Chapter Fifteen

If I was told to describe this mission with one word it would be "shit". Not for it being shit but for being so unbelieveable. So far we've arrived in a world of talking ponies, had a Thrashball game with them, killed a horde of dragons, and now we're guarding a huge castle from shape-shifting beings bent on destroying this place. What's net? I dunno, I just hope it's something that's easy to deal with.

(Excerpt of Corporal Adrian Zar's diary)

***

Improvised mess hall, Canterlot Castle

Baird tapped his finger on the table a few times before getting up from his chair.

"Well, I don't know what's up with her but I'm gonna go see the rest of the castle. Anyone else want to come?"

"I will," Cole said, "Hell, it's not like we have anything better to do."

"Good point, see you guys later," Sam said. Baird and Cole took their Lancers and left the mess, as they made their way through the halls and up some staircases Cole was wondering what he was looking for.

"Somethin' got you spooked?"

"No, but there is something strange going on. Notice something that wasn't there earlier?"

"Not really, seems quiet enough that you would though."

"Exactly," Baird said, "This place was packed with ponies a half hour ago, now the only ones here in this place are us and the Gears patrolling the place."

"Yeah," Cole said as he looked behind him, "Where are all the ponies at?"

"I dunno. But it's not good, that's for sure."

"Let's go see where they went."

"Why? I wanted to take a look around this place."

"We'll just go and see if they're okay then we can go back to exploring."

Baird sighed and then faced Cole.

"Okay, but let's make this quick."

Cole took point and led Baird down several hallways and through several rooms and staircases until they came across a very large chamber full of terrified looking ponies, nervous Royal Guards and several squads of confused Gears. Baird looked around the room to see if Delta was here or at least one of the ponies they met, he then saw Carmine with the CMC cowering next to him and he made his way over to them. Carmine crouched down next to the fillies and pulled them closer to him unto which they jumped up into his arms and shivered, Baird approached him as he was trying to calm the fillies.

"Hey Carmine, what's going on?"

"I don't know, only that Celestia's freaking out and a lot of the ponies are spooked."

"What do you think it is?"

"Something bad, real bad."

Baird gritted his teeth and motioned for Cole to join him with Carmine. As Carmine was explaining what was going on with the ponies all gathering up in the Royal Chamber Princess Celestia appeared on a balcony with Chairman Hoffman and a few Onyx Guards.

"Attention citizens of Canterlot," she said, loud enough to quiet the talking ponies. "As many of you know and have guessed, Canterlot has been infiltrated by the Changling forces. As we are aware we know that they have changed themselves into ponies and have managed to get past our guards and the humans but fortunately, according to our intelligence about them, they do not know how to replicate the humans. This is a good thing because we can now narrow down our search to find them. Chairman Hoffman, you can now give your orders."

Hoffman stepped forwards and addressed his Gears.

"Troops, this is probably very confusing and very strange but we need to help these ponies out with this infiltration of their capital. From what we've been told, these 'Changelings' will take over this place, learn how to replicate us and then go into our world so that they can arm themselves and take over Equestria."

"Seems kinda long-fetched that plan," Baird said.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to tell who's who?" Carmine asked.

"Simple, humble human," Celestia said, "I managed to develop a spell that can render the Changeling's ability to disguise themselves useless for a short time."

Cole noticed that a stallion was shuffling his hooves nervously and looking towards the guards and the door.

"Show us," Baird said. Celestia gave Baird a short, sharp stare and raised her horn to the sky. Her horn then glowed a light blue and then intensified until it discharged and sent a wave of shimmering sparkles that engulfed the whole room. Carmine suddenly dropped the fillies and started to yell and claw at his armor.

"Carmine!" Baird said, "What is it?"

"It's my armor," Carmine said as he tried to pull it off, "It-it...itches like hell!"

As Carmine kept trying to scratch his armor off the Crusaders were rolling around laughing heavily. Baird stared at them as they tried to get up but fell on their backs and stomachs amid their own laughter.

"Make it stopppppppp!" Apple Bloom said, tears streaming down her face.

"Pleaseeeeeee!" Scootaloo wailed, going red in the face.

"It ticklessssssss!" Sweetie Belle cried. Baird sighed and then got a small tingling feeling on his arm with then grew into a massive and irritating itch.

"Oh fuck!" he said as he tried to pull his sleeve up. He then looked up at Celestia and raised his arm in annoyance. "What gives? Why the hell am I all itchy?"

"Do not be afraid, humans and ponies. The itches and tickly feelings are no more than temporary side effects they should wear off soon."

"So did the spell or whatever work?" Cole asked as he managed to keep his cool while scratching at his head.

"Yep!" Carmine shouted, "Look behind you!"

