Task Force Harmony

Everypony scrambled into action immediately. Rainbow Dash started on climbing back into her armour with assistance from Healing Wave, since even in her more vulnerable condition it was a safer bet than not wearing it. The others spread out slightly, checking each possible route in or out of the area to try and figure out where the sound of incoming changelings was coming from. Aurora's heart was racing as he checked a ledge on the other side of the cavern from the camp, thirty feet long and dropping into a darkness he couldn't see through from his current position. The buzzing hadn't gotten any louder down there, though from the motions the others were making, they weren't having any better luck at figuring it out. He silently cursed the acoustics of the cavern as they moved back together to plan their next move.

"Crash, how're you feeling?" Cipher asked, watching as Rainbow finished making sure her armour was completely attached again and giving herself a small shake to check.

"Nothing I can't work through, sir."

"Good. Everypony has their gear?" A quick round of nods. "Alright, we're going to try to abort and retreat from the area, though since we don't know where the enemy is approaching from...Soul, what do you think would be the most defendable point in here?"

Aurora exhaled slowly as he swept his gaze over the room, bringing his tactical knowledge to the fore. The more sheltered section they were in was a decent starting point. Everything he'd learned indicated that changelings typically attempted to surround and swarm their targets in combat, so anything that would limit their angles of attack would give the team an advantage they sorely needed. As helpful as their current spot would be, they needed room to retreat as well, something he'd overlooked to Rainbow's cost before. There were three tunnels they could use to exit the area, not including the drop. Each had different widths and heights, combined with what he knew of where each led, meant he looked to the one to their right.

"If I may, Buddy, I suggest we attempt to move immediately," He said quickly, motioning to the tunnel he'd chosen. "We have an advantage in tighter confines and it'll force them to fight with more even numbers compared to us. If they're not coming from that tunnel, I can go and call for backup while you rush for the exit to the mountain. If they are, we'll just have to punch through. If we got pushed back into the open then they could box us in and then we're, put simply, done for."

"Understood...Though why don't you just teleport out right now?" Cipher asked. Aurora didn't reply for a moment, looking round at the rest of the team.

"Because if you did run into trouble...I don't want to abandon my friends to face this alone." He replied, sounding more confident than he had since they'd arrived.

"That's kind of stupid as a plan," Water Flare commented. "But, appreciated all the same."

"Let's move while there's still an opening." Cipher said, moving toward the exit to the cavern. The others followed right behind a moment later.

Seconds before he could reach the opening, the buzzing in the air increased around them. Almost as soon as he was able to see into it, the space inside the tunnel was filled by an oncoming force of changelings flying toward him at full speed. Dozens of them emerged and banked up into the air, the blast of air that came from so many sets of wings nearly blowing Cipher off his hooves. The others caught up to him and paused as they took in the sight around them. As many changelings as there were in the air, the tunnel seemed to contain just as many. The odds of punching through so many and getting out that way seemed bad enough. Moments later, changelings started appearing through the other exits as well, their presence explaining why the team couldn't tell which way the main force was coming from before and cutting off their alternate routes.

Overall, the odds against the changelings they could see were approximately twenty to one right now.

"Clever bitch." Aurora muttered as he took in the situation, getting back to back with the other six as they kept their eyes on .

"Kalai! Yees mekosa morgos li axiga rou nef-sa..." One of the hovering changelings snapped, distinctive in that it was equipped with dark blue armour that faded to black around the edges, covering its chest and flanks along with an open fronted helmet that sported a set of mandible-like extensions by its lower jaw. It suddenly stopped and looked around its allies. "Kalla hekkalinas morgos Equis?"

"I do," Another changeling nearby replied in a chirpy voice, this one speaking in Equestrian before it focused on the team. "Our lord commander demands you cease your curses against our mighty queen and stand down at once. How was that?"

"Mirai, ross orras hi bellhig farban." The commander replied quietly, looking away in irritation.

"Quis!" The translator exclaimed happily before trying to regain his composure and serious look. "The glorious Queen Chrysalis promises that any pony who surrenders for detainment now will not be unnecessarily harmed. All those who refuse will be dealt with harshly. If the pony Rainbow Dash is present, the queen gives her word that you will not be treated any differently."

