Altered Visage

I shuddered with pleasure as I absorbed the bright green love from Nutcase. I felt energized. I felt powerful. I felt like I could move mountains with all the love I had been siphoning from this abusive mare. It was a very addictive sensation, and I had to remind myself that this was about revenge and I wouldn’t feed from anybody else for however long I was here. In the high from the swirling eddies of power I was frequently absorbing it was easy to forget my resolve and genuinely consider feeding on anything I could get my holed hooves on.

Chrysalis had given me exclusive feeding rights to Nutcase. It was certainly odd to give me access to what amounted to a feast everyday when much of the hive was going hungry, but I wasn’t going to complain. Not even Pupa or Drymanid were being allowed to feed off of her, even though they were both her victims as much as I. When I had offered Dryma a chance to feed on her as well he just said it wasn’t his place to take my food. I would have offered to Pupa, but he’s a dick and can get stuffed. In the last three days I had fed from Nutcase as often as they would allow. The guards made sure that I didn’t render her useless as a shell, but anything before that point was fair game for me. She looked as bad as I felt good, and she deserved everything that she got.

I knew I should feel ashamed of myself for what I was doing. Everything I had grown up believing in told me that I was wrong to extract my vengeance on her, that this wasn’t anything remotely related to justice. The thing is, I couldn’t bring myself to feel any shame for hurting Nutcase like this. The best I could do was to feel a sense of guilt over not feeling guilt. It was like I had lost a piece of myself that I had always believed to be a core part of my being, with the dawning realization that maybe it never existed to begin with. But even that unease was washed away in the euphoria of feeding.

If there was anything that I felt guilty for, it was the excessive amount of feeding I was taking part in these last three days that could have gone to other changelings. Passive feeding would require a daily dosage of ambient love, but the alternative was much more efficient. With active feeding, I should only need to feed once every three or four days, unless I was using up large quantities of magic, and yet I was draining Nutcase on average twice a day.

I smiled to the guard, a now familiar face thanks to my frequent feeding sessions, as I began my trek to leave the dungeons. Walking through the relatively dim corridors, I chose to conjure up a couple of balls of magical light through the air for the sake of lighting my way and for practice.

With all the excess energy I had been taking in, I had taken to learning how to control my magic from a teacher that Chrysalis had assigned to me named Jade Flare. His name seemed to reflect his skill with the naturally green changeling magic, and his equally green eyes. He had been the green eyed changeling that was standing next to Chyrsalis’ throne when I met her. He was her most trusted advisor and confidant and he was proving to be an adept teacher, even if he was rather cold towards me.

I had learned how to levitate things, produce simple balls of light like I was doing now, shield my own emotions from other emotion readers, and even how to change the colour of my magical energy field for improved disguises. Next up was teaching me to wipe the memories of those I feed from of the feeding process, a necessary tool for those sent out into the world to collect love for the hive.

According to Jade Flare, changeling magic is such a distinctive shade of green as a result of love itself. In its pure, magical form, love is that very same colour. The ability to change the colour of my magical aura was a recently invented spell that had swiftly become considered a necessity for all changelings to learn if they had any intentions to go outside of the hive. The majority of the other spells I had learned so far had been simple ones that most young foals knew how to do, but I was delighted by every feat of magic I accomplished. The excitement I felt was almost enough to make me want to stay in this world, but not quite.

When I asked him why I hadn’t been able to turn myself into a human before, he explained to me how the more different a creature is from our original form the harder it is to transform oneself into it. Angel turning into a little bunny rabbit, for example, is a lot harder than turning into a pony. Humans as bipedal creatures instead of quadrupeds like changelings would be just as difficult as a rabbit, if not harder. He assured me that with practice I could do it almost as easily as I could a pony. He even demonstrated by turning himself into a human, or at least a twisted image of one. Having only my lacklustre descriptions to go on, his form looked very...wrong and creepy. He looked like some sort of freakish, lanky monstrosity in that disguise, the kind of which would haunt my dreams.

The Queen herself hadn’t spent nearly as much time with me after that first day. She had a hive to run after all, not to mention she had to spend time searching for a way to send me home. I still saw her once a day and she assured me she was making progress, but it was slow going. Our conversations gave me the impression that she would much rather not find a way to send me away. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually knew how to send me home already and was just keeping me around a little longer in the hopes that I would change my mind.

I had been staying in Doctor Dew-Drop’s medical centre along with Drymanid and Pupa. While Nutcase had kept us alive, she had certainly not been taking good care of us, so we were being kept under medical surveillance for a bit longer. I was getting even more attention than the other two were since they wanted to be sure that the transferral of my consciousness into this body wasn’t causing any extra adverse effects. So far, so good though, I seemed to be no worse off than my two companions from hell.

I stepped inside the medical centre to check in with Dew-Drop. She was acting as my guardian of a sort. I had been told I should see her frequently for health checks and to confirm that I hadn’t done something stupid to get myself in some kind of trouble. That and she was practically my new landlord since I was living in her workplace.

“Had a nice meal, did you?” Dew-Drop looked up from examining Pupa as she heard the clopping of my approaching hooves.

