Time for a Change of Pace

by Radoran

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Sad, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Changelings, Adventure, Tragedy
Length: 14351

Terminal has to find a way to understand the secrets of the changelings before it's too late.

For a long amount of time, the changelings have been stuff of myth until the attack on Canterlot. Since then, Equestria has been on high alert for changelings that may be hidden among their ranks. But, before the attack on Canterlot, one pony will discover a secret he has not known in his year in Ponyville. Former Royal Guard, Terminal, sets out to Canterlot to stop Chrysalis' plan, but he is too late and gets attack, and eventually passes out. When he awakes, he has no memory of what happened, and finds himself in the presence of the changelings. As he goes on, he writes his story to keep as a memoir to himself and others.

Dark and Tragedy tags maybe?

-Radoran

Published 2013-11-10 18:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-27 03:54:50 UTC

Chapter 1: The Beginning

To anypony that reads this, including myself,

My name is Terminal. I don't know what happened, or where I am, but I now have proof of the beings that have been hidden among us for several years already. All that I do remember, is that finding out about these creatures was, and still is my mission. They call themselves the changelings. They are creatures of Equestrian myth with powers that the average unicorn does not have. This is my story of my encounter, and recovery--as they're telling me--with the changelings.

Terminal was a former royal guard, now retired. He was a white stallion with a yellow and orange striped mane, with a lock and key for his cutie mark since he handeled the locks during his service. He normally sat home waiting for things to happen. Sometimes he would go out for a stroll through Ponyville and maybe Canterlot. Other times, he would sit by the window and watch the various ponies walk by. He normally gets visits from the new friends he made. An average life for him, until, it happened.

"THERE'S A WEDDING?!" he exclaimed.

"Well, duh. Everypony's been talking about it for weeks." said his friend Lyda.

She was a pegasus with an orange coat, a flat purple mane, and a hammer and saw for her cutie mark. Nopony expects a pegasus, let alone a mare, have a cutie mark like this, but it happened. She expected something else, but the facts made it obvious. She liked all the construction toys that her parents got her, she taught herself how to use a saw, hammer, and nails on wood, and she even built little figures of her family as a filly.

She and Terminal met when he first arrived from Canterlot. They had a small chat at Sugarcube Corner and they became the best of friends. The one strange thing about her was that she kept a secret that only she and her parents knew. She never mentioned it to anypony because she promised her parents not to when they passed. Ever since then, she looked at the Everfree Forest, the world, and herself in a different way. She felt out of place from everypony else.

"WHY HAS THIS NEVER BEEN MENTIONED TO ME?!"

"I don't know. The news has been talking about it for a long time. Haven't you noticed in the 'Extra' section?"

"Oh. that explains a lot. I never look at that section." There was a long pause. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Something's been wrong with you for as long as the wedding has been mentioned."

"I don't know. Something's not right about this whole situation. It's tomorrow and this feeling has gotten worse every day as it draws closer."

"Well why haven't you told me, or any of our friends?" He asked. He felt like he was putting too much pressure on her. But he couldn't help it. He'd worked as a Royal Guard for three years and he always did that to anypony who seemed suspicios to him and Celestia.

"I'm sorry but I can't." she responded. She felt just about ready to leave in tears from talking about the subject.

"Why not? Something's bothering you so-"

"I SAID I CAN'T!" she interrupted loudly. "IT'S TOO PERSONAL AND I JUST," she stopped mid-sentence. "I'm sorry. I just can't talk about it right now. It's of my own matters. Nopony would understand what I mean."

"So, you just won't tell anypony?" he asked calmly.

She nodded. She was on the brink of breaking her promise to her parents, and she tried her best at keeping it hidden until now. There was no possible way for her to keep it hidden for much longer. Unless if he left it alone, she was always expecting an "Is there a secret you never told anypony," or "If there's a secret that I need to know, go ahead and tell me."

"Well, you clearly need some alone time. Go ahead. Get some fresh air." he said, knowing she was at the verge of tears. Never had he seen any of his friends so upset, especially Lyda. He felt sorry for her since he had pushed her too far.

After she left, he went back to his own business, and sat on his comfy chair, and fell asleep.

Lyda exited the home, and went for a fly around Ponyville to calm herself. After about an hour or so, she stopped at Cloudsdale, the home of the pegasi. This was were she pulled a small cloud off, big enough to not cause too much damage to the city but still support her, and fell asleep.

"Huh?" her voice echoed. She was in a black world where she was the only thing colored. "Where am I? What's going on?" The lights turned on. She was floating in front of Canterlot. But the city wasn't as it normally was.

It was awfully quiet, and there was no sign of the Royal Guard anywhere. Instead of them, she saw black, sleek figures walking and flying around. Before she could identify them, the world faded into black as it had started.

She had woken up, and felt nervous about the dream she had. She looked up at the sky to see it was still daytime. She had recognized the figures and was suprised to see them as the only ones around in Canterlot.

"Nononononono it can't be them. It just CAN'T!" she exclaimed to herself. "This has to be some sort of coinsidence. There's no possible way they act like that. Unless," she continued to herself, "am I the one that acts differently?" She had known herself as a nice pony who never got in anyone's way. She knew this was the right path. But after seen those behaving oddly, she started questioning herself.

She flew over to her home, and isolated herself in her room. Just a moment later, she saw a figure in the far side of her room.

"Hello Lyda," she said. "It's been years since I've spoken to one of your family tree."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Lyda asked harshly. "WHO ARE YOU?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?!"

"Calm down now. I'm just a very, VERY distant relative." said the figure. "Have your parents ever told you stories about a figure with holes in her legs, a curved, incomplete horn, insect wings, and fangs?" she asked.

"YOU?! You can't be! You just can't!"

"Oh but I am Lyda. I am as real as Nightmare Moon was."

"BUT YOU'RE-"

"Yes," she interrupted. "I am the Queen. I am Queen Chrysalis."

Author's Note

This is my first attempt at writing a story that is open to many people. I never thought it would be for bronies but I guess it will do. Crtisism is fine by me, and enjoy this and the chapters to come.

Chapter 2: Lyda's Secret Revealed

My encounter with them is a very unexpected one as I suddenly learn that my closest and longest friend has been one for her entire life and has been able to hide it until the day before the attack. As soon as I learned this, I wondered how many ponies have been changelings this entire time but everypony was oblivious to that fact. I don't think I can trust any of my other friends much more than I used to.

"YOU CAN'T BE!! YOU WERE JUST A STORY MY PARENTS MADE UP!!" said Lyda. She was still in shock from learning that Chrysalis was not just a story.

"There is no denying the fact about it. I am very real. Now listen here and you listen well," said the queen. "As you are aware, the wedding is tomorrow. And your parents have told you that we feed on love."

"Yes I am aware of that. But what does the wedding have to do with me?"

"Don't interrupt," she commanded. "I was getting to that. Because you are changeling like your parents and their ancestors, you have a choice."

"What choice?" asked Lyda. It was then when she realized that the odd feeling she's been getting was because Chrysalis was impersonating Princess Cadence. "What do the changelings besides you have to do with the wedding?"

"When the time is right, I will unleash the changelings upon Canterlot. From there, they will help me conquer Equestria. Your choice is to either join me and be with the rest of your kind, or refuse and lose with your friends along with that royal guard."

"You can't conquer Equestria if the Elements are here."

"All six of them, but there are only five at the current moment. Twilight, the Element of magic, is trapped. Never to escape."

"Where have you been all these years?" Lyda responded harshly. "Every time Twilight has been attacked, she has found a way to get back on track with what she has to do."

"But this time, she won't. Now what is your choice?"

"I think we both know the answer to that. So why don't you just leave me?"

"You're making a very big mistake," responded the queen. Upon saying that, she turned around, and walked into the shadows, disappearing from Lyda's room.

Terminal woke up to a loud, frantic knocking at the door. He lazily got up from his comfy chair and stumbled over to the door, which wasn't too far away from him (Thank Celestia).

