Harmony fall, is it so bad?

CRACK

Another hit, another Changeling skull smashed… I swear I'm not doing this on purpose, I'm trying not to turn into a serial killer maniac, but these guys are making it really hard for me

I've tried not killing them all and just knocking them out or something similar, but they're so damn weak!

At first, I thought their chitin would offer them some good natural defenses, so I hit the first ones I encountered without holding back. Imagine my surprise when the head of one of these changelings compressed and turned 180°

If seeing that was repulsive, imagine feeling it

It was then that I remembered what I had been told, and that is that these guys are starving, so they are very weakened, plus most of the Changelings attacking us are not even real soldiers, they are just workers used as cannon fodder to overwhelm the enemy

Realizing that, I tried to hold back throughout the battle, but it was incredibly difficult, and apparently I was not the only one

Shining seemed to be the most affected by all the blood and death, especially the one he contributes to forming, while the girls did not even blink, but I do not think it was because they were indifferent or something, but rather they were simply not paying enough attention to the damage they were doing

The Rainbow and Applejack's inexperience became evident on many occasions when Shining or I had to save them from an attack they didn't see or when they went too far into the enemy area and almost surrounded themselves

Despite all these setbacks, we finally managed to reach the mini dome Twilight had made to protect Calestia and which was protected by the members of the Solar Guard who were still being besieged by Chrysalis' dwindling forces

Shining fired three energy beams in quick succession, managing to kill two Changelings and wounding a third, who fell in a nosedive and was quickly finished off by the soldiers' spears

Rainbow saw four Changelings firing energy beams from a distance at Twilight's shield and decided to hit them in a movement so fast that I barely noticed it

I decided to help Aspen, who looked pretty tired and had some cuts, fortunately nothing serious

What are these idiot guards doing? He may not be a pony, but he's still a king!

I ran around Aspen in flames, creating a circle of fire that kept the Changelings at bay

Realizing that victory in this little battle was practically guaranteed, I decided not to do anything flashy and stay inside the circle with Aspen and launch energy beams at any Changelings that tried to attack from the air

I didn't have to wait long, Shining, Iron Blade, and Rainbow greatly sped up the defeat of the Changelings

When the last enemy was finally knocked down, I turned off my flames, and instead of running to Celestia like everyone else, I stayed talking to Aspen

“It seems you got hit pretty bad, are you okay?”

“Yes, one of the guards was a Changeling, and he took me by surprise, but I took the trouble to teach him one of the fighting techniques my dear father taught me” Aspen explained to me while pointing at what looked like a piece of abstract art made of shattered chitin and bathed in green slime that no sane person would ever believe was once a living being “What happened to the night guard? Why didn’t they arrive?”

“We didn’t expect the invasion to happen so soon, Twilight’s arrival destroyed both plans”

“Still, where are they?” They couldn't have fallen that easily.”

I agreed with Aspen on that, so I logged into my drones to find out what was going on out there and gave my report.

“It seems they prioritized civilians and key positions that we had made clear we couldn't lose… makes sense, those things were the only things we managed to fully plan before all this happened, plus remember that the night guard isn't as numerous as the solar guard, even with their recent losses.”

“So, what do we do now?”

Good question. On one hand, I knew the most sensible thing was to hide and wait, but on the other, knowing that Luna was in a fight with such a disadvantage was killing me with worry.

“For now, let's see how Celestia is, then… I'll see what I do.”

Aspen and I approached the main group, ignoring some guards and Applejack, who was helping to tie up a group of six changelings with her lasso.

“How did you get free?!” Iron Blade pointed an ethereal sword at Shining, along with several other members of the guard

“Do you really think that is a priority right now?” Shining was understandably upset

“These shape-shifting abominations could be anyone, and I know for a fact that you have no way of breaking free from your inhibitor ring”

“We melted it, you fool, and if I wanted to take you down, I would have already done so,” Rainbow boasted, not making it very clear to me if she wanted to avoid conflict or start it.

Iron Blade looked puzzled, and his gaze stopped at the burn on Shining’s face. “If that’s true, how did you avoid getting burned completely?”

At that instant, I felt my own face heat up and saw the discomfort in Shining, but Rainbow seemed more amused, and as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, I bit one of her front paws.

“OUCH”

Rainbow tensed up.

