Last Order

Chapter 4

“Thank you Miss Shy have a nice day” Big Mac said while Fluttershy gave him the payment for the apples she ordered.

She in return only gave a short nod and went her way.

The Business was going ok so far, not as many ponies as he would have liked at this hour but enough to fill the pockets.

He took a quick look at the sky to admire the good weather.

‘A didn’t know that so many pegasie live in ponyville’ he thought after spotting a group of seventeen flying over the market.

He watched them for a few seconds before returning to count his income.

Suddenly he got interrupted by a strange sound he looked back to the sky to find the source.

The pegasi he watched just a few seconds ago dived towards the ground full speed, green flames started to envelop them and with a loud bag they crashed into the marketplace, a few ponies got throne of their hooves and the cart next to him collapsed, he had no idea what just happened until he saw the figures that once were pegasi.

Completely black ponies, eyes light blue, holes in their legs, fangs decorating their mouth and insect like wings, he has seen the Changelings in the newspaper he read this morning and heard the story from his sister but seeing one so close was completely different.

He didn’t knew what they were doing in ponyville but it was obvious that it was nothing good.

As panic started to spread and ponie started to run away he spotted their target, it was Twilight Sparkle who was right in the middle of them.

If there is one thing that would shoot adrenaline into Big Macs blood than it was a mare in danger, he developed a reflex for protection with his sisters and his urge to protect was exactly what kicked in.

He jumped over his cart and rushed to get her out of there.

His sprint got interrupted by a sharp pain on his side, five of them had impaled Big Mac on their horns, the pain was there it hurt but it was not enough to stop him.

The Changelings separated themselves from the stallion thinking that the kick which separated them from him was enough to knock him out, they were wrong. Big Mac was still on his hooves and continued his sprint.

One of the Changelings noticed that the stallion was not so out cold like they thought and got in his way.

But Big Mac was far from beaten, he put his weight on his forehooves, made a 180 degrees rotation and deliver a brutal buck.

The Changeling stood no chance against the strength of the trained legs of the farmer and got pulverized by the hit.

That in return was completely unexpected by Big Mac who placed his hind legs back on the ground, only to immediately lost his footing, because of the powder on the ground.

He now had the attention back on him and was immediately restrained on the ground.

From his spot he only could watch as green symbols stretched out from Twilight before they covered the whole area.

Than the pain came.

Rainbow Dash was having a good day, she didn’t crash into anything while training her stunts, her pre ordered Daring Doo book came one day earlier, and nopony interrupted her nap over sweet apple acres.

It was perfect.

But sadly it was simply too perfect and her luck ended with the sound of a explosion.

It wasn’t the sound of a glorious explosion like the one you hear when you brake the light spectrum with a Sonic Rainboom, nor was it the the sound of Firework painting the sky.

No, this was the sound of devastation, shattering her illusions of a perfect day, screams of terrified ponies and explosions that had the sound of destruction threw her out of her dream world.

“What the…?” was the only thing she could ask. befor she saw the source of the sounds.

It was a good thing pegasi have better eyes to see a greater distance while flying and what she saw at the market place shook her awake immediately.

Changeling, many of them, and Twilight surrounded by them and around her some sort of green magical light. Rainbow had no idea what they were doing and she wasted not one second thinking about it, she only knew one thing, they were trying to hurt Twilight and she would not let that happen.

The market place was at a at an approximate distance of two miles, a normal pegasus never would have made it but Rainbow Dash was not a normal pegasus, the speed necessary for a Sonic Rainboom was 3836 miles per hour, she had the ability to fly one mile in less than one second.

She was aiming to hit one of the Changeling surrounding her friend, whatever they were doing it was some sort of strong magic and after hanging out with Twilight a few times the cyan mare knew that something like that needs concentration to work. So what was the best thing to do?

Knock them out!

Her aim was perfect she would hit the Changeling dead on.

Rainbow Dash had no idea where that Changeling had come from but she knew at the moment she spotted him that she was on a collision course and had no way of avoiding it. The problem with high speed flight was that you have nearly no room for corrections.

How that Changeling was able to intercept her was beyond the speedstar, he had two seconds to spot her at best, there was simply no way for somepony to intercept her that perfectly in such a short time.

The inevitable came and they crashed into each other, having enough experience with crashes she rolled around midari and managed to get the Changeling between her and the wall she was about to crash into.

The impact was hard but not hard enough to make her unconscious.

She Immediately was back at her hooves and continued her rush.

That was what she intended to do, only to find out that she was not able move, something was holding her down.

She turned around to see what was holding her in place expecting to see the Changeling that intercepted her, but there was nothing, only a crack on the wall from the impact.

She tried to move but was unable to do so.

“Twilight!!!” she screamed out.

But it was too late, the ground was covered with symbols, green energy was rising from it,
and suddenly all of it started going towards Twilight who was inside some sort of vortex, absorbing all the energy forming around her.

