My Little Pony X One Piece: A Reindeer Goes To Equestria!

by Tony Tony Chopper

The Search Continues! Assault From The Dark!

As Celestia's sun was set by her younger sister Luna with much effort, and darkness had finally set in over Equestria, the group of Twilight Sparkle began struggling to keep their bearings in the infamous Everfree Forest. Only Luna's moon alone offered enough light for them to try and find the swarm of changelings, who had taken their Elements Of Harmony.
Still exhausted from their unexpected encounter with what seemed like a sentient tree, they decided to rest for a bit before moving on.

"I swear, we have been here just a minute ago!", Twilight looked around in disbelief.

"Ah don't blame ya, sugarcube. These woods are startin' to look more and more the same by the minute", Applejack reassured her while shaking her head.

"Hey, are we just going to ignore the fact that a we got attacked by a TREE? That's weird, even for Everfree standards!", Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"I don't think that was just any old growth from Everfree that we came across. Something... came out of it when we escaped.", said Twilight.

"So, there's... just some random ghostie roaming around, for no apparent reason, all of a sudden?", Rainbow arched an eyebrow.

The unicorn mare responded: "I don't believe that either, that thing looked like it knew exactly who we were, what it had to do.", as she sat down, trying to make sense of things.

Chopper took the opportunity during the small break to weigh his options, still holding the small yellow pill in his hoof:
'I gotta take it easy with the Rumble Balls, I wouldn't do well as dead weight already. And I only got three left! I need to preserve these for absolute emergencies only.'

"But what do we do about it now? If that ghastly creature really was deliberately attacking us, we surely haven't seen it for the last time.", Rarity said with concern in her voice.

Twilight once more found herself without a plan: "I don't know, we'll just have to focus on getting back the elements for now."

"Don't worry, everypony, next time that thing tries to pull something, my Pinkie Sense will have things covered!", Pinkie tried to cheer the others up.

"Yeah, like that amazing job it did with warning us from that tree just then?", Applejack pointed out.

"Well, sometimes I guess it just takes the day off...", Pinkie rubbed the back of her head, a bashful grin on her face.

---

Hidden well in the thicket of the forest, Chrysalis was seemingly surprised, despite having at least partly expected it, to see the cloud of purple smoke return to her without even one of the equestrians, having failed its mission.

"So, a group of mere ponies was enough to put a stop to my spell?", she asked herself, her swarm watching her as she calmly walked past them, thinking to herself.

"Something as laughable as their 'friendship' cannot possibly be the end of my crusade. They need to have a weakness...", she said, looking up into the stars in thought.
As she continued to gaze, her eyelids progressively narrowed, and soon her fanged snout formed a devilish smirk. An idea had been made, and was about to be put into motion. Chrysalis's wings started to flap, enacting a buzzing noise as she began to soar.

"Hear me, my changelings! I have a task for you...”

---

"Guys, I smell something!", Chopper called, his nose twitching again, "It's those changelings, the scent is getting stronger!"

"Are you sure?", Twilight walked up next to him.

"Very sure! This way!", he said before shifting into his full reindeer form and leading the way for the rest through the thicket.

But before the trace could be tracked down to its source, a now familiar purple cloud of smoke rose from the bushes before them, casting a looming shadow over the entire team in the moonlight.

"It's that thing again!", Fluttershy shrieked.

"Seriously, Smokey, what's your problem?", Pinkie called up, as the smoke began to take on another form.

From each side, wings began to sprout out of it, underneath its red eyes a sharpely edged beak formed, from below a pair of feathered legs grew, each of them with clawed talons, and its foggy substance morphed into a purple coat of feathers.
The beast let out a loud screech as it dove down towards them.

"YES! Now we're talking! This is going to be great!", Rainbow Dash cried out happily, ready for a fight in flight.

She immediateley took off like a small rocket as the avian creature swooped down on the group, each of them trying their best to leap out of its path.

Twilight rose back up and called after the pegasus: “Careful with that thing, Rainbow! We still don’t know what it’s capable of!”