“Yup.” I confirmed cheerfully as I moved my magical lights around in a figure eight pattern. Pupa glared at me through narrowed eyes.

“Could you turn those off, they’re hurting my eyes.” Pupa complained.

“Sorry.”

I sheepishly extinguished my magic as I apologized. Pupa muttered something that could have been either appreciation or some minor insult. Maybe both. Pupa still didn’t seem to like me much. He seemed to accept me as a changeling now and wasn’t accusing me of being an impostor anymore, at least not out loud, but he still wasn’t exactly nice. He mostly tolerated me at least, and that was much better than the open hostility he had been giving me when we were prisoners. Perhaps it was just the stress of the situation that had caused him to act in such a way before.

“Soooo....I was thinking about how I haven’t seen the sun since I was in Ponyville and was kind of wondering if I could see outside of the hive.” I promptly revealed the main reason I had returned so quickly to the medical centre after feeding, aside from the mandatory checking in with Dew-Drop.

“I don’t see why not. Have fun.” Dew-Drop absently responded as she continued examining Pupa. I scrunched up my face at how she seemed to miss what I considered to be obvious.

“Umm....I kind of don’t know how to get out of the hive.” I explained.

“Oh.” It would have been amusing to see the realization dawning on her face had it not been so annoying that I had to ask for help getting around. “Right, I forgot. Well, I can’t show you, I have a job to do, but if you’re willing to wait a few minutes, I’m sure Pupa here could-“

“No.” Pupa interrupted her suggestion. Dew-Drop raised an eyebrow at his refusal.

“Why not?” She inquired.

“I’m just not going anywhere with her.” Dew-Drop narrowed her eyes at his lack of explanation, stopping her examination to cross her forelegs over her chest. Pupa glanced at me uncomfortably before continuing. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

“I’ll show her.” Three heads swiveled towards the new voice. Dryma had come out of his room and was approaching us. I was glad to be able to recognize him, I was getting better at telling the differences between changelings. “I’ve got nothing better to do, anyway.”

Drymanid, unlike Pupa, had been very kind to me in all of this. He spent much of his time watching over me, acting both friendly and protective. On occasions when random changelings seemed to recognize me as my body’s previous owner and tried to get too close for my comfort he kept them at a distance. While I appreciated it, I had to ask him why he was doing that. All he said is that he was a guard before all this mess occurred so it just seemed natural that he should guard me.

“Well at least somepony has a bit of common decency. Thank you, Dryma.” Dew-Drop looked coldly at Pupa as she said this, who sagged a bit under her gaze.

“Don’t be too hard on him, he has his reasons. Come along, Chance.” Dryma defended his friend and then walked out of the centre. I followed after him, mildly annoyed.

“You know my name is Victor, why do you keep calling me Chance?” I asked him as he led me through the hive. Dryma looked back at me with a playful smirk before turning back to watch where he was going.

“You don’t seem much like a Victor in anything. Now if you’d called yourself Loser, or Failure, then maybe.”

“Hey!” I protested. Dryma chuckled.

“I’m just kidding. Those names would probably fit me and Pupa just as well as you. Anyway, Chance is....well, it’s how I was introduced to you. That and it seems like a cruel twist of chance that took Visage from us and brought you here, so it just seems to fit. Do you really dislike it?

“Well....no. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just it’s not really my name.” I pouted.

“Well then, Chancey, if you like the name, then I don’t see what the problem is.” He exclaimed jovially.

For a guy who had been kept captive and experimented on for over a year, he seemed a very happy person. Maybe it was just his coping mechanism. Or maybe he really was just happy to be out and able to move on with his life.

“I’m not a pokemon.” I complained at him using the nickname ‘Chancey’.

“What’s a pokemon?”

“Uh...never mind. It’s not important.”

His using of that little pet name reminded me of more than a fun little game franchise, it also caused me to think about a certain pony who had called me that. Almost immediately after meeting me, Pinkie Pie had taken to referring to me with that variation on my given pseudonym. Of all the ponies who abandoned me to Nutcase, she was the only one to listen when I said I didn’t want to be left with her. She went so far as to try to take me out of that place singlehandedly. Singlehoofedly? Anyway, she even tried to visit me every day afterwards. I wondered how Pinkie was doing right now.

“Why would you be wondering about Pinkie Pie?” Dryma had stopped walking and was looking back at me with confusion in his blue eyes.

“Did I say that out loud?”

Dryma confirmed that I had with a nod. I really needed to stop doing that. At least this wasn’t as bad as when I called Applejack soft and warm. That was embarrassing. She was as awkward about that as Rainbow Dash was about me kissing her. Drymanid burst out laughing. Realizing that I had probably just spoken my thoughts aloud again, I felt my face flush.

“Oh come on!” I shouted as Dryma gained some control over his laughter.

“Sooooo.....you like the mares, do you?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, much to my embarrassment.

