//------------------------------//
// Chapter 33: Storm of the Millennia 
// Story: Penned IN 
// by Qwix 
//------------------------------//

	A piercing ringing in his ears was all he could tell of the world around him. Nothing but pain filled his bones as he struggled to do so much as twitch a hoof.
He lied there, trying to focus on the ringing in his ears. A slight vibration in his left ear told him of hoofbeats somewhere near.
He chanced opening his eyes. At first, he wondered if he was back in the Harmony beam, but in seconds, blurry outlines fuzzed into his perception. Some of them moved.
Somepony rolled him onto his rump, sounds becoming more distinct now that one ear was no longer glued to the floor.
"–naprose? Can y...?"
He shook his head, rubbing a hoof in his eye. The blurriness sharpened and the white evaporated; the first thing he registered was a white hoof.
Is that mine? he thought.
"How about now?"
He looked up. Lyra was at his side, napping peacefully. But to his surprise, Luna was hovering over him, a look of concern on her face.
"Yeah..." he said. "I can hear you now."
She sighed in relief, then trotted away. He rubbed his eyes again; though the winds had not died down, the light that was filtering into the chamber was one of a stormy evening. Twilight and the others were strewn about the room, asleep. He watched as Luna roused each and every pony.
He picked up a shard of ice that was by his hind leg, examining himself in it.
White coat, no fangs, no wings, normal horn... I'm a unicorn again?
Lyra slumped over in her slumber, falling onto him. She remained asleep, reaching a hoof around his waist and burying her head into his lap. He smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder.
Around the chamber, the rest of the girls were beginning to wake up. Applejack and Rainbow Dash was staring out the window, inattentive; Twilight was consulting with Luna and Fluttershy, while Pinkie was poking Rarity awake.
He caught Twilight's gaze as they trotted over, leaving Fluttershy to talk to Dash. She seemed not to want to meet his gaze.
"Um, hello Pennaprose. ...That is you, right? And not another changeling disguised as Pennaprose?"
"If I was a changeling, or still a changeling, ask Lyra. She seems fine with it."
She giggled, then cringed. "All right, I believe you. It's just... you're no longer a changeling. Furthermore, you're back to normal. How?"
He sat and thought for a moment. "I don't know... last thing I solidly remember was diving into the Harmony beam."
"I think I might have an answer to that," said Luna. "Twilight tells me that the mission was a success? Chrysalis is no longer a threat?"
"I saw her get pushed through the portal, that's for certain," added Twilight.
"Hm... she seemed to have an unusual amount of control on her subjects," wondered Luna. "This may be completely off, but my guess is that without Chrysalis being around to send out a signal to keep the implanted changeling seed active—like if she was in another dimension, for instance—then I would imagine a being reverting to its original form."
"So that's why I'm a unicorn again?"
"Yes. Though the seed still lies inside your body. If she were to return to this plane, it would reactivate, turning you back into a changeling."
He hung his head in worry. "...Never mind. We'll worry about that later. Maybe Aloysius would be kind enough after we get back home?"
Luna turned her head, a bead of sweat running down her face. "Er, about that..."
"Huh? What is it?"
She turned around completely, gesturing to the broken window. "Take a look outside first."
He brushed Lyra's mane as if it were made of glass. "Ly? Time to wake up."
She grunted in annoyance and rolled off his lap, onto her hooves. "Yawn... five more minutes..."
Even so, she stumbled over to the hole in the window. A few times, she stumbled, but Pennaprose walked beside her to catch her when she did begin to wobble.
The hive stretched dizzyingly outwards below their aerial view. Areas were in flames or cratered, yet the ground did not command their gaze. The horizon was nothing but a torrent of clouds, trapped by the cavern ceiling. They watched in silent awe as tornadoes struck the ground, entire house-sized chunks of earth forewent gravity altogether, and lightning strikes seem to rend the sky in two as they did the remains of the houses below.

"She paid a high price for our time."