“No worries, I bust clouds like that for morning exercise! You go on ahead without me, see if you can find those changelings!”, Rainbow called over brashly, cracking the ankles of her hooves.

The others respected her wish and did as they were told, following the one trace they had, deeper into the woods.

The monstrous bird took notice of the targets and began another dive to stop them, but an unexpected ramming attack from the side by Rainbow quickly put a halt to it.

"No chance, peepers. Gotta take me out first!", she said confidently, shaking her head.

An earpiercing screech was the creatures answer as it lunged forward, talons first, trying to grasp her, again evaded by the brash pegasus.

"Whoops, to slow!", Rainbow's voice rung from seemingly nowhere as the avian beast checked its surroundings. Before it could look upwards, a quick touch to the head by a hoof took it by surprise.

"Tag, you're it!", Dash yelled playfully, before dissapearing in a rainbow blur just a fast as she appeared.

With a quick zig-zag-maneuver, she boosted off underneath the treetops, to which the monster angrily followed suit.

Rainbow flew in serpentines past the trees, fast enough to keep away, but slow enough to not lose it and continue being in its focus. Whatever obstacle the pegasus flew through with traceless accuracy was left by the creature on her tail as a massive splintery hole in the woodland scenery.

'Yeah right, like I couldn't handle an oversized-', the mare was quickly snapped back to attention when the predator launched feathers from its wings like razorsharp darts after her, barely grazing her multicolored mane.

"Woah, that's new!", Rainbow looked back, noticing a few of the evaded projectiles piercing the landscape behind her before continuing her evasive tactics. As the bird repeatedly shot at her, Rainbow tried to use her surroundings by getting hold of a large branch as she flew by, bending it and letting it fling back at her follower, who easily snapped through it with its large serrated beak.
"Oh, come on! Anything else you wanna show off with?", Rainbow shouted back angrily, only to get her answer.
The bird ceased its feathery assault and instead, smacked its wings together, the colliding air currents spiralling into a small tornado that quickly caught up to the pegasus.
"I had to ask...", Rainbow rolled her eyes before being swallowed up by the vortex and violently spinning around in it.

In an awkward moment of silence, Rainbow was seen being launched over the treetops of the forest by the tornado, ironically flying in an arch that formed a small rainbow over it, accompanied only by her disoriented yell.

After making her more than forceful landing quite literally at the end of the rainbow, the brash mare's eyes still spun in their sockets thanks to the involuntary carousel ride.

"No pot of gold for me, huh?", Rainbow muttered weakly after having landed in a thicket of vines and branches in the higher tree levels. Trying to get back on her hooves, she realized she had been tangled in the growth and desperately started to pull in squirm.
"Gotta get outta here, before Bird-Brain starts going after-", she talked to herself, not noticing the shadow from above for a good few seconds. With a face of realization, her head slowly rose to find the bird that had landed on a branch above her, eyeing her from its perch, ready to pounce.

"Hey, hey, I didn't even mean half the things I said, alright?", she smiled nervously, as the beast leaped downwards talons first, its weight tearing Rainbow from the plants and sending both of the combatants falling through the leaves.

---

As the rest continued following the trace, they quickly were caught off guard by a small explosion occurring right in front of them. Chopper, who was leading the way with his nose, got easily startled by the blast just happening a few feet away from him and after a quick leap backwards, reverted to his small hybrid form. As he was joined by the others rushing to his side, they all noticed the crater the blast had left before them, a chitin-covered body crawling out from it.

Finally having found a changeling, Twilight stepped forward: "Out with it, changeling! The chest, where is it? What have you done with our elements?"
As the insectoid eyed the group, more and more of its kin began joining him as the small reindeer got back on his feet.
"Call me nuts, but Ah don't think they're here to tell us...", Applejack said, noticing more changelings landing behind them as well.

No answer was given as more and more members of the swarm gathered around the group. At last, the trap seemed to have sprung.