“Just shut up and get moving.” I retorted. He did as I commanded, but he dropped his emotional shield just so that I could feel his amusement at my expense. I didn’t need words to understand that. I would have dropped my own and beamed to his brain the extent of my annoyance, but I knew well enough that he’d mostly feel my embarrassment and that would only make the situation worse.

“I’m just teasing you. I am kind of curious, though.....has your transformation into one of us changed your preferences at all? Do you like stallions now?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it....” I mumbled through my embarrassment.

I hadn’t noticed at first when I came to this world since I hadn’t seen many stallions and was rather preoccupied with not being killed most of the time, but since coming to the hive and getting the hang of telling the differences between the sexes of changelings, I discovered I had been having rather uncomfortable thoughts about both of them. His radiation of joy and amusement increased further at my refusal to answer.

“Seriously though, why do you care about Pinkie Pie?” He pressed after bringing his emotional shield back up.

“She was that pink friend of mine that Nutcase was talking about. She was the first pony to treat me with kindness, and the only one to do so after they found out I was a changeling. Well, except maybe Fluttershy. And Luna.”

I added that last name rather quietly. Looking back on it, there was actually more ponies that were kind to me than I had realized.

“Huh. Hard to imagine her being kind to changelings. All I hear about her here is how she kind of tore a lot of us to pieces during the invasion of Canterlot. All the elements did.” Dryma exposited.

I didn’t much like being reminded that my companions in captivity had been soldiers that had tried to enslave ponykind and had only been captured because they were knocked into the Everfree by the Cadance-Shining love bomb. I supposed that the previous occupant of my body had been a soldier too. Thinking about the three of us, I couldn’t help but feel curious about something that Dryma had said before we left.

“You said that Pupa has reasons for not liking me. What are they?” I asked hopefully. Dryma tensed up at my words.

“I don’t know if it’s my place to say.” He deflected.

“Please, I just want to get along with him. Was it something I did?” Dryma sighed at my insistence.

“I suppose you deserve to know.” He hesitated long enough to make me wonder if he was actually going to continue. “Pupa and Visage were a couple. Your...er...Visage’s mother didn’t exactly approve, but Visage was adamant about it.”

“Oh.”

My heart sank. No wonder he was pissed at me. I had stolen the body of the mare he loved. My very presence was a constant, painful reminder of what he had lost. The fact that he mentioned my body’s mother wasn’t lost on me, either. I decided I would search for that mother later. She deserved to know what happened to her daughter, even if it would be really painful hearing it from one who is controlling her loved one’s body. Awkward silence filled the next several seconds.

“Hey look! The exit is just over there! We’re almost outside, isn’t that great? You can finally see the sun again!” His cheer sounded a little more forced than normal, but I appreciated his attempt to brighten the mood, so I forced a smile onto my face too.

“Yeah, it is.” I nodded, seeing sunlight streaming through an entryway several metres away into the empty tunnel. Hopefully the warmth of the sun on my flesh that I yearned for could cheer me up again. We both hurried our pace so to reach the door sooner.

“So you find Fluttershy kind, you kissed Rainbow Dash, got close enough to Applejack to learn how soft and warm she is, and you obviously have a thing for Pinkie Pie. I think maybe you want to see them again. Maybe get the chance to get closer, if you catch my meaning.” Dryma returned to teasing me as he stepped through the open doorway into the outside world.

“Ugh, god no.”

I quickly followed after him, noticing that we were the only ones out there. I considered it a shame that no other changelings were here to enjoy the beautiful day, so many of them had always been such killjoys what with staying in the dim hive all the time.

The entrance appeared to be in the side of a cliff with a mound of earth leading up to it. The land below us was sandy with outcroppings of rock and a few scraggly, dried out plants scattered here and there.

“Maybe it’d be fine if I could see Pinkie alone, but the last thing I want is Rainbow Dash trying to kill me again.”

“HIIIIIYAAAA!”

Almost immediately after I finished speaking, a rainbow blur dive bombed Dyrmanid. Both he and the blur went rolling violently down the gentle slope leading away from the hive’s entrance.

“Dryma!”

I rushed after them and leapt at Rainbow Dash, who was now pinning Dryma to the ground and looked ready to kill him. Before I could reach the violent mare, I found myself suspended in a familiar pink magical energy field. I looked around and found Twilight and the rest of her friends were also nearby. How had I not noticed their emotional signatures before now? Perhaps it was easy to miss it while distracted by other things. I could definitely notice now, though, and Rainbow Dash's hostility was very alarming.

“Please, don’t hurt him!” I begged Dash. Dryma had been through far too much, he deserved better than to be pummeled into the dirt and sand by her. Dash looked away from her prey to gaze at me with slight confusion.

“You sound familiar.” She stated accusingly.

“Rainbow Dash! I told you to wait for the signal! Why doesn’t anypony listen to my plans?” Twilight complained.

“Psh! You were taking too long! And what does it matter? It worked out.” Rainbow Dash dismissed her concerns.

“You were almost hit by the other one, if I hadn’t stopped him....” Twilight scolded. I noticed she was still unable to tell the differences between male and female changelings at a glance.

“But you did, I don’t see the problem.” She turned her attention back to Dryma, who was trembling beneath her.

