The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

The immaculate blockade of the Sun and Moon hospital was sudden and very noisy, as the crowd of ponies sang surprisingly creative but also nasty chants about dragons and unicorns killing anathema in all kinds of gory ways.

“With much scorn and horn, anathema limbs are torn – they blast their twisted bellies so their spawn is never born!” the crowd bellowed, among other nasty lyrics. Speaker and Shimmer both agreed that the foal-killing bits of their songs were particularly disgusting, but they were helpless to stop the event…

Cash had checked at the council offices, and apparently the immaculates had bribed the councilor in charge of day-time non-business on-goings for permission to harass Speaker’s business to their hearts content. This also meant that Speaker and Shimmer might face the wrath of the Emissary if they attacked the protest, so while Cash worked to sell enough western art pieces to be able to afford the astronomical bribe needed to influence a councilor to reverse the protest permission.

One option that Speaker and Shimmer discussed, as a means to end the protest, was to allow the ambient wyld energies to build up in the area again… but that would put the hospital, its patients, and its staff, at risk. Of course, the four hour ritual atop the hospital where Speaker did his daily wyld-shapping technique wasn’t easy when the protesters below were throwing rotten fruit up at him – the unicorns in particular had a very good aim thanks for their charms and excellencies.

It turned out that Sullen Hoof was able to get results far sooner. He local knowledge of Nexus allowed him to spot the ponies that were sneaking in supplies to the protesters, supplies that he… tainted.

“Ok, and what exactly did you do with those supplies?” Speaker inquired, peering out from within the hospital lobby.

Sullen Hoof reminded Speaker of blue mushrooms that the two had used to brew up part of the cure for the plague in Chung Do: “I found a merchant who’d arrived from Chung Do there with a barrel full of those – made the same constipative drug we used, put that in the protestor's supplies”

“But the council civility protecting the protest, wont you got in trouble for violating that?” Shimmer wondered.

Tipping his straw hat, Sullen Hoof smiled from under his orichalcum mask: “I didn’t do anything to the protest, I did something to the cargo that a currier was bringing from A to B – that wasn’t covered by the civility. It only protects the protest outside the hospital”

“Cash would be proud. But being constipated isn’t nearly as life-threatening as, well… anything else you could have put into the food” Speaker noted, suggesting that a laxative would have had a far quicker effect.

Sullen Hoof agreed, but noted that a powerful laxative would have been far more messy: “And honestly, these ponies are already willing to throw mud at us… I don’t want them throwing anything else”

A day or so later the protest began to thin out, Sullen Hoof drugging every supply run that came to feed the protesters, even spiking the barrels of prune juice they brought in with the mushroom extract.

With the battle won, Shimmer waved off the last of the prostestors as she spotted what would turn out to be the next ‘assualt’ on the hospital: Ponies setting up stalls at the end of the street with small five-pointed leaves and smears of white powder on their signs – the drug-dealers had moved in.

Next to their massive slave trade, the soft trade, then the drug trade – the hard trade – was the second most lucrative business that the guild had an almost creation-wide monopoly on. Most hashish farmers around Great Forks had exclusive deals with guild buyers, the coca-leaf plantations dotted generously around the east were pretty much all guild owned, and in most of the rest of creation then at least nine of out ten drug dealer was ultimately supplied by guild-trained and paid alchemists and merchants, who in turn used guild raw materials for their products. Woe betide the king or noble who tried to quell guild drug trade, for their enemies would soon find the guild giving their enemies discounts on weapons and mercenaries.

In short, this was just as much trouble as it was a deliberate attempt by whoever paid for the dealers to set up, to make Brookside choke on the wave of petty crime and misery that the subsequent addicts would entail.

As the dealers began setting up shop around the hospital their clients began to shuffle into the neighborhood from all over Nexus, as the word of discounted heroin, opium and hashish spread from one opium-den to the other across the vast city. To Cash, this confirmed that it was a deliberate 'attack' on Brookside and the hospital, since no dealers ever discounted their drugs and then advertised it on this scale unless the idea was to lure in addicts to a specific area.

