An Interrupted Meeting

Twilight

Chairs skidded on the floor and heads turned to the back of the room, their guest had arrived. He was accompanied by a nurse, who helped him stand as his right arm and part of his body were in a simple cast and sling. Shining Armor did a basic job of describing him, but in person, "a white unicorn" didn't carry enough meaning or description.

He was indeed a pure white unicorn with a short gray mane and tail, but Shining Armor probably didn't have the time to notice other details. His eyes were light, silvery gray, carrying almost no emotion except for the slightest trace of sadness. He didn't wear any of his armor, but his front hoof-guards remained. He was several inches taller than anyone in the room except the Princesses. Twilight could tell he was lean, but also solid and strong.

The room was completely silent, the nurse started helping the unicorn limp forward, favoring his left hoof. The unicorn looked around at the hall as he was walking, his eyes taking notice of every single detail and summing up those he could see in the room. He came inside the ring of chairs and stood in the middle, the nurse close at hand. Shining Armor and Flash, as any soldier would, also summed up their guest. As he turned to face the Princesses, Twilight also noticed another detail, he had no cutie mark, which puzzled her.

As soon as the unicorn saw who was sitting on the throne, his eyes widened and he attempted to bow.

"Forgive me, your majesties, It is an honor to be in your presence. No pony outside of this kingdom and its allies have seen any alicorns for millennia, we thought they had all died off."

Died off? Twilight thought, why? Were there once lots of other alicorns? She was eager to hear everything this unicorn could tell them.

"It is alright, there never were many alicorns after..."Celestia paused, as if she was going to tell something, but quickly decided not to. She cleared her throat,

"I take it you are the one who assisted Shining Armor and his patrol at the Western Border, correct?"

"Correct."

"May we have your name and where you herald from?"

"Certainly, your majesty. I am Gleaming Blade, and I come from Lumos, the Kingdom of Light."

The name seemed to ring a bell with Celestia, although Twilight had never heard of this 'Kingdom of Light' before.

"Can you give us any more information about the incident at the Western Border and the creatures who were there?"

"If you do not know already, I believe I can. Your patrol encountered a scouting party of Inferno Stallions, you are right to not call them ponies, as they are mindless pawns of their creator. They are evil creatures with only one desire, and one mind. I have spent the last few years fighting them and the like."

These things sound nasty enough, Twilight thought to herself, but who is their creator? He said something about them all having one mind. She hoped her questions would be answered.

"Have these creatures been attacking Lumos, your home?"

Gleaming Blade nodded,

"Indeed, they started a war several years ago with Lumos,"

"And what of Lumos now?"

"The war destroyed my kingdom," Gleaming Blade sadly, "I am one of the two only survivors."

Celestia seemed suprised and a little bit grieved to hear this, had she known this kingdom before? Twilight guessed she would be sad to hear that it had been destroyed if she had known someone there too. But how had Celestia known this kingdom before?

"Do you know the identity of their creator?"

This time Gleaming Blade seemed surprised to hear her question.

"Yes, I do. Several months after the war started he appeared," Gleaming Blade shivered at the thought, "And when he did, we knew the rumors, legends, and myths were true. I will tell you this, for I fear of speaking his name out loud. He survived, He has found a host, and He has started again. I expect that you and your sister alone will know who I am speaking of,"

Celestia gasped, and the two Princesses looked at each other in silent conversation. Then she turned back to the circle of chairs. Princess Celestia was about to speak again, when Gleaming Blade suddenly looked around the room, then closed his eyes and sighed deeply. What was he doing? Her question was soon answered, he opened his eyes again and then spoke out loud, but to no one in particular.

"Would anyone like to step outside for a while? I don't think a throne room is the right time and place, and keep in mind there are several young mares in the room."

What is he talking about? Twilight thought, again, her question was soon answered, and afterwards she was grateful that Gleaming Blade had been in the room. Suddenly, with lightning speed Gleaming Blade turned around, the hoof guard on his left arm straightening into one of the silver blades Shining Armor had described as his arm arced around his head, coming down in a powerful slice, releasing the blade. The sword spun through the air vertically, impaling the guard closest to Princess Celestia, who had jumped toward her, spear ready. The sword went completely through, pinning his body to the wall several feet off the ground. His spear dropped to the ground and he went limp.

Shining Armor and Flash Sentry sprung to their hooves, why had one of their guards tried to assault the Princess? Everyone stopped and stared at what was happening to the body on the wall. Green flames erupted around the gray pegasi, and when they faded, he looked completely different. His skin was black, his eyes were green, holes dotted his arms and legs, his wings turned from gray feathers to green bug-like ones, and two fangs hung down from his top row of teeth. Changelings

Suddenly, similar green flames surrounded over half the guard in the room, coming out as changelings decked out in golden armor and wielding spears. Twilight panicked, leaping off of her chair and turning around to face the changelings around them. Purplish-red magic lit up her horn. Real guard members found themselves surrounded by changelings, several of them fell before they all retreated to form a semi-circle around everyone else.

