"We're clear on the plan then?" Dusk questioned, looking between Anon, Javelin, and Echo.

"Roger." Echo curtly replied, adjusting his hoof blades.

"Got it." Javelin nodded.

"Let's go save everybody." Anon added, gripping his frying pan in his hands.

"Alright. As soon as they begin the assault, we move." Dusk replied.

The quartet was posted up in one of the destroyed buildings closest to the castle. Changeling patrols buzzed back and forth in front of the large structure, almost as if to flaunt their new ownership of the castle to the ponies and Anon. Dusk peeked his head up just high enough to look out a window at the changelings in front of the main gate, before a bright red signal flare shot through the sky, over the castle.

The changelings all simultaneously froze in their movements and looked up at the flare. Almost immediately, a hail of magical artillery shot through the air and slammed into the changeling front lines, exploding into a sea of smoke so thick that it blocked the sun out.

"That's the signal! Let's go!" Dusk ordered, rushing to the door.

Anon, Javelin, and Echo quickly followed after him as the sounds of a charging army roared from behind them. Anon barely spared a glance back to see hundreds of flashes of light as bolts of magic and changeling fire was fired back and forth.

While the assault began behind them, Anon's group rushed to the archery range just outside the castle. They stayed low as they moved, the sounds of buzzing and explosions echoing all around them in the thick smoke. Dusk led from the front, quickly ushering the group along the outside of the castle wall until they were no longer in the smoke and just a few hundred feet from the archery range.

Echo cast a glance behind them as the group slowed their advance in favor of a more stealthy approach, "How long do you think they'll be able to keep them busy for?" He inquired.

"Best I can see is half an hour. There were only about a thousand of us and probably ten thousand changelings all over the castle." Javelin admitted, his brow furrowed in disdain.

"All the more reason we get this right." Anon chimed in.

"Agreed. Now quiet. We're about to reach the archery range." Dusk added from the front.

As the group reached the end of the castle wall, they arrived at the outside edge of the archery range. They took cover behind the hay bales used to stop the crossbow bolts, and peeked over to see any signs of changeling activity. Aside from a few guards still holding their positions at the obvious doorways leading into the castle, there were no signs of any bugs.

"Looks mostly clear," Dusk whispered, before turning to Javelin, "Where's this entrance?"

Javelin pointed to the hay bale furthest away from them, "Over there. Under the hay bale. It's a trap door." He informed.

Dusk nodded, before ducking back behind the cover and leading the group over to their new destination. While they moved, Anon and Echo kept their eyes peeled to the sky for any signs of flying changelings that might spot them.

After a minute of walking, they arrived at the hay bale in question. Javelin quickly set about lifting the object with his magic while Dusk looked over their cover to ensure the changeling guards didn't notice them moving anything. Luckily, the changelings appeared more fixated on the battle happening in the front of the castle, and weren't even looking in their direction.

"Go, now!" Dusk whisper shouted.

Javelin nodded before flipping the hay bale over and opening the trap door below it. Once it was open, Dusk jumped down into the hole, followed by Anon, then Javelin, and finally Echo, who closed the door behind them once he was inside. Javelin's horn lit up once more, and a dull thud sounded from above.

"Put the hay bale back." He announced, before casting an illumination spell that lit his horn up with a dull blue light.

The group shared a collective nod before pushing through the small tunnel. Anon had to crawl on his hands and knees while the rest of the ponies kept their heads low to avoid hitting the ceiling.

"Jesus... they made this thing for Celestia and Luna to escape in? I can barely fit in here and they're pretty much my size." Anon muttered as he crawled forward, Javelin's tail being the only thing he could really see.

"It was made when they were a lot younger... and smaller. Been pretty much abandoned for centuries, but all personal guards are informed of it just in case." Javelin explained, casting a glance over his wither.

"How long is the tunnel? Where does it resurface?" Echo questioned, from the rear.

"It's about four hundred hooves long. We'll surface in a janitor's closet on the west wing. The one just across from the gym." Javelin explained, ducking under a wooden support.

"Four hundred hooves? Faust, this is gonna take forever." Echo groaned.

