My Mind Isn't Like Your's

“Kill him!” Chrysalis screamed. The fourteen changelings in the room attacked in unison unlike the ones he had fought earlier. It didn’t matter much to Strider though, and as he reared back onto his hind legs; he drew his shorter sword.

The first changeling that charged him was dealt with via decapitation when it tried to jump into his side. The second and third came at him from the front at the same time, Strider dodged the first one and dropped back onto all fours while bringing his head down on the second changeling’s skull. The audible cracking noise gave pause to the rest of the charging changelings.

It was a short lived pause though as changeling number three jumped on Strider’s back. Strider shifted the changeling’s weight with a jerk of his own body, and at the same time pulled his right shoulder backwards. The changeling’s momentum in shifting coupled with Strider’s power was a very affective in driving the spike on his right shoulder into the changeling’s chest. Its shriek of pain was loud in Strider’s ear, and since he didn’t want to put up with it a whole lot, he ripped the changeling off with his left set of claws.

It was dead with a gaping wound in its chest before Strider even tossed the body away. The remaining eleven were cautious in their approach, the first good idea the changeling’s had. The voices seemed to agree with that and he laughed a little at a few stray comments like, it’s probably the only one they’re going to have to.

The changelings took the laughter personally though, and all of them charged at once. They all stayed to the ground though, so Strider jumped into the air and sailed over top of their heads. Before he touched the ground though, magic hit him full force in the face.

Chrysalis had attacked him herself at that moment, and launched him back. He knocked seven of the changelings down from the force of the attack, but they weren’t dead. Strider felt the impact of the floor on his back, and it sent jots of pain through his body. The shoulder spikes had retracted into the armor thankfully, so he didn’t dislocate anything.

Two changelings tried to jump on him, and only got kicked right in their faces for the effort. Strider was a little pissed at the cheap shot, and the fact his short blade was across the room now. When the changelings got up from both Strider’s hit and Chrysalis’ attack, Strider was ready for the next attack.

It came in the form of six of them charging into him, four dodged away from him at the last second, and he fell for the trick, when he turned his attention away the other two hit him straight in the chest. He slipped only a couple inches before he reared onto his hind legs, and picked the two changelings up.

Two more changelings struck his back, and before he toppled over, he threw the two changelings in his hooves at the others standing a few feet away. Other than that, he had no choice but to fall flat on his face.

A dull thud resounded, coupled with the slightly metallic clang, when his head hit the floor. His jaw took the hit full force and he growled slightly from the pain. The changelings weren’t much weight though, and he stood with them still on his back. Before they could make the dismount though, Strider rolled over and crushed the two beneath his weight.

It didn’t kill them, but it was most certainly painful to end up underneath a rather fit bat pony. In their stunned state they didn’t move as Strider stood up. As he did so, he grabbed the knives on his thighs; when he reached his full, two-legged height, two more changelings were already about to tackle him.

And just as Strider expected to, because both changelings had the knives drove into their heads when they were in range, after that Strider threw the knives into two more rather unsuspecting changelings. That took the number down to seven left. One step to the left later and only six remained, as he stepped on the head of one of the downed changelings.

Chrysalis was angry though, and decided to try and get another cheap shot in, but right before she could do anything substantial, Strider threw the living changeling that was at his hooves at Chrysalis. She dodged out of the way in time to not be hit, but the changeling landed awkwardly, and several spinal disks broke from it.

By the time she looked back, two changelings were left in front of Strider, both were terrified of him, or rather were terrified of his long sword that was now drawn. With a quick jerk of his head, he motioned them to leave the room. They did so without hesitation, and ran by the currently upright pony. Nopony even had time to do a thing before a rather irritated Changeling Princess walked into the room.

Since she wasn’t paying attention, she walked right into Strider’s back, and in turn she yelped in surprise. Strider’s demented laugh echoed again in the room as he heard and felt what had happened. The Changeling Princess ran by him to her mother’s side after she got over the shock, and took up a stance that matched her mother’s.

Once again though, nothing was able to happen before another changeling walked into the room. This one was obviously male, and his chitin looked marred beyond belief. Strider didn’t hear any hoofsteps though, instead, the voices whispered about the presence.

