Chapter 10 The Mission

Mells sat staring at a monitor, growing *bored* quickly as her life flashed through her mind.

Her mother was always smiling, but her smile was only visible; her eyes gave her true nature away. Despite how much she loved her children, she was beyond saddened by the loss of their father. Even so, she wore his ring, never taking it off—not even for a day.

She also remembers the day she died, how terrified she was, seeing these strange creatures attacking her weak mother, despite the fight she put up. But as she turned away, about to burst into tears, the sight of her twin brothers made *her* stop in their tracks. She knew she couldn’t cry that day or ever again for that matter—not when she had him, her brother, to look after.

She then remembered her training by her aunt and the commander. From straight in the morning for days after days, weeks after weeks, and soon months that turned into years, they were trained to be fast, agile, and cunning. Anything to give them the edge over the enemy. Yet despite their training, one thing was for sure: they were always starving. Despite their abilities, they showed no muscle definition, eating barely any food to survive. Its heavy toll made them sickly skinny. And living underground, their fur and skin were sickly pale, as well as everyone else’s.

She remembers when she was eleven years old, finishing up her training and heading to see her aunt, finding her in a strange room with an even stranger device.

She watched as her aunt tightened a nut, then ran over to the other side of the device and pressed a few strange buttons on a keypad. She took in a deep breath, already looking drained from her work, when she noticed her *niece* in the corner of the door. She gave a smile and gestured for her to come in, which she did cautiously.

"What are you doing, Aunty?" the young filly asked.

"Simple, Melody," she gestured to the device, "this is Project Alpha. This is what you and your brother are training for."

"Hmm, I thought we were training so we don’t get eaten by changelings."

Her aunt giggled at that. "Yes, but that is only the beginning, silly," she said, brushing some hair out of Mells's eyes. "This, my dear, might be our chance."

"Chance for what?" the filly asked.

"To stop all this from happening."

The little one tilted her head, confused, making the older of the two mares giggle again. "You know how you and your brother can transform yourselves, right?" The little one nodded. "Well, you have your father’s powers—the powers he once, by accident, gifted the world—and soon that was the rise of the Chimera incident back when *your mom and I first met. Back then,* I didn’t even know he was my brother, let alone the cause of all of this. But he created the cure to it all. Unfortunately, I and my friends took it not knowing that our troubles were only beginning. Powerless we were, giving the enemy the perfect chance to strike and mutate the entire world. All of those monsters, they were once like you and me, but now," she shook her head. "But if we can go back in time, stop them from taking over our world, you two and I can do this."

"And Daddy," said a small voice behind the two mares. Twilight looked up to see Junior. "You can save him. You can see him if this machine works, that is," she snorted.

Junior's eyes lit up. "I can see Daddy! And what about Mommy?"

The adult chuckled at the ten-year-olds. "Yes, yes, but first you need to get stronger, and I need to finish this machine. Your powers are the key to it."

"Our powers?" asked Junior.

"Mhm, just like your father."

"Daddy was a hero; that’s what Mommy told us."

Twilight smiled at that but didn’t know what to say about her oldest brother. "Come on, you two. Time for bed," she instructed, much to their annoyance, only causing Twilight to snort again.

At the memory of it all, Mells sat wondering what life would be like if things hadn’t gone the way they had. If it *were* all so easy as to just flip a switch and change history. She yawned as the clock ticked that night and looked over to see her brother fast asleep. She took another yawn and turned back to the computer.

"Tired, sweetheart?" a voice called out to her. She turned her head, not realizing how she had de-aged. Standing before her with her hair up in a bun was none other than her mother.

"I don’t want to go to bed yet," she moaned like the child she was now.

Her mother chuckled at that as she sat down next to her daughter. "Waiting for Daddy to get home, huh?"

"Dissy fell asleep before we could see him," the filly laughed at her brother, who was snoring away by her side. Despite that, another yawn escaped her mouth, causing a giggle from her mother.

Just then, a knock on the door alerted them of his presence. "Oh, Daddy's—"

*Snore*, "home," *snore* Mells mumbled in her sleep, only for another knock in her dream to wake her up. Once she did, she realized it wasn’t a knock at all but a loud banging from her monitor. On the screen, she could see hundreds of changelings trying to burst down the door.

"They're here," she muttered in a panic before turning to her brother and yelling in his ear, "They're here!!! Get up! They're here!"

He bolted from his homemade bed. Despite his groggy nature, he asked what happened—weren’t you watching for them?

"I fell asleep, goddammit, I fell asleep," she panicked, the wrench still in her hoof. She then ran down the hall and into the building, yelling at the top of her lungs,

"THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!!!"

“You must stop Discord from—“

"THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE! THEY FOLLOWED US!!!"

Twilight heard from the hallway. She immediately grabbed her large gun and switched the camera off, preparing for the battle at hand. She ran out of the door shouting, "Where?"

*Bang!* The sound of the wall cracking, and bursting through from above ground they came, as the ceiling collapsed in on itself.

Trying to protect the children, Pinkie Pie grabbed a cannon. “Sorry, boys, this one’s not filled with confetti,” she said as cannonballs flew through the sky, taking out limbs of the oncoming army. Despite her efforts, there were too many of them and they began filtering in.

A child no older than seven, along with a lizard no older than four, began blasting guns at the beasts to no avail due to their bulkier, profane nature. One of the bullets from the cat's gun ricocheted off a changeling and hit Pinkie Pie dead in the arm.

"Ahhh, it’s no good! They *are* bulletproof!" she cried out, biting her lip to ignore the pain as she ripped off some of her shirt and began tying up her wound.

