Chrysalis places an ad in a paper.

Moondancer had of course figured out what was happening, and her and the surviving infected moved out of the back of the hospital before the guards could reach them.

Canterlot city was a total mess, dead ponies and guards being piled up on carts for burying, which was problematic because of the fact the city was built on a cliff.

Despite the heavy losses, it seemed that the guards had won out against the changeling infection… And that now it was time for Chrysails to move onto the second step of her plan.

As the last of the changeling forces were crushed, it seemed like the changelings had lost. The infection had been purged, the remaining infected had been put out of their misery and the guards had managed to regroup and push through to wipe out any of the attackers that remained.

Moondancer was having one hell of a time. She could hear the screams of the dying infected as they were burned and cut down. Thankfully they were not joined into the hive mind or the screams would be so much worse, but even without that connection, their screams were loud enough to echo in her head.

Another voice was there too however, helping to take the pain away and telling her to get down to the sewers as fast as possible. That was the only voice that seemed to make sense, and she tried to follow its instructions, looking for an entrence into the sewers.

Meanwhile, several of the more specilized branches of the army were attempting to deal with Chrysails… Along with a group of ponies that had no right being anywhere near the army.

The hulking form of a barbarian known as Lavender carried the form of a knocked out changeling scout over his shoulder. His off white body was coated thickly in scars that told stories of many campaigns without a scrap of armour to protect him.

He was much larger then any pony should have had the right to be, almost as tall as Celestia and coated in three times as much muscle. Despite not having armour and his only weapon being a pair of metal horse shoes, he was coated in a huge amount of changeling gore that had coated his body and dried into his fur.

The barbarian shook his head to clear his purple mane from out of his eyes, then dropped the changeling scout to the floor.
Another mare was abuzz with activity, working on a device that looked like an electric chair cobbled together out out of various things she had found in the kitchen. The base was a simple wood chair with thick leather straps coming off it, but the head piece was what appeared to be a pasta strainer with a bunch of wires and blinking lights coming off it.

This was linked into a pair of thick black cables that lead to another identical device, only the helmet of this one was lined with a number of deadly looking spikes. The changeling scout was strapped into this one by the dirt brown pegasus with the light brown mane.

Across in the other chair, the form of a gray unicorn was busy climbing into the other chair, his black mane a mess and his face showing that he was not happy about needing to remove his hat.

“Do we really need all these straps?” The gray stallion known as Hatter asked.
Necrosis, the brown mare, turned to him “No, of course not. The S.T.E.M device is perfectly safe, they are just there to stop you moving around,” She lied.

Hatter blinked a few times “So… you never did tell me what S.T.E.M stood for. Is it Safe Tested Entry Module or something?”
The pegasus moved over, tightening up the straps until they dug in before giving a nod to the barbarian, “Something like that,” She smoothly lied again as the barbarian set the helmet on the changeling, driving the spikes through its skull with ease.

She and the barbarian both shared a look, both knowing that it really stood for “Stupid Twat Enters Matriarch.” But she was not going to tell her subject that. “Now, we are going to drop you into the hive mind. Find out where Chrysails is, and then we can sell the information on and become rich… Also, be careful not to let her know you are there or you might die.” She said the last part quickly, like it was barely worth mentioning.

Hatter’s eyes flew wide at this “Wait! What was that-”

She threw the large lever on the back of the seat into the ON position, and suddenly both seats crackled with magical energy, and Hatter begin to scream… Before the world fell away.

He could see sights and sounds, a whole web of information that slammed into him, washing over him and almost pulling him down. He was far from the most stable pony however, and that let him easily tell himself apart from all the changelings here. He was the only creature who’s mind was falling apart.

By focusing, he managed to organize the river of minds, voices, sights and sounds into something a bit less head frying. A number of glass windows floated next to him, showing what the changelings were up to…

It can’t have been right. All the windows showed the same scene. They were in the sewers! The whole army was already here! He needed to wake up and warn his friends to get clear, but… He could not wake up… Necrosis had not thought this through!

Meanwhile, Moondancer had found her way down to the sewer and had found the huge army that was hiding under there. Rows and rows of changeling warriors lined up either side of the river of shit and gray water that constantly flowed under the city.

This was good news for Hatter, as the parasite making another Changeling Princess was not something she had expected, and all her attention was drawn away from him.

Not that Chrysails was complaining, having a Queen leading the strike on Canterlot would boost moral considerabley, even if it was only a new Queen, it did not really matter, drones and guards were very protective of Queens.

