It had been a long and trying day for Blaze Blade. As Commander of the Battleborn, he was responsible for coordinating the far-ranging search pattern for the enigmatic threat that had been made toward Canterlot in the weeks approaching his Captain’s wedding to the pony that Princess Celestia had seen fit not just to adopt, but to elevate to becoming an Alicorn herself. He had received multiple negative reports from the eight squads of ponies deployed across Equestria, with only his command squad to provide backup in case something happened in the capital itself. He didn’t believe that his squad’s presence or absence would be critical, given that Princess Celestia and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony would be on hoof, and the vast majority of the Royal Guard proper were still deployed in the capital, but the paranoia ingrained in him in his training and reinforced by several years of experience in combat just wouldn’t let go. After all, the Captain is acting kind of odd lately, and there’s something off about Princess Cadance that I just can’t put my hoof on.
As he made his way to his sister’s dance club and restaurant to get some supper before the post-wedding celebrations, he looked up, more out of habit than anything else, and stopped dead in his tracks. Shining Armor’s rather impressive shield spell was fracturing, in the middle of what should have been the wedding ceremony. Using his magic to weave air into a pair of lenses, he focused his view on the fracture points, and shuddered slightly in revulsion as he recognized the beings slamming themselves into the shield, and the horde of their comrades waiting for it to break completely. Changelings hadn’t been openly fought in Equestria for centuries, but he had friends in the Royal Couriers who had quietly dealt with the occasional infiltration.
Touching his hoof to the amulet hanging over his armour, he spoke in an almost-calm voice, “Battleborn, to me. Hurricane plaza. We’ve got a problem.”
The responses came to his ears as if the ponies were already standing next to him, and he drew one of his javelins. A small amount of magic, willed into three of the weapon’s runic inscriptions and causing them to glow orange, primed it for what he needed.
Thunder Gale and Night Arrow, the two pegasi in the Command Squad, naturally arrived first. It was difficult for two ponies to be any more different in personality than they were, but they were fairly close friends in spite of it, or perhaps because of it.
“Our Mistress of Scouts had a look at the shield spell on the way here. Either the Captain’s brain was scrambled by Princess Cadance’s ‘I do’ kiss, or something’s seriously wrong, Commander,” the blue-coated squad-leader said as he saluted.
Blaze couldn’t help but grin. Leave it to his brash, irreverent second to joke at a time like this. “Oh, I’ve no doubt the former will happen, but given what we’re facing, I don’t think that’s actually the Princess he’s about to marry.”
“I took a look in at the rehearsal, and the Captain’s little sister was certainly concerned, if not exactly coherent, in her accusations that her would-be sister-in-law was evil. I got called away shortly after that, but nopony’s seen Twilight Sparkle since. If that is a Changeling he’s about to marry, it would all fit, sir,” Night Arrow said as she studied the the buildings and airspace around the plaza, already working out the best methods to ambush the Changelings who were still hammering away at the shield.
Shining Moon and Ember Rime galloped into the plaza together as the nondescript grey mare finished. Doc Moon was the oldest pony still active in the Battleborn’s ranks, and healing was his passion, but he was still the most skilled spear-fighter Blaze had ever seen. And Ember was only a few steps below the Captain’s little sister in terms of raw power, but was far more skilled in destructive magic, at the cost of versatility.
“When the hay is this party gettin’ started, sir?” Doc asked, eagerness shining in his almost-silver eyes.
“It won’t be long, that shield’s almost shattered already.”
“You’re right, Commander. It’s only going to take a few more hits.” Ember confirmed, a bit of her normally-suppressed Stalliongrad accent slipping through.
The last of the squad galloped into the square with a clatter of heavy barding.
“Sorry I’m late, sir. I was in the little mare’s room and this armour is a bit difficult to get back on.” Mountain Shield said in her strong Caerfilly accent and surprisingly high voice, undoubtedly blushing under her helmet. Terrifying as she may be in battle, she was shy about most things, and everypony in the rest of the Battleborn regarded her as a little sister, even though she dwarfed all of them.