"Fine, then we'll MAKE you talk!", Twilight called, keeping her head low.
Pinkie Pie seemed strangely dissappointed. "Dang it, I wish I hadn't forgotten my party cannon... could've been so much more fun that way.", she murmured to herself in slight regret.

"Ehh?! You have a cannon?!", Chopper's jaw reached the grassy floor at her statement.

"Everypony, focus please!", Rarity said, backing up towards them.

"Come on, y'all, time to show these bug-eyes what we can do, elements or not.", Applejack readied her makeshift vine lasso she kept from earlier. She tossed it with all might at the arthropods, but their agile maneuvering allowed them to dodge before transforming into copies of her friends and tackling her.

Spike did his best to protect a shivering Fluttershy from incoming attackers with nothing but a small twig he picked up. Understandably the changelings were not all too intimidated by him, taking on forms of his pony friends in hopes to confuse him.
"Stay back, you...", he yelled, waving his small weapon at them, as Chopper ran up next to him for backup.

"Oi, try taking on me!", Chopper called, his small hybrid form just as threatening to the invaders as the young dragon.
Switching their focus towards him, they all took on his appearance, a dozen of midgets still outnumbering two.

"Uhm, I don't think that did much, Chopper", Spike scratched his head.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they can't do THIS!", the reindeer responded as he started to grow.
"HEAVY POINT!"

The now imposing humanoid that was Chopper rose his fists into the air and let out a small roar, trying to appear even more menacing. After a brief moment of shock however, the small copies of him exchanged wicked smiles with each other, as one by one, one green flash after another, they all took on the shape and size of Chopper's Heavy Point, forming a lineup of muscular semi-humans before them.

With a bleak white face, the real Chopper's arms dropped back down. "That-that's not fair...", He stuttered, making a few steps backwards again.

Fluttershy, who had been anxiously cowering close to the ground and hiding her face behind her hair, dared to peek out just in time to see the towering army of musclebound beasts before them. Letting out a high pitched shriek, she quickly got up onto her shaky legs and began stutter with wide eyes as well: "R-ru...r-ru..."
Her voice broke off before breaking out into a panic, into which Spike and Chopper gladly joined:
"RUN!!!", The three screamed in unison before taking off into the opposite direction of their enemies, the swarm of clones right behind them.

They ran past a small hill of Raritys, the original buried underneath, a simple shielding spell in the form of a dome was all that protected her.
"When I said I needed some space for just myself, this is NOT what I meant!", her voice rang from underneath.
Thankfully, before any harm would be done, a few well-aimed energy bolts from Twilight's horn managed to push off the attackers, leaving the original Rarity exhaling in relief.

Applejack found herself on top of a rock, caught in a swarm of prancing pink earth ponies, looking for the real Pinkie Pie.
"Where are ya, Pinkie? We gotta get goin'!", she called out, reading her lasso for rescue.
"AJ, I'm over here!", Pinkie's voice was distantly heard. Taking her first guess, Applejack threw the lasso roughly in the direction she believed the voice to come from. Pulling back out one of the pink equines, the earth pony was rewarded with the catch revealing itself to be yet another changeling. Releasing her lasso from it and casually bucking it back into the crowd, Applejack called again:
"Where exactly?", followed by a squeaky voice answering: "To your left!"

The earth pony tried again, only with the same procedure going down.
"You talkin' your left or my left?"
"Dunno, I see two of you!"
"Well, Ah see a hundred of you!"
"Hm, try your right!"
Again she threw, and again wrong Pinkie.

"This ain't gettin' us anywhere, I'll need some more rope!", Applejack called back again.
"Got you covered!", Pinke Pie sat down next to her, handing her a longer lasso made out of a vine.
"Thanks.", Applejack took the vine, her eyes still focused on the crowds below, readying for another toss.
"Who're we looking for?", Pinkie asked curiously.
"We're tryin' to find-" Applejack began explaining as her eyes popped open wide, she turned around to look at Pinkie, who in return gave a smile and a small wave with her hoof.
Applejack brought a hoof to her face before tossing the lasso away, "Nevermind..."