If she was there, she would have liked to meet this new Queen face to face. As it was, the best she could do was have an elite guard step forward, one of only two in the whole army.

“Hello. The Queen would like for you to join with the hivemind and lead her attack on Canterlot. You will get the spoils, as well as being looked after.” The elite guard said, his tone and face blank.

Before she could reply, a smile broke out across his lips and he begin to laugh softly “Or you can stay down here and enjoy all the lovely sites and smells. I hear they might even have a gift shop.”

Moondancer just stood there and stared at the elite guard. He mind was abuzz with thoughts, the gears of her mind in overdrive. What did she really have to loose from agreeing to this? The guards had wiped out her best friends, and she was far from happy about that. This would be the perfect chance to get revenge…

Plus, what choice did she really have? She could not really be a lone changeling queen, she had no idea how to set up a hive and do all that other changeling stuff.

And, this queen already had an army. She could show those uptight alicorns and maybe make Twilight happy for once. She felt Twilight would do well as a queen.

She gave a nod, “Sure, whatever. I don’t really have a choice… So, how do I join your hive mind?”

The elite guard stepped closer and chuckled, lowering his head as his horn took on a sickly green glow “Touch your horn to mine and I will do it for you. I promise touching horns is not gay.”

She ignored the second comment and stepped forward, leaning down and lightly touching her horn against his. Her own horn took on the same glow, and then like tuning a radio, everything snapped sharply into focus.

Voices filled her head, and for a moment she was fearful of being overwhelmed, but then they back away, giving her time to get to grips with the whole thing… It was… Amazing, she could see everything. She could hear each of the changelings thoughts…

And she could hear another far more powerful voice that seemed to drown out all the others. “Why hello dear… You sure are a suprising one, I honestly never expected the parasite to be able to do something like this. But I see that you experimented with it. Well done! I-”

The voice cut off “Well, nevermind. We will have plenty of time to talk when we meet face to face. But for now, I just need you to lead that attack. I will give you a hoof, but you should not need to get your hooves too dirty...”

An evil laugh echoed through her head, and she swore she caught the elite guard rolling his eyes out the corner of her vision, “Now. Give them the order to attack, knowing that thousands of the creatures you used to be will be captured or wiped out!”
Moondancer gulped, slowly turning towards the hundreds of drones and guards staring blankly ahead. This was… So sudden. This… It was all happening so fast, she was not sure about doing this.

Surprisingly, it was the changelings themselves that inspired her to give the order. They were all stood here, in a dark sewer that stank of shit and who knows what else, with orders to hold their position. Despite this, their spirits were high.

This was what they had been bred for. This was their purpose in life. They had been raised on stories of how glorious this day was going to be, and now that it was finally here, she had no right to take it away from them.

Every single one of this changelings was ready to fight to the death for their Queen, and not a single one of them showed the slightest hint of fear. To them, death was nothing more then a sign that they had tried their hardest and their foe had been better then them.

Moondancer sucked in a deep breath and almost choked on the foul air, instantly regretting her choice. She hid that however, and put on her best brave face. With every ounce of effort she could muster she screamed “ATTACK!” Both physically and mentally.

The changelings cheered loudly, and every one of them went rushing for each of the ponyhole covers that littered the city.

The war torn captain that had been in charge of the attack on the hospital watched as a ponyhole cover burst open right in front of him, almost a dozen changelings beginning to pour from it. Thankfully it was one of the covers that had been furtherest from the army of changelings, or right now he would be getting overwhelmed by Celestia knows how many of the bastards.

His troops were unprepared, but he was never in such a position. His ration tin dropped to the floor, and he rushed at the first of the changelings with his halberd, not even bothering to put on his helmet.

The spike of his weapon impacted perfectly with the tough chitin and sank through it easily, punching into the foul creature’s brain and causing its bright green blood to flow down his weapon.

Even though this was only a drone, its chitin offered much better protection then that of the infected, and his weapon was now stuck. The next changeling that had managed to climb up laughed at him, rushing forward and swinging a crudely made sword at him.

He used the thick wooden shaft of his weapon to block it, the weapon biting in a few inches before coming to a stop. The changeling stared at him for a moment, realizing it was fucked.

The Captain let out a roar, then lifted his weapon, dead body, sword and all into the are, swinging the end with the hammer down into the drone’s skull. Bits of chitin and brain splattered everywhere as the top half of its head seemed to explode into a gory paste.