“I knew it! They’re copycats.” Iron celebrated having permission to kill us, and his guards stepped forward, ready to attack.

“SHUT UP FOR NOW!” The scream almost left us deaf—a scream full of strength and fury, surprisingly coming from Twilight, who with tears on her face, was desperately trying to heal her teacher's wound. "I NEED ABSOLUTE CONCENTRATION AND FOR THAT, I NEED SILENCE!"

Twilight's sudden interruption gave me the second I needed to explain my actions.

"Hey soldier, I suppose that as a high-ranking noble you would have been given advanced magic courses, am I right?" I asked Iron, who seemed offended that I asked him something obvious

“Yes, of course I do, and I must point out that, as expected of me, I passed said courses with great honors” Of course, according to that same education, Iron could not miss the opportunity to boast of any achievement, regardless of whether it already occurred more than a decade ago

“Then you should be informed that no matter how powerful an illusion or shape-shifting magic is, it can only affect the exterior, the interior of an individual will always remain the same” Giving that bit of information, I raised Rainbow's front paw in the area where I had bitten her, highlighting the traces of red blood

Iron Blade looked at this and then looked at his weapon and those of his soldiers bathed in the green blood of the Changelings. His face changed to one of frustration, and he muttered something under his breath. If I had to bet, I would say it was a curse when he realized that he lost the opportunity to do justice on his own

“Put down your weapons, search and eliminate any stragglers” Iron gave his orders to his soldiers and completely ignoring me, he walked towards Aspen with a respectful bow “My apologies for the suspicions King Aspen”

“There is no need for an apology, if I had been in your situation, I would have similar suspicions as well” Aspen responded to Iron's bow with one of his own without any apparent rancor

“I know it is ungrateful of me to ask this after my accusation, but is it possible that you have some healing method that you can share with our princess?”

“Nothing that can fix such damage in the short term, however, I trust that I can at least ease her pain”

“That would be good, please do what you have to do” With that said, Iron stepped aside, letting us pass

Rainbow who had been surprisingly patient, withdrew her paw and began to rub the wound “Was it because of what I was going to say?”

"It was because you were the closest" I noticed her nod of understanding and quickly added "And because of what you were about to say" I ignored her spiteful look and focused on Celestia

I... I wasn't quite sure what to do

As I got closer, I could see Twilight's magic trying to properly insert Celestia's guts inside her so she could close the wound

That was too much, even for me, if I hadn't had to hunt and cook my own food, I would have vomited right now

Ignoring the aberrant scene, I approached Celestia's head, which was resting on the hard floor

I quickly looked around, hoping to find something soft, but I only noticed Aspen taking out different ingredients from her saddlebags and mixing them

The previous battle scattered debris everywhere and destroyed all the furniture in the place

With a sigh, I realized I had no choice, and I sat down next to Celestia and then with extreme delicacy I took her head and left it resting on my legs while giving her little caresses trying to calm her down

I saw the surprise not only in Celestia but in everyone who saw me, some even seemed angry that I dared to do such an act, but they were all silenced by a simple word

“Thank you” Celestia said with a weak and tired voice, truly worthy of someone her age

“No need, try to rest, even if it's just a little” Celestia said nothing and closed her eyes

Out of sheer curiosity, I cast a rather weak analysis spell so as not to disturb Celestia, and I was surprised at how much she showed me

I expected the latent magic in Celestia to slow the spell or at least lose strength as it moved through her body, but none of that happened

Holy shit! What the hell happened here?

I could perfectly see the wound on her side, the damage to her organs from being burned by mere proximity to Cadance's magic-imbued horn and Twilight's poor attempts to repair them, but it wasn't that wound that disturbed me but the rest of her body

Celestia looked relatively well on the outside, but inside she was deteriorated, as if a 20-year-old man had x-rays, and they gave results of a 95-year-old

I know how this happened, it was our fight, it wasn't something I did, but when Celestia healed herself with pseudo-dark magic, maybe at that moment she managed to regenerate faster, but in the long term her wounds would be much more serious to the point that it took her longer to heal than me and that's even though I have much less magic helping me heal

That was another point to take into account, what the hell happened to Celestia's magic? Why isn't it helping her heal and rejuvenate?

