It had been almost three hours since Black Wing and his platoon left camp and sadly for him it was that time between operations where nothing happens and he was bored. Very bored. He looked out on the darkened horizon; he saw the hive in the distance. It was quite large and out in the middle of nothing but open ground, arguably a great tactical advantage if you weren’t planning on running. Black Wing then turned around and walked towards the small fire, he noticed Storm Starter and what appears to be a new recruit.

“Mind if I sit here for a spell?” Black Wing asked the two.

The new soldier then practically froze in fear in the stallion before him. Storm Starter noticed this and waved his hoof in front of the lad to get a response only none was given. Storm looked closer at the recruit and saw that he was in a frozen like state.

“Uh Commander I think you broke him.”

Black Wing looked at the poor lad and judging from the look in his eyes revealed well nothing, which means the poor lad, was stuck in thought trying think of a decision. So Black Wing did what any commander would do for his men, he slapped the recruit upside his head hard enough to knock his helmet off.

“Wait...huh…what happened?” the recruit said in a slight panicked state. He looked around him. He saw that Storm was looking down and looked as though he had zero intent on looking up. He then slowly turned towards the presence he felt next to him and his breath left his lungs as he saw the black armor; all hope left his eyes as he saw the blue flames; and nothing but fear rang to his bones small purple mist emitting from the helm. His heart practically stopped beating when Black Wing turned towards.

“So, you must be new in this little…group that I run,” Black Wing said in a deeper toned voice.

“Y-y-y-yes s-s-sir!” The recruit was shaking so much that one would think he was shaking off the blistering cold.

“Tell me, what was it like killing your first?”

“Sir?”

Black Wing leaned in closer. “You heard me! What was it like taking the life of your first kill?”

“Um uh I haven’t really…”

“Don’t tell me that you’ve never taken the life of an enemy?”

“Um no…”

“What?” Black Wing stood up, towering over the young one. “I thought when I asked for killers, I thought I would actually get some killers! Not some small weak willed greenhorn!”

The recruit was curled up. “I’m sorry sir! I was asked to join by somepony! I don’t know who! Please don’t kill me!”

Black Wing starred more intently at the greenhorn. “Alright,” Black Wing said as his demeanor shifted into a full one-eighty.

“What?” The recruit said in shock.

“Did you not hear me? I said ‘alright.’”

“B-b-but wait what?”

He turned and saw Storm Starter now, instead of remain as still as a statue, now on the ground laughing as if somepony told the joke of the century.

“Son,” Black Wing said. “That pony that asked you to join was I.”

“It’s true,” Storm interjected. “Every single pony here was hoof picked by him, usually for a predetermined role.”

“Like what kind of role?” The recruit asked.

“First things first you need to tell me your name,” Storm Starter asked as he wrapped his hoof around the recruit’s neck in a playful manner, well at least in the safest way.

“M-m-my name is Clear Shot sir.”

“Wait did you know a Dead Shot?”

“Yes sir he was my uncle. He’s the reason why I decided to accept the offer to join the Air Brigade.” Clear Shot said proudly.

“I remember him,” Black Wing said. “He was one hell of shot, I don’t think I ever saw him miss a shot.”

“Commander sir?”

“Yes Shot?”

“What exactly happened to him?”

Black Wing sat down and stared into the fire. “Las Pegasus. You see it wasn’t a part of Equestria so we could take it without provoking an all out war with the two princesses. The place was run by nothing but raiders, nopony was going to miss that place if we burnt it to the ground. Problem was though I asked Darkhorn to do recon on the area because if my flyers were going in I wanted to be sure that we weren’t going to be like fish in a barrel. She claims that everything was fine they barely had any archers and the projected casualty rate was within acceptable range. So Storm Starter, Dead Shot and I are leading the main squadron with the simple orders of taking out any defenses that would slow down the ground team, but then…”

“What happened?”

“Turns out the bitch lied to us.” Storm Starter interjected.

“What?”

“He’s right,” Black Wing said. “Darkhorn said there weren’t any archers but when we got there, there were nothing but archers. Before we knew it a quarter of my men were shot dead and we were forced to retreat only those guys had deceivingly good range and it would have been a matter of time before we were all killed, so Dead Shot stayed behind to cover us. I tried to stop him but he never was one for following orders as often as I gave them. By the time I turned around to drag his feathery ass back he was already dead, the arrows tore him apart but he made sure to take as many as he could with him.”

“Why would she betray you?”

