With a glicker of greenflame, "Eagle Eye" smirked at himself. He swiveled around from the Noble Jury's damaged intercom and approached the far end of the engine room—
Clanggg! A dislocated steam pipe slammed across his skull.
With a hiss, the changeling jolted backwards, breaking face with a wincing expression. It turned back into Eagle Eye long enough to glare across the cabin.
Gripping the pipe in his teeth, Ebon Mane paced himself from the shape-shifter, flicked his tail, and came in for another strike. "Gnnnnghhh!"
Eagle Eye easily side-stepped him, ducked a second strike, swiveled about, and bucked Ebon Mane in the fetlocks.
"Ooomf!" Ebon pratfalled, collapsing against the teetering floor of the runaway vessel's interior. He struggled back to his hooves—only to have the weight of the changeling slamming down against his spine. "Guhh!" He quivered as his grinning nemesis clutched his chin and scalp in separate hooves, pressing inward from both angles and threatening to crush his skull. Wincing, Ebon squinted forward. His hoof danced around until it grasped the dangling electrical manacable that had been detached from the ship's engine core. With a grunt, he jabbed the cable up and into the changeling's fake horn.
"Gaaa-aaa-aaa!" The shapeshifter rolled off of Ebon.
The stallion scampered up to his hooves and ran forward. He crossed the distance of the engine room and yanked a metal tool off the nearby bench. When he spun around to face his foe—a tentacle had wrapped around his waist.
Snarling, the half-mutated changeling pulled back, flinging Ebon along the full length of his morphing appendage. The stallion slammed into the wall, another wall, and was finally sent—crashing—through Props' workbench. Ebon rolled limply to the floor, whimpering in pain.
With thudding footsteps, the changeling trotted icily towards Ebon's twitching figure. He retracted his tentacle, morphing it slowly back into a hoof. "You've given me quite the workout. I would gladly feed..." His hoof spread into five sets of digits as it became a reptilian hand in the changeling's possession. "...if only you weren't such a blank slate." Then, with a snarl, he formed all five fingers into a fist and slammed it straight into Ebon's muzzle.
High above the Noble Jury's plummeting plight, a flock of undead pegasi flew in circles. There was no rhyme or reason to their aerial patterns. This may have had something to do with the fact that one of their numbers was being ridden like a bucking bronco.
"Grrrr-rrrr!" Eagle Eye hissed into the pelting rain. He straddled one of the larger pegasi, stabbing his sword straight down through the creature's skull. Telekinetically twisting the hilt of his blade left and right, he awkwardly steered the creature, struggling for dominance of its flight pattern.
Beneath him, the monster hissed and spat purple vomit at every turn. Its labored wings deteriorated under Eagle's weight. Its already mangled body was dissolving, shred by shred, losing its pulpy muscles in the merciless rain.
"Come on... c-come onnnn..." Eagle gnashed at his teeth, feeling the pull of gravity nip and bite at his senses with every thrashing move that the monster made. He heard shrieks rising around him in intensity, and he ducked his skull with folded ears to avoid the passing pegasi from biting chunks of skin off his head.
Down below, the Noble Jury loomed within view. Through the rain and lightning, Eagle Eye nervously spotted a gigantic temple hovering in front of it at a distance—a distance that was swiftly closing.
Eagle Eye bit his lip. Around that time, he felt a dip in the monster's flight. His sword's hilt grew looser and looser. "H-huh?!" He glanced down.
Purple goop was crawling up the blade, just inches from Eagle Eye's body. The zombie pegasus was literally melting from the inside out, and twirling white eyeballs peaked out of every lacerated orifice in the beast.
Eagle Eye took a deep breath. He ducked the swooping attack of another pegasus, then stood up on the creature's back with wobbly legs. With an inward shout, he ripped his sword out from the monster's head and tossed the infected weapon skyward. It skewered the bodies of two more pegasi, breaking off their attack.
While they were distracted, the ex-mercenary swan-dove off the spine of his liquified mount. He straightened his body into a lavender arrowhead, plunging towards the ship far below. As its rain-slick bulkheads grew close enough for Eagle Eye to spot every rivet of detail, he concentrated hard and encased his entire body in a magical field. The wind wipped against his face, forcing him to blink. When he next opened his eyes, he could only see moisture. So, in a desperate shout, he flung himself forward with the force of a telekinetic booth, and stretched both forelimbs out...
The door to the Noble Jury's engine room hung open.