“Chancey? Is that you?” Pinkie trotted up to me and stared at me with astonished relief.

“H...hello Pinkie.” I stuttered. I grunted in surprise as I was tackled out of Twilight’s magic by a very pink hug.

“Chance? I thought I knew your voice! Where’s Nutcase?!” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“Why? So you can save her? Haven’t you ponies done enough to us already?! Please, just leave us alone!” Dryma pleaded with them, still shaking. Rainbow Dash looked back to the changeling she had pinned.

“What are you talking about? I’m gonna kick her ass!” Rainbow continued.

“What?” I asked, confusion etched upon my face.

“We found her notes in her underground laboratory. We...know what she did to you.” Twilight explained somberly, “I am so sorry for giving you over to that monster.”

Twilight’s ears flattened against her skull as she averted her eyes out of shame, Fluttershy paled at the memory of their discovery, while Pinkie Pie nodded in agreement as she held me tighter.

“We would never have let her have you had we known.” Rarity chimed in

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you were a human. I know that I messed up, but if you give me a chance to rectify the situation, we could arrange to have you live in Ponyville.” Twilight offered eagerly. “It might take awhile for the town to warm to you, but I’m sure they would eventually if I explained the situation to them.”

“Yeah, and you won’t have to be surrounded by these stupid changelings, either!” Rainbow Dash added boisterously.

“It was the changelings that saved me, Dash, they’re not all bad. Certainly better than most ponies I know. Queen Chrysalis has even promised to help me find a way home.”

“Wait, you’re in league with the changeling queen?!” Dash blurted out. “And to think I thought you might be a good changeling!”

“If all you’re here to do is cause trouble for us, then I’d appreciate it if you left.” I retorted with narrowed eyes.

“We can’t go home now. This is a rescue mission.” Twilight adamantly refused.

“You’re going to attack the Hive because you want to save Nutcase? Are you out of your mind?!” I shouted in disbelief.

“You mean Nutcase really is still alive? And she’s here?” Twilight asked. I averted my gaze and bit my lip. I had no intention of letting Nutcase get free.

“Chance?” Pinkie asked, separating from me with a furrowed brow.

“Please, Chance, she needs to answer for her crimes in a court of law. We can make sure she doesn’t hurt anypony again if you just trust us.” Twilight tried to reason with me.

“Just like you trusted me?” I spit out venomously, causing Pinkie Pie to wilt a little. “She’s getting what she deserves right here, and I’d sooner kill her myself than risk you guys setting her free.” A few gasps were had at my harsh words. Pinkie stared at me with horror, though the look on Rainbow’s face said she agreed with me. I began to fidget nervously beneath their accusing gazes. Had I truly meant what I said? Could I possibly kill her?

“We’re sorry for what we did to you, we really are, but we’re not here to save Nutcase.” Twilight said.

“Then who are you here to rescue?” Drymanid asked.

“Twilight’s brother, Prince Shining Armor, and his wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, were abducted by your queen nearly two weeks ago.” Rarity answered on Twilight’s behalf.

I was completely floored by this. I remembered nothing about Cadance or Shining Armor being abducted in the show in season four. Hell, I didn’t remember anything about changelings at all after they were introduced in the season two finale. I almost refused to believe it, but couldn’t help but notice a nagging feeling telling me that this isn’t really the show that I had known back when I was a human.

“Are you sure it was Chrysalis?” I asked, trying my best to keep a neutral expression.

“Yeah, we’re pretty sure. That snake sent a message to Celestia tauntin’ her about doin it.” Applejack assured me irritably.

Oh, Chrysalis. Right as I started thinking you weren’t stupid for not getting rid of Cadance during the invasion, you go and tell the only ones who could stop you what you’ve done. I found myself in a very unfortunate position. Betray my morals by refusing to help the royal couple in their time of need, or betray the one who had been so kind to me and was trying to get me home. What kind of choice was that? Never be able to forgive myself and go home, or stay trapped in a world that hated me but have a clear conscience? I hung my head, resigning myself to my choice.

“Is your offer of letting me live in Ponyville still available?” I asked.

“I...well, yes. Why?” Twilight asked in turn.

“Because...I’m going to help you.” All the ponies and one changeling stared at me in surprise.

“Why would ya be willing to help us now? Ya didn’t seem too keen on helpin’ us before.” Applejack was the first to talk.

“Because Cadance and Shining Armor aren’t Nutcase. They don’t deserve to be kept here.”

“And why would we want your help? How do we know you won’t just betray us to that queen of yours?” Rainbow Dash challenged. “I say we tie you up like all the other changelings we found and go in alone.”

“You’ve come all this way and your plan is just to attack the entire hive until you find them?”

“Perish the thought! It’d be suicide to attack the entirety of the changeling army with just the six of us!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Then what are you going to do?” I asked.

A flash of light blinded me momentarily. Standing where Twilight had moments before was what appeared to be a changeling.