Moving quickly, he kicked the corpse of the changeling off the end of his weapon and into the pony hole cover, delaying the remaining six changelings from getting up.

The six changelings that had made it hissed, then rushed him. All but one of them were drones, one of them a guard with a scary looking axe.

After they had all been dealt with, a terrified looking messenger galloped up to him, the red stallion stopping to catch his breath.
“The… The changelings are coming up… All over the city! It was a trap!”

The Captain gave a chuckle that caught everyone off guard, “That it was. But now the changelings have made a mistake in using up their trump card and expecting us not to have one… Only normal considering the fact they see us as weak.”

He pulled out a pocket watch from somewhere in his armour, flipping it open “We will want to get off the main streets. It should be here any moment now.” He said to his troops, then turned to the messenger. “You’ve done good work, come with us for now, this is going to be one hell of a show.”

It was almost an hour of fighting later that this ace became known. The guards were getting their flanks kicked and had formed up defensive positions in the city that would be clearly seen as per the commanders orders.

The changelings were wiping out the remaining guards and putting everyone else they captured into cocoons. They had lost the lower sections of the city, and their moral was at breaking point.

Then, a cloud begin to pass over the city. It was not a normal kind of cloud that was small and fluffy, this one was huge and black, bigger almost then Canterlot. It slowly slid over the city, casting a huge shadow and blocking out enough of the sunlight that the city was plunged into night.

The Captain just stared up at the huge cloud, starting to laugh. His second in command stood next to him, his jaw almost on the floor. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. Finally, he let out a wordless gasp and turned to the Commander “Is that what I think it is?”

The war torn stallion nodded, giving a final smirk as he realized that laughing was a good way to get yourself killed. “Yes. The City of Canterlot in all her glory. The Wonderbolts are not just for shows you know, they are a lethal fighting force that even I don’t want to see myself fighting against. And the changelings are about to see just what this city can do.”

His second in command was about to ask what he meant by that when the whole universe exploded. There was a bright flash, like the universe itself had been torn apart, and he found himself dropping to the floor, everything a bright shade of white for a few moments.

When he finally found himself back to reality, the air smelled faintly of ozone and his ears were ringing like crazy. Slowly, he climbed to his hooves “Celestia...What the fuck… Was that?”

His Commander turned to him, flashing him a grin that seemed almost demonic as he responded simply with “That my friend, was lightning.”

One of the squads that had been close to the sight of the strike was treated to the sight of a large blast hole the size of three houses, surrounded by dozens of dead changelings that had been cooked alive in their chitin, smoke rising off their corpses as they filled the air with the stench of burnt meat.

One of the younger guards vomited all over the floor as their leader blinked his eyes a few times, then finally put his thoughts into words “Celestia… That’s a lot of dead fucking bugs. I… I… Think I need a drink.”

Just as the changelings were recovering from losing almost one hundred of their number in one strike, the second strike begin. Smaller lightning bolts danced from the huge angry cloud, it was massively inaccurate, but every now and then the lightning got lucky and struck down another changeling.

This was just the start. The streak of a blue uniform tore across the sky, and a mare with an orange mane slamming into a group of changelings with her hind hooves, knocking them down like skittles and sending those that remained standing running for cover. To the changelings this mare had no name, but she quickly earned a reputation as death with wings.

A blue mare with a rainbow coloured mane flew next to her, her tail somehow leaving a rainbow trail hanging in the air behind her that showed her path around the city, moving around the houses with hairpin turns that would have made most pegasi pale just to think about attempting.

She seemed to strike with much more hate against the poor changelings. Her strikes were less skilled, but with the anger that fuelled them they were just as deadly and sent the changelings scattering just as well.

In one part of the street, cannon fire started up. Rolls of confetti, streamers and thick metal shrapnel were blasted at the changelings, cutting them down and also deeply confusing them over what the fuck was happening. The bright pink mare manning the cannon laughed loudly as she worked to reload it, the half a dozen changelings that had dared to rush her now dying in a heap of green blood and confetti.

“It’s good because with all the confetti you can barely see all the blood!” She said fair too cheerfully, switching from the multi-coloured confetti to a type that came in a number of different shades of green, to better hide the blood.

The mare next to her stepped slowly around a dying changeling, her white muzzle curled up in disgusted as she stabbed the changeling with a fancy looking dagger, stopping its movements “That’s lovely dear, but do you think you can put more shrapnel and less confetti in? The blood is nasty, but having to put these creatures down is even worse.”

