Chapter one: Discovery

The sun shone brightly over the northern reaches of Equestria on a clear winter day. A gentle breeze carried the crisp and clean air through the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Empire was a  gleaming jewel of green grass and warmer air in the middle of a vast snow-covered tundra. Peaceful days like that day didn't come around all too often, so ponies were out in force. Children ran and played, laughter rising up from the crystal streets. The adult ponies went about their business, going into stores, tending their homes, chasing after a runaway filly, and some even joining in the children's activities.

However nice this day was, it was not such a peaceful time for the Equestrian Army. There had been some increased security out patrolling the empire. An uprising in Changeling controlled territory to the west had increased security measures in place as a precaution. Guards watched over the Empire silently, watching for signs of a possible infiltration by the foreign, love consuming creatures. Patrols regularly scanned the perimeter of the empire's territory. Several groups set out throughout the day, and the last of these groups that day was headed by Coal Dust.

     Coal Dust was a Pegasus from an upstanding family, one with a reputation for being  Coal Dust stood slightly taller than many of the other ponies and was, as the name implies, dark bodied with white splotches on his mane. You could describe him as a workaholic, for he often blew off friends and family whenever he was needed for some sort of job. He had graduated from school in the middle of his class, and worked in a mine for a short time. Soon, though, he left the mine to join the Equestrian Army. He excelled in basic training, and soon went into officer school. Now ranked at a lieutenant, he was out leading patrols multiple times a week.

     Coal Dust's patrol was slated to set out at dusk and patrol into the night. The patrol was headed for the northwestern sector of the empire. They left in a column with Coal Dust on point and the other four following behind. The other stallions in the group, some still quite inexperienced, had a light hearted and easy attitude toward the mission itself. They often lost track of the task at hand, only to be snapped back into place by their leader. The group hadn't gone half of a mile from the gates of the empire when the grunts began cutting up.

     "Watch this," whispered Flash Point, a unicorn, to Gust, an earth pony.

     Flash silently picked up a hunk of snow with his magic and hurled it at Greenfield, another earth pony. The snowball struck him in the right shoulder.

     "What the hell?!" yelled Greenfield. "That had ice in it you idiot!" exclaimed Greenfield  as he balled up some snow to throw back.

       Coal Dust just shook his head. "Knock it off, soldier."

Greenfield chunked a snowball at Flash, but missed him and hit Gust in the nose.

"Ah!" Gust yelped. "It's on now, buddy!"

Gust hurled a snowball at Greenfield, missing him by an inch.

For a moment, all of the soldiers were still, suspense mounting. Suddenly Flash rocketed a snowball at Gust. Snowballs flew. The three grunts all began throwing snow, laughing and whooping it up. Fire Chaser, the fourth grunt, stood idly by. He looked disgracefully at the other three, muttering under his breath. Coal Dust was already fed up with their antics.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" he boomed. The three troublemakers tensed up and stood at attention. "Now there's nothing wrong with having a little fun here and there, but I will not tolerate you three cutting up at every turn! Get your heads in the game, we have work to do. Move out!"

     The other four just nodded in unison, almost robotically. One stallion muttered, "Killjoy."

       The group trudged on through the snow for about another uneventful hour.

     Darkness had fallen by the time the patrol reached their designated sector, so the two unicorns in the group used light spells when searching rocky outcroppings and the like.

The area was a rolling landscape, with ridges and valleys spreading out generally from southwest to northeast. An ankle deep layer of snow on the ground made travel that much more difficult. The group was on the crest of a ridge when Coal Dust noticed a greenish glow off to the west.

       "Kill those lights men, I see something up ahead," said Coal Dust. He squinted to try to see the light better, but to not much success.

       "What do you think it is?" said Gust.

       "We're gonna find out. I said kill those lights Flash Point!" Coal Dust kept his gaze fixed on the distant glow. Flash Point still hadn't aborted his light spell, but now did so quite quickly.

       "Keep it tight, I don't want to lose anyone out here," said Coal Dust, his gruff voice sounding tense.

         The patrol moved down the ridge and across a small frozen stream in the valley floor. When they had climbed to the top of the next ridge, the glow had become brighter and larger. A light snow had begun falling; the green light illuminated the distant falling snow, making it glow much higher into the night sky.

     Coal Dust motioned to the group to continue forward. They wordlessly pressed through the next valley and up to the next ridge. The green glow was bright enough to be visible as a faint illumination on the snow-packed ground.

Coal Dust continued pressing forward into the next valley. At the bottom of the fairly deep depression in the ground, held his team up. The green lights had disappeared behind the last ridge, so before the patrol took action, they formulated a plan on what they were to do. Greenfield, crouching down, was the first to speak.

       "What do you think it is?"

       "It can't be a little tea party sitting there," said Gust sarcastically.

       "Okay game plan, ladies," said Coal Dust. His voice was tense. "I don't have a good feeling about this. There usually aren't just big green glowing areas out here. You all know how to be stealthy, and that we don't get our cover blown is of the utmost importance. We are gonna sneak up that hill. Fan out with about ten feet between you just before the summit. Use any cover you can when you get to the crest. Everyone stay low, only expose enough of yourself to see what the threat is. Stay alert, stay focused, and tread lightly. There may be anything over that ridge." He looked back at his team, "Are you ready?"

       They all nodded to acknowledge that they were ready.

       "Okay, move out."  At the command, the group began their ascent. The climb took a few minutes longer than a normal one, in order to maintain stealth.

       The patrol neared the top, and the noise of buzzing wings was quite apparent now. All five ponies knew what was over that ridge by now, and only curiosity as to exactly how large it was what made them go all the way to the top.

