The badlands were a cruel place, the only thing more cruel was the two mercenaries Overhaul hired to protect them. Ever since they first met, Twilight has always felt uneasy around them, but she trusted Chisaki’s judgment in this decision. The two mercenaries hid their appearance under cloaks enchanted with shadows, the only things that Twilight ever saw come out from the cloaks were their boots and occasionally their matching iron gauntlets.

While the two mercenaries were in fact brothers, their high and personalities were the two greatest contrasts between them. Silver was the codename the elder brother had given and he easily stood a full head and shoulders among the group. Despite being considered the leader of the group, Silver tried his best to be sociable and friendly, even if it was in his own twisted way. Crimson was the younger brother, standing significantly shorter than Silver, in fact he stood just below eye level with Spike. Unlike his older brother, Crimson was cold and harsh.

Early on the trip, Crimson threw Rainbow Dash to the ground threatening her with a knife to her throat. While she didn’t remember what led up to it, Twilight, along with everyone else, remembered very clearly what Crimson had said.

“The only reason I will not kill you is because we won’t get paid if even one of you dies.”

Even though that was about 2 days now, Rainbow Dash had been struggling to get any sleep out of fear. If that was what the younger brother was capable of, then they were scared of what Silver could do if he got angry. Ever since then, Twilight has been going through her mental checklist of every single major species that lives in Equus, so she’d at least have some sort of survival plan in that worst case scenario. But she had already gone through the list twice and was working on it for her third time, trying to see if there was anything she missed.

‘Not ponies, they lack hooves and our muzzles would occasionally peak through the shadows of that enchantment. Not dragons or griffons because their talons and claws would prevent them from wearing these gauntlets, not to mention the same fact that their beaks or maw would occasionally peek through the shadows as well. Changelings were a possibility, but it's unlikely because they would have to be transformed to hide their horns. And if that was the case, why would they make such extreme differences between them in appearance? Not to mention that Changelings rarely ate physical food, which the mercenaries commonly did.’ Midway through her list, Silver had stopped them.

“We’re almost here.” Silver said, as he pointed ahead of them at the massive changeling hive. Chrysalis’s hive.

“So I say we camp here tonight and walk the final mile tomorrow.” Silver suggested

“I would suggest against it.” Crimson replied, “Our rations are half empty, and we would barely have enough to make it back if we did that.”

“Then we can give our rations to the ponies,” Silver said “and eat the dragon.”

“WHat?!” Spike blurted out in fear

“You wouldn’t” Fluttershy said

“We kinda would actually.” Silver said, “Overhaul only paid for you 6, and the dragon decided to tag along himself. Not to mention dragon meat is considered a delicacy, and it has been quite some time since the last time I had any.”

Dark purple orbs shone through the darkness in their cloak, peering down at the dragon. Twilight really wished she had that counter plan right about now.

“But let's get going anyways,” Silver shrugged, “Butchering a dragon your size takes too much effort for that small amount of meat on your bones. The sooner we can get you all back home, the sooner we can get paid.”

Making their way down to the Changeling hive, all nine members were stopped by the changelings guarding the entrance way to the hive. Silver leaned down and whispered something to the guard, whose expression completely changed to fear and exasperation. They lifted their spears allowing for entrance. Whoever these mercenaries really were, they had some form of connections with the only nation who’d be able to even attempt to overthrow Equestria.

Back in ponyville, Overhaul had managed to barricade himself inside his and Fluttershy’s cottage before his body lost itself to its carnal lust. His body writhed around, destroying anything that he could get his hands on. Cadence’s spell had completely destroyed his mental state, making him completely forget that he even had a quirk. What little was left of Chisaki’s consciousness screamed at him to stop, but no matter how many times he tried his body would not halt in its destructive path.

“... human…”

“... wake up…”

“This is not your end!”

