It was a clear day in the city of Londineighum. It was a particularly good day for a museum of history near the northern part of the city. Inside, there was a pegasus zebra looking at the glass case that had a couple of artifacts from the past. The zebra was a stallion, wearing a red bomber jacket zipped halfway up and a white t-shirt underneath. He also had a badge on the left side of his jacket, resembling that of a few claws in a criss-cross formation. It didn’t take long before a unicorn stallion wearing a suit walked over to him.
“Good Morning. Are you the one who requested me?” The stallion asked.
“I did. You’re the expert on these artifacts?” The zebra asked him.
“I am sir.” The stallion said. The zebra smirked.
“Name’s Kire. I was wondering what you could tell me about this one.” The zebra said, pointing to an aspis shield. The stallion looked at it.
“The Albus Aspis. An Aspis shield created as a homage to Flash Magnus by his good friend Albus before his disappearance 1000 years ago. Give or take a few years.” The Stallion said. Kire nodded his head as he walked over to a pair of silver hoof gauntlets.
“What about these?” He asked. The stallion walked over and looked at the Gauntlets.
“Silver Gauntlets of the Punda Milia. Used by the Punda Milian tribe in Zebrica, to help protect the village of the same name.” The stallion told him. Kire walked over to a bronze-colored shield and a silver-colored gladius sword.
“And this one.” Kire asked. The stallion walked over.
“This one’s interesting. Though it belonged to one of the members of the royal legion, it was found near the outskirts of the arctic north. I guess it was used during some kind of trade with the Crystal Empire.” The stallion said. Kire rolled his eyes as he looked at the sword.
“Amazing.” He said.
“It is pretty fascinating. Relics of the past truly are-”
“Not that.” Kire said. He then turned to look at the Stallion. “The fact that everything you just said was idiotically wrong.”
This shocked the stallion a bit.
“E-excuse me?” He asked.
“Everything you told me was a lie.” Kire said. The stallion was in slight shock. Before he could say a word, Kire turned his head back to the aspis shield.
“That shield over there. That was around longer than Albus. Before he was even alive.” Kire began. “That shield belonged to Askari. Former king of the red carapce Changelings, he used that shield to defend King Cosmosis from Grogar, long time ago.” Kire said. The stallion was confused as to what he was hearing. Kire looked at the gauntlets.
“Those gauntlets. Belonged to Ersatz. Former Emperor of the changelings did plenty of things with those gauntlets. Stopped wars. Defeated Tyrants. Defeated Tirek, helped the princesses defeat Cosmos and Discord, the list goes on.” Kire said.
“Sir, I-” The stallion tried to say, but Kire held up a hoof, which silenced him.
“And this over here.” He pointed to the sword and shield. “This belonged to Corporal Uncia. Went on a solo mission to save a few royal guards, trapped in the arctic north by an Ice Shadowbeast.”
“I..I thought the guards-”
“Took it down themselves? They couldn’t. Too cowardly to come out of the hole they were in.” Kire told him. The Stallion was looking at all the artifacts. “Every artifact in this room belonged to a changeling.”
“This isn’t true.” The stallion began to say.
“What’s the matter? Can’t face the truth that everything you were told was a lie?” Kire seemed to taunt.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stings doesn’t it. How do you think it feels for ponies to steal artifacts from another species, and then completely erase their history to spread lies.” Kire told him. The stallion was now irritated.
“Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.” The stallion told him. Kire performed a double-take upon spotting a camera on the wall.
“Hey, what’s wrong with that camera.” He said. The stallion looked back.
“What about it? That’s there for security purposes.” The stallion said before turning back around. “Now leave before I call-”
“If it’s for security purposes, why isn’t it recording?” Kire asked. The stallion looked again and saw that he was right. He lit his horn.
“What’s going on with the cameras?” He asked. He didn’t get a response. Inside the security room, the guard in charge of watching the feed was encased in a green cocoon, knocked unconscious.
“Hello? Talk to me! What’s wrong with the cameras?!” The voice echoed within the cocoon.
Back in the room, the stallion turned back to the zebra, only for black dust to be blown in his face. The stallion coughed before collapsing to the ground, unconscious. The zebra watched him fall and turned into a massive changeling. Standing at 7’7”, the changeling had silver eyes with red scleras, wearing a red, long-sleeved performance tee, a pair of red camo paratrooper pants, with a pair of brown boots, and yellow dreadlocks that were styled mostly to the left side of his head.
