I do not know quite what I expected when I slammed open the doors to the Royal Chambers of the Crystal Palace. Some dark tyrant upon a bony throne, I suppose. Dark banners, skulls, something to show that the nemesis was there. I believe Skiver was hoping for a pile of treasure for us to take on our way out, and Aegis was hoping there would be some special weapons he could liberate.
Whatever we really expected, what I found when my band and I entered was a normal room—what amounts for normal among royalty, at least. Smooth walls with famous paintings, two priceless vases with rather tacky-looking crystal flowers, and at the back what looked like Shining Armor hovering over Princess Cadance on her sick-bed. He turned to face me. "Could you not even show some tact, some amount of manners now?" he said as he turned. His eyes were baggy, and his mane was a mess. I was not fooled by such displays, however.
"You are under arrest," I said, lifting the crossbow I held in my magic aloft. Its bolt was heavy and thick, designed solely to kill a heavy target. "Surrender or be pacified."
That was it. He shed his disguise of tiredness like a moth shedding a coccoon. "You dare to threaten a Prince of the Realm?" he said, his voice thick like honey. He drew himself up to his full height, and even despite the display I remained unfazed.
"Pacification it is, then." I loosed the crossbow, and the proverbial all-Tartarus broke loose. His form shifted even as he swerved to dodge the heavy bolt. What had once appeared to be a pony warped to the form of that insectile foe, the changeling. Despite its manoeuvring, it had not fully escaped the bolt, which was lodged inside one of its forelimbs. Dark green liquid was seeping from it, and it hissed.
It was not the only change. Behind me, my band drew into a tight circle and began loosing their own bolts at the changelings that came against them. I could not pay attention to them overmuch, for I beheld the form of a changeling king. Even a single step of inattention could prove fatal. "Well then," it said, in that all-too-familiar chittering tone common to the changeling kind, "you have seen past my illusion of choice. Congratulations."
"This was your plan?" I said, temporising as I slowly drew my sword from its sheath. "Drain the Princess of love and then send the Crystal ponies against Equestria?" In truth, I did not really care at that point. We had been exiled, and so I supposed the rot went far deeper than this boil. I certainly did not expect its laughter.
"You truly do not know?" That response put me on guard again, and I lifted my sword to match it. Its crystal blade glowed as my magic coursed through it, and the tension that had been building up began to seep out as I focused on it. The steady plinking of my retinue's crossbows echoed from the chamber walls, but I put it from my mind. The changeling king waved its unmarked forelimb, and the wall behind it shimmered and became transparent.
I do not know if you have seen a horde of changelings shifting from their assumed forms to their real ones. If you have not, then count yourself blessed. For what the wall was hiding was a group of crystal ponies outside the palace, and when the wall had cleared, they began to shift and revert to their true forms. I can tell you that never before have I struggled so hard to keep my stomach from expelling its contents.
"There are no crystal ponies, Prince. Only my minions. Did you never wonder why Sombra hated them so much? Did you never wonder why the changelings, why my kind stormed your pathetic city of Canterlot rather than take it by stealth?" I shook my head, playing the part of the fool. I had my suspicions about why, but there was no point telling it not to explain its plans to me. It apparently had no compunctions against it.
"You ponies are always willing to look at the visible threat," it said, as I edged closer towards it. "Even your history tells you this. The windigos—were they ever worried about at the time? Or rather did you spend your time worrying about each other? That made our plan simple. Infiltrate Equestrian society, while at the same time having that imminent visible threat. Just like we wanted, you fell right into the trap of thinking that that threat was all there was."
That caught me out. "Wait. You failed. Luna and Twilight set us up to do this. That's the whole reason we're even having this conversation." I lifted my sword. "You're bluffing." With that, I leapt into the attack, slashing my sword down at its chest.
It swung its forelimb in the way, and sparks flashed from the impact. Straight away my blade swung around and darted in again. It parried the blade again, and the dance macabre began. I circled it as the blade struck again and again, but neither one of us could land a telling blow against the other. "Bluffing?" came the sickly-sweet voice. "Every step in your path here was orchestrated according to my design. Who did you think ordered your exile? Who did you believe had reason to mistrust you? Do you want to know why they did so?"
I ignored it, as much as I could. The first step to losing a fight like this was to be distracted, and even though I had wounded it the changeling was not dead. Worse, the green sappy liquid was making the ground slippery. It did not make much difference to it, for it was hovering in the manner of its kind. Each move of my own had to be doubly cautious, though. My only fortune was that it was slowing down. Whatever it was pretending, the wound had obviously affected it sufficiently to hurt it.
“They did so because I told them.” Its voice continued to grate on me. “You are not the only Warden, are you?” My eyes narrowed at that. The changelings knew enough about us already to know we were hunting them, but how did they know what we were? How did they know about the Nox Panopticon? Only one explanation worked: there was a spy. The other Warden should have been above suspicion, but there was no other way. “Yes. You know who it is. They turned on you merely because I asked them.”
“That’s impossible. I know my counterpart well enough-“
“Well enough to know that they would not turn for nothing. I can offer you the same. You know what Equestria has become. All you have to do is swear fealty to me, King Imago of the Changelings, and you will have power beyond your wildest dreams.” That was about my only escape. Despite what other ponies might say, I have never craved power. If it had offered me what I truly desired, it might have held me. As it was, however, it had merely thrown me a life raft.
“Enough talk, changeling. You’ve delayed enough.” As had I. Even as my sword rose to strike, and was parried, my crossbow came up with another stubby quarrel readied. I shot it in the torso, and it looked at me with an unbelieving face before dropping to the ground. I decapitated it with my sword, just to make sure, before turning to my retinue.
Aegis was wounded, but the tough earth pony took it as a matter of pride that he did not show any pain. That little humiliation was left to Vox and Skiver. Vox was not badly hurt—a cut across her left wing—but any pegasus can tell you that those parts hurt much more than it would look. Skiver was actually untouched as far as I could see—but knowing him he had probably sealed his wounds magically—as was Lightning, but even they were tired. Before them, the bodies of the changeling hordes that had tried to protect their master lay along with a few that had just entered. Those were still unthinking—I suppose they never really do recover from that mental backlash—and Aegis and Skiver made quick work of them while Lightning and Vox recovered as many of the bolts as they could from the dead.
“We are done here,” I said, sneaking a look at the Princess, who was still unconscious, “but we need to get out as quickly as we can. Aegis, Lightning—carry the Princess. We’ll need her to return to Equestria. Skiver, you’re on the rearguard if you please. Vox, you’re with me on point. Let’s get out of here.” We fled those chambers as if the very horde of Tartarus was at our back. Soon, though, it was not merely an ‘as if’.
It was not an easy trip. With the changelings losing all their strategic thought, though, it was definitely not as hard as it could have been. All in all, I would rate it about a five, and thanked my lucky stars I would not need to return to the Crystal Empire. Of course, that was a little bit too soon to be saying that.