"I'm coming. Keep your hooves calm," he said very tiredly.

"I can't. This is important to the fate of Canterlot!" yelled a familiar voice through the door.

"Lyda? Is that you? What makes you say it's important enough to Canterlot?" he asked. Although the tone in her voice may have convinced him to know it was about Canterlot, he still wanted to make sure. For all that he knew, she could just be saying that.

"This is about me as well now open up," she told him in a hushed voice. "Unlock all those locks of yours on this door and let me in. Please."

How does, oh right. She's been in and out of my house it's impossible to not know about how many locks I have. he thought to himself. He unlocked them and looked at her in amazement about what she had told him. If she sounds that serious through the door, that I'll be amazed at how serious she is inside.

"I heard that you know," she said upon entering his home. Once she said that, her looked at her in even more amazement as to what he keeps hearing. "Close that mouth already. I'm getting tired of seeing it today. Yes, I can read ponies' minds, but that's only part of what I'm about to tell and show you."

"Wait, show me? Why do you need you to show me something?" he asked in a surprised tone. Never had he heard a situation like this. Especially one from his best friend. He was still in shock from learning that there was a wedding the next day after weeks, he doesn't need to be shown something else that will change his day AGAIN. He wishes he could just get a break from all the weirdness today. "Can't you just tell me first and then show me?"

"What? Oh no. The telling comes after the showing. It's an explanation and I'd rather show you first," she explained to him. "Now please, step back a little. It's too dangerous to stand close while I show you."

"What are you talking about? What in the name of Celestia is going on?" he asked as he walked backwards. He knew he was only a few steps away from the wall, but he continued walking backwards.

"Just keep going. Good! That's good enough," she said. "Well. Here goes nothing." Once he stopped going backwards, a green ring of flames suddenly engulfed her. The roar of the flames was enough to make Terminal's ears pop. It was even enough to make his ears hurt, so he got down and covered his ears with his hooves. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to block out the sound of the flames.

"Lyda! How much longer is he going to take?! This is really hurting my ears!" he yelled as loud as he could. He heard no response. He didn't care anymore. He just wanted the scenario to end. He couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to just jump in there and push Lyda out to end the flames' roar, but he thought about the consequences of it, so he went against the idea. Sadly, this meant more ear pain for him.

Lyda had been used to this sequence. She had done it several times as a filly (that is, if you could call her that since she has been a changeling her entire life, not a real pony).

She heard a faint voice coming from outside the flames

"Lyda! How much longer is he going to take?! This is really hurting my ears!" She decided not to answer. As much as she wanted to, she wouldn't want to answer his question. It was true that Terminal couldn't handle loud noises, and the flames did bother her a little, but she pushed past it and kept going.

Slowly, with a little pain, every fiber of her body changed it's appearance one by one. Starting with her legs, up to her body, next her wings, and last her head. Once it had finished, the flames slowly died down, revealing a changeling, looking similar to Lyda. What stood there now, was a pony-shaped creature with an orange coat that was darker than Lyda's pony form, holes in the legs, insect wings instead of pegasus wings, a mane and tail that are also a darker shade with holes in them, pupils that had turned from big black balls to slits, and a small, curved horn sprouting from her forehead.

As she just stood there, Terminal was on the ground with his mouth wide open in shock going all the way down to the floor. She knew from day one that some day, she would have to break her promise to her parents, and show a friend her true form for the sake of Equestria. She just didn't expect it would be in front of a guard a day before a very important event.

"So. What exactly am I looking at here? Is this a prank?" he asked. "OK. My mistake. I know it's not a prank. I had to ask." He knew that the seriousness in her voice when she was at the door showed that there was no prank.

"What you're looking at is a changeling," she responded a little rudely. "Changelings used to be things of Equestrian myth. Black creatures that could take the form and voice of another pony. You heard of the myth?"

"No idea. This is all very new to me," he said reluctantly. "So how long have you guys been here? In Equestria? And what does this have to do with Canterlot anyways?"

"We've been here since it was created. The point is that Princess Cadence isn't the Princess."

"Then who is she then? If she's not who she really is, why is it a problem?" he asked. He was severely confused at the moment. He wasn't good at processing things in his brain really quickly. He was still trying to get over the fact that his closest friend was a changeling the entire time and he has never known until now.

"She's the Queen. The changeling queen, Queen Chrysalis. This is all part of her plan. She did something to Cadence and she took her place," she explained to him. "She's going to release an army of changelings on Canterlot so she can begin her conquest for Equestria there."

"What about the Elements of Harmony? They stopped Nightmare Moon. Why can't they stop her?"

"That's it there. She trapped Twilight to keep her from stopping her plan. They don't work without one of the Elements."

How does she know all this in only a small amount of time? he asked himself.

"She came up to me in my room and told me all this," she told him as if on cue. "It seems as if you forgot I can read your mind."

"So you do you think we should do? Go up there and say 'Hi how are you doing Celestia? Sorry to bother your wedding but Princess Cadence is a changeling queen in the progress of starting her plan to conquer Equestria from you?!'" he said in angry sarcasm. "I mean come on! As if they would believe us! This wedding has been around for weeks and nopony's going to believe that!"

"Actually, that's kind of similar to what I was thinking," she told him. "What we should do is go to Canterlot and wreak havoc on 'Princess Cadence' before it starts."

"I hope this works. Because if it doesn't, I'm blaming you for all the damage."

"Come on. I know this will work. Changelings change back under times of severe stress," she reassured him. "Pack your armor." She walked over to the window facing Canterlot's direction. "We're going to Canterlot."

"That means I can say this: ALLONS-Y!!!!"

Author's Note

Yes this chapter goes all over the place but that's how I originally had it planned. That includes the "ALLONS-Y" at the end.

Chapter 3: The Attack

Writing this gives me more pain than I did when I first experienced it. You or I could continue reading or writing this, but know that my memory is not as well as it was when I still served for the Guard. What happens next is only of what a remember from the day of the wedding. I will try my best to keep it as clean as possible, but still describe what I remember of it. Reading this is your choice. You may skip this and be left clueless of the following, or read this and know my story.

"Seriously?" Lyda said. "Did you just seriously say 'Allons-y' out loud a day before we leave?"

"Well, duh," responded Terminal. "I always wanted to say that before I went off to a place. That was part of my bucket list."

"You have a bucket list with that on it? That's like, the stupidest thing I could ever imagine."

"To you it may seem stupid, but to me," he sharply inhaled and closed his saddle bag with his armor in it. "It has been my dream. Now don't complain and let's get this over with."

"Whatever you say 'Alonso'," she mocked him.

"You know that's not very funny. Sure I said 'Allons-y' but calling me 'Alonso' isn't that funny though." he responded to her. "Do you changelings have a different sense of humor from ponies? Because it sure sounds like it."

"I feel as if we should just stop talking about this subject."

"I'm just asking if your humor is different than ours."

"Well to answer your question is sometimes," she said harshly. "Now that's enough of the whole 'Allons-y' thing."

"So what do weddings have to do with changelings?" he asked. He was being really curious and felt like he should stop.

"Changelings feed off of love. You're looking at one that hasn't," she told him. She felt a bit of shame in saying that. As much as it was true, she wanted to get just one drop of love to feed off of. Was that too much to ask for her? "At weddings, there's a buffet of it waiting to be collected by changelings. Chrysalis has Shining Armor fooled into thinking she's Cadence, leaving her with a large feast of love."

"How come you've never had any? If they feed off it, don't they die of love starvation?"

"My parents changed my feeding habits so that I can live without feeding off of love in case of a shortage or if I just don't want to."

"So you've never had any? Seems pretty sad if you ask me."

"Eh. Not too sad. The others would say it is, but I don't think so," she said to him. She was getting pretty tired and she yawned from drowsyness. She quickly reverted to the form that Terminal had know for a year, and told him, "It's getting late. I'm falling asleep here as if Luna is pouring sleep mist on me all day."

