Living with the Night

Chapter 9

The Broken Armor

For once in what felt like months, the man had a full night’s sleep without any kind of crazy dream. Although, he did feel an odd weight on his chest. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was on his couch, Pip was asleep on the floor with a blanket draped over him. Connor felt movement and looked down only to have his face flush deep red. There, with her arm’s wrapped around the man’s torso and using his chest as a pillow was Princess Luna without her disguise on. She let out a soft snore as she nuzzled his chest.

She’s really cute like this.

Shut up brain. If Pip wakes up and sees her then we’re both screwed. The man tried to lightly lift the mare’s arm off him, but the mare only squeezed tighter and she groaned.

“No Tia....this is my cake.” She said in a groggy tone. The man concluded that she was dreaming. “I won’t let you taste it before me.” The man then felt something wet and rough graze across his neck and slide over his cheek up to is hairline. The human had just been licked by Princess Luna. The sensation stopped when she reached his hair making her cough. Luna’s eyes slowly opened and her sight registered. She looked down at the human and blushed red as she noticed the fresh saliva trail going across his face.

Connor only sighed and with as much dignity as he could muster. Said this.

“So how do I taste?” Luna’s blush only deepened and instantly jumped off the man landing on the other end of the couch. Connor sat up and realized his face was burning bright red.

“We are most sor-” The man quickly tackled her and put his hand over her mouth. Luna’s blush increased as she felt his chest press against her body. The man put a finger to his lips and made the ‘shhh’ sound. He motioned his head towards the sleeping colt and leaned in to whisper.

“You don’t have your disguise on. If Pip sees you he’ll flip.” Luna nodded and the man got off him. The Princess hurried upstairs as the young colt stirred.

“Ugh, that be the last time the captain drinks too much grog.”

“You had apple cider.”

“The captain says grog!” The child yawned. Connor looked at the clock and his eyes shrank.

“Pip, get your stuff. Cherilee is going to kill me if you’re late for school.”

“Relax,” He said switching back to his normal way of speaking. “there’s no school today.” The man looked out the window and saw that it was a nice autumn day out.

“Why?”

“Are ye soft in the head? It’s Nightmare Night!”

It is? The human checked the calendar and saw that it was indeed Nightmare Night. Yes free candy! The two then heard a low pitched moan.

“See? The spirits are restless!” He said as he walked over to the table and Connor set out some cereal bowls.

~~~

In the upstairs bathroom Luna let the warm water wash over her fur and she ran her fingers through her mane and tail. Her blushing cheeks wouldn’t cease even when she changed to cold water it wouldn’t quell her flushing cheeks.

It was bad enough that I saw him exposed, now I’ve just licked him! She thought with blushing cheeks.

It wasn’t a bad sight. He was as big as an average stallion, perhaps a little bigger?

Silence! Luna turned the water off and quickly got dressed before putting on her disguise. She walked down to see the two at the breakfast table.

“Morning Azure.” Connor said with a smile. “Pip here was just telling me that it’s Nightmare Night.”

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed.” Luna had a hint of sadness in her tone.

“What are you going as?” Pip asked.

“I am not going to celebrate.” The young colt almost spat out his mouthful of orange juice at the words.

“WHAT? How can you not celebrate Nightmare Night? It’s like the best holiday ever!” Luna sighed at the words. “Hey Connor, do you think Princess Luna will show up?” Azure and the human gulped.

“I’m not sure Pip. What do you think Azure?” Luna glared at the human.

What are you doing?

Hey it’s your holiday. Who am I to speak for you? A familiar Old Spice jingle then caught the man’s attention. He saw it was Twilight and answered it. “Hey Twi, what’s up?....Uh, sure I can come over....Okay I’ll see you in a few.” He hung up the phone and looked at the two ponies.

“Who was that?” Pip asked.

“Twilight. She wanted to talk to me about something so I’m heading out now, Twilight gets anal about punctuality.” Luna giggled as she remembered Tia telling her about her student’s many freak outs. “See you later tonight Pip.” The man said before walking out the door into the streets of Ponyville.

As he walked through the sleepy town he saw that Pinkie had already started working on the decorations for the Nightmare Night festival. He climbed the familiar crystal steps leading to the Castle of Friendship as it came to be called by the locals. Connor walked inside to see Spike hanging up decorations inside on a ladder that looked rather unstable. “Morning Spike.” The man’s voice startled the young drake making him loose his balance on the ladder and falling towards the ground.

Connor winced as the dragon hit the ground hard. Connor would be more worried if he didn’t know that Spike’s scales were thicker than metal. The dragon shook his head and he groaned. “Sorry about that.”

“Relax I’m fine. Thick scales.” He said as he stood up.

“Twilight said she wanted to talk to me.”

“Yeah they’re in the meeting room.”

“They?” Connor asked.

“Princess Cadence is here too.” Connor raised an eyebrow as to why the Princess of Love was present. He thanked the dragon and made his way through the crystal hallways until they got to the meeting room. He opened to door to see a very pregnant Princess Cadence.

Might need to change her name to Princess Tubby. He chuckled as he walked over to the mares. “Morning Princess.” Cadence put her hands on her swollen stomach.

“Oh Connor, I want you to feel something!” The man raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t want to argue with a pregnant Princess. As he got closer the mare slapped the man’s head so hard he spun and landed on the floor.

“Ow! What was that for?” The man yelled as he rubbed his cheek that now had a bright red hand print imprinted on it.

“Don’t call me tubby!” The pink mare pouted.

Pregnant witch. How’d she hit so hard anyway?

Pregnancy strength. She frowned at the man as Twilight entered the room. Connor gripped his hair and gritted his teeth.

“I am sick and tired of you Alicorns constantly reading my mind!”

“We can do that?” Twilight asked in surprise.

“Oh no, not you too. It’s bad enough Luna does ti twenty-four seven!” The man shivered as he thought of the lavender mare constantly reading his mind. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Now why did you call me here Twilight?” The lavender mare sat down beside her sister in law.

“You don’t remember?” The man remained silent at the words.

“Remember what?” Twilight sighed and rubbed her head.

“Remember what you promised us at my wedding?” Cadence asked. Connor sat back and the events of the wedding played out in his mind.