“While Princess Celestia's scouts had searched for the changelings this last week, I’ve spent it practicing illusion spells in order to disguise ourselves as changelings.” Twilight explained in a mediocre imitation of a changeling’s voice. A hint of pride had sneaked into her tone, while a large heaping of pride was in her emotions.

“Did you actually transform yourself into a changeling?” I asked after I managed to pick my jaw up off the floor.

“It’s just an illusion. Anypony that touched me could tell I’m not actually a changeling, but if we’re careful, I think we could still fool them.”

“Seriously? Even if you somehow managed to fool them for awhile, do you honestly think you could search the entire city to find your brother before they’d see through your disguise?”

“I think you’re underestimating my abilities.” Twilight huffed, sticking her nose in the air haughtily.

“You’re feeling pride, indignation, and worry right now.”

“What?” She blinked.

“And now you’re feeling confused, and slightly nervous in addition to what you felt before. Changelings can read your emotions. The moment you step in there, you’re nervousness and maybe even your fear is going to skyrocket. Every changeling near you is going to be able to tell that something is wrong with you, and it won’t be long before you draw the attention of the guards because of it.”

“Oh.” Twilight stated simply, a flash of embarrassment entering her emotional array.

“Psh! Like that matters, once they find us we’ll just fight our way through!” Rainbow Dash boasted.

“You’re back up plan is to attack the entire hive?” I blurted out in disbelief.

“Yeah, what’s your point?” Dash glared at me.

“There are innocents in there. There are mothers, fathers, and children, countless changelings who haven’t harmed anypony that just want to make a living for themselves in peace. If you run amok in there, they could get hurt.”

“Oh dear, it wouldn’t be very nice if innocents got hurt because of us. Maybe we should accept her help.” Flutterhsy commented uncomfortably.

“I agree, I trust Chancey, even if he is being all scary about Nutcase.” Pinkie chimed in.

“Ah dunno, Dash may be right. She could just lead us straight into a trap if we trust her. It’s too big a risk.” Applejack made her opinion know.

“I know where they’re keeping Cadance and Shining. I can lead you straight to them.”

At least I was pretty sure I knew where they were. What else other than a potential goddess of love would radiate love like that in the dungeons? I hadn’t realized it at the time, but that was before I knew that she was being held captive in the hive somewhere.

“Okay, let’s say for a moment that we actually trust you not to betray us. What could you do to minimize casualties? According to you, we’re still going to be discovered when we go in there.” Twilight asked.

I thought for a moment on the problem. They were right. I couldn’t really sneak them into the Hive without being caught. I momentarily considered pretending they were my prisoners. It would allow me to bring them straight to the dungeons no questions asked, except for one rather important one. How did this one little changeling capture six of the most dangerous mares in Equestria alone? Well, five of the most dangerous mares and Fluttershy. Nobody would believe it. Being captured by them would be far more believable, but I doubted that a single hostage would stop the guards from trying to stop them from getting deeper into the hive.

I stared at the mares surrounding me one at a time, eventually landing on Twilight Sparkle.

“I think I have an idea.”

________________________

I walked past another pair of guards as I finally entered the dungeons, alone. I tried my best to appear as casual as possible so to hide my nervousness. I am so glad I learned how to shield my emotions or I have little doubt that I would have been stopped immediately for questioning. As things stood, it appeared that these guys didn’t think anything of my visit and I was able to get inside unhindered.

The plan was for Twilight to cast a locator spell that would last a few hours on me so that she could tell my exact location at all times. Using this information she could cast a teleportation spell to arrive next to me at any time of her choosing. Given my lack of magical talent, I was unable to signal her when the time was right to teleport in, so she would give me one hour to get into position and teleport in with Applejack and Pinkie Pie. The four of us would force our way into Cadance and Shining’s cell and we would teleport out and in so doing, we'd minimize casualties. Only three would teleport in so to avoid overtaxing Twilight since having to teleport all six of them, myself plus two potentially injured ponies would be difficult if she needs to do anything else with her magic between the teleports.

Two of the mane six didn’t like my plan and wanted to simply tie me up and invade the Hive, two supported me with varying degrees of enthusiasm, one was unsure, and the last was left trying to mediate between the two sides. I’ll let you guess which ones fell into each category.

Eventually it was decided that we would go with my plan, but they would keep Dryma and the unconscious guards they had taken out before we arrived outside as hostages to ensure my cooperation. If that wasn’t enough, if we weren’t out within two hours, then the three left behind would go and get a proper army to take the ponies back. Needless to say, I wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

I walked straight past the ever alluring pull of Cadance’s love and headed for Nutcase’s cell. Just teleporting into that corridor where so many guards were didn’t seem a good idea to me. They could be taken down by the guards before they could even get their bearings and then we’d have an army on our doorstep.

“You’re here again? I don’t think you should be feeding off of her so soon after the last time, she needs to recover first or she’ll become shelled.” The guard outside the door leading to Nutcase’s cell warned.

“I’m not here to feed, I want something else from her.” I vaguely explained. The guard merely raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Like what?” He pressed. I thought quickly about how to get this guy to let me in and came up with an idea. I didn’t like what I was going to say, but I needed to get in there alone.

