~Chapter 6~

~The Lullaby~

~Twilight Sparkle~

How to escape, how to escape? Twilight peered around cautiously, before trying to bring a small source of magic into her horn, but nothing worked. Rules, rules, stupid rules! Why can't I cast just one simple spell? Twilight could feel tears start to form in her eyes. She suddenly heard a low mumble. She pricked her ears and heard a tune. Someone is singing... The paralysationwas reluctantly wearing off, however, Twilight managed to hobble up, onto her shaking legs. She forked her way to her eyes so she could peer out and see what was happening in the outside world. Her legs were awkward, and she moved like a newborn foal. It was enough though, as she was soon able to peer out her pupils, and hear herself singing on the outside. Twilight saw that she was currently in a cave. If she had known this information earlier, she could have told Luna. Oh well. Too late for that now. The lyrics to what the dark spirit was singing were inaudible, but the tune was clear. It reminded Twilight of a lullaby she had sung when she was little. Oh, what were the lyrics to it again? Twilight tried to remember. The little song had meant so much to her when she was younger. Her mother, Twilight Velvet had always sung the song to Twilight Sparkle when she felt ill, and the song always seemed to boost Twilight's strength.

"Oh, what were the lyrics? Light changes darkness, old changes new. Colour changes grey and I love you...? Oh, where was another verse! What was it?" Twilight hissed, scratching her head with a feeble hoof. The mist had only been gone for a few minutes before he returned. Twilight quickly dropped to the ground, to pretend that she was still completely paralysed. If he knew she was perfectly fine, he would probably numb her again.

"Hi Twilight," he edged closer, and Twilight Sparkle grimaced away slightly, but made the attempt look frail.

"Just leave me alone." She spat a sickly blob of saliva at what looked to be the haze's clouded hooves. She shuffled away a little further, making the languid attempts still look like the paralysation slowly wearing off.

"I see you're recovering. That was quick, I expected a puny pony like you to take a lot longer," he sniggered.

"I'm stronger than you think, so you'd better back off before I get all my strength back," she warned. He chuckled for a bit, clearly amused.

"I will leave then. I guess you don't want to know what I'm going to do to your pathetic friends today then," he glowered, before turning away. He waited a few seconds, expecting her to stop him, but she didn't say a word. Twilight heard him muffle something under his breathe before he turned to her again.

"I guess you'll never know how your friends die then. Bye." He turned around again and snaked his way out of the area. Twilight could have sworn he said, "she really must hate me."

~Rainbow a Dash~

She could hear the pitter-pattering of the rain against the ground. It wasn't raining though. It was just Pinkie Pie's tears.

"Tw... Twi... light... Twilight," Pinkie Pie choked out. Water drizzled down her eyes intensely. Rarity, muttering under her breath put up an umbrella. Fluttershy shied away, hiding under her mane, trying to block the misery from her teal eyes.

"Someone, please stop her before she floods the place!" Rainbow Dash gave a dramatic aghast expression, before quickly yelping, "not it!"

"Not it!" Fluttershy whimpered. Rainbow Dash was surprised and impressed. Fluttershy usually never won at this, as she was too quiet to be heard.

"Not it," Rarity raised her head to the air, in the prissy, determined way. Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash turned to Applejack who was covering her ears.

"Um... Applejack... Um... That means that you... Well... If you don't mind... Have to tell her," Fluttershy squeaked, cowering away. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and snatched Applejack's hoof steadily, and pulled it off her ears.

"Applejack! This! Means! You! Have! To! Tell! Pinkie! To! Stop! Crying!" Each word Rainbow Dash bellowed was broken up from the other words by at least one second, but had an equal amount of loudness as the rest. Applejack nervously nodded, and trotted up to Pinkie, patting her back timidly.

"We're all pretty sad, Pinkie, but this is ridiculous. She'al come back, I promise." Applejack's eyes looked hopeful, and she put up a confident expression, however, everything about it seemed... fake.

Pinkie Pie looked up. "Pinkie Promise?"

Applejack didn't reply, considering she was the Element of Honesty, which only made Pinkie get more teary.

Rainbow Dash hated it when Pinkie was like this. "Come on Pinkie. I will be gone after today, and maybe we should spend as much time together, while I'm still here, as possible?"

"Yer right Rainbow Dash," Applejack agreed. Fluttershy nodded alongside her. Rarity only gave a silent glance to the side.

Rainbow Dash looked at Pinkie Pie with pleading eyes, and the pink mare finally gave a weak smile, rubbing tears out of her eyes.

"Okie dokey lockey."

~Dark Spirit~

All the ponies were too busy at the lake to see the lavender mare narrowing her eyes at them in a bush.

"Geronimo!" Pinkie Pie squealed, and went flipping into the lake, splashing Rarity. Rarity stood stiffly, her mane drenched, and dripping madly.