"I'm getting tired myself too. You can leave to your house now. Or you can stay here and sleep wherever you feel comfortable. I'm just going to crash on my comfy chair," he told her. Even after finding out she wasn't a pony, he still treated her as if she was a real one. He walked over to his chair, slumped over on it, and fell asleep.

Lyda walked out the door, and flew off after closing it. She was relieved that Terminal took it better than she'd expected. As she flew, she continuously had flashbacks about her parents death, the dream she had, and her encounter with Chrysalis.

She arrived at her house, walked in, and fell onto her couch in the living room. It wasn't very long until her drowsiness got the best of her, and fell to sleep.

Her dream was in the same place as her last one. This time, there were several changelings attacking Canterlot. She tried to stop one but it passed right through her. In the dream, she felt like a ghost with no powers at all. She couldn't do anything to stop them from leveling the place to the ground.

Down in the distance, she saw the Elements of Harmony doing all they can to stop the changelings from advancing. She had a little trouble figuring which one was the real one, but she figured it out. Not long after, they became overpowered by the changelings, and lost to them.

It's over she thought. The Elements have lost. There's no more hope for Canterlot.

Elsewhere, she noticed two other figures moving through the crowd of changelings hurtling towards them. One was being carried by the other. She realized that the two were her and Terminal. And Terminal was in pretty bad shaped, he looked barely conscious. There were bruises and burns all over his coat.

"Lyda," he said weakly. "I don't think I can make it. You might as well just give up on me and leave me here."

"I'm not leaving you here OK," said her dream self. "You know I wouldn't. I'm taking you someplace safer from here."

"You saw this coming didn't you? How come you never told me?"

Before her dream self answered, it all faded to black, and she woke up on the floor on the next day. She had no idea what to do. Whether to tell him about the dream and change their fates, or keep it a secret and watch Terminal slowly lose consciouness in her hooves.

Ever since Lyda had gotten to his house, Terminal noticed she was behaving weirder than she had before. He had tried asking about what's wrong several times before they left, but now they are almost at Canterlot and he was growing restless.

He stopped and asked her, "That's it. I'm tired of not knowing. What are you not telling me? I feel as if it's something I should know. Now just tell me. Please. I don't want to see you like this anymore."

"I said it's nothing. I've told you that several times before. Now leave it alone and just keep going."

"It's definitely not nothing. You only talked when I asked you what's wrong. Now just tell me. What in the name of Celestia is bothering you?" he urged her. He had never been this pushy since the conversation that almost broke her into tears. Now he really was starting to annoy Lyda way too much.

"I said just leave it alone!" she yelled at him. She knew very well about what was going to happen if she never told him. She was still having a feud with herself if she should tell him or not. They were getting closer and closer to Canterlot and she only got more and more nervous. At upon seeing the bright purple shield surrounding the city, she abruptly stopped walking.

"Now what? What's bothering you this time?" he asked annoyed. Since she wouldn't tell what was on her mind the whole day, he thought about asking what just started bothering her.

"Terminal. W-w-what's that sheild around Canterlot? I don't have a good feeling about this."

"Oh no. That ruins what we need to do. It's a protection spell. It's blocks out any creature that's not pony. Ponies and things can get in, and only ponies and things."

"You said ponies right?"

"Yeah but, you're a changeling."

"Hello? I can shapeshift into a pony and sneak in there with you."

"Oh right. Yeah. It's only aware of the outside. It checks if you have all the attributes of a pony, unicorn, alicorn, or pegasus."

"Yeah. So," she said. "PEGASUS!" while saying that she changed her apearrance to look like the pegasus she had been to Terminal since they met. "Well, onwards."

"Yeah. Allons-y," he said depressed.

"What's wrong? You would've said that without more voice."

"It's because you won't tell me what's wrong with YOU!"

"Well I don't know if I should tell you or not. Now let's just go."

"OK. That was all you had to say," he told her with what seemed like satisfactment with depression.

They continued on and soon they reached the main entrance to Canterlot where two guards in silver armor stood. Both of them were shocked to see Terminal coming just in time for the wedding. They didn't recognize Lyda, but they didn't care. She seemed of no threat to anyone or the city.

"Terminal," the one on the right said. "You're retired. You come for the wedding?"

"Yeah that's why I'm here. I'm retired not dead after all." he replied.

"Who's the friend?"

"My name's Lyda if you don't mind. I was his friend since he got to Ponyville."

"So you've already got a marefriend don't you Terminal?"

"WHAT NO! We're just-" he exclaimed until he was stopped by laugh of the guard.

"I'm just messin' with ya," he interrupted. "Well go on in and enjoy yourselves. But not too much. Terminal once fell unconscious from too much cider." he told them as they went in. He muttered the last sentence under his breath.

"You fell unconscious from cider?"

"I didn't know THAT much would hurt me," he responded quickly. He was very embarrased that the subject was brought up by someone he had been close to. "Come on. It's about to start. We need to hurry if we want to stop her plan."

"Yeah we'll need to be quicker than this pace. Things are becoming pretty hectic up there already." When she said this Terminal had no idea what she meant by "up there" until he looked up. He saw several floating changelings just swarming above the spell. He noticed that cracks had already begun to form, indicating that they were trying to break in.

"OK we really need to hurry up some more."

"Ya think?"

"Too late. The green flames are up. It's started." He knew this since he had been trained to hear even the faintest sounds. The flames hurt his ears as much as it had when Lyda had shown him her secret. This had been the moment where he had been the most nervous in his life. He never knew it would be when he was retired, and he would spend it with his friend who was a changeling going against her own kind,and during a wedding day.

"Ready for the time of your life Term?" she asked with some joy in her tone.

"I'm as ready as you'll ever be in your life," he responded with the same tone. He was getting his armor on. "Several years in the Guard and I still remember some techniques I learned and picked up. I'm just about the same as I was back then."

"They're about to breach in only a few more seconds. Better start some serious moves out here."

"I was always unprepared for a moment like this since one had never happened since Nightmare Moon, but I'm not THAT old. If I go down, know that-" he was stopped with the loud shatter of the shield surrounding the city. The shards of the spell fell all around them and the changelings swarmed in and terrorized city. By the time he had registered what happened, the changelings surrounded the two and had occupied most of the city already.

"You take the left and I take the right?"

"Sounds good enough, although there are too many for even one of us to handle. We'll only last a few minutes before they overwhelm us both."

"Still know how to estimate how long we'll last don't you?"

"Somethings I never forget." After fininishing what he had to say, the changelings flew in to attack the duo.

The two had fought off every single changeling that was flung to them. They were repelled with either punches, bucks, stabs (yes Terminal had a spear), or magical blasts. They weren't that hard except for the armored ones that occassionally appeared in front of them, since they had taken quite a while. Terminal had known that being cocky would be his downfall but he tried his best to avoid being cocky at all times. Lyda had known the same under the teachings of her parents. She wasn't sure if her parents would appreciate her decision of going against their own kind, but it was the right thing for her to do in her life, even if it meant death. She didn't care if her parents would scold her in the afterlife. All that she did care about, was helping her friend at any cost when they needed it. They continued to fight under Celestia's rule, and Lyda's reputation in Equestria.

"I can't hold them off much longer," Terminal had exclaimed. His strength was growing weaker and weaker, and Lyda could sense it. "There's too many to fight off. We have to do something about this."

"There's nothing we can do except keep fighting. She sent the whole hive to attack."

"THE WHOLE HIVE?! YOU'RE KIDDING ME! THAT'S TOO MUCH!" He was quickly getting more and more tired. He was just about ready to pass out. He was leaving too many oppertunities to be attacked by the swarm. Now he was the one being punched and hurt. He noticed the changelings dogpiling on top of Lyda. A few seconds later a magic explosion had blasted all of them off of her.

It's starting. I should've told him when I had the chance. She rushed over to Terminal, picked him up with her magic, and set him down on her back. Once he was on, she rushed in the direction she was going in her dream. She fended off every changeling in her path.

"Lyda," he said weakly. "I don't think I can make it. You might as well just give up on me and leave me here."

