Having spent most of her life as a mercenary, Red knew the ins and outs of battle well: Pointy bits go in the other pony, you get out alive. That said, she could not be accused of being a great strategist. Her straightforwardness in battle had worked well while serving under others – you just waited for them to sound the horn and then you charge, killing anyone who is coming at you. Sadly, this was also her plan to deal with the changelings: Run in and ‘just’ kill them.

“Red, you do realize that we don’t really know where the changeling lord is?” Shimmer noted.

Red didn’t appear to see the problem.

“I was taken down to the changeling lord, once… just when I’d been captured” Sullen Hoof began.

All of the circle around the dining table listen with rapt attention, while occasionally also sampling some of the stir fried fish and veg that Sully had whipped up for the occasion. Apparently the old capital building… changed… once you got deeper down. Sullen Hoof didn’t have words for it, but said that he was put before a master of the changelings – the one who forced the idea into his head that he should cook for until he died from exhaustion.

“Hold on – how did they catch you to begin with? You took out a sidereal up in the Jade Kitchen” Red objected, sounding very much as if she found it difficult to fathom that Sullen Hoof had been in any way defeated by anything less powerful than such a foe.
Sullen Hoof shook his head. It was difficult to for him to explain how he was defeated, for he didn’t understand it that well: “It was like… I faced a cataphract that had a body unlike the ones with vegetable or wooden shapes, it was black, and shiny. It said that all who stood before him could no longer fight and… I don’t know how, but that was suddenly true”

“I don’t get it – he spooked you or what?” Shimmer inquired, trying to pinpoint what splinter of wyld taint had been lodged in Sully’s mind to convince him of such a thing.

Sullen Hoof couldn’t really answer. It was clear that it had been difficult for him to come to terms with – suddenly being robbed of the ability to fight. He then explained that after that the cataphract took his bravery, so he would cower, and then his conviction, so he wouldn’t object.

“That’s what changelings do – they eat your mind, and make your offer it up willingly” Shimmer said, with such venom in her voice that none could mistake her hatred of changelings.

Sunrise cleared her throat, indicating to the others that she wished to speak. Shimmer and Sully both gestured for her to say her word: “I think what Sullen Hoof was subjected to was a curse of definition”

Shimmer mulled over the suggestion for a few moments, then she nodded: “Sounds about right. It’s a powerful changeling ‘attack’ – more a narrative assault, rewriting your fate so you can’t do certain things, like fight”.

The obvious question to follow up with was how to avoid such wyld magic being forced upon oneself. Sunrise had a simple answer to this, in the form of an at the same time basic and advanced meditative koan, which would invoke what Sunrise called integrity-protecting prana: “Speaker, do you know any meditative techniques?” Sunrise asked.

Speaker couldn’t say that he knew much, only what little basic after-battle contemplations that the seventh legion had taught him, as means to mentally deal with the horrors of war.

“Good enough – use your teaching charm, teach the others – in a week I’lll teach you all this charm, then we will be safe from the viles of the changelings” Sunrise calmy noted.

From the look on her face, it was clear that Red didn’t want to wait a week – but it was also readily apparent that she didn’t want to become victim of some curse that would leave her unable to fight.

Speaker did as Sunrise suggested, Cash adding that with a week to prepare he could buy up even more iron for the assault. Shimmer said that she’d keep tabs on the square around the capitol building, to see if the changelings reformed the swarm. Speaker wasn’t sure what to spend the time doing, but Shimmer said that she was sure that he’d find something worthwhile to do.
“I’ll keep tabs on the immaculates… if they do anything now it’ll jeopardize our attack” Sullen Hoof noted, as he put his orichalcum helmet-mask on again and activated its power, altering his appearance into that of a quite forgettable ordinary-looking brown-coated stallion with a black mane.

The next day the circle adjourned and everyone parted for whatever tasks they had chosen to occupy themselves with before the attack on the changelings.

Speaker returned to the hospital, helping where needed, while contemplating the very real probability that the changelings might put similar curses of definition on the rest of the circle during the planned attack. The unshaping gun could only help one. This was unacceptable!

Pacing about his office in the hospital, barely even paying attention to the old mare with scrapes on her knees and bruises on her as he let his essence treat her joint pains from a life of carrying loads that were too heavy, Speaker thought furiously about how such a curse of definition even worked. He knew how to reshape wyld energy into things of creation, which a curse of definition basically also did – only altering a thing of creation to have slightly different parameters of function.