He looked to his left and right to see black smoke flowing in, as well as hearing bodies thudding to the ground. As that happened, another rather large changeling, wearing a blue rogue outfit with a red mask covering half of their face walked into the room. They had a spikey mane that was under the hood they wore, they also had two different eye styles. Their left eye was red with a black iris, while their right eye was similar to the changeling before them, with peach-colored Scleras and an orange eye.
“Everyone in the other rooms knocked out?” The changeling asked. The masked changeling nodded their head. “Good. Gideon already took care of the security cameras. Go get the others.”
The changeling saluted and teleported away. The changeling in red turned to look at all the artifacts that were inside the room he was in.
“All of our history….Erased in place of nothing but lies.” He said. A few ponies walked in, but upon seeing other ponies unconscious, dropped their disguises revealing them to be changelings. Hive changelings to be specific as most of them were the height of an average pony and had blue carapaces. One of the changelings, a female changeling with grey eyes and a white shell walked over to him. This was Greyscale.
“You’re highness, The artifacts only in this room?” She asked.
“Yes, only in here. You got the replicas?” He asked. She nodded and gestured towards the door.
“Let’s get to work.” The royal changeling said. He walked over to the gauntlets and picked the glass off of the display and used his magic to take the gauntlets off.
“Prince K’Bakari.” A voice called from behind him. He turned and saw a changeling with green armor, a brownish red carapace, a white armored tip on his horn, and a right purple eye, and left red eye.
“Captain Gideon.” He answered.
“Guards are taken care of, they won’t be interfering with us.” He said.
“Good, Black Magic will work on their memories. Once we’re done here, no one in this museum will remember a thing.” K’Bakari said before letting out a silent whistle. It didn’t take long for a large saber-toothed tiger to walk into the museum. The saber-toothed tiger was taller than the 7’7” changeling that just called him. K’Bakari moved the gauntlet in front of the large cat.
“Was bringing one of your pets necessary for this?” Gideon asked. The saber-toothed tiger sniffed the metal and began walking off.
“Needed Creed’s nose to find the rest.” K’Bakari said as he followed Creed. Gideon walked with him as the changelings behind them started to replace the artifacts with replicas and take the originals.
“The rest?” Gideon asked.
“I’ve been watching these guys for a while now. They haven’t just been taking our artifacts, they’ve been digging up and stashing Proto-Keskine.” K’Bakari said as he continued following Creed, coming across a wall. He sniffed the wall and began pawing at it. K’Bakari walked over to the wall and looked at Creed.
“It’s behind that wall?” K’Bakari asked Creed. Creed let out a chuff to answer. “Good job. Go help the others.” Creed went back to the artifact room as K’Bakari lit his horn. Gideon quickly stopped him.
“Be careful, the magic scriptures are right next to this wall.” Gideon told him.
“Relax, I’m gonna blast a hole in the wall. I heard what happened when a pony who tried to make a portal to steal some of these artifacts before he was caught.” K’ Bakari said as he blasted a hole in the wall. “Still wondering where that page on making fire burn on water ended up.”
Gideon looked through the whole and saw the room filled with a silver/grey metal with tiny sparks within the metals.
Gideon looked at the room and whistled.
“Jackpot.” K’Bakari and Gideon said. K’Bakari lit his horn.
“Greyscale.” He called.
“Your highness?” She answered.
“Send your strongest to the magical scriptures exhibit. Got some raw Proto-Keskine to take out of here.” K’Bakari said. Greyscale chuckled.
“I’m sure Akili will be happy to hear that.” Greyscale said. Gideon looked towards the horn.
“Keep it professional.” He said. Greyscale quickly changed her words.
“I’m sure Princess Akili will appreciate-” Greyscale tried to say.
“Relax Corporal, you’re good.” K’Bakari said as the other Changelings sent by Greyscale walked over. “Your soldiers are here. Let’s get the Keskine out of here.”
A few minutes later, the last of the metal was being pulled out of the wall and the last artifact was replaced with a replica. Black Magic looked at the wall K’Bakari blew a hole in and used their magic to reverse the damage.
Outside, K’Bakari was looking at a watch that was counting down. The watch counted down to 5 minutes remaining and his horn lit up.
“Kier... Kaeir... no thats not it. Oh yeah. Uh, come in Kire. This is....This is Steel." A voice on the other said said.