One shuffling hoofstep after another, the changeling crept through the navigation room and approached the observation room at the ship's bow. Despite the rattle of the bulkheads and the shrill whistle of the hurricane winds outside, he kept his pace slow, methodical, and calm. He glanced down at Floydien's meaty body, smirking at the bruises lining the elk's skull. As he stepped gingerly over the creature's limbs, he approached a little bundle of a figure lying on the hammoc in front of him.
Kera lay in a fetal position, her glazed eyes reflecting the figure as he drew close... and closer.
"Hmmmmm..." The changeling squinted at her. Slowly, his smile returned. "Yes..." He grinned harder. "Oh yes..." As he came closer to the filly, his hair grew in length, turning gray around a pale coat. "You have so much misery to give..." One of his eyes scarred over while a cold voice murmured through the Prime Enforcer's throat. "...so very delicious."
Kera's breaths grew shallower and shallower through her nostrils. A slight tremble ran through her figure, and a tear rolled down her tattooed cheek.
The changeling's one good eye flickered green. Fangs glistened from under his lips as he reared his muzzle over the filly's throat—
WHAM! A pair of legs slammed across his skull.
"Ooomf!" The changeling slammed into the wall, morphing into an equine insectoid. Snarling, it glared angrily across the observation room.
Zaid finished sliding down the ladder of the vertical crawlspace. "Httt!" He landed across from the changeling, his mane sticking out at every angle with electrical sparks fizzling at their ends. "Did I ask for this 'fro, bra?! Did I?!"
"Hsssssssss..." The changeling cracked the joints in its neck and hissed, "When I'm done feeding off of her, I'll shove her useless flesh down your throat—" A horseshoe ricocheted off its skull. "Aaugh!"
"Buck you, pal!" Zaid snarled, yanking another horseshoe off and tossing it. "Buck you and the horse you rode in on! So, in other words, buck you squared!"
The changeling dodged the second shoe and charged viciously across the chamber. "You were doomed before you even came into this city—OOF!"
The shape-shifter's words came to a stop, for Zaid had unabashedly speared him with his diving body. The stallion plunged the two of them across the cabin so that they rolled over the floor and ended up with Zaid on top. The stallion brought both forelimbs together to smash the changeling's face in. The shape-shifter swiftly turned into Josho and head-butted Zaid savagely. Zaid stumbled back, sputtering, and the creature pounced on him in the form of Rainbow Dash.
Kera's body swung in the hammock from the ship's perilous flight. Her unblinking eyes reflected the two equines locked in combat. One shape repeatedly punched the other while its opponently finally returned with an uppercut and a slam to its gut.
"Gnnkkt!" The changeling spun, slamming chest-first into the wall of the observation room. Before it could peel itself away, Zaid pressed into its backside. The stallion gripped the insectoid's skull and slammed it repeatedly into the bulkheads. "Do not!" WHAM! "Threaten!" WHUD! "The filly!" SMACK! "It's totally!" THWACK! "Not!" THUD! "Sexy!"
In a flash of green flame, the changeling rematerialized with its head on backwards. With a hiss, it lunged forward and bit its fangs into one of Zaid's forelimbs.
"Aaaaaugh!" Zaid wailed in pain, repeatedly bopping the thing's skull in desperation to dislodge it. "D-dude! Not on a first date—"
In the meantime, the changeling's tail morphed into the bottom half of a snake. The reptilian limb coiled around Zaid's rear legs and lifted him off the floor. After tossing the stallion towards the ceiling, the creature leapt up, morphed into Arcshod, and bucked Zaid's body in midair.
"Ow ow ow ow ow—" Smack! Zaid winced as his muzzle mushed up against the doorframe to the crawlspace. "...owwwwwwwwww." His front hooves dangled against a fire extinguisher.
Grumbling, Arcshod morphed into Seclorum and marched forward—Clangggggg!—and right into a swinging fire extinguisher.
Panting, Zaid trotted forward, swinging the bludgeon about in the crook of his hoof. "Jee, is it cold and lifeless around here?" Smack! Thud! Whack! "Or is it just you?!"
After the last impact, the changeling spun around and turned the end of its tail into a razor-edged blade. It sliced the fire extinguisher down the center, spilling flame retardant goop all over the floor.
Zaid stood in place, blinking dazedly at the two halves of the extinguisher in his grip. "Dude... not cool." WHAM! A hoof at the end of a tentacle savagely uppercutted him.
Wasting no time, the changeling wrapped the appendage around Zaid's throat and slammed him multiple times into opposite walls. At last, he dropped him to the observation room floor and loomed above the groaning stallion. The creature morphed its two forelimbs into barbed insectoid stingers and aimed them at the nape of his neck.