The old mare left, happy that her back and legs no longer ached, a young colt replacing her on the the examination table without Speaker even noticing.

His staff quickly figured out that they might as well not to try to talk to Speaker as he powered through half a dozen more patients, mumbling to himself as he pondered the secrets of changeling powers based on what he remembered from wyld safaris in the first age and his experiences from this lifetime. In the afternoon he ordered messengers be sent throughout Nexus, calling for mutants who sought a cure to their inhuman abnormalities, as well as a promise of pay if they would submit to medical experiments that might ultimately fix them.

The next morning three dozen mutants arrived at the hospital, many of them very much worse for wear – the common pony of Nexus, or most of Creation for that matter, fearing and hating mutants, with the usual predictable violence to follow. Speaker cared little for their sob-stories. Oh sure, he listened, but his attention was elsewhere: He was trying to get a feel via essence sight of the secret patterns of the pony soul and its mystic essence flows – for the true root of most mutations were alterations to these flows.
A week later, when the circle reconvened at the town house, Speaker showed up with a great smile on his face. He reported that he had rediscovered the ancient solar Order Affirming technique, which he simply explained by saying that it did exactly the same as the unshaping device.

“Sweet – I guess that means that we’re safe if things go wrong. Shimmer, anything new from the capitol square?” Red said, looking confident as ever.

Shimmer’s brows furrowed as she pursed her lips. She appeared lost in thought for a moment, then said: “Hard to tell. The wyld fire surrounding the building makes it difficult to tell what’s going on inside – so they could be massing troops for all we know – but I have noticed a change in some of the drones and figments that go out to raid for new victims… they don’t look nearly as much like plants or fruits anymore, they look more like pony-sized insects now”

“A change in appearance… hmm – have you ever seen changelings do that before?” Sunrise wondered.

Shimmer nodded, but look concerned: “I have – but that’s what worries me. It could mean a change in leadership among the changelings. Getting Sully out probably upset the power balance, but it could also just mean that whatever changeling noble was in charge of perimeter security has been swapped out”

“The changeling lord I faced looked like a… a nightmare tree – but they had bug-like drones too, I’m sure” Sullen Hoof noted.
Shimmer agreed, but said that these were different: “The few bug-like drones we saw while getting you looked like pony-sized beetles and roaches – they were small servant drones. The ones I saw were warrior drones, and the cataphracts we faced coming in were mostly shaped like plant-based wolves and tigers”

The circle didn’t really know what to make of this, but Cash argued that it was a moot point. He’d been buying up iron by the pram-load, filing with warehouse with iron rods and bars so much so that at Big Market the iron mongers were all on a first name basis with him.

Satisfied that they had a suitable arsenal to engage the changelings, Red turned to Sullen Hoof: “What about the immaculates? Have they been up to anything?”

Nodding slowly, Sullen Hoof regaled how he’d intercepted several messages going out of the grand immaculate temple up on sentinel hill to various killers for hire and other ne’er-do-wells. While this did prevent any immediate attack, it was a short term solution: “…so I spiked their food with a powerful aphrodisiac. They’ll be busy dealing with the scandals of most of their monks and priests breaking their celibacy wows quite wantonly to do much about us…”

Sunrise didn’t appear all that pleased with Sully’s choice of distraction for the immaculates, but she couldn’t deny that it had been effective: “So that’s why I heard about impromptu orgies in the temple…”

The rest of the circle found Sullen Hoof’s trick fairly amusing, though Red had to admit that she had never really understood why the immaculates had to take wows of celibacy anyway – it seemed silly for a unicorn to waste their opportunity to create a bloodline of their own.

“It’s politics my good Red. Realm politics: If immaculates were allowed to have foals then their entire organization would likely devolve into a series of dynasties of hereditary positions. That would put the immaculate order on par with the other realm houses. By enforcing celibacy they distance themselves from enough of the usual political humdrum that most of the houses see them as a stabilizing influence, rather than another competitor – plus it makes for a ‘safe’ place to send unicorns who aren’t worth marrying and breeding” Cash eloquently and concisely explained.

Sunrise blinked for a moment, the quick lesson in Realm politics sinking in. As she nodded Cash added that Sully’s little trick with the afrodiciacs specifically targeted that political neutrality – which meant that the immaculates would be having all kinds of fun the next few months tracking down any pregnancies that came out of whatever unholy orgies that Sully’s trickery caused.