The answer came to me like a bucket of cold water

It was my fault, Celestia hadn't fully healed yet and the magic she could generate was very limited... and yet she saved me from Chrysalis

...

"Shining" I whispered weakly while looking for him with my eyes

"What's wrong?" Shining answered right next to me

I was surprised that he was so close to me, but I ignored him "Make a glass with your magic"

Shining looked a little confused, but I think he didn't see the problem because he immediately created a glass made of the same magical material that his shield was made of

I had to concentrate much more than usual to conjure such a simple spell, but it couldn't be helped, the element I have the most affinity with naturally is fire and water is the opposite

When Shining realized that he was filling the glass with water, he seemed to understand what I was trying to do and created a straw

Okay that's going too far, how useful can defensive magic be? Offense is supposed to be cooler!

Putting those thoughts aside, I focused on giving Celestia the water

“Celestia try to drink this”

I brought the glass of water closer for Celestia to drink, which she didn't hesitate to do

“MMH!”

And Celestia immediately regretted it, I think she would have jumped if she could, but in the state she was in it was impossible

“What happened? Did you drown or something?” Shining asked scared

“No, the water has bubbles”

At Celestia's peculiar response, Shining and I turned our gaze to the glass of water and indeed it had bubbles

I'm an idiot, I had to resist the urge to bring my hoof to my face

The mental image is important in magic, when I condensed water from the air I was thinking of a bottle of carbonated water, which unknowingly altered the result

“I'm sorry, I'll get you normal water right away”

“No, it's okay, I like it, I don't think I've ever tried a drink like it” And with that Celestia continued drinking with notable interest

Who would have thought? Maybe this will interest my partner's Flim and Flam

This was a moment of peace after the storm that was interrupted by a strong tremor that reminded us that the danger had not yet passed, we were simply passing through the eye of the hurricane, and soon we would have to face its strong winds again

Moments later, I received a warning from my drones that the battle outside was intensifying

So I spoke in a firm voice addressing everyone present “Guys, this place will not be safe for much longer, we have to move and do something about what is happening outside”

When I turned around, I noticed that the guards had managed to gather all the civilians remaining in the building, including the girls and Spike

“To go where? “The whole city is under attack” Shining pointed out the obvious

“As much as it pains me to admit it, Shining is right” Iron said as he focused on the large hole in the wall that allowed us a privileged seat to watch the battle “The best we can do is reinforce the place and hold on until his majesty recovers”

Iron's idea was followed by a series of nods and multiple approvals, obviously none of those present were informed of the real state of Celestia's health

Based on what Luna has told me even with the privileged physique of the alicorns Celestia will take weeks to fully recover from such damage, maybe even more than a month

I better cut that idea off “That's not going to work” I said, but as soon as I tried to explain, I felt Celestia jump trying to stand up awakening concern in everyone “What the fuck are you doing?!”

Celestia obviously failed in her attempt, and luckily I managed to catch her before her head bounced off the floor, the last thing Celestia needs now is to suffer more damage

“Th-the elements, g-gather, gather the elements of caf” A loud cough interrupted Celestia's words, but her message was still clear

Everyone present shared anguished and worried looks

“No! Master Celestia, I haven't finished healing her yet, I need to make sure you're okay," Twilight protested, but with a tone less hostile than before and more pleading.

Celestia had to take another sip of her water before speaking with a more broken, weak and controlled voice. "Twilight, this is the only way we can stop the invasion without losing more ponies. My sister can't win this fight alone without seriously injuring Cadance, and she would never do that. Waiting for me to recover is not acceptable. Go get the Elements of Harmony and get this over with."

...

Are you serious?... That was your damn plan!

Sending a bunch of civilians to scour an active battlefield?!

"Celestia, with all due respect, I think you're delusional. We need a real plan."

"Hey!"

I couldn't help but let out a sigh of exasperation. How could I not? Rainbow Dash had something to say

“Beating up the bad guys, saving the day, and looking cool while doing it, that sounds like a great plan to me”

“And how do you expect to do that? There's a literal army between us and the vault that holds the elements”

“It's nothing we haven't done before, my friends and I are used to this kind of stuff, right girls?” Rainbow turned to her friends

“Of course I am” Applejack didn't hesitate to give her support

“If Equestria needs me, how could I refuse?”

