A True Person

The skies above Canterlot erupted in bright light, ominous energy bursts lighting up the area as Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis clashed in their battle. Celestia's fiery spear and Chrysalis' halberd, shrouded in magical charges, met in a blaze of sparks and flames.

Celestia, holding her flaming spear in telekinesis, aptly hurled it towards Chrysalis. She brilliantly intercepted the blow with her halberd, avoiding the flaming strike. With a powerful thrust, Chrysalis attacked, trying to pierce Celestia's defenses, but she dodged at the last moment, answering with her spear.

While Celestia tried to keep Chrysalis at a distance with her spear, the queen deftly maneuvered, trying to penetrate her defenses with her halberd. They spun in a whirlwind of combat, each trying to overpower the other, sparks flying in all directions from the clash of their weapons.

Feeling her stamina beginning to drain, Celestia decided to use magic spells to retake the initiative. She summoned her star attack, creating a meteor shower that swirled around the queen and created an opportunity for another attack. Huge rocks sparked in the air, exploding around Chrysalis, forcing her to go on the defensive.

In response, Chrysalis fired a green poison beam from her horn in an attempt to weaken the princess. Celestia used her flame shield to repel the attack, but Chrysalis, not giving up, activated her Mist of Confusion spell, which began to envelop Celestia in a dark green cloud, confusing her and slowing her reactions.

As they continued their deadly skirmish in the whirlwind of battle, the magical forces warped the sky over Canterlot. They both maneuvered masterfully, using their weapons and spells in an effort to overpower their opponent. But just when Celestia thought she was beginning to overwhelm Chrysalis, the latter suddenly turned around and focused a powerful spell.

A fog of Confusion thickened around Celestia, slowing her reactions and breaking her concentration. At the same time, Chrysalis released her next strike - a multitude of sharp dark green needles surged out of the mist, piercing the princess's body. She felt a sharp pain as blood began to flow from the wounds. The sharp needles released by Chrysalis pierced not only Celestia's body but also her will, paralyzing the princess and cutting off her ability to move.

With accelerated force accompanied by a deafening crack, Celestia's body crashed into the hard ground of the royal gardens. The ground beneath her bent and cracked from the force of the collision, flowers and plants were crushed and torn, and clouds of dust and smoke billowed around.

Chrysalis concentrated a huge amount of energy at the tip of her horn, squeezing it to its limit. A giant dark green beam of energy erupted from that dot, aimed directly at Celestia. The power of the spell was unimaginable. When the dark green beam hit Celestia's defenseless body, most of her body simply vaporized. Only the alicorn's hind legs remained on the ground.

Meanwhile, the beam of energy continued its destructive motion, penetrating deep into the ground beneath her. Where the beam struck, a huge hole formed, from which puffs of smoke and dust rose.

Chrysalis landed on the ground, trying to regain her breath after two powerful spells that had taken her considerable effort. Fatigue enveloped her, but a smirk flashed across her face as she looked at Celestia's remains. With a few spells, she destroyed Celestia's remains so that no trace of her existence remained.

Suddenly, a powerful wave of energy enveloped Canterlot, making the air shake. It was as if this energy was alive, carrying the cries of many beasts and heralding the approach of something dark and sinister. But amidst all this beastly noise, one thing stood out clearly: the triumphant roar of a dragon.

“Hmm?” thought Chrysalis, shifting her gaze to the hole in the ground. “What kind of beast does Celestia keep under the garden?”

She tried to use a spell to look under ground, but suddenly her body was paralyzed. It wasn't the effects of magic; it was instinctive fear - Chrysalis felt that someone was looking at her, and she would die in the next second. Biting her lip and causing pain, Chrysalis tried to use a teleportation spell and escape, but it wasn't that easy - every cell in her body was frozen with terror. She was still alive, but her body thought it was already dead.

However, in the next moment, the roar fell silent and the pressure disappeared, as if it was all just an illusion.

Stubbornly snorting, Chrysalis channeled magic into the depths of the earth, scanning the space beneath the garden. Deep below, she found a cave, its walls covered in a multitude of runes.

But there was no horrible beast, only shards and a rusty chain.

“Stop,” sounded in the changeling's head, but he continued running toward the palace. “I commanded you to fucking stop!”