Shining Armor and Flash picked up helmets and spears from behind their chairs, heading to the front of their defensive line. Gleaming Blade shrugged off his sling, the nurse accompanying him raised an eyebrow questioningly, still concerned about her patients.

"Don't worry, I heal quickly." he said reassuringly, he raised his left hoof and his sword flew out of the wall and spiraled back to its hoof-guard shape on his arm. He stood up on his hind legs, flicking both arms downward. His twin silver blades shot down, it was time to fight and defend.

The changelings launched an attack, charging with spears and flying overhead. The pegasi flew up to meet them, while the unicorns, earth-ponies, and alicorns stayed on the ground. They were pretty evenly matched, since both races now had golden armor, spears, magic, flight, and strength. But the changelings could take energy and power from their opponents emotions, and lately, there was a surplus of fear and surprise, the Guard were being quickly overwhelmed.

That is, until those behind them joined the fight. Rainbow Dash flew overhead at blinding speed, dazing changelings and knocking them out of the air. Applejack kicked with her strong hooves and dodged attacks. Pinkie Pie somehow had her party cannon...How does she do that?! And Fluttershy and Rarity cowered behind everyone else. Flash Sentry and Shining Armor were fighters, leading the shaky defensive line. Twilight, Cadence, Luna, and Celestia wielded powerful magic, being alicorns.

But the most interesting one to watch fight was Gleaming Blade, he ran on his two back legs, flipping and spinning around with his twin swords like a deadly hurricane.

Twilight leaned to the right, dodging a spear and then took flight, blasting several changelings out of the air with her magic, and then dove, firing magic bolts as quickly as she saw and enemy. She felt good, like old times, to be back having an adventure, but, still, she kinda felt...tired. Too late, she realized what was happening. She weakly fluttered to land, her energy and happy emotions literally draining from her. A changeling stood not too far from her, breathing in deeply as green energy flooded from her to the changeling. She saw the look in his eyes, now he was more powerful, he had absorbed her magic, energy, and emotions for the time being. An even better, it came from an alicorn, which just gave him more power.

Twilight realized that this was happening all around her, guard falling to the ground as they were drained, the changelings growing in power. Someone dragged her backwards, she looked up at Shining Armor, determined to protect his sister. He clutched his spear tightly and leveled it at the approaching line of changelings. She noticed others around her in a loose group, Flash, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and all the Princesses. All the guard were barely moving on the ground, drained of their energy and emotions.

But wait, where were the others? Twilight looked around frantically, some of her strength returning. There! Three of her friends were trapped at the back of the room. Pinkie Pie sat alone, looking defeated and depressed. When she saw that her mane was completely flat Twilight realized what had happened, the changelings had drained all of her happiness. Rarity and Fluttershy squeezed into the corner, several changelings closing in. No!

As Twilight watched, struggling to stand, a very interesting thing happened. As one of the changelings got close enough, Fluttershys eyes suddenly glazed red, tufts grew out of her ears, her feathers melded into leathery wings, and fangs grew from her mouth. Flutterbat jumped at the changeling, her fangs coming down on their neck. The changeling was even more surprised than Twilight. Green light faded from the changelings eyes, and the energy they had absorbed from other ponies went to Fluttershy. The drained changeling slumped to the ground and Fluttershys vampiric features vanished. When she returned to normal, even she was shocked at what had happened, the other changeling backed up slowly, joining the main group.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stepped forward, facing the advancing line.

"How dare you attack Canterlot!" Celestia yelled, rearing back and then coming down hard, sending out a wave of yellowish-white magic that knocked all of the changelings across the room. The changelings stood back up, smiling. Why weren't they hurt?  Celestia was surprised for a second, and then resumed her angry and determined stance. Then it came to Twilight, they had become so powerful they could withstand and maybe even defeat the magic of the Royal Sisters, as Chrysalis had once done. But wait...what had stopped her? She remembered, hope springing back into her mind.

"Shining Armor! You remember how you and Cadence defeated Chrysalis at your wedding?"

The memory dawned on both of them, and they went to the front of the group. Cadence started the simple spell, touching horns with Shining Armor. Then the spell reacted, growing exponentially in power and size as it began to be powered by their love for each other. A pink shield of magic started at the couple, shaped like a heart and writhing with magical flames. Then it started to expand outward, heading rapidly for the cowering changelings at the other end of the room. Fear sparked in some of the changelings eyes as they remembered this particular spell.Yes! It was going to work! Twilight smiled, once again on her hooves as she recovered from being drained. And then their hope was literally shattered.