"Steel. I've been waited to hear from you." K’Bakari said.
“Who?” A changeling asked. Greyscale whispered in his ear. “Oh, code name got it.”
"Yes sir. I can report that the Blacklight Scepter is secure."
“Copy that. The Proto-Keskine is also secure. Have a safe trip back." K’Bakari said.
"Multiple broken ribs would like a safe trip. I'll need Kix and Remedy to give me an examination when I get back."
"Copy all. Kire out." K’Bakari got off the horn. Gideon walked next to him and raised an eyebrow.
“Steel?”
“Hey, the guy was told to come up with his own code name after he completed his mission.” K’Bakari said as he started to walk away.
“Let’s get out of here. That magic’s gonna wear off and they’re gonna wake up soon.” K’Bakari said.
“We made sure no one inside will remember a thing right?” Gideon asked.
“They’ll just be confused, but they won’t remember squat.” K’Bakari said. He began to fly off, Gideon right behind him.
Around Four Days have gone past and K’Bakari was sitting in an elevator going down a very, very long way.
It was taking a very long time to get down to where he needed, and upon doing so the elevator stopped and a speaker came on.
“Entering Restricted Access, Voice Activation Required for further entry.”
“K’Bakari.” K’Bakari said. A buzz was heard.
“Access denied.” K’Bakari looked confused.
“Um….Prince K’Bakari.”
“*Buzz* Access Denied.”
“Kire.”
“*Buzz* Access Denied.”
“Akili, open the elevator.” K’Bakari said, starting to lose his patience.
“*Buzz* Access Denied.”
“Lock Chase?” K’Bakari taking a shot in the dark.
“*Buzz* Access Denied.”
K’Bakari let out a groan as he looked around.
“If anyone else finds out about this I’ll kill you.” He said before whispering into the speaker. “Petbe.”
“Access Granted.” The elevator doors opened. “Welcome, Petbe.”
K’Bakari walked through the hall and to double doors that opened automatically. On the other side of the door was a changeling wearing a welding mask, using magic to work a blowtorch before looking up to see K’Bakari walk in.
“Next time you make me refer to myself by my childhood nickname, I’ll lock you down here.” K’Bakari told the changeling. The changeling lifted up the mask revealing a pair of eyes similar to his own, except instead of eyes that were silver with red scleras, they were gold scleras and purple eyes, combined with a dark purple mane.
“As if you’d survive long without me.” She said as she walked over to him. The two of them high hoof, revealing she was roughly his height. Standing only at 7’0”.
“How’s the Keskine treating you?” K’Bakari asked.
“Had its trouble. Proto-Keskine’s a lot harder to melt down. Probably explains why the ponies tried hiding it rather than tell the public about this discovery.” Akili answered as she put the welding mask back on.
“If they did that-”
“Avert your eyes, this light’s blinding.” She said. K’Bakari turned his head as the blowtorch lit up to keep welding.
“If they did that, this invasion would be more than just an act of desperation.” K’Bakari said.
“Or payback.” Akili added.
“You said it not me.” K’Bakari said.
“That’s why you’re partaking.” Akili told him. K’Bakari rolled his eyes, double taking a mannequin that had nothing on it.
“What’s missing from the form there?”
“Sound absorbent stealth suit. Voltage grabbed it before heading to Canterlot to nab the Princess’s niece.” Akili answered. K’Bakari looked at her confused.
“Dubstep Lyre? He went back into infiltration work?” K’Bakari asked.
“That’s right. He took Shade with him too. Auntie asked if he wanted to help us out and he jumped right aboard.” Akili answered. The blowtorch went turned off and Akili took the mask off.
“Done. How do they look?” She asked. K’Bakari looked down at her product and smiled.
“Perfect.” He said. Akili smirked and nodded her head.
“These babies and your chest plate will make you unstoppable.” She told him.
“Gideon’s Spear and Kali’s bow upgraded?” K’Bakari asked.
“Ready for pick up.” Akili said.
“You’re the best.” K’Bakari said. Akili put the blowtorch down.
“You know it.”
Author's Note
Yes, Black Panther and Thor Ragnarok heavily inspired this. It also ties into First Orders Received by Lightning Sprint
Left quite a few easter eggs and foreshadowing in here and I hope you all liked this story.
Still working on Season 2, and more interseason shorts.
I do apologize for it being so short. However, you're curious, this is Dubstep and Shade:
See you next time.
