighter, and Twilight sees a floating gold door with a silver knob. Somehow, seeing it brings a good feeling to her, and Twilight wonders why it feels familiar. She walks to it and brings her hoof close to the knob, until a voice is heard.
"Oi. Are you okay?"
Twilight pulls back a bit, being startled. Then she hears the grunt of a little filly's voice. Twilight's voice, from long ago, which she recognizes.
"Oi. Take it easy. That rock struck your head pretty hard."
Twilight realizes that those voices are coming from behind the door, and they are from the dream she had before Chrysalis captured her. "Here goes." Twilight says quietly as she puts her hoof on the knob, since her magic isn't working at the moment. She opens the door and winces from the brightness within the space the door leads to. But Twilight walks forward to it, passing through the door. It closes behind her and disappears.
Twilight finds herself in a park in Canterlot on a bright sunny day, but it looks unfamiliar to her. "What is this place?" Twilight wonders, and she notices her voice echoing a bit, "And why am I a little transparent?" Twilight notices her body looking faint, and can see the grass through her leg. She looks up and sees where the voices came from.
On the other side of the small pond, lying on the ground, is a young Twilight with a white cloth wrapped around her head, and standing near her, is a colt with a gray coat and a spiky dark purple mane wearing a thin purple scarf. Twilight recognizes the colt as the same one from her earlier dream. The young Twilight looks up to the concerned colt. "W-who...who are you?" she asks.
The colt smiles. "I'm Zenith," he replies. "What's your name?"
Young Twilight hesitates a bit, but as she looks at the caring and calm eyes of the colt, she feels something warm in her heart, a kind of feeling that is unfamiliar and yet...nice. The Twilight who watches from afar also feels it, and she wonders why.
"Twilight," young Twilight says, "Twilight Sparkle."
The colt smiles again, but softly. "That's a beautiful name." he said in a cooing manner, and nervously blushes while scratching his head with his hoof and glancing down. "It, um...it suits your...your eyes."
The young Twilight gasps quietly to the compliment, and the Alicorn Twilight gasps at this as well. She then wonders, what is this memory? And how come does she not recall it even once? The more she wondered, more questions entered Twilight's mind, the kind that even she has trouble calculating and solving on her own.
The strands of turquoise and yellow magic flow across the sky until it zooms in on the Crystal Empire. It flies through one of the windows of the top room of the castle, and in a subtle and magical transition, Spike and Starlight Glimmer appear in the throne room.
"Well, that was easy." Spike said quietly.
"More like risky." replied Starlight, looking around apprehensively, "I was thinking of being in a throne room while teleporting us here, so I had no idea what to expect. This is the first time I've been at the Crystal Empire, though I wish I could've come here under better circumstances."
"We'll try that later." Spike said, "For now, we gotta keep our eyes open for any Changelings. You'll never know which pony will act in a weird way until it reveals him or herself as one of those things."
Then, the doors behind them open, and they turn around to see two guards, a Unicorn and a Pegasus, glaring at them. "Halt!" said the Pegasus guard, holding his spear at Spike and Starlight's direction, "Who are you two and what are you doing here this late at night?"
Starlight is nervous and a little scared as she tried to speak, but Spike put his claw on her shoulder to calm her down. She sees Spike giving an assuring look. "I've got this." he said, and he turned to the guards. "At ease, guards. I am the Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious, and this is my new friend, Starlight Glimmer." As Spike points to her, Starlight is a bit confused at the long epithet Spike had declared.
The guards seem to ease their suspicion, yet kept their watchful eye on Starlight. "Alright," said the Unicorn guard, "But this Unicorn must come with us for questioning."
Starlight tenses up from still being intimidated. "With all due respect," Spike interjected, "this is an emergency. Have you seen any black creatures who have light blue eyes and wings and holes on their legs, who seem to be ponies but are not? We think they have entered this Empire in disguise and-"
"Silence!" the Pegasus guard spoke up loudly, cutting off Spike, "We are not here for games, dragon. If that Unicorn does not comply, we'll have to hold her under strict supervision until our Queen decides what to do with-" the Pegasus guard's eyes widen and holds his hoof to his mouth. The Unicorn guard looks at him angry and scared, while Spike and Starlight are a little confused.
"Queen?" Starlight wonders out loud. "We don't have Queens in Equestria."
It took a second for something to click in his mind, and Spike gasped. "Queen Chrysalis! They are Changelings!" The two guards then growled while their eyes glowed bright green. "Quick! Blast them with your magic, Starlight!" Spike shouted.
"What?!" Starlight said as the guards stepped forward towards her and Spike, "But how do you know-?
"Just do it!" Spike shot back stressfully.
