Chapter 15
Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.
Chapter 15
Rainbow Dash
I looked around the train car in disgust. I may not like the Changelings, considering what they tried to do to everypony in Canterlot, but killing them just seemed a bit extreme. Especially in such painful and horrific ways. I looked back to the others, who were all crowded around Prince Jake and the Changeling commander.
“Who else is trying to take over?” Twilight asked the commander. His reply was a cynical laugh.
<Well, are you going to answer her or not?> Prince Jake demanded, increasing the pressure of his jaws ever so slightly.
“She already knows,” he said between coughs of green blood.
“What? No I don’t,” Twilight insisted, but it was too late. The Changeling commander had died after he had spoken, and Prince Jake spat out his body.
<What do you think he meant by that?> Tobias asked, the hawk fluttering down to land on one of the seats.
<Do you think he might have been referring to the Yeerks?> Marco asked as he dragged the unconscious Changelings to the middle of the train. He then grabbed one of the metal poles that had broken off in the fight and bent it around them.
“How would the Changelings know about them?” Twilight asked. “I only learned of them by accident.” Twilight looked over at Spike, who was over with Applejack comforting Fluttershy. Twilight opened her mouth to say something more, but I interrupted her.
“Who cares what he was talking about? The Changelings are trying to take over Equestria again. We have to get to Canterlot and tell the Princess as soon as we can!”
<How? In case you haven't noticed this train isn’t going anywhere,> Rachel said.
I turned to the side, flapping my wings quickly.
“I’ll fly there much faster than you guys can walk.”
<Too dangerous,> Prince Jake said. <The Changelings will be watching in case their attempt failed; at least that’s what I’d do in their situation.>
“Aw come on, you honestly think that?”
“I think he’s got a point, Rainbow,” Twilight said, turning to look at me. “And besides, I think it best if we stick together for a bit. We don’t need a Changeling coming back and pretending to be you.” I grumbled to myself, folding my wings back against my body.
<I could fly to Canterlot,> Tobias pitched in. <They wouldn’t be looking for a bird.>
<Yeah, except how are you going to talk to the Princess?> Marco asked. <“Yes, I’m a talking bird, friend to Twilight. I’m here to warn you about Changelings and invading aliens. Oh, by the way, I’m also an alien.”>
<You’re not helping, Marco,> Prince Jake said, a touch of anger in his voice.
“Hey, gang?” Applejack said, walking up to us, “Ah’m gonna take Fluttershy for a walk. She ain’t dealin’ with all the blood and dead Changelings so well.”
“I’ll go with you,” Cassie said. I blinked a few times, wondering when she’d changed back to her normal form. Prince Jake nodded.
<Fine, but don’t stray too far, and stay together. And don’t go out as a human, Cassie.> There was a brief pause before he added <and be careful.> Cassie smiled softly, and I got the feeling that Prince Jake had said that specifically for her.
“So what’s our next course of action?” Twilight asked enthusiastically after Fluttershy, Applejack and Cassie had left, Cassie having turned into Applejack again.
<I say we continue on to, uh, the castle-place,> Rachel spoke up. <I mean, the Princess has gotta have an army we can enlist or something.>
<Maybe, but it’d take us too long to reach by foot,> Marco said. <Unless we’re all ok with heading through these mountains.>
Twilight shook her head. “It’d be difficult now anyways. The train passes through a number of tunnels and crosses a few bridges a bit further up the mountain. It wouldn’t be safe to follow the tracks, and it’d take us too long to find another route.”
“What if you teleported us to Canterlot, Twilight?” Rarity asked, stepping around a pool of Changeling blood.
<Impossible. You have matter-to-energy capabilities? But your society does not appear capable of producing such technologies,> Ax said.
“What? Twilight can just cast a spell to get us all there,” I said, but Twilight shook her head.
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t have the strength to teleport all of us such a great distance.”
“Well we can’t just wait here for the Changelings to wonder what happened to their buddies,” I said with an annoyed tone.
“Guys!” Applejack yelled, coming back into the car. “We’ve got a problem! A Bug Fighter just passed by heading for Ponyville.” It was only now I noticed the lack of a hat and figured it must be Cassie. I still couldn’t quite get used to having two of everypony.
“What’s a Bug Fighter?” Twilight asked curiously.
<They are Yeerk combat fighters designed for flight in atmosphere,> Ax said. <Normally they hold a crew of up to three Hork Bajir and one Taxxon pilot, as well as forward facing Dracon Beams.>
“Combat fighters?” I echoed. “So, wait. You mean this thing’s going to attack Ponyville?” Ax tilted his head.
