Wish Upon a Star

Everfree Forest

Chrysalis had disguised herself as one of the soldiers, alongside her Changelings. The remaining guards had already been dispatched, leaving Chrysalis with one last thing to do: march towards Ponyville. She would need a distraction though.

Turning to face the rest of her small army, she pointed with her hoof towards a Changeling, motioning for him to get closer. Once this particular Changeling was centimeters away from the queen, he could see Chrysalis getting closer to his ear, then shivers began to overwhelm his body as the queen began to whisper in an almost sensual fashion.

"Do you love your queen?" She asked, getting her hoof on his shoulder.

The Changeling hissed with a smile on his face as an answer.

"What if I gave you a little upgrade, so you can serve me more, you would have your bonuses." The Changeling excitedly hissed, making Chrysalis release a smirk, as she circled him.

Chrysalis smirked, as she stepped away from him, then proceeded to charge her horn and pointed it towards the Changling, covering him with green light. Surprisingly, his body mass grew, as well as his strength and power in magic. The Changeling could feel all of his bones expanding, it hurt, but he did not care. His wings grew as well as his horn, which was covered by numerous spikes. Soon, he found himself comfortable with his new titanic body, a perfect match for his name: Boulder.

The newly transformed pony was even larger than the Queen, his muscles so big that he could even cover five Changelings behind him. Asking for a test of strength, Boulder proceeded to use his hooves, to literally rip a tree from the floor, which was then thrown away with little effort. Wanting to test his skills yet again, Boulder shot a blast of magic, destroying several trees in the process, Chrysalis was pleased.

"So, you made super Changeling, so what?" Sombra asked, making the queen frown as a response, before facing the fallen king.

"Call it my ´escape plan´in case something happens."

"Not much faith in yourself, do you Chrisy?" Chrysalis, tired with the fallen king´s annoyances, fired a powerful blast against him. Sombra dodged out of the way in time, before facing the queen again. "Sheesh! Take it easy, I was only joking."

"That was a warning shot, keep that in mind!" Chrysalis continued her march towards town, completely ignoring Sombra the rest of the way.

The heavy hooves of Bloulder made the ground shake, as he marched with a cocky grin behind his disguised queen, while making an effort to avoid glaring at her flank, awkward travel. After a few minutes, the disguised Changelings had finally arrived Ponyville, the castle was just ahead. Turning to face Sombra, Chrysalis told him to stay behind, and wait for her return.

"As you wish, Chrisy, by the way your disguise looks more beautiful than your normal self, and that´s saying something." Sombra mocked, making Chrysalis hiss at him, meanwhile Boulder launched a loud roar against the fallen king. "And tell your pet to seize this, or he´s going to regret it!"

Chrysalis smiled at his comment. With a deep sigh, the queen laid her eyes towards the castle, it was going to be a long night.

Castle of Friendship

Twilight was impatiently waiting for the return of her royal guards, biting her lip as she watched through the window. Her friends were initially there for Twilight, holding her back every time she seemed to fall into depression, but being inside the castle all day proved to be very boring, especially for Rainbow and Pinkie. They were certainly tired, not even the beautiful insides of the castle helped their situation. The pretty thrones were starting to get uncomfortable, loosing their charm in the process.

Applejack had been staring at the wall for at least thirty minutes, bags clearly notable under her green eyes. Rarity had been struggling to look at her mane on the crystals around her respective throne, without success. Fluttershy seemed to be the least affected of them, whereas Pinkie and Rainbow were almost ripping off their manes. The wait was a nightmare, and they were not sure whether they wanted to kill Flash for getting lost, or simply welcome him for Twilight.

"Arg! I´m bored! When are they going to arrive, we´ve been here for five hours! FIVE HOURS!" Rainbow whined, awkwardly lying back on her throne.

"Calm down Rainbow! We´re here for Twilight, and as soon as that pony arrives, we can all get home." Applejack replied, then faced to the floor before muttering under her breath. "... Ah´m gonna hurt that pony."

"I´ll have to side with Rainbow on this, I´ve already missed my 3:00 p.m. beauty sleep! And this perfect, and beautiful mane doesn´t get prettier by itself." Rarity replied, making Applejack roll her eyes.

"See!? Even the drama queen here agrees with me!" Rainbow said, getting a stare form Rarity, which wasn´t even noticed by the pegasus. "Heck! Even Pinkie is so bored that she´s counting rocks!"