“Remind me to tell my elders that trick next time I meet them – they’ll love to hear about this” Shimmer chimed in, looking decidedly mischievous.

With the circle having had their laughs, Sunrise got down to business: For those had needed it – namely Red, Cash and Sullen Hoof – the basic lesson in meditation and inner calm, via his educational charm, had worked its magic. This meant that now Sunrise could teach them all a simple but obscenely powerful self defence charm: The invocation of the integrity-protecting prana, or how to expand that inner calm and certainty of self, via essence, to ones whole body. The result would be simple: It would make it impossible for any force to reshape the solar into anything one didn’t want – which would mean that no changeling would ever be able to subtle alter Sullen Hoof again so that he’d think he couldn’t fight, or turn your bowels into snakes, or worse.

To aid in this, Sunrise requested Shimmer to help her – since they had all seen back in Birdstone what Shimmer could with her mutation-inducing charm… and suddenly learning a shaping-defence charm became very both very frightening and quite amusing.
Over the next two days Shimmer had the whole circle, sans Sunrise, mutate into foals, turn pink, sprout flower petals instead of manes, get squeaky voices, plus all kinds of other fun things. Speaker, with his order-affirming charm was able to undo these mutations in turn, as Sunrise taught that integrity-protecting prana did not shield from existing mutations.

Ultimately Shimmer’s attempts at reshaping her friends into apple-sized micro-ponies stopped working as everyone got the hang of Sunrise’s technique – and so the circle felt ready to finally attack the changelings head on.

On the eve of battle Cash reported that he had notified the council of entities of the circle’s intentions – just to safe, in case they might object to it for some reason. He hadn’t heard anything from them, so by all standards of Nexus law and the lack thereof it was safe to proceed.

To most it was just another early morning in the month of Resplendant Water. As the name suggested, it was raining. In fact, it wasn’t just raining it was pouring. Thanks to the east being so mercilessly far from the west, the rainy season there was basically out of control, leading to torrential rainfall. The heavens above and the waters below were basically one.

In Nexus this had for the last many many years meant that the city would partially flood. This meant the death of thousands, a lot of property being destroyed, and of course countless business opertunities in rehousing, water damage repairs and all kinds of other fun and exploitative things. This time it was different: The waters hadn’t risen, and the city was buzzing with this revelation.

Sure, it had been raining for weeks now, and the waters did usually take a little while before it rose – but at this time for countless decades the lowest parts around the hills that made up Nexus was under water up to above the height of a grown pony.

Perhaps this was why the council of entities hadn’t objected to the circle of solars and one lunar to attack the changelings – perhaps they hoped that the circle might end that nuisance as well? This was a likely scenario, but in Creation – in Nexus – one never knew for certain. The only thing the council had done in the wake of the revelation that the changelings had been luring in more ponies than usual, which threatened the council and guild’s supply of cheap labor, was to increase mercenary patrols around the square… temporarily. Increased patrols in Firewander cost a lot more than getting new workers.

Either way five rain-soaked ponies stood at the west end of the palace square as the sun was setting, the area surrounding the wyld-burning capitol building, with the wyld-fire and dusk making everything throw off long flickering shadows that seemed to writhe by their own accord. Red was decked out in what could only be called ugly armor, for it was all iron and already starting to show rust. Shimmer was in her war-form, covered in her essence-grown bone armor. Speaker and Sunrise were both wreathed in thin shimmering shells of golden essence that sparkled as the raindrops hit them, their shield charms ready for anything. Sullen Hoof… was probably there, but you wouldn’t know if you looked – for he did not want you to see him. Cash Charmer on the other hoof was very difficult to miss, his caste mark burning bright on his forehead from the multitude of decidedly non-combat charms he had active…

The circle approached the wall of wyld fire, its brights lights giving off sensory stimuli across the board: The rain that fell into the flames seemed to either pass through it, or change into other similar-sized things as it entered into the wyld fire – making for a strange but noisy, smelly and colorful experience as pebbles, pearls, tiny gems, tiny flowers, bone splinters, dusts and wisps of air that smelled weird and other tiny things ‘rained’ down through the flames.

As Speaker powered up his mechanical hoof device, its many fluid-filled crystal cylinders pumping and hissing with steam every now and then, the flames yielded for several yards around him, giving the circle safe berth to enter through.