A powerful pressure followed, pinning the changeling to the ground. He started to lunge, but froze when two changelings in scaly armor that blended into the chitin landed in front of him. The changeling's green eyes flashed with joy when he saw his kin.

“It's good to have you here,” the changeling exclaimed excitedly. “I need to get to the palace right away, I have an important assignment from Her!”

The changelings in armor glanced around. The entire Canterlot was filled with interference, and communication at long distances was impossible, but up close, telepathy worked perfectly. However, the changeling said it all out loud.

“State your name, rank, and code phrase,” it sounded again in the wingless changeling's head. “Who is your squad leader? What sector do you belong to? What were you doing in that zone?”

“What?” muttered the questioned changeling perplexedly.

The questioning soldier frowned and directly used telepathy to get inside his head and find the information he needed.

What he found was... nothing.

The wingless changeling was like a blank page. He didn't even know how to use telepathy. However, what he did find in his head was a message and a set of encrypted information, presumably from Queen Chrysalis. He was given orders to head to the royal palace and join the group searching Princess Luna's chambers. The information detailed the layout of Princess Luna's chambers, and the encrypted part appeared to contain methods to break the runic defenses and priority items.

The soldier shifted his gaze to the massive burn with dried blood on the leg of the held changeling. Sure enough, he easily recognized his queen's magical energy. He also saw a bit of purple coating on the changeling's body, which he recognized as the poison the queen had used in the square. Slamming his telekinesis on the changeling's back, he shook off the coating and used many scanning spells.

The scans went through with some interference - the changeling's lungs were literally soaked in purple smoke. Normally, with so much poison in its lungs, this changeling should have stopped breathing by now - the soldier had heard about the high efficiency of this poison. But in the changeling's body, he could feel two weak sources of magical energy belonging to Queen Chrysalis near his ribs. He couldn't determine more precisely because of the interference from the poison, but one thing was clear: the queen could easily save this changeling from the poison.

“Queen Chrysalis is fighting in the sky,” the soldier finally transmitted through telepathy. “There's no way you could have met her. You're lying. You are detained until all the circumstances are clarified. Do not resist.”

As he relayed the message, he carefully watched the reactions and emotions of the held changeling. Sure enough, the soldier saw that earlier Chrysalis had missed a hit and collapsed to the ground. And the changeling had come from exactly where the queen had fallen. The queen could very well have found out some secrets during the battle with Celestia and sent this changeling with the information she had gotten. It was all entirely possible. As was the memory loss. He just wanted to see the changeling's reaction. It would be especially suspicious if he suddenly remembered something and tried to explain himself.

Hearing the queen's name made the changeling flash with pride and adoration, but the part about being detained made him furious.

“Then you'd better kill me,” hissed the changeling, trying to get up off the ground. “Because I will resist until I do Her will.”

The two soldiers watched the changeling try to resist their spell pinning him to the ground. He was unable to use magic due to the poison in his body and resisted with physical strength alone. The effort was clearly futile - the changeling was only hurting himself. The chitin cracked in several places and blood began to drip onto the ground, but the changeling paid no attention to it - clenching his teeth, he tried to get up. Suddenly, the pressure from his back began to disappear, allowing him to slowly stand up, and he squinted at the soldiers.

“Calm down, brother,” smiling, the soldier transmitted through telepathy. 'We'll get you to the palace, but first you'll have to meet the captain.

“Where is this captain?” the changeling asked doubtfully, eyeing the soldiers. “Is he in the palace?”

“Yes,” replied one of the soldiers, taking the bag from him. “And this will stay with us for now.”

Looking into the bag, the soldier saw many vials and ingredients, a cauldron, a knife, a plaid, several cups, and other things one would see in a traveler's bag. His partner had already shared this changeling's memory with him and according to his memories, he had taken the bag from the corpse of a griffin lying in the ruins. The bag was more fitting for some zebra trader who had come to Canterlot to sell his potions. So the soldier assumed the gryphon had taken it off someone's corpse as well.

“Then I agree,” nodded the changeling, not particularly worried about losing the bag.

With a hum, one of the soldiers wrapped his legs around the changeling and flew off, while the other created a shield around all three of them and they all flew towards the palace together. In this part of Canterlot, the changelings had won an absolute victory, but there was still fighting going on all around, so the shield was necessary.