Zaid gulped. "What I wouldn't have g-given to get laid once m-more..." He sputtered. "...with cheese."
"Mother spare me," the changeling snarled, spitting green blood and saliva. "The Austraeoh wasted all of her time on a ship of fools. And to think that this task almost offered me a challenge—"
Flasssssh!
A fountain of electrical energy soared into the creature's gut. Zaid gasped as the changeling flew off him and slammed into the bubble windows at the very front of the room. Wincing all over in manafire, the changeling looked across the cabin.
Floydien was sitting up, awake, and very pissed off. His antlers crackled as they summoned an even brighter charge this time. "Get off my Nancy," the elk slurred. Zaaaaaap!
The changeling let loose one scream before its melting body was shoved like grinded meat through the shattered glass. Dissolving in a green spray, its limbs flew off into separate directions, carried off by the shredding gales of Stratopolis. The cabin instantly flooded with wind and rainwater.
The first thing Zaid did was grab Kera's body and shelter her with his figure. He hobbled over and crouched beside Floydien with his back to the pelting maelstrom.
"H-hey there, big guy! Bodacious wake-up ultra! My aching flesh would have liked it if you did it a minute or two earlier, but—"
"For the love of hush hush..." Floydien groaned, rubbing his bruised scalp with a cloven hoof. "Does the boomer ever shut up?"
"You have no idea how glad I am to hear your deliciously wonky voice, duuuude!" Zaid shouted above the howling winds. "Still, did you have to get medieval on your own windows? It's not exactly Mareami Beach outside the Jury, y'know—"
"Nancy Jane..." Floydien's red eyes twitched as he gawked at the smashed front window behind Zaid. "...where is Floydien's beloved headed to...?"
"Huh?" Zaid held Kera tight as he glanced over his shoulder. His pupils shrank. "Oh pineapple tits!"
An enormous temple loomed just within view. The entire ship was ten seconds away from smashing into a rusted pulp.
"Get Floydien's flank to the cockpit!" The elk stammered, struggling to get up on wobbly legs.
"I'm... tr-trying...!" Zaid grunted, shoving his shoulder hard into Floydien's enormous side. "But Floydien's flank is so darn flankity!"
"Floydien... can... h-hardly trot balance-side-up..." The elk slumped helplessly against the doorframe to the crawlspace. "Nancy, forgive Floydien... so much dizzy dizz...."
"Come on, ya big lug!" Zaid resorted to kicking the elk repeatedly in the rear. "Just jump or something! You can make it up there..." His voice cracked as he felt the whole ship tilting upwards. "...make it?"
Floydien gasped, gazing awkwardly towards the bow.
Through the shattered windows, the temple could be seen swaying out of view. The clouds shifted, and the heart of Stratopolis evened out. The vessel had lifted to a higher elevation on its own.
"Floydien didn't..." The elk murmured. "...then what boomer did?"
Zaid blinked, then blinked again. With a gasp, he lay Kera down in the doorframe to the navigation room and scurried swiftly up the ladder.
Up in the cockpit, the door to the Noble Jury's top deck had been forced open halfway. Rainwater seeped over Zaid's body as he ascended from below. He gazed in shock at a sopping-wet figure seated at the controls.
"Don't ask," Eagle Eye sputtered, evening the vessel out so that it spun clockwise once more around the heart of the floating city. "You wouldn't b-believe me even if I told you."
"Lavender Unicorn!" Zaid lunged forward, hugging Eagle Eye from behind and nuzzling the back of his soaked mane. "Heeeee! You totally pulled a Han Soloats!"
Eagle Eye shivered and said, "The name's Eagle Eye, y'know."
"Don't ruin the moment." Zaid smirked. "Egads, look at you! It's like you just got an invite to a wet saddle contest and your mane was caught unprepared." Suddenly, Zaid blinked, then leaned back with a suspicious squint. "Wait. How do I know it's you?"
Eagle Eye sniffled. He glanced back with sparkling eyes, biting his lip. "My... mane isn't t-too ruined, is it?"
Zaid stood perfectly still. At last: "Yeah, okay. 'You' enough."
"Please tell me the others are alright!" Eagle Eye exclaimed.
"Thanks to you, a bunch of us are."
"Define 'a bunch of us.'"
"Kera's in one piece. Floydien recovered just in time to paint the skies with shape-shifter intestines. I'm still all around best background pony—"
"Ebon..." Eagle Eye gasped, his eyes growing wider. "Where's Ebon? Is he...?"