"I´m sorry Rainbow!" Twilight entered the conversation, catching everypony´s attention. "I swear, if it wasn´t important, I would happily wait all by myself, and I don´t expect that you understand just how guilty I feel! So leave if you want! I can handle myself pretty well!"

Twilight was indeed in bad shape, she had been staring through the window for at least an hour now. Her words pierced the pegasus´ heart, who felt guilt overwhelm her. "Um... Look, Twi. I´m sorry, I was just bored, you know how I get when that happens, I didn´t want to make you think I didn´t care. We´ll stay here with you, okay?"

"Thank you." That was everything Twilight said, before she returned to the window, but her grim expression would instantly reveal a glimpse of hope, as she spotted her guards coming back to the castle.

Soon enough, the guards had arrived at the throne room, where an impatient Twilight awaited her opportunity to ask.

"So?"

The guard shook his head in negative, making Twilight have her grim expression on her face again. The sad alicorn turned around, ready to sunk into depression once more, but something caught her attention.

"I´m sorry your highness, it seems you´re suspicions were incorrect, we spotted no Changelings."

Twilight was surrounded by the hooves of her friends, until she heard that sentence. Turning around, she approached the guard.

"What did you say?"

"That we couldn´t find any kind of Changeling activity." The guard answered.

"But I sent you to find Flash!" Twilight replied. The guard was getting nervous, sweat running down his cheeks. Why would they search for Changelings when Twilight clearly ordered something completely different... that´s when she pieced the puzzle together. Before anypony present at the throne room could react, Twilight blasted the disguised guard, revealing Chrysalis in the process. The rest of the Elements gasped when they realized the identity of the fake guard.

"Wow! What is she doing here!?" Rainbow was the first to talk, instantly getting into battle position.

Chrysalis was dumbfounded at the scene, she never expected this outcome, thankfully she already had a plan B.

"Boulder!"

In the blink of an eye, a huge Changeling appeared inside the throne room, the floor cracked under his weight. Chrysalis didn´t waste anytime and placed herself behind the hulking Changeling. Five more of the guards had already transformed back into their original form, and placed themselves alongside their princess.

"What are you doing here Chrysalis?" Twilight asked, readying her horn.

"I´m only here for a little souvenir, a little special box."

Rainbow, infuriated walked closer to the pair. "And what makes you think we´re simply going to let you take it?"

Chrysalis released a small laugh before answering. "I´ll let Boulder answer that for me, farewell!" With that, the queen disappeared along with her five Changelings, and leaving Boulder to deal with the Elements

Soon enough, the queen found herself one level below, instantly being greeted by several guards who had previously heard the battle. The stallions surrounded the queen, who was standng at the middle of the room, exactly where she needed to be. Chrysalis´ Changelings covered their queen, readying their horn to attack the royal guard. Chrysalis began inspecting the floor, trying to find a suitable position to begin her search, as the battle began. The royal guards blasted against the Changelings, who erected a protective barrier, covering their queen and giving her time to excavate.

Chrysalis charged her horn and pointed it against the floor, eventually releasing a powerful blast. She finally found what she had been searching for. Beneath a meter of the castle, laid the box. Satisfied with this, Chrysalis sent another blast into the sky, piercing the roof and interrupting the Element´s battle with Boulder. As soon as she finished the spell, the Changelings surrounding her lowered down their shield and blasted against the guards inside the room.

An immense green light filled the entire sky. Several Changelings took notice of this, and headed towards Ponyville, but what the queen never noticed, is that it also alerted a certain monster in the forest.

Meanwhile, on the upper level of the castle, Twilight and her friends were struggling to keep up against Boulder. His attacks were so strong that even Twilight´s barries perished under its weight. Once ore twice, both Applejack and Rainbow had managed to hit the Changeling, who took little to no damage, for the two mare however, it was like punching metal.

Pinkie tried to use her party cannon, but it only managed to angry the beast further. Fluttershy was the only one avoiding the fight, usually assisting with catching the Changeling´s attention so her friend could strike against him.

The battle lasted a few minutes, before they successfully incapacitated the hulking Changeling. Wasting no time in celebrating the small victory, the Elements went downstairs to confront Chrysalis, who was still lost admiring the box, and as a result her Changelings were starting to get quite nervous, they really wanted to avoid a fight against the Elements.

Seconds later, Chrysalis was greeted by the ponies, who got themselves into battle position almost instantly, ready to fight against the queen. The Elements could spot many guards lying down on the floor, clearly having lost against the intruders.