Black Wing smirked. “Odds are because my operation against the sirens was such a success. I didn’t lose a single Pegasi that day.”

Clear Shot was confused. “Wait but if the assault on Las Pegasus yielded devastating losses how come you were at the tent celebrating the victory over Las Pegasus?”

“Well Rook the reason for that is quite the tale to tell,” Storm Starter said. “The reason why was because our Commander…”

Black Wing felt a pulse of magic. It was time. “That’s weird, we weren’t suppose to move yet if we move too soon they’ll most likely be on guard,” Black Wing thought. “Alright men let’s move you have your orders and if this goes well we’ll be back by noon and all rounds are on me!”

Black Wing turned towards Storm Starter and Clear Shot. “You two are with me. I’ll be in front, Storm will guarding the right flank of the bomb, Clear Shot you’ll be giving the left flank support, I want you to show me just how good of a shot you are.”

The two saluted. “Yes sir!”
____________________________________

Black Wing’s squadron was now less than two miles away from the hive. He looked at his right flank and saw Storm Starter keeping an eye on the hive down below, he looked further out and saw Squadron’s Delta and Foxtrot had their formations down and mixed it up by not keeping their bomb in the middle of the squadron. Black Wing looked to his left flank. He saw Clear Shot and his bow, Black Wing was worried that he may not be as good with it as Dead Shot but some things you’ll never know for sure until you try it. He saw that Clear Shot was obviously nervous and he the right to be, just because your enemy is easier to kill that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.

Black Wing banked over towards the left flank. “Private Clear Shot do you have anything on your mind?”

“N-no sir,” Clear Shot said nervously.

“You tell me one thing but your eyes tell me another. Private we are now less than a mile away from the main hive and I need you focused. So whatever is on your mind forget about it for now and we can discuss it after debrief, your no good to me dead. Alright?”

“Y-yes sir.”

Black Wing returned to his position at the front of the squadron. He saw the main front lines charge towards the wall and he saw the changeling swarm rush to intercept them it was time for the drop.

He looked down at the walls; he saw the trebuchets that they were to target. He looked harder and saw that there weren’t any defenders on the wall.

“Wait,” Black Wing said to himself. “The only reason you won’t put any defenders on the wall was…” He heard an arrow fly past him hit the barrel in the rear of the squadron. His eyes widened at the arrow, in a matter of milliseconds part of his squadron was about to be vaporized. The explosion was louder than thunder and the flames of the fire ripped through Black Wing’s men like hot steel cutting through butter. The shockwave threw everypony off their course; Black Wing knew how to maneuver out of this and recovered quickly with a few quick somersaults and he turned back and saw that half of his squadron was dead, Storm Starter, Clear Shot and a few others regrouped with him and Black Wing had no choice but to press on and help the other squadrons make a successful run. The squadrons begun their dive towards their targets and when they past the halfway point Black Wing look up and saw a changeling swarm coming out of the buildings and intercepting them.

“Bombers! Stay on target! Remnants of Alpha on me!”

Black Wing extended his spear, Clear Shot readied his arrows, and Storm Starter drew his blade. The two forces collided in the air. Black Wing’s spear pierced through three changelings, he detached his spear and let the dead insects fall all the way through the spear. “I’ll never understand why their blood is bright green, or the smell.” Black Wing saw a group of changelings charging him so he decided to let them test out the blades on the spear tip.

Clear Shot perched on a nearby roof. “Uncle, I will make you proud.” He grabbed the arrows with right wing; with his bow in his left hoof he knocked the arrow with his feathers pulled back the string with the hook on his right hoof and fired. The shot rang true through the skull of a changeling spearman.

“Oh hell yes,” Then with a focus few could match Clear shot used his wings to rapid fire his arrows dropping every changeling for every arrow he fired with a smile on his face.

After Black Wing dispatched a few more changelings he noticed one of his men was hit and was falling, it was Storm Starter. Black Wing had to think fast, save one man or risk losing the rest of Alpha. He then made his decision. He opened the blades on his spear tip and with near gale-force speed he raced towards Clear Shot’s perch, slicing through every changeling that made the mistake of being in his way. Clear Shot almost didn’t noticed Black Wing and didn’t even realize it was him until he had grabbed him and sped down to the ground to save Storm Starter. It was almost a blur but when both Storm Starter and Clear Shot came to they realized they were inside an empty changeling cave like building where they saw Black Wing watching the chaos outside.

“Ugh. What happened? Last thing I remember clearly was I was fighting a couple of bugs and then something hit me on my head and wing and then something grabbed me.” Storm Starter said still a bit groggy.