"I don't know the conversion. Is that like, three hundred feet or something? Cause if we gotta crawl a football field, I'm not gonna have a good time." Anon spoke up.

"What's a football field? Is that like buckball?" Echo asked.

"You know, I meant to ask you about that too. You've mentioned it a few times." Javelin added.

"Will you three please focus." Dusk sighed from the front.

"Right, sorry about that." Javelin apologized.

"Just trying to keep my claustrophobia at bay." Echo replied.

"Aww fuck, why'd you have to mention that? Now I'm getting claustrophobic." Anon whined, crawling over a rock.

"I'm getting dizzy back here." Echo mentioned.

"Have you tried breathing exercises? I heard it helps with that." Javelin responded.

"The air down here tastes weird. Too stale, like moldy bread." Echo shook his head.

At the front of the group, Dusk let out a long, suffering sigh, "This is gonna be a long bucking crawl."

.

.

.

.

.

Dusk pressed the trap door cover up enough to glance through the narrow slit between the door and the floor. Once he was sure there were no changelings in the supply closet, he nearly silently pushed it open completely and clambered out into the relatively small space. Javelin quickly popped up behind him, while Anon stood up in the hole since there wasn't enough room for all of them.

"Alright. You know the plan. Find Princess Celestia, and free her. All other ponies in the castle are secondary." Dusk whispered, pressing his ear against the door.

"Got it." Anon nodded.

Once he was satisfied that there were no hoofsteps or buzzing coming from just outside the doorway, Dusk quietly opened the supply closet door and stepped outside. Javelin followed right behind him, while Anon climbed out of the tunnel and gave a helping hand to Echo. Once they were all out and in the west wing, just outside of the gym, Javelin took the lead, heading toward the staircase leading to the second floor.

"Any idea where we should even begin to look?" Anon whispered, leaning down to Dusk.

"The wedding was happening in the throne room. Celestia didn't defeat Chrysalis there, so it's the most likely location. I doubt she'd have her drones move the princess somewhere else since the queen hasn't left the throne room either." Dusk quietly replied.

The group reached the stairs and started their ascent, their eyes scanning every direction as they took each step with a calculated slowness.

"As long as there aren't any more tunnels for us to go crawling through, I'm fine with wherever we have to go to find her." Echo added, with a shiver.

"Don't worry, bud. I think we're done with tunnels for the day." Anon offered with a friendly smile.

Echo gave a thankful nod, before resuming his scanning. The group hastily covered the rest of the stairs in silence, and soon found themselves on the second floor.

"Throne room's one more floor up. Problem is, the main stairwell is pretty much the only way to get there." Javelin explained, glancing back and forth for any patrolling changelings.

"That's the center point of the castle. We'll be completely exposed." Dusk shot back.

"The only other way is to fly up there, and unless Anon and I suddenly grow wings, or the changelings outside are just blind, that's the only option we've got." Javelin responded, looking back over his wither.

Dusk sighed quietly, "Alright. Let's just be fast. Maybe we can get through there to the third floor before any bugs notice if we're quick."

"Alright. Let's go." Javelin quietly announced, before leading the way once more.

Anon tightly clutched his frying pan in his hands as the group proceeded onwards through the hallway leading to the more open areas of the castle. A faint buzzing reached his ears, growing louder with every step the group took toward the main stairwell. Within a matter of minutes, they arrived at the end of their hallway, and found themselves just across the massive foyer leading up to the staircase.

Dozens of changelings flittered about, buzzing all over the massive room as ponies imprisoned in goo and changeling pods laid helpless beneath them. The group watched, part in horror and part in morbid fascination, as the changelings periodically landed on pods to siphon love from the unconscious ponies inside. Pink energy flowed from the captive ponies and into the changeling's mouths, before the bug horses greedily gulped down the love essence with vigor.

"That's just not right..." Anon whispered, his brow heavily furrowed in disgust.

"There's way too many of them. We need to go a different route." Dusk shook his head, turning around, only to freeze in his tracks as he saw a lone changeling down the hall.

"Buck." He muttered, before the changeling opened its mouth to screech.

