The party were walking down a corridor in the changeling hive, lined with hexagonal holes leading to various corridors and rooms; whilst the design used space efficiently, it was weird, like their situation. Captain Blade had no idea who their rescuers were, and didn't trust them; the fact that the crazy changeling-who-was-actually-a-unicorn-with-shades had cast spells on them exacerbated the situation. Although he had to admit the exoskeletal armour was cool.
He looked over at the mares to find them also looking like their changeling captors and their disguised rescuers. Spike - to his chagrin - looked like a larva; Rarity didn't like to see "her Spikey-wikey" as a pile of slime with a small, writhing lump of flesh in the middle, and everypony heard how, as a changeling larva, he looked 'hideous'.
He looked over at Nightfall, somehow distinguishing her from the other "changelings". Even in her changeling form, she looked very striking, and he took in every detail of her form, noticing how the plates slid under and over each other, how the fangs subtly poked out underneath the top lip...
... how she suddenly looked like she was walking on the ceiling. He had tripped over Spike, eliciting a slime-makeover from the grub and laughter from everypony. It was disgusting; it covered the chitinous plates on his torso, seeped through the holes in his legs and stuck to his wings, weighing them down.
Not as if it's the worst thing that happened in the past few weeks. Keeping this thought in mind, he gradually began to smirk, now finding his own situation funny. At least, he smirked until the Doctor caught his attention.
That pony/changeling/whatever was a very strange chap. He said literally everything that came into his mind. If somechangeling wore a funny hat, or had a bowtie matching his, everypony knew. Only Twilight Sparkle seemed close to understanding him, as they yammered on about sonic screwdrivers, space-time, the Element of Laughter and the queer nature of magic, among other things. The unicorn was still amazed at the gadgetry he possessed which, as advanced technology can be, was indistinguishable from sorcery.
Anyway, the Doctor wanted everypony's attention.
"Is there really anything preventing us from just flying out?" he said, whilst hovering a foot off the floor on his thin, changeling wings.
Everypony facehoofed - apart from Spike, who currently didn't have any hoofs, hands or other appendages to hit his face with, so he just facefloored.
Why did nopony think of that before?
Everypony was amazed; most of them thought the almost papery wings were an illusion, until they saw the Doctor using them. Now they were soaring through the sky across Equestria on transparent membranes, as if they had done it all their lives.
Naturally, Rainbow Dash was putting them through some hardcore tests; Pinkie joined her 'for the hay of it', Pinkie's flying almost rivalling that of the sky-blue pegasus.
Applejack was nervous, as she was used to being grounded and having hard earth to stand on, and the fact she was being supported by something that weighed about the same as her hat did nothing to calm her down. She was occasionally supported by other ponies because she was so out of control.
Rarity and Fluttershy were conversing about how lovely they would look if they didn't have so many holes in them; Rarity had the idea of going back to the hive with a needle and lots of thread and patching everychangeling's wings up with the finest gossamer she could find, while Fluttershy quietly suggested not doing that.
Twilight was holding Spike in her grip with all four legs; she was afraid of dropping him as he was so slippery. She was still yammering on about... stuff... with the Doctor.
Vinyl Scratch was brooding behind her purple shades. Octavia, Lyra, Bonbon, Whinnyam and her other friends were trapped in Ponyville.
Please live, guys
Please live, Whinnyam
The Canterlot Guards had formed a shield wall. The changeling army had received numerous injuries from traps, arrows dive-bombing and hitting spikes. There was fire, there was blood, there was screaming. There were fear and pain. And Whinnyam didn't register a thing.
He no longer consciously controlled his body or his mind as he shouted orders - go there, do that, another unit to that gate, put out that fire, aim for their delicate wings - and as his gradually thinning unit of hand-picked guards started to lose colts. He only knew one thing. He must protect these ponies, and he will - he must - stand between them and any threat. Even if it meant his death.
He gritted his teeth, adjusted the shield straps on his left foreleg, and marched three legged with thirty or so other nameless, white-coated ponies, his head down, bracing for the eventual collision. Most of the changelings couldn't fly, and attempting to do so in battle would confuse the other bugs. It was going to be shields against shields, force against force, soldier against soldier, in a war that neither army wanted to fight.
But they were fighting it, so they could hardly stop now.
They hit. After all the buildup, it seemed so very fast as both sides initially recoiled, then reformed, then pressed again, hard as they could, neither side giving ground.
