Seeing things in a different light

Outside the sole cloud house of Ponyville is three ponies and two changelings. The hardest battle is about to unfold but the changelings aren’t the enemy this time. Right now the changelings and two pegasi are getting ready to battle somepony who is basically a demi-god. He is trying to kill the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash but the other three are between him and his target.

  “I thought I could trust you,” Soarin said accusingly.

  “Everyone has their orders and I’m ordering you to stand down,” was the reply.

  “We know all about what you take orders from and this time you will fail,” a changeling said confidently.

  “No I’ll just have to kill you first. That’s all,” he said nonchalantly.

  “Fine then but don’t think we’ll go down without a fight,” the other changeling said before firing a blast of magical energy at him. The killer swiftly dodges only to find the first changeling jumping from his shadow to attack from underneath. The changelings attack makes contact but there was no visible damage done to the pegasus.

Soarin also jumped in trying to use his wings to get a speedy strike in but the pegasus dodges and teleports over to where Dash is laying. The killer goes to take a shot just for a changeling to get in the way. It tried to stop his attack but considering his monstrous strength the changeling found himself in a hole in the ground. The other changeling again jumped out of the shadows to deliver another attack.

The killer takes a swing at it just for his hoof to go right through the changeling and Soarin managed to get a full speed punch in. The punch was just enough to make him stumble away from the unconscious pegasus. Soarin dove in for another attack just for it to be sidestepped and get a painful blow to his back, breaking his wings.

With one full power swing going for Soarin’s neck he closed his eyes and waited. After a second of nothing he opened his eyes to see darkness illuminated by the shadows while in the arms of a changeling. They resurfaced a little ways away shortly after, in time to see the other changeling going for another attack. It fired off more magical bolts and blocked attacks with his shield.

  “Not bad, you three make quite the team. Unfortunately playtime is over as I was just warming up,” he said confidently and with a smile on his face.

  “That was a warm up?” Soarin asked quietly looking at his broken and disfigured wings.

  “For him? I’m surprised he warmed up that fast,” one of the changelings said already panting quite a bit.

  “Yeah, well we all knew this was basically suicide,” the other changeling pointed out.

  “Mark one, release,” the attacker said as a bracelet fell to the ground increasing his powers further.

  “I’m going to keep trying,” a changeling said while the other was looking at Dash.

The changelings charged the attacker again and the fight was back on for about a second. With his powers increased he was able to take all three down in about a minute. The first to fall was a changeling whom got a hoof to the skull causing him to drop and his head to bleed. The next was the Wonderbolt himself by a full on head bash to the throat causing him to gasp for air before falling silent. Finally the other changeling fell from a blow to the ribcage causing his ribs to puncture a lung and scratch his heart.

The last changeling was still conscious trying to breathe as the killer approached Dash obviously going in for the kill. Every other step another bracelet fell off and his power would jump more and by the time he reached his target any distinguishing characteristics were gone. He was just pure white with his powers seeping out of his form causing a white mist over his back, neck, and head.

The changeling closed his eyes and tried to remember how something like this would even have to happen. It remembered the attack on Canterlot, the meeting with Queen Chrysalis, and even his new marefriend. Now that the changeling thought about it, everything started about two weeks ago.

~~~~~~~~

‘Uhh…where are we going?’ Midnight thought as we walked out of the castle.

  “I wanted to get out of our room for once,” I said giving him a half-truth.

‘So do you even know where we’re going?’ he asked.

  “We’re going to Ponyville,” I answered taking to the skies in our usual Frost persona.

‘Why?’ my other half kept asking as we made our way to the small town.

  “I have a few reasons for that,” I responded hoping it would be good enough for him. We landed on a cloud and sat there since Midnight was fighting for control. I could take a hint and explained, “Well for one, we have been reading your journal for two days now, two, it isn’t healthy to stay inside all day, and three, I wanted to talk to Twilight.”

Midnight finally relented and gave me control again allowing us to reach our destination. I landed by where I woke up and transformed into Trixie since she has been here before. That was important since neither of us were in a good mood and we don’t want to deal with Pinkie Pie right now. I teleported to the library and opened the door at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash proud.

  “Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” I said in an extremely polite manner.

  “Trixie,” Twilight said with confusion, shock, and annoyance.

  “She used to be pretty nice and I’m sure you will come to like” –I dropped the disguise- “her eventually.”

  “Changeling!” Twilight yelled in surprise before starting to shoot at me with her magic. I threw up a shield spell that Midnight had discovered to block her attacks as well as putting a shield around her house to prevent teleportation. In hindsight it was an uneventful battle with her shooting me while I countered with my shield.

  “Nice stability thread,” I complemented Midnight on his discovery that allowed me to keep both shields up without getting very exhausted. Twilight on the other hoof was getting very exhausted and after a minute or two couldn’t continue her onslaught of attacks.