Pinkie giggled “Don’t be silly! I want them to die with a smile!”
An orange mare next to her straightened up her stetson hat “I think Rarity’s right Pinkie, and ah’ also think that’s the twelve triple chocolate an’ raspberry cupcakes you ate on the way here that are talkin’, not you.”

Pinkie bounced in circles around her reloaded cannon, pulling it behind her on a leash “Aw… But war makes me hungry! And I had to eat them before they got ruined!”

Another changeling came rushing towards them, this one a warrior with a huge battle axe. The orange mare with the blonde mane turned her back to him as he raised the weapon, then both her hind hooves smashed square into his chest and sent the changeling flying, battle axe and all.

He hit the ground and dropped his weapon, bouncing once, then twice, then slid into the side of a building and did not try to get up, knocked out or dead, it did not really matter.

“Are we really sure that coming here was a good idea?” Rarity asked, wiping her dagger clean as she moved over and made sure the guard was dead. “You know this is not how I expected to be spending my week, Applejack.”

Applejack rolled her eyes “Fluttershy and Twilight are missing, an’ we need ta’ find them. Stop worryin’ about your mane, these creatures could hav’ done anythin’ to our friends!”

Rarity sighed “I know, but this seems like a job for the guards rather then us, considering they are armed and trained.”
The orange mare was about to point out they had done this before, when the thunder was suddenly cut off as the city of Canterlot opened the floodgates above them.

Rarity’s perfect and intricately groomed mane was ruined almost instantly as she gave a cry of dismay. The changelings had lost over half their numbers already, and the guards had regrouped and were trying their best to push outwards and retake the part of the city they had lost.

They were only pushing outwards because the changelings were distracted however. Changelings had large bug wings that did work, and they had turned their focus away from Canterlot to Cloudsdale. The rain served to make flying harder for the changelings still below, while also hindering their own ponies, but it did nothing for the small army of changelings that had already landed on the city.

Pegasus guards did their best to hold off the changelings, and for the most part they were winning despite the fact they did not have the heavy armour of the royal guards. The changelings had already been fighting for over an hour when they had arrived, and as such most of them were at least a little worn out.

Red and green blood mixed in the streets, staining the cloud flooring as it soaked up the fluids like a sponge, giving the city a nightmarish appearance. It seemed that the changelings had made a grave error in splitting up their forces, but it was only to serve as a distraction.

Spitfire, the mare with the orange mane, had returned to defend the city. She swirled and dived, and with each dive, one of the changelings died. Her blue clothing was ripped, bloody gashes beneath each of the tears. Her flight suit had not been designed as armour, and it did not act as armour either.

The changelings were almost upon the royal castle now, the remaining guards having formed a final blocked to try and stop them. The pegasi were trying their best to help, but they had their base to protect as well.

In the least, Cloudsdale had evacuated all of its citizens before using the city as a sky fortress, and the pegasi they did have were pulling ponies away from the fighting and trying their best to rescue those that had been captured.

It seemed like the ponies were once again turning things around.

Hatter was still lost in a sea of memories, and had been for what felt like an eternity. He had seen countless changelings die, their windows vanishing and exploding into grains of sand. Death, fighting, and brutal rape. He had seen them all. It would have driven him mad, had he not already been mad to start with.

He really wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, and had been looking for a way to do so before he had come upon a huge window, unlike any of the others. It was built in a massive rectangle shape, like a stain glass window, and little streams of green light seemed to pour off it, connecting to all the other windows.

The stallion stepped closer to it, and realized that he could see through Queen Chrysails eyes. She was currently soaring through the air was a pair of special looking changelings and….

Was… That could not be who he thought it was… Twilight Sparkle? Two creatures with alicorn tier powers were on their way here right now to finish up the invasion. He had to get out of here… He needed to get out of here right this second!

Before he could react, one of the green trails of energy lunged forward and sank into his chest. Chrysails knew he was here, and the moment the green energy touched him, he knew that she was not happy, and that he was seriously fucked.

A deep voice filled his head, laughing mockingly at him, and had he been back in his real body he would have urinated right then and there.

“Hello, Hatter.” The voice said simply. Hatter did not dignify it with a response, staying silent and trying to put on a brave face. “That is not going to work, I can read your mind you moron. We’ve captured the device that is allowing you to connect to the hive mind, and we have bad news. There is no way to turn it off without a huge risk of it frying your brain. You’re going to die here.”