Cole span around and saw that the suspicious stallion was now on the floor, writhing around in pain and letting out an almost demonic scream of anguish. Cole watched as the coat of the stallion dissolved and revealed a darker coat and hooves that were full of holes like they had been shot through multiple times. As the outer coat dissolved around the face the stallion's eyes sent from being a bright green to a eerie light blue with no eyeries or pupils, Cole was amazed at what was happening before his very eyes and could only guess that this is what a Changeling really looks like. The outer coat of the Changeling had finally dissolved and the creature stood up and stared at Cole, baring its fangs that were as big as bullets and just as deadly. The ponies around it screamed and retreated, some being dragged because they had experienced the tickling side effect of the spell. Cole and the Changeling stared at each other, Cole switched on his Lancer's chainsaw and got ready to defend himself in case it attacked. But before it could strike, several Gears and Onyx Guards surrounded it, weapons raised and ready to fire. Baird strolled up to the Changeling with his sidearm aimed at hip level.

"If you know what's good for you you'll be a good bug and surrender, or you can attack and then get crushed like one."

Hoffman stared as the Gears surrounded the Changeling, as they made their way closer it, it it let out a loud hiss and then opened up it's hole filled wings and took off, hovering above the Gears and grinning. The Gears looked at each other and then to Baird, who has his pistol raised and pointed at the Changeling.

"It didn't surrender," he said with his trademark sneer, "So we crush it."

The Gears raised their weapons and opened fire on the Changeling, which thought it was safe so long as it was put of reach of the humans. Bullets and buckshot ripped apart the Changeling and managed to keep it in the air for a few seconds even after it was dead, gunfire echoed through the castle until the Changeling had finally landed on the ground and stopped twitching. The crowd of ponies that were watching the ordeal had never seen such brutality, most of them huddled up with each other as Baird crouched down over the peppered body and stare at the curved horn on the Changeling. Currently it was glowing a dark green and leaking a strange liquid on the floor with the same viscosity as blood.

"Hello, what's this you've got here?" he said as he took out his knife and started to use the serrated part of the blade to saw off the Changeling's horn. As he did Cole jogged up to him.

"Damn Baird. Leave the freaky bug alone."

"Hold on, there's something in it's horn."

"I don't think there is."

Baird gave the horn one good tug and it cleanly snapped off the Changeling's head. He span it around in his hand and looked inside of it and eyed the inside of it closely.

"Holy shit, this is interesting."

"What?" Cole asked. A few Gears had joined Cole in seeing what Baird had discovered. Baird probed the hollow inside of the horn and produced a small, strange looking organ.

"This right here. This is very interesting."

"Urg, smells like shit," a Gear said.

"I'm more interested on what it does," Baird said as he placed the organ back in the horn.

"You're really fucking weird, you know?"

"Like I give a fuck what you think."

"Come on, Baird. We gotta check who else in the crowd is one of these freaky shape-shifting bugs," Cole said. Baird wrapped the horn up in the shredded remains of the Changeling's wing and put it in an empty ammo pouch and then joined Cole and a squad of Gears as they combed through the petrified crowds, searching for any more Changelings.

COG CIC HQ. Canterlot Castle recreation hall.
24 hours after discovery of Changeling infiltration.

Shaken. If Twilight has to describe her current condition shaken would be that very word. She couldn't believe that Chrysalis's whole swarm had managed to infiltrate Canterlot and possibly Ponyville, the only comfort she could find in this terrible situation was that the COG had locked down the city and with the help of a new and better spell to reveal Changelings, they could catch the swarm before they launched a full attack on the capital.

"Twilight!" a voice rang out, startling the unicorn out of her stupor. Twilight looked up and cringed as the hardened face of Chairman Hoffman stared at her from the other end of the table she was sitting at. She had totally forgotten what was going on and why she was brought to the COG's CIC headquarters.

"Sorry, I-um-got a little distracted."

"It's okay, sweetie." Bernie said as she leaned against the table edge closest to Twilight, "Now tell us again about the Changelings and how you beat them last time."

Twilight let out a deep sigh and recited everything that happened when her older brother was getting married, the events that led up to the discovery of Chrysalis and the battle that led to the defeat and exile of the Changeling queen. Hoffman and Bernie took in every piece of information and then looked at each other when Twilight had finished.

"Well, Chairman. Any ideas?" Bernie asked. Hoffman shook his head and sighed.

"I don't think that getting the Gears to hug each other will produce enough "love" to repeat the events the like time these Changelings were here. "I think we'll just have to stick with our current plan of collaborated martial law until we can oust the Changelings."

"What will that mean for me and my friends?" Twilight asked, "We have the Elements of Harmony, why can't we use them?"

"The Elements eliminate or expel any form of Disharmony," Bernie said, "From What Celestia told us, if you use the Elements of Harmony there is a possibility of erasing or expelling us from your world. We can't have that because if the COG is lost then our home planet is doomed, even if the UIR is there."

Twilight sighed and nodded her head.

"I understand."

"It's okay, our soldiers have been trained for this and I'm totally sure that we've got this under control. You and your friends are safe so long as we're here."

Twilight smiled and stood up from her chair. The door to the room then opened and Cole peeked in.

"Sir? Would you mind coming to the research lab? I think Baird just discovered something about that horn he picked up back in the castle."