<Uncertain. I see no reason for the Yeerks to attempt to take the city by force, since what we have seen thus far suggests a similar tactic to the one currently going on on Earth, one of subtle takeover and subterfuge.>
“However, it would be the next step if enough of the population were already under Yeerk control,” Applejack - no, Cassie - said slowly. “We don’t know how far along the invasion is. Maybe they only have a holding in Ponyville, maybe they’re in Canterlot also, maybe they’re even further.”
“What?” Rarity screeched. “You mean everypony in Ponyville is just like Spike? Er, like Spike was a few days ago?” Spike rubbed his arm, looking away from everyone.
<Most likely not, the Yeerks would go after the town officials and anyone else of importance,> Ax spoke. <They will also claim most civilians so they can infest friends and family members.>
<Guys!> Marco cut in. <Shouldn’t we, you know, be doing something about the Bug Fighter?>
“Like what? If Ax and Cassie are right, we’ve already lost Ponyville,” I said.
“That might not be true, our home town hasn’t fallen to the Yeerks yet and they’ve been there much longer than they have here.”
<Right, here’s what we do,> Prince Jake said. <Tobias, you take Fluttershy and continue on to Canterlot. The rest of us will return to Ponyville and see what we can do to help.>
<And how shall we do that, oh fearless leader?> Marco asked.
<We’ll all head to the last car while Rachel and Rainbow pull us back to Ponyville.>
<Prince Jake, I believe it would be better to have them push. By my calculations, gravity should aid in our descent and we would not need the flying equines to expend all their energy immediately.>
<Wait just a minute,> Rachel protested. <Why me?>
<Because you acquired Rainbow, and we need pegasi to push the car.>
<But I don’t fly so well,> Rachel persisted.
“What’s the matter, afraid I’ll humiliate you in front of everypony?” I said, smirking.
Rachel turned her furry head towards me, which I noticed began to shrink.
<Humiliate me? As if!> Soon she was back in her normal form, but almost immediately after her hair became rainbow-coloured and wings sprouted from her back. A few more changes later and I was looking at an almost flawless copy of myself, minus the Cutie Mark and with less messy hair.
“Alright,” I heard Prince Jake say. I glanced over to see the others turning back to normal as well. “We go pony, commandeer the last car, then head for Ponyville. Tobias, go send Applejack back and take Fluttershy to Canterlot.” Tobias quickly fluttered out of a broken window as the others started turning into us again.
“Aw, man. I’ve gotta get all prissied up again,” Marco muttered.
“Don’t worry Marco, once we get back I’m taking you straight to my boutique so we can-”
“Rarity, I don’t think now is the best time,” Twilight said, giving Marco a subtle wink.
“Right, we’ll go start clearing out the last car,” Rachel said. I was still weirded out hearing my own voice, but agreed with her.
“C’mon, let’s see you fly, tough-girl!” I taunted, dashing out of the train and flying towards the end car. I looked over my shoulder to see her follow feebly behind. “You call that flying? I can see why you guys crashed.”
“Funny, don’t you have a nickname that sounds like that?” she said with a sly grin.
“How do you know about that?” I asked in shock.
“I’ll tell you after we get back,” she said, suddenly flying much better than before.
With that, we were at the last train car. A few ponies were walking around outside, wondering what had happened.
“Hey, everyone clear out! We need the last car!” Rachel shouted. I saw a lot of the ponies pointing at us in confusion and only realized now that we both looked like me. I could only wonder what some of them were thinking.
None of them moved for a while, instead choosing to look at us strangely. Rachel glared, hovering over them.
“Hey, didn’t you hear me? I said we need the last car! C’mon, everyone out!” Rachel yelled again.
“She’s a Changeling!” somepony on the ground yelled.
“They’re going to attack us again!”
“Everypony run!”
The crowd of ponies ran out of the train, running back down the tracks. I hovered there for a moment, watching in shock.
“Well, not what I intended to do, but hey. At least it worked,” Rachel said smugly.
I was about to yell at her when I heard the others approaching.
“Alright, let’s get this car unhooked from the rest of the train. Everyone else, climb on!” Prince Jake ordered, back to looking like Twilight.
“I’ll take care of it,” Twilight said, walking up to the train’s coupling as everypony else jumped on. Her horn glowed for a moment and the coupling shattered, large pieces falling to the ground. “Oops, I think that was a little too much,” Twilight mumbled.
“It’s alright,” Prince Jake said before turning to us. “Rachel, Rainbow, get to work.”
“You sound so much like Twilight Prince Jake,” Pinkie giggled.
“I’m on it!” Rachel said.
“No problem!” I said at the same time.
Both of us flew out of the car and went to its front.
“Think you can keep up with me?” I asked tauntingly.
“With one hand, er hoof, behind my back.”
