Commander Hurricane is furious when Captain Ardent Sentry reports back from the mess in the square with news that Princess Celestia got away. Ardent Sentry confesses trying to keep track of the Alicorn was impossible given Celestia could both teleport and outspeed any Pegasus not bearing a speed talent. Commander Hurricane is still enraged. With so many ponies scared of Princess Celestia he's less afraid for her safety and more worried that somepony is going to be very bold and do something very stupid in an attempt to hurt her. Corporal, formerly Private, Pansy Shy manages to help calm Hurricane down. He apologizes for the outburst, as it was largely Anger Born of Worry, but insists something has to be done. Starswirl is already breathing down his neck over this and he's not a young stallion anymore. Ardent Sentry sadly ponders the sobering thought that a living legend like Commander Hurricane is rapidly becoming an Old Soldier, his fur is starting to gray and he's looking more and more tired. One of these days if he kept pushing himself like he did when he was younger, he was going to regret it.
All the more reason they need to get Princess Celestia back and stable soon as possible. Smart Cookie comes rushing in with another scroll from Starswirl, insisting it's urgent. The council just got word of an attack on Timbucktu from someone in the frontier who witnessed the Changeling attack.
In the frontier itself, Celestia wanders around aimlessly and on unsteady legs. Every few seconds she's going through intense mental pain from magic build up and is forced to vent it off in uncontrollable shock waves that are wrecking the forest. She struggles to redirect the energy upwards and feels remorse all the chaos is causing damage to her surroundings while forcing the forest denizens to run for cover. It's better than being in the middle of a populated area, but she wants to find somewhere she can not put anyone to harm with her out of control power. Remorseful and breaking down, she resigns herself to limp to a mountain peak and exile herself up there in isolation. She remembers a time Starswirl taught her, "You look like a pony but you're not, not entirely at least. You'll never be just like them." In her anguish, she doesn't remember that right after that, he told her that she will be an ideal for ponykind to admire and strive for. She sees her reflection in water and beholds her wretched, dirty self. She's convinced that she's an unnatural monster, and without Luna, she's doomed to be alone as all others will eventually die of old age. She passes out from exhaustion. Suddenly, a glow moves through the forest and the plantlife regrows, while the animals calm themselves. Harmony walks up to the sleeping princess. So far from the Tree of Harmony, her time here is brief, but she needed to be here.
Harmony cleans Celestia of all the mud and twigs and lets her sleep on her shoulder. She whispers into her ear, then disappears. Celestia wakes up feeling strange. Her magic is no longer out of control and her headache is gone, though she's still sore in places. She's confused at how the forest has been restored and her rage has been hushed. She vaguely remembers hearing a voice like a wind chime. She flashes back to a time Luna told her about hearing that voice, then looks around, calling for her mother, before falling asleep again.
Later that night, Commander Hurricane leads his troops to Timbucktu and they all gasp at the sight of the once marvelous city reduced to burning ruins. He orders them to fan out and search for survivors. Well trained, they do their best to stay in touch in case the Changelings or panicked survivors attack them. As Ardent Sentry and Hurricane investigate a house, Ardent realizes he already knows there won't be any survivors. He confirms this, as he's seen Changeling attacks before. He sees a unique looking scorch mark from a magical blast and says it confirms the enemy was led by Queen Chrysalis herself. Chrysalis has the ability to communicate with her minions at a distance, making tracking her swarm almost impossible as they can coordinate no matter how scattered they are. Hurricane says if they cannot track the swarm, they'll instead predict where they will strike next, and they should be able to cut them off as Changelings are not as fast as Pegasi. The most logical place they will go is Trot.
Celestia wakes up again, and although her body is now healed, her mind is in turmoil. She thinks about how different she is from the others, and how despite her best efforts, she's still feared by many. She thinks about how Luna became Nightmare Moon and wonders if she is fated to become something similar. She looks at her Cutie Mark of a sun, gained when she managed to raise the sun all by herself. Starswirl once said that it and Luna's similar moon Cutie Mark symbolized how the two were meant to be above and watch over ponykind. She now wonders. If she is above ponykind, should she even care about them?