Hoffman and Bernie stood up and followed Cole as he led them to the labs, Twilight trotting to keep pace with the much longer strides that the humans had.

"What did Baird find?" Twilight asked with great interest.

"Won't know until we get there," Bernie replied, a look of grim determination on her face, not looking down at Twilight. Twilight kept quiet for the rest of the walk, she stopped dead for a few seconds when she saw the research labs. It appeared to be a hastily constructed series of examination tables, test tubes, beakers, geiger counters and computers all set up around a room that really should be full of exercise equipment. Twilight kept her pace with the Gears until they came to a table that Baird was leaning over, his smug grin let her know that he had found out something big.

"Okay," Baird said, eager to tell the others what he found, "You see this horn here?"

Twilight hopped upon a chair and saw the Changeling horn that Baird was holding up.

"Yeah, what about it?" Hoffman asked.

"Well, we know why the Changeling are called Changelings, right? I Guess what, I found out what allows them to change their form."

"What? How?" Bernie asked. Twilight too was perplexed but she sat and listened.

"It's simple once you hear it, granny. You see the organ inside the horn and how it's secreting all this goop? Turns out that this stuff is a chameleonic gel that can change the outer skin of the Changeling into whatever they want, provided they get a good look of whatever non-plant organic life they want to be."

"So, can we use this to fight the Changelings?" Hoffman asked.

"No, we can't find a way to use it against the Changelings, but we have found one use for it."

"What's that?"

Baird picked up his Lancer from the table and pulled on the chainsaw blade.

"Lubricant."

Hoffman and Bernie stared at Baird for what seemed like several minutes before Hoffman broke the silence.

"So the only use you could find for this shit is to grease up Lancers?"

"Oh, more than just Lancers. We can use this on our other guns and even our vehicles, this stuff is way better than what we scavenge back on Sera."

"But won't getting this be hard?" Bernie asked, "After all, Blondie, you're gonna have to cut all the horns off each Changeling you kill."

"Well, if they attack us then it's fair game. But for now, I'm gonna keep checking this stuff out until I can find something else it's good for."

Twilight got off the stool she was sitting on and looked at the clock affixed to the wall which now indicated that it had passed midnight, she forgot how late it was because she had been so long in the COG's CIC HQ. She worked the stiffness out of her joints and then sighed.

"I'd best get back to my room, go to sleep."

"Okay, see ya," Baird said, not paying attention to Twilight.

"I'll walk you back if you want," Bernie said, "I need to get back to my quarters anyways."

"Thanks Bernie."

Twilight let Bernie join her as she walked through the halls of the castle and past the barracks. Twilight stopped walking and looked inside the room and saw the sleeping Gears. Every now and then one would sit bolt upright, look around frantically then rub his eyes and lie back down and then stay still, Twilight guessed that these Gears were having nightmares after all, she heard about the horrors of the last two wars that were fought. She sighed and backed up into Bernie.

"It's okay," Bernie said, "You don't need to say anything. I think you understand."

"I do, and I feel so bad for your race and your planet," Twilight said. Bernie crouched down and stroked the unicorn's mane, Twilight then smiled and hugged her around the waist and held on.

"You going to your room now?" Bernie asked, hugging Twilight back. Twilight let go and nodded.

"Thanks for walking with me, I feel a lot safer with you guys here."

"It's nothing, sweetheart. You go get some sleep."

Twilight turned and trotted to her room, she passed a few patrolling Gears and Royal Guards and was stopped three times to be checked if she was a Changeling. At first, she used to protest these checkpoints and random checks but after a pair of Changelings sneaked past the checkpoints and got into the Royal Chambers before being shot dead by Onyx Guards, she tolerated them. As Twilight made it to her room she paused and listened for the sounds of nighttime wildlife and insects, the chirps and calls relaxed her and made her feel at ease. Until the sound of automatic gunfire and shouting started up and overpowered the normalcy of the night. She sighed and opened the door to her room and found all her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled up to each other on the floor, there had been several sleeping bags set up on the floor next to her bed, all of which now lay in a crumpled pile next to the huddle of terrified ponies.

"Girls, what are you all doing in here?" Twilight asked.

"We came to stay in your room," Pinkie said.

"Yeah, Marcus said that it would be best if we stuck together," Rainbow Dash added.

"W-what's happening out there?" a shaken Sweetie Belle asked.

"It's okay, just a little disturbance." Twilight said.

"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PARASITE!" a loud voice rang out, followed by more gunfire. Twilight cringed and shut the door behind her.

"Anypony want to get some sleep?" she asked.

The ponies nodded in reply and crawled back into their sleeping bags, huddled up to each other and drifted off. As Twilight climbed up into her bed and pulled the covers over her she wondered what would happen tomorrow, and if she and her friends would live to see the day after that.

Author's Note

I know it's been a long time. But it's back! Now that my schedule is much more clear I can continue working on this much more that I used to be able to. See if I can finish this before New Years Day.