What the dealers hadn’t counted on was two things: Cash expanding his businesses around Brookside, which meant that he needed more employees, and Speaker who – back in Chung Do, had learnt a charm that allowed him to cure mental illness, including such things as addiction. To this end the attempt at fouling up Brookside with a surge of addicts and the crime that such would inevitably bring only allowed Cash to set up several workshops that did in wares or services for the growing number apartment buildings him and Speaker erected in the district.

Whatever pony had masterminded the influx of dealers and sponsored their generously discounted narcotics clearly hadn’t expected this turn of events, as the dealers up and left Brookside a week later since no pony was buying, at which point Cash commanded well over three thousand workers which he and Speaker set about renovating Brookside.

“Good to see you for once Cash, has my cooking not been to your liking?” Sullen Hoof inquired, as he served the circle an evening meal in their Nexus district town house.

Cash sampled the absolutely delicious combination of rice, some kind of butter sauce and steamed flower petals, after which he flashed Sullen Hoof a disarmed smile: “My friend, I would not miss your cooking for all the jade in Creation – but the nature of my business forces me to attend a lot of evening events, which sadly has yet to hire you as their caterer. Really, you should let me set up some deals, you’ll be the toast of the flaky-most upper crust of Nexus”

“Flaky-most?” Red said with a cocked eye-brow and a bemused smiled. Cash shrugged back at her with a bemused smile: "I know..."

Sullen Hoof floated away his pots and bamboo serving trays, saying only that he didn’t want to see the rich elite of Nexus in bidding wars over his services, as much as he wanted to see them kill each other over who got to eat the last scrap of a mud and urine soufflé.

“How… colorful – but fair enough, I won’t claim that the ponies I sell art pieces to are saints. Hell, most of them think that simply by virtue of having such ungodly wealth that they can get away with pretty much anything - that's the whole point of Nexus honestly” Cash noted.

Having finally managed to round up most of the city’s old cult of the illuminated and opened up a new temple to Celestia in Brookside, built by Speaker and funded by Cash, Sunrise Glow explained that back in Great Forks ponies with power tended to rationalize their abuses and excesses quite effortlessly, citing a case where the son of a high priest got away with murdering a young mare he had fancied on the grounds of ‘affluenza’ – that he had grown up so rich and wealthy that he knew not the concept of not getting what he wanted, as thus was unable to handle rejection.

“Oh I think most of the factors and merchant princes here in Nexus suffer from that, at the very least all the ones born into wealth. A few days ago I witnessed a factor ruin a lesser merchant through some rather underhoof’d means, followed by the merchant going ‘you won’t get away with this’ – want to know what the factor said?” Cash said as he looked dreamy eyed into his food.

The rest of the circle looked at Cash in silence as they awaited his punchline.

“Well, the factor turned to his seneschal and said ‘Get me away with this’ and then left” Cash said, evidently finding the story far more amusing than the rest of the circle.

“That’s terrible – All ponies should be held responsible for their actions” Shimmer blurted out, hosing down half the table with chewed rise and steamed flower petals.

Floating down his chopsticks, Cash nodded: “Oh I agree that Nexus needs more oversight – the blind race to simply accrue and spend wealth here means that so much potential is wasted. But that’s part of what I plan to use Brookside for, as an example in just how powerful and useful a well-paid workforce can be”

The circle continued to discuss their various experiences with the less savory sides of Nexus, with Sullen Hoof for example telling of how he’d recently invited all of the high-priced chef’s he had conned his way into working under before meeting the circle to a great feast – and how they had at first scoffed at him, but after sampling his cooking they had all begged him to come work for them. He retold with great joy at how he had them sent away with the knowledge that the greatest chef in Nexus, no, in Creation had so demonstratively refused them, as well as perplexed them with flavors and textures of food they clearly had no chance of replicating.

Red was about to talk about something regarding fixed fights in the Bastion district pit fighting circuit when a loud knocking on their front door alerted the whole circle.

Outside was a messenger with ragged breath, having arrived straight from Brookside: Someone had torn a hole in the wyld defenses that had been set up around the neighborhood.

The circle quickly gathered out in the street where Shimmer spun up a sorcerous cloud in no time at all. First stop was Bastion district where Cash threw money around like it was going out of fashion, quickly buying the services of a little over four hundred mercenaries for the evening to fight changelings. With well-oiled iron weapons such as spiked shoes and quite a lot of spears, the mercenaries were – after convincing them that flight by cloud was perfectly safe – flown down to Brookside where all hell had broken loose.

