Several days passed and Davros slowly opened his eye. It took him a moment to adjust it to the darkness inside his shell, and he blinked repeatedly. The first thing on his mind was get his traveling machine running again to in order to find out what is going on. Then his memory came back to him. Chrysalis had been stabbed by a unicorn assassin, though moments later he managed to choke and snap the assassin’s neck…then darkness. Once his casing was activated he could see that he was in an unfamiliar room, it was much better looking then his. Davros attempted to get off of his bed, but his movements were a little jittery from the machines lack of use the past couple of days. Slowly but surely, he regained control and left his room. Davros made his way to the atrium where Chrysalis would usually sitting upon her throne, she wasn’t.

“It seems you are finally awake your highness.” Soulweeper yelled out from behind. Davros turned around to see his brother with a small that could have been genuine, if it wasn’t for the sorrow in his eyes.

Davros decided ignored it, “HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN INCAPACITATED?”

“For about five days, I’m not surprised; you’ve always been very strong willed your highness.” Soulweeper replied, Davros started to get suspicious of Soulweeper’s low speaking tone and how he kept saying ‘your highness’ to him. He started to fear the worst.

“WHERE IS THE EMPRESS?”

Soulweeper’s attitude changed immediately from a sorrow-like calmness to slight panic, he began to look at any other direction besides at Davros.

“AS I SAID, WHERE IS QUEEN CHRYSALIS?!”

“Oh um…I’m sorry Davros, but…I have to get going somewhere…many duties to perform and stuff…well bye.” before he could get away Davros fired a the door, putting a good size hole in it, the crackling pops of burning wood stopping Soulweeper in his tracks.

“YOU WILL ME WHAT IS GOING ON, EXPLAIN…EXPLAIN…EXPLAIN!!!!”

Soulweeper looked around to realize that there was no escape from the angry dalek, “Your leadership…Davros, I want to tell you, really I do , but I’m afraid of what will happen if I do!”

“YOU WILL TELL ME NOW OR BE—“ Before Davros could finish speaking he heard the creaking of wood and craned his next to see what the cause was.

A changeling guard stood at the door on the other end of the hall, his dark skin paled with fear and shock. Apparently, both Davros and Soulweeper had heard him and turned to face the changeling.

“YOU, COME FORTH, NOW!” Davros asked with impatience in his voice.

The changeling walked over towards the two before stopping when he was with a foot or two from Davros.

“YOU WILL GIVE ME THE LOCATION OF OUR LEADER!!”

The changeling hesitated before answering, “What do you mean your highness, you are our leader?”

All the anger in Davros was momentarily consumed by complete confusion, “I DON’T UNDERSTAND, EXPLAIN?”

“Y-you are our new l-leader sir! Q-queen Chrysalis is d-dead!” the Changeling stuttered.

“WHAT?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE NEVER REACHED HER HEART?” the new Changeling King demanded an answer.

“An investigation indicated that the blade never touched the heart, but it did puncture a vital artery near it! Within the short time she had been unconscious, she had bled out! By the time the sages got to her she was already dead!” the messenger answered.

“I…WAS UNCONSCIOUS WHEN SHE DIED?” Davros mumbled as he stared at the tiled floor.

“It would appear so, my king. Might I say, I am quite glad you are feeling better!”

“NO!” Davros shouted with an echo that rose to the rafters, “NO! THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF I REACTED SOONER!”

“Davros, I'm sorry, none of us could have kn—” Soulweeper tried to comfort him.

“QUEEN CHRYSALIS…MY EMPRESS…IS DEAD! I WAS WEAK…I SHOULD HAVE REACTED SOONER! I SH—!”

“Davros…what has happened cannot be reversed. But this guard seems to have important information.” Soulweeper stated, and he was right, the guard looked as if he had been running for some time, he probably had reports concerning the war.

“REPORT!”

“Your highness our scouts have spotted a small army of townsponies being led by Princess Twilight Sparkle, they are heading towards one of our outpost as we speak.”

Davros took a moment to absorb this new information, “GIVE ME SPECIFICS.”

“The outpost is a camp called Vineheart that consists of two Centuries on the beaches of the Summer Coast, it has a wooden wall surrounding the camp with a trench in front of it. It is estimated that the enemy will reach the outpost sometime tonight.” the guard replied.

“GOOD, YOU ARE DISMISSED,” the guard turned to leave and Davros again focused on Soulweeper, “SOULWEEPER, I ORDER YOU TO GATHER ALL HIGH-RANKING OFFICERS TO MEET ME IN THE WAR ROOM.”