Chopper did what he could to fend off his duplicates, his punches knocking some of them a safe distance back.
Tackling him from behind, a few more fakes managed to wrestle him to the ground before burying him underneath themselves.
Spike and Fluttershy quickly ran up to the pile of humanoids, trying to pull the changelings off him.
"Oh, it's no use!", the pegasus worried, "How are we going to get him out of there?"

Spike tried to think: "Listen, we gotta see if we can- DUCK!!!"
The small dragon pushed Fluttershy low to the ground, barely avoiding a rainbow-colored projectile swooping over their heads, straight into the pile of Choppers, knocking all of the clones apart.

The impact had created a small crater in the grassy ground, a blue pegasus peeking out from it soon after.
Fluttershy came over to her landing spot, helping her climb out of the hole. "Rainbow, are you okay?"
"Hey, guys! So... how're we doing?", Rainbow Dash smirked, slightly roughed-up looking from her previous fight.
Chopper, back to his small hybrid form, crawled from the crater as well.
"Oh, my back...", he sighed as Spike helped him up.

The others took notice of Rainbow's less than subtle entrance and reunited around her.
Twilight spoke up : "Rainbow, everything alright? Did you deal with that thing?"

"Well...", Rainbow Dash tried to explain her case, only to be interrupted by a monstrous screech.

The bird-like creature came soaring above the treetops, eyeing the group of ponies once again.

"I hate to admit, but... maaayyybe I bit off more than I could chew.", Rainbow said, slowly getting back on her hooves.

"Then we just gotta keep bitin' for ya!", Applejack said, reading her lasso as she watched the bird dive down on them for another attack.
Rainbow took off once more, hoping to keep the birds attention off her friends.

Again, the group leaped out of harm's way as the beast went after her.
"Oh, I do hope we get rid of this thing soon. I'm not too keen on throwing myself into the dirt every few minutes.", Rarity complained while looking at her dirtied hooves. "Ugh, it just never ends!", she flinched, wishing she brought any manicure equipment with her. Or would it be pedicure for a pony?

"Alright bird, what's your business with us?", Twilight pointed her glowing horn angrily at the soaring avian, tired of letting it attack her friends.

"Ah think it ain't speakin' anytime soon, sugarcube.", Applejack walked up next to her, her lasso once again readied and swinging.

The giant bird dove another time down on the two, as the cowmare tossed her lasso with all her might at the creature, actually getting it caught inbetween the monsters serrated jaws. As the two ponies lunged out of its way once more, Twilight turned around to notice her earth pony friend gone. Looking up in the air, she now noticed Applejack being dragged through the skies by the feathered behemoth.

"Was THAT your plan here?", Twilight called up to her, raising and eyebrow and trying to take aim again.

"Dunno, improvisin'.", was all the orange mare could mutter while getting violently yanked around through the air.
The creature began rapidly flying in tight circles, trying to get a hold of the mare with its snapping sharp beak.

Seeing this, Rainbow took flight again.
"Hey birdbrain, I'm still not done with you!", she called over to it, followed by her making immature faces and gestures at it.

With an angered shriek, the bird ignored Applejack and continued chasing after the blue pegasus.

Fluttershy and Spike were busy looking after Chopper, who was still trying to recover from his unwanted pile-up of clones, on top of Rainbow's less than soft dive-bomb.
"You okay?", Fluttershy asked quietly.

"I think so.", Chopper responded while rubbing the back of his head in pain. He then looked up and noticed the additional conundrum with the monstrous bird that had joined the situation. "What do we do about that thing?", he asked.

"And more importantly...", Spike turned around as his eyes widened, "...what do we do about us?"
As the pegasus and reindeer both looked around, they noticed they were once again circled by insectoid shapeshifters, slowly drawing closer and ready to pounce.

"I have an idea. Hold onto me as tightly as you can, you two!", Chopper said as Spike and Fluttershy did as told.

As the swarm began leaping at them from all directions simultaneously...

"GUARD POINT!"