We both rested our front hooves on the train car and began pushing. It groaned and there was the sound of metal scraping on metal, then the car began moving, gradually picking up speed. I flapped my wings hard to keep pace with the train. I glanced to the side and was surprised to see Rachel keeping up with me with a smile forming on her face.
“Rainbow and Rainbow! I mean, Rachel!” a bouncing Pinkie Pie stuck her head out the door. “I believe gravity will carry us the rest of the way. You may enter the train if you so wish,” I saw Rachel shake her head.
“No way! This is incredible!” she let go of the train, flying above it and still keeping up. Not one to be outdone I let go and flew up after her.
“Bet I can make it to town before you!” she taunted.
“Nopony’s faster at flying than me!” I called back.
Both of us went off like bullets, leaving rainbow streaks behind us. I pushed my wings to their limits and flew as fast as I was able to, but somehow Rachel was keeping pace. I tried swerving hard to the left but she followed me so close we were almost touching.
I was happy. I was giddy. I finally had somepony to race who could challenge me in the air. Applejack was good for running and maybe a few other physical challenges, but so few Pegasi could keep up with me. And who better to give me a challenge than myself?
The train car was somewhere behind us, following the tracks as they curved around the mountain side. I climbed higher into the air, watching as Rachel did the same.
“Race ya to that bunch of clouds!” she shouted, the wind whipping her mane back. I gave a challenging smile and dashed after her. The wind pulled at me as we climbed higher and higher towards our finish line, and yet still she was keeping up. There were no words to describe my excitement, just this feeling.
We were neck and neck; I pulled ahead slightly only for Rachel to get a burst of speed and match me again. The cloud loomed closer and closer and I braced myself.
There was a brief sensation as I hit the cloud before it gave way and I passed through it uninjured. I quickly curled around, ready to give a victorious smile to Rachel, only to stop dead as I saw her still right beside me.
“Looks like we tied,” she said, happily catching her breath.
“What? We can’t have tied!” I shouted. “I can’t have lost to a lousy copy!”
“Really neither of us won or lost, and this ‘lousy copy’ was just as good as you.”
I grumbled, fluttering over to a cloud and flopping down on it in frustration.
“Wow, you can sit on clouds?” Rachel asked in surprise. “Oh, this just gets better and better.” I gave her an odd look as she gingerly tapped a nearby cloud with her hoof, watching in fascination as the cloud shifted under her touch. I rolled my eyes, though I could sort of understand her excitement. Pinkie would probably do the same thing if she suddenly grew wings.
“I saw that bird of yours acting the same way a few days ago. Can you not sit on the clouds on your world or something?” I asked as a way to kill time until the others got here.
“Nope, if you somehow touched a cloud on Earth then you’d fall through I guess,” Rachel replied, not even bothering to look up from the cloud.
I snorted in surprise. “If you can’t touch the clouds, then how do you make it rain? Or snow?”
“Make it rain?” Rachel echoed. “We can’t control the weather. It just sort of happens by itself.”
“So your world’s like the Everfree Forest then?” As Rachel was about to respond something seemed to grab her attention.
“Hey, where’d we crash again?” she asked. I pointed over to the mountain the strange group had crashed into. It was only now I realized it was the same mountain a dragon had tried to take a nap in a few years ago. Rachel followed my gaze, peering into the distance. “Hmm, looks like the Bug Fighter’s over there, too.”
“What?” Quickly I flew to her cloud and shoved her over to make room. Rachel made a rude noise but I ignored her. Hovering above the mountain was a strange metallic cockroach. It slowly went down, disappearing into the hole that Rachel and the others had made. “Ha, they fly better than you do!” I said.
“We need to tell the others about this,” she responded while also shooting me an annoyed look.
“Why can’t you just tell them from here with that mind-thingy you can do?” Rachel shook her head.
“I’m out of range.”
“Really, you have a range limit?” I asked. “Lame.”
“C’mon, we should see if the others have crashed into Ponyville station yet.”
I nodded in agreement and the two of us flew off to the station. Now, to say the car had crashed would be an understatement. The car had flipped onto its side and slid across the tracks, destroying about half of the station platform. A number of ponies were crowded around the car, trying to get inside. I shot a glance at Rachel, who looked somewhat sheepish.
“I didn’t think they actually crashed,” she muttered. “Normally that only happens when all of us are present.”
I shook my head slightly. “C’mon, we should go see if anypony’s hurt.” I flew down to the train car, pushed a few other Pegasi out of the way who were hovering over the windows and peered inside myself.
The inside of the train was just as wrecked as the outside, with seats turned, metal bent and glass covering the floor. Curled up in the corner over a pool of blood was a lavender shape. From its slow rising and falling I could tell it was alive.