"I'm not leaving you here OK," she said. "You know I wouldn't. I'm taking you someplace safer from here."

He cracked a weak smile at what she had told him. "You saw this coming didn't you? How come you never told me?"

"I didn't want you to worry. Now just stay with me. Please. I can't lose you to this cursed fight." As soon as she told him this, he lost the smile, and passed out.

Author's Note

Yes I did reference DW with the whole 'Alonso' thing but I couldn't help it. Critisism is welcome for this and the following chapters, but this is just for the enjoyment of people(ponies), so here you go.

Chapter 4: The Hive

Though this only contains part of my story, I will continue to write to myself in seperate letters. This is the last installment for this one though, and I can't write this anymore. I guess this part has been immortalized as my soliloquy for myself, and a document for others, this is goodbye.

Signed,

Terminal.

What Terminal saw following the attack were only fragments of what was being done to heal him as much as possible. He doesn't see many important things when he wakes up and goes under again, but he considers them important because it was his life on the line.

"Don't worry Terminal. I'll get you some help as fast as I can," he heard Lyda say. They scene was blurred and the voice was echoed, so he couldn't make out much of what was happening. Before he could though, he passed out again. What seemed like a second later, he opened his eyes again to see that the Everfree Forest was below him.

"Where are we going?" he asked weakly.

"I told you. We're going somewhere safer than Canterlot to get you help. No one in Ponyville believed me, so I'm taking you somewhere else." This too was blurred and echoed, but he was a little more conscious than before, so he had taken advantage of it. Soon, he had passed out again. The next time he had woken up, he was on the ground or the Everfree Forest, with a campfire in front of him. "Don't worry. Just a little longer then we're there. Just hold up until we get there." Soon after, he goes under once more. This time, he is out for several weeks, instead of a days.

When he wakes up this time, he has full consciousness, and wakes up on a rock type build. He scans his surroundings and finds that he is in a cave of some sort. To his left, there's nothing but a wall. To his right, there are baskets full of materials and tools. The kinds that fillies would play with when they want to.

"Ugh. Where am I? What happened?" he had asked. He was glad to be alive though, and he felt as if he should know if it's safe here. He puts his hoof on his forehead and shuts his eyes tightly since he had a headache. When he opens his eyes, he notices holes in his leg. "WHAT THE?!" he looks down and sees his coat is a darker shade than his normally white one.

"I see you've woken up," says a familiar voice.

"Lyda! What's the meaning of this?!" He points his right hoof, at his left leg. "Why am I like this?! I didn't say you could do this!"

"Didn't you see the pendant around your neck? Take the pendant off."

"The what?" He began to feel around his neck, when he hits a metal string. He pulls it off of him, and sees a white glow turn his body back to the way it was before. "That's neat. So that wasn't real?"

"Of course not. It's a perception filter that makes you look like a changeling to everypony even yourself. No one will care though. They'll just think you're a passer-by. By the way you're in my house if you want to know. It's not my house in Ponyville but it is one of my two houses."

"I'M IN A HIVE?!"

"Well, yeah. This is the closest to Ponyville."

"WHY COULDN'T YOU TAKE ME TO MANEHATTEN OR PHILLYDELPHIA?!"

"Where?" she clearly had no idea of the two cities. So since no one believed her in Ponyville, and Canterlot was attacked, she had to resort to the hive she technecally belonged to..

"Oh. This is just GREAT! SO PEACHY! I've been attacked, passed out, thought I was a CHANGELING, AND discovered I'm in a hive! This is just FANTASTIC!"

"It's not MY fault this has been so weird! In fact, if Chrysalis hadn't planned this, we would still be in Ponyville living our lives normally!"

"I knew we should've left this alone in the first place!"

"YOU knew?! I was the one who knew about the wedding a long time before YOU did!"

"Oh so what?! Now I'M the bad guy for not knowing?!"

"Wait. What's that noise?" She wasn't lying. She did hear a noise and she was tired of arguing as well.

"Yeah I hear it too. It's a buzzing noise. Why?"

"It's normally not this loud. The only reason it would be that loud, is if the Queen, not Chrysalis since this a different hive, was coming to a house, or if there was a public announcement." And she was right. The immense sound was only caused be the Queen doing something.

Terminal looked out the window, or hole in the wall, to see no other changelings flying in one direction. "There's no changelings outside. The Queen has got to be coming here."

"Quick! Put the filter back on!" she told him, and he did that exactly. "Listen, you're just a visitor from another hive who took a serious smack to the head. That's your story. Don't tell anypony you're a real pony."

Soon after telling him that, the Queen entered the house with two guards behind her. "Hello Lyda. I see you've been busy with this pony," she said. She knew about Terminal being a normal pony. "I can see through perception filters. Still, that was a good try. I'll give you credit Lyda."

"Huh. I actually thought that would work hehe," she laughed weakly. "So what brings you here to my house. Not like you've been here several other times."

"Other times?" Terminal asked. "Wow you are quite the troublemaker. You normally don't behave like this at Ponyville."

"May I speak now?" There was a long pause. "Thank you. Now, I've heard about an attack from Chrysalis' hive on Canterlot. Is this true?"

"Well that's the whole reason we came."

"Especially since you didn't know about Manehatten or Phillydelphia," remarked Terminal.

"How was I supposed to know? You didn't know about the wedding until the day before. So that makes us even."

"Back to business," said the Queen. "What exactly happened? And I can tell you have no memory about it so you don't have to respond." She was talking to Terminal but he didn't respond. Instead, he walked over to a wall, and started hitting his head on it.

"So there was a wedding at Canterlot so she took advantage of it by replacing the bride, and leading an attack on it from her entire hive," Lyda had begun to explain the the Queen. "The protection spell protecting the city had been destroyed by the changelings and they started to swarm throughout the city. The Elements-"

"Wait. The Elements fought as well? Wow you REALLY went over the secret line."

"Anyways, the Elements of Harmony fought against the changeling swarm at the same time we did," she continued. "Unfortunately, they were overwhelmed by the swarm and were taken in. At the same time, I was carrying Terminal on my back fending off every changeling that came our way and soon, he fell unconscious. I took him to Ponyville but no one believed me about his accident, so I brought him here."

"I see," said the Queen. "Well, since he seems to be doing well here, he may stay here. BUT, only for one month. After that, he must leave, or become one with the hive." Once hearing this, Terminal's ears perked up and he turned his head to the Queen. "So there you have it. One month Terminal. One month." She turned around, and walked out the door.

"Well that's just great. Only one month to recover and then it's leave or change my race to changeling."

"I'm surprised you know what that means."

"Oh so I can't know what it means? Last time I checked I had amnesia not brain loss."

"No. It's good that you know what it means. I meant that not many ponies know what that means, so it's surprising that you know." She had been right. During her vacations to the hive, she had overheard several ponies in the same situations not know what it meant. "I'm not kidding so drop that look on your face."

"Alright. What is it with you abusing your psychic abilities on me?" he asked. "I'm really tired of you doing that. It's really annoying and ridiculous."

It started getting late, or at least he thought it was. It was impossible to tell since barely any light came into the hive. He had guessed because he was getting tired. He wasn't able to go out of the hive very effectively since he had trouble on his hooves, and his wings broke during the attack. His only hope, was to walk around to recover his strength in his legs after several hours of being unconscious. He was tired though, so he walked over to a surface that was good for him, and collapsed on it.

Author's Note

This was an odd experience for me to plan out. The problem was with myself focusing on the ending of this fanfic over and over again. I'm not saying anything OK because, well, you know, spoilers.

Chapter 5: The Explanation

The month had passed by faster than he'd had thought. He was glad that he was able to return to Ponyville. He had almost forgotten about the place, even though he had recovered all of his memory by the end. He still needed Lyda's help to get out still most of the path required flight, and his wings were broken.

"Thanks for letting me stay here. I'm pretty sure things are safer back at Ponyville now that a month has passed since the attack," he said in grattitude. "This has been an interesting time here at the hive."

