Chopper visiting the Land of ponies, dragons and a ton of adventures! The Mane 6 as well as the Strawhat Pirates will face desperate situations, old and new enemies, a lot of fierce battles and... a wedding!?
Due to a little accident caused by the chaos aboard the Thousand Sunny, Chopper finds himself in the magical land of Equestria, but is soon enough finding new friends in our pony-pals. Will the ponies accept him for what he is? And will Chopper find a way back to his crew?
It was a foggy morning on the Grandline. Everything was quiet in the dark mist the Thousand Sunny, the ship of the Strawhat Pirates, was passing through. However the silence soon would be broken by an exited scream.
"AMAZING!!!" a light, yet male voice shouted. "Isn't it? Franky, do it again!" an even lighter voice yelled exitedly. "I would be SUPER happy to show you again!" a much darker voice called out.
It was what seemed to the crew as a regular morning. Their skeleton musican Brook was already awake to begin the day with a violin solo of his good old "Bink's Sake", much to the discomfort to the rest of the Crew that was sleeping.
After giving Brook one of her infamous beat-up's, followed by another cheer about how strong and yet lovley she is from the ship's cook Sanji, Nami, the navigator, looked at her Log-Pose, looking for the new course.
Zoro, the swordsman of the ship, dreamily made his way on the deck, only for him to take another nap, on the back of the ship.
Usopp, the ship's sniper and self-styled vice captain, was sitting in the crow's nest, hoping to find a way out of the fog.
Robin, the crew's archeologist, made herself comfortable in a chair while - how should it be different - reading a book.
Sanji, the already mentioned cook aboard, took the opportunity and served Robin a fresh papaya drink, answered by a thankful smile of her.
The last three members, Franky the cyborg shipwright, Tony Tony Chopper, the reindeer and doctor of the ship, and Monkey D. Luffy, captain of the Strawhat Pirates, were having fun with Franky's new waste disposal system, the 'Franky Dump Destroyer', a catapult which was literally made of rubbish.
"Geez", Zoro called out from the other side of the Sunny, "Why don't you just throw it into the water by yourself? It's just garbage."
"Oi, Zoro, how can you say such a thing!? It's always been a man's dream of firing a catapult like that!", Luffy angrily shouted back at him. "Yeah, Baka!!", Chopper agreed, not even knowing what the heck he meant. "Hey, hey, take it easy, you guys" Franky calmed them, "It has still enough manliness for the four of us." "WHY SHOULD I BE INTERESTED IN THAT???" Zoro shouted even louder now. But before anybody could answer, Nami came by, disturbing their "peaceful" conversation.
"Guys, we have a problem...", she carefully spoke. "Yeah, I need some money.", Brook interrupted. "SHUT UP!", Nami yelled, giving him once again a taste of her fist.
"The Log-Pose doesn't seem to settle itself for a single course." Everyone gave concerned looks.
"Maybe it has to do with all the fog around here" Robn guessed, laying her book aside. "No, I fear not", Nami responded, "I've been checking it, and it already was like that even "BEFORE we entered this mist." Luffy could only smile widely and shrug at her comment.
"Oi, Usopp! Can you spot anything up there?", Nami called up to the sniper.
"I think I can, though it's unclear whether its an island, a ship or a sea monster.", he explained. The "sea monster"-thing was just made up by him to scare Chopper. And it seemed like it was working. "S-S-Sea monsters?", the poor reindeer squeaked, climbing onto the top of the catapult in order to make anything out, what should later turn out as a HUGE mistake. "Well then, let us just stay here, in the safe mist.", he fake-smiled. "No way!", Luffy shouted exitedly, putting on his strawhat and jumping onto his favorite place of the ship, the lion head on the front "Go, Franky! Let's go full ahead!"
But Nami could only try to hold his euphoria: "Are you out of your mind? We can't even be sure what it is!"
"Don't worry!" Franky said in a relaxed tone leaning onto the trigger of his catapult, "The Sunny always brought us safely to our destiny. She won't disappoint us now."
The crews navigator just scoffed at that. "Well, I don't doubt THAT, I'm just concerned about -"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!", a high pitched voice screamed, making startling everyone for a moment.
Then silence. Dead silence. It was Sanji who broke it:"Now, what was that!?"
Then Nami responded: "I don't know, but it kinda sounded like -", she stopped when she saw the arm of Franky's catapult being now in a relaxed state, however before it was pulled down by Franky in order to fire another load of rubbish. Franky was still leaning onto the lever, which was now completly pressed down by his weight.
"CHOPPER!!!", Everyone shouted, looking for their crewmate.
It was what seemed as a peaceful morning in Ponyville. Foals were playing, adults were working and doing their daily business, old ponies were chatting.
Twilight Sparkle just awoke as the first sunbeams were reaching her face. "Whoops!", she said dizzily, as she noticed the book she was studying the night before sticking on her cheek. "Okay, no more late night studies from now on!", she smiled as she went off to her mirror brushing her mane, preparing for the big day-off with her friends she had planned.
"Well, at least", a male voice tiredly grunted from downstairs. "It really wasn't neccessary to repeat every single spell loudly, was it?" "Why good morning to you too, Spike!" Twilight called down, slowly making her way to the stairs. "And actually it WAS, it's very important to understand every spell's meaning correctly, just as-" "Ok, ok, '...just as the princess said', I got it.", Spike finished her sentence, before climbing out of his bed, and scratching his butt.
Soon, his tired mood was gone as he was preparing himself, taking on a bagpack (filled with gemstones, of course) and joining Twilight at the door. "But you know, there CAN be some more important things than spell-studying, right?", he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Why, sure, Spike, that's why I am taking this day-off with you and the others, remember?", Twilight responded.
"How could I forget?", Spike dreamily trailed off, unable to wait for munching his rubys and sapphires and spending time with Rarity as well.
"Well then, let's go!", Twilight happily cheered as she was leading the way towards the place their picnic was going to be.
As Twilight and Spike finally reached their destination, they were greeted by their five friends, Applejack, the fearless and honest cowmare, Rainbow Dash, the brave and loyal pegasus pony, Rarity, the fashionable unicorn with a heart of generosity, Pinkie Pie, the never resting party-pony, and Fluttershy, the introverted, but kind pegasus pony with a good bonding to animals.
"Hey there, Sugarcube,", Applejack began the conversation, "glad you made it!" "Well, one of us had a little bit problems getting out of bed.", Twilight replied, looking at Spike with a smirk. Spike could only roll his eyes at her comment. "Well, it is nice to know you found the time, Spikey-Wikey!", Rarity said as she picked him up and cuddled with him.
"Rarity...", Spike began, blushing lightly, "n-not in front of the others..." Everypony just giggled at his bashful behavior.
"Speaking of cute things,", Twilight began, "how's Angel Bunny doing, Fluttershy?" Fluttershy, who hasn't said anything yet, then slowly began to speak:
"Well I, uhm, I-I haven't seen him for a while now since our last walk. I went to look for him but I didn't find a trace of him anywhere..." "That's TERRIBLE!", Rainbow Dash now said surprised, startling her fellow pegasus friend. "I-I know... and the worst thing is... the only area I weren't looking at is the Everfree Forest!", Fluttershy replied shyly. This was when Twilight stood up: "Fluttershy, we'll help you looking for Angel, right girls?" "RIGHT!", the others called out.
"But what about the picnic?", Spike asked suprised, already swallowing two gemstones at once. "We can eat later!", Twilight answered to him as she levitated him onto her back, "Let's go then, we're going all together."
And so they made their way off into the depths of the Everfree Forest.
"DAMN!" a light voice echoed through the thicket, "DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!! Where am I here!?"
It was Chopper, running through a dark forest in his tiny "Brain Point", slight tears of fear forming in his eyes.
'Just why did Usopp have to scare me like that?', he thought to himself while running. 'If he wouldn't have done that I wouldn't have climbed onto that stupid catapult!'
He tried to rest himself by running behind a tree, hiding backwards. "I sure hope the others will find me... I already can't stand this scary forest anymore!", he puffed exhausted. He then began to continue his way, in a slow walk now, hoping to find any signs of civilisation, as his stomach began to rumble. 'Great, I don't have anything to eat with me -' he thought as he noticed a small carrot laying on the ground a few steps next to him. "Oh well, at least something", he spoke to himself while picking up the carrot and trying to take a bite from it.
All of the sudden, a small white blur came across, taking his carrot, causing Chopper to bite into nothing but air. "Hey, I found it first!" he shouted at the blur, which is revealed to be a small white bunny.
