Changes

Chapter six
start of something horrible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GeQK0fOAew

You were Pierce Connel, Changeling, undercover Royal Guard, and you had recently been pulled out of vacation. After the 'Apex incident' you had been rushed to the hospital. You would have died if Reid and Luke hadn't sewn up your throat on the spot. Luke used ripped strings from his shirt to sew up your throat while Omega team fought up to the room. When Omega team had arrived Apex was still breathing and it took two more clips to put him down for good. You had been living in ponyville for the past couple of months while you healed and were enjoying the quiet. The doctor said you had made a full recovery last week and you knew that you would be called for another job soon, it was just a matter of time.

You had been called to the castle today.

*Seems we’re being pulled out of vacation a bit early, huh?*

Yeah, or as that large, red dude says, 'Eeyup'. You had arrived at the castle about thirty minutes ago and was currently sitting in the royal conference room.

*Looks like we’re moving up in the world.*

You wished, at least you would get paid better, not that you needed it. They paid you very well here and it was an interesting job to say the least.

*If your idea of ‘interesting’ was almost being murdered by everyone you saw, then yes. It was an interesting job.*
Quit complaining, I think i see somebody coming.

It was Luke and Reid, each of them smiling at the well rested friend they hadn't seen in weeks. The three of you had become much better friends since the mission and you were happy to see them again. They often visited you but they had been busy lately and unable to visit.

“Where is everybody?” you ask.

“I don’t know, I think we’re a bit early. Whatever, how have you been?” Reid said. You three had become good friends since the mission. He was a pretty cool guy once you got know him. Although you never got to see him fight, Luke told you that he was scary in a fight. He said that the day of the Apex mission he had shot one of the dogs arms until it was barely on and beat him with it. It was hard to believe, considering he was so nice and calm when outside of the action.

You reply, “I’ve been pretty good. What about you guys?” They tell you about how they have been cracking down on the remnants of the Regs. They had all but completely eradicated them so far.

After about ten minutes of conversation several guards entered through the only door in the room, followed by both princesses, the royal magical advisor, named rose heart, and five-star general Beckett Sanders. *Hol’ up hol’ up hol’ up. Princesses?* Yup. *About to talk to you?* Uh.. yeah, I guess so. Why? *cause you aren’t important. why would they talk to you?* Hey! you are technically me also. Oh, crap. *what?* I think they were just talking to us. *are you sure?* Yeah, everyone is looking at us. *Well say something man!* what? *anything!* “Uh, hello to you too, princesses.”

They look at you, both of them with one eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Uhm, we were speaking to your friend Luke. What is your name again soldier?”

Inward facepalm *HAHAHAHAHAHA* shut up... *What did I tell you!!!* STFU.

You look at Reid and he is covering his face with his hands, attempting to suppress a laugh. He looks at you through the corner of his eye and another hushed giggle fit erupts from within him. You begin to smile, and soon are suppressing your own laugh.

Luke speaks up, “Oh, sorry your majesty, this is Pierce, Pierce Connel.” Your good friend Luke explained to everyone present who you were while you and Reid turned away and laughed away ha ha ha.

You turned around to the congregation and decided to let the important people speak for a bit. They didn’t acknowledge you or Reid, so you two just spoke to each other for a bit, Trying to figure out what they were speaking about. The princesses were speaking about something important-sounding, yak blah blah, and Luke was assuring them that someone could find something out, and the other two were on Luke’s side.

Luke swung his hand towards you, “They are how we can find out for ourselves.”

You were a bit baffled at this, not having understood enough of what was happening originally.

“What can we do exactly?” You ask, trying to wrap your head around this.

Luke turns to you, his eyes saying, ‘Sorry I have to do this’ and explains, “You know cloudsdale’s flying academy?”

You nod yes yes right and he continues, “Well, we have been receiving reports of several hundred pegasi being sent in and never returning. Only pegasi who have failed their flying tests have gone missing and we have reason to suspect they are being held captive for slave labor.”

You were a bit confused but asked him to continue.

“We would need a maximum of two trusted operatives with a history of successful infiltration missions to infiltrate the test, fail, and find out what happens to the failing ponies.”

You saw where he was going with this. *We have been kind of lazy lately.* Yeah, it’s not like we have a booming personal life anyway.

You look at Reid and he was smiling at you. You both grinned as you turned to Luke.

“We would love to infiltrate cloudsdale for you.”

Luke looked surprised, not at your answer but of something else.

He stuttered at first, then said, “U-Oh, that wasn’t what we were asking you. We were hoping you two would help us prepare the two men going in. They are some kids with an amazing track record.”

