Chrysalis laughed as the elements of harmony bearers were brought back into the grand hall, everything was going perfectly, this day was perfect! She sneered at Cadence and Shining Armor, Cadence with a dejected look on her face, and Shining still hypnotized.
“Go, my changelings, FEED!”
Except for a few guards, all the changelings in the room made for the exit, each barely able to contain their glee. They were so preoccupied with the upcoming feast, that none of them saw the wave of spell bolts fly out of the open doors to the grand hall downing every changeling before they knew what happened. Chrysalis spun around at the sound of spell bolts and her changelings hitting the floor.
“WHAT!” She shrieked.
Everyone in the room was shocked still as three fillies marched into the room, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom marched up to the unconscious changelings like conquering heroes.
“GIRLS! Get out of here!!!” Twilight, who was the first to recover, called out to the fillies who probably looked like appetizers to the hungry changelings still in the room.
“Far too late for that, guards! Have a snack.”
Chrysalis turned back to look at the city her army was raiding, yet something was bugging her, a moment later it dawned on her, how did they down my changelings?
Chrysalis got no farther in her thoughts, as her attention was brought back to her guards, who were letting out angry hisses. Looking back Chrysalis now saw that Equestria's second princess was standing behind the fillies, and flanked by two of her night guard.
“Ah, I was wondering what happened to you.” Chrysalis commented.
“Thou should have thought better than to assume we were indisposed.” Luna said with a glare.
“It hardly matters,” Chrysalis said with a sneer. “To me my changelings!”
Any changelings in the area of the castle rallied to their queen, in a matter of moments the grand hall was almost filled with changelings. Twilight who was still with her friends quickly did some calculations, based on the mass of the average changing, along with the overall volume of the room, Luna and her two guards were currently outnumbered about sixty to one. Even the lunar princess would be hard-pressed to beat those odds, she had to do something, they had to do something. Not to mention the fact that there were three fillies in the line of fire.
Twilight's panic was cut short by the slow clapping of hooves, looking over she saw Scootaloo was clapping in a slow, unimpressed manner.
“Not bad,” Scootaloo quipped. “But we can do better, EMERALDS!”
As if by command, the hall behind Luna and the others exploded into a blur of motion. The hall filled with changelings, but instead of attacking Luna, her guards or the crusaders, these stood with them. These new changelings had subtle but noticeable differences from the ones with Chrysalis, their eyes were a light green, they had a forest green back plates, sharp 'lightning bolt' shaped horns, sharpe dragonfly like wings, and they lacked any holes in their legs. It was easy to identify these newcomers as changelings, yet it was clear they were very different.
Chrysalis glared at the new comers, then shifted her glare at Scootaloo. The seemingly harmless pegasus matched her glare, somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach, Chrysalis knew she had bucked up.
“Who are you?” Chrysalis said putting as much venom in her words as she could.
“Who me?” Asked Scootaloo, as if she was surprised by the question. “I'm just a little filly.”
A few of the 'other' changelings could be seen trying to suppress their giggles.
“Rot holes, who or better yet what are you?”
At this Scootaloo straightened up. “If you must know, I am the avatar of your failure.”
In a blink, a pillar of green fire shot up around Scootaloo. The fire lasted only a heartbeat before revealing the filly, only she wasn't a pegasus filly any more. Standing where Scootaloo was, now stood a changeling. It was twice as tall as Scootaloo, but still a bit shorter than the other changelings, its mane was the same purple only now it was slightly transparent. But the one big difference were the eyes, while still the same purple of Scootaloo's eyes, they now had the reptilian features of Chrysalis.
“I am Princess Glimmer, of the Emerald Hive. And you who claim to be the 'queen' of changelings, shall know our might.”
“Forget us not princes Glimmer, thou is not the only one with a score to settle this day.”
“Hardly Luna, now if the introductions are done,” Glimmer said while falling into an attack stance. “ATTACK!”
Glimmer, Luna, and the gathered changelings charged Chrysalis and her hive. Luna's night guard rushed the changelings still holding the elements of harmony, while two emerald changelings stepped over Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. In a flash of green magic, they transformed into armor attached to the fillies.
“Hold on sis, were comin' for ya!”
“You meanies are in for it now!”
