Chapters Chapter 1
Emptiness…
If you've never felt it you cannot know it.
The hollow feeling that never lets you go, it is always there, eating you from the inside out, it haunts me in my dreams, it will never let go until I am a dead husk.
Some compare it with depression.
Others compare it with starvation.
How foolish.
If depression is a raging stream of water that pushes you to the ground, than this is like the moon is beating you into your grave.
If starvation is like being eaten from the inside out, than this is like a black hole that erases you from time and space itself.
I have felt both before and they are nothing like this.
Emptiness…
Only right now I realized how fitting that term is.
It is my curse and there is only one way to lift it.
Love
Oh! How I hate that word that is used to describe the very thing that keeps the world in motion. No matter where you go or where you watch it is the core to everything, a male that loves his mate and expresses his love through his body, a child that loves his parents for a toy it got for its birthday, the pet that gets a bowl of food every day loves his owner for that basic little gift, even in mating season the love that is expressed between the animals for this short time is strong enough to feed us for days.
It is so easy, we just need so little to survive just that little gift, that little gesture so that we can have the only thing we ever wanted. That one thing that I was looking after for eons, a place to live to see our children play outside a place where we can get old to be alive, to be free from this emptiness just for one second, was it really that much to ask for?
At first we tried to live with the Griffins.
That didn't end well. We were seen as animals, hunted before we could even make it clear that we were sentient beings.
After that horrible failure we went over the sea and after a long, tiring travel arrived at the Minotaur lands.
At first it worked quite well if you look at our last try, We could speak with the Chieftain and start our hive. After a month things started to go downhill, to be exact the war started when they found out what we eat, they reacted as if we spat at their holy ground, they tried to drive us away but we tasted how it was to have a home.
So we fought for the only little light we had ever seen. Oh, and how we fought, you think a minotaur can easy win over a Changeling? HA!
A monster that is driven into a corner can become so much more dangerous.
Monsters, that was what we were called, unholy monsters compared to necromantic beasts.
Why?
Because of our diet.
These fools have never seen Discords army of undead that wiped our world from existence and still they compared us to them.
Funny that is how we actually came to be, being driven from our home world that is now so twisted that the spirit of chaos himself got bored with it. We barely escaped as my mother used all of her magical power at once, this ended in her death but allowed us to escape.
At the end it was no use, we were not enough while their numbers were rising every day and so we had to leave again.
I was holding a little child while we walked, it was barely a year old but its parents died while protecting me, it was the last service i could do for them after they lost their lives for me.
After 5 days it starved.
Destroyed, hopeless, starved and with no place to go we had to leave again, and again, and again...
We have been nearly everywhere, in so many corners of the world, looking for a place to stay. A home but no matter where we went, the emptiness remained.
Then it happened, after countless centuries of suffering we had found hope, one of us found a reptile race in the jungle that could change its color depending on the surroundings.
After long periods of research we could use our body's magic to shape shift to look like another race.
We found a way to get love without causing trouble and survive, we had a chance.
Our hopes were so high.
The love we got was close to nothing, barely enough to survive and tasted like rotten bread.
But we survived.
We had resources, the emptiness did not fade away but we had something, we could rebuild.
We used the last bit of survival instinct to keep us alive with the gaping hole we had inside of us and after a while of searching we found a place where no living being could survive, no living being beside us, we praised our ancestors and started to build our home in the Badlands.
It took us one hundred and fifty years but we did it we had a place to live, we were tired and hungry but we had hope, now that we had a way to survive we had something we had lost since the minotaur lands.
Hope…
Only to be shattered again, the fake love we were collecting sustained us but we could not feed our children with it. It made no difference how we tried not one child made it into its teen years.
We had to act fast and we were lucky, we found another intelligent race not far away from our land. Time was short but we could not act recklessly so I used my abilities at best to spy at them and find a way to enter their society and form an alliance, to ask for help.
We had so much in common from society, structure to lifestyle and even a more or less the same body shape, and the most important part, they had a Queen that cared for her children.
After some time I decided that this was not a political question, we had to win the heart of her subjects and we had to act fast, so I decided to spy on the queens personal child, she had to be an example for her society so the best way to find out about them was her.
She was so good hearted and pure it seemed her mother had sent her to her citizens to learn about her subjects so she could learn to lead them. She would be a good child to her mother and good queen to her children one day, she had only to follow her heart and trust in her friends.
I continued to watch her and was close to decide that I should directly approach them.
Until that one day, they were all happy and followed their normal lives in town, than that zebra came.
They were scared out of their skin, I could not believe it, they were so good hearted and still the moment they saw that zebra they started to fear her, stayed many blocks away, and locked all doors and windows.
There was no way to establish a relationship fast enough judging the reaction of the whole towns.
I was so angry, so disappointed, so hopeless, and looking back that was most likely the moment I went insane.
If I could not get their love by kindness and caring I could take them by force, that was what I thought.
It was a perfect plan, they had some form of social gathering celebrating some sort of binding between male and female. All important powers they had where together and we could strike in one swift motion.
Only when I was standing on their balcony praising myself and my hive I realized what I had done.
When I watched my children hunt them in the streets… there was no love, just cold hatred and fear.
How could I be so foolish and expect love coming from that useless attack.
The second I got my sanity back I tried to turn back, repair the damage, maybe there was still a way for peace, I tried to do something, anything.
Only to get a wall to the face.
They used the ten seconds I needed to regain my sanity for some sort of last line of defence.
This defence has taught me that I can survive a high speed crash into stone.
Now while i lie on my back in most likely my grave I have so much time to think about what I have done right and wrong. About emptiness and about that one cursed thing that I could never get for my children, the thing we needed the most.
Love
Oh! How I hate that word.
Please forgive me my children, I was not enough.
There is only one last thing for me to do before I go the last way.
Please forgive me Student of the sun. My last breath will be your curse, and my hope.
My name is Queen Chrysalis and with my last breath I place the Last Order on Twilight Sparkle!
Author's Note
Big thank you to my editor SLENDER-MAN
Chapter 3
Crash!!!
A crack appeared at the point where my head connected with the sphere.
“NOW OR NEVER, THE QUEEN IS DISCOVERED, ALL SQUADS AT MY MARK, GET THAT SHIELD DOWN!!!” General Drake screamed through the mind link.
“3...2...1... GOOOOOO!!!”
Crash!!!
The shield was strong, all respect to the caster, but it could not withstand the full force of the impact coming from two thousand different directions. So the inevitable happened, all the cracks connected and the sphere had to give in, it crashed down.
“MAIN ATTACK UNIT, SPRED OUT. All military troops, split up into your operation cells orders go through the operation cell leaders, AND REMEMBER RESTRAINING ONLY, DON'T INFLICT ANY LETHAL DAMAGE TO THE PONIES, WE NEED THEM ALIVE!!!”
That was when we lost the full link and got together into our twenty ling group, Drake flew to our position and gave a few orders: “We will be the anti reinforcement and supply group we have positions around the town that have to be secured, we have position alpha, any aggressor has to be restrained, you have authorisation for ‘poison’, ‘Anti-shield-Skyfall’ and ‘Cocoon’, formation arrow, SQUAD FIVE MOVE OUT!!! ”
After the commands were given we went into formation, our destination was the gate at the town entrance.
We spotted forty guard, they were in combat with some of the civilian Changelings that crashed in from the west side.
“Make yourself look like pegasi and surprise them from behind, we can cut them in half and take on the rest”
All royal guards looked nearly the same so the disguise was easy to pull off, one of them saw us approaching and shouted something to his comrade.