The bunny didn't seem to care for what Chopper said but growled angrily at him. Chopper, being able to communicate with animals, responded: "Well if it really was yours then how it comes I found it laying on the ground without any sight of you?" The bunny just growled another time, shaking his tiny fist and jumping off into the thicket with "his" carrot. Chopper, giving up on discussing with the small guy, just got back on his way looking for a way out of the forest
"Wonderful, being robbed by a bunny!", Chopper said to himself, letting his head and arms hang down, "Zoro would be so disappointed of me!" But before he could make any more thought, he suddenly heard a frightened squeak from behind him. "That was a HELP CALL!" he shouted as he quickly made a 180 degrees spin and ran back to where the noise came from.
He startled when he came to a small clearing, seeing the white bunny again holding its carrot, being surroundend by a herd of dark forest creatures. They appeared like big dogs, almost like wolves, and yet the looked like they would've been completely made of wood.
Chopper quickly ran up between the bunny and the strange woodland-wood-wolves, trying to calm them. "Hey, we don't wanna cause any trouble!", he started, but the wolf in front of him raised a paw, trying to strike him. Chopper quickly jumped backwards, as he looked back, at the frightened bunny, then forward at the creatures again. "I see, talking to you won't help that much, well then..."
Suddenly, Chopper began to change his form, growing massively muscles, his tiny hooves turning into huge hands and feet, his reindeer characteristics almost disappearing, with the exception of his blue nose and a bit of fur around his neck. His yellow-white-striped shirt seemed to stretch with his body, though.
He had just transformed into his "Heavy Point", his full human form.
The wolves all took a step backwards from Chopper, who was now towering over them.
The wolf right to Chopper leaped off, trying to attack him, but Chopper reached back his right arm andswung it back at the at the attacker. The wolf landed on its back, quickly got up shaking its head, and began to flee whining, along with the rest of its pack.
Chopper, after turning back into his Brain Point, turned to see a dumbfounded bunny. He asked the little guy: "Are you okay?" The bunny just nodded while hugging his carrot tightly.
Twilight and her friends were searching where they could for Angel. The sun slowy began to make its way to the sunset. "Girls, I've found something!", Pinkie Pie's voice called out. Everypony just made it's way to her, wondering what she might has found. "What is it, Pinkie?", Rainbow Dash said, landing in front of her pink-furred friend, as the others also came up to them.
It was what looked like a small bagpack, in a dark blue with a white cross on it.
"A bagpack!? Seriously, Pinkie?", Rainbow asked. "Trust me, I have an itchy feeling it has to do with Angel Bunny, I can just feel it", Pinkie said, selfconfident. "Whoever lost this bagpack, he or she maybe also got lost here just as Angel...", Twilight puzzled.
"Oh no! Does this mean we're maybe stuck in here forever?", Fluttershy screamed. "Calm down Flutter's, nuthin's lost yet", Applejack encouraged her. "Anyways let's proceed! We'll find your Angel, I promise!" Twilight spoke, as she levitated the bagpack, handing it to Spike for carrying it, before they continued their search.
"Oh, so your also lost here, separated from your friends?", Chopper asked the bunny that was sitting on his blue cap, "What a coincedence! So am I!", he giggled a bit, meeting a fellow sufferer. "Don't worry, we'll find a way out, I promise!", he explained,"My nose never disappointed me!"
Through the trees, a soft voice began to call: "Angel! Angel Bunny, where are you?"
"Angel Bunny? Is that your name?", Chopper said, putting the small furball off his hat, holding it in front of him. "Then they sure are searching for you! Finally some people that can help me!", he cried out happily, running in the direction where the shout came from.
"Angel! Where could you be?", Fluttershy kept calling. "I'm so sorry Fluttershy,", Rarity sighed, "But I fear we won't find him before nightfall.". As the ponies sadly began their way out of the Forest, hoping Angel was fine.
"WAIT! WAIT!", a high pitched voice called, "Do you mean THIS bunny?" All the ponies turned around to see a small creature with a blue and pink cap with a white cross on it, carrying Angel Bunny towards them. It was Chopper, who, as soon as he saw it weren't humans standing in front of him, immediately froze in place.
"Angel!", Fluttershy happily screamed, as Angel jumped off Chopper's hooves, leaping himself into her embrace.
"Hey, was that YOU who took Angel?", Rainbow called over to him supsiciously, making Chopper startle and run behind a tree, hiding himself backwards again.
"Wait, Rainbow!", Twilight stopped her from running towards him, by using her magic to pull on her tail, "We don't even know what happened." Angel began to tell his story to Fluttershy, who listened closely.
"Mhm... Mhm... Really? This is so nice of him!", she commented.
"What did he say?", Spike asked, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack still were keeping an eye on Chopper in the distance.
"He said he really was lost in the forest as he met him, shortly before he was attacked by timberwolves. But luckily this little guy over there saved him!", the pegasus explained, surprising everybody. "Hey, you there! Is that true?", Rainbow turned her face back over to Chopper, still in a strict tone. "W-well, yes...", Chopper replied, stuttering. "Aw, isn't he cute?", Fluttershy said to her friends, slowly walking towards him.
"Cute!? Don't think saying nice words to me will make me happy you jerks!", Chopper now fully went out of his hiding place, waving his arms in a happy dance while blushing madly.
"Oh my, he sure can't hide emotions.", Rarity added, also finding the courage to go near him.
"So what's your name?", Twilight asked while sitting next to him. "My name is Twilight Sparkle.", she began, as they all introduced themselves to Chopper.
"And I'm the one and only Rainbow Dash!", the blue pegasus spoke, landing next to her friends.
"Hey there little buddy, I'm Pinkamena Diane Pie, my friends call me Pinkie Pie but can just call me Pinkie Pie!", Pinkie squealed in joy of meeting a new friend.
"Well, haven't seen a creature like you before. Name's Applejack", the orange cowmare greeted the newcomer.
"And I am Rarity, and I must say those clothes of your suit you rather wonderfully, little cutie." Rarity politely introduced herself.
"A-and... and I'm... uhm... Fluttershy. And... I really have never seen such an adorable little creature like you.", Fluttershy carefully approached the reindeer, as always a little shy around strangers.
"Hi there, I'm Spike.", the little purple dragon casually walked up to Chopper.
"Nice to meet all of you, I am Tony Tony Chopper, but my friends call me just Chopper. So, where am I actually?"
"Well, you're in the land of Equestria, ruled by our princess, Princess Celestia.", Twilight explained to the reindeer.
"Princess? And is this land populated by talking horses like you?", he asked.
"Pretty much. Did you expect something different?", she asked again while smiling.
"Well a-aren't there any humans?", Chopper asked, leaving the ponies confused.
"Humans? You mean like the ones in fairytales? Of course not, you're so funny!", Twilight laughed, "Are you lost as well?"
"Uhm, yes and I'm trying to find a way back to my friends."
"Well, if you want to, you can join us to Ponyville, where you can rest yourself and tell us your story.", Twilight offered.
"Really? Thank you so much, Miss Twilight!", he happily cried.
"Hey, uhm, Chopper?", Spike patted his shoulder, making Chopper turn around. "We found that one, is that yours, maybe?", he said as he showed Chopper his bagpack he has forgotten in the forest after his encounter with the timberwolves. "Yup, that's mine, thanks, Spike!", he happily smiled at him. "Sure, no problem, man...", he returned, as the group, along with the recovered Angel Bunny and their new friend Chopper, made it's way through the the fading sunlight back to Twilight's Tree House, where he was going to tell them his full story...
It was shortly after nightfall when the six ponies, along with Twilight's dragon assistant, rescued pet and their newfound friend were reaching Ponyville.
"So, welcome to Ponyville, Chopper.", Twilight said, in a low tone, many ponies were asleep by now.
"It's a wonderful place, Miss Twilight!", Chopper cheered in excitement of seeing a town inhabited by ponies, of course, intelligent talking ponies, but ponies nontheless.
"Thank you, and you don't have to call me Miss, just call me Twilight like everypony else.", Twilight responded, as they were reaching the town square.
"And this is the place were I and Spike live.", Twilight said proudly as she showed him her home, the Golden Oak Library. "WOW! A TREEHOUSE! A HOUSE IN A TREE!", Chopper shouted in surprise, despite having seen some in the Torino Kingdom already. "SSSH! The citizens are sleeping right now!", Spike silenced him. "Oops, sorry!", Chopper shrugged.
As the group made its way into the treehouse, Chopper could finally take a seat, still totally exhausted from running through the forest as he began to speak: "First of all, thank you all for bringing me here. Without you I would still be in that dark forest!" He shivered by the thought of spending a night in that scary woodland.
"Well we couldn't just leave you there by yourself.", Fluttershy answered, giving him a smile, "and I want to thank YOU for rescuing Angel. You must be very brave." "Well, it was nothing, I just couldn't leave him there.", Chopper answered the pegasus, returning the smile, before it suddenly vanished. "B-brave!?", he asked as he began to blush. "S-SHUT UP! CALLING ME BRAVE AND OTHER THINGS WON'T PLEASE ME AT ALL, NO, NO!", he shouted as he performed his I-don't-like-compliments-dance on the chair again.