The five ponies fanned out before reaching the top, stopping at the crest of the ridge and hiding behind a few boulders scattered around the summit.

     When they reached the top, not one soldier had his mouth closed for what was below them.

         Stretched out in the small valley below was a swarm of changelings. Changelings had attacked the Empire before, but that had been a small army of around three thousand. This swarm was well over fifty thousand. As far as the eye could see were black, twisted, fanged, insect like bodies moving about on the valley floor. Strange cocoon like structures were piled around in a sort of chaotic organization. The swarm was so big that it could barely fit into the valley. After a minute of shock, the patrol sunk back down below the crest of the ridge.

         "Oh sweet Faust, I've never even heard of a Changeling swarm that big!" whispered Greenfield.

       "Do you think they are moving towards the Empire?" Flash said.

       "What do we do?" asked Gust, in a surprisingly calm manner.

Fire Chaser started crawling back toward the group, unwittingly knocking loose a small group of rocks that started tumbling down the hill.

"We need to high tail it back! We have to warn the King!" said Greenfield.

Coal Dust started to say,"We stay calm, we move quietly, and when we get far enough away, we spr-",

       "SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!"

       The harsh, hissing shriek rang out in the cold arctic air. A changeling sentry had sounded the alarm above, charging its twisted horn up to attack, the horn glowing green.

         "RUN!" Yelled Coal Dust.

         Flash yelled, "I'll hold them off, you all run for it! I'll catch up! GO!"

       Flash Point jumped up and fired his horn at the changeling, hitting it center mass. The sentry fell to the ground dead. The scream had alerted the swarm, and there were two more to replace it in a second. Flash shot those two down, but they were replaced by even more buzzing, hissing creatures. Flash could no longer keep the swarm away and turned to run and catch up with the rest of the squad. Before he could get more than a few steps, a changeling's beam found it's mark.

       Flash was hit in his hind leg, and he fell forward. His leg was horribly injured. In seconds he was covered in changelings, and his screams were muffled out by the beating of insect like wings. The squad watched over their shoulders as their comrade was torn to shreds only a hundred feet behind.

"Flash!" Gust yelled.

"Keep moving!" Coal Dust yelled.

The remaining four ponies shut their eyes and turned away as they ran. The green beams from the gnarled horns of the swarm continually flew past the four remaining ponies, hitting the ground and showering snow and sparks over the squad.

     "Keep moving. Faster!" yelled Coal Dust. His voice had panic in it.

The remaining ponies reached the bottom of the ridge and immediately started running up the next rise. The changelings continued firing, their shots becoming more focused.

A beam hit Greenfield in the back of the head. He yelled out sharply, but was dead before he hit the ground.

       Three left. The rest of the ponies continued running, hooves stinging and lungs burning. Not five seconds after Greenfield went down, Fire Chaser was tackled by a changeling that flew ahead of the pack. He went down shooting his horn, but soon he was completely engulfed. The swarm came down on him like a ton of bricks, biting and kicking at his head. One changeling bit into his neck, severing the jugular. His yells for help slowly faded into the distance and were drowned out by the frantic buzzing of wings.

       Two left. The ridge gave way to another valley. Coal Dust felt solid ice under his hooves. They had just crossed the stream. Coal Dust yelled to Gust, "I think we can make it! Just a little farther!"

The buzzing of hundreds of Changelings was a roar behind the two remaining soldiers. Green beams stopped raining down while the pursuers ascended the ridge, blocking their shot at the fleeing ponies.

"We're losing them! Yes!" shouted Gust triumphantly.

What Gust didn't see was a single Changeling split off from the group and fly ahead to the left side. It was one of the faster creatures in the swarm, flying up alongside of the remaining soldiers. It charged it's dark, gruesome horn.

Gust started to shout, "Go! We're gonna mak- Aaaagh!"

The beam came in from the left, ripping into Gust's side. He stumbled, almost falling. Blood spilled from the hit. Once the changeling knew it had hit its target, it came soaring in, landing on Gust's back and beating him mercilessly. Coal Dust heard the scene happening behind him and leapt at the Changeling. He knocked it from Gust's back, pinning it against the ground. He grabbed its head with his hooves, twisting its head and snapping the neck all in one smooth motion. Gust was barely on his feet a short distance away.

         Coal Dust yelled,"I'm going to have to try to fly us out! It's the only way! Get on my shoulders! Hurry!"

The buzzing was quickly growing louder as the swarm began closing the gap. Shots began raining down again as the swarm crested the ridge behind them.

He gingerly yet hurriedly lifted Gust onto his shoulders. Gust gritted his teeth as he was hoisted up onto Coal Dust's broad back. It was quite awkward, as having a pony draped over your back is not a comfortable thing. With Gust spread over him, Coal Dust spread his broad black wings.

"Ready?" he asked.

Gust nodded. "Go," he weakly gasped.

       The black Pegasus started into a gallop, taking care to keep shocks to his passenger at a minimum. He flapped frantically, lifting off for a second before coming back to the ground. Struggling to get off of the ground, Coal Dust flapped again, shakily lifting off. He soon stabilized himself and climbed to a more comfortable height. His wings were being pushed hard, but not quite to the breaking point. Once in the sky, momentum was much easier to maintain.

       The changeling swarm came across the limp body of their comrade, finding also that the trail went cold. Because of both ponies being dark colored, they blended into the night sky as they flew away. Coal Dust now focused on his flying as he and the gravely wounded Gust sped back toward the Empire.