“What a surprise,” Celestia chuckled, “A Changeling in our midst, and looking at the war maps too. And Anon, now I have an honest reason to dislike you.”

“Now let’s just relax and have a calm conversation about this,” you plead, eying the two guards that were closing in on you slowly, “There’s a perfectly sound explanation.”

“Oh, we’ll be talking about this alright,” Celestia threatened as the guards only drew closer, “Once you’re both safely locked in the darkest dungeon I can find.”

“I was thinking more, you know, casual conversation over a cup of tea,” you exposit, “maybe some scones, you know, maybe some hot steamy sex to make it all better.”

“Apprehend them,” Celestia directed her guards, coaxing them forward once more.

But they made the critical mistake of getting within striking distance. In one smooth and only slightly comedic motion you whipped yourself free of Metamora, turning fully to face the two guards to your left as you crouched down. You braced, leaning forward and tensing your legs. The guard now to your right, a pegasus, was currently closer to you so you focused on him first. You leapt forward, planting your shoulder under his head as you wrapped your arms around him and hefted him into the air, rising swiftly to a standing position again. Your momentum and his carried through as you tossed him over your shoulder, sending him careening through the air sideways. He instinctively stretched out his wings, but with just a few feet clearance from the ground and so much forward momentum, they were of no use to him. He hit the ground several feet past you, accompanied by what sounded like wood splintering and then a blood-curdling scream. You threw a quick glance over your shoulder, noticing one wing that… shouldn’t bend like that.

You scowled as you turned your focus to the other guard, a unicorn. You weren’t going to give him the chance to get anywhere near you with that fucking death stick attached to his face. He started to back away slightly, realizing his comrade’s mistake, but it was already too late. Your foot had just enough reach to connect with his jaw, combining with his inertia to flip him over onto his back as his hooves flew to cover his face protectively. That left only one threat.

“I knew you were trouble, you vulgar little ape!” Celestia screamed, a mixture of shock and anger.

“Little?” you laughed, “There’s nothing little about me.”

You grabbed Em, who appeared to have completely shut down at this point, and tucked her under one of your arms.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Celestia snarled, her horn starting to glow with a faint golden light.

You fucking dared. As she leveled her horn with your chest, you broke into a sprint for the door, your path aiming you right towards her on your way. You drew closer as the light of her horn brightened, nearing what you expected was casting intensity. As you blew through the last few feet between you and the sun princess, you darted to your left, bringing it right around to check Celestia with the shoulder that didn’t bear a Changeling underneath. This sent her falling to her side exactly as her horn fired. The bolt of energy from her horn hit the ceiling and exploded into a blast of sparks. Evidently you managed to avoid it as nothing happened, but the three other occupants of the room, all in various states of not standing were caught in the magical fallout.

A part of you worried about the effects of that spell, but your concerns were mitigated right as you were about to clear the doorway when the sound of heavy snoring met your ears. You darted into the corridor, taking a right into an empty hallway. You ran as fast as your feet would carry you, sprinting until you found an empty room with an open door. You ducked inside and slammed the door shut behind you, only laying down your live cargo once you were sure the room was devoid of others.

“Em, we gotta get out of here now!” you yelled, trying to shake her from her stupor. “C’mon, now’s not the time to…” you stopped. She was snoring too. Fuck. Plan B. You looked around the room for an idea, any idea. You saw the drapes adorning the windows and inspiration struck. You ripped the curtains from the wall, moving to swaddle Metamora in them. All you needed to do now was nonchalantly find your way out of the castle before anyone found Celestia or they woke up.

Catching your breath briefly, you lifted your now camouflaged Changeling, holding her like an infant in your arms. An especially large infant. An infant that you had shoved your… never mind, not the time to go there. You pulled the door just wide enough to glance into the hallway, making sure it was empty.

Now which way was the way out? Well you certainly weren’t going back the way you came, so that meant heading further down this hallway.

You hung a right and briskly walked down the hall, taking a left to a set of stairs. You felt pretty high right now, and not in a good way so… down. Down it was. One flight, it looked the exact same. Two flights, still the same. Three flights, the ceilings were taller on this floor. Off the stairs and now… to your left was a sunlit corridor, except it was full of ponies. So you hung a right toward the darker, more secluded side of the castle. The hallway wound for a bit, making your choices for you; left then right then left again, and now a dead end that led to stairs that only went up. Well, you couldn’t go back, not with the chance that you were being followed.

Up the stairs you went, following them up the only floor they went. This hallway was lined with all manner of stockrooms, all with open doors. There was a brief jog to the right that looked like a dead end, and a longer hallway to the left that seemed more promising. So left it was. After a bit the hallway teed off, with a path to the left that led to a sunlit stairwell and a dead end just a bit further ahead. Sunlight meant outside, outside meant escape. You only had one true choice there, so you went for it. Except all of the sudden this hallway looked familiar. You’d been down this stairwell before. Shit, you knew there was nowhere you could go down the next floor, but the stairs did go down to another more dimly lit landing. Fuck it. This had to be a basement, but you’d probably already seen all of this when you were with Luna so you should be able to find your way.

