Task Force Harmony

Mount Silvat
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The team set up a base camp inside the second cavern and began scouting the tunnels. Compared to their former methods, time had no meaning without Celestia's light nor Luna's night to guide them. Their body clocks were dictating priority now, each of them eating or sleeping as required and using the rest of their time to explore. The further any of them moved, the more they found small hints that they were on the right track. Small tracks worn into the ground through use here, a few stray drops of a green, gel-like fluid there. If the changelings weren't here now, they had been. Cipher wasn't taking any chances and made sure that everypony heading out was at least in a two-pony team and taking minimal risks. If their enemies were here, then the need for caution was obvious. If not, they may have left some surprises in case this exact situation happened. On the other hoof, there may be some hint as to where they were, where their drones were within Equestria and possibly clues at ponies they had taken and replaced.

Everypony else was in full agreement about the need for care in such a situation and combined with how seriously it was being taken, there were few chances to relax. The best they could manage was small talk every so often, which had the added benefit of helping to close the last few tensions present between team members. Two of those who didn't need that were Rainbow Dash and Aurora. The duo were the freshest ponies at present and were making use of it to scout a new tunnel for signs of life. The only thing of note they'd seen so far was that there was far less lichen this way, the darkness meaning Aurora occasionally needed to use his horn to light the way. It had also climbed slightly, indicating that the caves were more expansive than they thought. Even if they didn't expand beyond the mountain, the fact there was multiple levels meant more to work against.

"Buddy to Crash, or Soul. Are either of you in range?" Cipher's voice came through the comms, making their ears twitch. It was slightly faded, likely by the magic having to go through rock, but it was still clear enough.

"Crash here, we hear you." Rainbow replied, stopping and rubbing her chest as she spoke. There had been a few times where the search had taken ponies out of comms range and made things a little tense upon return until the appropriate questions had been answered.

"Good, just wanted to let you know that I'm about to end my patrol and going to get my head down for a while. Wall and Zippy are on guard now so talk to them if you find anything."

"Copy, sir." Aurora said, looking back and waiting for Rainbow to catch up with him.

"Hey, do you sense anything around here?" She asked, waiting while he looked round, silently scanning with his magic for any signs of life. It was rather odd to watch, seeing a fully armoured soldier practically twirling in place as he looked in every direction to make sure.

"No, the only other living thing within range is you."

"Great. Cover me for a minute, my armour isn't sitting right."

Aurora nodded and pointed out a small alcove in the wall that would give her some extra cover to do so. Rainbow positioned herself in there and gave one last look around before undoing her armour plates at the front, trying to find what was wrong with it. Even though they were completely alone, Aurora still felt uneasy about holding position here. Part of the cave roof above them was open, likely leading to more tunnels that lay in pitch darkness, judging how he couldn't see anything up there. Lighting his horn further was tempting, but on the chance that something was lurking that he couldn't sense, he decided against it.

"Hey, kid, something I've been wondering about you," Rainbow said, waiting for Aurora to turn back toward her. "I know it doesn't come up much since when you're here, you're just our friend. But, you're still a prince to an entire empire."

"An empire of ice. Seriously, Crystal City and Rainbow Falls are the only major settlements." He replied with a small chuckle. That was all she needed to know he still had his aura magic active.

"Yeah, all that, but still. I gotta admit, when I first met you, you didn't seem like prince material. Not very social and kind of...Well don't take this the wrong way but you were kind of weak."

For a few seconds, nothing was said between them. Aurora looked back at the opening above, expression unreadable behind his visor. Rainbow hesitated at that, worrying she'd touched a nerve, while trying to look distracted by the loose catch in her chest armour that had been making it so uncomfortable.

"Try not to worry about it too much. After all, you're right," He finally said, not sounding affected by her thoughts. "When Princess Luna came to my parents to discuss my possibility of joining Task Force Harmony, I was the only one who didn't think it was a good idea. I thought it was more important to be smart enough to know how to rule. I know I needed more friends at the time but, well, I guess there's a bit more of Aunt Twilight in me than I thought."

"I've seen how much of a book lover you can be," Rainbow replied simply, glad to see him opening up some more. After all the times Healing Wave had harassed him, he'd been reluctant to talk about himself to anypony. "So, what changed?"