“I'll have to throw a big victory party after this!” Pinkie Pie said between bounces

“Maybe” Fluttershy whispered

“See? We can handle this, but if you're scared, just say it, we'll handle it just the same”

“How did they handle Discord?”

…

My words were taken with open hostility

All the girls reacted as if I had slapped them

“Enough! Cough-cough” Celestia raised one of her wings from the ground as a show of authority “We have no choice”

“But she's right” Twilight admitted without daring to face her teacher “We failed back then, we can fail now, with the difference that if we fail this time it won't just be a bad joke, our entire civilization will be devastated, we can't take that risk, we need a real plan”

No one could contradict her words, because they were the truth, most of those present were soldiers who understood the seriousness of the situation, the rest were scared civilians who had no idea how to react to such a situation, even Celestia due to her condition could not find the right words to help her student

That would have been the end, but there was someone in the audience who would not listen to reason

“Nonsense!” Spike shouted at the top of his lungs “Twilight I have seen you do amazing things since we came to Ponyville and not just you but all of our friends, you have all done much more than any other pony could have done, you have to stop thinking about failing when you have always found a way to get ahead”

“Spike you don’t understand”

“What is it that I don’t understand? You failed once and gave up, and now you’re going to give up again without even trying?” Spike looked like he was crying, he looked shy and fragile, it was clear that he had never dared to contradict Twilight and much less speak that way in front of so many ponies, but he seemed more determined to make his point clear “Twilight failing is not bad, but if you allow failure to dominate your life then you will continue to fail forever”

… wow… WOW, boy when did you become so wise!

Twilight took a moment to ponder Spike's words and recover from the surprise that the boy she had raised was now scolding her

"I-I..." Twilight stopped looking at Spike and focused on her parents giving her their support, along with her brother and best friends. Then she focused on Celestia who being so close to me, I could see how she tried to give her a confident smile, and finally she looked at me... Of course, she would seek my support too even though I am the one she knows the least and by quite a bit

More than anything out of fear of being excluded I gave a rather forced nod and smile, but that seemed to be enough for her

"I haven't given up yet, not while I have friends and my family by my side"

With that said, Spike ran out to give Twilight a big hug followed by his family

Meanwhile, I held back a growing desire to crash my face into a wall until I was unconscious

"What are you thinking Celestia?"

A smug smile appeared on his face. “You’ll see, everyone will see… in due time.”

With a sigh at the vague explanation, I turned to the rest of the carriers “And you, what will you do?” My gaze focused on Rainbow, who was about to answer without thinking, so I hurried to interrupt her "This will be dangerous, some might die, or they might have to kill"

I pointed to... anywhere, there weren't really pony bodies scattered around or anything, but changelin bodies with broken chitin and many wounds from which their green blood was spilling

For the first time since I met her Rainbow's narcissism abandoned her as she looked at the green stains that stained her fur, finally realizing the true weight of her actions, Applejack was in a similar state

The rest of the girls were horrified, I could see how doubt filtered through all of them

I may have given my support to Twilight, but these girls have a right to know what they are getting into and if they can't deal with that then they shouldn't play the hero

But to my surprise one of them stepped forward, one of them overcame the fear that overwhelmed her and despite the tremors that plagued her body, she remained Reluctant to back down

“Will we save lives?” Fluttershy asked

I must admit that I was shocked, I knew this mare, not for long, but enough to know the fear she has of simply existing, she was definitely the one I least expected to take the initiative

“Possibly, you would save every soul in Equestria”

“Then we will, not only because Twilight needs us, but for every pony and friend we’ve ever had” Fluttershy’s speech would have been more motivating if it weren’t for the fact that she was shaking like a plucked chicken, but it seemed to be enough for her friends who also shared a hug in which for some reason they decided to include me

“Alright, alright, we will, but at least let’s prepare ourselves with a real plan before doing this crazy thing”

I was giving a final check to the straps that tied me to the carriage, which wasn't anything elaborate, it was something we made with the materials we found inside the building and our magic, so it was a pretty poor invention that didn't have a roof, it didn't even qualify as a carriage, much less worthy of transporting royalty, but it was the best we could do with what we had on hand, so it would have to do

“How much time do we have left?” I asked my ballast companion on my left, who was also making sure the rags we had gathered to cover our precious cargo were kept there to hide it