Maybe they thought they got reinforcements. Their hopes got shattered quickly as we all collided with our targets. At the impact moment we lifted our disguise and rammed our teeth into the space that was free on their necks. Changeling teeth have a toxin that can paralyze a target within five seconds when their blood pressure is high enough, we had to be careful so we don’t use too much of it because if it is concentrated enough it can kill, one quick bite and kick them away with a buck on their chest piece, no lethal damage and the whole thing only took us three seconds, not enough time for them to realize what happened to one half of their squad.
But enough time for an Operation cell that was connected in mind to get into formation.
“Hold position!” we heard the command in our brain.
I imminently went behind my four squad members, as a medic I was a important assistance force and had to give a tactical overview and support spells like shields and a sometimes defensive blasts to protect my fellow lings from being shoot and if they get injured to give immediate medical assistance, I don’t like to brag but I am proud of the fact that I managed to keep all of my squad-mates alive since I started my medic career.
Now we had the advantage, with the quick hit we reduced them to equal numbers and we had a formation while they where shattered, we most likely hit their commander with the arrow because the moment they realized what happened they all lost formation and attacked us completely random.
It was a short lived resistance. The four combat-lines we established where enough to knock them out in the blink of an eye, quick, efficient, none lethal.
“Restrain them!” was the next command that followed. So we did.
The civilian fighters continued the offense and went for the town.
Before I could get the last guard to the pile where we tied them up, I found out that he was not so out cold as I thought. He tried to hit me with his wing blade, but the poison was inside his system, his movements where slow and sluggish.
One of his hind legs was completely dislocated, he probably had the bad luck to fight Blade Wall, this idiot couldn't even spell non lethal. I did learn a few things about pony anatomy before we went to the fight, all Changelings did, knowing your enemy is the road to victory.
Still while he was lying in the grass, watching me with cold and hating eyes I could only pity him, we where the evil, we were attacking his home.
A dislocated limb if not treated right away can block the blood flow and lead to amputation ore dead.
I couldn't bring peace but my promise still stood ‘to protect lives’ . It was my creed and will always be.
I stepped behind the stallion that still glared at me, positioned his hoof between my hind legs and pressed with my full body weight. The loud crack gave me the signal that his bone was back in his natural position. The stallion screamed in pain, it gave him the rest and so he passed out.
The whole thing happened while we still had the squad link so it did not went unnoticed by my teammates some where shaking their head while others gave me a understanding smile.
The position secured and the guards restrained we waited for orders and after a while they came inform of a certain genius.
“We have secured the weapons and their leader is out cold, we start with the next phase!” was the direct order, next phase that meant we won, all defences down, no resistance left, we won.
A small amount of joy spread through the link, we have won, that insane plan worked, we achieved it, victory.
Not one of us was prepared for what happened next.
A shield was expanding from the castle with extreme speed and taking every Changeling along, the expanding was so fast and with so much force they got torn apart mid flight.
“COCOON!!!”
The brut force of the scream and the mental command was enough reap me out of my thoughts and follow the order.
And it was not a second to early.
The impact hurt, the extreme powers that were working on my shield felt like i got hit by a mountain, with closed eyes I managed to keep it intact. In that moment I learned how it felt to be a hoof ball.
I dared to open my eyes for a moment to be greeted with a sight that would burn into my brain. Hundreds of lings getting torn apart, ripped into pieces and then disappearing into ashes and get blown away with the wind, hundreds of us. I could only take that sight for two seconds. I closed my eyes and prayed, I didn’t know for what, that this was a bad dream, to survive the crash, a quick death I simply didn’t know.
As we passed the border to Equestria I snapped out of my day-dream, day-nightmare was a better term.
“We can’t risk attracting attention, split up and make you own disguise up, we should reach Ponyville in an hour” that confused me, didn't Twilight Sparkle live in Canterlot?
Having the mind-connection running I broadcasted my concern.
“No, while the Queen was observing her she was living in a town called Ponyville, southwest from Canterlot, she should be at the market in the morning, we can use the crowd as a advantage to get in position, Blackshell you will observe from above, remember the package has to reach her and we need a distraction for seven seconds, the crystals and the serum has to be taken in about two minutes before the operation start now spread out!” there was a short delay before he added:” All-free”.
At that moment it was clear, there will be wounded and worst case scenario death.
I took the form of a mint green Pegasus with a wheel for cutie mark and went to the west town entrance.
After I arrived at the little town, we got the information of the target position that indeed was moving to the town marked.
“Ok, all take in the crystal and take in the serum“ came Drakes order.
I took the little Uranium-crystal out of my hole and eyed it a bit before swallowing it, the feeling of my magic rising felt good, until I remembered that I now have two, five inch crystals inside of me that will have to get out somehow. My poor flank.
'Now to the second goody '. I reached into my saddlebag and pulled the serum out.
It was a green pulsing mass and definitely not healthy. by any means.
‘Well let’s see what it does’ was my thought before I drank it in one go.
Imagine a rotten apple and mix it with some dirt that is how it tasted, I had to hold back so I don't vomit it out right away.
After I got over the bad taste I stared my pace into town.
We approached the marked, the four with the serum on the ground the rest through the air and there she was the target was moving with a little dragon we kept our ten foot distance and waited for the command, Brain was sitting on a cloud and gave us the tactical overview, Blade Wall to my right and Shadow Dancer to my left.
“Approach and start the circle, Blade Wall on my command you get that dragon away from her that is the signal for all air forces to engage sky-fall, target all ponies that are close, try to knock them away, remember seven seconds is the time window we need, do anything necessary to keep the other ponies away” came the command from Brain and Drake.
“3...”
Slowly we approached, with a quick look to the sky I managed to catch a glimpse on the seventeen disguised Changelings waiting for a command.
“2...”
When making a circle with four Changelings than they have to be at a seven feet distance to the target, Shadows and Kanes and my distance was perfect, Blade was next to Shadow waiting for the signal so that he could ram the dragon away and take position opposite Shadows.
“1...”
Time seemed to stand still while I made myself ready for the inevitable. There were about thirty ponies on the soon to be battlefield. It would not be a pretty sight.
“GO!!!”
Blade Wall rushed forward and rammed Head first into the dragon that in return crashed into the cart behind him.
At the same time all Changelings crashed down like a meteor the unfortunate ponies close to the impacts were torn from their hoofs.
The target that had no idea what just happened made a panicky blast that missed horribly, while we dismissed our disguise and started channelling our magic.
six seconds left.
A red Earth pony stallion got quickly to his hoofs and started to dash forward most likely to protect Twilight. His dash got stopped by five Changelings smashing into him from the left. He got impaled on their horns and but still was on his feet, that guy was one hell of a pony.
In the meantime Twilight get her senses back and started an offensive spell in my direction.
The spell was interrupted by our general that has thrown himself into the blast. He smashed into the wall behind me before falling together into ashes.
Four seconds left, the first runes started forming under my feet.
A rainbow colored blur shot into our direction, and it was going fast, way too fast, if it would have hit the ground next to us we would lose our concentration, operation failure.
After taking a better look I managed to find out that it was a pony that was flying that fast, Shadow would definitely be jealous.
She was racing towards Blade who made himself ready for the impact.
She was barely ten foot away.
Her flight came to an abrupt end, Brain interrupted her by smashing into her side and hold her with his bear hooves. She completely lost control and smashed into a building, Brain holding his grip on her, smashed with her but the impact was to strong and he became dust.
The rainbow colored mare quickly was back on her feet and tried to continue her rush, only to find out that something was keep hold of her.
Brain enchanted his body cells so that they held together after he died. He didn’t let go, not even over his dead body, literally.
Two seconds left, the runes where all now clearly visible. And started expanding outwards
Twilight Sparkle created a bubble around her to protect herself from whatever was about to hit her.
Behind her was yellow Pegasus that lifted slowly of the ground with eyes closed.