The changelings also realized that although they were able to disperse the main forces of Canterlot, it couldn't last forever. Soon they would regroup and overwhelm the changelings. But they still had about an hour and they were fine with that. The main objectives had already been accomplished and now they were getting combat experience, using the royal guards as training dummies. Danger sharpened senses and only between life and death a creature could unleash its full potential. Queen Chrysalis often repeated this phrase.

The palace was spacious enough inside, so after flying into one of the broken windows, the changelings continued their flight through the corridors. There were no problems with the guards - telepathy allowed the changelings to quickly confirm their identities. Soon they flew into a room where a middle-aged changeling was leaning over a map of Canterlot, with many colored lights hovering over it, reflecting the position of the troops. Several guards stood at his sides, scrutinizing the arrivals.

“Captain, we...” began one of the soldiers, but was interrupted by a raised hoof.

The captain stood for a few seconds, continuing to look at the map, and then nodded to himself. His horn blazed and a multitude of blue dragonflies sprang up around him and immediately burst from the room, carrying the necessary instructions to the squads under his command.

“I'm listening,” the captain transmitted through telepathy, casting a brief glance at the entrants. “What do you have? Quickly.”

“Captain, there is new information on the security measures in Luna's chambers,” the soldier reported, pointing to the wingless changeling. “He has a detailed description of...”

“Then send him to Jade,” the captain interrupted him irritably. “She's in charge of the capture and break-in on that floor.”

“Ahem, the situation is a bit complicated,” the soldier said cautiously, beginning to quickly relay all the available information to the captain.

A flicker of irritation flashed across his face as the flood of information rushed through his already busy mind, but soon the irritation was replaced by a frown.

Looking up, he scrutinized the delivered changeling. It was the changeling's dark green eyes that seemed to catch his attention the most. The captain's horn lit up as he applied several scanning spells. The wingless changeling blinked and winced at the pain in its eyes - one of the spells had been aimed directly at its eyes. Finishing his inspection, the captain confirmed that the changeling in front of him was indeed a changeling.

Changing appearance or size was easy enough, but pretending to be someone of another race was a bit of a problem. Usually, at least among unicorns, illusions were used in such cases, which could be easily detected by scanning.

As for transformation spells and potions - they had a certain disadvantage, which Alexei had already experienced several times. Physiology changed, but magical energy did not. No matter how many times he transformed into ponies, unicorns, or griffins - he did not gain any abilities or magical energy. If an earth pony transformed into a griffin, the situation would be the same. It would be a griffin with the magical energy of a pony, an innate talent for earth magic, and no ability to fly. Of course, the magical energy could be disguised as the energy of another race, but it was quite difficult to do and easy to detect.

But there were exceptions - changelings who could freely convert their energy when transforming. They didn't have an innate talent for a particular element when they transformed, but their disguise was perfect. And talent was just a matter of practice.

Of course, there were also high-level transformation spells that could completely copy all the physical features of the target. But the captain hadn't even considered such a possibility. If the changeling in front of him was a spy capable of such spells, why would he need a disguise at all? His power should be at the level of Queen Chrysalis. While Celestia and Chrysalis are busy fighting, he could do whatever he wants in the palace.

“The situation is really sensitive,” the captain thought, taking another look at the changeling's eyes.

The soldiers paid no attention to it, but he knew some secrets - Queen Chrysalis had children. The society of changelings was fundamentally different from that of ponies, though they spoke the same language. No one got anything by birthright. A changeling had to achieve everything through his own efforts.

Even Queen Chrysalis started at the bottom of the ladder. Right after she was born, her mother disguised her and secretly gave her to an orphanage. No one but her mother knew of Chrysalis' origins. Chrysalis had nothing and yet she climbed to the top. Only after Chrysalis reached the limit, broke it and evolved into a Royal changeling - did her mother meet with her and reveal her origins.
Chrysalis' entire journey was described in her biography and the book was a bestseller among changelings. Most changelings genuinely respected Chrysalis. Not for being a queen, but for being able to become a queen.

Chrysalis did the same with her children. The captain didn't know their identities, but he was sure that some of them were fighting outside the palace right now. And right now, Chrysalis' son was most likely standing in front of him.