“I made a choice,” Black Wing said while keeping an eye outside. “Odds are the changelings think we’re dead and they’ll continue to harass the other squadrons while they try to destroy the catapults. So we should be able to move around undetected, let's keep it that way. Storm Starter, can you walk?”

“Heh, Commander you and I both know you’ve beaten down worse than this. So what’s the plan? The entrance to the nest chambers aren’t exactly on a map, and since the scouts were unable to find something as easy an enemy interceptors I highly doubt they know where to find an entrance.”

Clear Shot looked out and saw the city, it was quiet. He then heard small moans from what he thought was a dead changeling.

“Commander, looks like one survived. And judging from the armor he looks like he might know something.”

Black Wing walked over the injured changeling, drawing his triton spear, kicked it over on its back.

“Alright son, I’m in a bit of a rush so I’ll ask very nicely. Tell me where the entrance to the nest is and promise I won’t use this spear here to show you what you had for dinner.”

The changeling looked right at Black Wing and spat it’s blood in his face. Black Wing wiped the green ooze-like liquid off his helmet and made a sigh out of pity. Black Wing opened his spear blades stabbed the ground catching the changeling in the blades, but killing it.

“Listen have you ever seen a guillotine?”

The changeling nodded its head.

“Exactly only instead of it being some poor sods neck and painless death, yours would be at your abdomen and it will be as slow and painful as I make it. Which means that at the way this is pointed if I push down I’ll break your rib cage, cut your lungs, and me and my men will sit back and watch you as your lungs fill up with that green ooze you call blood all while you try to hold your guts in. So what say you?”

The changeling said nothing, only giving a fanged smile practically daring Black Wing to try. Bad idea.

The spear plunged slowly into its torso breaking every bone one by one. The changeling coughed up its blood onto the spear, tears of pure pain coming from its eyes. The torture felt like it went on for hours, but in reality it was only a few minutes. The spear went deeper only instead hearing the bitter music of bones breaking; the changeling felt his organs slicing open. It looked up to see the extent of the damage and his eyes widened like the rising sun as it saw that Black Wing was right, it could feel it’s lungs filling up with blood and it saw it’s entrails spilling onto the ground beside it. Death was now the only mercy it could achieve.

The changeling coughed and slowly raised and pointed its hoof towards a building further up the road, and with one last cough all life left the creature’s body.

Black Wing sighed. “Shame, I was hoping to cut him half and make him watch. Oh well now then…”

“Help! Is anypony in there?” cried a familiar voice from beyond the gate.

Black Wing signaled Storm Starter and Clear Shot to check out the building while he checked out the gate. When he arrived he saw that the gate was barred and what sounded like the front linemen trying to get in. Black Wing looked through the crack the door and saw it was Lightning Charge, he almost didn’t recognize him with the mix of green and red blood and lack of an eye.

“Solider report.” Black Wing said calmly.

“This is all that’s left of the vanguard, for some reason the main force is holding back. At this rate we’ll be wiped out! Open the gate! Please!”

“Hmm. Looks like Darkhorn and Black Hoof are sacrificing the vanguard to lure the queen into a false sense of security giving my team more of an advantage. Obviously Black Hoof’s idea.” Black Wing whispered to himself.

Black Wing looked at as much as he could and through the carnage that was transpiring outside he noticed that Scroll Keeper wasn’t there. Was he out of view?

“Sir! Do you hear me? Open this door or we will die!” Lightning Charge pleaded.

Black Wing heard a whistle from Storm Starter and Clear Shot, signaling that the entrance was not a trap.

“Before I do, what happened to the new guy? Scroll Keeper was it?”

“He’s dead. Changelings tore his entire platoon to ribbons, I don’t even know if there’s a body left,” Lighting Charge said panting.

“How long can you hold them?”

“Is this a joke? We’ll be lucky if we last more than ten minutes against them! They’re flanking us from all sides. Now open this damn door!”

“I’m sorry but last time I checked I was in charge,” Black Wing scoffed. “As punishment you are to hold this position for eleven minutes. To be honest you could cut your own throat for all I care. Now follow your orders.” Black Wing pushed the gate shut and didn’t flinch at the sounds of his men dying at the steel of the changelings.
________________________________________________________________

They proceeded down the tunnel flying down as quickly as they were able swooping around every corner that presented itself as they were descending until the approached a large room full of nothing but darkness. Black Wing stopped them and signaled them to wait for him.