The stallion did not care. He had kind of expected something to go wrong, it was the kind of thing that normally happens when you throw together a device designed to integrate with your brain out of kitchen tools, magic and duct-tape.

“You’re friends have all failed you. They ran off rather then try to protect you, and now you’re going to die alone without a single friend in the whole world.”

Hatter was still not scared. He had done terrible, terrible things to a lot of ponies, and had only joined up with Lavender and Necrosis to try and make up for those mistakes.

He could feel that Chrysails was getting annoyed, but before he could comment on it, he was suddenly whisked away from the dreamscape. He was a changeling, well, no. He was in a changeling. He could see and feel everything the changeling did, but had no control over his actions in the slightest.

Right. Where was he? The changeling walked past several construction workers all wearing hard hats as they worked frantically on a wide array of technical gadgets and gizmos. Control panels filled with dials, blinking lights and other things Hatter could not identify.

Right. It should have been clear that he was in Cloudsdale. Everything was weird, he had never been to Cloudsdale before, and within moments he decided that he hated it. The control panels were making a horrible buzzing noise, and the huge fans they were licked too were making an even worse racket, even though they were only keeping the city hovering in place.

As he watched, the changeling slowly approched one of these control panels, sucking air in between his lips in the fashion construction workers normally do, making several adjustments to the control panel before moving on to the next. Hatter had no idea what he was doing, but the other workers did not seem to care either.

As he reached the final control panel and made adjustments, the fans suddenly span up. The racket that filled the room was almost deafening, and Hatter was desperate to cover his ears. The changeling simply stepped back however, looking towards the other construction workers as they panicked and rushed towards the control panel.

Of course, the changeling had expected this, and all of the control panels suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks, making the workers curse and really start to panic.

It was too late however, and the racket the fans were making was complimented by the panicked yells of the poor pegasus that were trying their best to fix it. The huge cloud city was now rapidly speeding towards the side of the mountain, and it was by this point that they finally managed to use the emergency stop.

The fans begin to spin down, but it was two late. The changeling slowly moved over to a chair, holding it still with his magic as he took a seat. A packet of cigarettes floated from his pocket and he pulled one of them out, floating it into his mouth and lighting it with a sigh.

Smoking was a habit that a lot of the higher up changelings had picked up. They were immune to most of the negative effects of smoking, and most of the high up changelings wound up getting the most dangerous missions, so even the most negative effects did not mean much.

From his other pocket he pulled a hip flask, washing down the toxic smoke with a mouthful of whisky.

He raised the flask to the air and chuckled at the few workers that had not yet given up hope. A lot of them would have made for the emergency exits, but he had already made sure that non of them would function. They were all going to die here with him.

“Here’s to you, my queen.” The changeling said, downing the whisky in one go.

And then Cloudsdale crashed into the side of the mountain.

Hatter was back in his body, well, the mental metaphor for his body in the least. Chrysails was back to chuckling at him, back in high spirits. “That is what true dedication and loyality looks like. Ponies would never understand that.”

Now it was Hatter’s turn to laugh at her, and this really seemed to piss her off. “I’m going to make sure that you get trapped in the hivemind forever, and that you spend the rest of your life being tormented and tortured for annoying me.”

He laughed even harder at this. And then he was back in the real world, surrounded by changelings. His reflexes kicked in and he begin haemorrhaging from his muzzle as agonizing pain and pleasure both begin to tear through his body.

Honestly, he did not know what the hell he was feeling at the moment, but he begin screaming loudly and he was pretty sure that he was orgasming everywhere while bleeding everywhere else.

The changelings stared at him as he convulsed, orgasmed and bled all at the same time, almost feeling proud of himself despite the fact his brain was frying itself. That did not matter to him however, all that mattered was the fact that a whole bunch of changelings were now watching him instead of attacking his friends, and right now he knew his friends would need all the help they could get.

Back in the royal throne room, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her bodyguard had finally arrived. The Princesses had blockaded themselves in the royal throne room, a magical field of energy crackling away as it protected the stain glass windows from anyone that might attempt make it in.

The main door had huge wooden planks sealing it shut, and behind several wooden pews that had been used as seating, guards were waiting for the door to go down, all of them unicorns with more combat spells then one could shake a stick at.
The Princesses knew that the kingdom was going down, and that there was nothing they could do to stop it. Shining Armour had been sent back to the Crystal Empire to be with his child. His wife had been missing since the war had started, and without her they could not use the spell that had stopped the changelings before.