"Ok, good that we sorted that out,", Rainbow began, landing next to Chopper, "but where are you from, actually?"
"Well to begin with, I am the ship doctor of the Strawhat Pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy, a human..."
"PIRATES!?", everypony was shocked now, making Chopper realize that he may has said a little bit too much.
"I know, this is kind of complicated, I see, so think i'll just start all over...", he said, beginning his story right from the very start.
He began, as he told them that he was originally a reindeer on his home, the winter island Drum Island, shunned by the other reindeer for his blue nose. When he accidentally ate a Devil Fruit, the Human-Human-Fruit, his live began to change e as he became half man, half reindeer with the ability to change his form. One day though, many years after these events, Chopper met the human Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Strawhat Pirates, who asked him to come aboard as their ship doctor. Even though they are pirates, they don't do things like robbing and such, they all went to the sea to follow their dreams, and so did Chopper.
The most important thing in their lifes is their friendship, the way that everybody would risk his life for the sake of his friend on Luffy's quest, to find the 'One Piece' and become the 'Pirate King'.
Twilight was amazed by the idea of another world outside of Equestria and how 'Devil Fruits' work.
Spike couldn't help but stare at Chopper, unbelieving that THAT was a reindeer standing in front of him.
Fluttershy was in tears, the idea of such a small, vulnerable creature being lost struck with her. "D-don't worry, Chopper!", she said, "We'll help you find your friends!"
"This sure must be a terrible time for you now, poor dear!", Rarity added.
"Well it's good to know Chopper found some friends in these humans", Twilight said ,"I still can't believe that they are indeed real."
"Can we see your other forms?", Pinkie Pie said, bouncing around Chopper.
"Yeah, cause you don't really look like a reindeer!", Spike claimed as he laughed, "more like a racoon!"
"Wha- I AM a reindeer!", Chopper shouted at him, hating it being called something else.
"Well then I guess there's no problem to prove it, right?", Spike said with a confident smirk.
"Ok, here it goes...WALK POINT!" , he yelled as he began to turn into his full reindeer form, getting onto all four of his legs, growing in size, his antlers branching out, his mouth forming into a long snout and his fur becoming fluffier. The now fully feral reindeer was now noticably a few heads taller than his new equine friends.
Everyone quickly took a step backwards, though Spike jumped in surprise since he was standing right next to him.
"What? H-how did you-", Twilight barely managed to say. "Well, like I said, I ate the Human Human Devil Fruit, which allows me to turn from reindeer to human-reindeer hybrid and a full human as well!", he explained.
"Wow, with these horns you surely can rip out trees!", Spike said, hopping onto his back.
"This is fascinating! And you said a full human too?", Twilight cheered, already making notes about how Devil Fruits work.
"Yup, though I don't know if I should pull that off right away.", Chopper said, happy they took it so well.
"Well, that's pretty nifty, Ah'd say. Anyways, how late is it, sugarcube? Cause Ah'm gonna hit the hay!", Applejack tiredly said as she was going to leave to go home and finally go to bed.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot!", Twilight's eyes widened, "Do you have a place to stay while you're here?"
"Chopper saved my little Angel Bunny. I would gladly let him stay in my cottage for a start.", Fluttershy then politely offered.
"Really? Thanks so much, Fluttershy!", Chopper called out happily, throwing his forelegs around her, happy that he wouldn't be left alone again. Fluttershy, blushing, only could answer: "O-oh, it's alright Chopper, r-really, you don't have to thank me..."
The two, along with Angel Bunny on Fluttershy's back said goodnight to their friends, as Fluttershy was leading the way to her cottage for getting some sleep and preparing to guide Chopper around Ponyville.
Hello everybody, so here it is: A new chapter. I am so sorry for taking an eternity or two! I had some serious trouble with continuing the story. Thanks to a couple of ideas for the story plot from NightmareKnight (again, thanks so much, man!), I got tons of awesome ideas for the story to go on. Though I had some problems with building up to that part. I won't do ALL of his/her ideas but I'll try to go at least for 50/50 his/hers and mine ones. Alright, I guess I better just shut it now...
The morning sun over Equestria slowly began to show up behind the mountains, covering the tower of Canterlot in a bright orange light. Princess Luna, princess of the night and co-ruler of Equestria, was watching over Canterlot from there throughout the night as her older sister, Princess Celestia was slowly walking up to her.
"Rest, my dear sister. You deserve your recovery...",, she spoke in a mild voice.
"Did you sleep well, big sister?", Princess Luna responded. "I did... though I had a bad dream... I feel like something is simply not right." "I do believe I feel the same way. Like a foreign presence was here that was not supposed to... B-but it could also be only a bad dream, right?", Luna aksed her sister unsurely, making her way inside.
"Maybe you are right...", Celestia said, giving her a smile, before looking down from the balcony, full of thoughts. When Luna was out of sight, she slowly rose her head to look up into the silent morning sky.
"...or maybe not.", she calmly spoke to herself.
In the dark, stormy night, the Thousand Sunny was flinged back and forth by the enormous waves coming at it.
"Luffy! It's no use! We have to make it out of the storm first!", Nami shouted at the captain.
"NO!", Luffy called back to her, "We're not gonna go anywhere without our nakama!!" "Don't be that stubborn, man!", Brook shrieked hysterically, "I don't wanna die!"
"....Ah, wait, I'm already dead, yohohoho!!!"
"Watch out, you guys! There's a big one coming at us!", Zoro said, already pulling out one of his swords while pointing at a massive wave that was throwing itself over the ship. But it was no use. The ship completely got swallowed by the wave, pulled towards the dark depths of the raging sea.
Chopper, seeing this, called over to his friends.
"Guys!", he shouted at them, only to find himself nowhere near the ocean or his crew.
He slowly began to take notice of his surroundings, remembering the events of the day before bit by bit. He was in a small bed, his stuff laying right next to it.
'It was just a dream?', he thought for a second, before exhaling relieved, 'Thank God!' Jumping out of bed onto his small feet, Chopper began exploring the place.
There were many kinds of birds, squirrels, bunnys and other animals, reminding him that he was in the cottage of Fluttershy, who, in the evening before, explained herself to him as an animal-caretaker.
"Now that i remember...", he said to himself, "Where is she actually?"
Taking his bagpack and his hat, Chopper made his way to the door.
"Good morning, Dr. Chopper!", a soft voice called over to him as he was coming outside the cottage. It was Fluttershy, feeding a few chickens with Angel Bunny on her head. "Good morning, Miss Fluttershy!", Chopper greeted back while walking towards her. "I am ready to go to the town now.", he smiled at her.
"Good, I am just done with feeding the animals.", she replied. "You sure have a LOT of them...", Chopper said, astonished that a single pony could take care of so many different creatures, "... and yet you don't seem to have any trouble with it."
"Well, my friends always say that i have a very good bonding to animals, almost as if i could talk to them.", Fluttershy responded as a few birds were landing next to them. Chopper giggled to himself, finally meeting someone he could identify himself with.
As the two were reaching Ponyville, Chopper decided to turn into his Walk Point, his full reindeer form in order to blend in and avoid drawing too much attention to him. Most of the citizens noticed the stranger in their town, but didn't really pay attention to it.
"Incredible! A town full of horses!", Chopper cried out, unable to get used to the picture of ponies living just like in a human society.
"Are you sure we're gonna find him in the middle of the town?", a brown unicorn guard of Canterlot asked his colleague. "The princess told us to search for him there... What did he look like again?", his white unicorn partner asked. The brown guard quickly used his magic to pull out a poster, handing it to his comrade. "Here, look for yourself." "Alright, and HOW exactly do '50 Berries' translate into Bits?" "The princess said this bounty would have a height of-... ... 2 Bits...", the brown pony could only answer that.
The white one asked: "Then how in Equestria could that guy pose a threat to us?" "Don't ask me, ask the princess...", the brown pony answered again, annoyed by his comrade's questions,
"NO WAY! You also like sweets as much as I do!?", Pinkie Pie happily cheered. "I LOVE sweets!", Chopper agreed with her.
Fluttershy and Chopper have made their way to Sugarcube Corner, being greeted excitedly by Pinkie Pie, offering Chopper a "Welcome-To-Ponyville-Cake", which of course, he gladly accepted.
While the three of them were eating the cake, Chopper had a lot of questions running through his mind. Where was he actually? Where were his friends? Was there even a way to get back to them? Wasn't Twilight talking about some princess? Could she help him, maybe?
"Uhmm... Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy...?", he began unsurely, getting the attention of named ponies, "...About that princess, uhm, do you think she might be able to help me to get me back to my friends?"