That voice shook his entire soul, in contrast to the quiet whispers that preceded it. Perhaps it would’ve been more appropriate to say that the voice had severed his soul from his body, because he noticed he wasn’t in mortal realm any longer. Bright colors of pink, green, purple, all blended in a pool of colors around him. Wherever he was, his new body, a physical manifestation of his consciousness, floated in the middle of whatever realm this was.

“I am glad we can finally meet.” the voice said much more clearly than before.

“Who are you and where am I?”

“I am the one who created this world, I am the one who brought you here, I am the one who has been aiding you behind the scenes.” A small yellow orb fluttered down from the sky before it grew limbs and transformed into an alicorn, standing at eye level with Chisaki. “And you are in the Fields of Elysium, my world’s equivalent of the ‘heaven’ from your world.”

This figure was a white alicorn with an feminine appearance, who stood no taller than Chisaki. White robes adorned her body, and her mane and tail were both a deep, calming red. Everytime her mouth moved to speak, it sounded like the voice came directly from Chisaki’s soul instead of hearing it with his ears.

“So I'm dead?” Chisaki was more disappointed he didn’t finish his mission than being sad from actually dying.

“Not yet, I only brought you here to speak with you. Throughout the generations I’ve had many names, but you can just call me Harmonious.” She replied

“So why am I here?” Chisaki demanded, “Not here specifically, but why did you bring me to Equestria?”

“Straight to the point are we?” Harmonious teased before noticing Overhaul’s scowl, “I’ve brought you here to change this world, and you aren’t the first I’ve brought to equestria. The first ones I bought had all the means needed to destroy this world, but they had no way to rebuild it from its ashes. But you, you know exactly what you want to do to save this world. You have a clear plan for yourself, a clear goal, and a clear cause.”

“Earlier, you mentioned that you created this world,” Overhaul said, “So why don’t you fix it yourself.”

Harmonious sighed, “My power has greatly decreased over the many millenniums. If I had noticed the problem when it was still sprouting, I would’ve taken care of it and prevented this from happening. And because of this problem, I now have very little power left. But because of what you have done upto this point, you’ve allowed me to regain enough power for us to actually meet.”

“So did you just bring me here to say ‘good job’ and tell me to keep doing what I’m doing?” Chisaki said rhetorically

“No, I actually have a gift for you, a gift of knowledge.” Harmonious stretch out her hand, “This will be extremely beneficial to you at the end of your journey. Once you have conquered this world, this will allow you to truly overhaul this world, as your villain name implies.”

Chisaki nodded his head as he took her hand. As soon as he did, knowledge of a powerful spell capable of rewriting all history. Unlike time travel spells, which alter history by being present in the past, this spell would tear down reality and allow the caster to build it back from the ashes.

“Why… Why did you give me this knowledge, you know I have no access to magic.”

“It will aid you at the end of your journey.” Harmonia said, “When your soul returns to your body, your revolution will be in full swing, and you will recreate this world into something perfect.”

Inside of the Changeling Hive, Crimson lead the party down the many corridors inside the structure. Changelings cleared out of the way, making a clear path leading them straight to their queen. Green crystals and slime lined the halls, the stench made Rarity sick to her stomach. Finally heading down that final hall, a little more natural light shone through the holes in the Changelings throne room.

“What’s this you brought me?” Chrysalis said, “I don’t remember commissioning you two to kidnap these ponies for me.”

“That’s because we took a commission from someone else.” Crimson said coldly, “We were asked to escort them here. Their leader wishes to negotiate with you.”

“Celestia? I didn’t think she’d want anything to do with us after our last encounter.”

Twilight despised that name, scowling as soon as she heard it, “We no longer serve Celestia.”

“Then who?”

“We now follow Overhaul, head of the Shie Hassaikai, an organization dedicated to ending the corruption in Equestria.” Twilight said, “On behalf of him we’d like to request an alliance with you, Shie Hassaikai is only a few months old and has very few actual members, and even fewer soldiers.”