Starlight sees the guards galloping at them, and she wastes no time concentrating her magic. Her horn lights up in a turquoise and yellow mixed aura, and with a flick of her head, Starlight casts a blasting spell at the two guards. It hits them, and they fall to the ground unconscious. Their forms dissipate and in their place is two knocked out Changelings. Spike and Starlight are a little shocked about this. "Those are Changelings?" Starlight asked.
"Yeah." replied Spike, "They are bad guys, but I'll tell you about them later! Right now we gotta search for our friends! C'mon!"
Spike and Starlight run out of the throne room, only to stop in their tracks as more Changelings are in front of them, snarling angrily at them. "Now what?!" Starlight asks out loud in fear.
Spike's eyes lit up, for he gets an idea. He then jumps onto Starlight's back and makes a cowcolt impression. "Ride like the wind, Starlight!" he says.
"Excuse me?" Starlight glares at Spike despite being afraid, "What in Equestria are you trying to pull?"
"Please, Starlight," Spike replied stressfully, "Go with me on this! You use your magic to blast them out of the way while I use my fire to cover our flanks!"
"Okay," Starlight reluctantly said, "But you and I are talking about your little joke later."
Starlight lights up her horn and blasts some magic at the Changelings in front. She then gallops down the hall as the other Changelings try to catch up to her, but Spike uses his flame breath to keep them at bay. The little dragon and the heliotrope Unicorn make their way down the stairs as the Changelings give chase.
Along the side of the mountain not far off from the Crystal Empire, six Changelings snarl at the six ponies whose barrels are constricted by Queen Chrysalis's magic as they walk down the path. Shining Armor, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie walk in utter silence and sadness while being surrounded by the Changelings guiding them to the location, most of them anyway.
The ponies would've done anything to save each other from this predicament, but Chrysalis's acquaintance, Azerrad, took away their magic with his own. In the process, Shining Armor's and Rarity's foreheads are devoid of their horns, Rainbow Dash's and Fluttershy's wings are not on their backs, and Applejack and Pinkie feel so weak that aside from mumbling they didn't have the strength to move their jaws to speak.
While the two white Unicorns feel pretty uncomfortable without their horns, the cyan Pegasus was so frustrated about losing her wings again she wanted to buck the Changelings. But due to the magic and her wings being gone, Rainbow Dash reluctantly decided that they are in enough trouble without her making it worse.
Fluttershy meanwhile is so scared that she could feel her barrel shaking, even when the constricting magic on it. Eventually, she mustered up her courage, and glancing at the Changelings to see they are not watching, leaned close to Shining Armor. "Um, Shining Armor?" Fluttershy whispered, clearly enough to get the white stallion's attention, "If you don't mind me asking, where are these Changelings taking us?"
"I have no clue," Shining Armor answered, "But I'm worried about all of our safety, including Cadance, my sister Twily...and Flurry Heart."
"I am so sorry all of this happened." Fluttershy said.
"It's not anypony's fault," replied Shining Armor, "but it certainly is that black Unicorn's fault." he says this in a seething anger, which made Fluttershy startlingly give him space.
Rarity sees this and leans close to the white stallion. "Now, Shining Armor. Don't let that brute get to you. We are all on edge as it is."
"Sorry," Shining Armor calmed down a bit. "but all of this happening to us, and right after my daughter seeing this world with her little eyes, while she and my wife are in danger, just makes me so mad."
The Changeling in front of Shining Armor turned its head and snarled loudly at him. The white stallion simply glared at it, and the Changeling looked back ahead, believing he got the message.
Little did any of them notice, that somepony is hiding among the rocks watching them. It is Zenith, peeking his white cloaked hooded head over a large rock. He looked at where they were going and back at them. With a hint of anger in his eyes, he quietly, and quickly, left the rock in a flash to the destination, without as much as a sound.
"Still," Rarity said as she and friends continue to walk, "I wonder what that brute meant by having a nice fall to a well deserved break?"
A few seconds later, the ponies look down in fear from the edge of a cliff they stand near at, as the Changelings stand behind them. "Oh," said Rarity, nervously, "now I understand."
"They're gonna push us off this cliff?!" Rainbow Dash blurted out, as she turned around to face the Changelings. "Seriously, if I had my wings right now, I'd leave these guys in the dust!
"Rainbow, don't be reckless!" Shining Armor said worryingly, "As much as I hate to admit it, we're in more than huge amounts of dust."
"I think I'm hyperventilating just thinking about it." Rarity shuddered.
The Changelings snarled at the ponies while stepping towards them. The ponies who turned around stepped back, but they felt the edge of the cliff. If they step any further, they will fall down, probably to Celestia knows what.