Both Pinkie and Fluttershy quickly exchanged looks before Pinkie answered optimistically: "Why of course! The Princess Celestia knows almost everything about Equestria!" "And she's one of the kindest ponies I ever knew. She surely would will to help you...", Fluttershy carefully added. "Thank goodness...", Chopper exhaled, "If it wasn't for all you guys, I probably would have gotten lost forever!"
"Now, now, don't be so negative! There's no problem that can't be solved with the help of your friends and a ton of optimism!", Pinkie cheered out, patting him on the head. "Well, then I can't wait to meet up with her!", Chopper said, now with a light smile on his face, encouraged by the words of the two.
"I believe you will see her earlier than expected...", a voice calmly spoke behind him. The three turned around to see two royal guards from Canterlot walking up to them.
"W-what are the royal guards doing here?", Fluttershy dared to say. "Simple...", the brown one replied, "Tony Tony Chopper, the 'Cotton Candy Lover',...", showing a small poster to them. Both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy's eyes widened at what they saw, a picture of Chopper with a noted bounty.
"...in the name of Equestria, you are hereby arrested, and to come to Canterlot to await the judgement of Princess Celestia."
Wanted For 2 Bits! Confrontation In Canterlot Castle!
"Twilight! Twilight! Are you there? We need your help!", Pinkie Pie's voice was heard all over the town square.
The door then opened. "What is it Pink-", was all Spike could say before Pinkie drove him over, shooting into the house at the speed of sonic.
"Goodness, Pinkie!", Twilight laid her books she was going to reshelve aside, "What in Equestria brings you here that fast?" Pinkie Pie gasped a few times, trying to get air. "First... Fluttershy... and Chopper... Sugarcube Corner... yummy cake... then guards... and... ARRESTED!!", was all she could get out, before a short moment of silence. "Uhm, what?", Twilight said, tilting her head to the side a bit, as Fluttershy also came in.
"Well, she actually means that I took Chopper to Sugarcube Corner.", she spoke while trying to pull Spike off the ground as he was still sticking there, flat like a pancake. "And then, when we were discussing on how to help him, those royal guards came in. They told us that Princess Celestia has sent them down and Chopper would pose an immense threat to Ponyville. So they arrested him and took him with them. Right now he's probably on his way to Canterlot to get under the judgement of the Princess.", she explained in a worried tone.
"Didn't you follow them?", Twilight asked,
"We tried", Fluttershy answered again, "But they wouldn't let us. They said it would only be business of the princess and him."
"Okay, that's it.", Twilight said, determined to interfere with this. "I`m gonna go there too! As long as somepony hasn't commited ANYTHING against us, I won't have it!" "I-I'll come with you!", Fluttershy managed to get out. "B-But only if you don't mind it! I can't see somepony being arrested when he has done nothing wrong." "Count me in!", Pinkie Pie suddenly got back up from her exhausted state and saluted like a soldier. "Alright then," Twilight proceeded, "Spike, I need you to..." As she saw him putting an icepack onto his head, she began to change her mind "...recover at first, you can stay here, okay?" "I kind of like that idea..." he mumbled while sitting himself onto his bed, with miniature Pinkie Pies flying in circles around his head.
"Let's go then," Twilight planned, "Pinkie, Flutters, you two go get the others. We're gonna meet at the train station." Pinkie was the first to get into action: "Okie Dokie! On it! Next stop: Canterlot!" She then boosted back out of the treehouse, looking for the others.
Fluttershy also began her way out as she noticed something. "Oh, uhm, Twilight? What are you going to do then?" she asked carefully, making the unicorn blush slightly. "Well I...", she began while turning her back on Fluttershy, levitating two bocks in front of her face. "I'll take care of these two!", she stated, making Fluttershy give an confused look on her face.
"What? I just can't go outside while knowing I haven't put those books into their right places..." she stated, lightly embarrassed, as Fluttershy just smiled and also made her way outside, searching for her friends.
This was really not going too well. First, lost in a forest, then finding new friends that agreed to help him in his misery, only to find himself back in trouble again!
Chopper was on his way to Canterlot, castle of the rulers of Equestria, guided by a total of four royal guards who put a strong metal collar onto his neck, four chains being connected to it, every single of them held by one guard, in order for him to not escape.
Of course, Chopper could have switched from his reindeer form into his small Brain Point, but he also had his reasons to not do so. First, he didn't want to cause unecessary trouble in the city for he didn't even have a clue where to go from here. Second, he wanted to meet the princess anyway, asking her for help. But unfortunately, it was the princess herself the warrant came from so he didn't expect this meeting to be too helpful.
When they finally passed through the castle gates, Chopper shivered, wondering what that princess would be planning to do with him. He could already imagine himself being handed over to the Marine, spending his days in a high security prison, waiting for his crewmates to come and free him. When the guards finally came to a stop in the middle of the throne hall, his mind finally snapped back to reality.
"Your highness,", the brown unicorn guard spoke up, "As commanded, we have brought you the wanted pirate."
A white pony came flying in, landing gracefully in front of them. It was bigger as the other ponies, even being a head taller than the reindeer. It had a long pointed horn coming from its forehead, wings that were even larger than the ones of the pegasi he saw earlier and it wore a small tiara on its head. Obviously she must have been said princess.
"Although I am not entirely sure wether it's him or not. He looks a bit different than on the poster.", he added.
As much as Chopper wanted to ask her anything right now, he was fairly impressed and even a bit intimidated by the bare presence of the immortal alicorn to even bring out a word. The princess then began to speak: "Thank you, guards. And I can assure you, it IS him." She then turned her attention to Chopper. "I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I apologize for this sudden and unforseen situation but I would like to have a word with you."
"WAIT, PRINCESS!", The group of Twilight Sparkle and her friends rushed inside the hall.
"No imprisoning, please!", The purple mare called again.
"Twilight!", Chopper yelled over to them, a slight smile in his face.
The team managed to step on the breaks just before they were going to smash into troup of guards. To make things even more confusing, Princess Celestia suddenly gave out a light giggle at her students behavior.
"With all due respect, Princess,...", Twilight began, "...but what exactly is there to laugh at?" Celestia, now with a warm smile then began to explain: "My dear precious student, I did never plan on imprisoning him."
"You didn't?", Twilight was even more puzzled now.
"You didn't?", Chopper lifted his head in surprise.
"SHE DIDN'T?", The white and brown unicorn guards both bursted out in unison.
The princess then finally gave answer: "Of course not. Even as a princess, I have no right at all to arrest innocents.", making Chopper exhale in relief. "But I did not let my guards bring you here for no reason. The problem I must discuss with you is not your actions here, rather your connection to humans." "What? Why?", Twilight protested. At this point, the reindeer lost all hope in ever returning to the sea with his crewmates.
"Humans are well known and feared for their destructive capabilities. They do not even hesitate destroy ones of their own kind. War is a very big part of their history and existence. I could not forgive myself for letting such an offensive race enter our peaceful lands."
"That... That's not true!", Chopper suddenly objected, getting the alicorns attention once more. "I-I mean not entirely. I also got bad experience with humans, of course, but not all of them are like that! My friends are all humans! Also, I may be a reindeer..." he added, as he suddenly began to shrink in size, out of his metal collar, turning back into his small hybrid form again, startling the guards around him. "...but I'm also partly human. Their problems are also mine."
Princess Celestia thought for a second, then responded: "Then I guess it's settled." Chopper gave out a blank stare at her. "Settled? What is settled?" "I have decided what exactly to do with you, Chopper. You can stay here, for now.", she finally announced. "Really? Thank you so much, princess!", the reindeer shrieked, running towards her and hugging her foreleg. A few guards approached, planning on pulling him off, but their princess simply waved them off, showing them it was okay. "But princess, what are we to do with him then?", one guard spoke up, still confused.
A small box then came flying, glowing in a bright blue, apparently being held by the princess' magic.
"To the day we can fully trust you, you are to wear this.", she said. The box then opened as a small silvery object came levitating towards him. It looked like some sort of metal bracelet. "It will prevent you from utilizing any of your powers given by this mysterious fruit." "Kairoseki!", Chopper's eyes widened as it attached itself onto his left wrist.
"You may go now. I hope you will have a nice stay here."
"Thank you Princess Celestia, you are much nicer than I imagined.", he spoke up to her gratefully. The alicorn princess just simply returned his smile and patted his head. "I could say the same about you, Doctor Chopper." "Huh? D-don't think calling me a doctor would make me happy in any way, princess!", he giggled happily, doing his bashful dance again.
The way back to the train station seemed a lot easier, now with all the pressure gone, and Chopper actually began to take a liking to this land. Having met so many friends in less then a day, and a princess that is so caring and nice, he couldn't felt any happier since he got separated from his crew.