It took mere seconds before the now quite notably more insect-like changelings appeared, crawling out of spaces far too small for them to hide – but changelings weren’t known for obeying the laws of physics to begin with. This briefly made Speaker wonder how his order-affirming technique would work if used on a changelings… fixing and aligning the decidedly fluid and fleeting essence patterns of a changeling into something static and truly creation-born?

Speaker got a few minutes to contemplate this as Cash began the first part of the plan: He used charms to forcibly bring attention to himself – not in a fighting sense – but to make the surrounding changelings listen to him… and then he said: “I am Cash Speaker, solar eclipse caste and Lord of Brookside. I demand to see your lord and master”

The plan was simple and yet elegant: The circle would use Cash’s divine diplomatic status to get right up to the changeling lord.

There they would size up the changeling lord and see if they could defeat the bugger or not. If the odds looked good they would say that they had a gift for the changeling lord, a gift that Shimmer had stored away elsewhere: Six large piles of several thousand iron swords and cleavers, for Red and Sullen Hoof to have fun with. Sunrise was to use her smiting power freely and repeatedly, though as already seen the circle knew that the more powerful changelings would likely be immune to this power, but it would ideally clear out the drones and lesser figments. After that it would just be a matter of winning the fight and surviving to tell the tale.

Of course, Speaker knew well enough that the first casualty of any combat engagement was the battle plan – so as he curiously beheld the chitinous and segmented limbs of the pony-shaped changeling drones around him, as well as how the very insides of the capitol building looked different, he wondered just how many unexpected things the circle would encounter now.

The very layout of the capitol building appeared to have changed, as had the entire decorative theme: The rooms were all hexagonal, and the walls were clad in a faint green film of slime that only occationally yielded to reveal wax-covered walls. A quick sniff, lick and vomiting from Sully confirmed that the wax was made from pony fat rendered into this disgusting form – which explained the dozens of cocoon-like slime pod the circle passed, each with a silhouette of a non-moving pony inside, all evidently awaiting processing.

Speaker had to restrain himself not to act to help, but Cash noted that they could be released easily enough as part of the ‘negotiations’ they were about to have.

Deeper into the hive-like domain that now was the capitol building, for indeed with the insect-like drones and the hexagonal layout, the whole place felt very beehive like, the circle was ultimately led to what appeared to be the ‘bottom’ of the very hive structure – a feat that wouldn’t have been easy for mortal ponies, as at that depth the hexagonal nature of the hive didn’t just apply to the walls, but also the ceiling and the floors, making traversing the rooms an exercise in doorways with three yard sheer drops and other design features that only made sense to the changelings, in that the drones all had wings like wasps or hornets, and ‘hooves’ with hooks to hold on to the ceiling or walls when tending to their ‘pods’. Luckily most of the circle had their athletics charms, allowing them to balance and maneuver easily – though Sunrise had to cling to Shimmer’s back to safely get around.

At the very bottom the drone leading them to the changeling lord flew down a large hole in the ground that looked mostly like an old well. It was a vertical drop that just extended into darkness.

“Shimmer?” Red tentatively asked.

The lunar nodded and flew down the hole, Sunrise on her back. A few moments later the two came back up, Shimmer saying that a platform was coming up.

Indeed, half a minute later a platform of what appeared to be solid amber came out of the darkness and hovered in place just long enough for the circle to get on board.

As it descended into darkness a light become apparent at the bottom. As the platform passed into that, it instantly became clear that the circle was now in a vast cavern, lit by glowing lights that seemed to be stuck to the walls and ceilings. Flying high above the ground were also dozens of glowing creatures, evidently lesser changelings wrought only to be living light fixtures. They flew around in beautiful patterns, pulsing out light in many colors in a constant display of unreal entertainment.

The combined light shined off many a sleek and curved chitinous curve down on the floor, the shiny black carapace-like creations making for a strange but none the less majestic throne room for the changeling lord. The changeling lord itself a larger than normal changeling with a crown of black gems and a mane of iridescent green, twice the size of a normal pony.

The platform landed just in front of the changeling lord’s court.

The scene was at the same time familiar and yet undeniably bizarre. Around the changeling lord in the middle were dozen of strange and different looking courtiers, undoubtedly emissaries and visitors from other changeling holds in Creation, plus one particularly miserable looking writhing pile of tentacles, fur and eye-stalks that seemed to languish behind the throne in spiked chains of metal and bone.

The last creature seemed familiar to Shimmer, suddenly became very quiet and – somehow, despite her having a beak instead of a normal mouth – seemed to bare her fangs…

“Shimmer, what’s wrong?” Speaker whispered.

