"... That... is very disheartening news Beta." The Princess sisters were in the throne room, and had just finished listening to the second Meta Knight's report on Chrysalis's probable crime. "Murdered. In his own home most likely..."

"Sister... how do we respond? It is obvious now that the Squeak Squad will not be mobile soon enough to deal with this." Celestia merely nodded in response to Luna's query. She did have an idea though.

"The Squeak Squad will continue building their airship. We will, however, be borrowing Doc's changeling tracker. Beta." Said knight stood at attention in response. "Go to the docks to find... Doc, and tell him of the situation. His project is to be continued for the sake of Equestrian research and development, but his device is to be handed over to you. I will be contacting Captain Armor, he should have whatever guards we can afford to spare at this time meet you by the gates post-haste. Do you understand?"

"Yes, your majesties. I will apprehend Chrysalis on your behalf." And with a swirl of his cape he, was gone.

"Luna, am I correct in assuming you will be informing Elfilis of this when you next meet?"

"No."

"... Okay. That makes things simpler, actually."

Daroach wasn't very happy. Not at the Princesses or at 'Beta Knight,' but just in general. If he had known their target was going to start offing ponies, he would have had himself and his Squeakers legging it to find her. As it stood, the ship was practically being built for free at this point (which, as a thief, Daroach wasn't too upset about, but he was also a gentleman dammit!), and now he and Spinni and Storo were standing around like bums. Though, he supposed, they could help by procuring extra stuff for the airship in the meantime...

Captain Shining Armor had a headache. An infuriating number of his more competent guards were gone, on account of having been shape-shifting spies the entire time. And now he needed to put a team together to go arrest one of the most competent of the spies, if what he was peicing together was correct. It was a ridiculous situation, and he decided at that point to just throw his hooves in the air and assign more than half of his 'good' guards on the team. If worse comes to worse, he could defend Canterlot himself during the Gala. Though Cadence would probably be a little unhappy with him, he would be able to make it up to her. The Gala was hardly the only chance he would get to spend quality time with his marefriend.

"... We're supposed to follow you?" Evidently, this particular guard hadn't met Toby if he was doubting Beta Knight. The rest of the guards behind him were all trying to get his attention and tell him to back off from the scary glowy ball with a sword and a mask.

"Yes. I am Beta Knight. The Princess Celestia has assigned you to me to help me track down a dangerous criminal."

"... Well. The Captain did warn me, I guess... Rough Shod, reporting for duty. Who we tracking and what's the crime?"

"A changeling princess, murder."

"... Murder, the Changeling Princess? Or a changeling princess who is guilty of murder?" Beta Knight simply turned around and fiddled with the buttons on Doc's invention. "... Fuck."

"The device says there are two changelings in this town here. I know one of them, and I doubt the other will be our runaway. But we would be remiss to not investigate anyway." The small leader paused in thought before giving his orders. "If you see a tall, teal bipedal creature, please try to stay out of sight of him. He is troubled, and I fear causing him grief will not end well."

"Yes sir. Tall teal and troubled is to be avoided." In truth, this trip was the easiest and most simple of all the tracking team's excursions. Mostly because both the changelings were in the same place.

"Beta? What are you and the guard doing here?" Rough Shod opened his mouth to speak, but Beta made sure to interupt before he could cause any issues.

"The changeling tracker is complete, but the Princess wanted it to be tested before we relied on it to find your sister." He turned to the white unicorn that was also a blip on his radar. "Who would this be?" Said unicorn smirked before introducing herself.

"Not her sister... or, well. Not the sister you're looking for. Names Vinyl Scratch, I've been DJing at parties here and there for more than a few years now." It was shockingly easy to confirm this, as several of the guards had been to her concerts before.

"Now we know why we never see her around the big cities she does shows at! She lives in a rural farming town!"

"Yep. Believe it or not, I am not a city mare." Unfortunately, every other blip on the radar led Beta and his retinue of guards on wild chases. Even if the changelings weren't Chrysalis, they were never as forthcoming as Vinyl had been. This meant many (relatively innocent) bug ponies had to be held down or captured as Beta interrogated them before letting them go. Of course, Beta later realized that the one he was looking for was not one for running at the first sign of trouble...

