Change Up

by Jake the Dog

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Tragedy, Adventure
Length: 3517

As the Changelings attempt to rule Equestria once more, the Elements of Harmony must be used one more time. But as the Mane 6 are on break hundreds of kilometers away, who will use their powers?

The Changelings have long waited for the perfect moment to strike Equestria and use it for their own personal gain. Now, as the Mane 6 have gone on break, hours away, it's the perfect time to attack. The only way to stop the Changelings are to use the Elements of Harmony, but who will wield their powers?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-29 17:39:35 UTC

Chapter 1 (Awakening)

The city of Vanhoover was pristine, to say the least. Set below a large crag just outside the city, it was sheltered from the sunrise in the east until the day was almost half over. Perhaps the most distinct feature of the city are the cherry trees that grow ever so tall, providing the city with sweet fruits from summer to late autumn.

But Princess Celestia was not here for the view. She was here for a more indispensable matter. There had been an urgent call for help on behalf of the Mayor, but no description of the problem had been given in the slightest way.

The Princess trotted off the train as it departed from the station. She carefully paced down from the boarding platform and brushed herself off. Then, she advanced to the Mayor's office, located in the bustling city square.

Celestia would have stopped to admire the elegance put into this great city--the two colossal stone fountains that sat directly in the center, the dazzling modern architecture of the buildings, even the sleek shape of the city made it seem perfect.

Too perfect.

In fact, so perfect that it seemed strange, strange enough for her to--

"Excuse me, are you Princess Celestia?"

Celestia turned to face the speaker, and they immediately put their hoof to their mouth. She had a frizzy periwinkle mane that stretched down over one of her eyes. Her body structure was gleaming Maya blue, and she had the image of an hourglass as her cutie mark.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What a dumb ques--"

"No, no, don't be sorry. It's quite alright," replied the Princess. "Everybody makes mistakes," continued Celestia in a distinguished tone. She couldn't help but remember the letter she received from the Mayor. "What's wrong here? With the mayor, I mean."

"Oh, the Mayor. . .she's been acting quite strange lately," replied the filly. "My name's Minuette, by the way," continued the blue haired pony.

"Why, yes. How rude of me! I was in such a hurry that I didn't even ask your name. But please explain more," requested the Princess.

"Oh, sure. I was born on a cherry farm outside the city and--"

"No, about the Mayor."

"Oh. She hasn't come out of her office for days now. We've tried to persuade her to come out but she simply responds with 'go away' or 'I'm busy'. We don't know what to do." Minuette motioned toward the office. "She locked the door. We even tried the back and all the windows on the first floor. This city can't run itself."

The Princess nodded. "It certainly can't. It's been nice meeting you, Minuette,  but I must be going now."

Princess Celestia knocked on the Mayor's office. Sure enough, as Minutte had said, the response was;

"Go away."

The Princess had not given up so early. She was willing to try everything and anything she could, even if it involved breaking and entering.

"It's Princess Celestia," she said, hoping for a more luminous response than before.

"Why didn't you say so?" inquired the voice from inside. "Come right on in." There was a click, and the Princess opened the door.

She had just enough time to admire the exquisite room--expensive-looking paintings, elegant chairs, aesthetic designs on the chairs and desks--before she blacked out.

When she regained conciousness, she was tied to a chair behind a desk. Looking around, there was a tan pony tied up next to her, probably the Mayor. How could this be?

A silhouette emerged from the shadows in front of her. As he/she stepped into the light, Celestia could see that--wait, wasn't the Mayor right beside her a moment ago? She looked to her left. The Mayor was still there, so how could there be two Mayors? Unless. . .

Unfortunately, whatever Celestia was thinking that moment was exactly the truth. There was a plume of black smoke and where one Mayor was standing emerged a sleek, black-bodied alicorn.

Celestia instantly recognized this pegacorn.

Chrysalis.

The Queen of the Changelings.

"Why are you doing this?" demanded Celestia, squirming to get out of her ropes.

"If I put you out of the picture, Equestria will be in ruins with no leader, no hope, and no aid. As satisfying as that might be to watch, that's not going to happen," Chrysalis explained.

"So. . .what is going to happen?"

"This."

In the blink of an eye, Chrysalis transformed into a exact replica of Princess Celestia. "I will now move my army, and we will rule Equestria. You have ten hours until the invasion starts, and in two more, Equestria will be entirely under my control. It will be an entire new inauguration. And it will be 'your' fault. Oh, this is going to be so fun!" Chrysalis hastened for the door, quickly opened it, and then closed it again.