It was mostly a shoving match, as neither side could see well over the shields. There were the occasional spear thrusts, axe swings, sword swipes and magic spells, but these did very little to either side, as the wooden boards separating the two armies locked together and refused to give.
This struggle was happening across the town, effectively splitting it into halves, both sides endeavouring to sneak through buildings and very often dying in the attempt; civilians had already bailed out of this part of the town, and so both changelings and ponies collapsed buildings to hinder the other side's access. The changelings were pursuing a quarry that had left the town, and the ponies were buying time for those who couldn't fight to escape; most of the stallions and the more belligerent mares had picked up weapons and joined the ranks, against Whinnyam's advice, although however much he didn't want to put their lives in danger he had to admit they were useful.
An axe came over the top of his shield, almost hitting his head, and attempted to pull the shield down, making a large gouge in the wood; a warhammer that was also aimed at him missed, splintering the axe handle and causing the blade to fall almost on his hooves. He raised his shield back into position and continued, pushing in time with the others, occasionally lunging his shortsword through the gaps and dodging blades coming through those same gaps.
And then suddenly they began to pull back; this was not momentary, this was not meant to interrupt their balance, but was a true retreat, meant to conserve the changeling numbers.
Nopony understood, but celebrated by punching their forelegs into the air in joy, with cries of "we did it!" and "we beat the bugs!" and insults thrown at the changeling army.
Whinnyam just reigned them in, still in the trauma-induced haze from battle. If he was able to express a belief he would not have believed it, but after the fight the only thoughts running through his mind concerned what to do over the next hour. He found himself mesmerised by the town square, filled with ponies and the occasional rescue pegasus or teleporting unicorn - appearing and spiriting away ponies from the disaster area.
This was before he was tackled by a white unicorn and had his face stuffed into a massive neon blue manedo with shades.
"Whinnyam! You're okay!"
"Yes, I'm okay, except I can't see through your mane."
Vinyl picked him up and then hugged him in a crushing embrace.
"Vinyl... can't breathe... still can't see!" He attempted to shout, but it came out quieter than a mouse in the grip of a massive hangover. His friend barely heard him over her own squee.
Vinyl loosened her grip, allowing Whinnyam to see who else was there. Captain Blade and their... guide, for lack of a better word, Nightfall stood there, smiling. Besides them stood a brown stallion he didn't recognise, deep in thought; at least he was, until he noticed where he was and smiled at him as well.
"What are you guys doing here?" Whinnyam asked, finally shaken from his shock-induced trance.
"We were going to help with the changelings, and then they just disappeared" Captain Blade looked forlornly at where the changeling army had once been; he was looking to get his hooves dirty for ponykind.
"Speaking of which, why did they disappear? And why did they appear in the first place if they had the Elements already?" Nightfall looked around, attempting to divine the answer from the ponies around her.
"That might've been me" the brown stallion said, surprising everypony as he'd been so silent before. "You see, I couldn't let the Elements of Harmony be killed by changelings, balance in the universe and all that; while Discord is quite a cool guy, I can't have him running around because he's bad for the universe. Oh just remembered, note to self: fetch TARDIS..."
"Get to the point, Doc" Vinyl Scratch added, still annoyed at him for everything that had happened so far.
The Doctor, now annoyed at Vinyl, paused for a moment to glare daggers at her. "Anyway, as I was saying, I had to keep the Elements alive, so I went into the changeling intelligence office and messed things up a bit, making things easier to rescue them."
Whinnyam was now scowling at the Doctor. "How could you have so easily condemned so many ponies to this suffering? Do you know how much damage your actions have wreaked on this city?" Whinnyam was angry, but the kind of calm, cold, calculating anger that instills genuine fear in ponies, rather than just shock. Everypony stepped slowly backwardsl even the Doctor, who had centuries' worth of experience combating the most fierce, horrifying and deadly creatures, races and machines of multiple galaxies, was affected.
Against all common sense, the Doctor stepped back forward and began to speak. "Whinnyam, I understand why you're angry with me, but please, let me explain."
AN: As always, I want your advice (and as always, I never get it :P) so feel free to drop a comment saying what you liked, didn't like, or just to tell me that I should give up and go cry in a corner.
Also, I will start work on another chapter but I don't know whether I'll finish it before I go to Manchester (yes, another holiday! I really am making the most of the summer break). So that will either take less than five days, or more than a week and five days.
I'm also wondering whether this is funny enough to warrant the "comedy" tag. Does it or not?
Thanks for reading! :)