"Mom and Dad talked to me privately after Luna had left," Aurora sat down as he kept talking. "They taught me that ruling is one thing, but I need to be able to lead in all aspects too. Some parts of that though, I wouldn't be able to do by just staying in the empire. I travelled to Canterlot the next day, accepted Luna's offer and, well here we are."

"So, you think you've learned what you need here?" Rainbow asked, grunting as she pulled one of the plates back into place and checked it wasn't prodding her chest anymore.

"Well, I think I took a few steps toward it. I can think, I can fight, I can socialise better. I think that's why-" Aurora paused mid-speech and craned his neck backwards. "...Something's moving. At the very edge of my magic."

"Crash to Zippy," Rainbow quickly started trying to refit her armour plates, mentally cursing herself for getting complacent and taking so long. "Are you there? I repeat, anypony in range, respond."

From where he was standing, Aurora's eyes narrowed as he looked into the opening above them. It was still completely black up there but he knew it wasn't empty anymore. He'd sensed something up there. That something suddenly became two things, that were closing in on him fast. The area above glowed harshly as what he could only describe as a black meteor with a barrier of green fire surrounding it charged toward him at breakneck speed. Aurora gasped and teleported out of the way just as it landed, kicking up dust that filled the tunnel and blew a small crater in the floor. Rainbow Dash instinctively threw a hoof up to shield her eyes, only to stop as Aurora reappeared in front of her. Imposing himself between it and her.

As the dust began to settle, something moved in the depression formed by its landing. Roughly the size of an above-average stallion, covered in a black, bone like material on its head and body that gave way to a deep blue carapace running down its back. A horn curved like a scimitar. Holes in all four of its legs and rows of sharp, bared teeth. A changeling, through and through. The dust kicked up again as a second changeling dropped into the tunnel, hovering on it's chitinous wings. This one caught the attention of the studious part of Aurora's mind as he noted, it was slightly smaller than Rainbow was and lacked a horn of any kind. In addition, it seemed to be keeping its distance more than the first, who was poised ready to strike at any moment.

"Me'ek hi rou!" The changeling snarled as it charged. Aurora tensed in place as he realised he was going to have to fight this one alone at first. Rainbow was still scrambling to fix her armour, time she wouldn't have unless he held his ground.

He counter-charged the last few feet and fired a quick beam of magic. The changeling fired one of its own, the two colliding and erupting in a small, hazy burst of smoky green. The two combatants met right in the middle of this, Aurora twisting his neck to avoid the first hoof thrown at his muzzle and used to momentum to bring his own left hoof into an uppercut that caught his opponent square in the jaw. The hovering changeling winced at the hit and actually backed off slightly, almost hitting its head on the ceiling.

"Pabe?" The aggressor growled to itself, wings buzzing in frustration before going in again, winding up for a horn thrust. As soon as Aurora went to block though, it raised its head and tackled him, the momentum shift throwing the unicorn onto his back and leaving him open to a follow up attack.

Aurora gasped again as the wind was knocked from his lungs. His training kicked in where his reactions were failing and at the rush of air that indicated his opponent was passing over his body, his back legs bucked out and landed square in the changeling's stomach. On a pony, such a hit would have been disabling, possibly life threatening if it hit hard enough to rupture an organ. With a changelings natural armour though, it merely threw it off target, its body curving in on itself from the force. The changeling tried to pull its head back upright during the blow, its horn scraping along Aurora's mouthplate before catching on the bottom edge of the visor, yanking it up an inch or two before the tenuous grip was broken and the visor snapped back into his exposed eyes before he could react.

Aurora cried out at the sudden sharp pain that came from having both eyes slapped and rolled over, fruitlessly rubbing his visor for several seconds. Despite being left completely exposed, neither changeling took advantage of the situation, the sounds of fighting coming behind him showing the changeling had moved onto Rainbow Dash. A quick look up as his vision came back to him showed that the hovering changeling was still hanging back for some unknown reason. Any further thoughts were halted by the sound of Rainbow screaming in pain. Aurora twisted his head round to see the changeling had managed to pull her chest plates open before she could seal them and sink his four-inch fangs through the other two layers. As more of his vision focused again, he could already see blood seeping out from how deep the fangs had gone, his friend desperately throwing punches into its chest and neck to try and dislodge it.