The two thestrals, now supported by two changeling armored fillies, knocked out three of Chrysalises guards, Sweetie Bell failing to get hers when the guard locked horns with her. Applejack however bucked the offending changeling across the room while it was distracted, Rainbow Dash joined the main fight now that she was free. Rarity disposed of her guard and rushed over to Sweetie Bell.
“Sweetie! What are you doing??”
“Helping you and the others break free.” She stated heroically.
“While that is quite brave of you, this is no place for a fil-”
Rarity was cut short as Sweetie Belle rolled to one side, launched a spell bolt of changeling magic, and nailed a hostile changeling in the face just as it was about to tackle Rarity.
“Maybe we should talk about this latter? Like when we're NOT being attacked.”
“Darling I really-”
“As much as I hate, *thump* to agree with her, *crash* yer sister and mine are currently, *crunch * wearing armor and holding there own, *smash * we might need em'.”
“But-”
“Behind ya!”
Rarity spun around only to be face to face with a blue changeling, a blur slammed into the side of the changeling's face, downing it and cracking its chitin.
“Ya might wanna pay attention right now, we're still in the middle of ah fight.” Applebloom said standing over the defeated changeling.
Rolling her eyes Rarity lifted Sweetie Belle onto her back. “Fine, Sweetie watch my back.”
“Sure thing sis!”
~o0o~
Luna and Glimmer charged Chrysalis, Luna wielded dual ethereal short swords as Glimmer leveled her royal magic. Though if Chrysalis was worried she did a fine job of hiding it.
“I defeated Celestia in combat, what makes you think you can beat me.” She said charging her horn,
The same lance of green magic shot out from her horn, but it was stopped short from Luna by a green shield. Glimmer hovered next to Luna and gave her a nod, Luna didn't need another cue.
“Thou are truly a fool if ye thinks thou sister should fall so easily in combat, our sister merely did not want to destroy our fair city with her might.”
Luna flew around the shield and fired a spell bolt at Chrysalis, Chrysalis stopped her magic assault and dodged the spell, just as she was about to launch her own spell at Luna a cone of green magic slammed into her side. Chrysalis skidded a few hooves with a grunt before turning her attention to her attacker, Glimmer was readying another spell at the same time Luna was charging the changeling queen. Chrysalis readied a shield and braced for the attack, both attacks hit her shield at once sending the changeling queen back farther.
Chrysalis glared at Glimmer, Luna could have stood up to her in combat, but this nymph? She wasn't even a year or two out of the shell, how could she have so much power?
“How does a hatchling like you possess this level of power!”
“Because I have what you never will, friends who love me for who I am, and who will give me the power to defeat you!”
With a blinding green light, Glimmer launched a spell bolt aimed right at Chrysalis’s head, only for it to slam into her shield. Glimmer did, in fact, have the directed love energy of her two friends, and while powerful Chrysalis had the advantage in the amount of stolen love she had.
An advantage that was slowly draining away, she could no longer drain Shining Armor of his love, and so her love reserve was draining with the battle. Glimmer on the other hoof was still receiving directed lover form Applebloom and Sweetie Bell, and very soon she would over power Chrysalis. That was assuming Luna didn’t skewer her first.
Luna knocked away two changelings who had come to the aid of their queen, returning her attention to said queen she launched several swords, all of which shattered on the changelings shield. She readied another attack along with Glimmer, both however stopped when they noticed a field of pink energy beginning to glow behind Chrysalis.
~o0o~
Cadence watched slightly dumbfounded as these ‘Emerald’ changelings began fighting alongside Luna and the others, up until now she had thought Chrysalis was, as she claimed, the changeling queen, but it seems that was wrong. Distracted by the battle around her and her own thoughts, Cadence didn’t notice three Emeralds reach her and Shining Armor.
“Princess, are you alright?”
Cadence flinched slightly at the slightly buzzing voice suddenly next to her, the changeling that addressed her powered their horn and freed Cadence from the green slime holding her in place.
“M-mostly, why are you-?”
“We’ll explain later,” The changeling cut in. “Right now we need to get both of you out of here.”
“But aunt Celestia-”
“Will be fine, a second team will get her out, my mission is your safety. Now, how about we bring your fiancee out of that spell he's stuck in.”