Thanks to Speaker using his wyld-shaping technique on a daily basis on strategic spots around Brookside ever since opening the hospital, nearly the whole area had been free of wyld energy – which had drastically reduced the frequency of changeling incursions into the area, since low levels of ambient wyld energy, such as it is in most of creation, was toxic to most changelings.

To prevent the wyld energies from flooding back in from the central square of Firewander Speaker and Shimmer had set up a system of iron wards around Brookside, basically a small hollow wooden wall no more than shoulder height for the average pony, filled with oil and iron plates. The oil was there to prevent the raw iron plates from rusting, as alloyed steel which rusted far less had no effect against wyld energies. The torches along the wall quickly showed where the damage had been done: A stretch of about three hundred yards of wall had been broken down, with the iron plates removed – allowing a deluge of changelings to pour into the area along with a tide of invisible wyld energies which had already begun to warp the immediate surroundings, turning brick houses into living things that jiggled and danced, making wooden buildings bloom with carnivorous flowers, or grow fruits that exploded if you picked them which screamed madness for all to hear.

The changelings themselves were standard fare compared to what the circle had seen so far in Nexus: Like most eastern changelings they were heavily influenced by the elemental pole of wood, making many of them look like large pony-sized carnivorous fruits, or grotesque horned insects or similar predator animals. The only common theme for them was that they looked menacing, often had thick growth that functioned as armor, and either fangs, claws or other things that allowed them grab or bite on to ponies to haul them back to their masters…

The mercenaries were dropped down right on top of the breach along with Red, their iron shoes and spears wreaking havoc on the changelings caught underneath. In the first few moments it looked as if the mercenaries were chopping up salad – but it was salad that bled many different colors of blood or other strange fluids. With the breach plugged almost instantly thanks to Red’s fury and the hundreds of mercs the flow of captive ponies being dragged deeper into Firewander was quickly ended, with Shimmer giving chase for the ponies that had already been hauled off.

Speaker landed on the inside of the breach, surveying how much wyld energy had poured through. It was… a lot – in fact, it was more than just ambient build-up could explain: It looked like the changelings had been planning this for a while. They probably didn’t like being denied even a small part of their hunting grounds.

Ordering the mercenaries to hold the line just short of where the wall had fallen Speaker began to use his wyld shaping technique to draw in all the wyld energies that had flooded into Brookside. It was a lot to handle, but Speaker had already spotted a few unlucky ponies that had been caught in the tide of mutagenic energy and as a result become… something not entirely pony. He had a few of the mercenaries detain and bring any mutant spotted to his hospital for treatment. He had already reduced the population of mutated ponies in Brookside and the surrounding areas to nearly zero, so he wasn’t afraid that the mercs might pick up any ponies who had chosen to live with their mutations, as a blessed few actually benefited from their mutations in various ways.

The changelings quickly stopped trying to attack once the wall of iron spears and iron barding that was the mercenaries stood before them. Their own lances of nightmares and gossamer armor would burst and fail at the touch of such iron things, and so the changeling attack ended seemingly as quickly as it had started. With this little bit of breathing room Speaker managed to shape into being a good deal of timber, iron and oil – and by the power of his essence he set about rebuilding the wall at a speed that simply marveled the mercenaries.

Just as the last few sections of wall were about to be sealed off Red and Shimmer returned, followed by several dozen ponies that were still covered in various shades and flavors of the changeling slime or webbing originally used to ensnare and trap them.

Cash and Sunrise also appeared, having spent his time organizing a ‘brookwide’ repair effort for all the doors and windows that the changelings had broken down, since buying such things in bulk was a lot cheaper for all concerned, while Sunrise had calmed everyone and prevented any undue panic.

“Well that’s one way to spend your evening” Red said, sounding rather satisfied. The golden reaver dailklaive wrought of her own essence was still dripping with whatever foul mockery of blood the last changeling she had cut down had possessed.