"Well now the secret's out about us living in Equestria," the Queen responded, "so that was the least I could do. Be thankful that it wasn't the worst I could do."

"Well in that case I feel a lot more safer now that I'm leaving," he muttered. He was even more glad that he was leaving. He assumed that becoming a changeling was painful, but he pushed past it. As time worn on, his eyes grew heavier and heavier from being awake and falling asleep at the wrong times. His hooves eventually started hurting from the immense amounts of walking an walking and walking. Still, after years in the Royal Guard and going through a fight in Canterlot, this was nothing compared to them.

"Come on. It's time to get used to Ponyville again," said Lyda. "Besides. We're here." They'd been standing on a cliff just in front of Ponyville. Terminal was amazed at how fast they got there, so he had his jaw down for a while. "Close that mouth of yours. It's getting tiring of watching you do that." There was a long pause between the two of them. "Well go on. Go back to your home. Live the life you had a month ago again."

About a second later, he looked at her with surprise, and ran towards the edge, and slid down it. Once he reached the bottom, he continued running through the town to find it hadn't changed much since his absence. He still kept running, and went to his house, and the plants had happened to be well kept even though he hadn't been there in a month. He found a note on his door reading:

Hi Terminal it's me Cheerlie. I kept your garden nice since you disappeared. I figured you wouldn't mind if I did this.

You're welcome,

Cheerlie.

"Thanks Cheer. I owe you one." He took the note inside, and kept it in a box. He knew her because Lyda had taken him on a tour of their town when he first arrived. The inside was also kept nice and neat. There was no note anywhere so he assumed it was Twilight since there was no other neat freak besides her in Ponyville that he knew of. "That's nice of all of you. Keeping my stuff nice, clean, AND organized. Thanks."

"How did you know we were here?" asked a voice closely to Rainbow Dash's.

"I heard Pinkie's rapid breathing," he responded. "There's nothing you can hide from me except secret's you know. Only one's been revealed to me during my time living here."

"Who's was it? Come on TELL!" asked the hyperactive pink pony, Pinkie. "I GOT to know otherwise I will FREAK OUT!"

"Calm down Pinkie," said Twilight.

"Yeah Pinkie jeez." he said. "Besides, I swore not to tell. She is very secure about it that she's decided to stay away for a while. So yeah. I'm not telling you what it was, or who it was. She can read my mind so she'll know if I tell you or not."

"It was Lyda wasn't it?" guessed Twilight.

"How did you-"

"Call it a hunch."

"Well," he continued, "I guessed that's settled. What is it that brought you here?"

"It was the attack on Canterlot a month ago," started Twilight, "I noticed you originally came with Lyda and saddlebags. Something tells me you know something about the attack."

"Can you get to the point please? I'm getting bored listening to this. As Rainbow would say, um, you're an-"

"Egghead." she finished. "I thought you would say something like that so I decided to get myself ready and along with my-"

"Your awesomeness?" he asked. "So come on Twilight get to the point please."

"Alright," she continued. "Are you, or did you interact with the changelings?" She had asked very seriously as if it was an interrogation.

"HNGH!" Terminal was getting a major headache. He fell to the floor in extreme pain with his hooves on his forehead.

It's OK Terminal. You can tell them if you want to. They'll find out sooner or later. So why not now? Go ahead. told him a familiar voice. He assumed it was telepathic since no one else could hear it and he got a headache.

"What's wrong? Are you having a hard time?" Twilight asked. He seemed to have stopped getting the headache after she had asked this. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now. You didn't do much but otherwise I'm doing fine."

"Can you answer the question now?" she asked. "Did you have any interaction with the changelings before or after the wedding?"

He stared at her for a while. He opened his mouth and answered with a simple "Yes." The others backed up in shock. "Lyda was one since birth. She hadn't told anypony about it because she promised to her parents to keep it a secret. She didn't tell me until the day before the wedding."

"Alright. What about after it. Why were you gone for a month without telling anypony?"

"I passed out in the middle of the fight. Lyda says she took me here but they didn't believe her. She didn't know about Manehattan or Phillydelphia, and she didn't say anything about Cloudsdale, so she took me to..." he froze in the middle of it.

"Where did she take you?" Twilight insisted.

"She took me to..."

"Where?"

"She took me to," he gulped in nervousness. "Her hive."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"It wasn't Chrysalis' so I guess that's a plus."

"Yeah but it's a HIVE! A CHANGELING hive!"

"RAINBOW! Let him explain." said Twilight.

"Thank you." he said. "There are more than just Chrysalis' hive. Now this queen, I don't know her name, she never told me, but she's nicer than Chrysalis. Her personality is different. She let me stay for a month. I lost track of time and ended up staying there the whole time."

"So that explains it." said Twilight. "Is Lyda ever going to come back?"

"If she does, can I beat the stuffing out of her?"

"Rainbow, please! She's not like the ones at Canterlot! I don't know if she's coming back or not. She just left me here and went back." She went silent. She stood there as if she just heard something that broke her heart.

"So what now?" asked Twligiht.

"I know! Let's throw her a welcome party when she comes back!"

"Parties aren't always the answer to everything Pinkie," Terminal told her.

"I know. I still want to throw her a party! Can we?!"

"Pinkie. Just let her be." Soon after he told her this, the earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn left his house. Rainbow Dash stayed at the door for a while.

"Sorry about saying that about Lyda," she apologized. "The Canterlot incident gave me one perpective that it blocked out all the others. I didn't think different hives would have different personalities."

"It's alright Rainbow. I forgive you and I bet Lyda would too. She's a nice pony, or changeling, or whatever the heck you want to call her." He was forgiving as well.

Soon after she had turned around, she noticed a figure standing on a hill top. She looked in it's general direction, and it stared at her back. After about half a minute of staring, the figured walked off disappearing from sight. "Huh. I wonder who that was." She looked at Terminal's house, which was a few meters away from her, and she noticed Lyda going in through the back door. Lyda made a quick shimmer of her changeling form and back to her pegasus form. She smiled, and went behind Terminal's house. "Was that... did she just... how did?" she asked herself in severe confusion. "Right she's a changeling. They can use magic just like every other unicorn." She pushed past it, and flew off to some place that she felt like going to.

Author's Note

The ideas for this chapter came at me like a wrecking ball. I had trouble sleeping because of this story. The ideas would not stop flowing through my head. Some may be asking, "Where's the sad part come in? I've read this much and it's not sad yet. When is it coming?" Trust me it's coming in a future chapter. I had this chapter all planned out. I had to change the name of this chapter because it would be too long to fit this chapter, and the next one together. I even had a sequel planned out! A SEQUEL! It kept me up for hours! I'm glad I finished this chapter though. One down, two more to go. (Actually one. The second one's an epilogue.)

Chapter 6: The Return to the Hive

Lyda stood at a hill top overlooking Ponyville. She was looking for Terminal's house. She spotted a cyan pony with a rainbow mane. Rainbow Dash no doubt. No other pony has a rainbow mane. she knew.

That's Lyda. Terminal told us that she was back at her hive. Why is she here? she heard her say. After hearing this, she walked off disappearing from her sight. She teleported to the back of Terminal's house to find she was staring at her again. She shimmered between her two forms, smiled at her, and walked behind the house.

"So how are you doing Terminal?" she asked as she entered the house.

"Ah!" he screamed in surprise. "Don't sneak up on me like that. You made me drop my lunch."

"Sorry. I didn't know. I was focusing on Rainbow Dash outside."

"I was doing well until I was invaded by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie," he told her.

"Right yeah. I knew about that since I sent you that telepathic message. First message received can give a nasty headache, but it gets less painful as more are sent."

"So why are you here? I thought you were at you hive."

"I was. Until the Queen said something in public that made me want to leave."

"What was it? It can't be that bad."

"The Queen declared war on Chrysalis." Silence fell very quickly. Terminal was frozen right where he was when he heard the word "war".

"I've gone through enough already, but now you have to go to WAR?!" he yelled. "This is crazy! Can't a simple pony get a break?!"