The ponies shared a few concerned looks, silently thankful for the helmets making sure the changelings couldn't see them either. The fact they seemed to know Rainbow was here was worrying and Aurora felt a fresh sting of dismay at just how they knew. He had let that scout get away. They all knew there was no chance they were going to surrender, each of them had enough training to hold their own if they could get out of the open. The only question was how they intended to do that. Cipher looked at the other tunnels and focused on his communication magic, speaking at a whisper so the changelings couldn't hear what he was saying to the others.

"Crash, Zippy, fly top cover. Soul, cover us from their magic. Everypony else, we push for the far left tunnel, fewest hostiles. Everypony gets there and then Wall collapses the entry, we'll move on from there. Everypony needs to give their best, understood?" Everypony nodded and he straightened up slightly. "We've given it consideration, and we have an answer. Flow, would you do the honours?"

"Come and get us, you oversized gnats!" Water Flare shouted, pumping a fist at the commander. It was cheesy as heck but the team knew she'd would be too proud of it to care. The translator looked offended at the challenge before turning to his commander.

"Dessak, ho'chi a zel."

"Me'ek hi rou!" The changeling commander roared as he dropped down to attack, a dozen of his kind following him in. Aurora and Healing Wave quickly opened fire with their magic, attempting to disrupt the incoming formation. Rainbow and Flash took off before the beams started flying, both of them smashing into a changeling hard enough to send the bugs flailing out of the air. If Rainbow was feeling any ill effects of her injuries, she wasn't showing it.

The five ground based ponies broke into a run as one, the two unicorns still throwing beams of magic skyward. Combined with the two pegasi drawing the attention of many of the airborne changelings, it was giving the team a clear run at their target. Changelings from the other entrances were moving to try and engage them, but the odds seemed to be swinging back in their favour. Bulwark took the lead as they approached the tunnel opening, six changelings standing in his way. At the last moment he lowered his head and shoulder charged the defensive line, knocking four of them flying and sending another sprawling to the floor. The last tried to counter attack, only for Bulwark to swing round and slug the changeling square in the face, hard enough to crack its armour and put it out of the fight, leaving the way open.

Cipher and Wave followed him in quickly, preparing for further engagement. Aurora had fallen behind slightly after nearly being hit by a falling changeling and Flare had dropped back to cover him from further attacks. Unfortunately, the majority of the fighting taking place in the air meant Rainbow and Flash were being steadily overwhelmed and a number of the changelings were turning their attention toward the ground battle. Before they could reach the tunnel, a dozen of the bugs landed in their path, with those that were come from the other tunnels blocking any way to reach them quickly.

"Dammit," Cipher grunted as he swung round and bucked a changeling in the foreleg, breaking the limb and forcing it to back off. "Crash, Zippy! How bad is it up there? We're being pressured hard here, Flow and Soul are trapped."

"I hate to say it, but we're fighting for our lives here too," Flash's voice came through sounding strained. "I don't know if we ca-Whoa!"

Cipher glanced up at his endangered fliers to see Flash twisting around a beam of green magic, the shot grazing the armour on his side. The beam itself smashed into the roof of the cavern and tore a slab free that dropped straight into the ground fight, crashing down right next to Water Flare and kicking up a cloud of dirt that obscured the battlefield. Cipher grimaced at the worsening situation and made a snap decision to spread the fight further.

"Don't risk yourselves on holding this space, pull out and try to lose them in the tunnels. We'll try and make contact again once we're safe. Go!"

With no time to argue, Flash and Rainbow dropped low and darted into one of the clear tunnels, most of the flying changelings following hot on their hooves. Cipher silently wished them good luck before focusing on the battle in front of him, pushing a changeling back in time for Wave's movements to spear it in the eye with her horn. Hopefully now they could hold out long enough to find an opening.

Rainbow Dash panted slightly as she stuck with Flash Sentry, her heart almost racing as fast as her wings as they banked round another sharp turn. This was bringing back memories of their training flights together, only now with a small army of angry changelings pursuing them. Even as the thought came to her a bolt of magic shot past her ear and the buzzing of hostile wings became louder. Flash held his wings back slightly and dropped behind her, acting as a rear guard since he was in better condition to do so. This left navigation to her and her instincts were telling her to go higher, an idea she followed as they entered another small cavern with a much higher roof that led further up the mountain. She pulled her body up and shot skyward, everypony following straight after.