Not wasting any moment, the Elements began their attack against the Changelings, leaving Twilight to deal with the queen herself.

Chrysalis was totally lost on her small victory to notice the upcoming spell, the box was sent flying away in the distance, as a result.

Chrysalis reacted instantly and turned to face Twilight, before sending a powerful blast against her, but received a punch in the head from Rainbow, who had managed to defeat a few Changelings. Taking this opportunity, Twilight blasted against her and sent the queen flying out of the castle.

The princess was about to head out of the place and follow Chrysalis, but instead focused her attention on a small group of guards who had recently entered the castle. Twilight rushed towards them, getting a small reverence in return. A big battle was about to begin in Ponyville, and she could not waste any more time. Twilight cleared her throat and began to speak.

"Guards! Changelings are invading Ponyville, send all your soldiers into battle, and a small squadron to apprehend the Changeling upstairs!" The soldiers nodded in agreement, and proceeded to head out, at least until Applejack and Rarity intercepted them.

"We´ll also need two of you get our sisters and Scootaloo from Rarity´s." Applejack said. It was quite fortunate that the three fillies had decided to stay the night at the Carousel Boutique, although it was quite strange they didn´t want to talk about their day´s adventure.

Going after three fillies at the middle of a Changeling invasion, and especially the CMC was quite a dangerous task. The guards would have to pick them up and bring them to the castle where they would be safer. They had valid reasons to dislike this kind of task.

At least the rest of the Apple family was safe at their barn house, it was a relief for Applejack, and she certainly could feel a sigh of relief involuntarily going out of her.

With a nod from their heads, two guards headed out of the castle to pick the fillies up, several squadrons went to battle the Changlings, and a small battalion went upstairs to apprehend Boulder. Once everything was set to resist the invasion, the Elements finally prepared for battle, but were interrupted by a certain dragon.

"Twilight! What´s happening!" Spike came rushing to her friend, who was preparing to leave the place. Twilight stopped on her tracks, and turned to face the little dragon, then cleared her throat to start talking.

"Spike, get to the safe room and stay there! We have a Changeling invasion!"

"A Changeling invasion? Why is it that this town always gets invaded by something?" Spike answered while he scratched his head.

"Spike, there is no time, go get yourself to safety!" Twilight replied. The dragon was obviously worried about her, more importantly shown by the look on his face, which carried a worried expression. Seeing no other choice, he asked.

"But what about you?"

"Spike, I´ll be okay, get inside the safe room now!" Even though, Spike wanted to argue, he nodded, and marched towards the safe zone. Before Twilight could sigh in relief, Spike stopped on his tracks and faced the alicorn.

"Promise you´ll be okay."

"I promise." Twilight replied, trying as hard as she could to release a convincing smile, just to keep the dragon from worrying. Twilight waited for a few seconds after Spike left the room, then prepared herself along the rest of the group. All had fiery expression on their faces, with the exception of Fluttershy, who was currently hiding behind her mane. Rainbow took notice of this and turned to face the yellow pegasus.

"Where´s Discord when we need him?" Her commentary released a frown on Flittershy´s face.

"It´s not his fault if he doesn´t know what is happening here, nor if he can´t come." Her voice and personality returned to her usual self after this words. "Poor thing was tired of all the work, and he wanted a vacation."

"Where did he go by the way?" Rainbow asked.

"He told me he was going to be with some Deadpool pony, trying to help him finish something called ´Resident evil 3´."

"Discord´s crazier than Ah´thought." Applejack said, once again making Fluttershy frown.

"I hear ya!" Rainbow added, then chuckled after seeing Fluttershy´s reaction.

"Okay girls! Let´s go, we have a town to save and a queen to catch." Twilight interrupted any further discussion. Her words immediately made everypony react, immediately going going out of the castle.

Twilight could feel something strange about this particular day, as if she knew something else was going to happen. It was a strange sensation, cursing through her entire body in the form of a chill, telling her something dangerous was approaching. Nothing would prepare them for what would come that night.

Nopony in ponyville would have ever expected a Changeling invasion, at least not after the wedding fiasco. Even though, the forces were rather slim (a result of their defeat at the Crystal Kingdom), they still packed quite a punch.

Many of the citizens opted to stay inside their homes, others ran out of town, usually avoiding the Everfree Forest. Soon, the streets were swarming with Changelings, homes and establishments were burning. Peace never lasted in Equestria, thankfully, Twilight´s royal guard didn´t took long to show up.