...they just as quickly bounced back off the large hairball that had just appeared.

In his defensive form, Chopper tried to bounce his way to safety, the pegasus and baby dragon in the center of his protective fur, and an audible 'boing' sound being heard with each bounce.

Both Pinkie Pie and Rarity joined up with Twilight, who was busy shooting blasts of kinetic energy at the bird.
Aiming was hard for her, what with two of her friends up there potentially getting hit as well.

"This isn't working out.", she said while focusing, as Chopper's puffed up form approched the three ponies now too.
Coming to a halt next to them, Chopper shrank back to his hybrid Brain Point, revealing Spike and Fluttershy next to him.

"But what can we do?", Fluttershy asked in concern, "The changelings just won't let up on us."

"And neither does that ghastly bird!", Rarity added.

"What we need is a new plan of attack...", Twilight started as she noticed the changelings group up and encircleing the six.

"We're just gonna have to hoof it", Pinkie Pie called out, tying a vine around her forehead like a headband, and smearing two stripes of mud on each of her cheeks, Rambo style, before assuming a rather creative battle stance.
"Bring it on!", she bravely exclamed.
An awkward pause took place before the bug creatures all at once pounced on them to form a giant pile.

"Nice one, Pinkie", Rarity's voice was heard from it.

"Thank you!", Pinkie's voice responded happily, always the optimist.

Pink energy blasts repeatedly shot out from one side of the pile, knocking of more and more of the swarming enemies and freeing Twilight once again.

Pinkie Pie, defying physics wherever she went, helicoptered out of the battle, carrying Rarity by her tail. The unicorns expression at her flying earth pony friend looked just as dumbfounded as one would expect.

"KUNG FU POINT!" was heard from another side of the black twitchy mass of insectoids, and with a quick tornado-like spinning motion of kicks and punches, the hybrid reindeer managed to fling multiple changelings off of him and also got away.

Fluttershy thankfully managed to slowly drag herself out of the hoard of attackers, with Spike holding onto her tail for dear life.
Just as the pegasus mare tried to get back on her hooves and fly away, one of the changelings reached out and took a hold of the small dragon, pulling him back inside.

"SPIKE!", Twilight yelled in distress, running up to his positon and ready to shoot, only for the entire pile of changelings to take flight, Spike still caught in the middle.

The group watched the cluster of insect ponies rise higher and higher, as Twilight suddenly dissappeared in a pink flash.

Reappearing just above the swarm, the unicorn mare dove right in, determined to save her assistant screaming for help.
But after just a few seconds, she found herself kicked back out forcefully and caught by Chopper. Being put back on her hooves, Twilight called up to Rainbow Dash, who quickly flew by just above the events.

"Rainbow, we need help! Spike's in trouble"

But the pegasus was occupied enough with evading the monster shooting its razor sharp feathers at her "Sorry, but kinda busy here myself!"

Applejack, who had still been holding on bravely, finally managed to mount the creature and started trying to use her lasso in its jaws as a way to control its direction.
"Woah there, big fella!", she yelled as it retaliated fiercly, trying to shake the unwanted passenger off.

Twilight resumed firing at the bird, each blast carefully aimed to not harm Applejack.
However the repeated attacks from each of the ponies only seemed to further anger it by the minute. As its toothed beak finally snapped through the vine that was Applejacks only means of holding on, a few more powerful flaps of its massive wings were enough to sent the earth pony flying down towards the ground. Pinkie Pie selflessly jumped up in the air to catch her friend and soften her landing.

"Okay that guy or girl parties WAAAYYY too hard.", Pinkie stated, as a thankful Applejack helped her up.

"Rainbow, make it swoop down toward us again!", Twilight yelled up to the blue pegasus, this time a plan in mind.

"Wait, you're serious?", Rainbow called back down before glancing back at the avian monster behind her.

"Yes, and after that, go and get Spike right away!", Twilight ensured.

"But what about you guys?", Dash couldn't help asking, her loyalty showing.

