Children of the Night

Children of the night

Chapter 21

Falling apart

Chrysalis was pacing the throne room of Canterlot castle. Her spies in the Everfree forest had reported that a large group of ponies had left the garden of shadows. The group had split in three, each led by an Alicorn. She had planned to have her drones from Appleloosa intercept the one heading south, while those in the hive were to flank the group in the east.... However, her messangers had returned with dire news. Appleloosa was recaptured, and she hadn't noticed a single thing. That in itself was not so bad, since the town was not that big. Only about two thousand ponies lived there, so she could easily take that loss. What had left her speechless however, had been the report of the messanger she had sent to her hive....

The hive she had built up for so many centuries, was now nothing more then a crater in the ground, with no survivors. That event had made one thing painfully clear to her. Her connection to her drones was weakening. Had it been as strong as usual, she would have felt that many deaths for sure. This was a big problem, but could be set aside aslong as they stayed loyal. Right now, she had sent word to all occupied cities in the west and east. In the south there were only a few mining camps, that would not hurt her cause were they to be lost.... The drones however were another matter entirely, so she had ordered all of them back to strengthen her defenses. The fight was coming her way, and her hive was destroyed. She had to act, and start breeding more drones as fast as she could. All her egg reserves had been in the hive....

That afternoon found Chrysalis in the former dungeons of the castle. All day, since that morning, she had intercourse with her drones. Now it was time to lay eggs. She forced her body to double the number she would usually have been able to produce. It hurt, but it had to be done. Soon the entire dungeons were one sticky mess of green slime. In it, along the walls, were thousands of eggs, that would be ready to join her cause in a few days. Chrysalis lay panting in one of the former cells, her lower body bleeding badly. She knew she had overdone it a bit, but she was unwilling to give up her grasp over Equestria, now that she finally had conquered it....

Twilight Sparkle was still staring vacantly into nothingness, and her remaining friends were more then worried. Applejack, who was mostly asleep these days since she had caught an infection, so her medication had to be increased, had missed most of it. Rarity and Pinkie tended to their friends as good as they could, but they also mourned for their fallen friend. They all knew that Fluttershy had died, while helping the princess ascend again.... That she had died for a noble task however, did not make it hurt any less.

While Rarity was the one that treated Applejack, and fed Twilight, Pinkie was usually using her training weights to vent some of her anger. She was sad about her friends death, but her hatred blotted even that out. They had caused all of this. The Changelings would have to pay for what they did to her friends. She would make sure of that.

"Pinkie you really could help me with them. Taking care of Twilight alone is taxing, since I have to make her swallow every bite I give her."

"She will come around. Give her time. We need to get ready for the battle!"

"Whatever are you talking about? We still have the elements, but without Fluttershy we can't use them. There won't be a..."

"I don't need the elements to fight! What do you think I train that much for Rarity? You could also you some thoughening up!"

"No way Pinkie Pie! We can't fight them in our current state. I am unable to use magic, Applejack can barely move her legs without screaming in pain, and Twilight has burried herself in her own little world. What do you think we could possibly do?"

"Make them pay?"

"What?"

"I said, we will make them pay! For Twilight! For Fluttershy! For EVERYPONY THEY HURT!"

Rarity sighed. Adding to her worries about Twilight and Applejack, she also worried about Pinkie Pie lately. The usually so happy pony had become more and more agressive over the last few weeks... If this went on any farther, she would surely do something foalish....

That night

Rarity had turned in for the night, after making sure Twilight and Applejack lay in their own beds and were clean. With them in a state like this, they couldn't even use the restroom....

Pinkie checked the tunnel that led up to Raritiys and Applejacks cell. As she saw that there was no light coming from there, she got her tramplers from under her bed and put them on. After that, she walked over to a bookshelf that held several medical reference guides. For the last few days, she had used her metal tramplers to dig through the soft earth behind the shelf, and tonight, she finally broke through. She had looked everywhere else, but this was the only spot that did not consist of hard rock, which was too hard for her tramplers to cut through.

She stuck her head out of the hole she had made, and looked around. To her delight, she could see, that she had landed in the basement of some building, so no Changeling was around. Carefully Pinkie extracted herself from the tunnel, and placed several sacks of flour in front of it, to hide it from view. She made a mental not to herself to find something to cover it up better for the next time. She was sorry, deep inside, that she had to do this, but her friends were just no help right now, and she could not wait to finally get back at the Changelings for what they had done.