Javelin immediately leapt forward, his horn sparking to life and conjuring a bolt of energy that rocketed itself down the hallway and speared into the changeling's face, cracking its chitin and knocking it out instantly. Before they could celebrate, the group slowly turned around to the room behind them, finding that the entire room was silent, and dozens of eyes were staring at them.

"Run!" Dusk cried, before breaking into a gallop back down the hallway.

The rest of the group instantly followed suite, and barreled down the hallway as fast as their legs could carry them. Just as quickly, the sound of buzzing wings crept up on them, pushing them to run even faster.

"They seriously all heard that!?" Anon exclaimed as he leapt over the downed changeling.

"Of course they did! It was loud as shit!" Javelin responded.

"Anon, Javelin! Break off down the next hallway and hide! We'll draw them off! Use that time to get to the princess!" Dusk ordered, casting a glance back at the two of them.

"What!?" Both Anon and Javelin cried in unison.

"Just do it! No time!" Dusk shot back, before reaching the stairwell leading back down to the gym and stopping.

Echo brought his hooves to a screeching halt alongside Dusk while Anon and Javelin begrudgingly rushed down the next hallway and out of sight. As the bug horses rounded the corner to chase the group, they only saw Dusk and Echo at the top of the stairs.

"Well... buck." Echo sighed, pulling out his hoof blades.

"Think we can take all of them?" Dusk asked, rolling his neck.

"If we can spread them out down in the gym." Echo replied.

"Sounds like a plan," Dusk nodded, before looking at the quickly approaching changelings, "Hey! Over here! You want us!? Come get us!" He shouted, before turning and diving down the staircase.

Echo followed after, almost immediately followed by the sea of changelings as they descended once more.

Anon and Javelin watched from the hallway corner, both panting and in awe at the sight.

"Did they just..." Anon started.

"Y-yeah... I think they did... Buck, those guys are so cool." Javelin admitted, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Well let's not waste their distraction. Come on." Anon said, breaking from the wall and quickly jogging over toward the hallway leading to the main foyer.

Javelin quickly trotted up after him, and after a short trek, they arrived at the foyer. All of the changelings were gone, having left behind all of their pony prisoners and pods. As Anon and Javelin walked past the captives toward the main staircase in the center of the room, the captives barely even stirred from the presence of the man and pony.

"Jesus Christ... they barely look alive." Anon muttered, stepping over a pod with one of the maids laying unconscious, inside.

"If I understand correctly, they're supposed to keep the pony inside in a kind of trance. Makes it easier for them to syphon the love from them since they can't actively fight back." Javelin explained, casting a sad look at the hundreds of empty pods lining the walls, floor, and even ceiling.

As they progressed toward the stairs, several ponies looked up to them from their goo prisons, but they appeared so tired and weak, that they didn't even manage to say anything.

"We'll get you guys out of this. Just hold on a little longer." Anon offered, giving an encouraging smile to the prisoners.

The gesture went unreciprocated, prompting Anon to sigh and turn his attention back to ascending the stairs, only to bump into Javelin. The stallion was frozen in place, his eyes locked on a single pod glued to the wall just next to the staircase. Anon gave the stallion a puzzled look, before glancing up at the object of his attention, and nearly dropping his frying pan in the process.

"Raven?" Anon whispered.

The secretary mare was clearly unconscious, and suspended in a pod next to several other members of the Princesses' staff. Before Anon could say or do anything, Javelin rushed toward the pod and quickly set about prying it open.

"Anon, help me get this thing open!" Javelin cried, pulling at the seams with his hooves.

"Dude, keep your voice down!" Anon whisper-shouted as he ran over to the unicorn's side to assist.

Between the two of them, they were able to pry the pod hatch open, and dump Raven out into Javelin's waiting hooves. He quickly squeezed her closer to him and wiped the extra goo off of her face, along with stray locks of her hair.

"Raven? Raven!? Can you hear me?" Javelin questioned, fear quickly boiling over in his voice.

Anon looked down at the secretary with a frown. He pressed his fingers against her neck to check for a pulse, and quickly managed to find one, prompting a sigh of relief to escape his lips.

"She's okay, I think. Is she breathing?" He asked.

Javelin quickly pressed his ear against her muzzle and listened for breath. After just a few seconds, he let out a shuddering breath and hugged her closer.

