The Other Draconiquus - Story 2: Bite of the Changeling

Twilight screamed: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as Flash Sentry's mutation into a changeling was completed.

"Yes! YES!" exclaimed Queen Chrysalis, pretending to be unconscious, as she knew she wasn't dying from the moment that L mentioned that he only sprayed deodorant on her. "Now, my newest loyal subject, bite her neck, make her one of us!"

Before changeling Flash could get his fangs close enough to the neck of the mare standing on top of him, L pushed her off him. "No, let me stay with him!" she cried, tears streaming down her face.

"You can't save him, Twilight!" he exclaimed, holding her back. "Run! Just run! Run from him!" He picked her up and ran while carrying her throughout the castle, away from the two changelings.

Changeling Flash began flapping his bug wings, making a buzzing sound, went into the air and was about to chase after them, when Chrissie yelled at Flash, "Stop! Get me out of these first!" Flash flew down to her, and, using his newly grown changeling horn, he sliced open the ropes bonding her. They both then flew off after them.

"Um, excuse me, L," said Fluttershy, going as fast as she could bring herself to go.

"Yes?" asked L.

"I don't mean to interrupt..."

"You're not."

"... or to give Twilight something worse to think about through all of this, but..."

"Do get on with it, Fluttershy. What is it? It sounds important."

"Oh, well, I've never gotten a reaction like that from anypony when I try to inform them of something important before."

"That can't be what you were going to tell us."

"No, it isn't."

"Then what is it?"

"Well, they're changelings, right?"

"That's correct."

"Couldn't they just-"

"Hey, I just realized something," said Twilight, still crying. "Because they're changelings, they can be anyone inside this castle! By leaving then and there, we no longer know who's a changeling and who isn't!"

"That's what I was just going to say," said Fluttershy. "It happens every time."

"Don't worry, all of you," said L. "Although we won't know who Flash is, we will know who Chrysalis is. I've made sure of it."

"How could you have done that?" asked Spike.

"You'll see."

"MMmph mmmurmp mmhmhhhpmm?" asked Pinkie.

L was just about to respond by giving Pinkie back her mouth, when the whole group ran into Changeling Flash disguised as Flash Sentry, along with an undisguised Queen Chrysalis standing next to him. Apparently, while L, Twilight, Pinkie, Spike, and Fluttershy were fleeing from them, Flash and Chrysalis had gone around and captured Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack, and were now holding them as hostages, covering their mouths.

“Surrender now,” said Chrysalis, “or we will make all three of them into changelings right now.”

“Noooo!” cried Twilight.

“No,” said L, pulling out from his coat a strange pastry with a red jelly center exposed. Twilight and the others were looking at him, wondering just what he was thinking, as he held it out to the changelings. “This is my Tardis self-destruct button. My Tardis just so happens to be inside Canterlot Castle at this very moment, down in the ballroom. The explosion it will produce will also blow up all of Canterlot and half of the mountain it rests on. You let them go, or I push this button and we all go up in flames.”

“Whaaaaaat?” exclaimed the others all at once.

“You’re completely mad!” exclaimed Twilight.

“That’s a good thing, too. Otherwise this plan would probably never work."

“You’d destroy us all, just to save these three?” asked Chrysalis.

“You bet your ugly abdomen, I will, Chryssie!” exclaimed L.

“Nopony-!”

“-calls you ‘Chryssie’. Yes, I heard you the first time. I’d stop calling you ‘Chryssie’, but ‘Chryssie’ is so much catchier, simpler, easier to spell, easier to remember, and far more easier to pronounce than ‘Chrysalis’ ever will be. Why don’t you think so, Chryssie?”

“STOP CALLING ME THAT AT ONCE, YOU INFEDEL!” she demanded.

“No, Chryssie,” he said with a smug look on his face. He was getting off on how she was reacting to that nickname. “Chryssie Chryssie Chryssie.”

Chrysalis flung herself in the air, preparing to charge herself at L with the intentions to beat him to a pulp.

“Nuh-uh-uh,” said L, holding out the pastry/button in front of her. “Get any closer to me and I swear I will use it.”

Chrysalis flew back down, and said, “So what are your conditions to make sure you won’t?”

“Release your one hostage, and I will not use it,” he said simply.

“One hostage?” asked Chryssie. “I had three last time I checked.”

“Not anymore you don’t. During that little flight of anger, you allowed two of them to escape, Chryssie.”

Just as L said it, Chrysalis and Changeling Flash were surprised to find that she was no longer holding a tight grip on Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Flash was even more surprised when Rainbow Dash tackled him to the ground, making him release Rarity from his grasp, and then Applejack joined in the fight.

“Your choice was made for you, Chryssie, it seems,” said L. “I guess I won’t have to use the Tardis self-destruct button.”

“Pardon me for asking, darling, but how could that cookie possibly blow us all to horrible teeny tiny bits?” asked Rarity. “I mean, I know you’re a draconiquus, but…”

“It’s a cookie?” asked Chrysalis.

“Uh-oh,” said L.

“Oh, dear,” said Fluttershy. “Rarity, I don’t think he wanted them to know that it was a cookie.”

L gave a nervous laugh. “You don’t say!” he said. He took a bite of it. “Alright, it’s a Jimmy Dodger, and not dangerous at all. It was a lie. A clever lie. It was worth a shot, though.”

“GET THEM!” exclaimed Chryssie.

A bunch of changelings jumped into the room through a window, and attempted to grab a hold of them, but instead the fighting ensues. Next thing everypony knows, there was a whole bunch of everypony, who was in the room, in the room.

About twelve Applejacks bucked each other in the face at once.

Five Rainbow Dashes were inching their way towards two frightened Fluttershys with the intent to pounce and attack.

Four Raritys were hitting on four Spikes (they all fell for it).

Eight Pinkie Pies were firing their party cannons at each other, needlessly redecorating the place and themselves.

Ten Twilight Sparkles were trying to find out which one was the smarter one, by reciting equations with irrational numbers as their solutions.

The only draconiquus L found himself face to face with seven different ponified versions of himself. “You guys should be ashamed to call yourselves changelings!” the draconiquus L told them. The pony Ls looked down at the floor in shame.

Only Queen Chrysalis herself was unchanged, but she herself wasn’t sure why she wasn’t. She was perfectly able to the last time she checked. But for some reason she found herself unable to. She had been wondering about that, but now had some idea as to who was responsible for her lack of being able to change.

It was then that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna walked into the room, and the chaos came to a halt. “What in Equestria is going on here?” asked Celestia. “Oh Faust! L, is that you?”

“You know him?” asked all of the Pinkie Pies, Twilight Sparkles, Rainbow Dashes, Raritys, Fluttershys, Applejacks, Spikes, and pony Ls.

“Well, of course I know him,” she responded. “He’s only just the best ally we have in keeping our planet safe from outside forces. I’ve met him quite a few times before, but not in the order that he meets me, unfortunately. Before we get any further, L, what is going on here?”

L pointed to Queen Chrysalis.

“Oh, not you again,” both her and Luna said aloud.