“We have to assume that Princess Celestia intends for the bearers to use the Elements to help fight these bloody things, and that the Changelings’ leader is going to realize how much of a threat they are. That makes our mission simple. Intercept the bearers and escort them to the Elements if we can, and if we can’t, we draw as many of the Changelings as we can to us,” Blaze said, beginning to trot toward the castle, javelin held ready by his telekinesis.
With a horrible shattering sound, the shield failed.
“Pick your targets carefully. Any unmasked Changeling is fair game. Try to stick to your doubles once they start changing their forms, and pull your punches if you have to face somepony you’re only mostly certain is a Changeling,” he shouted over the shrieking sounds of their now-plummeting enemies.
Looking up, Blaze targeted a large group of Changelings diving toward the Royal Guard headquarters, and let fly the charged javelin with a launch speed not even remotely possible by hoof. Fifteen hooves away from him, it split with a loud crack into five identical javelins, and after another fifteen hooves, each of those split. Those twenty-five javelins guided themselves to their targets, piercing their black flesh with ease. On impact, the third bit of magic bound into the weapon, and its temporary duplicates, discharged with a crack of thunder as lightning arced from tip to tip, stunning or killing anything unfortunate enough to be within the ragged pattern. Suddenly, three dozen of the forms that had been shrieking toward the ground on magically-shielded crash courses were merely falling. And the second wave aimed themselves at the source of the unexpected resistance.
Blaze drew his sword, holding it aloft with his telekinesis as the blade glowed red hot and burst into flames from the magic poured into it, “FOR EQUESTRIA!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Mountain Shield knew most ponies saw her as being a bit scatterbrained, and she had to admit that most of the time, she was. Her thoughts always seemed to be racing this way and that with no regard for what she wanted, but there were two times that the jumbled chaotic mess that was the inside of her mind aligned in focus. One was reading a good book, where very little short of open warfare could distract her, the other was combat. In the midst of a battle, fed by adrenaline, her racing thoughts worked together, making time itself seem to slow down and allowing her to precisely plan every move. The Changelings were able to copy her strength, and even her armour, but she had years of practice moving and fighting in the heavy barding, and they couldn’t copy the four black belts she had earned in different martial arts styles.
Well, they could copy the belts themselves, I guess, but not the skills that earned them, she thought as she charged one of her doubles. It lashed out with a punch that moved far too slowly to be a threat. Dodge left, rear, grab the forehoof, guide it further past, hammer-blow just there on the pauldron so its mass aids the strike instead of hinders, odd to hear my own voice screaming when I’ve just dislocated somepony else’s shoulder, twist and guide, well, me, to the ground, forehoof stomp to the join between manefaire and helm. The Changeling regained its natural form as it died from a broken neck, and Shield saw another of her doubles rearing to strike her. Twist right to make the strike glance, left jab to the gap between cuirass and left spaulder to guard-break, right jab just above the gorget, step in and shoulder-check to overbalance, let it die from the crushed throat.
She noticed the Commander using his telekinesis to lay about himself with that huge sword of his, bisecting and burning Changelings with ease. Not exactly a shock that a pony with a cutie mark of a flaming sword, not to mention that name, would prefer using fire magic through a sword. Knowing where he actually was, she reasoned that the unarmed pony with the same charcoal-grey coat, tied-back white mane with streaks of pale gold through it, and amber eyes charging at her from back the way they came didn’t count as ‘only mostly certain’, and counter-charged him. A blue blur streaked between them and the Changeling made the mistake of looking, even for a moment. By the time he turned his head back, it was far too late to dodge.
With a terrifying crash of armour on armour and a short, high-pitched cry of pain from her target, Mountain Shield slammed into the Changeling with the rising shoulder-check move she learned in her first week in the Cataphracts, launching him a not inconsiderable distance to land head-first on the edge of the plaza's fountain, its statue of Commander Hurricane seeming to look on disapprovingly. Why do I hear that exact scream so often?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thunder Gale grinned fiercely as he circled around to see the impressive impact. After swooping in to decapitate a pair of Changelings who had just landed near Mountain Shield, several of them shifted to his form and dove at him. So, they want to try to be me? Heh.