"See? We told you she was nice!", Pinkie Pie cheered in her classic manner. "She is...", Chopper mumbled, slightly giggling at his scared behavior from before. "Guys, I want to thank you all for sticking with me during that. Even though we only met yesterday you are so relieable friends. So if there is anything I can do in return for you, I will do my best!", he said to his new friends with happiness in his voice.
"It's the least we can do, since you seem pretty okay in my book, you can ask me for autographs later.", Rainbow Dash said proudly.
"No problem, fella,", Applejack continued, "if there's any help at Sweet Apple Acres needed, Ah'll let 'ya know."
"I still can't thank you enough for finding my little Angel, s-so yes, like Rainbow just said, it's the least we could do...", Fluttershy quietly added hugging him like a teddy bear (and ignoring his protests of not liking being hugged).
It was then when Twilights eyes suddenly widened, followed by a slight smirk of hers "Actually I'd know a good way to begin with..." The others then all looked at her in surprise. "Oh, really? What is it?", Chopper wondered.
"There's a certain little dragon at home that could really need a few pain killers.", she cackled a bit, making the others giggle as well, as the train back to Ponyville finally arrived, ready to carry them home.
"So, what does it feel like being a pirate?", Twilight eagerly asked. "It sure must be dangerous...", Fluttershy murmured. "It sure must be FUN!", Pinkie Pie cheered curiously.
One day after the meeting with Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and her friends finally found the time to make up for the already planned picknick. And having a new friend from another land, the unicorn once again found a new topic of interest. Now, with Angel Bunny safe and sound back home in Fluttershy's cottage, the seven friends would finally have a bit of free time again... yet.
"Well, it IS dangerous...", Chopper began, while trying to avoid the memories of those horrors that happened on the Thriller Bark, not to mention the several times he always got lost or just felt like the fith wheel of a cart. But then he remembered all those good times he could share with his crewmates. Luffy always stuck up for his crew, and Chopper always wished to be like his friends, brave and courageous.
"...but it's also fun at the same time.", he simply smiled, making Pinkie slightly puzzled. "Oh, so you mean it's funnily dangerous?", she quickly guessed. "Uhm, I..." "Or is it dangerously funny?" "Well..." "Wait, I got it! It's fun-gerous, right?" "Uh...", the reindeer didn't even know how to respond to that as Twilight already found a new question for her to ask: "And how are your friends? I mean, if you already miss them that much, they sure won't be as bad as the princess said, right?", she asked again, thrilled to know more about humans and the like while the little reindeer found itself helplessly bombarded with its new friends questions.
"Well, where do I begin...", He sighed as he began to tell them about his loyal crewmates.
At the exact same time, only at a not so happy place:
"Meat... Meat... MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!" "There IS no more meat, you glutton!" "Ow, why did you hit me!?" "Well, did it hurt?" "OF COURSE it did!" "See? That's why I did..."
The Strawhat Pirates were still hopelessly sailing through the apparently never-ending cloud of fog, with their hope of finding their ship doctor constantly shrinking, as well as their captains stomach becoming more and more impatient.
"Okay than... anyways, we need to find Chopper now!", Luffys mood quickly changed from depression to a new boost of confidence, making Usopp complain: "As if we weren't trying, you blockhead! The only one that did nothing so far is YOU!" That comment made the captain only frown. "Well, I'm sorry but I can't think with an empty belly..."
"THAT'S THE PROBLEM! YOU CAN'T THINK AT ALL!", both Usopp and Sanji, who already has kicked Luffy on the head as mentioned before, yelled at him in despair, as Sanji added: "Gee, what a bonehead..."
"Did I hear 'bonehead'? That's my keyword!", Brook suddenly broke in, "Being angry all the time isn't good for your health, you know. And I know what I'm talking about, for I am dead, yohohoho! So please, have a seat and allow me to calm your stressed out minds with this soothing tune..."
Unfortunately, as soon as he began to play, both captain and cook went back to arguing whether or not they should have an even stronger lock for the fridge.
At this sight of pure chaos, the crews poor navigator could just bury her face in her hands. 'How could I end up on this ship?', she kept asking herself as she tried to get some advice from Robin.
But as soon as she looked at her friend, she noticed her face was turned neither towards the whole scenery of disharmony nor any of her books. Instead she was looking straight up into the dark sky.
"This place sure has strange birds, doesn't it?", she silently spoke, pointing upwards. As Luffy and the others surpisingly heard her comment in the middle of their argument, all of them rose their heads to see what she meant.
A large group of tiny dots was floating high above them, way to high for the crew to identify them. And seemingly flying into a specific direction.
"What? Birds? If anyone's gonna eat those first, it'll be me!", Luffy quickly stood up, began rotating his arms rapidly to build up momentum and then launched his opened hands into the sky. He actually managed to get a grip on one of them.
"GOMU GOMU NO ROCKET!"
Within a second, the rubberman shot himself directly up, aiming for this swarm of 'birds'. As soon as he got up to their height, he immediately wrapped his flexible limbs around his prey, smiling from the thought of finally having lunch.
But when he saw what he actually had catched, he quickly changed his mind.
The rest of the crew could only hear his voice from the distance:
"That's not a bird at all!"
With a loud thud, he crashed back onto the Sunny, along with the creature he caught. Zoro then quickly stood up: "What in the world is THAT!?"
This strange and yet terrifiying beast was a little bit smaller than Luffy. Instead of claws or hands it had four hoof-like feet, on the back of its neck was a fin that looked like a mohawk. Its mouth showed a pair of sharp fangs, on its forehead, there was what seemed like some sort of horn and on its back, there were two insect-like wings, flapping extremely fast during the struggle. Its face had a pair of glowing blue eyes, and its legs somehow seemed to be badly damaged for they had several holes going through them.
Luffy then finally gave answer to the swordsman.
"I have no idea but it keeps biting me! Stop it! I'm the one who's supposed to eat you!", he screamed at the giant bug-creature. Robins eyes widened at the sight: "This animal is somehow fascinating... do those live in these waters?"
The thing then finally broke itself free from Luffys grip, trying to attack Nami first. Of course, Sanji almost instantly dashed in between them, swiping the attacker of with a simple but forceful kick. "Don't you dare touch our dearest Nami-san!", he eyed it furiously. Usopp could only come up with more bad news: "Well done, Luffy! Now there's the whole swarm coming down!"
It litterally rained dozens of these little pests onto the Sunnys deck, as the crews members all could come in action.
"Hey, I'm not gonna tell you guys twice: Get off my ship!", Franky bursted out as he delivered them a first taste of his "STRONG RIGHT!"
"How are we gonna get rid of those?", Zoro roared, trying to slice a couple of them, but their agile insect wings allowed them to quickly dodge the attacks.
"The only useful way I see there, we eat 'em...", Luffy already has grabbed the one he caught first again, trying to take a bite from it, "...uh, we CAN eat them, can't we?"
Sanji took a long drag from his cigarette thinking about his captains question, and remembering that thing's reckless attack against his beloved Nami.
"You know what?", he calmly said, giving Luffy a terrifiying, evil smile, "Let's find out..."
At these words, the insect-like monster's eyes widened. It gulped and began to sweat of nervosity, fully aware of the situation it was in. It then struggled itself loose from Luffys grip once more waving its comrades over to him and pointing with its hoof back up telling them to go. It growled one more time angrily at the crew as the swarm then began to leave. However, two of them were still busy fighting over a hat, their teeth deeply sunk in it.
Luffy's hat.
This caused Luffy to absolutely lose control over his temper: "Are you insane? Let go of my hat, you bastards!!!"
He ran over to them, screaming like a wild animal, causing the two remaining members of the swarm to let go and try to escape. But before the could get into a safe range, the boy made of rubber could grab both of them, each with one hand, by their tails.
"Oh no, you won't! You damaged my hat and you are SO gonna get eaten for that!"
Lucky for the two guys, they were able to break lose and flee to the rest of their swarm, leaving a speechless Luffy on the ship, with pieces of their tails in both hands. Usopp could just exhale in exhaustion. "Well, good that this is over."
"What's so good about that!? My hat's badly damaged and I still haven't eaten anything yet!"
Suddenly, Nami's face finally wore a big smile on it. "Good news, you guys!", she spoke up, getting everyones attention again, "The Log-Pose has finally settled itself for a course!"
"Fine then, which way does it point?", Luffy impatiently asked, with a wide smile on his face.
"This one.", she replied with a confident smile, as she pointed into the same direction the swarm of the attackers had fled to.
"Okay, so that will be the nearest island from here, which means there's a chance of finding Chopper there. AND I will get revenge for my hat... and then we'll make food out of them. You got it?", Luffy spoke to all of his crewmates, picking up his wrecked strawhat, putting it back onto his head and leaped over to the Sunnys lion head.
"GOT IT CAPTAIN!", everyone shouted in unison.