Zaid blinked, then smiled. He tugged at Eagle's forelimbs and switched places with him. "Let me be the autopilot pony once again until Floydien's ready. You go down into the engine room and check on yours turly, Romeoats."
"Okay..." Eagle Eye panted, shimmying swiftly down the crawlspace. "Okay okay okay..." He galloped straight past Floydien and Kera, practically throwing himself into the engine room beyond. All was silent for the space of a minute, and then the door to the room closed slowly, shutting the two inside.
Hmmmm its interesting that the Changeling called Ebon 'empty'. I also think that a changeling that wasn't completely absorbed into their role would recognize another changeling when it tried to feed on them. Its looking more unlikely that Ebon is a Changeling IMO.
something tells me that's gonna be important later.
It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the web again
Floydien is conscious, EE is on the ship safely, Zaid is still a boss, and Kera showed slight interest in something about to eat her.
Now we just need Ebon to be okay and this will have been a happy chapter.
Even though that title still makes no sense.
Shape Changing is OP. until they decide to monologue.
And all is well again in the Jury once again.
For a given value of "well", that is...
Someone name the chat "Air Force Elk."
Twenty close-hand push-ups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
I think Prowse fake just got Raytheond
What is it with large horns/antlers and stupidly massive energy discharges? Oh right. the bigger the array, the bigger the disarray.
Wonder how good Elkzap is against Smoozers?
Ok. Maybe not a changeling. But still not completely sold on that yet.
Well that's... uhh... quite interesting...
4422315 4422321 4422424
For now, I think I'm going with believing him to be one of Tchern's brood.
Not ever connected to the same hive-mind, so not recognized by a Chryssiling?
inb4 Ebon attacks EE
4422355
Nice fight you put up there, you crazy cheese-ophile, you.
Eagle Eyes gonna get beat up... again.
I wonder when we'll get to the point where random words will make up the chapter titles.
4422516
so Floydien is Tank from the first Matrix movie
4422940
"Pottery decay rash referendum bridge"
"Pliers boots artist onion manhole"
"Ladybird leisure crab party finance"
Floyd uses Thunderbolt. Changeling is paralyzed!
Changeling uses Iron Tail. It's paralyzed! Changeling is unable to move!
Floyd uses Thunderbolt. Changeling faints!
That's a TERRIBLE one-liner, Zaid!
Much better!
4422509
Agreed. I also find it interesting how attached people are to the Ebon-ling theory, despite piles of evidence against it.
It took me a few minutes to get the title reference. I feel dumb.
I don't know what to make of the "blank slate" remark. Even if he isn't a changeling, that still suggests that something weird is up with Sailboat Boomer. Also, I was kinda expecting Kera to snap out of her funk and be the one to save Zaid, but I guess that's being saved for a... well, sunny day, maybe?
Now, to see what golden mean between misunderstandings and adorableness will be found in the engine room.
4423302
Such as?
4423371
Oh god, you're gonna make me go back and dig it all up? This might take a while, especially since it's finals week, but I'll do it if you really want.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/7/5/32640.png
4423385
Not if it makes you neglect your work. I was just curious, since all I can think of are hints in the changeling direction. Of course, he could always be something we haven't seen at all yet.
4423661
That is always a possibility. Personally, while I understand exactly where the Ebon-ling theory comes from (I've seen the hints myself), I'm not in that camp. Here's some evidence of the top of my head:
The biggest clue for me is that while Ebon and EE have been crushing on each other for a while, EE hasn't shown any signs of being fed on. Any parasitic behavior would have consequences for the victim, but there hasn't been any sign of it.
Plus, why would the changelings need to send an infiltrator to get at the book in the engine room if they had a sleeper agent right there anyway, and why would they attack him if he was one of them? Any physical harm could disrupt or compromise his disguise, or open a bleeding wound that would reveal Ebon to himself or others.
And don't give me that "he's one of Tchern's kids" BS; it's been established that her whole brood is on the Dark Side of the World.
4423762
I'm not sure we've seen good evidence that brainwashed/sleeper-agent changelings even feed. There's also nothing to say that changelings are of necessity parasitic--they may be able to be symbiotic, or at least feed at an unnoticeably low level.
We've already seen that changelings can disguise their blood, and it would make the most sense if sleepers were permanently set to do so, at least for small wounds.
Pfft, all on the dark side...you believe everything you're told?
Damm Zaid... You sexy.
4423762 You know who shows signs of having been fed upon?
Hmmm... Someone who has been emotionally drained, lethargic, catatonic even?