~~~

Eighteen months ago

Connor was walking with Twilight and the newly rescued Princess Cadence. After proving her to be the real Cadence, through some form of old dance that she and Twilight did when they were younger. Connor recorded the jig with his phone so he could blackmail the Unicorn later. The trio set out to find a way out of the cave they had been trapped in for god knows how long. Twilight noticed that the human was more jumpy than usual and tried to lighten the mood with some conversation.

“Hey Connor mind if I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Why did you believe me?” The man and the Alicorn looked at her in confusion. “Everypony else didn’t, so why did you?”

“Humans have this little sense in them, call it gut instinct, or whatever. Point is I felt that something was wrong and you felt the same.” Twilight could see the frightening look in the man’s eyes and he gulped. Being the Princess of Love gave Cadence a few more magical perks than that of an average Unicorn, one being the ability to read someone’s heart and feelings. Right now the man felt like he was about to die of sheer terror, no mater how well he hid it.

“Connor is it?” The man nodded at the pink Alicorn. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Let’s see, I’m in an abandoned cave with virtually no way out stuck with two magical being in another dimension and to top it off theres some evil Queen thing about to overthrow the country! So yeah my day’s kinda fucked up, thanks for asking!” Twilight recoiled at the man’s harsh words as he buried his face in his hands. “I’m sorry about that. I hate being locked up, it brings back...memories.” He shivered. Cadence sighed deeply and stepped forwards.

“It’s okay, we’re all on edge, what’s important right now is that we keep our heads cool and find a way out of here.” Twilight and the human nodded as they continued through the caves and found an old mine cart. The two mares go in while the human started to push and hoped in as it got moving.

“Is this really a good idea?” Twilight gulped as she looked at the old tracks.

“There’s an old Earth saying Twilight, a phrase of great power, wisdom, and gives consolation to the soul in times of need.”

“What is it?” Cadence asked as they started going over the edge.

“ALLONS-Y!” He yelled as they went down into the darkness of the old mine and zipped around the tracks like in the second Indiana Jones movie. The human could feel the adrenaline running through his body. His eyes shrank when he saw the end of the tracks. He felt a handgrip his wrist and his body being torn upwards. He looked up to see Cadence holding Twilight’s hand and purple mare clinging onto his arm.

“Oof, this is heavy.” Cadence groaned. Carrying Shining around was a chore in itself, but a pony and a human? Not to mention she had been in that cave for over a week, maybe longer, so she wasn’t in the best of shape.