Behind her, Flash glanced back and his pupils shrank slightly as he realised the changelings were still gaining on them. One was close enough to snap its jaws at his tail. He flared his wings out and brought his leg back in in response, using the momentary drop in speed to get close enough to buck it in the face. The impact shattered its muzzle and knocked it clean out, the changeling flipping over backward and spiralling back into the pursuing swarm with a trail of blood behind it. It did nothing to dissuade the others though, a hornless one simply closing the gap created while another fired on them again, this time catching Rainbow in the flank, although the armour absorbed the impact.

"We need another plan!" Rainbow gasped, flipping over to fly upside down and levelling out to enter another tunnel near the roof of the cavern.

"Alright, stick close, we need to put some distance between them." Flash told her as he drew level again, banking hard left around another turn and barely avoiding hitting the wall. Rainbow nodded and pushed herself harder to keep up, silently wondering if she could keep this up herself.

Things just kept getting worse.

The dusty air was making it hard for her to see and breathe, not helped by a splash of changeling blood on her visor obscuring things further. Any help she'd had was gone, even Aurora's sporadic attempts to shield her had stopped after they'd been separated by the increasing attacks against the two of them. Water Flare took another step backward, gripping a changeling in an armlock with its foreleg and dislocating it. The changeling collapsed, howling in pain as she stomped on the injury to make sure he wouldn't get up again. There was still six in front of her and seven in the air though, constantly pushing her backward. As she placed her hoof down to dodge a fresh strike, it only found some ground underneath it and she froze as she realised that they'd been shepherding her.

Right to the drop.

Her breaths quickened as the reality of just how screwed she was set in. Her options extremely limited, she counter charged to try and make a last ditch attempt to break through, tackling the changeling directly in front of her and stunning it with a blow to the left temple. One of the other changelings swung at her from the right as she did so, hitting her cheek and making her stumble. Another dived down and slammed into Flare before she could react, the combatants grappling as they fell to the ground. Then the ground didn't appear beneath her. It took a moment to realise that she gone over the edge and she gripped the changeling even harder, hoping she could use it to soften the landing enough to die quickly instead of horribly.

Even though he was locked in his own fight, Aurora tensed up and a cry died in his throat as he caught sight of Flare going over the drop. He couldn't dwell on it though, not when he was so close to breaking through the changelings pressing the assault around him. He swung round to face a fresh attack and his vision was filled with green fire before he was blown into a backward somersault, hitting the wall behind him hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. As he dropped back onto his front, fighting just to force himself to inhale again, he realised that the magic blast had destroyed part of his visor, stopped just short of hitting his right eye but leaving it completely exposed.

Even worse, the changelings were moving in against him en masse, his body now in no shape to defend himself. Aurora desperately racked his brain for anything he could use to get out of this situation. His horn started glowing as he realised his only option was to teleport, hoping he had enough time to do so. As the spell primed and the closest changeling reached him he closed his eyes and activated it, realising a moment too late that he hadn't focused on where he wanted to go.

"Flow is gone! Soul fled!" Bulwark called to the other two remaining ponies, even as he smashed a changeling's head against the wall of the tunnel with a wet crunch. The trio had been desperately holding their ground in the hope that either they, Flare or Aurora would be able to break a hole for them all to retreat to. Obviously though, such hope was now gone.

"...Dammit! We're out of time. Stable, break the roof NOW!" Cipher shouted as he stomped on a downed changeling's neck and pulled another off Bulwark's leg that had ripped away several armour panels. The earth stallion had taken the brunt of the fighting on this front and paid for it in kind, not all the blood that stained his armour had come from the changelings.

Wave only hesitated for as long as it took to process the order before aiming up and pouring what was left of her magic into a full strength attack at the roof of the tunnel where it entered the cavern. Bulwark managed to kick off the last changeling that was attacking him and the three of them retreated deeper into the mountain as the rock behind them collapsed with an ear-splitting crack, crushing several changelings unlucky enough to try pursuing and sending up a fresh wave of dust that flooded the tunnel and left the three of them rushing to reach fresher air before it was too late.

Flash touched down quietly, pressing himself against the wall as he fought to get his breath back without making too much noise. It had been hard enough to gain ground on the changelings and he'd had to break the neck of another that had gotten too close. But they'd done it, the last scout that hadn't gotten lost chasing them in this maze of tunnels had crashed on a last second turn and they were in the clear. The darkness meant that they might be able to hold position for a few minutes but they'd need to make headway soon and find the others. He looked back toward Rainbow's position at his flank and stopped, freezing in place.

He was on his own.