“You know what she did to me? “ I waited until he nodded. “I want to return the favour and show her just what it’s like.” The guard’s face twisted with disgust at what I had implied.

“I think that’s going too far, the Queen wouldn’t-“

“The Queen gave her to me to do whatever I want to so long as I don’t kill her or turn her into a shell. Trust me, she’ll live through this.”

“But—“ The guard fidgeted nervously.

“Do you want to be the changeling that tells Queen Chrysalis that he didn’t want to follow her orders because he was too uncomfortable?” I interrupted him again. He sighed after a moment of chewing over what I had just threatened him with and unlocked the door for me.

“That’s better. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like a little bit of privacy for this.” The guard nodded at my request. He looked like he was going to be sick.

As I walked into the cell, a pang of guilt entered my chest. I realized that not only was I making that guard believe he was letting me do something to his prisoner that went so strongly against his morals, but that he would probably be the first to get hurt by the mares that I was letting into the place. I felt almost as sick as the guard looked as the door closed behind me.

Nutcase stared up at me wearily, not saying a word. I wasn’t sure how much time there was left before Twilight would teleport in, but I could tell that her staring would make for a very uncomfortable wait. I sat down and stared back at those eyes, trying to let my anger shield me from any guilt I felt. I had thought I felt no guilt over my actions, but after seeing the way that Pinkie had reacted to my rage, I was being faced with the prospect that I may have just been in denial. As the minutes passed, I felt increasingly anxious at her accusing glare and was soon fidgeting nervously. Rage and shame roiled within me in near equal measures. I couldn’t take the silence anymore. I engulfed myself in the flames of transformation and took on the familiar form of Musty Tome.

“This is what you wanted, right?” Nutcase remained silent. “You wanted to live a little fantasy where your husband was still alive, right? To spend a day talking with him again, to hear his voice and know that you’re not alone anymore? To have him fuck your brains out one more time? You couldn’t just let go and move on, like any sane person would do?!”

Nutcase refused to say anything, her mouth in the form of tight lipped silence. She ruined my life, and for what?

“The changelings here are desperate for food. It’s why they invaded Equestria. Had you just brought back your three prisoners to the Hive you probably could have had any number of them clamoring to let you delude yourself into thinking your husband was back with them so long as you let them feed from you every now and then. Instead, you keep them locked up as your prisoners and rape them. You killed one of them with your twisted fantasy! You brought ME here! I could have been at home in my bed right now, or spending time with my family!”

Nutcase looked past me for a moment then she returned her gaze to me. I saw no guilt. “What is this supposed to be? A trial in front of the Princess? I didn’t think changelings cared much what ponies thought.”

My eyes widened and I flipped around to see three ponies acting as audience to my venting tirade. Pinkie looked like she was about to cry or leap at me in a bone crushing hug, maybe both. Twilight and AJ looked very uncomfortable.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough.” Applejack simply stated.

I sat down and sighed, closing my eyes. I thought that I would be crying at this moment, but I wasn’t. Pinkie finally overcame whatever it was that had been stopping her and rushed to my side to give me a great big hug, rubbing my back with a hoof. It was odd how gentle a hard hoof could be.

“We should take her back to Canterlot and have her tried for her crimes.” Twilight broke the pity party with her declaration.

I wanted to argue, to tell her that she should stay here where her presence could actually help those she had harmed, where I could....get my revenge. I couldn’t. I had already known that this was truly about revenge, but I felt that my anger was beginning to subside now. Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to pummel that mare into the dirt, or turn her into a shell, just less so than before. Given my assistance towards these ponies, I doubted I would get much opportunity to torment her from now on if she stayed anyway.

I lifted Pinkie off of me with my telekinesis and set her down a couple metres away. I had never lifted anything as big as a pony before, but it was surprisingly not that difficult. Maybe Pinkie’s affection that I was passively absorbing helped. Or maybe absorbing several times the love I needed from Nutcase did it. I looked at Twilight and resolved to get down to business.

“The door leading to where they’re keeping Cadance is the fifth one on the right turning right outside this cell. There are at least half a dozen guards nearby.”

“We can deal with them.” Twilight nonchalantly responded, causing me to wince.

“No.”

“I beg yer pardon?” Applejack raised an eyebrow at my objection.

“I don’t want you hurting them if at all possible.”

“I suppose I could try casting sleep spells, but it doesn’t seem very practical for dealing with a contingent of armed guards.”

I shook my head. “It wouldn’t work, anyway. The soldiers of the hive have been trained to resist spells meant to influence their mental state.”

“Then what would you suggest?” Twilight huffed.

I looked to the door, and then back to the three mares, thinking. The moment they stepped out of that door they would be seen and attacked. Any one of them would be chased to ends of the Earth, or whatever the planet Equestria is part of was called. I studied Twilight a little more closely. Any single one of them.

“What are you doing?!” A shocked Twilight demanded as green flame engulfed me and left behind a perfect mirror of the purple alicorn.

“The moment one of you steps out here, you’re going to be seen and the guards will undoubtedly give chase. So, I’m going to give them one of you to chase.” My voice came out a steady, and dare I say good, imitation of Twilight. Pinkie gasped at my plan.