"Just do it now!", Twilight ordered strictly as Rainbow hesitantly oblieged.

"Alright, here goes nothing. Incoming!", she warned one last time.

In a downward arch Rainbow zipped by her friends, her winged pursuer right on her tail.

As the bird came to the lowest point of its arch, Chopper, now back in his human form, tackled it from the side and sent it crashing into a nearby treetrunk. Confused and disoriented for a moment, the creature got back up on its talons before facing the hulking humanoid.
"I'll be your opponent now.", Chopper said, clenching both teeth and fists.

Without looking back, Rainbow instantly made out the swarm of changelings her dragon friend was stuck in and gladly came to the rescue.

"We have special forecast of tornadoes today with a small percentage of GET OFF MY FRIEND!" , the pegasus quipped before flying in circles and engulfing the entire swarm in a multicolored vortex. One by one, the changelings started getting tossed in all directions, getting caught in trees, bushes or just landing on solid ground.

As the whirl of air subsided, only Rainbow Dash remained in the air, along a much relieved dragon on her back.

"Give or take a small chance of AWESOME.", she added while descending towards the ground.
Jumping off her back and into Twilight's embrace, Spike wiped his forehead in relief.

"Thanks guys, that was terrible! I saw nothing but teeth and eyes and more teeth!", he exclaimed.

"Ah, so kinda like that time Mrs. Cake released that new cherry-apple-pie-recipe last Tuesday!", Pinkie Pie stated calmly, noticing all the other's eyebrows raised at her.
"It really sold.", she added.

"HEAVY GONG!", Chopper shouted, throwing his fist at the giant bird and knocking him back further.
The creature responded with another barrage of razor-like feathers, leaving small cuts all over Choppers arms as he tried to block. Lowering his arms, he was taken off guard by his oppenent charging at him and lifting him in the air by his neck. The talons of the beast began squeezing more and more as Chopper found himself lifted higher and higher above the forest.

Grabbing each of its legs with his large palms, the reindeer man slowly managed to pull the strangling claws off him and take a hold of its legs now instead. With a forceful motion, Chopper swung the bird downwards, sending it smashing into the ground.

The now falling hybrid spread all fours away from him, picked up speed and landed on top of the bird, burying it under his weight and causing a big cloud of sand and dust to emerge from the earth beneath.

The reunited ponies came running to the crashing side, waiting for the cloud to settle.

As it did, a motionless bird monster was revealed, along with a small, heavily panting reinder creature sitting on top of it.
"I think... that... did it.", Chopper muttered inbetween breaths, his tongue hanging out.

"Nicely done, Chopper.", Twilight smiled, levitating his small form and sitting him down next to her.
"I'm pretty sure we've seen the last of-"

As if on cue, the defeated bird monster began desintegrating back into smoke, which then retreated back into the thicket in thin trails.

"Forget it.", Twilight's head sank down.

"Hey, at least it's over for now.", Rainbow Dash tried to comfort her as she landed next to her friend, checking their surroundings.
"Speaking of over, those changelings are gone now, too. Seems my weather forecast was a bit too much for them to handle. Well, they're lucky there weren't any storm clouds nearby, that would've scorched their feelers real good!", she finished.

"But still no signs of the elements, huh?", Applejack asked, slapping the dust out of her hat. "So what now?"

"I guess there's no choice but to continue where we left off. MORE clueless searching.", Twilight sighed in frustration.

"Maybe not.", Chopper said, getting back up. "Now that we've run into those changeling again..."
He started looking around, his nose twitching excitedly.
"Yes! I can pick up their scent! We can track them now!", he called out, transforming into his feral reindeer form again.
"Follow me!"

The group followed the blue-nosed buck through the thicket, finally having a lead on their opponents, and eventually ended their pace at the entrance of a cave.

"They went right in there, I'm positive", Chopper ensured.

"Woah woah woah, are we just going to just waltz right in there?", Rainbow Dash was sceptical, and considering their troubles so far, rightfully so.