"Manehatten has two signals too?" Rough Shod and the rest had to rely on Beta to understand the machine, so the knight had grown used to these questions over the course of the mission.

"Yes, though they are not with one another at the moment. One is at the opposite end of us, and the other is... heading for us. Be prepared."

"Shit, alright." It only took a moment for the guards to form a quick defense on top of the hill they had stopped on. Beta hid the radar behind his cape and drew his sword in preparation. It was only moments later that they spotted an orange pegasus with a white mane and tail making his leisurely way towards them. He hesitated for only a moment upon seeing the spears brandished in his direction, but he approached and landed a couple of meters away from them regardless.

"Hi! Uh, my names Dawn Rise. I... um... You are the guards who have been going around looking for Princess Chrysalis, right?" His body language was more than a little awkward, but he seemed to be hoping that he was talking to who he was thought he was talking too. It was Rough Shod who took over for a moment.

"Please drop your disguise and allow one of our unicorns to scan you for latent magic use if you wish to talk." Dawn Rise only blinked in surprise before disappearing in a flash of green fire. His true form was the same smooth, shiny black carapaced body they had come to grow used too over the last few weeks, with orange eyes and small holes throughout his legs. As a unicorn spellbreaker stepped up to scan him, to make sure he wasn't simply under another disguise, he spoke up again.

"So, thats a yes. Yeah, a couple of my siblings you met already started going around to try to warn us you guys were coming. I tried my best to make sure Chrysalis didn't hear about it though! Honest." Beta Knight waited until the unicorn released his magic and confirm with him the truth of what they were seeing before asking his questions.

"Why is that?" Dawn Rise scoffed out a laugh before answering.

"Cause she's fucking everything up? Those of us who have gotten out of the Hive have a good thing going. We seem to be healthier, the laws are easier to follow, and the ponies all love us so long as we just look like them. Chrysalis though, she's going around making every stallion sick to his stomach. She's burnt through five disguises and slept around so much the doctors here think some new sex disease is spreading around. So legal sex workers like me are getting screwed over. I hadn't had holes in my legs for years until now, but the princess just swaps skins and begins sucking dick under the table to keep feeding. Uh, metaphorically. Probably. Point is, she's causing panic and I'm hungry. So you getting rid of her or what?" It was Rough Shod who spoke up while Beta Knight took out he radar to check on the second signal the changeling whistleblower had just confirmed to be the murderous princess.

"Wait, what part of that statement was metaphorical?"

"Uh, all of it?" Beta retook control by this point.

"Thank you, Dawn Rise. I would suggest hiding until the day is done. If she evades us, it would not do well if she were to go after you afterwards. Guards, with me. And stay armed, Carina underwent a metamorphosis after engaging in sex. While all of the changelings we've met so far have been mostly unchanged despite their time outside of the Hive, Chrysalis is also a 'princess,' for however much difference that makes."

And from there, everything went to hell. They formed up in front of the house the signal was coming from, the machine claiming she was just behind the front door by about a pony's length. Rough Shod silently counted down with the feathers on the end of his wing before giving the signal and kicking down the door.

"Halt! You are under arrest-" And then his charred body was thrown at terminal velocity back out as the pink unicorn in front of him explosively dropped her disguise. Many of the guards merely stared in shock, though two unicorns rushed to him and pulled him away as fast as they could to administer whatever aid they could. Beta Knight quickly flew in and swung his sword through the remaining flames to disperse them, sending a blade of wind at the much larger than anticipated Chrysalis. The blade was deftly avoided with a duck of her head, which reached high enough to push against the shattered ceiling, and she immediately used the opportunity to charge magic at the end of the horn now pointed at Beta. He flashed away with a beat of his wings as an explosion destroyed the rest of the house, sending the rest of the ponies with him in all directions, in various levels of harm and injury.