As soon as Celestia was sure she had gone, she used her magic to free herself from the ropes. Then, she darted for the door.

"Psst, hey asshole! You forgetting something?!" retorted a voice.

Then she remembered. "I'll let that little comment slide," she said to the Mayor as she used her magic to untie the authority.

And then she was gone.

Once Princess Celestia was back out in the city square, she was scanning the large crowds for one. . .specific. . .Jackpot. A Maya-blue pony with a blue mane. She quickly galloped towards Minutte, and said two simple words:

"Which way?"

"Saywhaaaa?"

"Which way did she go?"

"What now?"

"Chrysalis."

"Who?"

"Celestia."

"Well, you're standing right there, silly--" She stopped in mid-sentence. "How'd you just come out of there--" she motioned towards the Mayor's office--"if you just went over there?" She pointed to the train station, and they both caught a glimpse of gleaming mane and a sleek, lustrous pink body board the train.

Minutte understood completely. They both started galloping as fast as their hooves could carry them toward the train.

It was too late. The train had already departed from the station and was starting to gain speed. The next train was not arriving for another twenty minutes.

Celestia did what she could. As bad as she felt leaving Minutte there, she took off, gaining speed as she soared through the air. In the corner of her eye, she saw the train. It was fairly far away now, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going for the train.

She was going to warn the others.

Chapter 2 (Warning)

Despite the fact that an all-powerful army of millions was about to invade an entire region, Princess Celestia didn't think the guards should deal with this.

She figured that instead, she should use the Elements of Harmony. But who would use it? Twilight and her friends were hours away; by the time they got here the invasion would have already started. And besides, teleportation spells didn't work from that far away. This was a problem. Celestia needed to find anyone or everyone able to perform a certain action defined by the Elements: Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. She would have to think this through.

A lot.

And that's how she ended up strolling through the marketplace of Ponyville.

After all, she did need to get to the Tree of Harmony. Princess Celestia had sealed all six elements into the Tree of Harmony, where they belong. They could only be retrieved by one of four princesses at any given time. And that's what she was going to do.

Besides, she might as well look for anyone who might qualify for the Element.

She spotted a few people.

Twinkleshine; plausible,

Lyra; somewhat,

Derpy; hell, no,

Golden Harvest; meh.

No one really fit the descriptions of the Elements. At least not yet. She needed to expand her search.

The Everfree Forest. Murky, gloomy, dim, dusky, shaded, sunless, black, dismal (shadowy?). Despite it being all these things, Princess Celestia was not scared of the Everfree; in fact, she used to live in it with her sister.

This was going to be a walk in the park.

Literally.

Through the trees, the Princess spotted her own home. She smiled and thought of all the great times she and her sister, Luna, had shared there. She shook them out of her head. She was on a mission.

Princess Celestia glanced at the time.  10:19 AM. This gave her eleven more hours before the changeling invasion.

The Tree of Harmony gleamed with a bright lights. So bright, in fact, that if you stared into it for longer than five minutes, you would go blind. Give it ten, and you'd go deaf as well, and by fifteen, the magic would be so intense it would reach your heart and you'd be nothing but an outer carcass. But the Princess had only been there for two, not like the magic would effect her anyway. Her's was strong enough to cancel it out so it gave no effect at all besides the occasional hallucination at the hour mark. Not that she would be there for an hour. She needed to get this over with quick. She took a deep breath.

Her hand collided with the center of the tree. The six-pointed star, or Twilight's cutie mark. She winced as energy rushed through her body, up through her arm, through the trunk of the tree and down to the roots. The lights of the tree flickered, and the Elements of Harmony clattered on the ground. Princess Celestia picked them up, and stored them in the glass case designed specifically for carrying all six of the Elements.

She needed to take them back to Ponyville quick.

But she needed to take care of one thing first.

"The food was great, thank you," said Twilight, as she handed her plates and utensils to the waiter.

"It most certainly was!" inclined Rarity. "If this place wasn't so far away, I would come here every day! Ooh, but then I would get fat. I don't like fat. If I could eat here every day without it being so far and not getting fat I most certainly would. Perhaps the burnt calories from the very long walk would make up for what I ate. Yes, I assume so. Oh, but then I would get dirt on my hooves. And I would get sweaty and hot. That would make me ugly! On second thought, I don't want to eat here everyday." She rambled on and on and on, but not before Spike let out a giant belch, echoing throughout the entire resterant.