At this point, training failed him, instinct failed him, the sight of a friend being wounded within reach was more than his mind was able to rationally handle. Without even realising it, he was back on his hooves, his body being flooded with what felt like white hot fire. It didn't hurt though, that pain was being reserved for something more deserving. As if he'd known what to do in this moment his whole life, he growled and rushed the changeling from behind, wrapping a hoof round its neck and another in its open jaw. Using the changeling's surprise at the attack to press the advantage, he yanked backward, pulling the offending fangs from Rainbow's chest, before putting all his strength into throwing his opponent from the alcove. As soon as his hooves let go, he brought his horn down and fired at the changeling's nape, not enough to cause harm but enough to propel it into the far wall.

The attack hit dead on, Aurora keeping it going until he heard the changeling hit the wall with a crack. The hovering changeling made a sound that sounded like a gasp and landed, looking wary and possibly even frightened. The aggressor changeling came down hard, leaving a trail of blood running from a small piece of its muzzle that had ripped off against the stone wall. Aurora hesitated for the briefest of moments, noting from both the stain left by its impact and the fresh injury that changelings had red blood and pink flesh beneath their natural armour. That feeling faded as his bloodlust took control again and his magic glowed anew, a white aura surrounding the changelings' neck and hoisting it off the ground.

He hesitated again, that same small part of his mind realising just what he was doing. He knew he was striking out of anger more than anything, that his magic was constricting the changeling's throat enough for it to fruitlessly try and grasp at its neck, back hooves kicking at nothing. Aurora knew that for the first time, he held the life of a sapient being in his hooves. Could be really do this? His hatred of the changelings was almost entirely focused on Queen Chrysalis and her actions, not those that had followed her for unknown purposes. Unfortunately, the part of his mind capable of rational thought was still vastly outmatched by his impulsive parts, all screaming the same thing in his mind:

'This changeling tried to kill Rainbow Dash. It has no place in this world.'

With a mental twist, his magic followed through with his desires. The changeling's neck was crushed with an echoing snap that hung in the air. It gave a last strangled gasp before the life fled its body, going limp all over, a few drops of blood beginning to leak from its mouth. Aurora threw the body down and released his magic, watching it smash into the dirt and give a final involuntary twitch. As he glared at the corpse, he realised that it was also profusely bleeding from the neck where its crushed chitin had carved through its own flesh. With that done, his gaze turned toward the second changeling, which was taking a step back, ears folded back in fear, pupils shrunk to a size that actually made them look like white pony pupils.

"Zel..." It said quietly, its tone more feminine than that of its hivemate. It kept staring at the bleeding corpse for several moments before looking up at Aurora and backing up further, starting to hyperventilate slightly, pure terror visible in its body language. "Zel! Ka...Han't bellera meko! Ka!"

Before Aurora could even start trying to translate or react, the changeling took off back into the opening again, disappearing into the dark. Much as he wanted to try and chase it, or maybe he should use she now, she couldn't fly up there. Maybe Rainbow Dash could...Rainbow! The anger he'd been feeling vanished in an instant and he ran back to the alcove where Rainbow was lying, writhing in pain.

"Oh hell, oh jeez, oh crap. I'm sorry." He said quickly as he checked her injury. The fangs had been mitigated slightly by the rubber but several inches had still pierced her lower chest, two small puncture wounds freely bleeding. He couldn't tell if the fangs had been stopped by her ribs or gone past them. Either way, this was beyond his basic knowledge to fix.

"Hey, you got him...Proud." Rainbow replied through gritted teeth before tensing up again, barely biting back a fresh cry. Whatever damage had been done, it only seemed to be getting worse.

"Ok, hold on." He took hold of her and focused, horn glowing anew. After a few seconds of concentration he teleported them both out. The two of them reappeared within the cavern the others had set up, startling Flash and Bulwark with their arrival.

"What the...What's-" Bulwark started, only to be cut off as Aurora raised his visor to look eye to eye.

"Changelings can't teleport, now get Healing Wave up, now!" The unicorn called before they could attempt the identity check. That point seemed to placate them and he quickly moved Rainbow into the camp with Bulwark's help, looking down at the stricken mare. He couldn't even imagine just what she was going through.