“Sounds like you need to start working out Twi.” Connor said trying to lighten the mood.

“I will drop you.”

“You better not, cause then you’re taking care of my kids.”

“You have kids!?” The lavender mare yelled.

“Probably.” Twilight’s right eye twitched. “That was a joke Twilight.” He felt the mare’s grip loosen and he gripped tighter. “Hey!”

“What? It was just a joke.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Would you two please shut up!? This is hard enough as it is!” Cadence groaned. Luckily the trio saw light coming from a crack ahead and the pink mar put the last of her strength into her wings and they managed to land close to it. The three then saw three brainwashed mares blocking their path. Twilight recognized them as the former bride’s mares. While Connor was getting ready to beat them down Cadence formed an alternate solution involving her damaged bouquet. The three mares chased after the flowers when thrown like three cats after a yarn ball.

“Did that seriously just fucking happen!?” The man yelled in astonishment.

“Less talking, more running!” Twilight yelled. The cave opened out into the gardens of Canterlot. The three rushed inside the castle only to be stopped by a large Unicorn stallion with a dark red mane, beard and tail wearing golden armor.

“Halt!”

“Look pal, I don’t have time to play games. We’re late for a wedding.” Connor growled.

“What makes you think a thing lie you can just walk in and stop the matrimony.” Connor pointed to the pink mare.

“Can’t have a wedding without the bride can ya?” The stallion was utterly shocked. He had seen Princess Cadence just that morning getting ready for her big day. Something was telling him that the thing in front of him was telling the truth but he had to be sure. “Listen to me. The Princess Cadence that Captain Gleaming Shield-”

“Shining Armor.” Twilight corrected.

“Is about to marry is a fake! If we don’t stop this then all of Canterlot will be destroyed, then all of Equestria!” The stallion got in the human’s face and snorted.

“What if you’re wrong?”

“If I’m wrong nothing happens! They go to prison, peacefully quietly, they’ll enjoy it!”

“What about you?” Twilight asked.

“I’m never going back in a cell and Cadence is royalty she’ll get out. Besides I am way to pretty to be in prison.”

“What about me?” Connor scanned the mare up and down and shrugged.

“You’ll be fine.” Twilight growled at the words. Connor turned back to the guard and sighed. “Ask yourself this, what if we’re right? Say this grand plan fails and the fake is found out anyway. Celestia is gonna wanna know who threw the only people who knew about it in the slammer. How do you think Celestia would react to something like that ladies?”

“Unpleasantly.” Cadence replied. The guard only gulped at the thought of the furry of the sun coming down on him. He looked beside the man and noticed the lavender mare. He remembered Shining speaking of her quite fondly and knew that she was Princess Celestia’s personal student.

“You two trust this...thing?” Cadence looked to Twilight. She had only known the human for over a few hours and didn’t know what to say.

“I absolutely trust him.” Twilight stated firmly.

“He’s not crazy is he?” Twilight gulped and looked at the human.

“I absolutely trust him.” The clock on the wall rang and signaled that the ceremony had begun. Cadence stepped forward and took in a deep breath.

“Gather any remaining guards and have them secure the castle. We’ll deal with the impostor.” The guard saluted and ran off to find more guards. The trio quickly made their way through the halls.

“What was that about, ‘never going back in a cell?’” Twilight asked as she looked at the man.

“Twilight, this really isn’t the time for that.”

“I want an answer!” Twilight yelled. The three stopped and Connor bit his lip.

“Look it is a very, very long story. I promise I’ll tell you” He picked a random date in his head. “next Halloween.”

“What?”

“The holiday with the masks and candy.”

“Nightmare Night?” Cadence said.

“Yeah that. I’ll tell you then. Pinkie Promise.” Twilight sighed and nodded while Connor deviated from the course.

“Where are you going?” Cadence yelled.