He leapt into the air, accelerating effortlessly to a breakneck speed. He might not be as fast as the Element of Loyalty, or as agile as the Wonderbolts, but there were exceedingly few other ponies who could best him in the sky, and none of them could do it in armour. He banked and weaved amongst the buildings, street signs, and lamp-posts, letting them do a fair bit of the work as his less-skilled pursuers didn’t have the sense to back off.
Flashing down an alleyway at rooftop height, he inverted and flared his wings, pulling down into a sharp turn that had his hooves a blade’s-width from the well-trodden earth before he was clear of the turn and facing exactly the way he came, without losing any speed. The leaders of the pack pursuing him couldn’t manage it and slammed into the wall at the end of the alley. The next few tried to turn the same way, and faceplanted into the ground. The ones at the rear of the pack didn’t even have time to scream as the blue pegasus corkscrewed through their formation. He’d learned in basic training the knack of forcing his will into his wings to make them sharp and sturdy enough to be used as weapons, and between them and his swords, one pass through the Changelings left a rain of green blood and falling black bodies.
“Showoff!” came a call from below, and he glanced at Ember, his grey eyes meeting the bright blue of hers briefly. The red-coated unicorn grinned, her white-and-blue mane flowing in phantom winds as her horn glowed blue, and she shouted, “Break left!” Gale complied, avoiding a glimmering white cloud that had sprung into being. A group of five Changelings plummeted through the cloud and it flashed a bright blue-white before dissipating, leaving the Changelings unshielded, frozen solid, and still plummeting. They shattered on impact with the ground.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ember Rime had always been an odd pony, even before she received a cutie mark of a fiery snowflake. Most unicorns used a limited selection of relatively complex magic relating to who they were. A handful, like Twilight Sparkle, were skilled generalists who could bend any kind of magic to their wills with enough study and practice. Ember, on the other hoof, dealt with magic at its simplest, directly manipulating the four primal elements of air, earth, water, and fire. Very few ponies, even in the Royal Guard’s unit of elite unicorns, the Warmages, could hurl fire and frost and lightning and rocks torn from the very ground with her strength and precision, but most of them could do pretty amazing things she couldn’t, like proper magical shields, or teleportation, or duplicating or enhancing items.
Still, none of that’s nearly as useful in battle as my skills, she thought as she punched a lance of almost-solid fire through three Changelings that had been stupid enough to line up as they pursued a pair of fleeing civilians into an alley. Her horn glowed brighter as she raised a field of razor-sharp spikes of rock at the mouth of the alley and hardened a sheet of air between the buildings to protect the civilians from above. It wouldn’t last long, and wouldn’t keep them out entirely, but it should at least keep the civilians safe until the bearers of the Elements of Harmony could deal with the overall threat.
The squad had been advancing steadily when a large pack of Changelings came charging into the thoroughfare from a market. Ember was nearest the back of the squad, and gave a grin with all the warmth of a Stalliongrad winter as she faced them. She waved at them, then turned and ran a couple of body-lengths to build up speed. Glancing back to ensure they were following her, she hit the flying ones with a surge of wind to force them to the ground, then iced the road in front of her and leapt onto it.
“WOOOHOOOO!!!” she yelled with undisguised glee, sliding faster and faster down the slight incline of that portion of the road and spinning around. Most of the Changelings were also sliding down the ice, with panic-stricken expressions and far less control than the pony who had grown up used to playing in ice and snow. Almost a pity to do this to them.
With another burst of magic, a wall of spikes angled back toward her pursuers burst from the ground. Simple physics did the rest of the work and Ember reached the end of the ice-slide just as the Changelings reached the spikes.
She had just turned back around to face up the road toward the Royal Castle when she was tackled by a brown-coated pony with an unruly black mane just beginning to go grey, and a hateful gleam in familiar silvery eyes. She struggled, but the Changeling was impersonating somepony physically far stronger, and she wasn’t the best at close combat. She was about to set herself aflame in desperation when a spear pierced her attacker and lifted him off of her, throwing him into a group of other Changelings. “Thanks, Doc.”