Speaker was less impressed, having carefully examined the downed wall sections during his repairs of them: “Don’t get too cocky Red, or we might have to do this more often than not”

Showing the circle a piece of wood from the old wall, Speaker showed how it had been bucked into pieces in one end, and not by the clawed hoof-approximations of the changelings.

“So the wall was broken down by ponies? Who would do that?” Sunrise inquired in a most indignant tone.

Shimmer sniffed around, her face turning grim: “I can’t separate the scent of the perps from the mercenaries – there’s been too many ponies here. Hell, for all we know it might have been done by mercs”

“Oh I know who did this – they’re the only ones who stand to benefit from terrorizing Brookside: The Greycoats” Cash stated confidently, looking as if he was already planning on how to both prove his case and sue the GCA.

With Speaker’s help as a living lie-detector, Cash was quickly able to find a few nearby ponies who lived in apartments facing the stretch of wall that had been dismantled and then identify the ones who weren’t truthful when asked if they had seen anyone tamper with the wall. From there Cash simply bribed the ponies more to counter the GCA's bribes originally meant to buy their silence. This quickly netted them a positive ID, which he them took to a rather sleepy but very outraged judge along with a couple of the mercs as witnesses to attest to the fact that there truly had been a changeling raid.

Leaving the judges office and stepping into the dark of the night in the Sentinel Hill district, where the council tower piercing the night at the top of the hill with its height and glowing magic crystal lights, Speaker looked at Cash. The eclipse caste stallion was positively beaming – literally – the golden glow was undeniable, as Cash had used his charms to further enrage the council adjudicator. It was at the same time impressive and a little spooky, having seen how well Cash had wound the judge around his hoof.

“So, what happens now?” Speaker wondered. Cash had explained, using the witnesses, how GCA ponies had dismantled part of the iron wall around Brookside – and how that had endangered hundreds of his employees and a lot of his business holdings due to the resulting changeling assault, described in turn by the mercs.

Cash gazed up at the council tower: “The councilor known as the mistress of the night, the one in charge of day-do-day dealings after dark, will be notified. She’ll likely decree that the GCA has violated the dogma by trying to impede trade – plus violating dozens of civilities regarding changeling defences. The Emmisary will handle the rest. By morning all active GCA members should have been turned inside out, or worse”

“I doubt that all of them were involved in this – is getting them all killed not a bit extreme?” Speaker wondered. He would much rather prefer a non-lethal solution instead of another Water Walker massacre.

The cobble sparked ever so slightly as Cash put his magical-shod hoof down hard: “Speaker, this is how business is done in Nexus. You’ve had GCA visits, you know how they operate – or, think of it this way: I guarantee you that every member of the GCA knew what kind of dirty business they got into when they joined, and has partaken in it themselves. Gangs like that have initiation rites that usually involve beating another pony senseless, or even committing outright murder, to show your willingness to do anything you’re told. This is the kind of ponies who are never innocent, they merely have dubious alibis”

Nodding, Speaker sighed deeply. The cool evening air did little to alleviate the fact that other gangs would likely move in and take over the GCA territory – but Cash noted that he was thinking of setting up his own private security firm to guard Brookside: “It’ll be a lot cheaper than buying mercs to do rounds”

“We could get Red to train them, like she did the guards in Chung Do?” Speaker suggested.

Cash wasn’t sure if Red was the one to do that: “She never got far with that. She’s a warrior, not a drill sergeant”

The two chatted about future business plans as they returned to the townhouse in Nexus district.

It wasn’t until three days later, when most of the repairs were done in Brookside, that the circle began to suspect that something was wrong – for Sullen Hoof hadn’t been heard or seen since the changeling attack.

“Well, we are talking about Sullen Hoof – if he doesn’t want to be found…” Red noted as she sat and fidgeted with her hooves at the large wooden meeting table in what was now one of the meeting rooms in Cash’s business headquarters. The quiet bustle of office clerks going to and fro outside the meeting, messengers coming and going, was easy enough to ignore – but it also made it something of a boring meeting for this warrior mare of action.

Cash had a theory: “Perhaps he’s trying to track down who ordered the GCA to sabotage the iron wall? Would make sense, could get some more heads rolling”

“You think it wasn’t just retaliation for us throwing them out of Brookside?” Shimmer wondered.