"Haha! Nice one Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash retorted, hoof-bumping Pinkie. Rarity gave an irritated huff.

"I could do better," Applejack called, climbing up the tree Pinkie Pie had sprung down from. "I bet all the apples in the orchid."

"Well I bet all the cupcakes in Sugarcube Corner you won't!" Pinkie Pie shrilled.

Applejack lunged down, and made a massive splash, again, wetting Rarity. The splash was the same height as Pinkie's.

"I guess you both win!" Fluttershy purred.

I should stir the fun, the dark spirit thought mischievously.

"I wish Twilight was here," Rainbow Dash mumbled.

Excitedly, the dark spirit came out of her cover, "your prayers have been answered, peasant."

"I take it back!" Rainbow Dash squeaked, trying to hide her fear. The dark spirit stood before the shivering ponies. Her pink eyes glinting deviously, narrowed, and her sharp pointed teeth clamped together. Her mouth curved into a sly grin. Her horn sparked, embers already gathering on the already charred earth underneath her delicate hooves. She stood broadly, and tall, showing no signs of regret. No signs of sympathy. No signs of mercy. Her tail lashed swiftly. Her stance spoke complete dominance. The ponies didn't think so though.

"You should really find another word to use instead of peasant," Rarity chimed. That foul, ignorant filly. She'll be the first to die when I am in power.

Ignoring the remark, the dark spirit went on, "have you learnt nothing about me yet?" She summoned a cage around them, locking them all up. The cage was cramped, the metal bars stood close together, signalling no chance of escape.

"Hey! Let us go meanie!" Pinkie Pie squawked. As if!

"Ok," the dark spirit replied, shrugging.

"Really?" Pinkie Pie's ears perked. Idiot. I know she's crazy, but is she that gullible?

"No. Anyway, you now all belong to ME! Your precious Twilight is gone, however, there is one way I'll set her free."

The main six looked up in confusion. The dark spirit enjoyed their misunderstanding.

"Get... her... back?" Fluttershy asked in wander, before whimpering, and shuffling towards the back of the cage, hidden behind the other ponies and tears beginning to surge down her eyes.

"Yes, but I want one pony in return." How will the ponies consider this offer? How much will they sacrifice to get Twilight back?

"Ok! I'll go! Anything to save Twilight!" Pinkie Pie sobbed.

"Not you idiot! I want Celestia!" The dark spirit waited a few moments, for the ponies to reveal their shock, but they just stared at her like she was the idiot.

"Celestia? Most powerful, high ranked pony in Equestria? Yer kiddin' right?" Applejack asked in amusement. The dark spirit tried to hide her signs of anger. How dare they be laughing at her.

"I am most certainly right. Her power and high rank actually is the reason I want her."

"Didn't take us long to realise that," sniggered Rainbow Dash, but looked away, as if she was prepared to get hurt. Oh I am going to do more to her than just hurt her. I am going to destroy every single one of them when I finally receive the power I have been waiting for all my life!

~Fluttershy~

Little did the dark spirit know, but the ponies weren't alone. Spike had came to ask the ponies if they needed any food, and he had seen them in the cage. Fluttershy had noticed him, and crept at the back of the cage. The dark spirit thought she was crying, being the so-called pitiful creature she was, when she was actually giving Spike a message to send to Celestia.

"Tell her that the dark spirit has come and has locked us in a cage at the lake. Tell her to get some help, maybe some royal guards..." Fluttershy whispered to the little baby dragon. He nodded obediently and scribbled a note down, before using his fire to send a green wave to carry the note to the princess. Fluttershy took a deep breathe, feeling a surge of goodness and bravery pulse through her veins. If this is what it felt like to be confident, then she was never going to cower again! She turned to the front of the cage, where the dark spirit was having an argument with Rarity.

"I am not feral! Thank you very much. I am a high-class mare, and you do not have the power to call my something vile like that." Rarity spat.

"Actually, I do," the dark spirit scoffed back, sending a powerful wave of magic to Rarity's head, singeing a bit of her hair. Rarity screeched in horror, pawing at her head, before glaring at the dark spirit, her eyes piercing, and vengeful.

"You monster! Do you know how long it took me to make it absolutely perfect?"

"Oh yeah? Well I am going to make it worse..." The dark spirit looked at Rarity the same way she would look at dirt. Her gaze dull, so full of nothing.

"Stop this tyranny this instant!" A voice boomed above them. It sounded hearty and valorous. They all looked up to see Celestia and half a dozen royal guards trailing after her. The princess's white pelt shone brighter than her sun, in the blinding light. Her hair rippled, with sparkles twinkling ever so softly, and moved briefly, shining blues, pinks and greens, all striped neatly among each other. Her horn, pointed upward, ascendantly. Her chivalric wings with their elegant feathers flapped delicately, yet, opulently. She wore a golden amulet, around her neck, and resplendently around each of her hooves. Her cutie mark of the sun, shone just as bright as the one in the sky, majestic and still noble. Her pink eyes illuminated, screaming out a wily, determined expression and were bright and palatial. The princess dropped radiantly to the ground, her hooves making the slightest clinking sound. Everything about Celestia shouted out regal. The dark spirit looked tenacious, but a speck of light in her eyes spoke fidgety.