What the ponies and Changelings didn't notice is that Zenith, the white hooded pony is looking at them from a higher cliff above them. Seeing the creatures threatening the ponies angered him, so he tightens his hood on his head.
"Oh, normally I wish for a miracle to save us all from this, like how those pony tales state they will," Rarity groaned in fear, "but I can't seem to hope for one right now!"
"I thought the end of us would involve being covered by party stuff fired from Pinkie's party cannon." Rainbow Dash muttered out loud. She immediately felt an intimidating sensation as Dash looked at the glares of her friends, the most menacing of them being Pinkie. "But that's unlikely to happen, right?" she chuckles nervously.
The Changelings stepped closer to the ponies glaring at them. Their hind hooves are just close to the cliff as the ponies look scared. As Fluttershy and Rarity close their eyes, waiting for their fates...
"YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
A masculine shout is heard from above. Startled and confused, the ponies and the Changelings look up, and to their shock, see a white hooded pony falling down towards them. Before anypony can react...
SPLAT!
Zenith landed hard on one of the Changelings, knocking it out. The other five Changelings then leap at him, but the he back flips over one of them. As Zenith does that, he grabs one of the Changeling's head with his hooves, and as he lands behind it, he pulls the Changeling by its head to his right. In one swift move, Zenith swings the Changeling, knocking out two of the remaining Changelings and letting go of the one he grabbed hold of, and they fall to the ground unconscious.
The other ponies watch in shock and surprise at how easily this pony is fighting the Changelings. One of the last two attacked Zenith, but he countered with a lot of punches and kicks, eventually finishing it off with a punch to the nose. As that Changeling falls, the last one makes a head charge at Zenith, who simply stands still looking at it. The six ponies react in fear for the safety of the hooded pony, until Zenith mumbles something out loud in a foreign language.
"Uma Sentō Ryū..." Zenith disappears to the surprise of the Changeling and the ponies, and he reappears up close to the Changeling with his hoof close to its face. Before the Changeling can react...
"...Ichi Inchi-" the hooded pony moves his hoof at an impossible speed and punches the Changeling in the face and bringing it back in a split second, "-HIDZUME PANCHI!"
The blow creates a shockwave, sending the Changeling crashing into the wall of the mountain knocking it out. But, the shockwave flies past between Shining Armor and Rarity, and the white mare in fear tried to step away...
Only for her hind hoof to step on nothing beyond the cliff, which makes Rarity fall down from it.
"RARITY!" her friends shouted in fear as Rarity screamed while falling. Zenith sees this, and grunts in frustration. In a split second, he gallops to the cliff and leaps off of it, and falls down, to the surprise of the other ponies.
"Is that pony crazy?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
Rarity continues to scream until her throat couldn't take it anymore. She looks to the ground coming ever closer to her. 'Curse it all,' the white mare thought, 'I didn't want it to end like this. I wanted to spread my fashion sense across Equestria, to spread the meaning of generosity to everypony who hasn't experienced it.
'I'm sorry, everypony. Sweetie Belle, I hope you and your friends help the young ponies discover their talents. Mother, father, I hope that you are proud of me and what I did for everypony. My friends, I thank you all for the wonderful times we shared together. And...Spike. I appreciate your efforts to make me happy. I'm just so sorry I didn't let you know how much I did. I hope you have it in your pony heart to forgive me for leaving you like this. I am just so, so sorry.'
Tears flow out of her eyes as Rarity closes them, waiting for fate to get it over with...
WHOOSH!
But something embraces her and the air quickly blows at her from above. When she opens her eyes, Rarity saw to her shock that she is getting further away from the ground. She looks behind her and sees the hooded pony holding her barrel tightly yet gently with his right foreleg as he runs up the cliff. The stallion and the four mares see this in shock and amazement from the cliff.
Then, as Zenith reaches the edge, he leaps off the cliff, right over the ponies, while pulling Rarity over his shoulder, letting go for a moment. To Rarity, she thought in fear the pony might do something else to her, but those thoughts are quickly dashed as Zenith quickly held her from underneath with his forelegs as he landed on the rocky ground, on his hind legs at that.
And then silence.
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Shining Armor stare in disbelief at the hooded pony holding Rarity in his forelegs. The white mare is still shaken from what happened, but for some reason the toned muscles and the soft coat strands on the forelegs of the pony holding her feel...relaxing. Rarity looked up at the hooded face of the pony who returns the gesture.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" Zenith asks.
Rarity's eyes widen from hearing the soothing masculine voice of her savior, and her cheeks turn bright pink. All the white mare could let out from her mouth, is the giggle of a school filly, as she turns her head away embarrassingly while glancing at the hooded pony.