Cash was certain that someone else had hired the GCA to enable the changelings to attack Brookside. He explained that the GCA simply didn’t do things like that normally – their business was extortion and protection rackets under the guise of being an insurance provider: “Letting changelings gobble up the ponies you want money from is not a good long term business practice”

“Well, I’m not sure how much there is to investigate with the GCA – the building they used as headquarters imploded the morning after we reported them to council authorities, with most of the GCA members inside” Speaker recalled, having heard from some of the ponies who’d subsequently come to his hospital with bleeding ears as the implosion had happened with such speed and force that the hearing of many nearby ponies had been damaged.

Sunrise Glow cleared her throat to signal that she had something to say. The rest of the circle looked at her.

After a moment Sunrise spoke: “Some of my cultists might have seen something – if we’re looking for signs of Sullen Hoof’s handy-work”

“Go on” Red beckoned, missing Sullen Hoof’s amazing cooking.

Sunrise explained that the last few days, while doing rounds outside of Brookside to spread the good word, some of her cultists came across areas with, as Sunrise explained it, strange and invisible vapors in the air: “I haven’t seen it myself, but my acolytes said that there were whole blocks devoid of ponies – and that there was a most alluring scent hanging in the air, like the smell of a most irresistible meal being waved in front of you. I thought it just another changeling trick, but now…”

“Why would Sullen Hoof be clearing entire blocks? Like, had the ponies there just up and left their homes, or were they gathered somewhere?” Speaker inquired. Sunrise elaborated that the blocks appeared to have been abandon, completely – and even the usual looters that would follow in the wake of such an event seemed to have been drawn in by the smell.

“How come your cultists didn’t get sucked in as well?” Cash wondered.

Sunrise Hoof pointed out that she only sent out the most steadfast and disciplined of her flock to proselytize: “They know how to resist temptation. I've trained them well”

The circle agreed that this warranted more investigation. With the addresses Sunrise had Shimmer quickly flew out and sniffed around, tracking the scent. She returned a few hours later, with grim news: “I tracked the scent back to the old Hollow capitol building in the middle of Firewander – and there were scores of ponies being drawn in, like if they were hypnotized”

“Gods… did the changelings get Sully when the iron wall was down?” Speaker blurted out in a very worried tone.

Shimmer frowned: “I’m not sure – I tried tracking Sully’s scent as well, and it did lead towards that place as well, but not with any changelings. I think he tried to track the changelings, probably got into trouble that way instead”

“Who cares – we need to rescue Sully and stop this before all of Firewander gets the munchies and trots up to the changelings!” Red said, plonking down her essence-forged reaver daiklaive on the table. Cash winced as the daiklaive scratched the varnish.

The circle agreed that something had to be done – and quickly, but storming a changeling hold did require some preparation.

Cash quickly sent out a swarm of messengers, both to alert the rest of Firewander’s ponies of the new changeling threat, but also to notify any patrolling mercs and gangs to stop any ponies they see who have been ensnared by the ‘changeling smell’ – Sullen Hoof’s involvement wasn’t mentioned.

Sunrise left to assemble her following – they might not be warriors, but they could help corral mesmerized ponies. Red with her to provide security in case the changelings objected to their mesmerized victims being diverted back home.

Shimmer had a different idea, but it did require a bit of cooperation with the mercenaries in and around Firewander: She wanted to shapeshift into a giant seagull – as big as when the circle had fought the Water Walkers – so she could blow the ill winds of the changelings away from the city. Cash advised against the plan: “It’d take way too long to convince all those mercs not to shoot at you once they see a giant gull appear above them”

Shimmer frowned, but Speaker comforted her: “It’s ok sweety, I have something I’ll need your help with anyway – first I need you to make as much room as possible elsewhere…”

Speaker and Shimmer moments later for a nearby warehouse Cash owned where Shimmer recalled all the things Shimmer held elsewhere – the stack of jade talents from Denansdor, a big sack of gold, gems and jewelry also from Denansdor, a catapult, a small wooden hut, a fishing boat and several other things – most of which either mystified Speaker or just made him wonder why Shimmer had such things stored elsewhere…

With lots of room elsewhere Speaker and Shimmer quickly flew over to the Nighthammer district where they hit up several foundries, buying up quite a lot of iron. Shimmer stashed several piles of iron bars elsewhere, while Speaker also bought a big sack full of cast iron pots and pans that Shimmer equally put elsewhere.