“But if you do that you’ll be caught and won’t be able to come with us!” Pinkie protested. Nutcase looked ready to gag at Pinkie’s desire to take me with them, but remained silent.

“Pinkie’s right. If you do this, your Queen will be livid with you and we won’t be able to save you. You don’t have to do this.” Twilight added.

“If I don’t, you’ll hurt the changelings out there. I want to avoid as much of their pain as possible.”

“I doubt every guard will give chase, they won’t leave the entire dungeons defenseless because one mare goes running by.” Twilight pointed out.

“If I can save even one from you, it’ll be worth it.” I argued, a hard edge entering my voice.

“Please don’t go! You were supposed to come back with us! I haven’t even thrown you a party yet!”

I gave Pinkie a sorrowful look. “I have to do this. Please tell Dash that I’m sorry about kissing her.”

I opened the door, indicating to the others that they should be quiet. I lowered my emotional shielding so that my nervousness would catch the attention of nearby changelings and cautiously stepped out the door.

“Ugh....now where did that teleportation spell land me this time.” I muttered just loudly enough to ensure that the guard outside the door would hear me.

I looked around, as if searching an unfamiliar location, and swiftly landed my gaze on the changeling I had tricked earlier and hoped to trick again. His eyes went wide in shock and his mouth fell open as recognition settled in, I mirrored his expression in an effort to feign surprise.

“Oh crap!”

I blasted a harmless ball of light into his face to temporarily disorient him and bolted, though not so quickly as to get out of his sight. I blew past some confused guards and came to a stop in front of the entrance to the special wing of the dungeon. The two changelings guarding this door were quicker to act than their counterparts earlier, wasting no time in approaching me in combat stances.

“I don’t suppose we could talk about this?”

I forced a nervous chuckle while darting my eyes from those two to the others I had left behind moments ago. Seeing that all the ones I had rushed past earlier were following me, I blasted the newest additions to the chase with another ball of light and ran again.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! This was a terrible idea! I mentally screamed at myself as I skidded my way out of the dungeons with several angry guards almost literally on my tail.

How I had managed to make it this far I didn’t know. The guards must have been extra cautious with me because they knew just how dangerous Twilight was. This had the upside of causing most of the guards I ran across to chase after me. It also had the downside of causing most of the guards I ran across to chase after me.

A quick surveillance of my surroundings showed me that more guards were already ahead of me, blocking off one of the paths I could have taken. They must have gotten word ahead somehow and called for reinforcements. Without a second look, I turned and stumbled my way down the unblocked path.

The appearance of new guards to bar my way and forcing me to change direction quickly became a recurring theme. Those behind me kept close enough to be a constant threat, but they never made any serious attempts to catch me. I had the distinct feeling I was being herded somewhere. I was tiring fast, too. My body hadn’t been done any favours being locked up for as long as it had and being well fed on love could only help me push a weakened body so far.

I turned a corner, my breath coming in ragged, painful gasps now. I froze in my tracks at what lay ahead of me. Chrysalis stood at the ready, her horn charged with immeasurable magical energy, no doubt boosted from feeding off of Cadance for the last several days. I whimpered pathetically as a magical beam that could take down alicorns was shot from her horn and blasted me into unconsciousness.

____________________

Chrysalis stared in horror at the mangled changeling that lay on the cold stone floor where before had stood her sworn enemy, Twilight Sparkle. She had struck down her dearest Visage.

Why would she do this? Why would she pretend to be that hated mare? It didn’t matter. She needed to do something to save her. She gently lifted the damaged mare with her magic and softly laid her onto her own back.

“Return to your duties, I must attend to her.” She dismissed the confused soldiers surrounding her.

The disembodied voice of one of her soldiers echoed through the monarch’s mind, a trick employed by the more magically adept changelings in her armies, herself included. Understanding and the sting of betrayal filled Chrysalis.

“Take her to my chambers and try to stabilize her condition. Find a doctor if you must.” Chrysalis ordered a pair of soldiers as she laid the injured changeling in front of them. “The rest of you, follow me.”

_______________________

Twilight watched as Chance, disguised as herself, slipped out the door. Within moments, she detected the use of a weak spell and a flash of light could be seen through the cracks of the door. The sound of hoof beats and some shouting followed, swiftly fading as it travelled further away from the cell. After precisely sixty seconds of silence, Twilight turned to the captive Nutcase and broke through her chains with a quick spell.

“You can either stay here and try to fight your way through a hive of angry changelings, or you can come with us. If you come with us you will be tried for your crimes and punished accordingly. Do you understand?” Nutcase glared at Twilight as she delivered her ultimatum, but soon nodded in agreement.

She contemplated about using the changeling illusion, but dismissed the idea. If it was truly so easy to see through as Chance had said, then it would just be a waste of time and energy.

“Alright, girls, let’s go save my brother!”