“Exactly… about seven minutes” Shining clarified after taking a quick look at a pocket watch we confiscated from one of the nobles taking refuge in the building

“In that case, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting me earlier. I know it wasn't easy for you to support this plan, especially with the risk your sister will be running”

“You didn't leave us many options either, but I understand why you did it. Although I must admit that I'm surprised you can keep such a cool head, I thought you would be the most enthusiastic about going out to fight”

The truth is that Shining is right, the curse of the current of silence is the only thing that still keeps me sane “I'm actually worried to death, but I'm the type that always favors rational thinking and military tactics over things like the power of friendship or some “Prophecy about a savior, please don’t be offended”

Shining shook his head and smiled reassuringly “It doesn’t offend me or my sister, in fact, I’m sure she would approve as well, and I, for one, admire that you can keep that kind of thoughts in this situation”

I felt a little embarrassed by the compliment “Thank you, although I have to admit that if it weren’t for the danger Luna is in, I would never have suggested such a desperate and crazy plan like this”

This time Shining nodded “I admit that I also thought you were crazy when you suggested this plan, but you said that this already happened in your home, and it ended relatively well. If they could do it, why can’t we?”

I could literally feel the sweat escaping from my pores as I tried to hide it “Yep… everything is possible when you have family”

“What?” Shining was confused by my particular choice of words, and it made him pay attention to my behavior and at that moment I could see how suspicion was starting to take root in him

Telling him the truth wouldn't help at all, but it's too late for Shining to back out now, so I don't see the harm

This is just an innocent joke, there's nothing wrong... maybe

“… listen Shining, I have to be honest with you, this did happen... just not the way you imagined”

Shining was understandably confused and not quite sure how to respond to that “What do you mean?”

Well… here goes

“What we're about to do is out of a movie” I stood still, expecting some kind of violent reaction, but instead I only saw confusion on Shining's face

“What's a movie?”

I should have imagined “Oh… well, do you know the effect of passing images of the same event in rapid succession?”

Shining tilted his head, quite puzzled. “You're talking about when the images seem to be moving.”

I nodded. “Exactly, now imagine adding audio, color, and a light projector through the image so that it can be seen by several people, that's a movie.”

…

For a long while nothing happened. I could almost see the loading bar above Shining's head trying to fill up as it gave the 'Processing Information' notice until it finally completed.

“So… none of what you told us actually happened?”

I scoffed. “Of course not. What kind of madman would do something like that? Not even the most mentally ill person in history would try it, much less succeed.”

“But that's exactly what we'll be doing!”

I just laughed harder “Yeah we will, and you thought I wasn’t desperate to go out and fight, well now tell me how desperate you think I am lol” At that point I basically burst out laughing

Meanwhile, Shining seemed to be struggling to keep his cool “N-nevermind, Twilight has been in high-risk situations before and come out on top” The way Shining consoled himself seemed adorable to me, but he condemned himself with the following words “There’s no way she’d fail against some bugs when she’s already surpassed Nightmare Moon”

“Eeeeeeeeeeh”

Shining slowly turned his head to look directly at me “What do you mean, eh?”

I scratched the back of my head uncomfortably “So… they didn’t tell you”

“Who didn’t tell me what?”

“Well… during Luna’s return, none of the girls were in any real danger at any point”

Shining stared at me as if I had said that I liked to kick puppies. “You're lying,” he said, denying the truth.

“I got curious once and asked Luna how she was defeated by six young mares with no knowledge of combat or any particularly powerful ability. Do you know what she said to me?”

Shining gulped, as if he were afraid of the answer. “What did she say to you?”

“Luna told me that it was precisely for that reason that she was defeated. After having a thousand years to prepare, she expected Celestia to have an army surrounding her or some powerful magical artifact that would contain her again. Imagine her surprise when the only resistance she found was an inexperienced student accompanied by five rather impulsive villagers. Luna decided to be cautious and not eliminate them immediately”

I think Shining was getting a little desperate “But she couldn't stop them, those 'simple villagers' passed all of Nightmare Moon's tests”

“The key word here is 'Tests'. Luna just wanted to make sure that they weren't trying to trick her with undercover agents or something like that, but after verifying that the girls didn't have the slightest military training and that they were simple civilians, she decided to defeat them and imprison them” I saw how Shining opened her mouth to reply again, but I jumped in before she could object “She may have been a megalomaniac tyrant at the time, but not a genocidal

I could see a mix of emotions crossing Shining's face, none of them seemed pleasant

“Let me see if I understand. We are about to do something that at the very least would be considered an insane act, and my sister and her friends are running straight into what could be considered a death trap without any preparation or experience”

I should stop, but I have a habit of doing stupid things when I'm nervous to calm down, and it wouldn't be that fun, would it?