Celestia had not mentioned it, but Shining Armour had been broken since his wife had vanished, knowing the changelings must have caught her and that it was because of his failings as a guard it had been allowed to happen.

She had already given the order for her guards to return home to their families if they wished to see them, and many of them had taken that option, while many more had stayed behind to fight, even though they knew that it would cost them their lives.

The Princess had never been more proud of her guards, and with such a show of bravery from her subjects, there was no way she would retreat. She had the means to do so, she could have escaped the city and run to some far away land where she would be safe.

But, then she would be a princess without a kingdom, and she would have failed her subjects in every way possible. Brave stallions were out there right now, dying in her name, giving everything to protect her, and she was here, locked up safely in the walls of her castle.

Even her sister had donned her armour and gone to fight, she had always been better at that kind of thing then Celestia. Still, even if she felt useless and helpless, she still had her own duties to tend to.

Her hooves clattered softly and carried her into a wide, open room where her student was waiting, the orange form of a guard stood next to her. She was so proud of everything that her student had done to earn her wings, and she had grown fair closer to her then almost anypony else in her thousands of years of living.

“Celestia! I have terrible news about your guards!” She said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Me and Flash tried our best, but somebody poisoned them all!”

Celestia, the regal white alicorn simply glared flatly at her, rainbow mane fluttering in an angry fashion. “Stop wearing her face, you’re barely even a mockery of the real Twilight Sparkle. You cannot even use the correct grammar, something my pupil would never slip up on.”

The fake Twilight beamed, even that seeming like a cold mockery. “Stop. Wearing. Her. Face.” Celestia hissed, her horn glowing a bright yellow colour.

“Flash, this pony is mean. Please kill them.” Twilight said, Flash giving a lurch as he shambled towards the Princess, his spear out in front.
Celestia took one look at him, running a quick spell over him to see if she could undo the foul magic.

Realizing that it was far more then foul magic that had taken hold, she gave a sigh “I really am sorry. This is my fault. I should have never let any of this happen, please forgive me.”

She stared straight into his cold, unfeeling eyes, and then a spell tore from her horn and his head vanished in a spray of fine red mist. His hooves wobbled, and for a moment it looked like he was going to fall over backwards, before he once again planted his hooves firmly against the ground, his headless body taking another step towards her.

And then his body exploded in a shower of gore. Celestia barely managed to get a shield up in time as the spray of blood smashed into it, flowing down the shield and pooling onto the floor around it.

Celestia stared at the gory slurry making its way down the shield, picking out several organs along with several dozen writhing changeling maggots. Calmly, she forced her shield outwards, and it removed the blood and everything inside the blood from exsistance, making it like Flash had never existed at all.

The fake Twilight’s own horn lit up at this point, making Celestia laugh “You don’t stand a chance.” She spat coldly.

Lavender, The Commander, fifty or so royal guards, Pinkie Pie, Applejack abd Rarity were all that remained of the defenders. The pegasus fighting force and the wonderbolts were all dead or M.I.A, their spirits shattered y the loss of Cloudsdale.

The city had come crashing down into the mountain, the cloud foundation moving around it like how clouds should have acted. All the buildings, machinery, or anyone in the buildings were not as as lucky. To those things, the mountain was as solid as ever, and it destroyed all of them, sending a whole lot of rubble rolling down the side of the mountain.

The weather production plant was destroyed, and by the time the city finished moving around the mountain, all that was left was an almost perfectly level cloud stained a slight rainbow hue.

Almost all the pegasi that had been outside of buildings at the time survived, but most of these either flew off or went to dig the corpses of loved ones from out of the rubble at the foot of the mountain.

Needless to say, their moral had been totally crippled by the event, and it had seriously hindered their ability to fight. Spitfire had been attacked by a dozen guards at once, and after breaking one of her wings, she had been cornered and then captured.

Soarin was dead, he had been trying to protect a family and their child, and after refusing to give them up, he had been impaled on the end of a spear. Fleetfoot had been captured while attempting to apply first aid to a wound on her leg.

Rainbow Dash was the only member of the Wonderbolts that was still up and running, and she had found herself facing down a small army of changelings with no allies to help her out. She had a nasty gash cutting through the flank of her uniform, and it appeared she was flying through hell.