“Let me through, let me through!” somepony was yelling. The door of the train fell open, crashing inside of the train as it fell off the hinges. A bright brown pony wearing a doctor’s coat trotted in and looked around. He moved over to the lavender shape and gingerly touched it. It was then I noticed the mane colouring.
“Twilight!” I shouted, banging my hooves against the glass. Her mane was spotted with blood, and as the doctor examined her head, ever so gently moving it side to side, I could see a large gash running from her ear down the left side of her face to the front of her mouth.
“Hey, you shouldn’t be here,” a large tan unicorn said. I ignored him and continued peering through the glass as the doctor helped lift Twilight up. Just then I felt a tugging feeling as the unicorn used his magic to drag me away. I was able to get one last look at Twilight and my jaw dropped in shock.
She didn’t have a Cutie Mark.
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Oh man, an offhand comment made by Marco in one of these books convinced me to watch the Powerpuff Girls, which paved the way to pony.
I haven't read it yet, but the comments look positive...
My life will have come full circle.
So the injured one is Jake... If he can get away from the doctor, demorphing should fix those wounds right up.
Do I need to read the book to read this?
~StrawberryFrosting
at first i was "hell yea! power rangers!" i must say, i am disappointed, but i guess ill read it...
must. not. read. ah screw it
They've been in this situation before Book 21 (IIRC), Jake was injured in tiger morph. The problem here is however slightly more problematic. See, Cutie Marks are almost certainly used as part of identification, and hence it's lack would be noticed. So it would be important for them to get him out as quickly as possible.
I still wish they have blended DNA, possibly having it "fail for no good reason" if you tried to merge two races, hence allowing relatively unique forms. While in a combat situation, not thinking something through is believable, I highly doubt Ax would not have thought of this, even if it were to not work totally.
923968 Not really. A little understanding of the series will help though. you can pick up info on the books from anywhere.
923882 Exactly. But if any of those doctors are Yeerks, then they'll try and use this opportunity to get a slug in the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.
I remember playing this game on the PS1. TO bad I sold it. Silly me.
924002 Got to say, I think I'm one of the few who thought Animorphs first, and Power Rangers only when I saw it in the comments.
924194 That is an issue - as is Jake's lack of a cutie mark in Twilight morph. I think that even if the docs weren't Yeerked, they'd notice something was up.
MOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!
924200 Really? I knew it right away. I love the Animorphs books. Except for how the series ended. The ending caused me to theorize that the series was actually one of the largest troll projects ever. Tri, if this fic ends like the series, then I will find you and make you regret the day you were born.
Oh, and if one of the Mane Six is a Controller, I'm guessing Fluttershy.
Who is a controller? i think the Mane 6 are in the clear, at least until the wreck. Luna WAS clear, Chrysalis is involved, but my money is that Celestia herself is Visser 7. Which begs the quest thus far of why none are the invader's have noticed Spike not reporting in.
Minor details overall.
Reads just like i would hope it too.
Now where is Visser 3 in this? Earth or Equestria.
I expect to find out real soon... he never was good at that subtlety thing.
924449>>924917
Yeah, we won't end this like the series. We'll just gear up for the final battle against [COMMENT REDACTED] then cancel the fic.
-Tricondon
Great, not only has everypony crashed, but now their cover is on the verge of being broken... again. Seriously, Animorphs, this is what, the fiftieth time this has happened? You have the worst luck ever.
...at least Rachel can fly in pegasus form now.
Also, I just realized something about the thoughtspeak problem! Jake and Marco, the only ones not to be able to use thoughtspeak, were the only ones who morphed unicorns! I'm a genius!
...well, I would be if I knew why one can't thoughtspeak as a unicorn. Magical interference, maybe?
924917 925658
This pleases me.
Couple objections: the whole group can't go to Canterlot because the changelings might be lurking, but Tobias and Fluttershy can go alone? Smells like walking straight to the wolf's mouth to me. And I think Rainbow's thought process would be more action-y, and less deliberating. I'm not saying Rainbow is shallow or dumb, just that she strikes me as a pony who thinks straight to the goal.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/353/597/267.jpg
Member of the animorphs?
923856 My god. THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIIFFFEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
949010
of if you're crazy-pinkie:
IT'S THE CIRUCLAR...KNI-HA-HIIIFE!
Spoiler for end of Chapter 15:
(MGS Game over theme)
Jake? Jake! JAAAAAAAAAKE!
NUUUUUU! JAAAAAAAKE!
JAKE HAS BEEN FOALNAPPED!
Rachel watches ponies, Awesome. Also you have my favorite animorph morphing my favorite of the main six.
3968601 Actuly Morphs give them basic memories and instincts.
3968601
Also, it seems as though the My Little Pony franchise doesn't exist in this universe. Otherwise they would have recognized something resembling the '80s series.