The captain might have had some doubts about the body because of the anti-magic poison, but the eye color was real. He was absolutely certain of that. And who else could have dark green eyes? Changelings usually had blue, yellow, orange, and rarely purple eyes. The dark green color belonged to the current royal family.

If Alexei had heard the captain's thoughts - he would have laughed and slightly embarrassed. He had miscalculated a bit and ran into the smoke before the time, because of which the transformation was not fully completed and he was left with his natural eye color.

The captain, meanwhile, was thinking about how to handle the situation. Naturally, he was not going to help Chrysalis' supposed son. If the queen found out about it, and she would, the captain would be punished. The children were to achieve everything by their own efforts.

But if he harmed her child or treated him unfairly, he could lose his head - in case of any problem, the queen would personally deal with the case. There was another side of the coin - if he succeeded, he might get a promotion. The situation was clearly out of instructions and the captain had to make the most correct and reasonable decision possible.

“There are a few odd points, but everything can be explained,” the captain thought, shifting his gaze once again to the trio in front of him. “I've seen stranger situations. I think I'll send these two with him as support. Two is enough, right? It's not much, but it's not insignificant either. The queen should be pleased with my decision.”

“Escort him to Luna's chambers and provide support until he reaches the portal,” the captain relayed to the two soldiers. “And return his bag.”

Aside from the items requested by Chrysalis, all other items belonged to those who had obtained them. Even Chrysalis couldn't claim this changeling for his loot. For each task completed, including the items obtained, changelings received merit points. After completing an operation, this changeling would have to give this bag to the common loot, but he could take it back after spending his merit points. Plus, he'll have priority on a few items he personally looted. This whole system was done so that all changelings could get something after this raid. Some were now filling bags with jewels and carrying them into portals, while others were fighting ponies. But in the end, everyone would be able to get the things they needed according to their contribution to the operation, be it money, ingredients, artifacts, or weapons.

Nodding, the two changelings picked up the third and left the room. Flying up once more, they headed towards Princess Luna's chambers. Compared to the rest of the palace, there was almost no one in this wing. The thestrals, at the moment, were assaulting the interference crystals in Canterlot, hoping to contact their Princess, and the changelings weren't particularly interested in this part of the palace.

Luna's return had alarmed Chrysalis somewhat - she knew little about her, and even less about the limits of her abilities. And given that her abilities were related to dreams and mind - Chrysalis had ordered all changelings to stay away from her, not wanting to risk the entire operation for the sake of a few advantages. So the changelings didn't disguise themselves as thestrals close to the princess, and didn't even know what her chambers looked like from the inside. Everything more or less valuable that was in plain sight had already been taken away, and there was no point in even messing with the hiding places created by the alicorn.

Without any information, they might take a month to crack it and get nowhere. And even if they did break into such a cache, it could be candy, a bottle of wine, or some other small thing that had been given divine-level protection by an alicorn's will. Not to mention that the alicorns clearly had spatial artifacts and carried everything of value with them. They couldn't even get into Celestia's chambers, and Luna's modestly furnished chambers weren't anything interesting. Most had chosen other more profitable places to loot, and Luna's chambers only had two changelings studying the runes on the wall, who were here only because of a command.

The creak of the door drew them away from the wall and they turned, looking at the trio that had entered.

“Reinforcements have arrived, boys,” smirked a soldier, greeting them through telepathy. “We have someone who can help you. He doesn't remember how to use telepathy, though.”

The changelings only looked at the soldiers perplexed. A help? From someone who forgot basic things even children know? Is this some kind of stupid soldier's joke?

They were peacefully engaged in deciphering the runes, which was the job of their research department. Why did those armored idiots come here? Did they have nothing better to do?

But they didn't have time to express their doubts - a powerful pressure hit the room and all the changelings fell to the floor, shaking with instinctive terror as the beastly roar filled their ears.

All this went on for a few seconds, after which the pressure disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. But the changelings were unlikely to ever forget these moments.

“What... was that?” hissed the wingless changeling, trying to get up.

“It wasn't in the plan,” replied the soldier dryly, heading for the balcony.

Once outside, he was faced with the expected sight of many changelings and royal guard ponies trying to get up. The battle had been temporarily interrupted.