As they returned to Brookside to gather for a final pre-assault briefing, Shimmer marveled as Speaker used his essence all the way there to reduce several large iron bars into razor sharp throwing stars and chakrams. The Iron bars simply fell apart around him into small shuriken or bits of metal rings that seemed to assemble themselves in the air around him, all the while Speaker gazed at them with furious concentration.

As Shimmer’s cloud approached the rendezvous point Speaker instructed her not to dissipate the cloud. The rest of the circle, sans the missing Sullen Hoof, got on and then Shimmer guided the cloud up and towards the center of Firewander, towards the source of the wyld energies that plagued the district.

Just like when they had first approached the city from the air, the capitol building of ancient Hollow stood ablaze with rainbow flame. It was impossible to see any actual features of the building as the brightly colored wyld flames that had given Firewander its name were quite opaque… plus looking directly at the flames wasn’t healthy, since it could sear your mind with wyld chaos if you looked for too long.

Around the massive capitol building swarmed thousands of small pony-sized changelings like a cloud of greens, brown and colors that just weren't natural, flying on wings that weren’t really wings, but merely imagined things that sort of looked like wings… so some looked like large leaves attached to bodies of fanged fruit, or wings of bark sheets for wolves of timber and so on – the only common theme among the changelings visible was that they were clearly predatory, having either claws, hook-limbs, large fangs or strange combinations of them all... well, that was all the circle bothered to spot, for they had more important things to do now!

Shimmer dove with her cloud from high above, the swarm spreading momentarily as one of Shimmer’s piles of elsewhere-stored iron was dumped ahead of the cloud. The few changelings caught under the falling iron debris howled and screamed in pain as their fake bodies were unmade.

As they reached the ground, Shimmer set the cloud down the circle quickly disembarked, the changeling swarm reforming instantly above them - almost as if nothing had happened, though a few dozen nearby changelings did appear to be approaching in a decidedly hostile maner.

“Ok… surrounded by changelings, now what?” Cash asked out loud.

Speaker raised his right forehoof and slowly lowered it to the ground.. From elsewhere he drew his mechanical shoe, with its multiple tiny pistons and tubes of iridescent fluid that sloshed around – which then burst forth with solar essence that projected the very law of creation around Speaker, purging a sphere about eight yards in diameter centered on him: “Now we gallop in through the rainbow flames!”

The changeling swarm came at the circle from all directions – some even seeping up from the warped remains of what had once been the mosaic tiles covering the vast square around the ancient capitol building, but the circle gave no quarter and didn’t stick around to be properly engaged.

As the circle got close to the wall of fire that was the outside of the old capitol building Speaker found the ‘heat’ emitted from the fire to be… strange. It wasn’t hot, but it was none the less very intense, though not to the body. This was wyld fire, and it would sear your very soul for it was a concentrated emission of wyld energy. The few ponies in sight, mesmerized by the smell of Sullen Hoof’s cooking, who got close to the fire only lasted for a few seconds before twisting and warping. Some vaporized, some turned to liquid, some fell as their limbs turned into something other than flesh – and yet they pushed on, trying to reach that which had so taken control of their senses by inching along on the ground in a grotesque and pathetic display.

Beyond the ponies drawn in by the smells of wonder the square was devoid of mortal life, with only changelings swarming around – with some trying to attack the circle. When Speaker’s sphere of normalcy brushed up against the wyldfire a strange thing happened: The fire disappeared, much in the same way that putting up an umbrella would make rain go away underneath it. The circle, walking close to Speaker, thus passed through the corrupting flames that wreathed the grand palatial building.

Inside the firewall the ‘weather’ was surprisingly calm… there was no sign of any kind of fire – and Speaker quickly concluded via essence sight that the wyldfire indeed seemed to be an ‘outer’ thing only. The ancient first age palace still stood resplendent, though with many a claw mark and other bits and pieces of refuse scattered around it and its broken mosaic windows. From ground level the palace seemed towering beyond measure, though from their flights the circle knew that it wasn’t as tall as the council tower.