When she opened them I had a feeling that my skin was ripped from me with a butter knife, it was the eyes of fear. I knew this ability it was made to inflict mortal agony to the opponent, and it would have worked if not for the fact that I wasn't afraid from the death, not anymore.
Zero, the spell was finished.
The circle under my feet was over the whole marked that was empty now except for the big red earth pony, the Changeling squad and the target.
Her shield was strong but she did the one beginner error that all made who had no knowledge about shields, she forgot to protect her bottom, and that is where the spell hit her.
Then the pain came. It was unbearable, thousands off needles ripping me apart, I wanted to scream I wanted to curl together into a tiny ball and cry, I just wanted it to end.
And it did, as fast as the pain came that fast is ended, I looked around to see all my fellow lings to be in a similar state the red earth pony was no exception Shadow gave me a smile and waved his hoof, he was saying goodbye.
Then he fell apart, he was not the only on all Changeling suddenly lost leg ore a wing whatever the serum did it needed extreme amounts of power, stolen from its surroundings, the grass around us was dead, rotten, the spell pulled away all live force.
I looked up into the sky, directly at the sun, I felt no pain, no hate, no joy, no emotion at all.
A large winged creature was coming towards me from the sky, it was a beautiful white.
I asked myself ’Is that an angel, coming for me?’ while my vision got blurry.
With closed my eyes i gave my last prayer.
I was ready.
Chapter 4: Different perspectives
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,
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!”
Chapter 5: Medical countermeasures
Chapter 5
To say Twilight had a bad day would be the understatement of the decade, getting attacked by Changelings was definitely nothing she was expecting to happen.
By the moment she regained consciousness she could tell that something was very wrong. She had no feeling in her body and no matter how hard she tried she could not get her eyes open
“Am I in a coma?” she asked herself… wait there was a echo that meant that this was a actual place, it was physical and very dark.
She could have could been foalnapped and she simply was restrained, should she shout out? well it wouldn’t hurt to try.
“Hallo? can somepony hear me?! ” she shouted out.
She was expecting some reaction maybe her abductor to show himself, but what happened was that her vision suddenly got bright as if she had opened her eyes, she blinked a few times at least that is what she tried to do, she received no reaction and was starting to panic a bit.
“Twilight, are you awake?” came the voice of her mentor.
“Princess what is going on i cant feel my body and my ey...?!”
“Princess, are you alright?” Her vision suddenly was on a double door and the ponies standing in it, there was a doctor and her friends staring at her. She had to be at a really strange position because she was looking down on them.
“Twilight I know it is hard but I need you to keep calm while i explain to you what happened” came her mentors calming voice.
“You can speak to Twilight, is she ok in there, can we talk to her!?” a really worried Rainbow Dash rushed to her chest and watched her chest piece…
Wait a minute since when am I wearing Celestias chest piece and why is my fur white speaking of which were is the Princess?! Twilight thought as she was getting more panicked every moment.
Nothing made sense to her, why couldn’t she feel her body that was acting like on its own, why was she wearing Celestias jewelry and why was she so high up and where was her Mentor?
“Twilight come down I have a logical explanation for you, just listen” came The Pricesses voice.
Logical, that was good that was what she needed right now she claimed herself, her vision shifting slightly while her friends slowly backed away from her.
“First of all what do you remember?” she asked.
“Well, the day started normal I woke up, at breakfast, did my checklist that I made ready from the day before, what included buying more supplies from the marked… t-than the Changelings attacked, everything happened so fast, they did something, it hurt so much, then i blacked out” Twilight slowly explained.
“I will start when I received the message from the attack, Spike sended it to me on a piece of wood right when it happened, yes he is ok, he is a dragon Twilight don't forget that” she quickly interrupted herself as she felt her students worry “The moment I got the massage i teleported to ponyville to help...”
Princess Celestia was burning with rage, the last time that happened was when she was fighting king Sombra and her sister got hurt in the battle. When she fought Queen Chrysalis she was using her whole strength but she was not angry she was in control she could focus all her magic on one point. Right now she was bursting with uncontrolled energy ready to smite all threats that dared to harm her student.
She was expecting a battlefield, the elements fighting the Changelings,she was expecting a assassin that was attacking her student, she was expecting Chrysalis holding her student hostage and demanding the kingdom.
What she was not expecting was the sight of a destroyed marked, her student screaming her lungs out and boiling with magic, there were a few unconscious ponies, the place seemed to be filled with some kind of strange crystals and in the middle was laying one Changeling who seemed to be knocked out.
Seeing that the battle was already over Celestia quickly dismissed her rage-fire and flew down to help with first aid. Her first target being the still screaming Twilight, she was screaming no words, just a plain scream of pain.
She tried to use some medical spells on her student to see what was wrong, but instead of getting some information she had to duck to not get burned by a magical flame coming from Twilight's horn.
Confusion and shock were the first things visible of Celestias face, magical flame was a high class battle magic spell and she certainly never thought Twilight any of it out of fear she might turn out like her former student.
Magical flames need high concentration to maintain so it could not be Twilight who cast them, something was casting them from inside of her.
Celestia tried to get to her from different direction but to no avail the flames always leashed out like a whip, she tried to form a shield around her and step closer, it worked for the first five feet.
The moment she was close enough to touch her, Twilight emitted a strong magical impulse that pressed against Celestial shield and pushed her away.
“Princess!” came the week voice of a Stallion from behind her.
She quickly spun around to see the heavily wounded Big Macintosh, she could not help Twilight right now the flames made that impossible, she had to help where she could. Celestia made the short way to his side and inspected his wounds, He endured multiple stabs to his side, he is lucky they didn’t got that far in , was her thought before she casted a wave of healing magic through his body.
While she was casting the first aid spells she suddenly heard something through the screams, it was a melody, it was claiming, like the sound of a mother's voice it was not very loud but it rang through the marked, after she finished the spells she looked for the next pony who needed help, a few guards and a medic arrived at the battlefield.
She turned back the her students who stopped screaming as loud as she did the moment she arrived. It was Fluttershy who was singing the song and she did it while slowly approaching Twilight who seemed to calm down from the song.
A tendril of flames suddenly lashed out at the approaching pegasus.
“Fluttershy! ” was all the princess managed scream out before the flames reached her.
To do absolutely nothing, they simply passed through her and had no effect whatsoever, The song, her singing has a calming effect on Twilight therefore whatever is controlling the flames is not seeing her as a danger, was her thought.
That is my chance, Celestia realized with the flames down she could approach, and cleans whatever has befallen her.
Fluttershy continued her approach and took Twilight into her hooves who in return stopped screaming and silently sobbed into her friend's shoulder.
She had to be quick and keep hold of her soul, that way she would be protected against the flames and could help her. Not wasting another second she made herself ready.
With the blink of an eyes she teleported next to Twilight, the magical flames reacted fast but not fast enough, within the split second she had she made herself astral and dived into Twilights body.
Only from the inside Celestia reliced how gigantic the amount of magic inside Twilight was, infact it was way too much to be carried in her body, the magic had to be used for something, a curse that was it, the power was fueling a curse, that was very bad, the amount of power that was inside the curse was way too much to overpower, even if she managed to get that much power somewhere it would burn Twilights body to ashes.
Her body! Celestia thought, if she could not get the curse away from Twilight than she could get Twilight away from the curse, the price was high she had to pull her soul out of her body and give it something to live in that way the curse would not affect her consciousness.
The purple flames were already reaching out for her soul, she had to be quick, to perform this spell she needed something to put her soul into. My chestpiece was her idea, it had a diamond in the center the ideal gem to hold magic.
With not much time left Celestia made everything ready to cast the spell, if magical flames are a high class spell than the spell to transport a soul was the work of gods, luckly Celestia was pretty close to that title and had the magical reserves to do it.