The changeling frowned as he saw that Chrysalis and Celestia had disappeared somewhere. Canterlot was in total chaos, with the interference distorting everything, and the air still humming with the pressure of that terrifying energy. Reconnaissance spells were out of the question.

According to Queen Chrysalis' plan, in addition to the main part with the alicorn, they were to grab what they could and leave through the portal after the queen's signal when she was done fighting Celestia. Chrysalis, on the other hand, would leave Canterlot on her own.

None of their portals would be able to withstand Chrysalis's magical power and collapse immediately. Besides, there's a pissed off Celestia on her tail. The changelings certainly believed in their queen, but was killing the Princess of the Sun really that easy? Chrysalis shared these thoughts and planned to leave by her own methods. There was no signal yet, but it was clearly worth hurrying.

''We must hurry,'' the soldier said briefly as he returned to the chambers. “After this, we will leave at once.”

“Do we have escape routes?” the wingless changeling asked the question that had suddenly arisen in his mind. “I can't even fly. How am I going to make it out?”

“We have several dozen portals beyond Equestria,” the soldier replied, sitting down in the center of the room. “Come on, do your part.”

The wingless changeling nodded and, to everyone's surprise, ignored the runes on the wall and headed for a massive bookshelf. Standing in front of it, he began to probe the air near one of the shelves.

“Behind the runes on the wall are only memorabilia and the lock is too complicated,” he answered the silent question as he continued to probe the air. “The most valuable things should be here.”

“And where did you get this information from?” one of the researchers asked.

“From Queen Chrysalis,” replied the changeling proudly, poking a hoof at a specific spot in the air.

A ripple spread in front of the shelf and a multitude of silvery runes appeared, forming patterns like frost on glass.

Looking around, the changeling grabbed a silver feather knife and began diligently carving runes into the wall of the bookshelf.

“Can't we just look at the image in his mind?” the researcher perplexedly asked the soldiers.

“Well, try,” snorted a soldier, scrutinizing a picture of a black tree with no leaves, with the moon shining behind it. The multitude of thin bare branches against the pale celestial body brought associations with the veins piercing the moon.

The researcher actually tried it. The changeling easily allowed him to invade his mind, but as soon as the intruder got to the important information - he wrinkled his nose and turned off telepathy. Everything swam in front of his eyes, and the images of the runes that allowed him to open the cache intertwined in his mind, forming chaotic shapes.

“You could have just said there was a defense on the message,” the still-blinking scholar said grudgingly.

“Would you have believed it until you saw for yourself?” chuckled the second soldier standing by the door.

The researcher only shook his head - this was exactly why they pissed him off.
The wingless changeling, meanwhile, finished carving the runes and called the two scholars over to him. There were four extremely complex runes carved on the rack, with many intricate patterns. And from the looks of it, these four were parts of a single rune. None of the changelings knew these runes in detail, but they were able to determine that they belonged to the dream runes. Which was logical, considering the personality of the chambers' owner.

“Well, that's a bit of a problem,” one of the researchers muttered thoughtfully. “They have to be activated one at a time and then merged together, right?”

Receiving an affirmative nod from the changeling, the researchers frowned.

Activate four runes and then merge them altogether? That meant they needed to think of four things at once. They were capable of two at most, but not in this case - each of the four runes was extremely complex. And the changeling that brought the information was poisoned and unable to use magic at all.

“We need your help,” the scholar sighed, calling out to the soldiers. “Otherwise we'll be here till nightfall.”

Ignoring the soldiers' condescending smiles, the researchers began to explain the activation procedure to them, transmitting images of the runes via telepathy. After doing a few test activations, they made sure there would be no problems.

“Ready?” asked the scholar in charge of the first rune.

After receiving an affirmative nod from the others, he lit the horn and soon a silvery rune emitting mist hovered in the air in front of him. Following him, two soldiers activated the second and third runes. Finally, another scholar activated the fourth rune.

Coordinating through telepathy, the four began to merge the runes into one. After a few minutes, they succeeded and a giant rune, shaped like a butterfly, hovered in front of the shelf. Without relaxing, all four of them directed this rune towards the defense mechanism. The rune flashed and retracted inside, but nothing happened - the defense was still in place.

The changelings looked around perplexed, trying to figure out where they had gone wrong, when suddenly four runes flew out of the shelf and hit them in the heads. Immediately their eyes rolled back and they collapsed to the ground. Judging from the sniffling, they were in a deep sleep.