Pennaprose tore away from the unfolding disaster with great difficulty. "Excuse me?"
"We encountered only a token amount of troops and Quitangu. Sadhiki and the rest of the hive did not show up for the fight; I fear Chrysalis knew or guessed at our plan ahead of time," said Luna. "We are sitting in a rock cage, surrounded by five million guards and locked inside with an apocalypse."
He turned his gaze back to the few glimmers of horizon he could see past the storm front; like static, the few patches of sky were nothing but black dots in motion. Chrysalis' words rang in the back of his mind.
As Queen of the changelings, there are no secrets among my kind that are hidden from me.
"She knew about it as soon as we did," he realized, face falling. "The dilutive might have prevented her from learning about it from Gosthette, but I... She learned about the plan from me. Everything I heard since becoming a changeling, everything I knew..."
"Pennaprose?"
"Penni?"
He looked over at Lyra, who seemed more awake. Her eyes were markedly watery. "Please don't go blaming yourself now. We wouldn't have kept you in the dark anyway."
In the dark...
"There is nothing left to do about it now," said Luna plaintively. "We still succeeded. Gosthette may be a permanent windigo now, but at least she will be able to hold the rest of the changelings off..."
An enormous thunder-crack sounded, felling a small watchtower near them. A pink shield erupted from somewhere below, managing to check another strike.
"The only problem is that she cannot tell friend from foe in this state. We're safer from a distance," said Luna. "We can sit this one back for now, at least until she's done."
Pennaprose thought of Krayka, who was likely somewhere on a floor below, passed out.	
If you are to end this, end it not in bloodshed... but in peace.
Why am I recalling all these words now? he wondered. He watched solemnly as the burgeoning apocalypse tore up more and more land, drifting ever closer to the outside.
This is not peace. She intends to meet war with war. And if war cannot be returned by the wagers? Would it stop then?
He shook his head, confused. No... she is waging war on the lives of millions. Friend or foe, ally or antagonist, this can only end in destruction.
Krakya said that there are changelings in the army who wish for a simple life. A peaceful life. They have families, friends, lovers... and they have done nothing to harm. Only ponies can claim that title for certain...
"...We need to stop her now."
He could feel the collective gazes for everypony turn to him. "But why?" asked Twilight. "If she takes out the changeling population, we are free to stop her after–"
"No."
He slowly drew Changeré, examining his reflection in the hilt. Dead set, convicted, determined, he thought. Changed for the better.
"She succeeds, and I have the lives of millions of innocents on my conscious. She doesn't, and she incurs the wrath of millions for certain. Like it or not–" he said, planting his blade in the ground, "–her actions will be the death of me.
"So we stop her now, and try to make peace with the millions afterwords. I still owe Krayka my promise, and nopony will make a liar out of me."
He looked into Twilight's eyes, firm and stubborn. She seemed mildly offended, worried, harried; any list he could think of could not match her mixed look. Eventually, she sighed.
"I know that look," muttered Twilight. "But what you ask..."
"I know," said Pennaprose. "I'm asking you to stop nature in its tracks. To find where a circle ends. ...To trust that I  can do that with mere words."
"You would quell the end of the world with mere words?" said Luna. "How would we even get close enough to it to tell her?"
He stared back out into the storm. A soft, red glow was beginning to overtake the area underneath it; he could spot sprays of lava erupting into the air from here. He closed his eyes.
"...I ask nothing of anypony. I demand nothing from anypony. If you want to help me, then please, make it by the sanctity of your own minds. Such an endeavor is a suicide mission, and even if I died I would still not know rest knowing it was by my foolish insistence."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "You would reason with rage incarnate?"
"I would meet hate with love."
He stepped to the very edge of the shattered window, the ground hundreds of feet below. He felt a hoof slide over his back; it was Lyra, her face as frozen in conviction as he was mere moments past.
"I go where you go. To the ends of the earth, until the sky would tear itself in two, dare that my life be plucked from the strings of fate, Penni."
"Ly..." he said, smiling wide in the face of destruction before him, heart fit to burst. "After this is all over... maybe we should decide what the definition of 'unnecessary risk' is."
She giggled, nodding.
"Pennaprose, it is certain that Gosthette is in the center of those clouds somewhere. You're going to need to fly up there–"
"Make that a ticket for two to the skies," insisted Lyra.
Luna seemed unperturbed. "–and I was going to say I'll be happy to fly one pony up there as a guide. Pennaprose?"
"She wants to go, then let her."
"I can't fly two ponies and dodge everything–"

"I'll help."

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, spreading her wings wide. "I'm a certified weather expert, and even from here I can tell that that storm is quickly developing into a hurricane. Lyra is the lighter of the two of you, so I can lead while giving her a lift. Provided we stick closer to the ceiling, we shouldn't attract too much lightning. Or lava for that matter."
He smiled gratefully at Dash, who looked entirely too pleased with herself. Luna scratched behind her head, then shrugged.
"Well, I guess that solves that. I am no weather expert myself," she said, turning her back to the storm and ruffling her wings.
"Hatred, their food. Nature, their weapon of choice. She has chosen to fight five million changelings, the bearer of Equestria's hatred for millennia. This storm is that long held grudge given form."

She chuckled, but there was nothing cheerful about it. "Swarm of the century, meet the storm of the millennia..."