"I'll...take that as a yes." Zenith gently lifted Rarity up while putting her down on her hind hoofs, and moved face to face with her while aiding her forelegs to the ground. "Sorry about that shockwave."
Rarity stepped back sheepishly while trying to regain her composure. "Oh, no harm done." she said, "I'm just eternally grateful that you saved me and my friends' lives."
Zenith looks to the shocked faces of Rarity's friends.
"That...was...AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash yelled in awe.
The five mares and the white stallion gathered in front Zenith and thanked him for rescuing them.
"You sure saved our flanks back there!" said Rainbow Dash.
"I thought we were goners." Shining Armor added in, "Thanks a lot."
"Um...thank you." Fluttershy said, blushing a bit.
"Thanks for the save." Applejack mumbled smiling.
"Mm-hmm." Pinkie Pie mumbled in a somewhat half-happy manner.
Zenith notices how weak Applejack and Pinkie looked, and the constricting rings around the other ponies' barrels. "You all are most welcome, but, what are those things around your barrels?" he asked.
"Some sort of sealing magic." Shining Armor answered, "A Unicorn casted a spell on us, taking away our horns, wings, and strength."
"And it makes me twenty percent lamer then a slow dragon!" complained Rainbow Dash.
"Oi. That is pretty bad." Zenith replied.
Shining Armor looks at the hooded pony in shock, for somehow he believes he heard that strange word 'Oi' from somewhere long ago, but when?
"Hang on," said Zenith, reaching into his robe, "I have something that will counter that magic."
"What sort of something, if you don't mind me asking?" Fluttershy asked.
Zenith takes out something from his robe, and on his hoof is a white, nearly transparent pearl, shining in the moonlight. "This may not look like it," he explains, "but this pearl has magical properties, and when used properly can it cast the essential spells for certain situations."
"How in the hay would that help us?" Rainbow Dash said sternly, "I heard that only Unicorns can access magical stuff."
"No argument there." added Shining Armor.
"That may be," Zenith replied, "But unlike other 'magical stuff', this pearl can respond to the chants of a spell when used correctly."
"Are you sure?" asked Rarity.
"Do you all want to get your pony traits back or not?" Zenith shot back sternly.
The other ponies are taken aback by this abrupt question, but they then believed that the sooner they get out of this spell, the quicker they can save the Crystal Empire. After looking at each other and nodding, they turn their attention to the hooded pony.
"We do." Shining Armor said.
"Alright. Allow me to make room. This could get a little, extreme." Zenith then leaped back a bit far from the ponies, while strangely keeping the pearl in his hoof. Once he landed at a certain distance, he looks at the pearl.
"Uma Kaunta Mahō..." Zenith chanted in the same language he used when fighting the Changelings. At these words, the pearl glowed in a white aura, to the amazement of the ponies. The pearl then floated in the air, and with a flick of his hoof...
"Kusari Burēka!"
Zenith pointed to the ponies, and the magic from the pearl flowed out towards them. It starts to flow around the anxious ponies in a quick manner. Then, beams of white light stab into the green magic rings on the ponies, much to their surprise, and the rings disappear in a puff of black smoke. Before anypony can say anything, the beams quickly flowed into the bodies of the five mares and stallion, enveloping them in a white aura.
Then a flash of light erupted from them in a second.
The magic from the pearl stops flowing and floats back down onto Zenith's hoof. He then sees that the ponies were looking at him feeling anxious.
"Did it work?" Shining Armor asked.
"Why don't you check your barrels?" Zenith asked back.
The ponies do that, and to their shock and relief, the green rings are gone.
"WHOA!" Rainbow Dash's eyes widen, alerting the other ponies, for not only is the frustrating ring gone, but her wings are back! After flapping her wings and taking off into the air, Rainbow's face beamed like she passed a Wonderbolt test. "Yeah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" she laughed doing a few loops in the air, "The fastest flier in Equestria is back in action!"
Fluttershy looks at her back, to see her wings have returned. "Oh, thank goodness." she said happily.
After checking their barrels, Shining Armor and Rarity look at each other and gasped. "Rarity! Your horn's back!" Shining Armor pointed out.
Rarity held her hoof to where her horn was, and sure enough, it is back on her forehead, "So is yours!" she replied. Shining Armor did the same to his major relief.
"Yee, hah!" Applejack cheerfully howled, making some bucking maneuvers with her hind legs. "Ah feel as strong as a minotaur chargin' into a brick wall!"
"And I feel so happy that I could just bounce! WOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!" Pinkie shouted happily as she bounced a few times. "And I also feel like talking non-stop, but I'll save that for tomorrow morning's victory party!"