Twilight swung the door open and stepped outside, ready to put down any changelings that hadn’t fallen for the distraction. The corridor was empty. It appeared that Chance’s distraction had worked in clearing at least the immediate vicinity. She and her companions trotted along to the right in search of the doors leading to her brother and his wife.

“One...two...three....four...five!” Pinkie counted aloud as they passed each door until they reached the one Chance had told them about.

Twilight doubted that they had really needed to know exactly how many doors away this one had been since it stood out quite obviously from the rest. The door was considerably larger than any of its neighbors. She attempted to open the door with her magic, but found it to be locked.

“Applejack, can you open this door? I don’t think we have time for me to figure out how to unlock it with my magic.”

“Sure thing, sugar cube.”

Applejack turned her backside to the large doors and let out a tremendous kick with her hind legs and a thunderous crack echoed through the dungeons. The door groaned under the strain of the strike, but remained intact. One more mighty buck caused it to burst open.

From within, four changelings stood ready to defend against the intruders, horns flaring with an ominous green light. One more changeling lay on the floor unmoving, evidently having been struck by pieces of the now broken door.

The guards fought valiantly, but they didn’t stand a chance against the mares. Within seconds they were defeated. One had been taken out by blast out of Pinkie’s party cannon, which she somehow brought out of nowhere again, much to Twilight’s consternation. A second had been bowled over by Applejack who charged at them like an angry rhino, and the final two were incapacitated when Twilight tossed them against a wall with a swift blast of her magic. It was a simple solution and Twilight still felt a twinge of regret that she didn’t try something much more complicated, but she had finally started to learn that going for complicated spell craft to solve your problems wasn’t always the best option.

After finding a ring of keys on one of the downed guards, Twilight set about opening every cell she could find while AJ opened them with her own, forceful method. Pinkie Pie kept watch near the exit for any trouble coming for them from outside.

Twilight growled with frustration as she opened another empty cell. Why would they have so many cells in this part of the dungeon if they didn’t use any of them? She couldn’t even find them with her magic. Every scan of the dungeon revealed nothing to her about its occupants other than the changelings guarding the place. She couldn’t even detect Nutcase even though she was standing right beside them. It would seem that the magical inhibitor that she had spied on Nutcase was impeding her ability to detect her and surmised a similar magical dampening effect was on all the prisoners.

This was wasting too much time, there was no way that Chance hadn’t been caught yet. It would only be a matter of moments before they were swarmed by changelings. A few changelings here and there were no match for the three mares, but an army would be able to take her down just like they had during the invasion during her brother’s wedding. Twilight flung open another door and.....empty. Again. Twilight’s eye began to twitch.

“Twiliiiight! We have a problem!” Pinkie shouted back at them from her lookout position. She had pulled out her party cannon again, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The sound of buzzing wings and pounding hooves could be heard approaching.

Twilight jammed her keys into another locked door and swung it open with a renewed sense of desperation. Empty.

No time to panic, panicking won’t help anypony, just keep it together and move onto the next one.

The next one was just as empty as the last. The sound of the party cannon going off marked the end of their time.

“Twilight! A little help, please!” Pinkie was fighting off a flood of changelings that had gotten past her cannon. She was holding her own, but it wouldn’t be long before she was overrun.

“AJ, Nutcase, keep searching for my brother, I’ll try to hold them off!” Twilight ordered, tossing the keys to Nutcase then rushed to Pinkie’s aid. She erected a barrier to block off the entry of the changeling horde. With the flow of reinforcements halted, Pinkie was able to defeat the ones that had gotten through.

The sound of Nutcase opening doors was nearly drowned out by the horde of changelings beating against the barrier with bodies and magic both. The crashes from Applejack breaking doors down worked together with the pressure of keeping up the barrier against the changeling assault to instill a splitting headache in Twilight.

It was after another wince inducing crash that AJ spoke up. “Twi! Ah found them!” Twilight looked back to see where her friend had called from.

“Great, now we can finally get out of...oh no!”

Twilight sensed a buildup of magical energy coming from beyond her barrier and whipped her attention back to the changeling swarm. Glaring at her directly through the purple shield stood the changeling Queen, her gnarled horn glowing menacingly. The light from Chrysalis’ horn spread to cover her entire body and then she stepped forward, straight through the barrier as if it wasn’t even there. Twilight’s jaw dropped at this feat. Nopony had ever gotten through one of her barriers with such ease. The power she must have absorbed from Cadance had to be astronomical!

“We gotta go, Twilight!”

Pinkie Pie wrapped a hoof around Twilight and yanked her out of the way just in time to avoid a beam of energy directed at her. The sheer magical force of the blast was in stark contrast to the considerably weaker magical spells the Queen’s underlings had been using, there was no comparison.

In panic, Twilight dropped the barrier she had been holding up and teleported the two of them into the cell that AJ and Nutcase had already rushed into. Barely taking a moment to reorient herself and confirm the position of the unconscious Cadance and Shining Armor wrapped in changeling cocoons, she began to charge up as much magic as she possibly could as quickly as she could. Locking onto Rainbow Dash’s position, whom she had previously put the same locator spell on as she had with Chance, she teleported all of the ponies to safety.