You were surprised, angry, and embarrassed at once. You spoke up, “You’re joking right? We can do this better than any of your other soldiers! Changelings. Who can turn into anything we need to be.” You point towards yourself and Reid with you nodding no no no and Reid going right right right.

The pony whom you recognized as the five-star general spoke up. “Quiet down, you don’t know what you’re talking about. My men are better trained, better equipped, and better fighters than you two.”

You angrily pointed towards the general, “Oh yeah? prove it. Call your men and we’ll spar. The winners go onto the mission.”

Everyone in the room was silent, obviously astounded at your rashness. The five-star pony slammed his hoofs against the large table, yelling out, “I believe that is an excellent idea! follow me, so we do not ruin the sanctity of this room.”

Surprisingly, the large white princess suggested they use the old wedding hall. The five-star called one of his guards to retrieve his two men and led the entire room towards the sparring room, saying that ‘everyone should view the disrespectful idiots discipline lesson.

You were led into a large room with large windows taking up the entirety of the left and right walls. The back and front walls were empty and the whole room was completely empty and flat, save for the small raise at the other end of the room. Two guard pegasi entered the room, followed by twenty other guards. You guessed the first two were here to fight and the others were here to keep the peace. The white princess spoke to the congregation once the four of you fighters were in the middle of the room.

“These two squads will be fighting for the opportunity to undertake a mission of grave importance to the kingdom. The winners will be sent off, and the losing team...” the princess got a devilish, almost scary grin on her face at this, “the losing team will get ‘punishment B’.”

Everyone except you and Reid froze up and was instantly quieted at the mention of this, ‘punishment B’. You had heard of this punishment before, but thought it was a joke. Someone told you it meant 'Punishment Banana'. Whatever that would mean.

“You will be fighting in hand-to-hand combat. General Beckett has suggested this to be a ‘no-holds-barred’ spar, meaning that full force is permitted. First team to incapacitate the other wins. Do you understand?”

You all nodded yes right yes and the princess backed away, melting into the group of ponies (and Luke) in the back corner of the room. You were standing next to Reid in the middle of the room, standing across from the other squad. “BEGIN!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGbeYM2wcIw

You ran towards the two pegasi, attempting to make this quick. They both unfurled their wings and were above your head before you could reach them. They both bucked downwards towards your head. “Shit!” You folded your legs and slid under the hoof wall. You reached your arms up and grasped two legs, one belonging to a different pony. Bad idea. They instantly flew up as if you were not even there and split ways. You were being ripped in half by these ponies in mid air but were determined to hold on. The force of the flying ponies felt like it was about to dislocate both of your shoulders. *If these two dislocate your shoulders it’s all over and you know it.* You realized that this was true and pulled your arms together with all of your strength, as if you were about to clap very loudly. The pegasi were not prepared for this sudden tug and were slammed together. Apparently, you were much higher up than you thought you were, which you found out on the way down. You could see the pegasi attempting to stabilize and realized that they would very soon.

You let go of one and held the second with both hands. You forced him underneath you just in time for him to break your fall. You landed with a heavy ‘thump crunch’ as you felt several bones snap underneath you. This pegasus cried out in pain and was quickly silenced with a boot to the head.

You looked to see Reid dodging the other bucking, flying pegasus, quickly bobbing away from each buck. One of these bucks was particularly slow, allowing Reid to weave past it and deliver three quick punches to the pony’s rib cage. The last punch made an audible ‘DOMPH’ and caused the pegasus to momentarily destabilize. Reid grabbed the right wing of this pegasus with both hands ripped him out of the air with all of his might.You thought the wing would come off.

You had been slowly walking over to this action and had just made it over to Reid when this happened. You both began to gang up on this pegasus, kicking and punching and stomping and kneeing and elbowing this poor pony until he had been clearly ‘incapacitated'. You turned to the congregation, seeing them all with mouths ajar, surprised at the ease with which you had defeated your opponents.

“When can we get going?”

Luke had said that you could go in one week, until then you and Reid stayed at your house in ponyville. Luke said that it was impossible to send you two out any earlier and advised you to get out of the city, though he didn’t have time to explain why. You offered to have Reid stay with you and so he did. Ponyville was a like circle surrounded by forest, emanating from town square. The mayors office was the center. To the immediate west of this building was sugar cube corner, the north had the market areas which mainly consisted of the town stores and cafes and diners. South-east of the town hall was The town dress-shop, and south was the town farm.

Things seemed normal. Why did Luke want you two to get out of the city so badly? You wondered why.......