Suddenly everything stopped, the energy gone, none of the Changelings moved, nothing happend at all as if time itself had stopped.

Than the scream came.

“Thank you Miss Shy have a nice day” Big Mac said while Fluttershy gave him the payment for the apples she ordered.

She in return only gave a short nod went her way.

Fluttershy normally wouldn't dare to move close to crowded places like the market but she had to refill her kitchen and the food for her animals.

With the ordered apples she had everything she wanted, and went back to her cottage.

She hummed a soft tune while walking, it was a song her mother thought her to calm her down whenever she was nervous. It had no text, it was just a melody which calms the soul.

But the melody came to a sudden stop, interrupted by the sound of a explosion.

Fluttershy quickly spun around and what she saw nearly made her heart stop.

Changelings, many of them, the market place that was crowded with happy ponies just a second ago was now invaded with terrifying bug-like monstrosities.

Fluttershy wanted to spin around and fly away as fast as possible but she couldn’t move her limbs simply stopped listening to her.

She was forced to watch as ponies got slammed away.

She felt so weak, she couldn't run, she couldn't help, all she could do is watch.

She saw Big Mac running to help Twilight ‘Big Mac is strong, the Changelings have no chance’ she thought while she recalled how the Changelings fought in Canterlot.

Her hope was short lived as they stabbed him with their horns.

With Big Mac falling something reacted in Fluttershy, something she hated, something angry.

She didn’t even noticed that she was airborne, as she opened her eyes to bring the full terror of the stare on them.

It did nothing, she could not believe it the Changelings that saw her didn’t even flinch.

She only had about three seconds to wonder why it wasn’t working.

Than the scream came.

“Paper?”

“Check.”

“Quills?”

“Check.”

“Hay?”

“Check.”

“Apples?”

“Apples, Apples… nope no Apples jet.”

“Than lets find Applejack” Twilight said to Spike while they walked at the market.

It was a average day for Spike, checking the list for today's purchases while walking next to Twilight.

Everything was normal if you look from the outside at the duo but the truth lies in Spikes mind, he was troubled by the things that happened at Canterlot not to long ago.

He was among the ponies that doubted Twilight, thinking that she was overreacting and not in her right mind. At the end they all were wrong and nearly lost everything that they hold dear.

This thought hit Spike very deep, much deeper than his friends thought. He was a dragon and they were his friends, his family, his most important treasure, his hort. Nearly losing that hit Spike hard.

After Queen Chrysalis and her army were thrown away he and the rest of the gang made a big ‘We are sorry Twilight’ party. She naturally quickly forgave them, it was not like she would suddenly developed black magic and get very angry at them, this is Twilight we are talking about.

The problem was that Spike could not forgive himself. But that was not the only thing troubling his mind, the second thing was The Changeling Queen herself, something was not right before she got blasted away. It was the way she was standing on the balcony the way she just stood there ignoring everything around her, Spike mentioned that at the party, the others just thought that she was drowning herself in the bliss of victory. but that was not the only thing, befor she was thrown away she turned around and what Spike saw for that split second was not a monster, it was something else he could not find the right words to describe it but something changed.

Spike tried to dismiss his concern about her because he would never see a Changeling again.

He only realised how wrong he was when he got rammed head first into a cart.

He was not a Dragon for nothing, his scales absorbed nearly all of the force but the impact was still hard, his left hand was bent in a weird angle. He could do nothing to help Twilight right now. But he knew one pony who could.

Spike quickly took a piece of wood from the demolished cart wrote a word with his claw on it and send it via dragon flame.

The only thing left to do was pray.

Princess Celestia hated politics, she normally always had a smile on her face and did her duties to the country but today it was just one pain in the flank. After the Changeling attack she had to organize the rebuilding of Canterlot additionally to tax laws and taking care of the nobility.

The latest was what she was dealing with right now, Blue Blood decided that the invasion was a reason to reinforce the position of the noble houses and start a budget out of the taxes that should go directly to price so that he could organize the defences.

No matter how politely she asked him to leave that matter to her royal guards, he stayed and continued to load her with his nonsense about how important it was to protect the nobility.

She was very close to lose her control when the meeting was suddenly interrupted by green dragon flames. It was nothing unusual for her to be interrupted by dragon mail. She was keeping her magic ready to catch the letter sent by her faithful student.

Instead of the scroll she caught a piece of wood. Thinking that this was some sort of prank she inspected it carefully.

Nopony, not Blue Blood, not her assistant nore her guard were expecting her reaction.

Celestias simile vanished only to be replaced with an expression that literally could melt diamonds, her main and tail have caught fire and her crown melted on her head, before anypony could react she vanished.

The peace of wood that somehow survived the heat was caught by one of the guards.

“ALERT, THE PRINCESS AND LADY SPARKLE ARE IN DANGER!”