“Sir you sure this is a good idea?” asked Clear Shot.

“Don’t worry kid if anypony can do this it’s him,” Storm affirmed.

Black Wing treaded carefully. He looked to his left, and then looked to his right but he looked forward and smiled.

“If you truly believe that this darkness can help you clearly have no idea who you’re dealing with! I see you right now and I must say that throne of yours looks tacky. I mean come on? A bunch of armor plates on welded to a chair? Sounds like something out a storybook.”

The room lit up revealing to be not only the main chamber linking to the nest, but also the throne room. The room looked like an empty storage room with a high ceiling probably not too far away from the surface that way the queen and the other changelings have a quick escape route. Otherwise the only noticeable markers about the room were the two rows of torches parallel with the red carpet. The queen only smirked at Black Wing’s remark.

“Oh bravo on this little plan of yours. Sacrifice your entire front line in order to keep my forces distracted thus giving your team enough time to get here under the cover of the chaos,” The queen stood up from her throne and walked down towards Black Wing in the center of the room. “Only three little ponies though? I was partially hoping for an entire platoon.”

“You and I both know that if an entire platoon was marching into this place you would have turned tail and run away with your precious eggs,” Black Wing taunted.

“Oh that’s where you’re wrong my little pony, unlike my mother I refuse to cower in the shadows fleeing at the slightest hint of danger? I will make the changeling race one to be feared!” The queen said proudly.

“Then why don’t you come over here and say it to my face?” Black Wing readied his spear and smiled as the queen’s horn light up with the light green.

“Gladly.”

The queen vanished before his eye’s instantly reappearing on his left flank bucking him with enough force to crack his crystal armor, into the wall on the other side of the room. When Black Wing got up from the impact crater, blood seeping from his right eye and mouth. He only brushed the dirt and wiped the blood off of him from the impact as if nothing serious happened. Clear Shot was shocked at the queen’s speed and was worried for Black Wing but Storm Starter put his hoof on his shoulder and just smiled telling him that it's not over.

Black Wing smirked. “Come on now I thought you were better than that! Show me the power of the changeling race!”

The queen growled and her horn lit up to its intense green and the queen fired a great beam of magical power aimed right at her target. But Black Wing didn’t move at all as the beam got closer. He smiled as the beam made contact with him. The queen was shocked from what happened next, no explosion happened instead the twisted into a spiral-like motion and dissipated into Black Wing’s hoof. He laughed as his body glowed and his wounds began to heal themselves.

“I must say queen you really are bent on making your race a force to reckon, that magical blast gave me more than enough power to heal from that little kick you gave me. Now why don’t you show me what you’re really made of!”

The queen raised her forelegs up and shattered the earth beneath her, with her magic the pieces she covered her entire exoskeleton in the rocks.

“Ask and you shall receive.”

Black Wing leapt onto the wall and launched himself forward with so much force that the wall imploded itself even more. The distance between him and the queen was already less than ten feet away from him, if he could get a few feet closer he could use his spear. The queen quickly teleported and reappeared behind Black Wing. Before he could react she grabbed his hind legs with telekinetic rocks and smashed him into the ground on her left, then she smashed him into the ground on her right, and again, and again. She levitated Black Wing in front her, blood was dripping from his mouth and nose.

“Is this really all? This is the best the great crystal army could offer to me?”

Black Wing suddenly grabbed the queen’s muzzle.

Black Wing smiled. “Oh no, I’m just getting started.”

With all of his might he slammed the changling queen to the ground, shattering the helmet portion of her rock armor. The queen quickly threw Black Wing towards the throne. She stood up and had a small moment of relief when she saw the impact, but she saw a little blue flame moving quickly through the dust to her right side of view. She levitated more rocks and began to fire them in quick succession at the blue flame quickly moving towards her. The queen was growing desperate by the second; the blue flame was dodging every shot she threw at it as if it knew where every shot was going to land. In a blink of an eye Black Wing was behind the queen. Before she could teleport away Black Wing activated the blade attachments to his spear and as if in slow motion the queen saw the blades cut through her rock armor and slice through the tendons in her hind legs.

“GYAAA!!! I’m going to bury you!!”

The queen telekinetically wrapped her aura around Black Wing’s neck and threw him into the wall a second time. Clear Shot watched with fear for his Commander, no normal pony can take this much abuse and still stand.

“Hey kid,” Storm said. “We need to get in the air in case the Commander needs our aid, and pay close attention. You’re about to see the secret to what makes our Commander so special.”

