Silver Linings

With enough caution to rival a stalking cat, the intruder slowly poked her head around the latest in a long series of hallway corners. No guards, none of her fellow Changelings… perfect.  A muffled explosion sounded somewhere high above her, but she paid it no mind. It was a different world down here, completely divorced from any and all the chaos her people were sewing on the surface. The sheer loudness of her hooves against the stone floor caused her to wince with every step, but it seemed like she was actually going to make it through without any problems.

That is, until the Bat came.

The gray-coated mare barreled around the next corner as if Nightmare Moon were right on her fetlocks, sending up a small shower of sparks as her armored hooves grated against the stones. The two of them froze and stared at one another, eyes of green locking with eyes of blue. Shadow didn’t know what the Bat was thinking, or what she was going to do… but she knew what she had to do.

Her horn flared and fired a jagged bolt toward the Bat’s chest. The Night Guard’s leathery wings unfolded and propelled her into the air with a single flap, the bolt hissing past her and scorching the stone wall. She flipped in the air, kicked off the ceiling, and lunged straight for her target. Shadow sinked and dodged around flailing, but precise strikes, surprised by the deftness and speed.

A swift hoof crashed into her shoulder and sent her staggering. Her thick chitin plates absorbed most of the impact, but it still hurt like absolute hell. She barely caught herself and headbutted the other mare just below the chin, smirking at the sharp crack. The Night Guard staggered back and prepared for another lunge, but Shadow was already on top of her.

She moved her head away from an oncoming hoof, but missed Shadow's smirk until it was too late. She wrapped her hoof around her neck and plunged her fangs into her exposed nape. She chirped and bucked furiously to throw her attacker off, growing more desperate as burning, alien fluids swam deep into her, tearing through her veins. The thrashing grew weaker after a few moments, and she was only released when she slumped to the floor with a final, almost pitiful squeak.

Shadow wiped a bit of blood from her muzzle as she heaved for breath, silently wondering how these weirdos ever drank the stuff. She watched her intently for a long moment, eventually smirking when she saw the faintest rise and fall of her chest.

Ponies like this mare saw Changelings as monsters; horrible creatures of the dark that stole away their loved ones and used them as little more than livestock. They were shunned by society, hunted like animals, used to terrify children into obedience… And the worst part? They embraced it. If ponies wanted to treat them like monsters, then they were going to be monsters.

The only problem was that line of thought never made much sense to her… and it didn’t ring well with her brother Ersatz either. Even now, she could hear the last thing he said to her echoing in her mind.

“Hey, Shadow… No matter how ugly things get, let’s keep the body count low, alright?”

A muffled explosion sounded somewhere farther underground, shaking the hallway and causing her to look up in worry. Ersatz was down there somewhere, alongside the rest of his team. They had the hardest job of anyone under the mountain - Neutralizing Luna. The room rattled again, causing a small well of fear to uncork inside her. Her legs wanted to kick into full gear and gallop down to his side then and there, but a small kick from the better judgement in her head brought her senses back. Ersatz was smart, and he was far more experienced than she was. Even if Luna beat them back, he’d be alright… She knew he would.

And besides, she still had her part of the mission to carry out.

Contrary to popular belief, Luna’s personal guardians weren’t just a small band of fanged leatherwings. They were a full blown military division, easily matching their surface-bound relatives pony for pony.

Celestia’s Royal Guard had been easy to suppress. Between the element of surprise and their captain being wrapped around the Queen’s hoof, the Changelings had swept over them like a gaggle of unorganized foals. The Night Guard, however, was proving a bit more difficult.

They’d put up a fierce resistance at every turn, and they needed to be put down before they could regroup and organize a counterattack. If left unchecked, they could cause months of careful, tedious planning to go up in smoke.

Her portion of the plan, along with most of the other Changelings assigned to the Underground, was simple - neutralize as many Bats as they could. The more they took down, the easier it would be for the main force to crush them after securing the city above. Only the best of the best were assigned to Luna Team… which was why Ersatz was there, and she wasn’t.