"Like I said, not much of a choice here.", Twilight explained. "With Celestia injured and Luna protecting Canterlot, it's up to us to do our part now and get those elements back into pony possession. And if that means taking our chances and running into danger head first, so be it."

"Gotta say, that don't really sound a lot like ya, Twilight.", Applejack pointed out.

"Yeah, what if you're already a replacement?", Pinkie Pie theorized before pulling out a magnifying glass from seemingly nowhere and carefully studying the unicorn from every achievable angle.

Twilight rolled her eyes and ignored her, everyone has already seen her perform her recognizable pink magic and techniques earlier, including their enemies, which brought the librarian back to her point.

"Let's just say I'm learning to go by my gut. And my gut tells me they're starting to adapt to our regular strategies. They're expecting us to come up with a good plan, so why not get the spring on them with the opposite?", Twilight finished.

The rest couldn't help but agree, none of them knew a better approach to this.

"So, everypony ready?", Twilight lit up her horn, ready to explore the dark caverns.

"Ready.", her friends answered in unison and followed her inside.

"You know...", Rainbow Dash walked up next to Twilight, giving her a friendly nudge "I like this new You, Twilight, you're starting to do things like me..."

"...Except MY gut only tells me that I'm hungry right now..."

---

In the now awfully silent halls of Canterlot Castle, Princess Cadence wandered on her own, looking for her groom. Ever since the truth about the invasion was revealed, she could tell Shining Armor was feeling dreadfully guilty over what went down between him and his sister.

As she made her way downstairs entering the main entrance hall where her wedding was meant to be held, she could instantly recognize the small white figure on the other side that was rushing towards the open gate.

"Shining Armor, where are you going?", Cadence's echoing call froze the stallion in place, his head turning to reveal a face of sorrow and tension, watching his fiance walking towards him.

"After them, of course. I thought about it. It isn't right that Twilight takes this responsibility on her shoulders, especially with how I've been acting around her, therefore... I'll take over this mission." he said, now face to face with the young princess.

"Please be reasonable, it's Twilight and her friends who wield-", Cadence tried to persuade him, but was quickly interrupted.

"Cadence, no!", a sharp yell from Shining echoed in the hall, silencing her. A short pause of regret set in, she could tell he felt terrible for raising his voice at his love. Forcing his tone to soften, he continued.

"Please, try to understand. I am the captain of the royal guard. If anypony was supposed to prevent all of this from happening, it's me! What I need to do now is to set things straight. I have to do this.", Shining Armor finished and tried to move, but was held again by his bride.

"Shining, please stop putting all the blame on yourself. I don't think anypony could've seen through the changeling queen's facade. There is no way you could've known. And Twilight brought the truth to light, so now it's in the past.", she reassured him.

The stallion's eyes widened at her words: "How can you talk like that? I don't even want to think about the time you had to spent alone in those dark caves!"

"Because I am a princess, Shining Armor, and I don't want to be weak anymore. If I ever want to aspire to anything great and inspire the ponies of Equestria to spread love from their hearts through our country, I need to be strong... especially at times like this.", Cadence said with much confidence.

"So positive, in times like these... I really am lucky to have you with me again.", Shining sat down on the staircase of the palace entrance.

"Besides, I wouldn't want to end up being a damsel in distress to you.", his bride smiled, settling down next to him.

"Hey, just so you know, I never thought of you like that.", Shining Armor chuckled.

"Humor in the face of danger, we can respect that.", a third voice made the pair turn around to see Princess Luna enter the hall.

"How is Celestia?", Cadence asked right away.

It took Luna a moment before speaking up: "She will recover, our sister has endured far worse than this.", earning a sigh of relief from the two. But Luna too had questions of her own.

"But the fact that she was overpowered by Chrysalis is what concerns me. The changeling race feeds on love, you say?", Luna asked the young princess, who could now finally put her cards on the table:

"Yes, by pretending to be somepony else, the love given by others strenghtens their magic immensly, especially true love. This way their kind feeds to survive for generations."

"How do you know all that?", Shining Armor asked his fiance in surprise.