“I’ll meet you there!” He yelled as he continued down the corridor and the mares raced to save not only Shining Armor, but their country as well.

~~~

Present.

The human let out a sigh as he remembered his promise and looked at the two mares. Twilight was sitting with her arms crossed and Cadence had a skeptic look on her face. “Okay, a promise is a promise, after all, I don’t want to suffer Pinkie’s wrath.” As much as he loved Pinkie as a friend, she could be very scary sometimes, especially when it came to her holy Pinkie Promises. “But, I have a few conditions.”

“What are they?”

“First off, hold all questions to the end and don’t start judging before I finish.” The two mares gave each other a nervous look. “Second, you two don’t tell anyone! If they ask then I’ll tell them, but it’s not your story to tell.”

“That sounds fair.”

“Third, I am not going to tell you guys everything about me.”

“Don’t you trust me?” Twilight asked sounding a little hurt.

“Of course I trust you Twilight. It’s just,” The man hung his head and sighed. “there are some things that I don’t want people to know. Things that are very...personal.”

“Okay, we all have skeletons in out closet.” Cadence said.

“Thanks and finally, I’m gonna need some booze.”

~~~

Luna was sitting in the living room of the man’s home with an extremely bored look on her face. She held a magazine in her hands trying to keep her mind off the man and the incident last night.

After Connor and Pip had fallen asleep, the man started shaking in his sleep and started mumbling a woman’s name. Anna Luna remembered.

Must be his girlfriend. She felt a small pang of depression went through her body. Luna didn’t want o get the human angry by intruding his dreams. The least she could do was stop them, but that required physical contact. The mare blushed heavily and rested her head against his chest. Why does he smell so good? The mare adjusted her head so it was just below his chin and made sure not to poke him with her horn.

The mare stopped her train of thought and felt her cheeks heating up at the memory. Luna decided to go for a walk in order to clear her head and get her mind off the human. She grabbed her blue hoodie and made her way out of the man’s home. As she walked through the town she groaned as she saw the decorations of Nightmare Night. The Princess huffed and made her way towards the outskirts of town. A familiar red barn caught her eye and made her way up the dirt road towards the farm.

She took time to admire the apple orchard and the vast amount of crops the farmers had planted. Luna continued on her way towards the barn house and saw a familiar red furred stallion moving a hay bale into a large carriage. The stallion set the bale down and saw the blue mare.

“Afternoon Ms. Star.”

“Good afternoon to you too Macintosh and please cal me Azure.” The stallion nodded. “What are you doing with the hay bales?”

“Ah give the colts and fillies a ride around town in the carriage for the festival tonight.” Luna remembers the large stallion hauling some of the foals in the carriage last year. “Will ah being see you around tonight?”

“No, we do not celebrate Nightmare Night.” The stallion raised an eyebrow.

“Why not?”

“I prefer not to say.”

“Alright ah won’t pry. Just bit odd that you don’t celebrate your own holiday.” Mac immediately regretted those words as he felt the icy blue eyes of death on him. Luna narrowed her eyes on the stallion.

“What did you just say?”

“N-nothing.” He was a worse liar than Applejack. Luna’s eyes continued to burn through the stallion’s feeble defense. “Fine, you win. AJ told me a few days ago. We both can’t tell a lie to save our skin.”

“Who have you told?”

“No one. Ah swear.” Luna looked for any indication that he was lying, but found none. The two were interrupted by a familiar orange farmer rounding the corner. She froze as she saw the two.

“Afternoon Azure.” She tipped her hat to the mare.

“Applejack.” She said in a flat tone. The farmer looked at her brother who had a guilty look on his face. The farmer gulped as she guessed what happened. “He told ya he knew didn’t he?”

“Eeyup.” The stallion said as he returned to work. The orange farmer scratched her head and sighed.

“Ah’m sorry Luna, but Mac was starting to catch on anyway. He had almost everything figured out. Besides it wasn’t right lying to him.” Luna sighed and nodded.

“Have you told anyone else?”

“Nope. Ah knew Apple Bloom would blab it to all her friends and Granny is a chatterbox. Ah think that’s where she gets it from.” She chuckled. “So what brings ya here?”

“Oh I was just out for a walk and decided to see the orchard. I never got the chance the last time I was here.”

“Well, there ain’t much to look at.” She pointed to the orchard. “Out there is where all the magic happens.” The farmer then started showing Luna around the barn. Luna learned that the mare and her brother inherited it from their late parents. Luna didn’t comment on that fact. Something shiny caught the mare’s eye and she levitated a battered chest plate from a Royal guard’s armor. She kept digging and found the rest of the armor in complete disrepair.

“You did not tell us your father was in the Royal Guard.” She said as she looked at the armor.