I'm not convinced Ebon isn't a rogue changeling who wiped his own memory. We know they can be abandoned and cut off from the hive, at least theoretically, even though the one RD set loose never was actually cut off IIRC.
Well that's bound to put the relationship back a bit.
I mean seriously, if you're going to make changelings this powerful, every time they do not instantly win a fight becomes unbelievable. Why not more of those blades that can cut through anything? One hit and the fight's over. Why not more limbs? Why not the body of a mighty warrior which is then given morphed weaponry? Why not instantly mend each and any wound when the body can be completely changed at will? And that's not even touching all the ruckus this causes on a metaphysical level. I'm not usually one to give suggestions here nor am I in the position to but still - if that can still be changed, I daresay it could go for a bit of changing. They are literally OP. Them ever being defeated just doesn't make sense anymore. Well at least the elk is up again. That gives infinite bonus point. Even covers up all those pop culture references quite nicely.
It's amazing how one can observe the fluctuations of you taking this story seriously or not between every other chapter.
And everybody goes
In all seriousness though, that's being shielded from changeling empathy on top of everything else. You're just fucking with us at this point, aren't you?
Thank Celestia at least one part of the group is doing well. Now we just need more info about Pilate and Rainbow's ridiculous plan.
Phew.
-Spirit
Good news: It looks like Ebon's not a changeling.
Bad news: We still don't really know what's up with him.
Awesome news: Both Ebon and Eagle are completely fine with Zaid shipping them.
ok. Ebon is maybe not a changeling.... or is he....
Also, it seems Zaid took a prestige class in Dashing Swordsman
4423613 I saw you had an image starched and was hoping it would be this one. I was not disappointed.
Zaid should get laid after this and get his grilled cheese
4497648 perhaps ebon is a disconnected changeling. which could explain why he didnt register to the queen as one. just a thought
Check, check, and triple check.
Man, Ebon is going to freak out. I look forward to that scene.
4804957 Pretty sure he still is. This may turn out to be the reveal. Theories I have are he's a brainwashed Changeling, or he's not one of chrysalis' Changelings.
And the desire for cheese continues unfulfilled.
Well, look who's woken from his beauty sleep! Rise and shine, Mr. Floydian...
In fiction, whether it's at the end of a chapter or in the middle, there are really two techniques for breaking a typical action cliffhanger. The first is where the hero wins out against their threat without outside help - Rainbow's clever defeat of Axan, the Ninth Doctor telling the gas-mask children to go to their rooms, the outcome of every battle in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the climax of the last book, et cetera. The second is where they win because someone else shows up to save them, which is one we know from most of the shows and books aimed at us when we were kids. Writers learn early on how to give characters plausible reasons to separate from the group in order to lead the cavalry at the big moment, and unlike the first type, understanding the device actually removes some of the thrill from the payoff.
This series heavily employs the latter, and has ever since it developed a party instead of a single protagonist. That's not necessarily bad, especially because IC wields it with a sense of fairness, hence why Shell and Pilate had such similar luck in the face of adversity. However, one of the disadvantages of writing a story that's more than many dozens of times the length of the average novel is that you can't hide the patterns in your writing, or the devices you're most likely to turn to when you need to work on-the-fly; the law of averages dictates that you will need to work on-the-fly too often. The forces of good in this story have been barely avoiding being hit by things and thinly coming out on top since the very beginning, and so while the stakes move up and down, the actual intensity stays roughly the same, and - not to complain, wood-knock - makes it harder over time to believe that characters are in danger. Or, at least, in danger during the climaxes, and not while problems are continuously piling up.
I don't know if there's a way around that. I'd like to think that a perfectly-written action story couldn't be drained of magic by a cynical audience-member keeping a tally of the missing cast members, but I think I also just like the idea of the clever solution over the last-second rescue (or even a clever solution that gets a last-second rescue to show up), because all of the great moments that have really stuck with me as a reader are the ones where characters win on their own merits. Which, I guess, is all to say that the sweeping action sequences aren't really written for me. I'm looking forward to how this all turns out, though. And I'm hoping Rainbow will have more chances to cleverly one-up the forces of evil as time goes on.
8023013
It's called being a creative writer.
ICs action scenes are.... Stretched messy and predictable.
Much like his writing.
I groaned audibly
You would think that this changeling would know better than to tempt fate like that. Well he learned that lesson after this at least.
06/04/2017 02:37 UTC
YOU BIG SEXY ELK. PERFECT TIMING!
Have to say that whenever a character or NPC is doing something quite evil and there is no hope in saving them - their deaths are very satisfying.