She had to call for the sun for strength and was sure that she would collapse after she completed the spell but it was for Twilights soul and she promised her mother to never let her get harmed and by her soul, she would keep that promise.
Celestia was taking hold of Twilights soul and started pulling, ripping something out of a body was definitely nothing natural, it was interfering with the reaper, taking the soul out of a body and giving it another physical shape was against nature itself and trying to hold a soul with magic is like trying to hold water with a piece of paper, you need very much paper.
After take her students soul out of her body she need to bind the soul to the stone, what was a piece of cake compared to the previous parts. The spell finished the now soulless body collapsed in Fluttershys hooves and so did Celestia. She was still conscious but completely exhausted she didn’t even had the strength to move and so allowed herself to rest and let the other ponies carry her to a fitting place for that.
“After that I woke up in this hospital bed and explained everything to your friends, after that I woke you up to connect your soul to my body, what you see now is how I see things you see hear smell and feel thing that I feel.”
Twilight was speechless, nothing her mind made up was nearly heavy as the explanation she got right now. So she did the only thing possible, she freaked out.
“I AM INSIDE YOUR BODY , how is that even possible the body of a pony is made to hold only one soul, the side effects could be desastres, what about your royal duties can you perform them with me in your body like rising and setting the sun with me in your body, what about the elements can I still use the element of magic that way I am right now!?” Twilight was in panic mode.
“Twilight!” Celestia said with raised voice.
“I am completely fine and you are not in my body you are in the diamond in my chest piece you are just using my body senses to help you see, hear, feel, the mind needs some information to work with all the time else you would fall into complete madness in a few minutes, and the last thing you need to care about are politics, and I believe your friends want to tell you something, I can speak for you.” her gaze wandered over to the ponies, still standing in the room.
“Twi, are you ok in there?” a now somewhat slower approaching Rainbow Dash asked.
“While this is a very unexpected turn of events I can say that I am fine” Celestia said for Twilight.
“What happened to the Changeling is what interests me where did they go after that attack?”
“We don't really know darling Fluttershy said they simply disappeared? was it that?” Rarity answered turning her head to her friend.
“That doesn't make any sense how can they disappear did they teleport?” Twilight asked confused
“They didn’t really disappeared they somehow have, fallen together, I guess” Fluttershy added
“A, think they are dead” Applejack said ”Big Mac mention something about a big pain and he was inside that circle with you, and the doctor said something about him having a magical exhaust or something like that. A am no doctor but it is kind a obvious what happens when you run out of magic”
“Big Mac is an Earth-Pony how could he have run out of magic he can't do magic like a unicorn, right?”
“That is the same thing the Doc said, he thinks it has to do something with the spell they did on ya” AJ ansvert.
A short silence hung in the air.
“Thanks Fluttershy, I don’t know if i would be here right now without you, and princess thank you to, can we go visit Big Mac?”
“We visited him and already thanked him for trying to help you” Rainbow said.
“I gave him a get well basket with cupcakes in it and by the way here is yours but wait you can't eat that without your body, but when you can't eat it how can I give it to you, do you eat it with the Princess but is that the same as if you eat it yourself what if it isn't then you will never get your get well basket and how can you get well without your get well basket, oh no what should we do?!”
Everypony in the room was silent while Pinky continued her speech and looked at her with wide eyes after she finished.
“You should take care of yourself now because I don’t think you can stay like that forever” RD added.
“By the way where is my body right now?”
As if on command the sound of a explosion was heard not far away.
“I was really surprised to find out that the Ponyville hospital has a Doctor who is specialized in curses, those are rare at these times” Celestia stated “At least he as not to worry about hurting you, if your body can’t be saved... I am very skilled in the art of golem making. A advanced golem in for of a pony should be no problem”
Twilight would have a very worried expression right now if she had a face.
They didn’t spoke a word on there way to the emergency room, normally somepony would have stopped them but having Princess Celestia next to you helped enter many doors.
And not a minute too early, the moment they arrived, Nurse Redheart got thrown thru the doors.
Before she could hit anypony or hurt herself on the landing she got caught in a golden magical feld, and gently sat on the ground.
“I am not getting paid enough to take part in this!” she said while shaking her head, and rushing back in thru the now destroyed doors. The group right after her.
Inside the room was pure destruction what greeted them, nearly everything was in the wrong place the cupboards, at the ground, the doctors at the walls, the tiles on the floor, shattered, and in the middle of the chaos, a tied up Twilight, or her body to be exact, belts keeping her at the table and four magical restrainment rings around her horn, it was fighting the restrainments that kept it at the table but they were too tight, it fought for a while longer but after a minute it simply stopped struggling and went limp.
“That happened now the third time, Doctor Stable, the time?”
“Exactly one hour and thirty-four minutes, again”
“Ok that is good we have something, whatever it is doing it has a interval, but why, intervals mean that it is not capable doing it all in one go but doing what, it keeps the body alive but why, what do you do to the body?” to yellow coated doctor said approaching Twilights body, puting his front hooves at the table and taking a close look at it.
“Have you made any progress lifting the curse Doctor Sunny?” Celestia asked.
“I have never seen anything like this in my whole career, this is not simply a magical infection, this is partly biological, it is Changing the body on a molecular base, lifting it, I have no idea, our scans can’t breach the spell and every time we try to open the body it sends out a magical impulse to smash us against the wall and so every progress we had. The magical restraints don't help one bit. The only lead we have is when she wakes up and rampages over one minute, and your guess is as good as mine on why that happens. In your thousand years have you ever seen anything like this?”
“I never had to work in medicine so sadly I don’t have many experience on that field, do you have any other lead?” Celestia said while slowly circling Twilights body
“Her eyes” he answered while laying a hoof on her eyelid and opening it.
What greeted them was not the normal purple eye, it was a purple fire surrounding her iris and a black slit in the middle, the only thing left was the color of the eye.
At this point Twilight could only ask:”What did they do to me!?” Celestia saying it out loud for her.
“Maybe it transforms her into a Changeling” Rainbow Dash said.
Her comment got her looks that only could be described as ‘Are you serious’.
“What, it is possible” she said defending her idea.
“Why would they make her a simple Changeling, no that idea is ridiculous, no offence, it has most likely something to do with Changelings but just making her a Changeling is stupid, maybe a queen thought, what I remember is that Changelings have a queen maybe they are like ants, that the queen lays all the eggs and something happened to the last one, I mean they are kind of bugs” Doctor Stable threw in.
“If you guys could stop breeding nonsense and could say constructive things, that would be appreciated” said Doctor Sunny while inspecting her eye with a magnifying glass.
“The problem is that I have no information on Changelings whatsoever, are you sure there is not some old forbidden book about changeling magic laying in the forbidden book section in the library Princess?”
“You know most likey more about Changelings than me after watching my students body, they have been considered a old griffin rumor that I heard once, until the wedding that is” Celestia ansvert.
“No knowledge, no hints, noting if you have a plan on where to put her soul I would consider starting to work on it because the chances of saving her body are sinking into nonexistence.”
“Shur we have a hint, silly.” All ponies just stared Pinkie Pie said while she was bouncing around the room.
“And that hint is?” Rainbow Dash said while stopping her mid air in a jump.
“The Changeling that we captured after that attack, Duh”
“Princess, the prisoner is awake.” came the voice of a guard who was standing in the door.
There are many kinds of days, good days, bad day, rainy days and days where you get nearly killed are ready for dead than survive get then thrown into a dungeon to find out that you are the last one of your whole species.
For me it was definitely the last one, my whole body was iching from the tip of my horn to the base of my tale, when I woke up.
The first thing i thought i had was that I am in Tartaros waiting to be punished for my sins or maybe this cell was my punishment. I quickly dismissed that thought after feeling quite alive, well checking never hurt so I tried.