It took a bit of magic, but Shadow hoisted the snoring Bat onto her back and carry her to the nearest, darkest corner. She emerged mere minutes later, completely decked out in her victim’s armor… and her physical appearance, to boot. Even if they found her within the next few minutes, the sheer chaos of the invasion would guarantee Shadow more than enough time to finish her job.

After acquiring her new disguise, slipping through the Underground became significantly easier. She came across a few more Bats, but most of them didn’t pay her any mind. That mistake only proved to be their downfall. She got the jump on almost all of them, and was able to take them down before they barely registered what was happening. For better or worse, Changelings were Equines of stealth. Throw them into open combat against somepony, and they weren’t that useful. If that pony turned his back on them? They’d tear him apart.

She fell into a pattern of random incapacitation at that point, playing up her innocent mare act to anypony she came across, then jumping them the moment their guards were down. Luna’s explosions grew louder and closer all throughout her aimless descent, and a strange feeling of hope started to creep over her angst. Clearing the tunnels wasn’t taking nearly as long as she’d thought it would. What if she was able find Ersatz and give him backup? The thought of them both singlehandedly conquering Luna and the entire Underground made her giggle. She knew it was childish, but it made her smile and quicken her pace all the same.

She began to wander into the areas the Princess of the Night had ravaged, and what she found there turned her stomach. Corpses charred and blackened to an absolute crisp, green and red blood alike pooled on the floors and seeping in-between cracked stone… and the stench of burned, rancid death clinging to the damp air. She stopped to sniff at almost every Changeling she came across, but was lucky so far. None of them had Ersatz’ scent.

A deafening explosion cracked through the air, and she dropped to the ground with a shriek. After the shaking stopped and the chunks of ceiling stopped falling she looked up… and saw something that turned her blood to ice.

At the base of the stairs there lay the still-smoking body of a Changeling. Most of its chitin had been burned away, revealing the soft grey skin beneath… or at least, it would’ve been grey, had it not been reddened and seared to the point of near-sloughing. Its chest barely rose and fell in shallow, shaky breaths, and though it reeked of smoke, blood, and burnt flesh, she could still identify its underlying scent.

It was Ersatz.

All thoughts and focus on the mission evaporated from her mind. She galloped to his side and scooped him into her forelegs, blinking away tears as her voice cracked. “Ersatz! Ersatz, talk to me!”

Bits of crisped skin fell from his eyelids as they slowly cracked open. “Who…?” His voice was dry and hoarse, and he peered up at her with a delirious confusion. She squeezed him tighter and sobbed.

“It’s me… It’s Shadow Dancer…” she managed to choke out. His eyes widened a little in realization, and his breathing quickened.

“Shadow… Mission...”

“No!” She cut him off. “Fuck the mission, okay? Fuck the mission, fuck the Queen… Fuck all of them! We’re getting you out of here!”

He wheezed and shook his head, wincing as his words tried to scrape out of his throat. “F-failed… Luna… Failed…”

She felt a pang of anger strike within her. “Dammit Ersatz, are you listening? We’re done, both of us! The only important thing now is getting out of here, you hear me?”

His head fell back, and he said something else… said it so low that she wasn’t able to catch it. She leaned down and pressed an ear close to his mouth. “What?”

“Run… r-run…” That was all he said. Over and over again, like a broken record player. A completely fresh terror seized her, and her gaze slowly lifted. Looming at the top of the steps was the shadowed figure of Princess Luna, her eyes glowing with a piercing white light and her form wreathed by sapphire blue flames. Shadow swallowed hard and began to tremble.

‘Th-That’s what you were trying to kill? Even when she’s mad, the Queen isn’t even *half** that scary!’*

Erstaz shifted in her embrace, groaning loudly and throwing his head back in the direction she’d come from. “Dammit, run!”