Every pony in the street, struggled to get out out the war zone, but everywhere they went, several Changelings were waiting. Some neighbors offered refugee to other ponies, others tried to get the invader´s attention so the other could flee, it was in times like these, were ponies showed their loyalty to their kind. However, the situation was starting to look grim for the town, as the continuing battle managed to destroy several buildings across town.

Amidst the chaos, the two guards sent by Applejack and Rarity were making their way through the infested war zone, while trying to avoid any kind of fight. The two needed to be in their best condition to assist the fillies.

The sky sometimes turned dark as the numerous Changelings passed above their heads. The two guards sighed in relief once they noticed, none of the invaders became aware of their presence, their task was going pretty well.

Minutes after, they spotted the Carousel Boutique in a not so long distance, they would have to act quickly. The guard´s sighs of relief soon turned into desperation, as they saw the place surrounded by a group of Changelings. The entrance seemed to be locked firmly, sadly it wouldn´t stop the dark ponies from entering, the guards would have to move fast.

Launching a powerful blast against one of them, the Changelings took notice of the threat and turned to face the royal guards. The battle ensued for a few minutes before the Changelings were done for, Twilight´s soldiers, even though, they hadn´t been in a battle for quite some time, they still had their moves.

The doors of the Carousel Boutique were blasted off, giving way for two royal guards, who immediately started looking for the fillies.

"Take this!" That´s all they could hear, as Apple Bloom launched herself against the guard on the right, while Scootaloo attacked the one on the left.

The battle was followed by ´Yes! get him! Nemesis style!´and ´In the head! In the head!´ from Sweetie Belle.

One of the guards succeeded after a few minutes, escape from Apple Blooms grasp before he requested to stop their assault. Once Scootaloo and Apple Bloom realized who were the ones they were attacking, a blush appeared on their faces, followed by sheepishly smiles. The guards had their faces slightly covered by bruises, and not exactly caused by the Changelings, the fillies sure packed quite a punch.

"Ladies! The Element of Honesty and the Element of Generosity sent us to pick you up! We´re heading towards the castle, were you´ll be safer." One of the guards said.

With a nod from their head, the group headed outside, being careful not to be caught in the way of a Changeling, as they made their way towards the castle. The flames around the city and the destroyed structures greeted the fillies and the guards. It would seem the town itself was preparing to receive an unexpected visit.

Back inside the castle, a group of royal guards took upon the task of carrying Boulder to his respective cell, it all seemed to be rather easy, as all they seemingly had to do was carry the muscular Changeling... how wrong they were.

Without any of them noticing, Boulder opened his eyes and got up, easily breaking the magical shield the guards had erected around his body. Immediately in combat position, the guards began their attacks against the Changeling, who seemed to receive little to no damage from the blast. After a few seconds, the attack had stopped, payback time for Boulder.

The hulking Changeling launched himself against to royal guards, using his hooves to break them, then turned to face other two, easily defeating them with a powerful blast. Some of the pegasus inside the room, tried to punch the creature, but had some of their bones broken as a result. The path was free for Boulder to walk, the Elements were lucky last time, not this time.

Outside the castle, royal guards were doing all they could to fend off the attack, but every effort seemed to be in vain, as the attacking Changelings looked endless. Fire began to surround many houses in Ponyville, making the sight Heckish. Ponies needed help, and unknown to them, it would come in the most unexpected way.

The war sounds managed to cover the arrival of a beast, who was just entering town. Nemesis had just left the Everfree Forest when he spotted a very peculiar house to his left, resting on a small cliff. The roof seemed to be covered in grass, the rest of the house was made of wood, with several windows of different shapes. The door was small, the material also wood. In front of it laid a small bridge. Nemesis could notice several animals run away from him as he passed by.

Leaving the house behind, Ponyville greeted the creature´s eye, a Heckish version of it. Fires could be seen rising from a mile away, it clearly was a battle zone. Nemesis steps usually gave away loud noises, but that night was not the case, as the sounds of war silenced them. This was his, Nemesis´environment, the one he was used to, and he would gladly take part in the battle.

Animals all around Fluttershy´s cottage, could see the monster walking towards Ponyville, his presence striking fear in their hearts, which suddenly began to beat faster. The creature´s arrival sent chills down the spines of every animal in the house, as they struggled to hide from him, trying to remain out of the sight of the monster. Suddenly the air got heavier, fate filled Ponyville with dread. Nemesis´was about to make his entrance.