Vedalia opened her eyes, her vision greeted by a white void. She was floating in a plane of white, when suddenly a hole opened up beneath her and sucked her in. She tried to scream but couldn’t as she was dragged through darkness. She had lost her sense of time and it felt like a eternity had passed until she became aware of a warmness spreading throughout her body.

Although pleasant at first, it quickly progressed from uncomfortable to unbearable as her body felt as if it was being dipped in lava. Tears ran down her face from the sensation and she screamed in silence, no sound coming from her mouth. Slowly, her nerves became numb and she closed her wet eyes, being consumed by the void.

Caring Hoof walked towards the captured changelings room, with orders to change its bandages and check their vitals. She greeted the royal guards standing outside the room with a smile and stood still as both of them cast a changeling detection spell on her. Once finished, they nodded their heads at her and took the defensive wards off the door. Walking into the room, her eyes widened in shock and fear as she looked at what had suddenly became of the changeling. The bed and area around it was charred black from intense heat. The changeling that was once on the bed, was replaced by a iridescent pod, glowing from the immense magic at work inside of it.

Regaining her composure, she ran out of the room to alert Doctor Pack.

“Ready Mordecai?”

“Let's go Luna” Mordecai readied Bolt Caster in his hands and got into a fighting stance.

Luna charged up her horn and shot magic above Mordecai’s head. The magic transformed into dark grey clouds that flashed as lightning was generated inside of them. A sudden surge sent multiple lightning bolts flying towards him. He activated his arc guard, blocking the bolts but grimaced when he realized the attack took away a majority of Bolt casters hilt energy, nearly depleting it. His sword was strong against solar and void attacks, but arc attacks depleted its energy faster. Mordecai immediately counterattacked, twirling with his sword around to build up the remaining arc energy inside. Completing his spin, he released the built up energy and flung a disk of arc energy towards Luna who put up a shield to block it.

The disk struck the shield and only took a couple of seconds to destroy it. Luna teleported, causing Mordecai to look at his radar. Red flared up to his left and he double jumped out of the way of a charging Luna, who swung her scythe into the floor with enough force to create a small crater where he had been standing. With Bolt-Caster’s remaining energy spent, the blade of arc had disappeared, leaving Mordecai with a hilt. He threw the hilt at her but she stopped it with her telekinesis. Mordecai took advantage of his distraction and threw multiple knives at her, aiming for her head, chest and hooves. Luna quickly dropped the hilt and cast a spell that caused a mirror to form in front of her.

Mordecai watched as his knives disappeared into the mirror and got ready to dodge when he felt himself get stabbed in the back twice and in the upper calf. Realizing what Luna did, Mordecai tried to quickly pull the knives out but was given no time due to Luna rushing towards him with her weapon. Managing to pull the knife out of his calf, Mordecai raised it to meet Luna’s downward slash.

The second before the two blades made contact, Mordecai released the arc energy inside of him which transferred to his knife, coating it in arc. The two weapons clashed in a brilliant display as the guardian and alicorn’s struggled to overcome the other. Mordecai was steadily losing the clash, as Luna’s strength was comparable to a titan’s. The blade of Luna’s scythe turned from silver to nearly transparent as it phased clean through Mordecai’s arc blade, surprising the hunter who had no way of defending himself from the incoming attack. The blade resolidified and cut through Mordecai’s arm before sinking itself deep into his chest. The arc energy flowing throughout his body was canceled and Mordecai was slammed into the ground by the force of the swing. Blood erupted from his mouth as he coughed from his entire ribcage being shattered.

With half of his right arm on the floor next to him, Mordecai raised his left and tapped the ground, yielding to defeat. Luna pulled her scythe out of Mordecai and used magic to wipe the blade clean of blood. Rain appeared above Mordecai, scanning his body for all the injuries he sustained before releasing a pulse of light, healing him.

“Looks like round 3 goes to Luna.” Rain said. “She’s got the lead on you Mordecai, but I guess a 1,000 years of experience trumps 4 years.” He joked

“I mean I’m limited to melee weapons since I don’t know if alicorns can take bullets or fusion bolts. Plus Magic is pretty versatile compared to Light since all of my abilities can cause fatal harm to combatants.”