"Spiiiiiike!" scolded Twilight, with a sigh of disbelief.

"That wasn't from eating the food," Spike assured.

"Spike, don't lie." Twilight crossed her hooves and looked at him. "Just say 'excuse me' or 'sorry' for ruining all these ponies appetites."

"No, I'm being serious," Spike said truthfully, holding up a letter.

"A letter? From the Princess? Can't she see we're all on vacation?" said Applejack.

"It must be important," Twilight said. "She said she wouldn't send anything unless it was, like, life threatening." She opened the letter and read it aloud.

My faithful student Twilight Sparkle and friends, I've come to inform you of an. . . incident that happened earlier today. The Changelings are back and are about to strike all of Equestria. . . don't worry about getting back, it'll take you too long and besides, I already have the Elements of Harmony with me. I just need to find the right ponies for the job. . .somehow. Just warn the others in Manehatten and do it fast. You and I both don't have much time so we sure need to do this quick.

Regards, Princess Celestia

There was a bit of exchanged emotions between them.

"This is bad," Twilight said.

"Not good," Applejack agreed.

"Awesome!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Horrifying!" weeped Rarity, being the drama queen that she is.

"Oh, my," said Fluttershy, quietly.

"PAR-TAY!" screamed Pinkie.

"Shut the fuck up, Pinkie," everyone else said at once.

They needed to get back to the city and warn the other ponies in it. Fast. They dashed out of the restaurant without paying their bill and dashed into the city of Manehatten to warn the ponies of the coming danger.

At least she had gotten that message out. Now she had to find the next step to her plan.

Princess Celestia needed to think for a little bit. She sat down beside the stump of a tree, and laid her head against the trunk. Then, after laying the box next to her, she closed her eyes. A small plan was forming in her head.

Yeah, she had to find the ponies, but how? There simply wasn't enough time to round up everypony in Equestria and take each and every one of them into a room and interrogate them. She would have to wait things out, but not for too long. She wanted enough time to track down Chrysalis. Yes, that's what she would do.

She opened her eyes.

And when she looked to her left, the Elements of Harmony were gone.

Chapter 3 (Found)

This is a problem. No, this is a HUGE problem. The Princess tried not to panic, but she couldn't help herself. She had to find who took them, why, and what they were planning to do with it. She started pacing frantically, trying to come up with a reasonable solution to this problem.

She could not. She sighed, and sat down once again. She needed more time to think this through.

Chrysaslis probably tracked me down and took them so I wouldn't be able to use them against her. . .she's obviously planning to destroy them or lock them away in a place nopony dared to look. . .how could I have let this happen? I shouldn't have gone to Vanhoover at all. . .No. I can't think that way. Clear mind. A cleeeeear mind is what I need right now. She sighed, and began to meditate.

Then, Princess Celestia heard some giggling behind a tree in the orchard, disrupting her meditation. It sounded like a child's laugh. . .hopefully. If it wasn't. . .

And so, as everypony knows, curiosity killed the cat.

She quickly galloped to the tree and looked behind it, expecting the worse. But the worse never came. Why? There sat three little ponies: Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetiebelle. . .and saw the Elements of Harmony with them.

"Girls!" scolded Princess Celestia. The three small ponies bowed their heads. "Do you have any clue what those things are?" questioned the Princess.

They gulped.

"Yes," replied Sweetiebelle.

"Yes," continued Scootaloo.

"No," said Applebloom, honestly.

"Yeah, we don't either. . ." agreed Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle in unision, feeling guilty.

"They're the Elements of Harmony," explained the Princess. They have been used for good for thousands of years, and would be deadly if they fell into the wrong hooves. What, um, exactly, were you planning to do with these?"

"Um, nothing," replied Sweetiebelle.

"Yeah, uh, nothing!" continued Scootaloo.

"We're trying to get our cutie marks in dressing up dolls," said Applebloom, honestly.

"Yeah, we were. . ." agreed Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle in unision, feeling even more guilty.

An idea began to take shape in the mind of Princess Celestia. "You girls. . .wouldn't mind. . .helping me with something, would you?" asked Celestia.

"She's going to lock us away!" screamed Sweetiebelle.

"Throw us in a pit and lock us away!" continued Scootaloo.

"We'll be fine," said Applebloom, honestly. "Yes, Princess Celestia. Whatever you need, we'll do it.

Now she just knew it would work. It had to. It was their last chance at defeating Chrysalis. And Princess Celestia was going to take it.