With all three of her eyes trained on the thing behind the changeling lord, Shimmer hizzed one word: “Chimera”

It was then that Cash Charmer began his main part of the ruse the circle had planned. Before the changeling master of ceremony could speak, Cash introduced the circle with bold words and a glorious golden aura, and bid the changeling lord introduce itself… basically a very rude stunt in a courtly setting, but it was a calculated risk: First of all this wasn’t a court of pony nobles, so the changelings might have procedures that were quite bizarre, and secondly it was meant to present the circle in an aggressive manner… this wasn’t a friendly visit, even if it might not result in battle.

The master of ceremonies, a very tall pony-shaped insect with almost comically long legs and neck, chittered for a moment – likely its way of clearing its throat – but a gesture from its lord made it go silent in an instant.

“Greetings mighty Exalted guests to my court. I am Queen Chrysalis, ruler of Nexus” the noble changeling on the throne declared, introducing herself in a surprisingly normal fashion compared to how changelings were often depicted in pony tales, where they often only spoke in riddles, or could only communicate via dream-eaten puppets.

Rising from her throne, an act that revealed the full might of her insectoid body, with its features wrought in the shape of a pony, only bigger, ‘better’ and ‘more beautiful’ (From the point of view of the changelings) – like her drones and figments she had wasp-like wings sprouting from her back, scaled up to her size, on her head above her slitted eyes was a great black horn. This ‘queen’ of Nexus didn’t just have a form that caricatured the mightiest aspects of ponies, no she was parodying the mightiest of gods! With a long and powerful, yet inexplicably elegant limb that terminated in a hoof of notable polished but alien beauty, Chrysalis haughtily gestured as she inquired: “To what do I owe the pleasure of such illustrious visitors to my court?”

From just behind his ear Speaker heard Sullen Hoof’s voice whisper to him: “That is not the nightmare king I saw… but this is the right place. I’m counting five dozen drones, a dozen bigger ones that I’m guessing are insect-shaped cataphracts and then ugly behind the throne. Did Shimmer say it was a chimera? What’s that?”

“No idea, but I like these numbers. Be ready for gifts” Speaker returned, speaking as quietly as possible. He couldn’t see where Sullen Hoof was, but assumed he was close enough to hear him.

While it hadn’t been planned for that extensively, then during their planning Shimmer had noted that if Cash could at the very least tire the changeling ruler with droning rhetoric and attempts of mind-control, then that could greatly benefit the circle once the fighting began – and so, deploying his full array of social charms which caused his anima to flare up around him like golden fire, Cash proudly and loudly gave this changeling queen the circle’s ultimatum: “As stated, then I represent the leaders and owners of the Brookside neighborhood of the Firewander District. I am here to demand that you and your minions cease and desist any and all attacks on the ponies of Nexus! In return we offer a non-aggression pact to this court and its agents”

His words struck all who heard him with such force that it was impossible to simply ignore what he said, such was his terrifying apparition of glory, such was his majestic radiant presence as he stood in front of the changeling court clad in heavenly garb and speaking honeyed words so empowered by essence, so seductive, that it actually looked as if the queen was going to submit to his demands… but then again, Cash had hit the queen with everything he had, using charms to insert feelings of awe and dread to all who heard him, as well as igniting his own salesman spirit with furious essence.

About two thirds of the changeling queen’s court knelt down and wept, many crying out to beg for forgiveness for their transgressions against their visiotrs, as their feeble minds yielded to Cash’s potent mind control. In response to this Queen Crysalis stomped her hoof mightily, the very cavern shaking, as she shouting: “Silence! I shall determine whether this request is worthy…”

As if on cue, Cash threw Queen Crysalis a truly venomous grin: “Well before you pass judgement, let me sweeten the deal…”

Shimmer nodded, knowing that this was her signal. With a series of vigorous hops, skips and jumps, Shimmer retrieved the piles of pristine master-crafted iron swords that Speaker had fashioned from the tons of iron that Cash had bought earlier, which caused Sunrise fall off her back very quickly, her landing in one of the piles of swords and then scrambling back onto Shimmer’s back.
The Queen’s reaction to that much iron being dumped into her court… well it didn’t really sit that well with her. With a furious shriek she howled: “Iron!? In my court! Slave, kill them!”

From behind the throne, the pulsating mutation that Shimmer had noticed earlier sprung to life – its quivering flesh falling off in great slimy chunks as its body erupted into a sleeker but none the less disturbing form that seemed to sprout, shed and even eject various horns, insect limbs and eye-stalks in a continuous and nauseating display.

