Wine Press

Swift Blade turned back sharply to the sound of screaming. “Damn it; they found them! Come on, Redeye!”

As the Changelings were finishing their meal, a burst of blades broke through one of the trees. It split and cracked a moment before falling near the midst of black creatures, causing them to spread out like a flock of shocked pigeons.

“Get back!” Berry shouted. “We can’t risk many of you dying. Wait when they’re weak!”

A haphazard rush of other Changelings trickled in trying to take on the battle ponies a pair at a time. But it required no more than a quick buck or a swipe to dispatch them. Swift tried taking focused glances at the new Changelings. To the untrained eye they would have looked like any other, but these were slightly bigger, heads more wolf-like, had a greener hue to their eyes, and a thinner horn.

Swift ducked under a clumsy dive attack and back-flipped the Changeling to the ground. “The mockingbirds probably have a secondary hive mind. Killing them will destroy the perfect mimicry.”

Redeye nodded and used his mouth to grab one of the downed Changelings by the neck. Spinning around in a circle he catapulted it towards one of the flying mockingbirds. But the horns of two of them glowed, one a green and the other gold, catching their wounded cousin and placing him on the ground. Berry Punch laughed.

Swift Blade grit his teeth and Redeye spat. No Changeling had that kind of initiative or telekinetic power. None except Queen Chrysalis. “Ok then,” Swift mumbled, “easier said than done.” He dug a hoof in the ground. “Way of the Twin Cannons, you know it?”

Redeye was an old warrior, he knew all fighting styles. Without prompting, he grabbed Swift and threw him at one of the larger trees. Swift Blade conjured a greatsword as he jumped against the tree and crashed into the Changelings. As Redeye charged forward the greatsword spun in his path and he grabbed it in his teeth and then sweeping the weapon left and right, cut gashes in several wide trees. As the Changelings tried to fly from the Unicorn and Earth pony, the falling timber impeded their progress. Running on the branches up high, Swift rammed or magically downed those getting away.

Gathered together in a huddled mass, they would be easy prey for Redeye’s blade.

Ruby Pinch dove in the way and shone the light on her horn as brightly as possible. In fear of hurting the filly, the noble battle pony broke off his attack. Swift Blade was able to catch the next branch when he was likewise unexpectedly blinded.

When the two had their sight return, the Changelings had morphed into several ponies. Miss Cheerilee, Noi, Sassaflash, Seaswirl, Fleetfoot, Nurse Redheart, Cloudchaser, and many others.

Swift Blade rose an eyebrow as he conjured three spinning daggers about him. “That won’t help you, unless…”

Redeye shoved Pinchy aside for her protection, lowered his head and charged but came head-to-head with a particularly large white Pegasi—he found himself face-to-face with the strongest pony in Ponyville. Bulk Biceps took on an eerily evil grin before picking up the battle pony and throwing him clean through several trees. Weather ponies grinned as they summoned a storm, taking Swift Blade into a growing tornado funnel as Sassaflash kicked several lightning bolts into the raging whirlwind before they threw him impossibly fast into the ground with a heart-pounding boom.

Berry lifted her daughter back on her feet. “Just imagine what it’ll be like when we get an entire army of ponies and their special talents all over Equestria!”

Redeye winced in pain as he tried standing up but some of his ribs were broken. There was a strong stench of death and urine around him. He struggled to move, opened his swollen, blackened eyes. A grenade and canister to a mine greeted his sight. A swarm of Changelings were upon him, trying to wound and hurt him in preparation for the concoction.

An explosion shook the Everfree Forest, clearing entire patches of trees and throwing Changeling body parts like scattering shotgun pellets.

Screams. Fighting. The explosion. Piña Colada tried to keep running till it all faded; until she was finally left alone in the darkness and silence of the Everfree Forest. She ran until a cliff stopped her from running any further. She crouched behind a cold, uncaring boulder, finding little comfort in the dirt as she curled her lavender tail around herself till the tip fell over her nose. She buried her face in it and cried her heart out.

She let go of many weeks of tears. Her cheek hurt where she was backhooved and her head rang with a raging headache when Berry slammed her into the machine. And most of all, her chest was seized by a heart-gripping pain. Piña coughed as her lips quivered in balling. “I wish—I was dead!”

Piña looked up at the stars twinkling in the distance as they watched her safely in their perches above. Her breathing picked up in rapid pace. As much as she hated to admit it, she badly wanted some alcohol. It seemed the only thing worth living for at all, but also what was needed to live. A vicious cycle. She swallowed hard as she finally seemed to understand her sister but it was not the curse she wanted or chose. She sniffled and crawled her way to the edge of the cliff and peered down the sharp slope.

Surely there was no amount of physical pain she would feel that was worse than this, not even what she could feel after hitting the rocks far below.

She looked up at the stars. “I don’t want to be like Berry Punch,” she told the little lights in the sky as she raised her front right hoof. “So don’t save me.”

Without even looking below Piña gasped as she let herself fall.