He forgot about the two in front of him and instead directed attention to the one behind him. The first thing he noticed was that this changeling looked healthier than the other ones, even the two royal changelings weren’t as in shape as him. The only thing Strider came up with in the seconds before the changeling attacked was that something was rather wrong about the whole fight.

Fight referring to what was most likely happening outside of the walls, because absolutely nothing was out of place in his own personal fight. The entire thing felt a little off to him, but he couldn’t focus on that because of the homicidal changeling in front of him.

The changeling tackled Strider full force to the midsection of his upright body. His wings felt the pain of being crushed twice in a small time frame the moment he touched the floor. The changeling neglected Strider’s hind legs though, and was promptly kicked back off. Though after getting back up, Strider had about two seconds to get angry about his long sword now being knocked away from him, after those two seconds the changeling drew a blade that was attached to his side, and stood on his hind legs.

Right at that moment the voices started crying out in distress of the realization. The changeling was an assassin, marked by the trademark fighting stance that most of them took. Strider however, just smiled. He figured it may have happened and was now going to have one large mission to complete after this, but first came getting out of the fight, and Canterlot, alive.

He was about to go and retrieve a blade before the changeling could attack, but one was already hovering next to him in a purple glow. He wasn’t an idiot and knew that one of the mares in the room that was in the corner had done it. The other difference was he noticed was that now the changeling royalty weren’t interfering with the fight.

Strider naturally shrugged and nonchalantly got into his stance while taking the sword, it was the short one. As soon as he was in place the changeling moved with the agile skills of the original creators of the fighting stile. However agile though, he didn’t have the actual form correct like Strider did.

The voices calmed themselves at that and began whispering things to each other along the lines of, he is either new to the assassins, or was not trained properly. If not that then he just isn’t a very good assassin. In the instant after some of those voices passed, the changeling’s sword was deflected with an effortless swing of Strider’s blade.

It took so little effort because the changeling did not fight the proper way he should have. He recovered quickly though and swung again and again, although every time he was deflected or dodged by Strider’s superior knowledge of the fighting style.

It was brought to a very abrupt end when Strider simply put his entire weight into a thrust of his own sword. The changeling had not expected the offence, and was stabbed through completely with the blade.

Green blood seeped from out of the wounds as Strider held him up. And after the changeling could no longer hold his blade, Strider said, “Dervas vetral.” The armor retracted in less than five seconds unlike the seven to appear.

After the armor was gone Strider dropped the changeling and gave him a second to focus his attention. Once the changeling looked at him, Strider said, “If The Council thought that sending somepony like you to get rid of me was a good idea then I think I don’t have to worry much about dying. But tell me, which Council member sent you, I’d love to know?”

The changeling took a moment to gather his breath before saying, “It was the Council member Burrow, the griffon, not the pony.” After saying that, the changeling lowered his head and focused on his breathing which was now coming in ragged gasps.

“Do you wish for me to end it?” the changeling nodded to Strider’s question. Strider though sighed and moved around the changeling and swung his sword. The blade severed his spine and he slumped to the floor dead. After that though, the voices started pitching ideas of how to get at The Council.

Once he was done with killing the assassin, he looked at the dead bodies that lay around him. After slipping his blade into its appropriate sheath, he went about closing the eyes of them all, and retrieving his weapons. The changeling royalty were wide eyed at what had just happened.

They backed away a step when Strider approached them, and said, “If it’s not too much trouble, could you get the white one down.” The Changeling Princess was the one to react, and she was quickly working on releasing Celestia. When he was certain the job was being done, he motioned for the ponies hiding in the corner. A purple mare led the little group, and she stopped just ten feet from Strider.

She didn’t have anything very important to say as she just stood there, or at least that’s what Strider thought. He nearly turned his back on them until he heard a faintly muttered, “Thank you.”

He simply smiled and nodded at her to signify he heard her. Then he went on to the business that had to be dealt with, the Changeling Queen. Our prisoner now, Strider faintly heard Kerbouros whisper in his head. Strider smiled, that was his way out of Canterlot.