Shimmer and Red quickly stepped in to intercept the monster, the three colliding in a tangle of flailing tentacles that seemed to be unable to decide whether they should be scaled, or covered in suckers, or even be attached to the monster in the first place…
What Speaker found even more disturbing was the fact that at various points during this martial skirmish various lunar caste marks would briefly light up parts of the monster’s body… this thing was a lunar, or had been. Perhaps that was what Shimmer had meant by chimera?

“Why isn’t it dying!?!” Red shouted, her gleaming reaver daiklaive cutting multiple long gashes into the monster – but only pale semi-transparent green slime gushed out before the wounds closed seconds later.

Shimmer, her bone-armor similarly drenched in the slime, howled and squawked menacingly as she clawed away on the beast, apparently too busy to answer, assuming that she even knew how to slay the thing.

Looking at the fight, Speaker noticed that Sunrise wasn’t on Shimmer’s back anymore, instead over in a corner of the cavern looking rather distressed. Quickly moved over to her, all the while keeping an eye on the fight, and asked what was wrong.
“It’s this place… it’s a lie” Sunrise said in a rather despairing tone.

Speaker wasn’t sure what the Zenith caste Solar meant, but figured that she was referring to the inherently fake nature of the changelings: “I know – we’re here to stop that, but is that what’s got you so spooked?”

Sunrise shook her head, her beautiful orange mane bouncing effortlessly: “No it’s… it’s this cave, but don’t think about it! Don’t! When the fight is over we can talk”

“Ok…” Speaker said, really not liking how distraught Sunrise sounded. She was usually always a pillar of calm and collectedness.
As Speaker turned to check on the fight, Red, Shimmer and the monster turning out to be frighteningly evenly matched, Sunrise tugged on the back part of Speaker’s uniform: “Does changeling glamour persist after the changeling is destroyed?”

“Yes, until you point out it’s an illusion it basically remains real as far as ordinary pony senses go” Speaker noted, oblivious to what Sunrise was hinting at.

Approaching Speaker and Shimmer, Cash inquired if Speaker had any clue as to how Red and Shimmer could defeat the monster: “The thing just… goops up whenever they cut into it. A moment ago Shimmer yanked off a head it had sprouted, but it just dissolved into goo as well”

“Maybe it’s a powerful regeneration charm? Hmm… perhaps if they cauterize the wounds before the close?” Speaker wondered, drawing on his medical knowledge to come up with an idea.

“Hey, Speaker says try to burn it!” Cash shouted, Red quickly leaping into the air and swinging her broad-bladed weapon around her as it began trailing bright droplets of molten sunlight. With a final twist of her body as she reached the peak of her leap she flung her blade towards the monster, the trailing arc of liquid righteous fury it trailed ripping away from the blade and launching itself like a glob of lava made of pure light.

The sound of the impact wasn’t much. It was liquid on liquid basically, but a split second later the hiss that came when the hot holiness began to explosively evaporate the horribly mutated pony exalt within…

A few seconds later the whole writhin mess exploded like a slimy balloon, coating everything in sight in a chunks of wiggly flesh and slime. It didn’t smell particularly bad, it felt quite weird. Suffice to say that the queen didn’t take well to having her slave destroyed:
“Kill them!” she roared, her mouth opening in a way that made it appear as if her lower jaw wasn’t really connected to her body – a truly unnerving sight.

Without anyone needing to tell her to, Sunrise rose from her corner and flared her anime, having had plenty of time to silently warm up for her grand performance: “In the name of the most high: Your aggression is denied!”

The pulse of light from her anima made deadly with her well-honed thoroughly practiced smiting charms reduced almost everything in the room to either ash or smoldering hollow carapaces – of course, there had been several hundred changelings in attendance at the court, so even with almost everything dead the survivors were quite numerous, though every changeling bore grevious burn marks from Sunrise’s smiting.

The no-surprise fight that ensued was fairly one-sided – it was a slaughter: Between Red’s and Sullen Hoof’s whirlwind of cleaver – Sully who revealed his presence by planting five iron cleavers into the heads of five strange looking changelings, likely emissaries or visitors from other courts – and Shimmer using her essence threads to blast a web at the ceiling exit to trap all the changelings in the cavern, Sunrise smiting anything that got close to her, and Speaker throwing iron chakrams left and right, everything went as planned.