“It was nothin’,” Doc replied, twirling his spear briefly to shake the green blood from it as Ember got to her hooves.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Shining Moon may have been old compared to his squadmates, but he was still full of fire. For him, healing and fighting were two sides of the same coin: protecting others. The caduceus on his flank, the ancient symbol of a healer, even had the traditional winged serpents intertwined around a spear instead of a staff. He turned back to the fight to find three more of his doubles had armed themselves with the spears of captured Royal Guards.
“Now ain’t that buckin’ special. Show me what the hay ya got!” he said before leaping into the fray. His own spear was a standard-issue Royal Guard model, nothing fancy like the Commander’s sword or Night Arrow’s blades, and it looked decidedly battered, if well maintained. Still, it seemed to come alive in his hooves, blocking and striking with the speed of a snake and the precision of a pony with an intimate knowledge of anatomy.
The double on his left barely blocked a strike, and Doc glanced back at the one behind him before twisting a quarter-turn and using the leverage of his grip to bring the tip of the spear in an upward arc, bringing it down with the force of a meteor onto that double’s head. He blocked a strike from the first double’s spear as the second collapsed with a groan of pain (along with a split scalp and a concussion), and slid his own spear forward almost like a billiards cue, slamming the spiked butt-cap through the Changeling’s throat. He twisted another quarter turn and kicked the first double off his spear in time to block a strike from the third.
The third Changeling seemed to actually have some skill with a spear, matching thrust for thrust and block for block. “Now that’s more like it.” Doc said, grinning. It’d been a while since he’d faced a real challenge on the battlefield. With a block followed by a high feint, he created an opening, and whipped the spear in a short, vicious semi-circle that broke one of the Changeling’s rear fetlocks with a sound like a dry twig snapping. The Changeling screamed in pain and fell, cursing like the pony whose form he had taken. Doc smiled a little sadly, “I’m probably gonna regret this one day...” and brought the butt of his spear down on his enemy’s head with just enough force in just the right place to knock him out instead of killing him. “Don’t really envy the headache yer gonna have, though.”
Doc looked up as several identical pegasi, all medium grey with dark blonde manes and cutie marks of crossed arrows with oddly-shaped heads, swooped over him toward the Commander.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Night Arrow flew along with three of her doubles, matching their scowls as they headed toward the Commander. She edged forward and down casually, until she was directly under the one in the center of the formation. Then, she inverted, flexed her forehooves, and slammed the blades mounted into her bracers up into the Changeling’s chest. In the moment of shock before it fell out of the sky, she curled her wings in, wrapped the tips of her longest feathers around the handles of two of the daggers sheathed at her belt, and flicked them with uncanny accuracy into the throats of the doubles to either side.
Kicking free of the first double and retracting the blades again, she twisted and fell, taking the time granted by her initial altitude to study the battlefield. It took her about a second to make her assessment, and she guided herself toward two of the Changelings trying to overwhelm Blaze Blade. Her steely-blue eyes held only a hint of pity for them as she fell. She flared her wings to minimize the impact forces just before hitting the ground between the two Changelings, and before they could react, she reared back and flexed her forehooves again as her forelegs shot to each side to plant her blades in their necks.
She retracted her blades and quarter-turned, her right wing drawing a number of darts from one of her pouches and hurling them into a group of charging Changelings. Only a few of them were hit, but their sudden collapses into blank-eyed stupor at the front of the group tripped up most of the rest of them. The two who hadn’t been drugged senseless or had the wind knocked out of them charged her, changing into Mountain Shield’s large and heavily-armoured form for protection against the nondescript pegasus’s short blades.
“Oh, that really isn’t fair,” Night Arrow said, looking into brilliant green eyes that smoldered with a cruelty that looked fundamentally wrong in them. They found out which way she meant as they reached her and she moved like smoke, dodging slow and clumsy attacks that would have flattened her if they’d connected. She darted between them and grabbed their identical red tails with her wings, quickly tying them together. Cutting around to the side of them, she hurled a spray of darts at the nearest foe. One of them struck true, leaving a streak of red on a small, uncovered portion of tan coat. The dose wasn’t enough to drop a pony of Shield’s size and strength, or a Changeling impersonating her, but it did have an effect. The other Changeling now had to drag a very confused and dizzy hindrance instead of a coherent partner. It dropped its stolen form in order to escape, and with a surprisingly-long lunge, Night Arrow leapt forward and stabbed it with one of her blades.