Forward, left, right, left, down, left, slight bend to the right, forward, left, spiral staircase, up, up, up, up, dead end. Fuck. You were seriously lost, and starting to get out of breath from carrying Em all this time. You set her down gently and noticed that she seemed to stir a bit within her tapestry cocoon.

You unwrapped her and shook her gently. “Em, wake up!”

Her eyes fluttered, but she didn’t wake.

You shook a bit more violently.

“Em! Come on, wake the fuck up you lazy bug!”

“Huh, what? Where are we?” she asked groggily, “What’s going on?”

“Em, let’s go. Snap to, we gotta get the fuck outta dodge.”

“Oh shit. Anon, the princess-” she gulped, remembering the most recent series of events.

“Don’t worry, I got us out of there. Now we just have to get out of the castle, and I… probably won’t be much help with that.”

“How did you even get here?” she asked. “This is nowhere near the royal archives or any exit.”

“I’m bad at directions, okay? Can you get us out of here or not.”

“I can’t teleport us. Anywhere we teleport to, I’m sure they’d have a lock. They’re probably already looking for any Changeling magic. And I don’t have the energy.”

“Wait you’re not full? After all of that?”

“Maybe if you spent less time trying to be a fucking gentlecolt and more time pumping me full of your hot, thick seed,” she exploded. Man, you both were going to be backed up if you ever made it out of this.

“I’m sorry I wanted to make it special for you!”

“Ugh, whatever. Now is not the time. We have to go.”

“Fine, then do you know the way out from here?”

“Without being seen? It’ll be tough.”

“Why cant’ we be seen? Can’t you just change back into Atlas? Or Emerald? Or anyone else?”

“Like I said, they’re probably already tracking Changeling magic now.”

“Why would they be? Celestia’s spell knocked them all the fuck out.”

“Yeah, just like it knocked me out? Think about that for a moment.”

“Shit. Well, then, let’s go. Lead the way.”

She broke into a gallop, tracking all the way back down the spiral staircase you were most recently on, taking turns, winds, twists, and doorways at rapid speed all without even a single pony in sight.

“Em, how the fuck can you tell where you’re going?” you wheezed as you tried to keep up.

“We get out of here and I’ll show you. Let’s just say I’ve had some relevant life experience.”

You both rounded a blind corner and immediately slammed to a halt. Blocking your path was that same unicorn stallion from earlier. Your big clue was the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, a reminder of who came out on top last time. This time, though, it didn’t look like he was going to go easy on you. His eyes were locked with yours, an inferno of rage burning within as he held his ground.

“Hey bucko,” you cautioned, “You’re gonna want to… not do anything rash. Remember what happened last time?”

He snorted, stamping his hooves.

“No hard feelings, bud,” you tried, “It’s honest self preservation, you know. It’s just…”

You paused for a moment.

“You’re not listening to me, are you?”

He just stared, the flame in his eyes burning even brighter.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” You readied yourself to grapple with him once more, but this time he appeared to have learned from his untimely mistakes. As you readied yourself to charge, he just kept his distance and lit his horn.

At first you weren’t worried by the blue aura, assuming you could easily close the gap just as you had done with Celestia, until his gaze shifted suddenly. He instead focused on Metamora, energy starting to arc from his horn to the air around it. His expression was terrifying; you could easily read the earnest intention to kill in his gaze as your mind sprung to rationalize his sudden targeting change. The gears turned slowly as time passed even slower yet. But understanding was beginning to catch up with you. This stallion had figured out how to hurt you much worse than if he hit you directly.

“No!” you yelled, springing to dive in front of her as lightning started to draw itself through the air between his horn and your love. You could feel the charge in the air around you as you collided with Metamora, wrapping yourself around her to the best of your ability, shielding her from the incoming attack.

You felt the bolt hit you square in the back, arcing across your skin painfully. After a moment you felt the magic start to sink into you, feeling like it was burning every inch of your body from the outside in. The horrible itching, burning sensation drew its way slowly to your heart and then all of the sudden…

Nothing.

In the emptiness, a shadow crawled into your mind.

Author's Note

Was this chapter hard to follow? Maybe as hard to follow as navigating your way out of a labyrinthine castle that you had spent limited time in? Yeah... The headache you have right now is intentional.

This chapter is, far and away, not my writing style. I really struggled with how to portray, pace, differentiate, and string together different scenes. I dreaded this chapter since I started this act, knowing it was going to end up here. I'm still not entirely proud of it, but it's better than I had expected.

That wraps Act II - Capitol Punishment. It was a wild ride, and completely different from what I thought was going to happen, but we got to the same place in the end. It was a long ride, but we've finally made it...