The doors burst open at the end of the room and a blackish figure jumped in front of the oncoming shield, which exploded upon contact with them, sending out a shock-wave and breaking into small magical shards. Twilight was knocked down again as the shock-wave of the explosion reached them. She stood back up, taking in the scene before her.

The black figure was a changeling, but it wasn't at the same time...It was much taller than a changeling, and it's skin was tinted a very dark red. It's horn was longer, almost like an alicorns. And it had the usual holes in its limbs like normal changelings. But the biggest difference of all was fire, it's mane, tail, and wings were all made of it. It stood sideways and on it's back legs, one arm straight out, flames curling off of their skin. Another figure walked up beside them.

"Very, very good." they said, "Eventually you will get even better at controlling your new power,"

It was hard to tell what they were, since a black cape and hood covered most of their features. All Twilight cold see of them were their front legs, muzzle, horn, and eyes. Eyes. She shivered, their eyes were pure glowing white, and strangely disturbing in a way, as if they could see into her thoughts. Their hooves and muzzle were gray-and-white striped...wait a minute, a zebra?! No, it couldn't be, they had a gray horn poking out of the top rim of their hood. But...could it? Both of the new arrivals were strange, reminding Twilight of things she had seen before and completely throwing her off in other places.

The hooded zebra looked over and pretended to finally notice the ponies in the room,

"Why, hello, Celestia! I hope we didn't disturb anything, i'm just training our new recruit. And in case your wondering, this was all just a distraction." they said, smiling and pointing out one of the large windows. The hooded zebra had a very sassy, sarcastic attitude.

Twilight quickly turned to stare out of the window, where she saw changelings amid the city, running and flying out of Canterlot. They released all the changelings that were in the prison! Twilight realized.

"Well, ta-ta! We'll have to be going now, hope you enjoy the mess we made!" The zebra and all the changelings turned to leave when several loud, commanding and rather angry voices rang out. They had finally realized what was happening and unfroze.

"STOP RIGHT THERE RAVENUS!!!"

"WE COMMAND YOU TO HALT!!!

Twilight recognized the voice of Gleaming Blade, although she had never heard him angry before. He was followed by Celestia and Luna, who were also very enraged. The hooded zebra, or 'Ravenus' as Gleaming Blade had called him, actually turned around, looking more annoyed like he had better things to do than intimidated. Ravenus sighed,

"What is it? I have a very tight schedule, you know."

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Gleaming Blade started marching toward him, Twilight and the others followed.

"How dare you openly attack the capital of Equestria! Do you have any idea who we are!?"

"Yes, I do actually. You are Celestia and Luna, daughters of-"

"Enough!!! You have invaded Canterlot and violated our borders!"

Princess Celestias horn pulsed with magic as her anger increased,

"Pfft! Like I care." the zebra said sarcastically. That was it, the temporary peace snapped. Princess Celestia blasted magic for all she was worth toward Ravenus. He looked surprised for a second, then the enormous ray of yellow magic hit him. The magic froze in place, forming into a large ball of swirling energy. And then it started to shrink. Ravenus was standing up on his back legs, compressing the ball of magic with his front hooves, gritting his teeth and limbs shaking. Once it was small enough, the ball dispersed into a small wisp. Ravenus relaxed his hooves, sighing. Then he rolled his neck and resumed speaking. His tone was much more serious than before.

"I underestimated you, Celestia, you have grown more powerful than we had initially thought,"

Twilight's mouth was hanging open. How had he done that?!! Princess Celestia was the most powerful magic wielder she had ever known! Ravenus snapped his head back to them, and he smiled. He breathed in the small magical wisp that was left of Celestia's spell.

"But WOW, what a rush!" Ravenus exclaimed, opening his arms. Celestia's magic blast reappeared, but it was...red. The magical ball erupted back into existence, large, dark, and menacing. It blasted back toward Celestia, did he absorb her spell?!

Everyone dived out of the way, the blast shot forward and destroyed the thrones at the other end of the room, flinging burnt debris and aftershock everywhere, leaving a smoking, black crater where the thrones and dais once were. And when Twilight looked back up, the changelings and Ravenus were gone.

Twilight coughed as she stood back up, the air was heavy with a burnt smell and a combination of ash and smoke. Everyone looked around at the destruction caused by one spell from a very strange zebra, and the power of the spell wasn't even his. The fiery changeling perplexed her too, as well as all of the other changelings disguised as members of the guard, how long had they been that way?

Ponies rushed in from the double doors, plenty of guard and medics, explaining the situation outside and asking what had happened in here. Twilight looked around, how had all of this happened so fast? Who were those ponies? She concluded that she needed to talk to Gleaming Blade personally, but before she could ask him, the Royal Sisters were already walking out with the mysterious white unicorn.