Perhaps it was his inner glory-hog, perhaps it was because she hadn’t moved from her throne to engage any of the others, but Cash had moved to engage the very changeling Queen! It quickly proved to be a futile onslaught: Even with his charms of near peer-less martial proves with his Hoof the Daystar style of martial arts, further augmented by his fierce bladed shoes, then Cash found that he simply could not hurt this fiendish changeling.

When dust from the slaughter of the rest of the court settled the unnatural sounds of Cash’s bladed hooves merely scratching the changeling queen’s carapace body was all that remained, the queen not appearing that worried or upset of the destruction of her court.

Indeed, when Red joined the fray with half a dozen iron swords floating about her the queen didn’t even flinch – the iron bouncing off her form just as much as Cash’s shoe-claws.

This perplexed Speaker, who observed the battle carefully: The queen bore the ‘holes’ and scorch-marks of prior exposure to iron, indeed her horn and limbs were riddled with them, a testament to many battles with iron-wielding ponies. The real question was why she she seemed so invincible now? Shimmer was quick to come up with an answer:

“She’s using gossamer shields!” the lunar howled, the rest of the circle looking mostly uncertain in how to respond to this information.

Speaker knew well enough what Shimmer meant: Gossamer was the stuff of dreams, literally. When a changelings ravages a pony, the material drawn forth from the pony’s mind is in the form of gossamer, which a changeling can then consume to fuel its powers in the same way a pony might eat a hay sandwich to fuel its body. Of course, knowing this didn’t inform a solution: Gossamer was inherently of creation, so cold iron and holy smiting had no effect against it – and this changeling queen seemed to have a limitless of the stuff…

Ultimately Cash stopped attacking the changeling queen. He gestured for Red to do the same. The clattering of iron swords on the ground did not sit well with the dawn caste Solar: Her scowl made that very clear.

“Foolish ponies – I am Queen Crysalis, of the shell never-broken! I can reform my court with but a thought – so everything you do here is a futile gesture” the changeling queen boasted.

Red fumed, stomping the ground hard. The delicate looking glass floor with its ever-changing mosaics that showed insect-like changelings doing all kinds of things neither cracked nor bulged – though it did make Speaker wonder if the floor had been a mosaic before Red had struck it. Either way this was a bad situation: The fight, while brief, had left everyone at least half-drained of essence, but then Cash strode up the queen at her throne and did something strange…

He tried to push her. She did not move – though she did spout a few additional bemused remarks about how feeble Solars clearly were.

“I wouldn’t say that…” Cash commented, sounding oddly confident, considering the situation.

Speaker couldn’t help but wonder what Cash was up to… Shimmer seemed quite intrigued as well.
Leaning in close to Crysalis, Cash whispered something.

The queen’s eyes bulged. She trembled, and nervously fidgeted with her hooves. She looked at Cash, then looked at the rest of the circle – then she snapped her mouth open and emitted an errily echoing howl as her hooves began to calcify into solid chunks of salt… and in a split second reaction she tore her legs off, stopping the calcification – but also evidently ripping a gory chunk of milky slime from her torso which seemed locked in place as she moved her body away.

With a speed that even Red or Sullen Hoof couldn’t match, Crysalis’s wings buzzed to life and zipped her up into the air, only for her to then slam down through the glass mosaic floor of her court and disappear into the darkness below, screaming: “I will get you for this Cash Charmer! I will have my revenge!”

The rest of the circle looked on in surprise. Red, still furious that for all her martial might she could do nothing, was the first to ask the obvious question: “The bloody hell did you just do!?”

“I just convinced her of a little something and said two words – and if you can guess them I’ll jump Big Market wearing nothing but pink body paint and rattle-bells” Cash beamed, looking very pleased with himself, as the lights above the court dimmed, with both the flying glow-changelings having been destroyed by Sunrise’s smiting, but now also the magical lights winked out. The only remaining light sources at this point was the circle itself, with everyone glowing brightly from massive essence expenditures.
Just as Shimmer was about to suggest that the circle leave chunk of slime that floated where Crysalis had stood on the throne began to evaporate. Red, Shimmer and Sunrise paid it no heed. Cash let out a small chuckle as he deftly trotted over the glass mosaic flooring – the mosaic figures under his hooves seemingly shying away from him, while also shying away from the hole the now thoroughly de-throned Crysalis had left.

It was Speaker stumbling over backwards and crying out “Gods no!” that got everyone’s attention.