“He wasn’t.” AJ said as she walked over to the armor. “Oh, so that’s where that went! That there belongs to Connor.” Luna looked at the mare in surprise. “He wore it when Tirek came along, darn thing saved his life.”

“Where did he get this?”

“He used that thing to fight at the Changeling invasion.”

“He was there?” Luna was busy guarding the archives with her night guard down below the castle.

“Sure was, went against the Queen herself. He didn’t tell you?” Luna shook her head.

“Would you min telling me what happened?” AJ nodded and lead her inside to the kitchen. Granny Smith was making her famous apple pies and the air had the sweet scent of cinnamon looming over it. AJ grabbed them each a glass and sat down as she began her tale.

~~~

Twilight and Cadence arrived at the hall and started banging on the door, but no pony would answer their cries. Twilight thought and asked herself.

What would Connor do? She blinked and backed up while charging her horn and channeled her magic to her hooves. She charged forwards and slammed both of her hooves into the door. The double doors broke free from their hinges and fell to the floor with a slam. Wow, that did feel awesome! She had to thank the human later, but first she stepped out of the dust cloud panting.

At the end of the aisle stood her brother, her mentor, her friends and the witch. “Stop!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. Her friends all face palmed in embarrassment while Celestia shook her head in disappointment. “Princess you have to stop this ceremony! That’s not Princess Cadence!” All eyes turned to the pink Alicorn that stood beside Shining Armor. She had tears in her eyes.

“Wh-why are you doing this?”

“Because that’s my husband you bitch!” The crowd froze and turned back to the lavender mare. Beside her was a filthy and exhausted Princess Cadence.

“Wait, ah don’t get it. How can there be two of them?” The orange farmer asked as she scratched her head.

“She’s a Changeling. A creature that transforms into somepony you love and feeds off that love for their own power.” The group took a few steps away from the Princess as the false Cadence started chuckling that soon changed into maniacal laughter. There was a flash of green light that encircled the false Cadence and her form changed. Her once pink fur was now jet black and looked more like an insect’s exoskeleton, her beautiful hair turned dark green and her eyes shifted to spliced pupils.

“Well, the cat is out of the bag as they say.” She crossed her arms and chuckled. “I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. As Queen, it is my duty to secure love for my hive to feed on and Equestria has more than enough love to go around.” Several guard drew their spears and charged. The Queen snapped her fingers and the guards were blasted away by green bolts of energy. “As I was saying, while every one of you were distracted by this wedding, my Changeling army have been slowly chipping away at Shining Armor’s shield.”

The mares all looked out the windows and saw thousands of Changelings slamming against the purple dome shield that encircled all of Canterlot. “When they break through, all of Canterlot will fall. Then all of Equestria!”

“Not quite.” Chrysalis held a confident smile as Celestia stepped forwards and cracked her neck. “Now that you have so foolishly revealed yourself, It is my duty to protect my subjects from you!” Celestia’s horn flared and her flowing white dress was replaced with golden armor that shined in the sunlight and a long halberd with a picture of the sun carved into the blade. Chrysalis snapped her fingers and summoned a long jagged scythe.

“I always did want to test my metal against you Celestia. I guess today is a win-win.” Celestia charged forwards and locked blows with the Queen. The tiled floor was cracking from the magical pressure from the two leaders. Celestia bit her lip as she tried to hold the stance, but felt the Queen overpowering her. Celestia broke the standoff and flew up high before letting loose a volley of yellow fireballs.

The Queen threw up a large shield and winced as she felt her hooves sliding back. After downing the shield, Chrysalis saw Celestia charging and parried her attack. Chrysalis panted and saw a bit of her mane fall to the floor. “We’re going to be at this all day aren’t we?” Chrysalis sighed and knew that she couldn’t last much longer like this. She looked past Celestia and saw the seven mares trying to snap Shining Armor out of his trance.

The Queen grinned and charged the magic in her horn before letting loose a massive beam. Celestia dodged the blast with ease but froze when she saw that the beam was heading straight for Twilight and her friends. Celestia poured whatever power she had left into her weapon and Teleported in front of the blast. The Princess let out a blast of her own trying to redirect the blast. The two magic missiles were neck and neck. Chrysalis bit her lip and put everything she had into the blast and slowly started to fight the yellow death ray.