"There's more," she continued. "As soon as I left, she sent me a telepathic message saying she wants you to fight too. She said because you've been with them for a month, she said you should fight too since you know what we're really like. You know how we live, act, and survive. She said you should fight because she saw your thoughts and saw that you fight for the right purpose."

"Listen," he told her, "I've been through too much in one span of time. I don't feel like doing this right now. I need a break from all this craziness. I'll go when I feel like it OK?"

"Fine. Be that way. It starts in ten days. She wants you there before or on the fifth day of the war." she told him. "She has ways of making ponies doing what she wants them to. She'll make you at one point."

"I'll try my best to get there as soon as possible." He walked over to his comfy chair (he loves his chair) and fell on it.

"You better be." She exited the house, and flew off to the hive. At the same time, Terminal fell asleep on his chair.

The ninth day before the war, Terminal had decided to go. Lyda hadn't come back after she left the day she told him. He walked over to a display case he had made when he first came to Ponyville that had contained his armor. He stood infront of it for a while rethinking his decision. He didn't stand for too long, he had then opened the case, and taken out his armor.

"It's either you, or me," he said to himself, "and it's going to be me. I'm not letting you go that easy." He packed his armor in the same saddlebags he used during Canterlot, and went off to start the journey to the hive. Once he reached the Everfree Forest, he stopped in his tracks. "Dang. I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO!"

"I knew you would come at some point in time," said Lyda. "Why didn't you come earlier?"

"I uh, took some serious thought into it."

"Well you're no too early, but not too late," she said. "I guess that's better than nothing. Your armor's in there?"

"Heh. Where else would it be?" he asked rhetorically. "Yeah I am very obviously lost."

"I don't need to tell you to follow me."

"Don't need to tell me twice." He started following her everywhere she went as long as she was sure about it.

After several minutes of what seemed like an eternity of walking through the forest, they finally reached the hive. It was bigger than he remembered.

"Well here we are." She told him. "The entrance to my hive. Do you still have that perception filter I gave you?"

"You're kidding?" he responded rhetorically. "Brought it with me. I thought I would need it." He put it on and the white stripe changed his appearance from the white stallion he normally is, to the dark grey changeling he was during his recovery at the hive after the Canterlot incident. "You know I did that so many times, and I still haven't gotten used to it. It's odd yet interesting."

Not long after, they walked inside and the Queen was standing a few meters in. They stood there for a while and then the Queen walked forward in their direction.

"I knew you would come eventually," she said to him.

"Well that's what Lyda said at the edge of the forest."

"So are you ready for the start tomorrow?"

"I'm more ready for this than the Canterlot attack because at least I was notified a while before," he looked at Lyda but she just rolled her eyes, "it actually happened."

"Well at least this was expected unlike Chrysalis' attack."

"I completely forgot her name up until this point," said Lyda.

"Same here," he agreed. "And you redecorated the place. As if the normal living standards looked enough like a camp. Now it looks like a fortress. All in under nine days."

"Well I guess you should get to where you should be. And that's with Lyda." She then left them to go to Lyda's house.

"Yeah. You're staying with me. Again." she said dejected. He shot her a look.

"Is there something wrong with me staying with you?" he asked. "Because if there is I feel like you should tell me."

"No there's nothing wrong. There's just a problem that may have possiblity of happening in the war." She said it with great fear as if she knew it was going to happen. They stood silent for a moment but then they walked and fle off to her house. It took longer than it should have.

"Oh so you got it moved!" he exclaimed. "That explains the long amount of time it took to get here. It also happens to be redecorated just like the rest, OF THE HIVE! Well I suppose we should get inside now."

"Well I'll be right back with... some… stuff." And then she left. He walked in and set his stuff down.

I miss my comfy chair already. I should've brought it. Then again it would've been too heavy for me to carry. he thought to himself. He walked over the bed, at least, he though it was the bed, and crashed on it.

As she flew, she remembered her dreams. They had all been the same thing. She wasn't happy about this one any more than the last one.

"When I get back to you," she told herself, "I'll tell you. Hopefully that will prevent this from happening. I hope you'll understand. I don't want to lose you."

Author's Note

Well this chapter left me in quite a predicament while I wrote this.
Rule #1: the Doctor lies (Yes I like Doctor Who. I made that pretty clear to everyone). Now what that has to do with this, I lied. There will be a seventh chapter, AND THEN the epilogue. This isn't the end of it

Chapter 7: The War

Terminal woke up to the sound of buzzing wings. He immediately knew that Lyda was returning, so he got off the "bed" and tried to make it look like nothing happened.

"I'm back," she said. "I couldn't get anything unfortunately."

"That's a shame," he responded. "What were you going to get?"

"Nothing of importance." She paused and he stared at her in disapproval. "OK I went out for a stroll, so what?"

"I knew you were doing something else."

"Listen because I'm only going to say it once," she said quickly and he fell silent. "I had dreams again, just like the attack on Canterlot. This time it was about the war." She paused.

"Well," he said, "go on. What's going on in it? Better now than never unlike the wedding."

"I saw a field of grass with changeling bodies. Dead ones. We were the only ones alive in the area. Although, you became the only one alive." she said while tearing up. He ran over to her and embraced her in his hooves. "I don't want to go Terminal. I don't want to."

"Don't worry. We'll figure out a way. At least you told me this time. We'll figure how to avoid this from happening. I don't want you to go as much as you do." Just then, several sparks of lightning came from the floor and the ceiling meeting in the center of the air. As it continued, more came increasing the sound level and it reached the same height as the flames on the changelings disguise. Once it reached the peak, the lightning exploded in the center of the room, leaving a pegasus that beared a striking resemblance to Terminal lying on the ground.

"It's me." he said. "A time travel spell. But I'm not a unicorn or a changeling. This is probably me from the war." He slowly walked towards himself and his future self turned himself to where his face was visible. It was covered in blood and was cut and bruised in several areas. But it wasn't that that surprised the two of them. No, it was the knife that impaled his stomach.

He said something very faintly, but it was too quiet for them to hear. He came in closer, and his future self looked up at him. "What? What's wrong?" he asked. He moved his head up to tell himself what he was trying to say.

"Your plan," he whispered. "Your plan won't work. One of us... dies in the war anyway. Make... a fast decision. You," he paused weakly lifting up a hoof to his chest, "or her." He pulled his hoof from his chest, and pointed at Lyda and they both looked at her. She was upset because she thought she knew what they were talking about. His hoof dropped to the floor with a soft thud. He closed his eyes, and breathed his last breath, and laid still on the floor.

The lightning came back in the same formation, consealing the body, and Terminal back up from his dead corpse. This time it left quicker and took the body with it. He stayed there, his eyes watering at the news of the war. Lyda walked towards him and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"It's me or you, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yep." he responded with a sob. He turned to her and hugged her and cried. "I'm going. You need to live longer."

"No, I'm going." she responded. "You've been feeding me love this whole time. Without you, I need to find another pony." She started to cry. "No other pony will treat me as well as you did Terminal. And you've also given me large waves of love that no other pony can give me. I'm sorry but I'm going." They both stared at the area where the dead Terminal had been. He walked up to there and stood there.

Time passed by faster than they thought and an alarm clock what off. He still sat in the area of the death in depression. Terminal wasn't crying anymore, although he was still upset that Lyda had decided to die so one of them could live.

"Time for the last night you're going to have with her." he told himself. He assumed it was. His future self never told him what day of the war one of them dies on. He walked over to the bed, he was right the whole time, and crashed on it.

"Ow!"

"Sorry. Didn't know you were there. Too focused on the future I guess."

"Well you better be focused on the war itself. I don't think it will last long though."

"Why do you say that?"

"We have the highest ranking military force of all the hives. Don't ask about Equestria. I don't know who has the ranking force in all that, but that's not important."

"Oh well. Can't blame you for not knowing. I guess you don't care either." She scoffed at him. After a long hour of silence, they drifted off to sleep. And not long after that, Terminal fell on the floor, but he didn't wake up. He just stayed on the floor asleep.