The tripped Changelings recovered just in time for the Commander to reach them. A few sweeps of his greatsword, and there were no more Changelings left between them and the castle, for the moment, at least.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Let’s gallop before more of them reach us,” Blaze said, following his own advice and trusting his squadmates and friends to keep up.
Before they’d gone more than a few steps, however, a bright glow came from the castle, and he felt a change in the flow of magic in the city. A moment later, and Captain Shining Armor’s shield spell reestablished itself, sweeping through the capital with great speed and force, and launching every living Changeling still in it almost literally all the way out of the country.
“Well, I guess that’s it for the threat we’ve all been worried about. Any bets on what just happened?” Blaze said, extinguishing his sword and slowing to a canter.
Thunder Gale ran a hoof through his blue and gold mane, “Ten bits on the real Cadance showing up and helping fuel the Captain’s spell, sir.”
“Ten bits from me on the bearers getting to the Elements on their own,” Ember ventured.
“You know me, sir, I don’t bet on anything but card games,” Shield said, grinning a bit. As much of a ditz as she could be at times, she had almost unnatural luck at their weekly poker game.
“I’m going to have to go with Gale on that, but that doesn’t mean Ember’s wrong either. Five on each from me,” Night Arrow said.
“Ah, what the hay, I’ll put ten on Gale’s theory, sir.”
“I’ll go with Ember’s theory, and dinner at my sister’s to the rest of you if we’re wrong.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
They made it to the castle to find rather a mess being cleaned up by a number of servants, and about half the wedding preparations being redone. It looked like everypony was trying to reset things as quickly as possible to get the wedding done that day.
The squad helped out with the preparations while Blaze sought out his Captain.
“Sorry we got here a bit late, sir,” Blaze said, coming to attention and saluting, “We had to fight our way from Hurricane Plaza. We got about two thirds of the way to the castle when you fixed everything.”
“At ease, Commander,” Shining Armor replied, returning the salute, “All I did was cast the spell. If it weren’t for Cadance, I would never have had the power to do it. And if it weren’t for Twily showing up with her in the middle of the ceremony, I’d have ended up married to the Changelings’ queen instead.”
“Looks like I owe the squad dinner. Sounds like the queen really did a number on you, sir.”
“Everything’s a blank from getting home from rehearsal last night through coming to with a very dishevelled Cadance in front of me, Princess Celestia in a cocoon, the Changeling queen gloating, and Twilight begging me to re-cast my shield spell. From what Cadance told me, the love for her that Chrysalis devoured from me gave her enough strength to take down Princess Celestia.”
“That’s… frankly terrifying, sir. But pretty bloody heartwarming if you think about it. The Captain of the Royal Guard needs to not just be a good commander, or a good fighter, but capable of that much love,” Blaze said, smiling, “We’re not like the Legions of old, even those of us who were born for war. We protect and shield the everyday ponies who should never have to deal with the things we face, and without love, a pony can easily come to resent those we serve. I figure you just entirely justified the Battleborn never giving you the kind of hard time we gave Steel Rain when he was Captain.”
“Heh, you and everypony else in the Guard, old friend. It does mean a lot, hearing that from somepony I went through Basic with,” Shining Armor said, giving a quick smile. “You’re dismissed, Commander. I’ve got a wedding to deal with… and you and your squad have to get cleaned up and into dress uniforms.”
“Roger that, sir.” Blaze said, giving a sharp salute before heading off to round up his squad.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The wedding was beautiful, and the reception in Platinum Square was full of energy, good music, and delicious food. And if only a few ponies noticed the six soldiers in dress uniforms, it didn't really matter. They were born for war, and were getting to enjoy what they protected. And that was enough.
Author's Note
This is the beginning of an idea that's been kicking around in the back of my head for a while. I'm not entirely sure where it's going to go from here.