"Chrysalis herself told me when she imprisoned me down there, she probably thought to never see me again. She does seem to be a bit on the arrogant side."

"So, if this is a matter of food, is there no option to resolve this peacefully?", Luna questioned.

"Believe me, I tried to convince them, but they don't see us ponies as equals to bargain with, to them we are a source of food only.", Cadence explained.

Luna understood the situation now: "Then we must rest our hopes on young Twilight and her companions. The elements must be returned to their rightful owners to defeat these enemies. The changeling queen has put Celestia in her current state, the two of you must share a strong bond of love for her to accomplish this."

"Well I...", Shining Armor began nervously, earning a small giggle from his fiance.

"Set aside your ambitions for now, Captian Shining Armor. Twilight Sparkle has proven on several occasions to be capable of astounding solutions against all odds. Have faith. It is something we lacked so much in our past. What we need now is somepony to keep control and security here.", was the only advise the nocturnal princess could give to him.

"Of course, your majesty.", Shining Armor reluctantly oblieged as clopping noises were enacted from the courtyard, getting the attention of all three.
One of the guards had rushed his way from the outer wall, here to deliver a message.

"It is Spike the dragon, your highness!" the guard called out.

As the guard lead his captain and princesses to the main gates of Canterlot, a small reptilian creature could be seen stumbling towards them. Spike was heavily panting after finishing his final sprint back to the city.

"Twilight... and the others... I lost 'em... nearly got captured...", the little dragon seemed completely out of breath as he fell on his behind.

"Relax, Spike, tells us what happened.", Cadence said, kneeling down next to the heavily breathing reptile, a hoof supporting him from the back.

"We were looking for the elements, but then I got tackled by a dozen of them! I lost Twilight and the others, and I think they're being led into a trap! They were trying to take me away, but I broke free and just ran for it. And I managed to snag this...", Spike explained, pulling up the small chest he was carrying with him. The container for the Elements Of Harmony, to everyones great surprise.

"The elements... Spike, you actually got them!", Cadence's voice rose, almost in disbelief of how one small juvenile dragon could manage to escape an entire swarm of changelings, let alone swipe the elements from them, when she herself remembered being so clearly overpowered by them at the time of her kidnapping.

"Meaning young Twilight and her companions are now about to be trapped with no hope of protection.", Princess Luna figured immediately.

Shining Armor flinched, trying to resist the urge of disobeying Luna's order and going after his sister. Said princess seeing this, could relate to his unrest, before turning to the young dragon.

"Thank you for informing us, Spike, and for risking your safety for ours. You have done Equestria an utmost great service. We must ask thou to come with us, we need to begin taking countermeasures", Luna said as she led the way back inside the castle for the little dragon.

"No problem, princess, thanks for letting me back in.", Spike began as he followed her, a flash of green rushing through his reptilian eyes.

"...Thank you so much..."

TO BE CONTINUED

Comments

[Tony Tony Chopper]

Good to be back!
A lot of things have happened in the last time period. My old computer rests in peace now, I rescued all my personal data onto this new one, I have gotten myself an awesome desk for doing paperwork like this, and I finally finished this new chapter. :)

There were times where I just wouldn't know where to take the story or what group to shift the focus to, but thankfully I didn't just twirl my thumbs in all that time. Whenever I had ideas I would write them down and add them in the story when I found the time.

I have also been working on a plan for upcoming battles. Not telling too much, but I'd love to make the future fights intertwine with one another. Each one of them affecting the other in a way, kind of like the battles back in Enies Lobby. Fingers crossed I can pull that off nicely. xD

And to those who're still reading this story after all that time, once again, THANK YOU for your patience, I promise this story will continue.

Have a nice day and or a good night, I'll be in touch.

[blite]

It's good to have you back sorry about your old computer but I'm looking forward to the upcoming battles also when Luffy and the main 6 meet

[Tony Tony Chopper]

9923488
Potatoes. Even Oda calls it "Horn Point", not "Antler Point".