“Hello can anyling hear me!? ” I shouted out with all the strenght I could get together, to my surprise I got a answer.
“Steel Wing go tell the Princess that the prisoner is awake” I heard a male voice say, stallion in pony term that was it, said. I inspected my hooves to find out that i was chained to the wall behind me and had a magical suppressor on my horn, so no magic and these cuffs where very tight so no getting out that way.
“Hey, you, where am I” I ask the guard.
“Take a guess” he answered me without turning around.
“So not the silent type, I thought you royal guards are all standing attention and not a move”
“I am not guarding a Princess right now I am guarding you and with you around I don’t care”
“Where are the others?” to get out I had to know where the rest of my squad was, I had to find them that was priority number one
“You tell me, after the light show you bugs put up all of them just disappeared, only you left behind, teleportation failure is my guess, ha server you right!” Teleportation failure? what was he talking about we never had a escape plan, Disa… ppead?.
My face fell when the realization hit me, they were gone, I was the only one left why, why was is alive, did the reaper left me behind as some kind of cruel joke, i didn’t got it why was I still there. Mimic, she was gone with her the rest of my squad. I was most likely the last Changelings alive, there was no one left I was completely alone.
I got no time to sink myself in self pity as I heard a door opening and the sound of many hooves at the ground. I looked up to see my visitor to find nopony else than the Princess of the sun herself staring at me with disgust in her eyes around her a group of 5 ponies having similar faces.
“What gives me the honor?” I said in a half joking manner addressing my visitors.
“Don’t do the stupid one we want to know what you bugs did to Twilight and we want to know how to reverse it, NOW! ” said the pony with the rainbow colored mane while hammering her head against the cage I was captured in.
“I have no idea what we did to her and no idea how to cure it!”
“I SAID DON’T DO THE STUPID ONE! ” She screamed.
“No reason to scream at me and I am serious, I was just following orders, I have no idea what exactly we were doing we just did as we were told”
“That is just plain stupid, following an order and having no idea what it is about who gave you that order anyway?”
“Queen Chrysalis gave it to the general and he gave it to my squad”
“And where is your bug queen” the ponies were starting to get on my nerves with permanently caling me bug.
“You know, I have a name and if you want to meet the Queen then order that tough guy over there to use his spear and ram it thru your head” I said in an angry manner while pointing at the guard.
“When Queen Chrysalis is dead than I am sure an audience with her heir can be arranged” Celestia throw in.
“Hahahahaha, if you think it is that easy go to her, I can point out where our town is on your map and you go meet her face to face” I said sarcastically.
“That easy? guard get me...”
“THERE IS NO HEIR OR CHANGELINGS LEFT TO RULE FOR THE MATTER, THEY ARE ALL GONE, ASHES IN THE WIND, DEAD, I AM THE LAST CHANGELING ALIVE!!!”
I myself was not expecting that outburst, maybe it was the tension of the last two days finally catching up to me. The ponies were looking at me with wide eyes, the act of genocide may cought up to them in that moment.
I simply had no strength left, I had enough, I already lost everything that meant something to me I just wanted to lay down and wait for the rest of my magic to run out so that I may finally join my family and friends in the afterlife.
I laid my head on my front hooves and silently stared crying.
“The... last one... left” I silently said between the sobs. I didn’t cared about anything anymore.
“Princess!... It is Twilights body we are losing it… we need those infos now or it is over with her” I heard a male voice talk.
Infos, I could do nothing for my kind but finding out what we all died for would be a nice relief.
“I-I could try to help, I am a doctor and medic, I studiet Changeling medicine for twelve years” I said with the last bit of pride I had left.
“And letting you out, no go buddy” I got the answer.
“I have eight hours to live at best and even if I somehow manage to get away where should I go?”
“Somehow A have the feeling that he says the truth” the orange one said.
“We need all help we can get, I say it is worth the risk Princess please we need something were we can start, at least, and right now we are loosing her” said the stallion in the doorway.
It was a short time of silence that greeted me befor the Princess finally spoke.
“Guards, take his chains into your hooves and accompany us to the Hospital”
The walk to the hospital was relatively uneventful except for a few old fruits and stones that got thrown in my direction while we walked at a fast pace.
Upon arrival I could tell at the sight of the room that they were running out of ideas and had a very high repair bill after they were finished.
My patient was restrained at the table in the middle of the room a heart monitor and an oxygen tube connected to her. Her skin was paled to nearly complete white.
“She is running out of air, no matter what we do we can't get her to breath.” the stallion said.
I was happy that I studiet pony anatomy bevor the attack otherwise I would have no idea where to start or why the readings were so weird in comparison to Changeling readings.
But what was the weirdest part was that those readings were not weird at all. The rate at that the heart was beating was the rate you got when only one heart of the two a Changeling got was responding.
They unlocked the chains at my hooves and I rushed to her side, channeling a scan spell that would allow me me to see inside the body.
The sight that greeted me shocked me to my bodes, She had Changeling organs in her body and if that was not shocking enough pony parts as well, it was as if a child took all the organs in both species and throw them into one place, no wonder she was dying.
But that couldn’t be it, these Changes looked controlled, whatever the spell did to her was not meant to kill her.
After I scanned her for a few more seconds I got it. Her lungs were not pony they were Changeling and Changelings don’t breath in with there mouth.
I grabbed a scalpel and started to concentrate the scan at her legs, finding my target, I placed it at its destination and did a small cut. The second the scalpel pierced her skin her chest started rising, she was breathing.
The ponys all watched while I was doing my work.
“How did you do that, no scratch that, what did you do.” cam the question from the yellow stallion.
“Changelings breath in through the holes in the legs, she has Changeling lungs in her body and her skin was blocking the holes”
“So you did make her a Changeling!” the cyan mare throw in.
“No not really from what i can tell…” the rest of what i tried to tell never reached their ears as the sound of an explosion, coming from behind me, rang through the air.
Author's Note
Happy new year!
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Chapter 6: Getting to know each other and preparations
Chapter 6
I swirled around when the sound of the explosion reached my ears, Twilight was awake and looked very angry.
The first thing I noticed were her eyes they changed from the normal pony, to queen-like.
Upon realizing that she was still restrained on the table she emitted a shock wave of purple flames rushing towards me, I shielded myself with a cocoon spell and somehow survived the impact against the wall inside of my shield.
It caught the rest of present ponies completely off guard and as a result they were picked up by the impulse and smashed against the walls.
The still restrained Twilight fought her restrainment a few more seconds while hissing at the audience that was starting to come back to its senses.
After a short while she stopped, and started to closely inspecting her surroundings.
A smile suddenly appeared on her face, and then she simply vanished to reappear a few feet closer to me.
This was not a pony I was facing there was something real off about her, the way she looked around the way she moved and the expression on her face.
No this was not a pony.
In front of me was standing a animal looking for prey and the way it was staring at me it most likely was its next meal.
It pounced at me only to meet a blast to the side from the princess of the sun herself.
It shocked me that she could blast her student so easy but then I remembered that she was more than thousand years old and she most likely already had to do something like that, therefore it was more easy.
The mutated pony came back to its senses and gave an angry hiss at its attacker before throwing itself thru the window, Celestia right after her only that the window was a bit too small so a bit of the wall got destroyed in the process.
The others began to regain their senses and started to get back to their hooves.
Groaning one of the stallions stood up “The time Doctor Stable” he asked while shaking his head.
“Fifty four minutes, she got up earlier this time” said the other one who was rubbing his unlucky flank that caught the landing for him.
“This reaction cannot possibly be the result of the spell we used on her, while I don't know what exactly it was made for, I can tell that the maker surely was not intending to create a rampaging unicorn, that would make no sense” I said while helping the pink one who somehow landed with her head in the wall.