“Are those excuses I'm hearing, Mr.Godslayer?”Luna asked with a smirk on her face.

“I give you props for taking down a Chaos god, but getting teleported into either the past or future with oracles trying to erase you from existence itself required finesse I don’t think you have.” He retorted back.

“Then why don’t you show us this finesse of yours you so highly speak of guardian?” Luna said, settling back into a combat stance.

“With pleasure princess” Mordecai said as he switched to his Nightstalker subclass and readied a smoke grenade.

The two were interrupted as a lunar guard entered the training room.

“My Princess, there has been a major development with the changeling.”

Taking a deep yawn, Princess Celestia probed the cocoon with her magic and was slightly relieved when she detected a faint heartbeat inside.

“Thoughts Doctor Pack?”She asked.

“While Changeling physiology is still mostly a mystery to us, I say this is a result of her body trying to heal itself with a massive amount of magic. However, there seems to be more to it than that as internal scans has shown her body ha-”

“Grown bigger, I know. What are your thoughts you two?”Celestia asked as she turned towards her sister and Mordecai.

“For my two glimmer I would say she’s undergoing some kind of metamorphosis, like a butterfly.” Mordecai said. “I’ve been told that Changelings feed on love which is magic somehow and by staying in the Crystal Empire which is powered by love, caused this.”

“We agree with Mordecai’s theory as the amount of Magic radiating from this cocoon is being used for more than just simply healing wounds.” Luna said.

“Then the question is, what is this changeling transforming into, and what will be done about it?” Celestia questioned.

Silence reigned supreme as everyone gave thought as where to move on from there.

“If this changeling is metamorphosing into a queen, how would Chrysalis react to it?” Mordecai asked, causing everyone to look at him. “We know Chrysalis tried to have her killed that night for an unknown reason, so what if that was her motive?”

“Mordecai, what you are saying is believable, but that does not mean that she is on our side. Changelings are fiercely loyal to their Queen and this fiend has committed crimes, even getting so close as to replacing one of my threstrals in the process.” Luna said.

“I understand that but she could be a pretty big asset to us, especially in regards to information. I know Chrysalis took something Rain from the state he was in when I found him. If she managed to get information, blueprints, or even Light, then that gives her army an massive advantage, and last I recall she might want to return the favor for what happened in Canterlot.” Mordecai explained.

“Then by bringing up this suggestion, I shall give you the task of guarding this changeling, as well as reforming and acquiring any useful information as well.”Celestia said

Mordecai kept a straight expression before turning around and walking out of the door. “Sister, you cannot ask that of him, especially after what he has just been through.”Luna said.

“We have no other choice Luna. Chrysalis may send assassins to kill her and she would be in no better hooves, or rather, hands than Mordecai’s.” Celestia replied.

“Then you will have the pleasure of retrieving him, dear sister, as I have to return to my Night Court.” Luna said, smirking as she left the room.

Celestia frowned before taking another deep yawn. This was going to be a long night for her.

“Everything on board?” Mordecai asked Rain.

“Yes, but isn’t this a little childish? We haven’t even finished the repairs for our ship.”

“Nope, I’m not going to get used by Celestia to play guard when there are better things I could be doing. ”

“If we make it past the upper atmosphere without a malfunction or issue,I’ll deal with the emergency broadcasts from now on.” Rain challenged.

“Deal.” Mordecai said. It felt good to have his partner and companion back with him. He activated his ship’s thrusters and was preparing to take-off when his ship suddenly stopped mid-air.

“Um Rain, you don’t think I broke something just now do you?”

“It’s not you or the ship, take a closer look outside.”Rain replied

Squinting outside,Mordecai saw a thin haze of familiar yellow magic covering his ship. He pushed his thrusters to their max however the ship did not move an inch. He laid his head down on the console and turned off the thrusters, then felt himself slowly get lowered to the ground.

“The only thing I can handle being held down by are random guardians in the crucible.”

“Well, it looks like I won that bet.Back to the broadcasts you go.”

Author's Note

I'm back to it now that I have finished school.