Broken Hearts And Broken Minds

Three uneventful days passed. We simply cleaned our weapons, cleaned our armor, and waited for a sign that they were coming back. On the fourth day, we got one. It came in the form of leaflets, dropped on us by a pegasus (who was probably one of them in pony form). The leaflets read in poor, broken English:

"What you did to my Changeling sivilians is not go unnoticed. We will come with better troops in days of a few. Your time is run out. Surrender your country or suffer the power of my Changeling Army."

Everypony in Appleloosa got to read one of these slips. The civilian ponies developed a new sense of nationalism, deciding that they would fight alongside our army, whether we liked it or not. We made a plan that in the morning, the army would separate into thirds, march South, and then each section would guard a different area. If they spotted the Changelings, then they would attack on sight, using the other two thirds of our army to flank. I was independent, so I made my own plan. To fly around the desert looking for potential places that the changelings could set up a stronghold.

We left at dawn of the next day, before the rest of the army. The six of us flew for several hours before finding a resting place. We landed in a patch of rocks and cacti and checked a map. So far, there were no special landforms, rocks, valleys, or towers that could be used for hiding or staging an army.

"This sucks." I declared, lifting my helmet off of my head.

"Reconnoiter the desert you said. It will be fun you said." Over-G laughed at me.

"At least I can read a map." I responded jokingly. He immediately fell silent.

"Let's go back to Appleloosa and make sure nothing bad is happening there." I ordered. As I slipped my helmet on, I noticed a single pony running through the desert towards Appleloosa.

I intercepted the stallion and stopped him. He had the same color scheme as me, with a white coat, and sky blue hair. I realized that he was the same pony I had seen dead on the ground during that first contact.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked him, flipping out my blade.

"N-... Nothing." He stuttered. "What about you?"

"I'm with Equestria's Royal Army. I'm protecting my country." His face went from nervous to terrified as I moved closer to him.

"So why are you out here?" I asked again.

"I'm running from the Changelings. I've been out here for four days." He looked down at the ground as he said this.
I thrust my sabre into his chest and held it there. He transformed into a changeling.

"Your army only told us it's name yesterday. You couldn't have known it if you were out here for four days."

"Good catch." It smiled as I pulled my blade out and it collapsed.

We flew straight back to Appleloosa and landed on Mane street. Nothing suspicious was happening. Two hours after arriving we were sitting in the tavern when all of a sudden, ponies began to run and hide indoors. I peeked out the window to see five Changelings with crooked black spears and blue armor marching through the town. I ordered us to split up and try to find out if there were any more than that. They began marching towards an occupied house. I could see a mare in the upstairs window hiding behind a curtain. They approached the house, bucked down the door, and entered angrily one by one. An image of Aerodrome flashed through my head. I crashed through the tavern's front doors, yelled to get their attention, and flipped my weapon out. They lined up in front of the house and lowered their spears at me, making it impossible for me to reach them. I yelled again and slapped one of their spears down to the ground with the side of my weapon. Their calmness faded away and they began to act aggressively in response.

Wanderlust swooped out of the sky and ran her sabre across all five of their backs, their armor deflected it, but it distracted them. I charged into the middle one, stabbing it in the neck with my armor's metal horn, knocking it back and incapacitating it. Thinking fast, I pulled the horn out and thrust my sword into the Changeling to my right. I felt my attack bounce off of it's helmet, accomplishing nothing. I stabbed at it four more times as fast as my leg could move before feeling the blade contact any kind of skin or shell. Then suddenly, a spear from behind went into my right wing. I screamed and dug the blade farther into my enemy before pulling it out messily and turning around. One of the Changelings had dug a thin, needle-like staff into my wing and was still holding on. I stood for a moment in shock before Grayscale came diving down, cut the pike in half and took off, freeing me. I turned and lunged at the Changeling, slashing its neck clumsily with my blade, and rendering it instantly useless. Two more to go. The point fell out of my feather and on to the ground next to me, and I folded my wing swiftly and carefully. The pain of the injury was mostly in the shock of realising that I had been stabbed.

There were Changelings to my front and back, both of which were aggressive and aiming to kill. I felt a spear bounce off of the back of my helmet with incredible force, knocking my head forward and disorienting me. Then another one rammed my breastplate. Then another one on my back. Then one on my forehead. I blindly charged forward into one of them, wounding it with my steel horn. I felt my helmet horn penetrate the Creature's face, and I heard a terrible screeching. Behind me, Over-G crashed down on top of the other one and stabbed it to death. I withdrew my horn from the insect's head and backed up to look at it. It was still alive. And it was staring painfully back at me. After a moment of silence, I tackled the Changeling and stabbed it eight times in various places. I was out of breath and felt like I had taken down the entire army.

"What the buck were you doing, Wing Nut?" Wanderlust yelled as she landed next to me.

"There was...". I said as the pain in my wing began to fade in. The rest of the team landed next to her and looked at me, waiting for an answer. "There was a mare in that window. It made me think of Aerodrome. I had to do something about it."

"Who is Aerodrome?" Shellshock asked me.

"She's the one that took him into her family when his was murdered." Wanderlust responded. Then our group was joined by somepony. The mare from the window dashed out of her front door and wrapped her hooves around me. She had a purple coat and a black mane.

"Thank you. You saved my flank." She said to me. I had no idea why she reminded me of Aerodrome, she didn't look, sound, or talk like her. Maybe I just missed her more than I knew it.

As she released me from the hug, my eyes fell on the corpses of the five Changeling soldiers. Three of them were bleeding from the necks, the one Over-G killed looked very broken, and the last one I killed was completely torn up. I felt both bad and good about it. I had killed four living creatures, but had also saved a pony's life. After I sent the mare back into her house, I returned to the tavern across the street to wait for Equestria's Army.