“That doesn’t make sense – if a building is burning with flames all around it there should be fire inside” Cash said as the confusion levels for the whole circle rose.

Speaker’s essence sight gave little in the way of clues, neither did Shimmer’s third eye as she shifted into her warform – but they didn’t get all that much time to think as five rather familiar-looking and larger than average changelings stepped forth from stilled shadows…

The Lookshyan twilight caste Solar had only seen these cataphractoi changelings a few times before, but he recalled them well: They had assaulted him and Shimmer repeatedly back when he had been practicing his wyld shaping technique – indeed, if not for the timely intervention of their friendly deathknight the Bodhisatva Shimmer would likely have been killed by them.

It was well known among nearly ponies across creation that some changelings were more dangerous than others. Generic minion changelings could, if caught alone, be defeated with only moderate risk to life and limb if one had access to iron tools or weapons – but they were usually imagined into being by the hundreds or even thousands, and such acts of literally ‘creative thinking’ was usually done by the officers of a truly powerful changeling’s court. These five changelings were such warrior generals, cataphracts each in their own rights, lesser nobles among the changeling courts with bodies larger and more martially ornate than that of the changelings in the swarm outside.

The five cataphracts approached the circle slowly with a light canter. Their bodies reflected the circumstances of their creation: Like the changelings swarming outside, these greater changelings had bodies that looked like vicious predatory plants and beasts, but they didn’t have the purely feral look that their lesser kin on the outside had. There was a cruel and driven fury in their eyes – even if their eyes seemed to be orbs of black ebony wood inlaid with glowing yellow gems.

Red readied herself with her essence-shaped blade in front of the circle, though still within the safe zone that Speaker’s ‘normalcy’ charm provided. Indeed, around the sphere that Speaker was forcing to obey the natural and divine laws of creations the ground seemed more… alive. The tiles that seemed cover the particular lobby they were in appeared to have ‘sprouted’ roots and intertwined with each other – and where the cataphracts stomped with their clawed hooves the tiles bled various green and yellow ichors, as if slain by their very presence.

Worst was the cataphract who seemed to be a strange mix of pony, feline and metallic features. It was impossible to see where its armor began and its flesh stopped, and the tiles it heavy steel hooves smashed down on unwound their sprouted roots and at the same time somehow submitting to the changeling lording over them, but also stabbing their little roots at the circle…

Shimmer unfurled her wings to leap at the changelings when Speaker shouted for her to stay with the circle: “If we get separated they can pick us off one by one – you know how it went last time you tangled with those things” - Shimmer did not listen, her hate of chanelings overpowering her senses.

The metal and cat-like cataphract stepped forth and opened its mouth, which revealed a second head covered in teeth which snarled menacingly. As Shimmer impacted from her sudden charge she somehow flipped herself around, grabbing hold of each of the five cataphracts at the neck or throat – one with each taloned limb and pinning the metal feline one by biting around its head with her strong beak. It was clear that she wouldn’t be able to maintain her holds for very long, but a few split seconds was all the circle needed:

Red and Speaker needed no encouragement to exploit the situation. Speaker threw a hoof-full of iron chakrams at the changelings, which exploded into brilliant bursts of gossamer vapors and impossible howls of pain. When the dust had settled the changeling cataphracts all bore great holes in their bodies, as if they were broken porcelain, revealing the true nature of their false forms.

A split second later Red swung her mighty blade and shot molten sunlight from it, aimed at these exposed weaknesses. Of the five cataphracts three fell as the lie they had told creation regarding the truth of their existence was undone, their false reality shattered. The steel lion cataphract roared at the sight of its kin’s broken shards dissolving into essence, curling around Shimmer’s as if its body was less cat and more a squid or snake. Shimmer’s hold on the other remaining cataphract failed as she could not breathe… or hear Speaker shouting, or see Red blasting at her foe with bolts of molten sunlight from the edge of her blade.

For the rest of the circle the situation seemed absurd: Shimmer’s entire front half appeared encased in a constricting steel ball – and unlike the other cataphracts who all burned at the touch of iron, then this one… all the iron chakrams that Speaker had flung at it simply bounced off its metal hide.