Dash, out of nowhere, drove in on a four-wheeler, knife in hoof, ready to take out the enemy. She lunged one blade directly into the eye of a changeling and twisted, freeing her blade only for a moment so she could attack another.

Pinkie stood up, wanting to help when out of nowhere, a changeling pounced on her, sinking its teeth into her flesh.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

"Pinky!!!" shouted Dash as she turned around, wanting to save her friend. But as she got to her, it was too late. Pinky’s skin and fur fell off, revealing the body of a changeling.

Changing, Pinky lunged an attack on the kids, biting them too.

Knowing there wasn’t time to mourn, Dash ignored her own tears and did what she had to do, plunging her blade into the neck of the changeling Pinky, followed by killing the changeling kids as well.

…

Junior and his sister took their chimera forms quickly, fighting off the changelings much easier than everyone else.

A changeling went for Junior's leg, but Mells kicked it in the face, only for another changeling to tackle her to the ground. Junior wasted no time biting off the head of the changeling on top of his sister.

"RUN!" he shouted, and the two of them ran for their lives.

*We’re not gonna get far in these tunnels!* Mells reminded him, just as a changeling up ahead blocked their path, making them come to a halt.

*The other way!* shouted Junior as they took off, only to see more changelings.

"Uhhhh, brother?" asked Mells in a panicky voice. In response, he bared his snarling fangs at the creature, only for a pebble to hit the top of his head. He looked up in terror as the ceiling began to collapse in on itself.

As it did, not only was dark black rock visible, but also the silver, shiny sparkles of webs around. A tall, black, gruesome figure crawled in from above, its eyes glowing like all changelings.

“Well, well, well, what do we have *here?*" asked the creature as it licked its lips.

Shocked and frozen in fear, Junior and Mells muttered simultaneously, “Que—queen?”

*Boom!* A door blew open with the sound of a loud cannon, catching everyone’s attention. As a cloud of dust settled, Twilight emerged from the other room, along with her shotgun.

"Chrysalis!" she spat, giving her no authority with her name, as if it were an insult.

"Twilight," the queen smiled.

"Aunty!" the twins cried out.

"Kill them!" shouted Chrysalis to her army, but Twilight raised her shotgun, shooting a blast of fire at them. It wasn’t just a shotgun; it was a flamethrower.

“Follow me,” Twilight shouted, making sure the creatures were held back.

The twins didn’t hesitate and followed her orders, quickly running toward Twilight's lab.

“Aunty, where's everyone else?” asked Junior.

"It's too late for them. I lost contact, which can only mean they're gone."

"Everyone?" asked Mells in shock.

"I don’t know, but I’m afraid this is it. This is the end. She finally caught up to us."

"How?"

Twilight gave no response, not wanting to put the blame on her niece and nephew.

"The Time Machine! It’s now or never!" shouted Twilight.

"But, but we’re not ready for—" Junior began but stopped when he saw his aunt's face.

*You’ve been training for this your entire lives.*

"But—" Mells tried, only for Twilight to drag the machine and push it into the claws of Junior. Along with it, she handed her laptop. "My computer has everything you will ever need to know about Mission Alpha. It’s time, guys, you must—"

*Boom!* Another collapse from the ceiling gave way to a swarm of changelings.

"I’LL HOLD THEM OFF! YOU GO! All it needs is a pint of your blood. Together, you two can get to the past!"

"But?"

"GO!!!!"

With that, the twins wasted no time as they bolted for the door. Junior cried out for Mells as she bit her thumb with her sharp fang. Junior did the same, and the two began filling the fuel tank as they ran.

*Don’t turn back, don’t turn back—ahhhhhh!* they heard their aunt call out in pain. They knew it was too late to save her. For now, anyway.

The two of them burst through the halls and returned to their sleeping quarters.

"The tank's not full yet, halfway there!" cried out Mells.

*They’re coming through!* shouted her brother. In a panic, Mells looked around and saw their bike. "I got an idea! Come on!" she shouted as she ran over. The changelings were now beginning to stomp from above. Junior could hear them as he ran to her. He leaped onto the bike just as a changeling burst another hole in the ceiling.

"You sure this thing's gonna work?" panicked Junior.

Mells didn’t respond as she hit the gas, hoping the two would take off. Instead, it only sputtered out smoke.

"MELLS!!!"

"I can fix it!" she called out and jumped off. "Keep filling that tank or we’ll never get out of here." She told him as she began tightening a bolt on the bike.

A changeling tried to pounce on them, only for a blue leg to come out of nowhere.

"Commander!" the two shouted in surprise.

"THIS TIME IT'S YOUR FAULT!" she shouted. "If you never brought that changeling here, we’d never be in this mess!" She said as she sliced off another changeling's head.

"I know! I know, I—"

"SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF HERE!!! Fix your mess; we’re counting on you!" She winced, "I’m counting on you," she then gave the bike a kick, and the engine started up. Junior grabbed Mells by the jacket and drove off as Mells called out for their comrades, who were surrounded by the creatures.

Junior wasted no time and pressed the activation button on the Time Machine. He used the pile of trash as a ramp and drove up it as the two were surrounded by a blazing light. A changeling came up, trying to bite Mells's foot, only for another changeling to attack it.

"THORAX!!!!" she shouted in surprise.

"Good luck, my friends," he yelled as he tussled the beast away from the blazing light.

The light became so bright it was blinding, and before they knew it, everything went black.

Author's Note

I had time to put this out so hope you all like it.