Cadence turned to Shining Armor, two other changelings were on each side their horns glowing. Cadence went to stop them, until she realized the glow in Shining’s eyes was fading. It took the two changelings a few moments, but they soon had the spell drained away. Shining, now no longer under the control of Chrysalis, blinked a few times to clear his head.
“W-what happened? Is the wedd-”
Shining stopped mid sentence as he saw the battle around him for the first time, as a guard his first instinct was to charge into the fray, but his magic was far too depleted to help.
“Cadence, what? How? Who?”
“No time captain, we need to get out of the castle and rally your guard ponies to retake the city.” The led Changeling explained.
“Afraid that won't be happening.”
Everyone spun around to face the voice, six of Chrysalis's changeling had managed to break off and were now staring down the group of three Emerald changelings and two drained ponies.
“Bring it you leaching ticks, your numbers mean nothing!” The lead changing snarled as the other two took defending positions.
“And what are you going to do about it moss backs, we captured the most powerful ponies in Equestria, what can you three do?”
“Why don’t you try us and find out.” The leader challenged.
They don’t see us as a threat? Cadence wondered. We might be low on magic, but maybe… maybe together…
Cadence looked to Shining Armor, he looked ready to fight, even if he didn’t have the strength to do so. I must give him that strength. Hurrying over the Shining, Cadence tapped her horn on his.
“Shining, let me give you the strength to fight them back.”
As their horns touched, an arc of magic energy jumped between them. There was a flash of light, and both unicorn and alicorn stood pristine with in a vortex of magic energy. They began to float up into the air as their eyes glowed, they were encased in a shield of pink energy that pulsed for a moment before expanding.
“EVERY LING DOWN!” Shouted Glimmer over the Emerald hivemind.
THe warning went out a second before the shield shot outward, the changelings closest to the epicenter got hit the hardest, with the sapphires of Chrysalis getting hurled away, and the Emeralds merely stumbling a few hoofs.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Was the only thing Chrysalis shouted as her and her army were thrown from Canterlot and to the badlands beyond Equestria.
Everything was still for a moment, each of the Emerald changelings had fully expected to get thrown from the city as well, but aside from the three closest to Shining and Cadence, none had so much as moved an inch.
“HUZZAH! For we are victorious this day!” Luna shouted.
The room erupted into cheers, as the changelings and ponies began to celebrate their victory. Suddenly a large magic circle formed in the middle of the room, everyone backed away from the circle just as a portal opened up. With a flash the portal deposited a large group of changelings into the room, everything was quiet for a few tense seconds as the new group of changelings glared at everything around them, weapons drawn.
“Oh come ON!” One of the new arrivals exclaimed throwing down their spear. “We missed the whole thing!”
One by one the other changelings threw down or sheathed their weapons, muttering and over all displeased.
“CELESTIA!”
“Wh-” Celestia had just enough time to be confused as a large black and red blur tackled her.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner, are you alright, she didn’t hurt you did she? What happened where is that b-”
Celestia cut off the stream of words with a hoof. “I’m alright Cherry, just a little magic feed back, nothing a horn file and a back rub can't fix.”
“Princess, what is going on?” Came Twilight's voice.
“Yes sister, we too would like to know what is going on.”
“Twilight, Luna meet Queen Cherry of the Ruby hive, a close friend and former student of mine.”
Twilight’s expression could not be expressed in words beyond total shock.
“When did thou tutor a changeling queen?”
“I was Celestia's student about, hmmm a hundred and fifty years ago now? Has it really been that long?”
“Seems like only yesterday, but yes she was my student back then, she had to return home to take the throne, or she might still be my student today if she could get away with it.”
Cherry pouted. “Mom was the first Queen in an age to actually step down, I swear she did it just to make me come home.”
Celestia chuckled. “While I would love to catch up more, I have a feeling the other queens will be here soon, let's make sure our little ponies don’t think they're under attack once again.”
Glimmer stepped up to the group, bowing respectfully. “My mother has sent word she is on her way since our advanced force is already here he is only coming with a pair of guards.”
“Good, I somehow feel the others won't be so discreet.”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, then a guard pony rushed into the room, oddly ignoring the changelings.
“Princess, we’ve spotted two waves of changelings approaching from the north, the citizens are starting to panic.”
Celestia sighed, it seemed today was still going to be a long day.