He looked at the Changeling Princess, who was at that moment helping Celestia get down from the cocoon she was trapped in. when she reached the ground, he muttered the words to activate his armor. Celestia looked at him as his face disappeared behind the mask. She didn’t expect him to speak before her though, or what he said for that matter.

“I already know what you’re going to say, so let me stop you there. Yes I’m that freak that Shining talked to, and I’m sure you’re familiar with my stage name by now. What I do want to know however is how this little meeting is going to end,” his words were tinged only slightly with an emotion that wasn’t clear.

“What do you mean by that assassin?” Celestia’s question was genuine, for she had little to no clue about what he was talking about. Strider chuckled at the Alicorn for the ignorance she was showing.

Truly she can’t be serious, what is going on in her head? I just murdered quite a few changelings and she doesn’t understand. Well there is no way I’m not taking advantage of that, Strider thought.

“Well then, that answered my question, and so much more, but one matter is left to be resolved. Changelings, since I was the one that was victorious in this battle, you are my prisoners.” Before he could say much more, Celestia finally caught on.

“They attacked my castle, and my kingdom, what gives you the right to take them?” Celestia was controlling the volume in which she spoke, her student was present and it wouldn’t be a good thing to get angry in her presence.

The smile on his face was almost audible when Strider spoke next, “Now you see, they didn’t stop fighting at your command. They did at mine, and not only that, but I freed you and them from being killed. Wait actually, I never did tell you to end the attack did I?” Chrysalis only took a second to realize he spoke to her and shook her head no.

“Then what are you waiting for, end this assault before any others get hurt.” Celestia’s tone was a commanding one, but the order she gave was not followed until Strider nodded his head to her. She visibly grit her teeth at the bat pony, she couldn’t see if he was enjoying it though, so she naturally didn’t add that to her offense.

“Face it Celestia, if you think that I am playing around any longer, you are sorely mistaken. I’ve been in the dungeons far too long for my liking and now I have a personal matter to attend,” his voice had finally given off the emotion, it was sadness, but it was heavily masked in anger.

“What personal matter would be so important that you would disrespect me in this manner?” Celestia’s voice had gotten darker, for the assassin in front of her had tried her patience a bit too much. Strider took note of how the purple mare reacted, her eyes widened slightly, and she took a half step away.

“I have to find those who betrayed me, and while you may not think that’s all too important, I’m going to give you a little perspective on the matter. I gave nearly my entire life to what I do, and showed undying loyalty to my assassin comrades. But they had so little faith in me that they would go as far as trying to kill me to ensure silence.”

“I can’t count the number of times I nearly died for the sake of following orders. And now they send somepony to silence me under the disguise of being a part of an attack on Canterlot. That’s low, our Order is supposed to be upfront about all of our actions.  Even if it must happen under the eyes of a Princess."

"My patience has worn thin with the Order over my years in their ranks. It's about time that I taught them a lesson in what it means to be a true assassin."

"If you were a part of their order, doesn't that mean you would do the same as them?" The Changeling Princess spoke in a tone barely over a whisper. Strider's ears still picked up what she said though, and he turned to address her question.

"I was taught by another pony what it means to be an assassin. He died shortly after I joined, his body is still buried in Ponyville I believe. I doubt the ponies there would recognize me as I am though, I never really came outside, but whenever I did i was wearing a dusty old coat he gave me. The only thing anypo...."  Strider was cut off by Celestia giving off a loud ahem.

Strider laughed slightly in response before reverting back to his serious expression. The expression was lost on the others though and upon realizing that, Strider laughed again. When he was done he looked Celestia straight in the face for a few moments.

"I do believe it's time for me to take my leave though, I wouldn't want to keep you any longer than i already have." He began to walk towards the door, but was stopped abruptly by an orange mare. A name clicked in his head in only a second, Applejack. He had met her a few times when he was small, she was always smiling back then for some reason or another.

Strider had even showed her his face once, that was also the last time that he ever saw her.

"I-I know y-you. Y-your that colt i used to play with. The one who always kept h-his hood up." Strider finally took notice of something; she wasn't smiling. The voices didn't like that, so they began to scream.

"Buck," everything went black again.