"Yeah, yeah she's breathing. Thank Faust." He said, resting his forehead against hers.

For a few seconds, both Anon and Javelin simply enjoyed the small victory, but the moment instantly shattered when the sound of buzzing wings once again reached both of their ears. Anon looked over to the source of the noise, finding their entrance to be the location the bug horses were approaching from.

"I guess Dusk and Echo couldn't take them all." Anon muttered, almost angrily.

"Help me get Raven out of here." Javelin pleaded.

Anon looked down at the secretary and guard with a furrowed brow. He quickly leaned down and, with some help from Javelin, slung Raven onto his shoulder. Once they were both sure he wasn't going to drop her, they rushed to the staircase and ascended toward the next floor. They only made it half way up before the buzzing reached the hallway entrance and rushed into the room behind them.

Anon and Javelin both spared a glance back at the swarm of changelings as they rushed into the room, their compound eyes quickly locking onto the pair as they nearly froze on the stairs. Although, noteably, the number of changelings was considerably smaller than before. It appeared as if more than half of them were gone from the original group that followed the night guards.

"Run!" Javelin cried, charging up his mana bolts as he galloped up the stairs.

Anon pushed to keep up with the stallion, but the additional weight of Raven on his back slowed him down significantly. Changelings darted toward him, only to be swatted out of the air by Javelin's mana bolts as they speared the changelings and sent them careening into the ground below.

With the extra pep in their steps, Anon and Javelin reached the top of the stairs in just a few seconds. They dashed to the doorway leading into the next hallway as dozens more changelings swarmed after them. Javelin reached the doorway first and turned around to cover Anon as the man rushed in after him. The guardstallion fired bolt after bolt of magical energy, knocking changelings away left and right.

Anon hurried into the hallway and quickly set Raven down on the floor behind Javelin before turning around and moving to shut the massive doors. As he set her down, the mare's eyes fluttered open, and she gasped at her sudden awareness of her surrounding. She sluggishly looked up to see Javelin firing mana bolts like a machine gun while Anon singlehandedly pushed the two story doors closed one by one. Once the final door shut, both of them slammed the massive wooden block over the locking mechanism, effectively locking the changelings out.

Both Anon and Javelin collapsed to the floor, panting and sweating in exhaustion. They both slowly looked up at the lock as changelings pounded on the door again and again, barely managing to even make vibrations on their side. They slowly brought their hoof and fist together and bumped, before resuming their panting.

"J-Javelin? Anon?" Raven blearily questioned.

"Raven!" Javelin exclaimed, forcing himself back to his hooves and over to her side.

"W-what happened?" Raven asked, slowly getting to her hooves as Javelin reached her.

"You were trapped in a changeling pod. We managed to get you out just before the bugs swarmed us." Javelin explained, pulling her into a tight hug.

Raven gratefully returned the hug before looking over to Anon curiously, "A-Anon, what are you doing here? I thought you were back down at Javelin's house." She inquired.

Anon shrugged, "Well the bugs started blowing up the city, so I came to help... I figured that as much as she pissed me off... I don't want Celestia to be stuck in one of those pods for the rest of her life." He admitted, with a half smile.

"Celestia's been captured? What about Luna?" Raven asked.

"She's leading the assault on the castle right now. She's good. It was... good to see her again." Anon explained, the faintest hint of a blush creeping up on the corners of his cheeks.

Raven eyed Anon curiously for a moment before nodding, "Well that's a relief. If we can get Celestia free and bring her to Luna, we might just be able to win this fight after all."

"Raven, what the hay happened here? I was on patrol outside the castle when it happened so I didn't see anything until it was too late. How did the changelings break the dome?" Javelin questioned.

"It... it's slowly coming back to me," Raven shook her head, "The wedding was going well... Cadence was walking up to the alter, but then... then another Cadence showed up. The one getting married turned out to actually be Queen Chrysalis. She's been controlling Shining Armor for weeks and drained him enough to weaken the barrier. Then the changelings just broke through." Raven recalled.

"What does the queen look like?" Anon questioned.

"She looks like the rest of them, I guess. Only bigger. Much bigger. She's Celestia's size." Raven replied.