“How can you tell Changeling?” asked the yellow stallion.
“It was made by Queen Minerva who was one of the greatest minds in our history she is known for her work in medicine-e” I said while pulling at the tail of the pony” It simply doesn't-t sound like her-r” with my last pull she finally was out of the wall and the force of the pull was somehow enough to launch her across the room making her bounce of the opposite wall and landing back on her hooves in front of me.
“And my name is Healing Wind so please stop calling me Changeling or bug” my head turned to the pink one while asking “And how can you boce of the wall like that?”
“I duno”
“What do you mean you don’t know you should at least have some explanation!”
“Nope, I just do”
I stared at her and the only words that formed in my mind where, crazy pony.
“Au, how can a body without a soul even move?” The rainbow-maned one asked while she got on her hooves.
Wait no soul?
“Hould right there what do you mean no soul?” I asked while nearly jumping in her face.
“To protect Twilight while we were curing her body we took her soul out of her body” said the yellow stallion.
I had to make sure these ponies were not supply pulling my leg.
I started rubbing my right ear while walking a few steps closer to the stallion “Excuse me it seams I had something in my ear, could you please repeat that”.
He eyed me strangely before repeating slowly “To protect Twilight while we were curing her body we took her soul out of her body”
“Which one of you idiots decided to do that” I screamed out loudly.
A angry voice behind me answered “That would be me”
Well buck.
“Ok, answer me another question do you know what happens to a body without a soul do you know what you created?” I asked holding back my voice a bit, no need to upset her more than calling the princess of the sun, idiot… I am so dead.
“I am sure you will tell me now”
I was still alive, unexpected, but well it wasn't the first time that I opened my eyes after thinking I am dead.
“A body without a soul is a zombie, a body running purely on instincts normally only dead bodies can be zombies but congratulations you have a living zombie running around speaking of which where is the living dead body now.” I explained.
“I lost it when it teleported away, do you have any idea where it could be going?”
I leaned my head no my hoof and started thinking.
“Ok you said a body that runs purely in instincts, what instincts are we talkin about” asked me the yellow stallion.
“I am not so sure myself I would say survival instincts.”
“Ok, what are these, lets count them” he said while starting to go in a circle
“Food” I joined him in his thinking circle
“Shelter”
“Pairing”
“What requires company”
“Both ponies and Changelings are herd animals”
“What means its looks for its kin”
“Its instincts are carrying it where it thinks to finds the herd!” we both said at the same time.
“BOJA” we both shouted while bro-hoofing.
“Doctor Sunny Day my name, nice to meet you.”
“Doctor Healing Wind, pleasure is all mine”
“You two can go on a date later, just tell us where she is heading.” the cyan mare said.
“The body is looking for the biggest amount of Changeling and pony energy in the area, the place where the most ponies and Changelings have ever been together”
“Canterlot!" Celestia said when the realization hit her.
“We should take the pegasus carriage that is the fastest way” the white mare said while looking at the princess.
“Agreed, lets go”
A few moments later i found myself sitting on a golden sky carriage next to me the princess and on the other side the five mares and Doctor Sunny Day, these carriages were quite large.
“So…” I looked at the orange mare next to me “I believe we haven't been introduced, Healing Wind, and you are?” i reached my hoof to her.
“Name’s Applejack” she slowly extended her hoof to shake mine.
“Don’t touch him AJ ore he might do the same thing to you what he did to Twi” said the cyan mare flying in front of me and eyeing me suspicions.
“That is a funny thing to assume” I said “And you are?”
“Rainbow Dash, and why is it funny?” she asked me while narrowing her eyes.
“Because if I even attempt a higher spell than the basics I am dead, that’s why” I said while roling my eyes.
“I still don’t trust you”
“Can’t blame you for that” I answer in return.
“I trust him” suddenly said the pink mare while appearing in between me and Rainbow Dash.
I looked where she was sitting just a few seconds before.
“Thank you and your name is?” I asked a bit confused.
“I am Pinkamena Diane Pie but all call me Pinkie Pie” she said while jumping up and down in front of me.
“And why exactly do you trust him, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well he said he is a Doctor and Doctors are nice” she said like it is the most obvious thing in the world.
“Not all of them are nice and he is a Changeling for Celestias sake” the princess turned her head at the mention of her name, she had to be in deep thoughts.
Rainbow Dash just got red cheeks and smiled at her in innocence.
“Yea not all Doctors are nice but the Doctor is so I trust him” I lost her at this point, and so did Rainbow.
“It’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie ignore it” Applejack said to me.
“And you are” I looked at the white mare next to Applejack.
“My name is Rarity, pleased to meet you” she answered prideful and with a raised head.
“Pleasure's all mine Rarity” I ansvert.
“And you are?” I asked the last mare.
“My name is Fluttershy”
“Sorry didn’t catch that”
“My name is Fluttershy” ok this was getting awkward.
“Sorry what?”
“This is Fluttershy and as the name suggests the poor dear is extremely shy, you being a Changeling is not helping the matter” Rarity answered for her.
The mare in return did her best to hide behind her mane.
“She didn’t had the problem when she tried to use the eyes of fear on me” I commented.
My statement seemed to confuse the ponies around me as the throw questioning looks at me.
“She used the eyes of fear on me and my squad at the marked. It nearly worked”
“Why didn’t it work?” the cyan mare asked.
“If you spend your whole life next to death, after a while simply stop fearing it” I answered.
A longer silence followed my word, broken by the Princess.
“Why do you know about something like zombies, is it common among Changelings to know about them?”
“They were among the things that drove us away from our original home into equestria,” teaching them about some of our history couldn't hurt ”Don’t ask what other things were among them, thinking about them give me a headache and Discord had some very creative ways driving us of”
“So this is another thing that goes on his account” she said, sighing.
The rest of the flight was relative eventless. As we reached The Canterlot market square, the Princess called for her guards and we made ourselves ready for the arrival of the main attraction.
The plaza got evacuated, the guards got in position, and so we waited.
Author's Note
Thanks for 50 favourites, I love you guys.
I decided to go and post the Chapters before the edit as waiting would take simply way to long and I hate to keep people waiting.
Happy new year
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Chapter 2: Tactical meeting and saying goodbye
Chapter 2
My name is Queen Chrysalis and with my last breath I place the „Last Order“ on Twilight Sparkle!
These were the last words that we heard from our beloved Queen before we lost the link to her.
I hung my head low and closed my eyes to give our mother a minute of silence, to give her the last honor, around me twenty Changelings did the same.
After a minute that felt like hours General Drake nudged my side. I looked at him with a empty expression before I took position and stood at attention.
“I will be honest with all of you, if you think it is bad than I can assure you it is worse, but there's still one thing we can do, carry out Last Order” Drake said while he walked around in front of us “Now all of you most likely ask, what is Last Order”.
He paused and looked at us, “Last Order is a very old Emergency protocol that is activated if the survival of the whole species is in danger and was created by Queen Minerva”
With the last word nearly all of us lost their pose and shot looks of disbelief at the General.
Queen Minerva was one of the first Queens since the beginning of Changeling history and her scientific findings in genetics and biology are legendary, a good seventy percent of the knowledge Changelings have about genetics is based on her work, saying her name without respect and gratitude was a sin, and whatever the plan was, after hearing her name many found some hope and looked with expectant faces at General Drake.
“The plan is simple, in Queen Chrysalis' chamber is a secret entrance to a sealed room, inside the room are four vials containing a serum, four of us have to drink it and create a rune circle around the target, activate their magic and the serum will do the rest, we are heading out at T-30 minutes, location, the royal chamber, any Questions?” explained Drake.