"Alright, then... LET'S GO!!!", Luffy shouted into the air, as the team, now with new hopes for finding their lost ship doctor, went straight ahead for the new course, not knowing what kind of adventure would await them...
Back in the land of ponies, Equestria, Chopper had finished to introduce his crewmates to his new friends, as, unknown by the group, a pair of feet hastily made its way from a far distance over the meadow towards them.
Rarity could only smile at the nearly perfect weather, ideal for making a picknick. "It is gorgeous out. Just gorgeous!"
The sound of footsteps now quickly approached, resulting in a purple baby dragon joining the group, sweating and trying to get oxygen. It was Spike.
Without even greeting, he immediately got to the point: "Twi-... -light!... I... have... Lemme just..." He took a deep breathand belched out a letter in a small green flame. After levitating the letter in front of her eyes, Twilight then began to read:
'Dear Twilight, I am sure you are as excited as I am about the upcoming wedding in Canterlot.'
Twilight then quickly turned to her friends: " Wedding?" She then continued reading:
'I will be presiding over the ceremony, but would very much like you and your friends to help with the preparations for this wonderful occasion.
Fluttershy, I would like you and your songbird choir to provide the music.'
At this invitation, Fluttershy could only smile bashfully: "Oh my goodness! What an honor!" Twilight then continued to read:
'Pinkie Pie, I can think of no one more qualified than you to host the reception.'
The earth pony made all kinds of jumps and flick flacks across the blanket, in joy, of course: "Hip, hip, hooray!
'Applejack, you will be in charge of the catering for the reception.'
The orange earth pony gave her answer confident as ever: "Well, color me pleased as punch!"
'Rainbow Dash...'
Mentioned pegasus just simply yawned at that, until...
'...I would very much appreciate it if you could perform a sonic rainboom as the bride and groom complete their 'I do's'.'
Rainbow Dash quickly switched her mood to excitement-mode: "Yes!"
'Rarity, you will be responsible for designing the dresses for the bride and her bridesmaids.'
The spechless unicorn mare could not stand the truth: Princess Celestia wants me to- ...wedding dress?" Rarity began swinging back and fourth, on the verge of losing consciousness, with Fluttershy hesitantly trying to keep her from falling. "For a Canterlot wedding... I, ah, oooh!" She then fainted in exitement, laying motionlessly in the grass.
Being a doctor, Chopper tried to get over to her and check her up, but the other five ponies told him it would be 'normal for her attitude', as Twilight began to read the last information:
'And as for you, Twilight, you will be playing the most important role of all: Making sure that everything goes as planned. See you all very soon. Yours, Princess Celestia.'
The group of ponies, dragon and reindeer was now filled with excitement and flustering, only Twilight scratched her head.
"I've never been on a wedding before!", Chopper bursted out, turning to Spike,"Do you think it's okay if i... uhm, if i'll come too?" The small lizard only smiled at him: "Pfft, SURE you can, man!", causing his friend to run around the group in anticipation, his eyes glowing like stars.
Twilight however was still baffled. "But... I don't understand. Who's getting married?" All of her friends just broke their joy and stared back at her, not knowing exactly how to answer.
All of her friends? Well, almost. Twilights assistant then gasped, almost forgetting something. "Oh, wait! Uh, I was probably supposed to give you this one first.", He just added with a bit of embarrassment in his voice, handing the unicorn a much smaller letter. She then read out text of the second sheet of paper, completely unprepared for the shocking news:
'Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and...'
Twilight gasped at the letters last words:
"...My brother!?"
The Strange Case Of Cadence's Lost Memories! You're On Your Own, Twilight!
Every pony in Canterlot and Ponyville was highly excited about the wedding of the royal guards captain, Shining Armor. Twilight Sparkle however, was furious. Why couldn't he just tell her in personal? Or at least just write a letter right away?
Celestia's praised student then quickly got rid of those thoughts, concentrating on her goal: Getting explainations. A lot. On the other hand, however, she was secretly just plain happy to see her Big-Brother-Best-Friend-Forever again, as she even told her friends about how important he really is to her in song.
Twilight told her friends to wait for her in the city, due to it being 'family business' as she said. And being a rather organized pony, she also didn't want them to witness her childish side as soon as she would reunite with her brother.
From the castle walls, many guards were watching over the city. Strangely, Twilight and her friends have seen lots of them since their arrival at the train station. They were literally EVERYWHERE. Odd enough for something as glamourous and peaceful as a wedding. What could this mean?
Among those guards on the walls, there was a certain white stallion doing his sentry duty as commanded to him. Until his concentration soon would be broken by a voice all too familiar to him:
"I've got something to say to you, mister."
The colt looked down, his face lighting up quickly at what he saw. "Twily! Ah, I've missed, you, kid. How was the train ride? I-"
"How dare you not tell me in person that you were getting married! I'm your sister, for pony's sake!"
Once he got off the castle wall, the stallion nervously began: "I-it's not my fault! Princess Celestia has requested a major increase in security. Didn't you see all the guards at the train station?" "Yeah, there's a big wedding coming up. Maybe you heard about it?", his little sister responded with a lot of sarcasm in her voice.
"It has nothing to do with the wedding. A threat has been made against Canterlot. We don't know who's responsible for it, but Princess Celestia asked that I help provide additional protection. This, you need to see."
He then made a few steps backwards for getting space as his horn began to light up in pink. After a short moment of charging the spell, a blast of magic shot into the sky. Once it reached an appropriate height, it grew into a giant pink 'bubble' of a force field, shielding the entire city from any possible outside threat.
Twilight's friends were still waiting patiently at a small café they had stopped on, waiting for their friend's return.
"You- you're a dragon!?", Chopper began, his jaw reaching the ground. Spike took on a heroic pose: "Yeah, and I don't wanna scare you, but if anypony messes with me, I can turn into full grown dragon. And you do NOT wanna mess with me!", he flunkered.
Chopper shrieked uncontrollably in excitement: "A dragon! So cool! How big can you get? Can you fly? Can you spit fire?!", as he observed him from every angle possible.
"Hey, you can call me 'Flamethrower' if you-", he bragged, taking on another pose, only to notice his 'fan's' attention to be focussed already on something entirely else.
The reindeer looked straight up into the clouds with an awestruck expression in its face. "The sky! It's turning pink! This is truly a magical place!"
"...if you want...", the dragon finished his sentence, sweatdropping from his friend's strange behavior.
The five ponies that watched the scene smiled at the two's strange new friendship. "Aw, aren't they cute together?", Fluttershy asked her friends, her eyes not leaving the two.
Rainbow Dash just frowned: "How could he not know Spike's a dragon? I mean, didn't he see him spit fire during our picknick?"
Applejack scratched her head: "Gee, that little fella sure gets impressed easily..."
"Quite a cutie, isn't he?", Rarity added, as she took a sip form her cup of tea.
Pinkie Pie also took a look straight up, repeatedly nudging Applejack. "Wow, girls! Look! The sky really is pink! AJ, you see it? AJ, you see it? AJ, you see it?"
"Yes Pinkie, we all can see it."
"Oh... hey, Dashie, you see it? Dashie, you see it? Hey Dashie, can you see it?"
After a few more seconds of recomposing himself, Shining Armor then continued to explain his case: "The burden of keeping Canterlot safe and secure rests squarely on my shoulders. Staying focused on the task at hand has been my top priority."
The colt and his sister began to walk further, onto one of the bridges above the city as Twilight awkwardly continued: "Okay, okay, I get it. You've got a really important job protecting all of Canterlot with a force field only you can conjure up. But still... how could you not tell me about something as big as your wedding?", she paused for a second as a small tears formed in her eyes, "Am... am I not that important to you any more?"
Her question made the stallions eyes widen before he gave her a gentle smile: "Hey. You're my little sister. Of course you're important to me. But I'd understand if you didn't want to be my best mare anymore." "Y-you want me to be your best mare?" "Well... yeah."
"I'd be honored! But I'm still pretty ticked you're marrying somepony I don't even know! When did you even meet this 'Princess Mi Amore Cadenza'?
Shining Armor smiled: "Twily, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Cadance, your old foalsitter." The unicorn mare gasped. "Cadance? As in THE Cadance? As in the greatest foalsitter in all the history of foalsitters?!" A small chuckle was heard from her brother: "You tell me. She was YOUR foalsitter." "Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! Cadance is only the most amazing pony ever! She's beautiful, she's caring, she's kind...", she managed to say as her voice trailed off.
She could remember those wonderful days just like yesterday...
On a beautiful grassy field, a young Twilight Sparkle cheered: "I am so lucky to have you as my foalsitter!", making her foalsitter give a smile right back.
"I'm the one who's lucky, Twilight.", the young Cadence said warmly, patting the filly's head. The small foal just scoffed at her statement. "You're a princess! I am just a regular old unicorn."