Carefully going up the wooden stairs that led up from the basement, she looked around the main room of what looked like a bakery. Carefull, not to make to much noise with her tramplers, she walked to one of the windows. Due to the night outside, and the unlit store, she saw several Changelings patroling the streets outside. She knew she ought to be carefull, and she also knew that she originally only wanted to gather some information for her future outings, but right now she saw red.... Her anger overwhelmed Pinkamena Diana Pie, and she lunged, through the closed window, at the five Changelings outside. The shallow cuts on her face and flanks she suffered from this, she barely registered. The Changelings were utterly supprised by the pink pony attacking them, so their reaction was delayed a little.

That delay however, had been enough for the partythrower extraordinare to grab the one closest to herself and twist his neck. She did so, with no hesitation, and no remorse. She did not even feel effort breaking his neck. Her training was really showing in the light of the streetlamps now. Her formerly plump frame was now muscular, and everytime she exhaled, steam came from her nostrils, indicating her furry. The second Changeling fell to one of her tramplerclad hooves, as she spun around and hit him with her right foreleg. The still stunned guard flew several hooves, crashed into the side of a building and lay motionless.

The other three regained their composure and strated to attack Pinkie hoof to hoof, but the pink partypony dodged their attacks with practiced ease. It was just like playing Dodgeball extreme, which was one of her favorite games. When one of the Changelings fell back and shot a magical bolt at her, Pinkie jumped back from her attackers, onto the wall of the shop she had emerged from, and bucked at it midflight, sending herself flying at the magic user.

"CHEATER!"

She screamed, as her left foreleg connected wih the Changelings right tempel, and sent him flying. The other two reacted quicky, chasing after her, but her hindlegs had already reared up into the air again, bucking at one of them. The other one did hit her with a painfull blow to her flank, and Pinkie shrank away from him, dodging another blow that came her way. She was now facing only one opponent, but something was wrong. The ground beneath her was slippery, and she found it hard to hold her ballance. As she looked down for a moment, to see what it was that was giving her trouble, she noticed that she was standing in a puddle of dark red liquid. But she did not have the time to investigate where it had come from, or what it was, as she already heard the last guard charge at her. With more effort then she had anticipated, she reared up, and struck his head from both sides with her ironclad hooves. The crunching sound that followed it, satisfied her a great deal. What she had not anticipated however, had been the force of the charging Changeling. Even as she had crushed it's head between her hooves, the force of his charge drove his body forward, burrying his horn deep in her chest.

Pinkie let go of the lifeless form of the Changeling, as she coughed up blood and fell to her right side. Now she could see what the red liquid had been, that had almost made her slip earlier. It had been her own blood... A piece of wood was burried deep inside her left flank.... With some effort Pinkie drew the Changelings horn from her chest, biting back the tears that formed in her eyes. She had been reckless, and made a stupid mistake. Now that the adrenaline left her body, she felt the pain from the wounds and had to clench her teeth to keep herself from screaming. She had planned this to be a reconissaince mission, but her anger had overtaken her.... Slowly she dragged herself to the window she had jumped through earlier. In the distance, she could hear the shouts of other guards that came this way, so she had to hurry.

But it was so hard... Her head felt light, and her legs were like pudding.... She fell down the stairs to the basement, in which her super secret tunnel ended, breaking one of her forelegs, and loosing two of her tramplers. Laying there, in the darkness with her back against the stone wall, a puddle of blood forming under her, the last thing Pinkie heard, was the clip clop of running hooves, and a concerned voice.....

A few minutes earlier

Twilight had opend her eyes, and looked around. Her head hurt and she felt bad. She remembered Fluttershys death, and was close to going back into her depression, when she noticed a draft blowing over her. That must have been what had awoken her in the first place. She looked around, but she knew there were no windows here. All the fresh air their home had, came magically from mount Unicornia itself. As her gaze fell on the bookshelf near the rear end of the room however, she gasped in suprise, and jumped out of bed. The shelf was pushed to the side, revealing a small hole in the wall, barely big enough for a pony to squeeze through. Twilight looked over to Pinkies bed, as her suspision was confirmed. The pink partypony was gone. Immedeatly, she crawled into the hole, even so all her senses told her it was a bad idea. She already lost Fluttershy.... She would not loose another one of her friends if she could help it....