The two pegasai flew towards the ceiling far enough that they could still see the fight below them and be in relative safe distance.

The queen levitated up a boulder large enough to crush an entire squad of soldiers and threw it with all her magical might towards Black Wing. The boulder came crashing speedily towards Black Wing still hiding in the dust, but he couldn’t outmaneuver it this close. Black Wing smiled because this meant that it was time to have some real fun. The queen expected to hear the sound of the boulder crushing her enemy’s bones like sticks but instead she heard the abrupt stop of it. She turned around to see what had happened, what she saw shocked her. The boulder appeared to be stopped in mid-air and something started to lift it as if it were weightless.

RRAHHH!!!

With a loud boom the boulder broke into hundreds of pieces with the shockwaves echoing through the room causing cracks from the ceiling. From within the dust a figure with a jet black coat, glowing full green eyes emitting a purple mist, and with a fiery blue mane that could be described as a bonfire.

“Now then,” Black Wing smiled flashing his razor sharp teeth. “It’s my turn! Men! Destroy the ceiling now! I want to make this interesting!!”

“Yes sir!” Both Storm Starter and Clear Shot answered. They began digging their weapons into the cracks within the ceiling and picking the rocks from the ceiling, ranging from the size of the very boulder that the queen use to the size of a pony, apart sending them downward towards the fight.

The queen quickly teleported away from each rock that came close to her, she tried to run but with the rocks falling and the engagement with the pony, or whatever he was, still raging on she couldn’t heal herself. Black Wing saw what the queen was doing and so he flew towards the boulders pushing them down faster than the queen could react. The queen saw what he was doing and only laughed.

“You fool! I have more than enough magic to keep this up! Soon my children will come through the ceiling and slaughter you!”

“You’re right. Even with this power I can’t fight off an entire army by myself and your magic is quite persistent so my queen…” Black Wing said while onto of a boulder a few feet away from the queen. “…I’ll be relieving you of your horn now.”

With all his might Black Wing, with his trident spear ready, pushed off the boulder hard enough to break it apart speeding towards the queen and before the queen could vanish, the cold steel sliced through the hot bone so quick the queen didn’t even realize she lost her only means of offense and defense. She turned towards Black Wing in one final push to end it.

“Checkmate.”

The boulder landed on the queen crushing her body leaving only her head able to function. As Black Wing reverted back to his original form he knelt down to the defeated queen.

“Well my queen do you have any final words before I leave you here like the lowly insect that you are?”

The queen knew one way to get under his skin; with her remaining strength she spat a small bit of blood at Black Wing. Black Wing didn’t know how to process it, so he decided to voice his concerns to his men.

“Oh my gosh it’s in my mouth! Any more fluids you want to spit on me you damn…”

A stray rock landed on the queen’s head sending pieces of her grey matter and blood into Black Wing’s mouth before he could finish his sentence. Eye twitching, Black Wing’s mission was completed but for some reason he started to scream for a solid twenty seconds.

When he was finished, he heard his men landing near him while he was wiping the green goo off his face.

“So Commander can I ask something?” Clear Shot said.

“Make it quick,” Black Wing said.

“Well she’s a changeling so why didn’t she fly? This could have changed things drastically.” Clear Shot pointed out.

Black Wing looked at the pile of rubble that was the queen and then he looked back at Clear Shot.

“That’s actually a good point, maybe she’s damning her hindsight in what hole they end up in the after-life. Now you two go take the left entrance to the nest, take those torches and burn them, I want these things to a pile of ooze when we’re done.”

“What about you sir?” Storm Starter inquired.

“I’m going after the new queen, without her there’s no way the changeling race will be able to recover even if some escape. Dismissed.”

Storm Starter and Clear Shot saluted their Commander and left to burn the eggs. Black Wing headed towards the right entrance, unable to see through the dust cloud that most likely found its way in from the fighting, Black Wing struggled to finding his way though. He could see in the dark, not through dust. He was finding his way along when bumped into something large and solid. He looked at it closer and saw that while it was rectangular like, it wasn’t the wall or part of the changling hive structure since it was a bluish color. He examined closely trying to figure out what it was.

“What in the Crystal Kingdom is a TARDIS?”

Author's Note

"Unlimited power corrupts the possessor." - William Pitt

Chapter two!! Sorry it took so long, combination of both school and other projects got rid of any chance to work on it. Thank you Tarbtano for helping me proof it! Off course any feedback is most appreciated.