“Yes!” I shouted between laughs and with crazy psycho eyes “We're going to die!”

Shining was now desperate, he looked like he was going to cry “It's cancelled, it's cancelled, I have to tell everyone to stop!” Shining desperately tried to remove the straps that kept him attached to the carriage, but opportunely, at that moment, the clock that showed how much time we had left hit zero, and Shining's shield around the building began to fade

“Too late!” I screamed as I started running towards a wall that had collapsed during Luna and Cadance's fight and now allowed us a convenient exit to one of the side streets

Shining, with no other options than to let himself be dragged along, also started running, lightening our shared load

We didn't even make it through the hole in the wall before a conglomeration of Changelings passed first into the building, cutting off our path

It was no problem. Shining didn't hesitate and launched a powerful purple energy beam, while I launched a wind arrow imbued with my green flames

The combination of both attacks not only decimated our attackers, but also destroyed the wall even more, giving us a larger space to pass through

When we both left pulling the cart, we had to make a turn too sharp to avoid crashing into another building, so we had a hard time keeping control, and we skidded, causing it to lean and rest on only one of its wheels, which caused the blankets covering our precious cargo to shake, and They exposed a part of what they were trying to hide

As soon as the small part of Celestia's multicolored mane was visible, the Changelings sent a signal through their hive mind, causing each member of this species in the surroundings to stop whatever they were doing and focus their attention on us

We knew this was going to happen, and yet I felt great dread seeing that black mass coming towards us

"They're shooting at us!" I screamed, although it wasn't necessary, since my partner could also see the green flashes going in our direction

Shining created a wall of energy above our heads, allowing us to run while we were protected, but that could do little to the attacks that impacted our surroundings, causing destruction

One of these energy beams hit the ground in front of us, creating a crater that hindered us and reduced our speed

"This isn't going to work, to the right, in three!" Shining warned me with sweat running down his forehead, maintaining that spell while we ran away, like this was exhausting both physically and mentally for him

“Two!” I shouted back, just like we had said we would if this happened

“Now!”

At Shining's signal, I slowed down as he accelerated, allowing us to make a sharp turn

The cart we were dragging didn't stop until it hit a pole causing both of them to take damage, but luckily the cart managed to stay in one piece so we simply accelerated again while Shining created another wall of energy right behind us causing many of our pursuers to crash like flies against the glass

The slight respite we gained was short-lived when we realized that the Changelings had raised a barricade about 100 meters away, as expected from another possessor of a hive mind, the coordination of these guys was good

“Road closed!” I pointed out the obvious again, but it was necessary for both of us to maintain coordination

I contacted my drones that were in the air and calculated my chances

“Left on three and prepare to make a big hole!”

Shining didn't have time to protest or ask questions

When our countdown reached zero, I accelerated and Shining slowed down while unleashing a bus-sized energy beam at the building blocking our advance

Now there was no pole to stop our skid, so I had to try harder and use telekinesis to keep the car stable

Unfortunately it seemed that Shining's energy beam was too effective, as the building began to collapse and if we tried to change our direction we would undoubtedly be hit by the Changelings

Knowing this, we both accelerated as much as we could as the building collapsed around us

I felt a piece of debris hit my back, but it wasn't big enough to knock me down, although it did hurt quite a bit

“Spirit, what the hell?!” Shining cursed me when he noticed that on the other side of the building we crossed there was no other path, but a small terrace through which we were going to fall soon

“Don't brake, speed up!” I demanded Shining, but it was too late, we reached the edge and fell

Some feline instincts that I didn't know I had helped me to fall properly on the roof of another building conveniently located in that place

That was what my drone showed me, as Canterlot was attached to a mountain, this city had a curious staggered way of distributing its infrastructure, as in this case where the buildings looked like giant stairs

I had to hold on to the roof with all my strength, since Shining hadn't fallen completely well and the wheels of the cart were hanging in the void

Shining pulled himself together and helped me pull, we both managed to stabilize the cart before we started running again, only this time on the rooftops instead of the streets

“I don't know how you convinced me to do this!”