"Oh, you are anything BUT a regular old unicorn.", Cadence ensured her, as the two sang their little song:
Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!
Twilight just couldn't hold herself: "How many unicorns can just spread love wherever they go? I only know of one! And you're marrying her!", as she began in a sing-song voice: "You're marrying Cadance! You're marrying Cadance!"
Unnoticed by the two, a certain alicorn joined the scene.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important"
Twilight turned around, and smiled at what she saw...
"I do. Do you?", Spiked asked in a deep male voice, holding a miniature of Shining Armor in his claw, before picking up a small figure of Princess Cadence in the same size, answering his own question in a high voice: "I do!" He then put the two together, making all kinds of smooching and kissing sounds.
"Amazing! Is it really gonna go down that way?", Chopper asked his reptile friend, eager to be part of the wedding. "Pretty much. And we have the honor on help them out on the preparations! This is gonna be great!" "But how can I help?", the reindeer asked again, not knowing a single thing about weddings and the like. Spike just reassured him: "Don't worry, I've got no clue either. We'll let you know when there's stuff to do." The two then continued chatting, unaware of the rather serious conversation going on behind them.
"I swear, she didn't even remember our song!", Twilight ended her story. Applejack could only try to assure her: "Come on Twi, don't be so sceptic. Ah mean, if she really hasn't seen ya since those days, she surely won't remember EVERY single detail about it, right?" The librarian sighed in an annoyed way. Nobody seemed to understand what she was trying to point out. "But this was OUR song! She has to remember that!"
Rarity decided to interfere. "Twilight, I really don't see where you're going with this. All I have noticed so far was you being so hostile towards Cadence since your meeting with her.", she stopped before daring to show a small grin. "Could... could it be that you are... jealous?"
Twilight got furious. They really didn't understand her.
"I am NOT - JEALOUS!!"
She slammed her forelegs onto the café table, making her friends startle a bit. She got up from her seat, feeling the urge to take a walk. Alone.
"So you don't want to believe me? Fine. I'll get to the bottom of this by myself and find out what's the matter with her!"
The unicorn slowly left the rest of her group, without a certain destination in mind, needing time to think.
Fluttershy carfully called after her. "W-wait Twilight, we didn't mean to-", before she was stopped by Rainbow Dash. "I'd say let her. If I had a brother marrying a princess without even giving me a hint, I'd need to digest that too. She'll get over it."
As Rainbow finished, the whole group was left in an awkward moment of silence, watching their friend trotting away aimlessly.
She had to keep an eye open on her.
And so she did. For the next days of planning and preparation for the upcoming event, Twilight always had been observing her former foalsitter.
When checking out the menu Applejack has been preparing, Cadence actually seemed to only act as if she was enjoying the treats, secretly getting rid of them.
While taking a first look at her brideswear, which Rarity already had done her best on, she almost immediately demanded a lot more drastic changes on it, as well as on the ones for her bridesmaides, ignoring their own opinions completely.
At the sight of her wedding's reception, which was prepared by Pinkie Pie, and a fairly good job to say the least, Cadence simply referred to it as 'the birthday party of a six year old', which Pinkie luckily took as a compliment.
Probably the oddest thing Twilight took notice of was the sudden dissappearing of her three bridesmaides, Twinkleshine, Minuette and Lyra Heartstrings, reinforcing her suspicions even further. To make things even odder, Cadence simply declared her new ones to be Twilight's pony friends, not showing any concern in the slightest for the missing ponies.
At this point, the amount of evidence was overwhelming, at least from Twilight's view. And after a lot of struggling, she finally took all of her courage and went to her brother's quarters, hoping he would understand her concerns.
Shining Armor just has finished putting on his groomswear as a soft knocking was heard at his door. The stallion turned around and smiled when he saw his sister entering. "Twily! Your big brother's looking pretty good, don't you think?" His smile vanished just as quick as it appeared when he saw the depressed expression on her face. He could tell something was bothering her. "Everything okay?"
Not wasting any time, Twilight decided to get to the point right away: "We need to talk. I think you're making a big–"
Her first attempt was cut off by sound of Cadence clearing her throat. "Oh, uh, hi, sweetie.", Shining Armor greeted. "She sure has a way of sneaking up on people.", Twilight murmured to herself.
Cadance snapped sharply: "Could I speak to you for a moment, dear?" Her future husband took a look back at Twilight. "Better see what she wants."
The two then went into a room nearby, leaving the door a small inch open. Twilight's ears could pick up the conversation behind it.
"Look, we need to talk." "I'm here to talk." "It's about your sister, okay?" "I– look, look, she's okay– "Just... listen to me, alright?" "I'm listening, I'm listening." "I thought I made it perfectly clear I didn't want you to wear that."
Twilight dared to take a peek through the crack in the door.
Shining Armor explained: "This was my favorite uncle's." Cadence arched an eyebrow. "And?" "And I think I should wear it." "Are you disagreeing with me?" "I guess I am– Ah!"
Out of nowhere, Shining Armor seemed to suffer great pain in his head as he held the affected area with his hoof. Princess Cadance took notice of that: "Oh, dear. Are you getting another one of your headaches?" A green glow appeared on her horn as it shot a magic beam in the same color straight at her groom's horn. "Feeling better?" The stallion nodded with a grunt. It was then when Twilight ultimately came to the conclusion:
"She isn't just unpleasant and rude. She's downright evil!" With that knowledge, she left the building in a matter of seconds.
As the couple came back out, Shining Armor immediately called after her: "Twilight!" But Cadance interfered. "Let her go." Shining Armor did as she said, his eyes however not leaving Twilight, with a puzzled expression on his face.
"It seemed like she had something else she wanted to tell me."
The next morning, the day of the wedding...
The preparations for the wedding were almost finished as Princess Celestia went through the last steps of practice for the ceremony with the rest of Twilight's friends who really seemed to be pleased with the progress they've made so far.
And so was the Princess: "Perfect, girls. No need to rush. Then of course, Cadance will enter."
The organ then played it's bridal chorus while said bride entered the hall, stepping next to her fiance. Everyone watched her patiently as Princess Celestia continued her instructions: "I'll say a few words, and then we'll begin with the vows. Shining Armor, you'll get the ring from your best mare." Shining Armor looked down to his side, only to find Spike playing once more with the small figurines and Chopper watching him once more with amaze, but no trace of his best mare: "Hey... has anypony seen Twilight?"
As if on queue, the doors flung open.
"I'm here! I'm not gonna stand next to her! And neither should you!" Shining Armor was slightly embarassed: "I'm sorry, I... I don't know why she's acting like this..." "Maybe we should just ignore her.", his future wife flustered to him Twilight tried again: "You have to listen to me!
"Oh, goodness! Are you okay?", Fluttershy dared to ask. "I'm just fine."
"Ya sure about that?", Applejack asked, only to get her face buried in her hat by Twilight.
"I've got something to say! She's evil!"
The entire group gasped in unison.
Twilight began approaching Cadence, who in turn nervously walked backwards, trying to get away from her accusations. "She's been horrible to my friends, she's obviously done something to her bridesmaids, and if that wasn't enough, I saw her put a spell on my brother that made his eyes go all...", she then rotated her eyeballs in an unhealthy looking way. Soon after she finished stating her case, Candence found herself helplessly backed into a corner.
Tears formed in her eyes.
"Why are you doing this to me?!", Cadence cried out in despair. Twilight didn't waste a second: "Because you're evil!" Those words caused Cadance to run out of the hall, crying heavily.
"Evil! And if I don't stop you, you're gonna ruin my brother's life!", Twilight called after her.
Seeing this, Shining Armor completely lost his temper: "You want to know why my eyes went all...", as he mimicked Twilight's face from before. "Because ever since I started having to perform my protection spell, I've been getting terrible migraines. Cadance hasn't been casting spells on me. She's been using her magic to heal me!" Twilight inhaled, but her brother was quicker: "And she decided to replace her bridesmaids because she found out the only reason they wanted to be in the wedding was so that they could meet Canterlot royalty! And if she hasn't been on her best behavior with your friends, it's because with me being so busy, she's had to make all the decisions about the wedding!
"I was just trying to–"
"She's been completely stressed out because it's really important to her that our big day would be perfect! Something that obviously wasn't important to you! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and comfort my bride.", he finished as he began going after his bride.
"And you can forget about being my best mare. In fact, if I were you, I wouldn't show up to the wedding at all..."
"C'mon, y'all. Let's go check on the princess...", Applejack quickly suggested leading the rest of her friends out as well.
"I was–"
Even Princess Celestia gave her a dissapproving look: "You have a lot to think about." She then too left the room, along with everyone else. The doors slammed shut, leaving the poor unicorn mare alone in her sorrow. "Maybe I was being overprotective... I could've gained a sister. But instead... I just lost a brother."