"Now," commanded the Princess, "put this on." She handed Applebloom the Element of Honesty. It began to pulse with light, brightening the area around them significantly.

It had worked. The Princess smiled, her perfect teeth gleaming in the afternoon light. One down, five to go. And a little bit more than ten hours. At this rate, the Princess would find the remaining bearers just in time for the invasion to start. . .at least enough to ambush the changelings.

Once again, the gears in Princess Celestia's head started turning. She knew exactly how to find the people who qualified for the other elements. At least one more, anyway. Along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she headed off into the Everfree forest to find Zecora.

Despite all the Cutie Mark Crusaders' attempt to persuade Celestia to get the hell out of there, it didn't work. They were scared the whole way and definitely showed it. It was just a quarter mile walk, though, so it. . .wasn't. . .that. . .bad. . .

As soon as Princess Celestia, along with the CMC, reached Zecora's hut, they let themselves in to find Zecora brewing up a potion.

The hut wasn't all that big. It was circular, and ingredients for potions lined the walls. In the center of everything sat a black cauldron, currently bubbling with. . .whatever Zecora had added. There were also quite a lot of relics, probably from her homeland. It was just a place that made you feel good on the inside.

Then, Zecora finally spoke.

"Ah, Princess Celestia and the CMC, why exactly have you come for me?" questioned, being careful to rhyme the words as she always did. It was a habit that wasn't easy to break, and besides, it wasn't exactly a bad habit either.

"We've come for your help," explained the Princess. The changelings are about to take over all of Equestria, and with Twilight Sparkle and her friends out of town, there is no one to use the Elements of Harmony. That is what I am trying to figure out, who is supposed to bear what." She paused, waiting for a response from the zebra.

"I think I know what you will need,. You'll use this in order to succeed. I do not dare to use it myself, the result would be tragic. It only responds to alicorn magic." Zecora took a potion off the shelf. It was purple, and contained by a triangular-shaped vial. It looked quite delicate. She placed it carefully on the edge of the cauldron. "Twilight has used this in the past, to free us of this forest's grasp. Using black magic will make it shine, so use white magic and make it divine."

Zecora picked the potion back up, and handed it to Celestia. "Princess Celestia, you can turn the potion from purple to haciendas. Wait, no, that's not right. Hm. Let's try that again. Princess Celestia, you can turn the potion from purple to influenza. Not right either. . .huh. How about, Princess Celestia, you can turn the potion from purple to. . .mozzarella? YA KNOW WHAT?! FUCK IT. PRINCESS CELESTIA, YOU CAN TURN THE POTION FROM PURPLE TO MASCARA. GOOD ENOUGH. Now, shall we continue? I have a library book I need to renew.

The Princess drank the potion. From anypony else's perspective, her eyes would be as white as, well, white, but she could see the future. She would also be shaking like mad, and anything she said during that small timeframe would simply just be a small mumble to everypony else. And. . .and then she saw something.

She saw. . .Scootaloo. She was carrying the rest of the six elements, being confronted by a small group of changelings. It looked as if the invasion had just started; buildings were starting to burn, changelings scaring off civillians.

"Hhhanddd overrr the elementsss," the changelings hissed. "Nooopony willll get hurrrt."

Scootaloo looked scared. Out of nowhere, she opened one eye. "Repeat your last," she commanded.

"Hhhanddd overrr the elementsss, and nooopony willll get hurrrt! Nowww give usss the damn elementsss already," they demanded, impatiently. The changelings tried to appear tall, but their small bodies kept them from doing so. They wouldn't have scared Scootaloo anyway, though. Why?

"No! I won't! All you are is a big group of meanies! I know you'll keep hurting ponies because you've done it before. Elements or no Elements, we're still going to beat you. Applebloom, here! I'm going to go deal with this!" Scootaloo passed the Elements to Applebloom, and then Princess Celestia regained conciousness.

"I know who the next Element goes to," cried Princess Celestia. If she was correct, that would be two in less than an hour! Well, of course she was correct. Who else would it go to?

"Thank you for all your help, Zecora!' the Princess added.

"You're welcome, Princess Celestia. Consider wearing a pull-up bra." But by the time Zecora had finished that sentence, they were already long gone.

Apparently, the trip back was more scarier than the trip to. Sweetiebelle wet herself and Applebloom was in such shock she dug a hole more than five hooves deep.

Back in Ponyville, Princess Celestia took it out of the case and snapped the Element of Loyalty onto Scootaloo's neck.

It started pulsing.