The next day, Terminal walked over to his saddlebags that had his armor. When reached for the armor, he forgot that he had the perception filter on and freaked out when he saw the holes in his leg.

"Calm down. Calm down." he told himself. "It's just the perception filter that you never took off. Calm down." He continued to reach for the armor, and it turned into the type of armor that the changelings wore at the wedding. "Cool."

"What was scream?" asked Lyda half asleep. "I was trying to sleep. You fell on the floor last night too."

"I noticed. And that scream was me forgetting that I forgot that I kept the perception filter on."

"Oh well. Oh yeah, the war starts today." She sluggishly got out of bed. "Ugh. I hate being tired on important days. Especially if it's the war."

"Well I don't like wars anymore than that. But you know, too bad so sad. Now hurry up. I didn't get out of bed and freak out about the fake holes in my leg for nothing." He put his hoof on and off from his armor watching it go back in forth from its normally form and the changeling form. "Hehe. That's really cool."

"Oh grow up."

"Hey!" She shot him a look. "What's the point of growing up if you can't be childish at times?"

"I know how about don't do it? Besides, you're treating me like you just met me aand you never met a changeling before." This struck Terminal really hard. He felt really guilty about treating her before.

"Sorry. I've just... I've been through so much recently. And it was all because of Chrysalis' changelings." He paused. "Now one of us is going to die bcause of the same changelings that attack us. I can't take it! Is it too much to ask for a normal life?!"

"Terminal," she said. "Maybe your life will become normal after the war. We both know mine won't." She walked over towards him and gave him what would be the last hug she would give. "I just don't want to go. But it looks like there's death in that one point in time."

"Until that point, I do my best to keep you alive." He returned the hug to her and they held each other tightly. When they let go of each other, they walked out the door (hole in the wall, whatever) and went to the plaza where all the other changelings were. They waited for several minutes and then the Queen came on stood in the center.

"Greetings my subjects!" she yelld. "Today, we begin our war against the forces of Chrysalis because she has revealed our secret to the princess! For thousands of years our kind has been kept a secret for specific purposes that do not matter at this moment! Because she has revealed us, she must be punished! Other queens are preparing for the same purpose as ours. Although today, it will only be us. After that, the others will begin joining our cause, and hers."

"Don't you think this is a little too harsh?" he whispered to Lyda.

"Hush. It's dangerous to talk during a public speaking."

"Today, we begin our assault on Chrysalis. Onward!" the queen finished. The changelings all roared and went for the gate. All except Terminal, who sat down in the plaza.

"I can't do this."

"Terminal," Lyda said, "we have to. Listen, I'm no time genius, but if you don't, it will create a paradox that could affect the whole world."

"Then maybe it should happen!" he stomped his hoof on the ground. "I don't want to lose you."

"We already went through this. We have to."

"Fine. It was nice knowing you." He got up and walked over to the gate where the others had been.

"The gate's been opened. They left already." she said. "Come on." He trudged behind her. Eventually they started flying to get a better view of where they needed to go. He still wasn't too happy about the upcoming event.

"I don't understand why it has to be… so… far…"

"We're here." she said. "And just in time too. The two armies are just arriving."

"Great. More time to think about the death." They took position in the back where they wouldn't be noticed by many changelings. "I still don't approve of this." he whispered to her. They came to a stop, face-to-face with Chrysalis' army. The two stood there for a long time. Eventually, the two Queens screamed "Charge!" at the same time, and the two armies ran and flew at each other.

Terminal could see a difficult, but distracting difference between the two. Chrysalis' were a darker shade of black that Lyda's so it was easy to tell which one's to hurt, and which one's to leave. There had been many attempts to backstab him, but he countered to attacks with a simple stab under his leg, and into the enemy's chest. One even tried to run at him while charging up a magic blast. Terminal's spear had already made an impact with him and he stopped mid-air.

Slowly, the amount of changelings on the field decreased, and finally, came the moment. A changrling went straight for Lyda with a knife in it's magic. She turned around and pointed her weapon at it, and both of the blades sank into their chests. And both of them dropped to the ground.

"NO!" As Terminal was done with the last one, he ran over to her.

"That's it." she said weakly. "It's over."

"I can't let you go." he said with a sob. "I don't want you to go now."

"It's too bad Terminal. You can't fix it after it's happened." He tried to pull the knife out. "AH!"

"Sorry. I've never done this before." She was breatghing heavily.

"It's alright. I'm going to die anyway. There's no hope."

"Lyda,"

"Yeah?"

"I… I think…"

"Well get on with it."

"I… well there's no simple way of saying this but, I love you." She took a deep breath.

"I love you too. I always have."

"Same here." He knew better than to move closer to her because then that would only move the knife and give more pain that it already has. Her breathing became much more shallow, and eventually stopped.

"Lyda? Lyda?! LYDAAAAA!!" he screamed into the air. He broke into a sob. "Why did this have to happen?" He turned to the dead changeling that stabbed her. "It's all your fault. You and your stupid knife." He pulled the knife out of her and threw it at the body. He dragged her body and dug a hole.

When he looked back at her, she looked like a normal changeling. "Great," he muttered, "More confusion than I already have." He wondered how exactly that happened, until the Queen suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"You were seeing what your mind wanted to see."

"What?"

"Your subconscious denied her looking like a normal changeling so it made it's own image of her before you even saw her normally." she explained. "When she died, it finally accepted that she looked like any other one because there is no point in seeing one different changeling that's dead when there are many others around that are also dead. So there's no point in it's own image anymore."

"So all this time, I was looking at an illusion?"

"Yes." she continued. "And that perception filter of yourself is also an illusion. Figure out how to make yourself believe that that's not what you really look like." He shrugged and had a stunned look on his face. He thought he was hallucinating and rubbed his eyes. When he pulled them down, she wasn't there anymore.

"OK now i'm really having a mental breakdown." He returned to his hole he dug, and dropped Lyda into it. He dug more in the areas that didn't fit her, and then covered it up. "As if I needed this much disappointment in two days. First a visit from the future, and then her death."

He walked over to a nearby pond and stared at his reflection. He kept trying to figure out what she meant by "figure out how to make yourself believe," and gave himself a few headaches every now and then. Soon, a gray stripe of light swept down his body and changed his appearance from the dark gray changeling, to the average every-day changeling. He pulled off the filter and the white light changed his appearance from the changeling to himself, and he kept it off.

He began his journey back to, not the hive, but his home. He assumed that it wouldn't be too different from when he was last there, for he had only been gone for three days. When he arrived, he was right about its appearance. It really hadn't changed. It was in the exact same condition as he had left it. Inside, it was more spacious as if it was bigger on the inside. The only thing that was different, was a small book on his comfy chair.

On it, was a small sticky note saying, "You're going to need this" for some reason that he did not understand.

He kept that book with him for several days. They continued for days, then weeks, months, and on to years. He hadn't written in it at all. Not even for anything special in his life, or anyone else's life. He had almost forgotten about the changelings. He was quite happy with his life.

One day, he was in his house, sitting on his comfy chair eating a snack of hay strips (the equivalent of bacon :D) and he was pulled into a void taking him from his house to the throne room of the Queen.

"Really?" he asked. "Did you just really pull me back into Tartarus? The one place I did not want to return to after the incident. That entire day, is the reason I never wanted to come back here, ever again!"

"Well guess what?" she responded. "It's almost the end of this stupid, tiring war. Now stop your complaining." He shrugged, and fell back into his chair that had traveled with him. "We could use your ability one more time. Besides, you only fought in this war at the start. Why. Not. End it? Just one more battle. We're down by many, but you fight like many."

"But you could finish it off with what you have. Chrysalis' army is weakened I bet. She should be down by even more. You can finish her off in this war."

"You fight well from your training years ago."

"I was a guard."

"You are a warrior." she interjected. "You are a strong warrior. You can end this." There was a long silence throughout the room. He thought about the idea between ending the war, or going to back to a normal life.