“Sir, what is the serum, what are the effects?” asked Shadow, a small Changeling who you could tell with one look wasn't good at fighting, but if there's one thing I never managed to beat Shadow at than it was his speed. He was so fast he created a mach cone at his to speed.
“I have no idea” he said. Many of us looked at him with faces that just screamed 'Are you kidding me? ', but before we could voice any of it he continued: ”History tells that after not leaving her private laboratory for months Queen Minerva suddenly went out, approached her daughter and gave the vials and instructions on how to use them, at the Question as to what the serum did she just answer, 'to never use them except when she has lost all hope for our race at least twice' and that is how it was given from Queen to Queen through the generations”
“Sir, with all respect, you want us to collect ourselves in thirty minutes after a crash over ninety-seven point four miles and launch an attack operation at one of the most important Ponies in the kingdom with one operation cell plus one, we barely have enough magic left for two days we will die from overexertion on the way to the target location, not talking about being able to do force this pony to stand still for the seven seconds we need for the circle and before that take down possible defences she has?” asked Brain.
Brain was not his real name but when you get to know him better you know why the Changelings around him choose this name over his original one, that guy was so intelligent his brain should've already expanded outside of his head and he had the ego of a dragon to back it up. He never passed the opportunity to brag how smart he was and he wasn't the number one strategist in the swarm for nothing.
Many Changelings nodded in agreement but Drake took none of it.
“This may sound stupid but we don't have time to argue about this right now thirty minutes is all I can give you and then we have to move out, we could be the last way for our race to survive” he argued back.
This sounded very wrong to me we still had some love reserves stored in the barracks, why couldn't we use them?
My Eyes went wide when the realization hit me, quickly I performed all medical scan spells that could think of.
Something like a Changeling performing eight advanced medical spells did not go unnoticed by my fellow lings and I quickly had the all the attention and questioning looks at me, the general being the only exception. He looked at me with sad eyes.
I looked blankly at him until the spell sends me back the results.
My face changed from a blank to terrified.
“Eh, Heal... are you ok?” Shadow asked me with a worried tone.
“We can't absorb love anymore...” I whispered.
They all looked at me, their faces filled with more questions and worry than before.
“What you mean, we can't absorb love, stop being ridiculous and tell me what is wrong” he asked again with even more worry in his voice.
“E-exactly what I said. We can't absorb l-love anymore, C-changelings have a passive love absorbing system in their body that runs mainly through our brain, this system only w-works when receiving a auto signal that comes directly from the ruling Queen...” I explained slowly with a cracked voice, the questioning faces slowly turning into shock: ”If we want or not the next two days are our last ones” I said while a tear ran down my face.
It took several seconds for my words to sink in.
Some of us broke down and started crying while others simply sat down and looked to the ground with completely empty eyes.
I looked to my side to see Mimic. The nymph and I were combat buddies since we started at the military, her being the strong front fighter while I watched her back as medic, she has grown to me. I didn’t know if I loved her as more than a friend or what she thinks about me but right then I only wanted to be close to her.
I found her eyes with shock and sadness. We looked at each other for barely a second before she took a short leap forward into my hooves and started crying. The only thing I could do now is to hold her as best as possible and that is what I did while I silently cried myself, tears running down my face.
“You are kidding, please tell this some kind of STUPID JOKE” Shadow half screamed out. His eyes searching for someling to stand up and tell him that he felt victim to most cruel joke he could think of, he looked everywhere, his search stopped when he saw Drake who simply looked back with cold expression.
“BUCK ALL OF YOU. I AM NOT GOING TO DIE LIKE THIS! ” Brain screamed out and took off to his laboratory.
“PROFESSOR WALTER BLACKSHELL, AS YOUR...! ” Drake tried to order him back only to be interrupted.
”DON’T YOU DARE TO LEAVE WITHOUT ME SO SIT ON YOUR FLANK AND WAIT WHILE I USE MY INTELLIGENCE TO SAVE US, SO SHUT IT AND DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE! ” Brain screamed back without turning around.
“Why is this happening, did we not go through enough, why do the gods hate us?” Mimic asked while sobbing into me.
“I don’t know” I slowly answered.
“I know that I am cruel to ask you this now but I want all of you to stand strong, we will not survive long but we can do more than sit and pity ourselves” the general slowly began “I will not force any of you, if you think that you can spend your time better than trying to do something useful for our species go do it, but for all of you who want to go down fighting... thirty minutes that is all I can give you to finish some personal business, after that we are off to get Twilight Sparkle”
Slowly our group started to split apart, me and Mimic stayed Embraced for a while.
“Can... Can I stay with you Heal?”
“Yes”
I slowly stood up and went for my home Mimic close after me, as we slowly approached Spero, the only Changeling town we managed to call home, one hundred fifty-three years old, so young compared to other towns, now dead, empty.
To make sure we that we were able to win the invasion literally everyling went with the invasion force, now they were all dead, the ponies most likely don’t even know they now have about two thousand graves in their hometown, the Changeling force was weakened by hunger and very low on magic to begin with, the hate that they had for us could skin us alive when pointed directly at one of us.
When the force field hit they had no chances, their body quickly tried to repair the kinetic damage using all energy they had left, when the Changeling body has no magic left to use it tries to make its own, what results in burning every cell in our body.
We don’t leave a body, when we die, we fall together into a pile of ashes.
Slowly we approach my destination, a little house with a garden that my family built with me, it was small but cozy.
I stopped in front of the door a little smile appearing on my face.
Opening it I went to the side to let Mimic go in first, she looked at me like she just saw Discord riding on the back of a Queen while dancing.
“I rather go to Tartarus then dropping my good manners” I said while pointing my hooves at the door to ask her in.
She bursted into laughter while going inside.
I went in after her and closed the door. Mimic fell on the sofa still laughing, tears of joy running down her eyes, at least I managed to get her to some joy.
My target inside was a picture, it showed five Changelings smiling into the Camera. My mother, father and my two younger sisters, I was the oldest so it always was on me to protect them. That is what I promised my father on his deathbed, he was a medic like me, he always said:”Soldiers always run into some sort of trouble it is on us, the medics, to get them out of there and make sure they can come back to their beloved ones”.
I held the words clear in front of me when I joined the army, to protect lives, that is what I always wanted.
Mimic who got herself together after her little outbreak sat next to me, watching the picture.
“Your sisters?” she asked.
I nodded “This is Rose” Pointing at the mare to my left “And her name is Lilith” I pointed to my right. “They are twins, both of them are florists” I couldn't bring myself to say that they were florists. ”very skilled ones, they always took care of the Garden when I was away and to be honest the more often I was away the better it looked.”
“What will you do now?” Mimic asked me while I placed the picture back
“I don’t know, it is funny, we were prepared for the end for about one hundred years and now that it is near there is nothing I really can do, except for saying goodbye.” after looking a bit around me I continued “What about you?”
“I don’t really have anyone to say goodbye to” she continued “I was a military breed the only reason I am here is because we needed more fighters.” sadly she looked at me “Is this really all I am good for, to fight and to take lives?”
“We both know that that is the biggest pile of crap you could think of” before she could interrupt me I continued “You are Mimic Storm one of the greatest Changelings I know, ready to throw yourself in the line of fire for someling you barely know, and I had to get you back together often enough to prove that”
“You are the shy Nymph that can go one on one with the best of us, you are not just a fighter you are a Protector, a shield for all of us. I can put them back into one piece if they get hit but you can prevent them from ever getting attacked”
“You don’t really think that I would stick with ‘Just a fighter’ for so long?” I finished after a while looking her straight in her eyes.
“How comes you are always there to sew me back together like that?”
“It is my job, and the best thing I can do.”
“And still, you always do so much more.” she said while closing the little distance between us.