Zenith walked up to the ponies while putting away the pearl into his robe. "Not only did the spell get rid of those rings," he said, "but it brought back out your pony traits that was sealed within all of you."
"And we thank you again for that, don't we?" Rarity said, and her friends agreed in unison.
Zenith looked at the Changelings lying unconscious on the ground. "What are those creatures that threatened you anyway?"
"Changelings." Shining Armor replied, "They are insect versions of ponies who disguise themselves as regular ponies and feed on their love to survive."
"Really? That's, um...gross and awkward." Zenith said in a disbelieving and unsettling tone. This makes the other ponies look at him confusingly. How could he not know about the Changelings if he is from somewhere in Equestria? The hooded pony looks back at the ponies. "Do they work alone?"
"Nope. They work for a more smarty pants Changeling who looks like the Princesses but she is not one." Pinkie replied.
"And her name is Chrysalis, though she arrogantly calls herself the Queen of the Changelings." Rarity added in.
"And a Unicorn named Azerrad teamed up with her to capture my daughter, that same Unicorn that casted the sealing spell on us." Shining Armor said, "Though I have no idea where my sister and wife have been taken to by Chrysalis."
Under his hood, Zenith's eyes widen at the mention of this 'Azerrad', though the other ponies didn't notice. "That so? Alright, that's all I need to know." Zenith turns around to the direction of the Crystal Empire.
"Where're ya goin', sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
Zenith looks back at Applejack and chuckles. "'Sugarcube.' What an affectionate nickname." he says with a smile, which makes Applejack's eyes widen a bit, then she blushes a little.
"I'm gonna find this Chrysalis and defeat her."
What Zenith said made the ponies gasp. "What are ya, nuts?!" Rainbow Dash blurted out.
"B-b-but, many Changelings have the Crystal Empire surrounded by now!" argued Fluttershy, quietly.
"And my wife and daughter and sister are in danger!" Shining Armor demurred sternly.
Zenith looked back at Shining Armor, and smirked. "Beating up six of those creatures is just a quarter portion of what I can do. Me versus an army? Well...even if you see that you wouldn't believe it." He then crouches, and then jumps with much force off the ground, and lands on a tip of a rock. This leaves the ponies speechless. As the hooded pony is about to leap...
"Wait!" Rarity called out. Zenith looks down at Rarity. "Before you go do the impossible," she said, "Would you mind telling us who you are and where are you from?"
For a few seconds Zenith stayed silent, 'Huh. Déjà vu.' he thought. He then spoke out loud, "What you need to know about me for now...is that I am not from Equestria."
The ponies gasp at the answer given to them. With that, Zenith leaps off the rock and continues leaping over through the mountains towards the Crystal Empire. The ponies stand dumbfounded for a moment.
"Not from Equestria?" Pinkie said out loud, "Pie's traditions! First time I heard of a pony not being from around here!"
"None of us do, I think," Shining Armor replied, "but we'll think about that later! Right now, we gotta get to the Crystal Empire and stop the Changelings from taking my daughter away!"
"Right!" Applejack looks over to Rainbow Dash. "Lead the way, RD!"
"On it, AJ!" Rainbow Dash saluted and flew to the Crystal Empire, her friends following her from behind.
Near the base of the Crystal Castle, Azerrad is holding the whimpering sleeping baby Alicorn with his magic, smiling deviously at it. "I still find it amusing." he said to himself, "The plan worked so easily because those pathetic ponies let their guard down a whole lot. If that's not taking candy from a foal, I don't-"
ZING!
Azerrad yelped from the pain erupting from his head, and in a second it fades, leaving behind only a numb feeling. "What in the...?" he gasps, "My spell! It is broken! Those constriction rings I put on those ponies are gone! Who dares to get in my way?!"
Then, a Changeling runs up to Azerrad, breathing hard, and snarling something hastily, like it is trying to make a desperate point. The black Unicorn's eyes widen.
"WHAT?!" Azerrad shouted. The Changeling backed off in fear. "A pony and a dragon are here, and you have trouble capturing them?!" He then grunts in frustration. "Make sure they do not leave this castle! I'll be there shortly to deal with them! Now, go!"
The Changeling nodded quickly and took off for the entrance of the castle. Then, Queen Chrysalis appears behind him. "I couldn't help but overhear your frustration." she says. Azerrad looks at Chrysalis as he tries to calm down.
"I take it we have uninvited guests?" Chrysalis asked.
"Yes, and very rude ones at that." Azerrad replied. He then smiles. "But soon, they will be...dead ones."
TO BE CONTINUED...