"Chrysalis! Enough!" The knight held his place in the air for only a moment, before attacking the air with such strength that the air was rent in twain. The vacuum was quickly filled with a tornado that pulled all the debris away from the battle before destroying it. It gave him just enough time to see his silently glaring opponent rushing at him with her wings abuzz and a hoof pulled back to strike him. It was all the time he needed though, to prepare a strike to counter-

Red. Pain. Numb. Despite the distance between the two of them, he felt as something speared directly through his mask and into his eye. Before the rest of his body could register what had just happened, he was bodily thrown into the ground, cracking the ground and ruining his mask further. Beta could only lay there in shock. Chrysalis had speared him on her horn, using an illusion of herself launching a much more choreographed attack to hide herself right inside of his guard. Pain. Pain. Pain. He didn't know how long he had laid there, but when he finally had the strength to push his aching body back up, it was to the sight of a nightmare. Chrysalis had made short work of the twenty-something guards left after the initial explosion, all with injuries that left no doubt to the deceased state of most of them. It was to the sound of screaming civilians and a feeling of utter failure that Beta pushed with his wings with all the power he could muster. Elfilis... Sire must do something...

Luna was trying her best to get Elfilis to talk to her, but he had been silent for the longest time, doing something to the Dream Matter and ignoring her to the best of his ability.

"Elfilis! Please speak to us! Is Beta Knight alright? What happened? What are you doing?"

"... Do you mind if I pick your brains for a moment?" It was the only response she had gotten, and while it was a disturbing phrase, she took the chance to try to communicate with him further.

"I... assume that means asking me about something. What-"

"What makes a warrior strong?" That being said, the lunar princess had completely lost the plot.

"Ugh. Strength? Skill?"

"The same could be said of a carpenter, or a farmer." He wasn't even looking at her. "What differentiates a laborer from one who fights? What about a warrior makes them dangerous, feared, respected." Before Luna could answer, his closest eye suddenly shot towards her, looking almost behind him to see her. "What trait would launch a warrior from merely a fighter to a soldier of legend? What would you say?" She did her best to ignore the eerie look as she racked her brains for an answer that might satisfy this sudden fascination Elfilis was displaying.

"... The stories that I had always loved above all else were of those where the hero would never stop fighting. It was, adversity? I suppose. It never mattered what life would throw at them, they had a goal, a mission, self-imposed or otherwise and they would try to bitter end to fulfill it. Successfully or... Otherwise. Willpower?... A never give up attitude?" His eye reoriented itself back in front of him in a flash.

"CONVICTION."

And then Luna woke up as the dream collapsed.

"Wha- Elfilis? Wait a moment-" And then her sister burst through her door.

"Luna! Manehatten has been attacked!"

"Ugh! Dammit! Now I have that to deal with! You better not have just killed yourself Elfilis."

"What?! What happened to Elfilis?!"

Carina was dabbing a warm cloth on Beta Knights face while Swaddle-Dee cut a tomato of all things into small pieces and fed them to the injured swordsman. She almost didn't notice when Elfilis appeared behind her, but she wasted no time in embracing him.

"Stay! What the fuck did you just go off and do? I saw that look in your eyes! You always go off and do something you feel conflicted about afterwards when you are like that!"

"... I am unsure what is happening." That... was a much deeper voice than Elfy had. She pulled her face out of his fluff to look at the surprise speaker.

"... Alright. Elfilis, who the fuck is this."

"This... Is Phantom Galacta Knight. He will be... apprehending your sister for us..." And then he passed out on her, and she barely caught him and put him in their bed with a frustrated grunt of effort.

"Mother... Asshole." Carina made sure he could breath before turning to this Galacta Knight. "What's so special about you that its wiped out Elfy? The last one was the embodiment of love and all things positive. So what's your gig?"

"I am the most powerful warrior in the galaxy. Though, admittedly this is the first time I've been summoned in such a manner, so I am unsure what has rendered him unconscious. Admittedly, if I weren't so curious, I would have left already. I do not feel anything binding me here." Great, she had to explain things to a super powerful and flighty warrior. She was going to punch Elfilis's lights out once they came back on.

Author's Note

Hey look, I got a chapter out this week. Haven't missed one yet, yippee.