“I always envied that about you, you can heal all my wounds, on my body” her lips coming closer, ”And my soul” barely whispering “That is what I always loved about you”
After thirty minutes we went to the royal chamber for the strategic meeting. General Drake took the lead.
“So let’s save our race!” He loudly shouted out.
“We will need all attacks and defence we have to protect the four lings who carry the package, these four will be Shadow Dancer, Healing Wind, Kane Fire and Blade Wall, you four are the fastest and best with magic we have.”
The four of us went forward to stand next to Drake, who was right in front of Queen Chrysalis' bed chambers.
“The rest will-” Drake started only to be interrupted by the voice of a very angry Brain.
“I TOLD YOU TO WAIT, BUT NOT LET’S LEAVE THE GENIUS PROFESSOR BEHIND! ”
He really loved to brag...
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS BLACKSHELL?! ” Drake shouted out.
“You can thank me later” he said while walking towards me.
Before I could react he showed something into my mouth, I tried to get it out whatever it was but a little punch to on my chin from Brain made me swallow it.
“Brain what in Tartarus do you think you are doing!?” Mimic asked perplexed while walking towards us, that was very unusual behaviour from her so many started staring at her but she paid them no mind as she walked to us.
Brain completely ignored her and ordered me “Check your magic reserves!”
Completely confused and regaining my breath I did what he said.
.
“How in Tartarus did you..?” I tried to ask.
“I AM A GENIUS, THAT IS HOW! ” he screamed out.
I could not believe the readings, my magic was at thirty five percent and when I checked thirty minutes ago I was barely at ten.
Somehow that sick bastard managed to get magic from my stomach into my mana system, that idea alone is so sick that I started to question my sanity for a while, but my medical mind kicked in and I immediately performed all my other spell, Brain just stood there and watched me as if he waited for something to happen.
It was a crystal he shoved into me and not a really small one, ‘wait a minute, that thing is way too large for my throat... IT IS GETTING BIGGER’.
I immediately started to panic “BRAIN WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT THING?! ” while he just stood there and continued watching me.
But before I could really freak out it stopped.
I stood there with a face that screamed murder.
“Huh, you are still alive...”
His scream could be heard over the whole town.
My hoof connected with his face while Mimic gave him a good buck between his hind legs.
“I deserve that” he moaned from the ground.
“You deserve that, YOU DESERVE THAT?! ” I screamed out “I NOW HAVE A FIVE INCH CRYSTAL IN MY STOMACH WHAT THE BUCK WHERE YOU THINKING?! ”
“Well, I needed a test subject for this little thing and you with your medical spells could send me the best results” Brain explained.
My left eye twitches a bit before I jumped at him with the intention to tear his head of.
Lucky for him Mimic stopped me mid air and kept holding me down so I couldn't reach my target.
General Drake just watched us while slowly shaking his head in disappointment.
“We will not be able to even reach the target in the condition we are now, not talking about using any combat magic” Brain started while slowly standing up ” So I used a Uranium Crystal, filled it with magic so that it could push the magic into your system with the radiation, the only side effect is that the Uranium Crystal absorbs the magic that I filled it with and adds it to its owe mass, I can only get about seven percent of the filled magic in our body’s, and how our dear Heal just stated the Crystal has expanded in his stomach and is now five inches large. It is really not a good way but it is the only way we have right now”
“Wait a minute, only seven percent, how much love was in that Crystal Brain?” Blade Wall slowly asked with a worried tone.
“All we had in the barracks” before anyone could interrupt him he continued “And we will need way more for all of us, don’t worry, evrything is already planned, we need the whole town to get magic, small things lamps, switches, transmitters nearly everything that uses magic has a small battery in it, we can use these to fuel the crystals to restore enough energy to make this mission successful and maybe we can find a permanent way after that.”
We all just stared at him, no words left.
“What are you waiting for, we don’t have all night, you can stare at my beautiful face later, spread out get all you can find to my laboratory!”
We lost no time after his explanation and bolted of. I hate to admit it but his plan made sense, but the next time one of us has to go to the bathroom it would be very painfull.
After speeding out in all directions I looked at Mimic at my side, she had a very worried expression on her face. “Mimic?” I softly asked.
“I... I am ok I just remember something important I will meet you at Brains lab, bye!” and she took of.
Weird, well I had a job to do.
I silently gave my prayer to whoever owned this house before breaking into it and staring with my search for anything magic related.
I found a large saddle bag while entering, I emptied it and took it with me so that I could carry my findings better.
After about 2 hours I was fully loaded and went on my way to Brains home, I still found it strange that he lived in his Laboratory.
When I arrived nine Changelings were already there including Shadow, Brain and Drake and they seem to argue pretty bad about something while the rest was whispering to each other.
“How can you even suggest something like that did the ponies knocked out all sense of you with their forcefield” Shadow half shouted at Drake.
“General I have to agree with Shadow, what you just suggested IS MOST LIKELY THE WORST IDEA YOU EVER HAD! ” Brain agreed with Shadow.
“Wow, Brain and Shadow having one and the same opinion, that I see something like that before I die!” I said to myself while landing next to them.
“Then tell me you genius, do you see an alternative, we both know that this was the only way to make this happen the moment you explained your method” Drake answered in a normal voice.
Brain hung his head low while quietly saying: ”You do it, I will not take that burden on my hooves”.
“Brain you can’t be serious!?” Shadow asked in a tone that you would use on a child that just told you it has beat a guard in a magic duel.
“I hate it as much as you do but he is right, there is no other way”
“Just so I don’t feel so lonely on the land of the not knowing Changelings, so can you please explain what is going on?” I asked in a flat tone.
“I can tell you what is going on our general just decided that he will go mass murderer on unborn children!” Shadow said with a tone that made me doubt his words for a few seconds.
“What do you mean by... “ then the realisation hit me, a Changeling egg can only survive if it is feed with a certain amount of magic per day this magic comes from very large battery that is placed in the Hospital. It had three emergency batteries, this system was able to support the seven hundred eggs for good fifty years, it was enough to get us all to about fifty percent, it was the best we could get but the price was obvious, the eggs would die in days. The only reason why I didn’t punch Drake in the face right now it that an egg, while laid by a normal Nymph, needs a Queen to hatch, that said the eggs are doomed anyway.
But that was just wrong, that was how do you excuse something like that how can a soul live with the blood of seven hundred eggs on their hooves.
“General, I can’t agree with that” I silently concluded while looking to the ground, while my mind was telling me that it was to only way.
“No being with a soul can but it is still the only thing we can do, who knows maybe they are in pain because they can’t hatch and we will relieve them from it, it is has be far too long.” Drake said.
We all knew that this was so true but so, so wrongs but we said nothing, Brain gave the crystals and he went off.
Not one ling dared to say one word.
“Hey, sorry it took me so long I was jus... ” I heard Mimics voice.
All Changelings turned their heads to her at the same time.
“What is wrong?!” she asked in a sharp tone.
Before I could answer her Brain stood up, went over to her and started explaining.
At the end she just could stare at him wide eyed, now it was her turn looked at all off us, that she felt victim to most cruel joke that exists, her eyes stopped at mine while silent tears ran down her eyes,
I stood up to comfort her, while Brain went and took all the things we brought on our trips and went inside with them.
After some time Drake returned all the Crystals glowing in his saddlebag.
“One of the batteries was damaged, Changeling shaped hole, most likely someling crashed into it” he explained.
“It still should be enough magic to get us in fighting shape” Brain approached him, taking the crystals and placing one in front of each Changeling present.
After a while the last of us arrived at the location and got their crystal, they didn’t need to know where the magic came from.
Drake slowly stood up, behind him the sun rising: “It is time to save our race!”
Author's Note
I had that Chapter ready since monday but couldn't get contact to my editor, so I hope it is not to bad.
HAVE FUN.