“So why should I lend you my aid when you haven’t offered anything to me in return?” Chrysalis asked, “The Changeling hive has survived this long by itself, and I won’t need your help to make it survive longer. Anything you could possibly give me I don’t need or I already have.”

She knew Chrysalis was going to be hard to negotiate with, but Twilight didn’t know how to respond to this. Chrysalis was right, what did they have that they could give her in return that she didn’t already have? If Celestia did decide to invade and conquer the badlands, Chrysalis’s army would have the home turf advantage.

“You're wrong, we do have something.” Fluttershy blurted out, “I remember reading about changelings and how they being called ‘love-eater’ was technically incorrect, changelings are closer too ‘emotion-eaters’. Each emotion has different nutritional value, with Love having everything a changeling needs to survive. But lust has almost no value, it's like feeding a rabbit carrots, it's a tasty treat but it’ll kill you if that is all you eat. So if you won’t lend us your aid because of a common enemy, then lend us your aid not for our sake but for the sake of your hive.”

Fluttershy fell on her face, showing just how sincere she was. Chrysalis looked at the yellow pegasus, she was impressed with how Fluttershy handled herself while standing in her presence. Speaking to someone who you considered your equal was one thing, but negotiating with the leader of a different race required a lot of determination and courage, something she knew Fluttershy usually had very little of.

“I will consider your request.” Chrysalis said, surprising Fluttershy, “And if he truly has the strength to end Celestia, I will lend him my aid in his goal.”

“Thank you, your majesty.” Fluttershy said, truly grateful that they now have a possible ally in this war.

“Princess, it's an emergency!” A guard yelled, as he burst through the doors, “Shining Armor and Cadence require immediate medical assistance!”

Celestia saw Shining Armor being walked in by another guard as he rested his weight on his fellow guard, he had suffered a great puncture wound on his lower abdomen making blood spill out and stain his coat of fur. Celestia could easily see that Shining Armor was just barely hanging onto consciousness, but Cadence’s condition was far worse. A guard carried what was left of her in his arms, Her entire right side had been pulverized into a gorey mess, if she was to survive they’d have to act now.

“Send them to the medical ward immediately, and get my best mages to tend to princess Cadence.” Celestia ordered, “Tell them they have permission to use any and all experimental treatments, Cadence is an asset we cannot afford to lose.”

As Celestia watched the guard rush them to the medical ward in the castle, she had the feeling that she was being watched. “What do you want, King Damian?”

“I was just stopping by to see how my favorite princess was doing.” Damian jeered stepping out of the shadows in a nearby hallway

King Damian was the King of Caribou, and while he was officially the youngest out of all the ruling royalty, his many abilities made up for his age. Caribou are known for being giants compared to normal stallions, and to go along with their immense size they are also as strong as dragons and their skin is tough enough to make them almost completely invulnerable to standard weapons. While a normal caribou was impressive enough, King Damian was a direct descendant of the first caribou king, King Dainn, giving strength that would eventually surpass that of Celestia. The only reason why he was in Canterlot in the first place was to discuss further resource trading between their kingdoms.

“I ended up overhearing what condition Cadence was left in after their encounter with Overhaul.” Damian said, “If you were to give me letters of permission, I could go down there and easily take care of him for you.”

“I would advise against it,” Celestia said, “Given what he had done to my two strongest warriors, Shining armor the captain of my guard and Princess Cadence my niece, if he could do that in a two against one, then your brute strength wouldn’t be very useful if you took him on yourself. Not to mention whatever weapon he uses isn't normal, becauses that wasn’t a puncture wound from a sword or spear. I would recommend you wait until at least shining armor has recovered so we can at least get some more information on who, or what, we are fighting against.”

Begrudgingly, Damian agreed before disappearing back into the shadows. This is far more serious than what she first thought, perhaps Karma has finally caught up to her after all these years. Maybe she should‘ve acted differently all those years ago, but it is too late to be reminiscing about the past.

Author's Note

I now have a clear plan for the rest of the story, so you should end up seeing some more chapters come out in the near future.