“You better shut up and make a ramp!” I practically begged Shining when I saw that we were running out of places to run

Shining did as I asked and with a noticeable effort created a long, rough path that reminded me of Hot Wheels tracks

Unfortunately, as soon as we passed over the pink path, we noticed that there was no friction, and we slid down it as if it were a slide

As expected, our landing was not pretty, I had to concentrate hard so that the illusion of my kirin form did not fade, in addition to covering up the black blood scratches that revealed my nature

Luckily, Shining was not better than me and the time it took him to recover was enough for me

BTTT

A warning from my drones informed me that practically every changeling in the city was heading towards us from all directions, our little slide trick bought us a few minutes, but that was all, to make matters worse the cart we were pulling lost its wheels and the straps that joined us broke under the strain

“Okay, it will be The first to admit that this was a disaster, we are not even close to where we wanted to go, we barely ran about… six blocks?

I felt a chill run down my spine and turned around to see Shining looking at me with murderous rage

I have to think of something fast, or he'll kill me before the Changelings get a chance

I looked around for some escape route or anything convenient

Luckily, I didn't have to look too far, the solution to our problems wasn't far away

"Shining quick, help me push this, we have to get to that store" I explained while pointing at a large, three-story, elegant-looking bakery

Damn, these ponies really like sugar

Shining realizing that he was already too deep in this shit to stop now, helped me push with magic, which made the process much easier

The front of the store was quite wide so we didn't have any impediments, or at least that was the case until the sky started to fill with Changelings

Shining kept pushing the cart with her body while diverting her magic into a shield that blocked the magic shots, but there were too many

“This is taking too long, get out of the way!” I used more magic than I would have liked to create a strong shockwave that sent the cart flying, crashing into furniture, windows, and the bakery counter, creating a mess

“Good enough, get in!” Said and done, I was the first to find shelter inside the store, but I stopped to go further in order to cover Shining by returning some of the attacks we were receiving with my own magic shots

The good thing is that it was impossible to miss, the outside was so full of bugs that they practically blocked the sun

As soon as Shining entered, we changed, and now it was Shining who covered me with a shield

I saw his horn shine more intensely

“Don't expand the shield, let them in and follow me!”

Shining gritted his teeth and canceled his spell. I'm honestly surprised that he trusted me so much, if I were in his position I would doubt every action, especially when these actions seem worthy of a madman

I put those thoughts out of my mind and focused on going even further into the store while dodging and trying to counterattack the spells that went through the windows

I needed to find the warehouse

"I can't hold them back anymore!" I heard Shining shout

"Let them in, it doesn't matter anymore, come here!" I answered while destroying the machines and pastry ovens

ZAP

I don't know how bad things are out there, but if Shining decides to teleport, it means we're screwed

Even knowing that it would hurt me, I looked at the place where Shining had come from, noticing how it was full of Changelings, and what's worse, they had already taken over the cart and were looking bewildered at Celestia's cut hair that we had put there to attract them

“Where do they keep the damn ingredients?!” I screamed, holding my head

Upon hearing me, Shining looked at me strangely for a moment before pointing to a secluded door that literally said ‘ingredient cupboard’

I didn’t have time to reprimand myself, my scream had alerted the now-enraged Changelings at having been tricked, and they were coming for us

I threw my fire breath trying to gain a few seconds, which worked, but it lost its effect when two other groups of Changelings opened a hole in the ceiling and another in a wall that led to the outside

Luckily, I had already reached the door, which I didn’t hesitate to knock down. What I found inside was better than I could have imagined

I turned around to face our aggressors “Hey idiots”

All eyes were on me, even those who were trying to subdue Shining while he was wrapped in a mini shield

Perfect

“Do you know which country laughs and then explodes?” The confusion was evident, but I didn't stop when I unleashed a wind spell without holding back this time. The sacks of flour that filled the warehouse, among many other ingredients, were torn apart, scattering their contents throughout the building and its surroundings, at that moment I lit a spark "JA-PON"

I finished my joke. Too bad none of those present understood it... or survived it