"Well at least that'll make her easier to smack in the face." Anon chuckled.

Raven blanched, "Anon, you can't tell me you're seriously planning on fighting the queen of the changelings with a bucking frying pan."

"Oh I'm not planning on fighting her," Anon began, eliciting a sigh of relief from Raven, "I'm going to beat the fucking shit out of her for fucking up my day, and hurting the ponies I care about." He smiled.

Raven and Javelin slowly shared a look of concern.

"Right. Well we need to get moving. We don't have much time to get to the throne room before the assault gets repelled and we lose our cover." Javelin explained, standing up to his full height once more.

"I'm coming with you both. There's no way in Tartarus I'm leaving the fate of Equestria up to a frying pan." Raven announced, getting to her hooves as well.

"Fair enough. Let's go." Anon replied.

The group turned and headed down the hallway leading toward the throne room. They moved swiftly, while attempting to keep as quiet as possible. Javelin led from the front, while Raven followed close behind and Anon brought up the rear. Within a few minutes, they were standing outside of the throne room doors, and the sound of conversation inside of the massive room barely reached their ears. It was too far away to make out, but loud enough to know that it was a definite feminine voice speaking up on the opposite side of the room.

Javelin, Raven, and Anon all peeked around the doorway to look into the room and see the situation for themselves. Immediately, Anon saw Celestia being held prisoner in one of the pods glued to the ceiling. Unlike Raven, her eyes were open, and she seemed to be alert as to what was going on around her, if her eyes darting back and forth at the ponies below were any indication. Anon instantly felt anger well up in his heart at the sight of the sun princess trapped the way she was, and how the tip of her horn was noticeably blackened from her fight with the queen.

Below her, the six ponies who bore the elements of harmony and Cadence were similarly imprisoned, only they were stuck in the changeling goo, not the pods. However, just next to them, standing on the alter all by himself, Captain Shining Armor stood unimprisoned, although his legs swayed back and forth, and he had a far off look in his eyes. Several changelings buzzed around the captured ponies, leading the group's eyes to the largest bug horse in the room.

Queen Chrysalis strode confidently across the room, her gaze fixed on the battling city outside while she wickedly grinned at her near victory.

"Go! Feed!" She exclaimed, prompting the changelings around her to excitedly buzz off out the windows.

Anon, Javelin, and Raven quickly ducked back behind the doorway before the queen could look back at them.

"Now's our chance. Jav, can you help me get up to Celestia?" Anon questioned.

"I'm not sure if I can hold you up, dude. No offense, but you're way heavier than what I can pick up with telekinesis." Javelin apologetically explained.

"I can help," Raven spoke up, eliciting a look of confusion from Anon and Javelin, "What? Telekinesis is probably the only spell I really use. I'm really strong with it." She indignantly replied

"Fair point," Javelin relented, before turning to Anon once more, "You sure? If she sees you, there probably isn't much we can do to help."

"I'm sure. We need to get Tia out of there, and then together we can kick that bug horse back to whatever shithole she crawled out of." Anon nodded.

Javelin and Raven returned the nod, before both of their horns ignited, and Anon was quickly engulfed in a bluish-white aura and lifted off of the floor. He flailed about for a moment before catching his bearings and giving a thumbs up to the pair of ponies now below him. They quickly levitated him into the room while the queen's back was turned, their eyes closed in concentration as the man slowly and nearly silently hovered over to Celestia's pod on the ceiling.

As Anon approached, Celestia's eyes darted over in his direction, widening immensely upon seeing him. As he made contact with the pod, grabbing the sides to keep himself steady, Celestia pressed her hooves against the pod window, a relieved, yet fearful look in her eyes. Anon quickly shushed her before prying at the lid with his hands and frying pan. He managed to crack the seal, allowing the vapors inside to vent into the air, creating a soft *pshhht* sound. Both Anon and Celestia froze as a new voice spoke up from below.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Chrysalis's distorted voice announced as she rotated her head a hundred and eighty degrees to look at Anon.

Author's Note

Dusk and Echo are badasses. Change my mind.

Hope you guys liked this one. The next chapter is gonna be even crazier.