When the slime had evaporated a single object was behind floating in mid air. As the circle turned, they saw it: Milky white, with ever so faint shapes and colors shifting around under its surface. It was no larger than a big apple, perfectly spherical and had a faint white vapor emitting from it – and Speaker knew what it was… and the mere sight of it, considering its condition, was draining the blood from his face.

Shimmer was the first to pick up on Speaker’s fearful reaction: “What is that thing?”

“It… it’s a...” Speaker began, finally taking a deep breath and composing himself: “It’s a protoshinmaic vortex!”

Now, with Speaker’s extensive and almost perfect recall of his past life memories he knew quite well what a protoshimnaic vortex was – the rest of the circle… not so much, so even with Speaker having said the thing’s name they couldn’t all see why they should fear it.

They didn’t know that it was an artifact thought into being mere centuries before the Usurpation, at the very peak of the first age. They didn’t know that to make one, a solar would have to go so far into the wyld that no shred of the stability or sanity of creation could be felt, then siphon all of that pure chaos into a single object of limitless potential… and that it should not be emitting anything without being hooked up to proper siphoning apparatuses, for that was a sign that it was breaking apart. They didn’t know that PSV ruptures were some of the most destructive events recorded in the first age outside of the atrocities committed in the primordial war as the primordials saw that they could not win. They didn’t know that a cracked PSV would reduce half of Nexus to a smoldering crater so large that it would likely drain both the grey and yellow river for months, just to fill the hole. They didn’t know that all the lands around the crater would be flooded with wyld energy to the point that it would likely be a deathblow to river commerce and travel all throughout the scavenger lands…

Worst of all: They didn’t know that you couldn’t fix a PSV once it started to fail… or that once the breakdown began, that you usually only had a few minutes to get as far away as possible!

Speaker tried to explain these concepts to the circle, though all he managed to say was that they had to get away – away from ‘that thing’, away from Nexus, right now!

Shimmer quickly recognized Speaker’s sense of urgency and fear and didn’t question it – but Red had never been one to ever show fear…

“So this is thing is the source of the changeling’s power here?” Red said solemnly, gazing coldly at the white orb.
Speaker would have loved it if he had time to sit Red and the circle down to explain the situation in detail – hurried thinking wasn’t his style: “Yes, and it’s about to blow, so get on the lunar!”

The rest of the circle didn't hesitate long before making towards Shimmer, who was already over at Sunrise to pick her up. Red turned towards the circle, then looked back at the orb: “No! If this thing is why so many ponies have suffered from changeling attacks here, then we can’t just leave it for other changelings to draw power from!”

“Don’t be daft! You can’t fight a thing that’s about to blow up! This is out of our hooves, now let’s get out of here!” Shimmer called out – but Red didn't listen… for she was hearing something else.

Then the circle heard it as well: It quickly became loud and clear. It began as beautiful female singing in an alien language, like a choir, along with strange melodic clanging, like bits of metal being struck, plus an underlying distorted and pulsing sound that certainly weren't of any instrument that had ever existed joining in moments later. At the same time flurries of air gathered around Red and coalesced into her anima – but not in its usual totemic expression.

Red’s fiery golden aura spread outward, warping reality around her, all the while Red herself began to gallop towards the protoshinmaic vortex – the distance between her and the PSV stretching as well, despite Red galloping faster and faster.
Then the sound of a single flute joined the song, which despite being sung in a language that none in the circle knew, was perfectly clear in its message: It was a song of elated victory, joy and might.

The rest of the circle watched in a mix of awe and horror as the illusion which was the dark throne room yielded to a new reality – one of a seemingly endless sunlit field of grass on Red strode, followed by an equally endless legion of ponies in brilliant golden armor that had simply come into existence out of Red’s ever-expanding anima.

From high above, buoyed by Shimmer’s wing beats, the circle saw as Red herself changed as well, the intensity of the music increasing as impossibly beautiful armor of the purest orichalcum formed around her, armor that bore her cutie mark. Above her floated an orichalcum reaver daiklaive of such beauty and subtle elegance that it defied words.

As Red approached the PSV across her field of glory the music reached its mighty crescendo, Red leaping high into the air with her blade poised to strike… and then, in a act of martial serenity that ten thousands warrior poets would gladly drain their inkwells dry to describe, only to weep them full them again with their tears that they might write of it once more, Red struck the orb and the music ended.

Author's Note

You should have known what was going to happen once you hear Mami's theme...