The remaining changeling looked at the situation in shock. Had they made a mistake? What should he do now?

Something caught the changeling's attention, and it began to back away in fear - the changelings' bodies were rapidly aging, and their energy was being greedily absorbed by the shelf. Luna was clearly not the type to let others pry into her secrets.

Suddenly, the changeling felt dizzy and spread his legs wide, trying to keep his balance. The whole room blurred before his eyes, and the sharp ringing in his ears, accompanied by a severe headache, made him scream and the next second he collapsed to the floor unconscious.

A moment later, thick black smoke billowed from his body, taking the shape of a human.

It was unlikely that Chrysalis had expected that her attack that tore apart Celestia's body would cause far more serious consequences.

The huge beam that struck Celestia went deep into the ground, and reached the cave with a certain prisoner. Weakened, during the time of sinking into the ground, the beam could not destroy the rune fortified cave, but still left a crack in it. And that crack, along with the chaos going on in Canterlot, was enough.

Within moments, the statue of Discord began to crack and collapse, revealing the creature inside. A magical pressure came over the entire Canterlot, sounding like the screams of all sorts wild beasts with a distinctly dragon roar. Discord didn't do this on purpose, he preferred to stay in the shadows and act stealthily. It was just that he couldn't control his energy right now and that was its natural state.

The last pieces fell off his head and Discord blinked, took a deep breath and looked around - a few kilometers of ground wasn't a problem for him.

“What the fuck?” he thought grimly, looking at the changeling queen and the remains of Celestia. “It's too early.”

He had planned his breakout long ago and now his plan was crumbling before his eyes. He was to remain imprisoned until a certain event occurred. It would be bad if he showed up right now.

Discord squinted his eyes and his dragon pupils sank into Chrysalis, the cause of his bad mood.

“I hope you last at least a minute,” Discord muttered and the air around him vibrated. “Otherwise I won't be satisfied.”

But suddenly, several beams flew out of the dust and shards of the statue, piercing Discord. Immediately, golden symbols and words in an ancient language began to appear on his body, forming into bizarre patterns. With each new symbol, he could feel the pressure building on him. Discord frowned and tried to remove the symbols, but they only grew larger.

“Fuck, when did she pull that off?” mentally scolded Discord, teleporting out of the cave. “Even managed to interfere with the Elements seal, too.”

Appearing in a deep part of the Everfree Forest, Discord began to quickly burrow underground. After going a dozen kilometers deep, he flicked his claws and the tunnel closed.

"Please don't disappoint me, Sombra," thought Discord, curling up into a ball and falling asleep. The golden symbols faded a bit and their spreading speed decreased.

Meanwhile, Chrysalis was resting in the Royal Garden, not even realizing that Celestia had just saved her life. She didn't leave the garden for one reason: the battle wasn't over yet. Didn't alicorns have defensive methods? Creatures of that level could be defeated or made to flee, but killing them was a different story. Even Chrysalis had a way to resurrect herself, albeit with harsh conditions to use, let alone Celestia.

After a while, Chrysalis felt a pulse from the sun and looked over at the remains of the princess as flames slowly flared up. Flying into the air, Chrysalis watched what was happening, analyzing Celestia's method. It was pointless to try to intervene and interrupt the resurrection, as Celestia had obviously foreseen it, so she could only watch.

More and more flames broke out and soon a giant fire was raging in the middle of the royal gardens. The flames began to swirl and formed a fiery tornado. After a moment, all the flames were drawn into the center and Princess Celestia appeared completely unharmed in the air.

“She's stronger now,” Chrysalis remarked in surprise, feeling Celestia's energy. “Did she have injuries after the battle with Nightmare Moon? Then why didn't she reborn sooner?”

There was only one possible answer - the method had some recharging time and Celestia preferred to recover slowly, not risking losing her trump card. Comparing her observations with the pulse from the sun, Chrysalis concluded that the condition for revival was a full sun rotation around Equus, which meant the recharge was one year.

Meanwhile, Celestia stared blankly at the hole in the ground, or rather at the cave beneath it. After a moment, an image of the sun appeared behind her and she shifted her gaze to the changeling queen.

The temperature began to rise rapidly.