~~~~~1014 years ago~~~~~~

  “Midnight!” Luna called using the Royal Canterlot Voice to summon me to the new castle.

  “Yes Princess Luna,” I greeted shortly after teleporting.

  “Where were thou when We called?” she asked like usual.

  “The old palace training with new and unstable magic,” I answered both that question and her next.

  “We need thine help in a grave matter,” she said gesturing to the outside witch was riddled with chaos. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t sensed it earlier.

  “That should be impossible. Who?” I asked in utter disbelief since the King and Queen had banished every draconequus to uninhabited worlds years ago.

  “His name is Havoc and he is currently located in the badlands,” she informed me.

  “This is why you summoned me then-” she nodded confirming my task “-I will do everything I can to stop him.”

  “Be careful,” she said as I teleported out into the badlands to confront Havoc. With the sun going down and two long distant teleports in such a short span of time I was exhausted. I set up a little spot to camp for the night before casting a passive barrier spell and laying down for some sleep.

The rising sun woke me up just before going behind a cloud and darkening the badlands. I extended my magical presence and found the source of chaos before jumping into my shadow and heading off to face him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The memory came forth so quickly that it had affected both of us and caused our body to collapse for a moment. Luckily for us between how exhausted Twilight was and our military training we were able to recover before she could attack again.

  “Can we start discussing things now? I shouldn’t be here for too long,” I admitted. Twilight shook her head out of curiosity but she was definitely drained. I started cleaning up the library with my magic as I asked my question, “What do you know of the time shortly before Nightmare Moon?”

  “After our fight with Nightmare Moon I did some research,” she answered after a moment to collect herself.

  “Have you ever heard of a pony named, Midnight Shine?” I asked causing Midnight to become curious.

  “According to the history books he was a skilled mage that created some of the most advanced magic still used today. Apparently he was mainly focused on teleportation but disappeared about a year before Nightmare Moon was created,” she answered with a bit of hesitation.

  “Let’s just head back to the palace and finish reading. Do you remember your long distant teleports now?” Dave asked hopeful as he relinquished control.

  “I remember everything,” Midnight stated before releasing the barrier spells and teleporting to their room.

~~~~~Present Day~~~~~~

The changeling snapped out of his thoughts when he heard coughing. Looking around he noticed that the other changeling was once again conscious and quickly make his way over to him. Although quickly is relative since he was having trouble breathing.

  “This isn’t over yet,” he said quietly couching a bit himself.

  “We only have one spell while he is in that form,” the other changeling stated watching the killer slowly approach the unconscious pegasus.

  “I called it forbidden for a reason-” he glanced over to their situation “-but given the circumstances. Are you absolutely positive about this?”

  “Of course,” the changeling whispered. The one changeling looked at the other and they both said as loudly as possible, “FUSE.”

The demi-god looked behind him to see a bright light. When the light died down the two changelings had become one but the damage to both was now also in one body. The changeling tried one more attack from the shadows; witch didn’t accomplish much, before the killer had it in his hooves. The changeling grew a wicked and devious smile and returned to the shadows with the killer still holding them.

  “What? Why?” he asked them as he strengthened his grip.

  “There are a few secrets of the shadow realm you know?” they asked mostly unaffected by the increased strength.

  “Yeah like it’s one of the few places in the universe that I can’t go,” he replied unamused.

  “Did you know that in this realm every shadow can attack you?” they asked and his eyes widened. Unwilling to die in the realm he again strengthened his grip but this time to lethal capacity. It took only a second for the changeling to go limp but he kept his hold. Suddenly all of the light in the realm vanished and the killer released a scream of pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~

  “I remember how to split our body if it works,” Midnight said triumphantly shortly after their return to the palace.

‘What do you mean if?’ Dave thought back although he was exhausted.

  “Well it would work in theory but I have no experience casting it,” Midnight explained.

‘Please do more research first. I’m going to bed,’ Dave thought before causing their body to yawn.