=====

The war room was in the shape of a circle and was no less luxurious than the rest of the castle. A raised, circular map made of some odd mineral stood at the center of the room. In terms of height, the circular map stood even with Davros’ midsection. Davros, Soulweeper, and eight other Changelings stood around the circular map. Soulweeper had explained to Davros that the map was made of a clay-like material that allowed it to be used over and over again just by reforming the clay.

“OFFICERS, AS YOU KNOW, WE HAVE A SITUATION. A GROUP OF ONE-HUNDRED PONIES, LED BY TWILIGHT SPARKLE ARE HEADING TOWARDS THE SUMMER COAST OUTPOST. THEY CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO TAKE THE OUTPOST. THEREFORE, I AM PLACING MY GUARD, SOULWEEPER, IN CHARGE OF A TASK FORCE OF TWO ALTURS. THIS TASK FORCE WILL EVACUATE THE OUTPOST, IN WHICH WE WILL REPLACE EVERY SOLDIER WITH FALSE ONES. ONCE THE ENEMY ENTERS THE ENCAMPMENT, WE WILL SURROUND THEM, THEN EXTERMINATE ALL OF THEM EXCEPT FOR THE ONE KNOWN AS TWILIGHT SPARKLE,” The group looked over the plans before hear the sound of Davros opening a secret compartment inside the lower section of his casing, within the compartment lay two objects, one was a metallic cylinder and a small cone like shaped with even smaller spheres on it. “SOULWEEPER TAKE THESE TWO, ONE IS A GENETIC PROGENITOR AND THE OTHER IS A MICRO GENETIC REGENERATOR, YOU WILL GATHER THE SCIENCE STAFF, HAVE THEM USE THEIR MAGIC TO POWER THE GENETIC REGENERATOR IN WHICH YOU WITH PLACE THE PROGENITOR INSIDE IT.” Davros stated as Soulweeper took both items.

“What do they do your highness, are they some form of weapon?”

“IN A SENSE, THEY WILL RECONSTRUCT DALEK DNA AND TRAVEL MACHINES FROM SCHEMATICS WITHIN MY DATA-BANKS, ONCE COMPLETE THEY WILL FOLLOW ORDERS FROM BOTH CHANGELING OFFICERS AND MYSELF.” Davros replied as the other officers tried to comprehend what he was ordering.

“What do you mean your leadership?” asked one of the brave officers on the other side of the map.

“YOU ALL KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM ORDERING TO BE DONE, SOMETHING I SHOULD HAVE DONE DAYS AGO, THE RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS! AFTER WE CAPTURE TWILIGHT SPARKLE WE SHALL RECLAIM THE CITY OF EBONY, WHICH WAS LOST EARLY ON IN THIS WAR FOR THE CHANGELING/DALEK EMPIRE! FORT GRIM AND FORT ICE WILL EACH SEND A MILLENNIUM OF TROOPS TO GATHER OUTSIDE OF EBONY. ANOTHER TWO MILLENNII OF TROOPS WILL BE SENT TO THE STAGING AREA FROM THE CAPITAL. IN TOTAL, FOUR THOUSAND CHANGELING SOLDIERS WILL BE PARTICIPATING IN THIS GRAND SIEGE. SINCE THE HEAVY ARMOR AND WEAPONS OF OUR SOLDIERS RESTRICT THEM FROM FLIGHT, WE WILL HAVE TO CREATE A SQUAD OF LIGHTLY-EQUIPPED SOLDIERS THAT WILL SNEAK IN AND OPEN THE GATES FOR OUR MORE POWERFUL TROOPS. THE PLAN MAY BE ALTERED IF CIRCUMSTANCES HAPPEN TO CHANGE. UNDERSTOOD?”

The eight Changeling officers nodded and left when Davros dismissed them.

=====

Night had fallen over the world as the moon rose. Princess Twilight and her followers, who took the name of “The Cult of Faust”, had traveled quickly as the sun set, stealthily using the forests to remain undetected from changeling scouts. The cult consisted of ponies from all three races, all united by the ultimate form of heartbreak. Not only did their races vary, but so did their occupations prior to becoming a militaristic cult. Some ponies were retired from the army and had combat experience, while others were merely blacksmiths that decent weaponry. But one particularly powerful asset the Cult of Faust possessed was their scientists. These brilliant ponies of science managed to make dozens of explosives from normal bombs to chemical ones to be hurled at their enemies.