Her eyes shot as wide open as dinner plates, and she obeyed without another thought. She’d barely taken two scrambling steps away from her brother when Luna’s voice boomed down from atop the stairs, shaking the hall with its own power alone.

"IMPOSTER! THOU SHALT NOT ESCAPE US!”

She threw a single, terrified glance over her shoulder as she galloped away. Just in time to see a wall of blue flames slam into her brother and engulf him completely. She screamed as they rocketed forward, chasing her down the hall as if they possessed a will all their own. A few flaps of her unfamiliar wings got her airborn, but the flames still kept up and licked at her fetlocks.

Flying with pony wings was a bit difficult, but she managed a sharp turn at the hallway’s end without dashing herself against the wall. The flames exploded against it mere moments later, and a powerful heat wave staggered her flight. For just a moment, she was foolish enough to think she’d escaped. Those thoughts died when the fires turned to follow her, and the horrifying sight of a flaming Nightmare Moon materialized from their churning depths.

“YOU WILL BURN LIKE ALL THE REST!”

She kept flying, and flying, and flying. Down corridor after corridor, up every flight of stairs she could find, searching desperately for the surface. The bulk of the Changeling forces were there, and she’d have a much easier time avoiding these flames in the open air.

The flames were two or three turns behind her now, but that distance had its price. She was getting tired. Her chest burned with every breath. Her unfamiliar wings ached with every beat. Her hooves scraped against the floor more than once, forcing her to put more and more energy into simply staying aloft. But she was so close to the surface now. Just a couple more turns, one more flight of stairs, and...

Her left wing clipped on one of the last turns, and she crashed into a rolling tide of marble and dust. She pried herself off the floor with a groan. It didn’t feel like anything was broken, which was probably a miracle. A quick stretch of her wings, however, greeted her ears with a cacophony of sickening cracks and pops. She clenched her eyes shut as pain shot up her spine, and peeked over her left shoulder to see a twisted, mangled deformity that could hardly be called a wing.

And to make things worse, the flaming incarnation of Nightmare Moon had caught up, and was eager to swallow her whole.

As she whipped her head from the fiery death mare to the natural light that marked her freedom, a grim realization settled over her - without wings, there was no possible way she could escape. Even if she broke into the hardest gallop of her life, she had no chance of outrunning the flames. So she clenched her eyes shut and waited. The roar of the fires grew louder and louder, the heat became more and more intense… then all of it exploded in a dead halt.

‘Wait… They stopped? Raging Princess infernos of death don’t just stop!’

Her acceptance was broken by a flood of confusion, and she quickly looked back up to see the flames churning mere inches from her face. She quickly looked back up to see the flames churning mere inches from her face. A massive shield of magic had blocked off the entire hallway, holding back the Princess and her murderous intent.

And she wasn’t happy about it one bit.

“WHAT IS THIS TREACHERY?” Her voice exploded through the hall, far louder than any noise the flames were remotely capable of producing. The Nightmare manifestation slammed itself against the barrier, forcing a large crack down its center. Shadow realized she wasn’t all that safe after all.

“Run…” She jumped at the sudden sound of a voice behind her. A unicorn stood there, clad in a brown, buttoned up duster that concealed his entire physique. The only way she could make out his gender was the general shape of his body, as his face was completely concealed under a black, featureless mask of cloth. She didn't know who he was, or where he came from... but he was helping her. And that was enough to make her smile.

"Th-thank you…”

Something like glass shattered to her right; an even bigger crack from the top to bottom corners had appeared, allowing tendrils of flame to lick at her like the claws of a hungry beast.

“I can’t keep her back forever…” Her savior’s voice strained with effort, and he tilted his wide brimmed hat with a shake of his head. “Get out of here, before I lose it…” Another crack shot through the shield, and he disappeared in the bright flash of a teleportation spell.

She didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t about to waste this chance. She turned tail and galloped so hard she nearly fell over her own hooves, barely making it to the stairs before she heard a painful shattering and the renewed roar of the flames behind her. The outside was so close now… She could see the blue of the sky, feel the cool outdoor air contrasting with the arid heat against her tail… ‘Oh shit, my tail!’

The fires were literally right on top of her, licking at her tail and lighting its very tip ablaze. What little air she had left was pushed into a scream as she cleared the tunnel and sharply careened to her right. The sudden loss of footing caused her to drop into a violent roll, but it also achieved her goal of not burning alive; Princess Luna’s fury rocketed out of the corridor like the breath of a dragon, slamming into the building across the street and scorching its white finish black before dissipating away.

Shadow sat up and took a moment to check her surroundings. She was in the northeastern part of Canterlot, close to the mountain… though that part was obvious. Hundreds of her fellow Changelings zipped and buzzed through the sky, no doubt hunting for any stray ponies that  may have escaped the initial sweep. Guards were either bonded together in the streets or hanging from buildings in feeding pods, and the entire city was drowning in the sounds of distant screams and buzzing wings. They’d done it… They’d taken Canterlot… Even if Luna and the Night Guard were still holed up in the Underground, they could easily smoke them out or just let them starve… the point was they’d won. Pride and joy welled and bubbled up inside her… only to be snuffed out by a single, gut wrenching fact.

Ersatz was gone.

The weight of a boulder slammed down on her heart, and her legs gave only the briefest of quivers before collapsing beneath her. The world began to blur as tears streamed down her face, and all her mind could do was come back to one basic question.

Why?

Why had they been chosen for this job? Why did they did they even have to die over this stupid city?

Why... why did she have to watch her closest friend in all the world burn alive...?

‘That idiot... he should've said no! He was one of the best damn soldiers we had! They would've listened if he'd just... Why the *fuck** didn't you say no?! Why... wh-why'd you leave me all alone...?’*

Even breathing through her sobs had become a fight at this point, and she was so absorbed in her grief that she didn’t notice the reappearance of her savior. Not until he spoke.

“You need to move.”

She sniffled, not even caring enough to give him a look. “Why? Wh-where’s the point?”

“The point is that you live.” The tingly feeling of magic enveloped her, gently tugging her upward. “Now get up.”

“No… N-no!” She shook off his pull and glared up at him. “Fuck off! Just… Who the fuck are you even?!”

“I’m…” He hesitated, searching for words. “I’m someone who has an interest in your survival. A very keen interest.”

“Why?” She climbed to her hooves, her voice quivering with grief and rage alike. “What the fuck does it matter if I die? My friends are dead, my… my family is dead… I’m just a piece in someone else’s stupid, fucking war!”

He shook his head and turned, causing his coat to catch and billow in the wind. “No… you’re more than that. Changelings have always been hated. Feared. You're going to stop that; to accomplish the dream your people abandoned centuries ago. You don't see it now, but your actions are going to change the world. Both for better, and for worse. But for that to happen, you need to run. you need to live."

“Stop. Fucking. Saying that!” She screamed with a lunge, but he was gone before she could reach him. Teleported away in another flash of light. Her impact with the street knocked the wind out of her, causing her to wheeze and gasp for air as she staggered back to her hooves. She whipped her head around in search of the pony, but there were no signs of him anywhere.

That, and a massive shockwave of pink magic was exploding straight towards her.

It picked her up like a doll in a hurricane, twisting and tumbling her in the air until regaining her bearings was impossible. Her head struck against something hard, and the last thing she remembered seeing was the Canterlot Mountain waterfall flying closer and closer. Then a cold, unrelenting darkness seized her, whisking her away to no one knows where.

Her head throbbed, her wing ached… She gasped for breath, but her lungs found only water instead of air… and her savior’s last, strange words repeated themselves over and over in her mind as she slipped away from the world...

"You need to live..."