Celestia’s eyes shrank as she saw the green energy breaking through her own. The green beam struck the Princess. Celestia was thrown back into the wall. Her armor was in pieces and her horn was severely damaged. The Princess felt blood fill her mouth and coughed as she tried to stand.

“Princess!” Twilight yelled as she hurried over to her mentor. The lavender mare had never seen her mentor look so beaten.

“T-Twilight. Get the Elements they have the power to defeat the Queen.” Celestia said with a heavy pant. The mare reluctantly nodded and wiped her tears away.

“Oh I don’t think you’re going anywhere.” Twilight slowly turned around to see the Queen holding the scythe over her head, getting ready to take the mare’s head off. “I had wanted to see the look on your face when you saw your precious home fall, but I’ll make due with mounting your head on my wall!”

“Mount this!” The Queen looked to her right just in time to see an armored fist collide with her face. Chrysalis was propelled back into one of the marble pillars. The Queen groaned as she heard a cracking sound and the pillar fell on top of her. Twilight blinked and turned back to the source of the impact. Through the dust she saw a tall armored figure. The armor looked similar to the ones the Royal Guard used, only it looked sleeker and was tinted a dark grey color. Hitched on it’s left thigh was a sword and a spell rifle was secured on it’s back.

“That. Was Awesome!” A familiar voice said through the helmet. Twilight watched as the front of the helmet opened up to show the human’s face.

“Connor!? What are you doing here?”

“I’m about to redefine the term ass-kicking.” He said as he cracked his knuckles. “Sorry I’m late, but this thing was a bitch to put on.”

“What the hey kinda suit is that?” Applejack asked.

“It’s a prototype armor.” Celestia said as she coughed up more blood. “It’s enchanted to make a pony stronger and faster. It hasn’t been properly tested yet!”

“Yeah, and the gem powering it won’t last much longer either.” A crash caught the group’s attention and they saw the Changeling Queen’s hand shooting out of the rubble. “Uh-oh. Running time!” Twilight looked at her mentor who nodded. The mares all ran towards the door way only to see a line of changelings blocking their path. The human bull rushed his way through and the mares soon followed.

As they got out in the court yard they saw dozens of Changelings blocking their path and were soon surrounded. The seven stood back to back and Twilight gulped.

“Connor, how much time is left on that suit?”

“Seven minutes, seven minutes is all the time I have to play with them.” He said as he pulled out the sword.

“Do you know how to use that thing?” Dash asked as she looked at the blade.

“The sword? Fuck yeah I know how to use it. What’s to understand about swish, swish, stab? It’s a fucking sword Dash not a fighter jet.”

“Then we do things the hard way.” Dash cracked her knuckles and grinned. “CHARGE!” The next five minutes were filled with asses being kicked, shot’s being fired and a Unicorn being used as a machine gun. Twilight felt one of the Changelings sneaking up behind her. As she turned she saw a magic bolt slamming it into it’s face. She looked at the human who had the smoking spell rifle in his hands.

“You almost hit me.” Twilight said.

“That’s because I missed.” She looked down at the Changeling and saw it shaking. “I’m using stun rounds.” The seven found themselves in front of the Canterlot Vault where the elements are kept. The group heard a buzzing sound and saw more of the insects approaching. “Shit, reinforcements.” The man bit his lip and sighed. “Guys you get the elements. I’ll hold them off.”

“Are you nuts!?” Dash yelled. “There’s like a million of those things.”

“Yeah and there’s gonna be a million more if you all don’t do your rainbow blast thing.” The mares all looked at one another and sighed. They knew he was right and nodded. Connor turned to face the horde and sighed. “Okay you sons-of-bitches, you may take our lives, but you will never take-” The man’s armor suddenly vanished only leaving the clothes he was wearing before. “Fuck!” He said before he was overrun by Changelings.

Connor groaned as he felt himself being dragged across the floor as his sight came back. He blinked a few times and he felt his hands in chains. He quickly looked around the room and saw the six mares imprisoned beside the pink Alicorn. “The hell happened?” He asked as he was knelt next to Twilight.

“We got captured.” Dash sighed as she struggled in her restraints. Connor scanned the room and saw that Shining Armor was still brain washed. The human turned to the lavender mare next to him and whispered.

“Twilight, if I cause a distraction, do you think that you could snap Shining out of the trance?”