The cult had stayed close to Equestrian-occupied cities, but far away enough so that they weren’t seen. Eventually, they arrived a few hundred yards from Vineheart before Twilight began informing them of her ingenious plan.

“May I have your attention, everypony? Thank you. From what I’ve overheard while eavesdropping on some guard ponies, I’ve learned that there is a Changeling camp along the beach between here and the enemy capital. Apparently, there are at least two hundred changeling soldiers at the camp,” she told them.

The ponies of The Cult of Faust mumbled and whispered worriedly to themselves. The enemy camp had twice as many soldiers as them, and the majority of the ponies had absolutely little to no combat experience.

“Now I know what you’re all thinking, how could we take out so many changelings,” Twilight sympathized, “But, we have several advantages that they do not have!”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” a scared and frustrated earth pony shouted from the back.

Spike stepped forward from Twilight’s side to answer.

“For one, we do have a few veterans among us. They will do their best to guide us through the fight using their experience of battle. We also have the greatest element of all, surprise. The Changelings don’t expect Equestria to attack in force again anytime soon, so they won’t exactly be prepared to defend themselves against a hundred brave ponies, also they won’t expect to be attacked from two sides! And our biggest advantage of all is that we have explosives. Our scientists whipped up a decent supply of explosives to be thrown at Changeling structures and soldiers. The bombs themselves are very sensitive, so be careful not to mistreat them.”

The ponies still felt nervous, but much better after being told of their advantages. Twilight led the group to a long, thick hedge on a hill next to the road that connected Vineheart and the capital. From their position, they could see the black forms of the Changelings moving around campfires and tents. The only obstacle was a large empty trench with a wooden fence behind it that surrounding the camp. Twilight knew a wall of sticks wouldn’t be a problem, but she was more worried about the abandoned trench in front of it.

“Okay, I want our strongest earth ponies will head to the east side of the wall! Buck down the wall as soon as our scientists hurl their bombs at the opposite wall. When both walls come down, everypony will charge in and kill every last one of them! Got it?”

The crowd of armed ponies nodded and whispered in agreement. Though Twilight was never in the actual army, she had talked to her wife a few times about how Equestria fought. She could never fully wrap her mind around it all, but she did retain a few of the simpler tactics, like buck-and-run style fighting.

The scientists quietly snuck over to the wall and pulled out their explosives while the largest earth ponies set position next to the east wall. Twilight and the rest of her Cult stood ready a few yards from the walls, raising their short swords in anticipation. Twilight whistled, and the scientists sent dozens of bottles into the air and crashing down onto the wall. The results were practically immediate, and huge bursts of flame licked at the night sky. The screams of the Changeling soldiers could be heard as they panicked and tried to make sense of what was happening.

The scientists retreated back to the main crowd while the earth ponies slammed opposite wall with their mighty hind legs. It took no more than four synchronized bucks. The wall splintered and fell in.

“KILL THEM ALL!” Twilight closed her eyes and screamed, charging into the blazing camp with a hundred ponies behind her screaming war cries as well. They poured into the camp, expecting a fierce battle to ensue. Much to their surprise, the blasts of the explosions had blinded or disoriented many of the Changeling soldiers. It took little to no effort for the militia to cleave through the stunned soldiers. Unicorns blew away tents and soldiers with their magic while the earth ponies and pegasi milled about, slashing and hacking, victory seemed to be just a minute away. But it was not to last as the pony cult realized something, the changelings, they weren’t real changelings, but only animated manikins of changeling soldiers with sound boxes inserted into their chests. Suddenly rays of green magic can flying from a distance, blasting everypony in sight, killing them instantly.

“ATTACK THEM YOUR LEADER COMMAND YOU!!” with that the changelings of the outpost started to surround and attack the pony forces within the outpost.

“Ki…Kill them!” Twilight stuttered as she watched saw the most terrifying sight ever… a dalek. Not just any dalek, but Davros, wearing his armor over his casing, moving forward towards the frightened alicorn.

“KILL ALL PONY FORCES, CAPTURE THE ALICORN!!”

“IT’S A TRAP…RETREAT!” Twilight yelled out before turning to run away. But it was too late; the changelings were too fast and were killing everpony in sight. Twilight was about to take off before being tackled by Soulkeeper and a group of changeling soldiers, one of them slamming their hoof into her face, the last thing see saw before falling into unconscious was the menacing dalek moving towards her.

Then darkness.

Author's Note

Oh no Twilight has been captured and stuff, what will happen to her?