The entire downtown area was now being converted into hive, the houses were being wrapped in black gunk, and inside and outside the buildings, dozens of pods hung like fruit, containing the thousands of ponies that had been captured. She could not slow down however, if she slowed for just a second she would die.

There were almost two dozen changelings on her tail, and there was no way that she would be able to take them all on without some serious help. At the moment, the only pony she had to help her was herself.

One of the changelings got too close, and Rainbow Dash gave a smirk, now heading straight for a building. The changelings stayed right on her tail as she tore through the air like an arrow, and for a moment it looked like she was going to crash straight into the building.

It was then that Rainbow Dash folded in her wings, planting both hooves on the drone as he sped into her, then using him like a springboard to turn all her forwards momentum into upwards momentum.

The drone smashed into the floor like a ton of bricks, and the changelings smashed into the side of the building, some of them dying and some of them managing to slow down enough to avoid death. Non of them were in a fit state to chase her any more however, and she sped up the side of the building with ease, opening her wings to slow herself down so that she could rest on the rooftop and decide her next move.

It was then that an arrow tore straight through her wing, making her scream out and curse in pain as she begin to fall. With her remaining strength she managed to grab onto the side of the building, muscles screaming at her as she hauled herself onto it and sprawled out onto her back.

She needed to get up, to protect her friends, but her body refused to do any of that. Rainbow Dash had pushed herself well beyond her limits and did not even care that she had done so. Her body was being a total nerd, whining about how she would die if she pushed herself any harder and stuff.

She tried to stand, but her head spun and she went tumbling to the ground. Now she could not feel the agony that had been tearing into her, which showed that her body was learning. No amount of pain was going to stop her! Not even herself could stop her from getting up.

With an almighty groan, she slowly forced herself to stand. Her whole world spun and she was pretty sure the floor was moving, but she did not focus on any of that. Someone had put a bolt through her wing and was likely getting ready to fire another with every moment she was not moving.

She put one hoof firmly on the ground and dragged herself forward a step, managing to do so without vomiting everywhere. She was doing good! She took another step and her whole world lurched to the right.

She did not care what direction the world was facing, as long as she could move through it. As she went to take a third step, another bolt suddenly tore cleanly into her hoof, stopping once it reached the bone.

Rainbow Dash did not feel any pain, she simply stared at the bolt sticking out her leg, giving a slow “Oh.” As the floor came spinning towards her. She landed flat on her face and groaned, then attempted to get up again.

“Please Rainbow, for once in your life, give up. I don’t want to hurt you any more then I have to.” A voice said suddenly. Twilight! Twilight was here.

As the alicorn’s magic wrapped around her, Rainbow Dash finally allowed herself to give in. All the pain and suffering, it was all fine. She could relax, Twilight was here to look after her.

Outside the castle, the fighting was reaching a peak. The changelings were flooding in like water, and the fifty or so guards were doing their best to stop them. At this range and with that many targets, Pinkie Pie’s cannon was proving devastating, and this only became more true when she ran out of confetti and used sprinkles instead.

“Sprinkles! Sprinkles in my eyes! Everything is a rainbow of pain!” One changeling screamed, before being put down by a rather brutal spear straight through the neck.

The blockade was holding for now, but they had no idea where the Princess was, and it was only holding because of the fact the changelings currently had a massive distraction to deal with.

The huge barbarian known as Lavender had been able to kill changelings with his bare hooves, shattering apart shells and pulperising flesh like it was nothing. Now he was loaded up on drugs, and he moved through them like a steam train, the wounds they inflicted only seeming to increase the damage he caused.

Close behind him, Necrosis followed, tossing flasks full of metal ball bearings and explosives at the changelings and carving even larger holes in their ranks. They both knew that they were dead, and so far they were only survivng because of the fact they had gotten lucky, but non of that mattered.

For now they had a battle to fight, and that was the only thing they needed to focus on, the only thing that mattered. Lavender suddenly had close to a dozen changelings dive on him, and he finally seemed to fall.

A moment later he tore them off him, killing them like the foul insects they were, but he was badly wounded, and he had gone from ploughing through them with the grace of a lion, to having the grace of a wounded gezelle.

With all the blood he had lost, he did not have long let on this world, but that only seemed to enrapture him to fight harder as he had come from a tribe that had glorified battle. The changelings had wiped that tribe out, and now, even on death’s door, Necrosis knew there was nothing he would rather be doing.