“I don’t know, but maybe Cadence can.” Connor weighed their options and sighed.

“Know any regenerating healing spells?”

“One. Why?”

“When I make my move you hit me with it.”

“It only lasts thirty-seconds.”

“That’s all the time I need.” The man wrestled in his handcuffs and gripped his right thumb. With a loud grunt he broke his finger and slipped his hand out of the cuff. Twilight just stared in disbelief at the action. “Get ready.”

“Silence!” The man turned to see the Changeling Queen with a swollen cheek and a black eye. He mentally patted himself on the back for doing such a ‘bang up job’ on the Queen. “This day had been just perfect~”

“Oh god, you’re seriously gonna sing? Spare my eardrums.” Connor groaned. Chrysalis walked over to the man and scowled.

“You should know your play filth!”

“Fifty-five.” The mares raised an eyebrow.

“Everyone will bow before me and beg for their lives-”

“Seventy-two.” The human rolled his eyes.

“I shall be the Queen to rule over all-”

“Two-hundred eighty.”

“What are you saying?” Chrysalis growled.

“Oh sorry, it’s just that I hear these speeches so often that I’ve compiled them into a list of how often I hear them.” The human could see the vein in the Queen’s head pressing against her skin in anger.

“You are nothing! Just a worm that-”

“Oh, twenty-three.” Chrysalis cried in rage as she tried to hit the human. The man ducked and launched himself at the Queen. He wrapped his cuff’s cahin around her neck and hung on for dear life. “Now!” Twilight’s horn flared and Connor felt a tingling sensation ensnare his body. The Queen threw him off her and growled. Connor grinned as he held up a clump of the Queen’s mane. If Chrysalis wasn’t pissed before, she sure was now.

Connor could feel the spell Twilight put on him fading. He needed to act fast. He primed his legs and jumped in the air and let out a kick right at the Queen’s head. Chrysalis caught the leg and had an iron grip on it.

“I’m not letting-” She was cut off as the man shifted his weight and twisted his captured leg 360 degrees. The man ignored the excruciating pain as much as he could. The mares were al stunned as they saw pieces of his leg bone sticking through the skin. Connor then delivered a strong kick with his free leg that sent the Queen flying into the wall.

The human balanced on one foot as the last of Twilight’s spell spun his injured leg back around and repaired his broken bone. The magic vanished and now he was on his own. Connor saw Twilight freeing the pink Princess and knew he had to hold out a little bit longer. The Queen charged at him with her hands now taking the form of large mallets. Connor barely managed to dodge the insane Queen’s hits.

“I’ll crush you like the bug you are!” Chrysalis roared.

“Eighty-three!” He dodged another hit.

“Shut up!” The Queen spun and slammed her hoof into the man’s gut. Connor felt some of his ribs crack as he was slammed into the floor. Blood filled his mouth and he groaned in pain. Chrysalis felt an odd power surge and turned to see Cadence breaking the spell over Shining Armor’s mind. The Queen moved to stop her, but felt something latch onto her tail. She looked down at the battered human in astonishment. Even after her kick this human was still fighting.

The human looked at her and Chrysalis saw fire in the man’s eyes. The Queen felt something rise up inside of her, she had only felt it a few times in her life. Fear. Her hammer fists started to beat down on the man’s body in order to make him let go. The mares were begging her to stop and spare him. The hand clutching her tail lost strength and fell to the floor. The Queen panted and felt the magic in the room starting to rise. She saw Cadence and Shining Armor being levitated off the floor by their power.

The Queen charged her magic to fire a salvo that would finish both of them once and for all. She felt a had grab her shoulder and her horn. She turned to see the man’s bloodied face staring back at her. “Get off of me you wretch!” Connor started putting pressure on her horn. He felt the Queen’s razor like nails dig into his skin to throw him off. Connor acted on pure instinct and bit down on the Queen’s neck. Chrysalis screamed as the human felt her blood fill his mouth. He put whatever strength he had into his hand and with a loud snap the horn was broken from her head.

Chrysalis Finally got a grip and threw him across the room into a pillar. She felt that her horn was broken off near the base and the human had ripped a mouthful of flesh from her neck. “You. Are. Dead!” Connor spat the foul tasting skin out of his mouth and only pointed behind her. The Queen slowly turned around to see a purple wall of magic smack into her body and propel her, and her subjects out of the city.

“Looks like...team Changeling...is blasting off...again.” The human said before he passed out from the pain.