"Ah! Celestia! Just the pony I need!" The dark spirit purred, all signs of volatileness had been forced to vanish.

"Set my subjects free... Now!" Celestia hollered. She stood before the dark spirit, her royal guards standing behind her ferociously.

"Oh, Celestia. Why would I do something like that?" The dark spirit smirked.

"Because if you don't, the consequences will be brutal," Celestia hissed.

"Well how about I give you a deal. You let me take over you, and no harm will come to your prissy little followers."

"Who are you calling prissy?" Rainbow Dash chortled.

Celestia's eyes clouded. She looked like she was considering the deal. Tears rained down her eyes, and her watery eyes went even more blurry. Almost transparent. Then they cleared. "Fine then. Go ahead."

The dark spirit smirked, and set Twilight's five friends free from the cage.

No! This can't be happening. As much as I want to be free, and I want Twilight back, I cannot let the dark spirit take over Celestia! Celestia is too powerful. Absolutely terrible things will come if the dark spirit has Celestia! Fluttershy thought miserably.

"Stop it! Celestia, you cannot do this!" Fluttershy cried, marching up to the princess.

"Get out of the way you pathetic, wimpy Pegasi!" The dark spirit snarled.

Celestia peered down at Fluttershy, her eyes baffled, before they softened. "Trust me," she whispered, her words muffled, as she eyed the dark spirit.

Fluttershy blinked, before stepping out the way, and ran crying, into her friends, trapped in a warm embrace of five shivering bodies.

"Now you are mine! Finally mine!" The dark spirit menaced forward, her horn glistening. A pink wave went shimmering up, powering up the whole horn. Then a powerful beam was shot at Celestia, but it barely reached half the distance, as it was abruptly cut off by a hoof, jamming into the dark spirit's side.

"Ugh," the dark spirit grunted, as she went hammering against the earth. The spirit shot eyes as cool as stone at the pony who was guilty for this act.

"That was too easy," muttered Luna. Fluttershy watched in awe, as the night princess stood over the dark spirit. She had a wily expression in her face, half smug, half serious.

"What? What is happening?" The dark spirit's eyes went flailing around, and she shrieked as a cage was summoned around her.

"I expected her to suspect that getting Celestia like that would be a bit harder," huffed another voice. The one who had summoned the cage, Discord. What is Discord and Luna doing here? Fluttershy peered around, just as confused as the dark spirit was.

"This was all a plan?" Pinkie Pie pounded forward in anger. "Why did no one tell me? I could have worn a disguise!" The pink mare held up a moustache.

"Yeah, what gives?" Rainbow Dash stepped forward, a tiny bit enraged.

"Sorry we had to keep this secret. If you had known, you may have given away clues which could put one of you in serious danger," Luna dipped her head apologetically.

"It's still not right to keep something like that from us, though." Fluttershy's eyes glistened in betrayal, mainly aimed at Discord. He glanced at her, and held up his arms like he was surrendering to a gun. All the five mane six were given a few brief minutes which only felt like seconds to take it all in. Their gazes drifted from princess to princess to draconequus until they finally settled on the dark spirit, who sat down in the cage, glaring at them threw Twilight's eyes.

"Now what do we do... With that?" Applejack asked, eyeing the dark spirit before turning to Celestia.

There was a silence, before Celestia finally spoke. "I do not know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You're a princess! You are ruler of all Equestria! How can you not know what to do?" Rarity looked a mixture of baffled, worried and irritated at the same time.

"The only real way to get Twilight back, was for her to fight her way out... But because she hasn't done so yet..." A grim expression broke out on Celestia's face.

The dark spirit peered up through the cage.

"Bye, bye Twilight!" It laughed deviously.

Realisation hit Fluttershy like a bullet.

"No..." She breathed out the single word, and it was barely audible. Everything around Fluttershy faded away, as if it was being bit away like an apple. Her face went pale and she felt her racing heart begin to slow, then speed up, then slow. The next thing she saw was the ground, only a few painful inches from her face, before Discord rapidly teleported next to her, and caught her before her face could knock vexatiously against the solid earth. Fluttershy's head ringed severely, and all her bones ached. Others crowded around her worriedly, trying to talk to her, but their words were closed off, by Fluttershy's throbbing head. Discord stood closest, trying to reassure her, warning others to give her space, by what she could see, but even that wasn't enough, as everything went into a lonely blackness.