Several changelings managed to reach her, laughing at her helplessness as one of them went to rush her with a spear. She just stood there, letting the spear stab deep into her. Agony tore through her body, and she tasted blood, but she still gave the guard a large grin as she drove herself down further on the spear.

Suddenly, the guard was the one that looked worried, and she pulled two flasks from her sides, holding them up so the guard could see. He frantically tried to pull his spear out of her, but it had gotten itself hooked on one of her ribs.

“We go, together.” She said in a thick zebra accent, smashing both the flasks and watching as the chemicals reacted with the air, exploded in a brilliant white flash that shattered all the other flasks Necrosis had on her. Not all of them were explosive in nature, but all of them formed a mixture that blew up a whole load of changelings.

Lavender also went down at this point, his body finally giving out as the barbarian collapsed in a pool of spreading blood.

Luna was far away from the main mass of the fighting, but she was the only reason the changelings did not have a queen with them right at this moment. She was wearing the ancient armour that Nightmare Moon had once used, and by her side a huge war hammer made of a metal that matched her armour floated, held in the purple glow of her magic.

Across from her, a battered and bruised Moondancer was stood, a spear floating next to her. They were both battered and bruised, but so far they had been locked in a bitter stalemate that had lasted several hours Luna did not care to count.

Moondancer had no experience with weapons, but with a whole hivemind of knowledge at her disposal, she was proving troublesome, mainly because of the extended reach her weapon offered over a war hammer.

One good hit to the head or chest would put her down, Luna just needed to get close enough to do that without getting herself impaled on the spear. That was the main problem, and it was proving to be the crux of the whole issue.

She rushed forward again, using her magic to carry her weapon forward in a reckless move she hoped would catch Moondancer off guard, but it did not work and she was forced to back up before she found herself on the end of a spear.

The two of them circled each other slowly, each knowing that every second they spent here was vital. Luna had become annoyed with fighting however, and this time when Moondancer charged, she ducked under the spear and slammed the end of the hammer into Moondancer’s ribs to drive her back, before being forced to back up herself by the stab of a spear.

“I am getting tired of this fight.” Moondancer said, just as a group of changeling guards approched the fight. “I know I promised not to call in back-up, but my Queen needs me.”

Without further words, Moondancer took to the sky, and the changeling guards took to attempting to bring Luna down. It did not seem to go very well for them as Luna was easily able to fend them off with her hammer, but it brought Moondancer enough time to get away.

The final attack on the castle was finally gearing up. The real Twilight, Chrysails, and the two remaining elite guards, along with a squadron of hoof-picked guards, had finally arrived.

The fighting outside the castle was not going well however, and Chrysails found herself getting annoyed with the amount of changelings she was losing and the blockade the ponies had put together.

She looked towards her new Princess and smiled sweetly, “Twilight dear, please go and deal with that blockade for me… Try not to kill too many of the guards.”

Twilight grinned at the idea, more then happy to finally be able to test out her new powers. As she stepped out of the shadows and approached the gate, she put up a shield around herself to prevent the pesky arrows from reaching her.

As she drew towards the main gate, she was surprised to hear a cannon go off, and even more surprised when a whole load of buckshot and sprinkles smashed into her shield, so much so that it almost came down.

She looked towards where the cannon had been fired from and saw a very familier looking pink earth pony. So this was where the rest of her friends had gotten to, she had wondered what Rainbow had been doing on her ownn.

There were curses and shouts now, the guards moving back from the blockade they knew was about to go down as her changelings cleared a path for her.

She strolled right up to the blockade, which was made out of a mix of rubble and dead bodies. It really would not be hard for her to take down, she was practically a Goddess.

Her horn glowed brightly, planning to really show these guards her power, maybe have them beg at her hooves or something. She just needed too be careful not to hurt her friends by being too over the top.

Her spell hit the blockade, and the blockade exploded in a brilliant bright purple flash, rocks and rubble raining from the sky as al the guards were forced to cover their eyes to avoid being blinded.

Before the smoke even had chance to clear, changelings rushed through the hole that had been made, like bacteria rushing into an open wound. The commander would have taken some epic last stand, but he was currently dealing with the fact he had been impaled on a shard of rubble.

This was not how he had pictured himself going out. He had failed not only himself, but the princesses and the rest of the guards too. Still, he had not done too bad, and he was sure that the kingdom was going to put up one hell of a last stand before this was all over.