~~~

Luna sat across from the mare with a low hanging jaw and surprise in her eyes. AJ drank the last of her cider and sat back.

“Eeyup, if it weren’t for him then we’d all be screwed.”

“I didn’t see him at the wedding afterwards.”

“He was getting patched up during the real wedding.” Luna nodded at the statement. “Princess was so grateful she gave him the armor and did something with some fancy sword. All ah know is that whenever Twi’s brother comes to visit he addresses him as sir.”

“Celestia knighted him?”

“Ah don’t know. Twilight knows more about that than ah do.” Luna remembered the look of the armor and shivered.

“How bad was he hurt? From the look of the armor, I’d say that it must have been brutal.” The orange mare rubbed her head.

“Ah don’t rightly know. Ah saw him after he was put back together and hooked up to all those medical machines and whatnot. You’d have to ask Thunderlane.”

“Why?”

“After we beat Tirek, Thunder and a few flyers started searching for Connor. Boy got thrown like a rag doll by Tirek.” The mare sighed. “After about forty minutes of searching ah see a red flare shooting over head. By the time we got there, Connor was already in the hospital, but Thunder was puking his guts out. He gave the docs details, but we never asked, pretty sure we didn’t want to know.”

“The docs needed some sort of specialist from Canterlot to get that armor off him. The stallions had to be careful since it was the only thing holding him together and there was some enchantment on the armor that was keeping him alive.” Every guard’s armor was enchanted with a life support spell to keep them alive for twelve hours, or until a rescue team arrived. “After they did, they tossed it. Mac and I took it and tried to repair it as a sort of ‘welcome home gift’ but we couldn’t even make a dent in it.” AJ sighed.

“We went through three hammers before we gave up.” Luna snapped her fingers and summoned the helmet from the suit. The helmet was different than a normal guard’s. It was more rounded and was shaped for a human’s head and tinted a dark grey color. The metal also covered the face and the spot where the eyes would show was covered by a visor.

“No surprise.” Luna stated. “This is made out of adamantine metal.”

“Adaman what now?”

“It’s a special compound we mix in with the normal armor. It’s as flexible as it durable.” Luna said as she levitated the helmet over to the farmer. “This suit was only the prototype and has been perfected since the wedding.” The lunar Princess then levitated the helmet back over to herself and looked inside the helmet. “Aha! I thought so.”

“Find something?”

“In order to repair metal of this caliber you need the help of a Smith Lord.”

“A what now?”

“A Smith Lord is a blacksmith that has proven themselves to be one of the greatest smiths in Equestria and I happen to know the smith who made this armor personally.” She tilted the helmet and the farmer squinted to see an insignia of a hammer and anvil wrapped in flames.

“So he can fix it?”

“She most certainly can. Do you mind if I-”

“By all means take it. Course ah’m not sure what Connor is gonna use that thing for now.” Luna snapped her fingers and made the helmet vanish.

“We all though the same thing after the Changeling invasion.” AJ had to agree with the Princess on that one. Luna thanked the apples’ for their hospitality and made her way home to the man’s house.

~~~

Connor sat back after finishing off a bottle of the apple family’s Zap Apple Cider. He looked at the two Alicorn’s who had a mixture of shock and sadness strewn across their faces.

“So that’s basically it.” Twilight hung her head now regretting asking the human.

“C-Connor, I had no idea-” The man held up his hand.

“Forget it. It’s in the past now, nothing can be done about it.” Twilight still hung her head and had a gut wrenching feeling inside her. The human stood up and cracked his back. “Well, I’m heading home. Trick or Treaters will be out soon and I need to set out the candy bowl.” The human waved goodbye to the Princesses and closed the door behind him. A silence fell over the two sister-in-laws until Cadence sighed.

“Well, that was not what I was expecting.”

“S-should we tell Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

“I really don’t see the reason to. He didn’t do it.” Cadence crossed her arms and sighed. “Was he lying?”

“No, I know when he’s lying. He was telling the truth.” Twilight sank down in her seat and groaned. “I think I could use a drink now.”

“Have one for me too. This kid better come out of me soon. I can’t even have wine anymore.” That last comment resulted in a small kick from the unborn foal. “Oh you are in so much trouble when you get out here young colt or filly.”

“You don’t know?”

“Shining and I want it to be a surprise.” Twilight nodded and gave a small smile at the words.