"Fine. I'll fight the final battle in your stupid war." He said at last. He decided to do it for not him or the war's end, but for Ly-. I'm not going to say her name. That upset me even though that stuff always happens. Right. Back to the story. But for her. He wanted to, take revenge. "Just take me back home so I can get my things."

"Did you seriously think you're actually here?" she asked annoyed. "You are there." He was confused when she said this. The world then began to turn into a blur and he lifted his head from his chair with a piece of hay hanging out of his mouth.

"Ok," he said to himself. "That was weird. How did she know I was asleep? I didn't. How did she?" Then he thought about Pinkie. "It must be something like the normality of Pinkie. Yeah. That's it. Pinkie's logic." He grabbed his armor and slid it into his saddlebags and went for the door. He opened it when,

"HI!"

"HOLY SWEET PINKIE!" He exclaimed. "Never EVER scare the daylights out of me!"

"Awwww but want to surprise you!" the pink party pony said.

"Well I would say you surprised and scared me."

"Yay!"

"So why are you here?" He asked.

"To say goodbye and good luck to you."

"How did you- never mind. Well I guess I'll be off. You can throw a party if I come back before a few days."

"Yes!" She whispered quietly. "Oh. BYE!"

"Bye!" He responded. He continued walking off in the direction in which he believed was the hive's location.

When his legs got tired of walking, he resorted to flying. When he was tired of flying, he went back to walking. When he got tired of walking, he went back to flying again. He kept repeating this cycle until he collapsed on the ground and went to crawling. He continued crawling until he reached the hive entrance. He pulled out the perception filter and put it on, then continued crawling until he reached a cliffside.

Although just before he reached one, his ears were swarmed with the sound of buzzing wings, and occasionally, he was trampled over by changelings that were completely oblivious to him lying on the ground. By the time the Queen flew over him, he was on the ground with his hooves covering his ears and hoof prints all over his body. Either she didn't notice him, or she just ignored him, because she didn't stop for him.

"Ugh." he groaned. "Time to crawl in the complete opposite direction from which I came. As if I wasn't tired enough. I think I'll just lay here for a while. Rest my hooves and wings." He laid on the ground for over an hour and then he got up on his hooves and just as he began to walk, he was teleported to the battlefield. "Oh good. Less walking for me."

He wasn't too close or too far from it so he pulled out his armor, and put it on as fast as he possibly could. And that was very fast because he was trained to do it under dire situations. He then proceeded to grab his spear parts and assembled it at the same speed, and ran off into the fray.

He did his normal fighting procedure of avoid, stab, repeat. He avoided several arrows that were fired in his direction, whether to him or if he was in their path.

Soon he started slowing down due to being tired. Thankfully there weren't that many left to get through. The archers got closer because his army's number is down by a lot as well. There were about a hundred left on both sides, but Chrysalis' went down faster than his. He continued slowing down because he was getting more and more tired as time passed. The arrows were getting closer and closer to his body until one hit.

He cried out in pain when the arrow sank into his foreleg. He foreleg was experiencing loads of pain that caused him to slump to the ground. The arrows kept coming and hitting him until one of the shot right through the perception filter and shattered it. The white light revealed none other than the normal Terminal.

"AH!" he screamed! "No no no no no no no! This can't be happening!" He went to pick up the shards of the filter only to see his legs looked like a changeling's. "AH! Why are my legs like this?!" He looked at the rest of his body to find he was a pony-changeling hybrid, becoming more of a changeling. The two races' appearances fused together at points of his body.

The arrows kept coming at him, regardless if he was a hybrid. Soon, his body couldn't take anymore. And he passed out.

Author's Note

This came up extremely late due to 7 WRITERS BLOCK MOMENTS! DAMMIT! This took WAY too long to finish. At least I was able to get this published. This was the worst amount of time of my life because of school, my obssesion with Doctor Who, and new MLP episodes. I HATE MY LIFE! Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. On to the epilogue. You know, the part of this fanfic that I never stopped thinking about. Thinking about it makes me want to write more of this. That's what kept me going. You guys too. Allons-y! Damn it. I Tenth Doctor'd again.

Epilogue

I woke up. That's the first thing I remember. I woke up in a field. There were bodies of changelings in various locations all around me. I pulled my head up off of the grass.

I pulled up a hoof to my head and saw holes to my uttermost surprise. I was one of them.

The words "Terminal, find me" kept going through my head. I'm assuming my name is Terminal considering that's what the voice called me. I couldn't get it out.

I had arrows in me in my back, and legs. I also had shards of something on me right foreleg.

I put them together by assuming their shape, and it formed a changeling silhouette. The pieces fused together and they became one again.

I pulled the arrows out. I then got up on my hooves, struggling to maintain my balance. It was hard because my legs were still experiencing pain from the arrows, and I had been lying down for so long. I took my first steps from my resting place.

I found a dirt mound with a flower, a dandelion, and a sign on it saying "Here is where Lyda is buried. I loved her while she was still. It saddens me that she died to changelings, her own kind. -Terminal". As I said before, I don't remember anything. I'm not familiar with any Lyda. She must've been important to my life to be the only changeling I loved and buried. Was I even aware of her being a changeling? How could a pony love a changeling if said pony was aware of said changeling? It doesn't make any sense to me.I continued my walk until I was able to walk on all four hooves normally.

I then proceeded to teaching myself to fly. It took me a while to start flying normally without wobbling or dive-bombing on accident. It took me many times to finally get the flying procedure right. Sometimes I'd trip on my running start or I'd stop using one of my wings.

Next I started to teach myself magic, starting with the basic shape-shift, I don't know if you could count that as magic. I shape-shifted into several different forms. All of them fake because I don't know what any pony looks like. I only knew what changelings looked like. I went on to more basic spells such as levitation and teleportation. Starting the spells was hard enough, but then actually controlling the spell is even harder because of concentration and it drained my life force so much. I finally mastered the basic spells and figured I would learn the more advanced ones as I go along the way.

I went back to where I woke up and I saw a small book lying next to where I once laid. It brought back a few memories, but only the ones about the book. Nothing else. I had that book for so long. It felt like I had it for years. I decided to keep it with me, just like I had a long time ago. I had a feeling this wouldn't be the start of the beginning.

There was white. Nothing but white everywhere. I was standing on white, I was looking at white.

I started walking until I found a wall. I kept walking for what felt like ages. Still, I kept walking. I eventually found a selection of two options. The two options said that I would go to some different area. The first one said I would remain dead.

Dead. That's what I was. All I could remember was I lying on the ground in front of a white stallion with a perception filter around his neck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a knife handle. It led down to my chest, which looked like it was bleeding. I guess that's why there's a crack running down my chest now.

The second option said I could return to Equestria, but as a different pony, with no memory of my past life. It showed me a picture of what I would look like, but it was the form I had chosen as myself. I guess that was either luck of the draw, or just a retry at my life.

I had decided to choose the second option. I want to get back to… Terminal. That was his name I believe. I pressed the hoof-sized button, and the two buttons sank into the ground. A beam of yellow light was upon me and dissolved my body. The particles went downwards in the direction of Ponyville. Just before I completely dissolved, I last said,

"Terminal, find me."

TO BE CONTINUED!

Author's Note

The two-parter-one-part epilogue is finally here! By that, I mean that the epilogue is two parts put together into one. Part 1 is Epilogue - Terminal while Part 2 is Epilogue - ???. I decided to put the two together to make one epilogue because Part 2 is just too short. I'm not sure if you guys were able to guess who ??? is but I'm not good at making things a secret.

Thanks for getting me through this guys. This fanfic evolved from a simple story for myself to entertainment to you guys. Keep in mind I still have to start and finish a sequel to this.

Now just to make one thing clear. Lyda's name was not based off of Lyra's. I had that name going through my head for a long time so I went on to using it for her. To put it clearer, the name Lyda had started in my head from before Brony times (my Brony time). I wanted to use that name very badly.