Then, in the middle of her misery, she felt a hoof on her head, stroking her mane lightly. She lifted her head to see- Cadence! Of all ponies it was Cadence who actually came back to the mare who pretty much ruined the day for everybody. But why?
Twilight sobbed as she looked up at her in guilt, trying to get out the only words that were left for her to say: "I'm sorry!"
Cadence kept that warm smile of hers, as a flash of green came across her eyes, which then narrowed to slits.
"You will be."
A force field of magic was created around Twilight, summoned by Cadence. Twilight quickly got up, unfortunately not quick enough, as the bubble of magic closed itself around her.
She was trapped!
The force field then began to slowly sink through the floor taking Twilight with it, dragging her into the endless depths beneath the castle...
'She's somewhere out there, she's crying, she needs me now!'
These were all the thoughts currently in the stallion's head. But his effort seemed to be in vain. He had looked in the entire castle for his bride, but no sign of her. What has Twilight done?
Hoping the others would have found her by now, Shining Armor watched the first group return, unfortunately without Cadence.
"Please forgive us, but we couldn't find her yet...", Rarity returned, along with Rainbow Dash landing by her side, trying to sound as polite and comforting as she could. Rainbow Dash, who had searched in the sky, continued: "Yeah, it's strange. A good flight would always cheer me up!"
The second group then came back, Spike and Chopper. The two ran over to the rest in a fast pace, but judging by their expressions, they also didn't seem that successful. The baby dragon tried to explain: "And we were looking down in the city, but..." Spike had to pause, out of breath as Chopper continued: "But no trace there either..." He too then breathed heavily, also needing air.
Shining Armor covered his face with one hoof: "Oh, why did this happen? Maybe if I would've listened to Twilight yesterday, she wouldn't have been so mad lately."
Rarity then spoke up again: "Please don't worry, we will find her too and settle this for-" "There is nothing more to settle with her!", Shining Armor interrupted her, unable to control his anger. "She won't come to the wedding, no more settling needed!" The friends all looked at each other with concern.
"Captain Shining Armor!"
The colt turned around. Finally, the last group got back to the meeting place, Applejack and Fluttershy, both with a slight smile on their faces. "We've found her!", Applejack said as she came to a halt, causing Fluttershy to bump into her.
"Where?", Shining Armor asked hastily as Fluttershy replied: "She's back in the gardens. She really seemed upset so she didn't want to come with us and-"
"Alright, thank you all!", Shining Armor quickly called as he ran off to the gardens, leaving the rest behind.
Rainbow Dash was slightly confused: "Hey, what are we gonna do now?" Rarity only answered: "I would say we best get back in, I don't want us to ruin our dresses!" As the group headed back, Fluttershy noticed that out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie was walking up right next to them. "Uhm... where have you been?", she asked.
Pinkie explained in an incredibly fast pace: "Oh that's a funny story! First, I wanted to look in all the places where you could get you sweet treats, 'cause if I was ever upset, I would definately get myself something crunchy and munchy to chew on! Sadly I didn't find her and I kinda got hungry, so I got a little bit stuck at the cotton candy stands. Happens to everypony, right?"
"I'd rather say the cotton candy got stuck on you...", Spike pointed out.
Noticing her mane covered in the sweet candy, Pinkie began chewing on it, also offering some of it to Chopper next to her. The reindeer only stared at the hair-covered piece of candy, sweatdropping: "Ew, thanks, I'll pass. Serve yourself"
On the way back, Spike flustered to Applejack: "What about Twilight? Shouldn't we go look for her?"
"Don't worry, Spike. Ah'm sure she dug into some of her books by now.
She'll surely be fine."
Darkness. Total darkness...
The Canterlot Caves were truly a place no pony would wish to be at. Sharp stalactites and stalagmites on ceiling and grounds, not a single bit of light, hoards of bats roaming the area, bottomless pits and what-not.
And in the middle of all of this, a tiny spark of light, accompanied by the clopping sound of hooves.
Twilight Sparkle was desperately trying to find a way out, her hopes shrinking with every step further. "Hello? Is anyone there?" The only answer she got was a distant laugh. Twilight began to get nervous: "W-Where am I?"
A voice answered her, Cadence's voice: "The caves beneath Canterlot, once home to the greedy unicorns who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside... And now, your prison."
"Help! Help!", the unicorn mare called out, only to be laughed at again:
"It's no use. No one can hear you. And no one will ever think to look for you, either. Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans."
Twilight's eyes widened: "Plans? What plans?"
"The plans I have for your brother, of course."
"Don't you dare do anything to my brother, you... you monster!"
"Well, the only way to stop me is to catch me! Over here!"
Twilight turned around to see Cadence, smiling viciously at her. Unbelievable. The very pony that once used to be her foalsitter and one of her best friends at the time kept her imprisoned. Of course, it prove Twilight correct in her suspicion, but at this point, she truly wished to be wrong. Fury emerged in her, her horn lighting up, charging for an attack. She then propelled a blast of magic directly at Cadence, causing her to... ...fall into pieces? Twilight walked up and gazed upon it. Crystal-like shards were scattered across the floor. It didn't take her long to realize: "Those gemstones... It was just a reflection..." Her ears twitched, picking up the sound of laughter again. "Nope, over here!", Cadence showed up in the distance behind her, allowing Twilight to go for a second attempt.
Again, a forceful blast was shot at the princess, and again, her image fell to pieces.
"Another one!"
"Aww, missed again!"
Twilight grit her teeth in frustration, as her horn began to glow one more time. This time, she made sure to fire a much more powerful blast, obliterating the unfortunate gem that showed the princesses reflection.
However, behind its remains, was something else... Somepony else...
Twilight's eyes widened as she saw just the mare she was raging over moments ago, Princess Cadence herself! Cadence's gaze was just as dumbfounded as Twilight's, the latter however immediatley charged at her, her horn glowing again.
Before she could strike, Cadance began to talk, surprisingly in a much friendlier tone now: "No! Wait! Please! Don't hurt me!"
"Twilight, it's me! Please, you have to believe me. I've been imprisoned like you. The Cadance who brought you down here was an imposter." Twilight took an attentive look at her. Sure she did seem a lot different now, her mane unkempt, her entire stance in a weakened state, but Twilight kept her harsh tone. "Likely story!" It was now when Cadance began doing the last thing Twilight would have expected.
She started to sing:
"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves..." "...and do a little shake.", Twilight finished her rhyme, her trust in her returning just as quick as her smile. "You remember me!", she called, pulling the alicorn into a tight hug. Cadance smiled warmly back at her: "Of course I do. How could I forget the filly I love to sit for the most?"
Again, the imposter's mocking laughter was heard in the distance, causing the two to snap back to their situation. "We have to get out of here. We have to stop her!", Twilight explained, earning an agreeing nod from Cadence as the two began their mission to stop the fake princess, along with her plan.
Meanwhile, back up in the comfortable surroundings of her room, the imposter Cadence looked into her mirror, kemping her mane, unable to wait for her plan to finally unfold.
With an evil grin on her face, she began to sing a song.
"This day is going to be perfect. The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small. Everypony will gather 'round, say I look lovely in my gown. What they don't know is that I have fooled them all!"
Cadance: "This day was going to be perfect. The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small But instead of having cake With all my friends to celebrate, my wedding bells, they may not ring for me at all…"
Fake Cadence: "I could care less about the dress, I won't partake in any cake! Vows, well I'll be lying when I say that through any kind of weather I'll want us to be together. The truth is I don't care for him at all! No I do not love the groom! In my heart there is no room! But I still want him to be all mine!"
Cadance: "We must escape before it's too late, find a way to save the day. Hope, I'll be lying if I say: 'I don't fear that I may lose him to one who wants to use him. Not care for, love, and cherish him each day.' For I oh so love the groom! All my thoughts he does consume! Oh, Shining Armor, I'll be there very soon!"
Fake Cadence: "Finally the moment has arrived for me to be one lucky bride!"
Cadance: "Oh, the wedding we won't make. He'll end up marrying a fake! Shining Armor will be…"
Fake Cadence: "…MINE, ALL MINE!"
TO BE CONTINUED
The Impostor's True Identity Revealed! Princess Celestia VS Queen Chrysalis
Twilight Sparkle and the real Princess Cadance have come a long way to finally see the first signs of sunlight flashing into the cave. The muffled sounds of ponies cheering and celebrating could be heared, alluring the two mares once more.
"Hang on, Cadence, we almost made it!", Twilight called down to her former foalsitter. Her state was critical. The long way back up to the surface took its toll, but the princess refused to give in. This was supposed to be THEIR big day and no one would take her true love away from her!
"I...", she started, clenching her teeth as Twilight looked back down at her.
"I won't let her get away with this!"
Twilight nodded, still slightly confused.
"Who is 'her', actually?"
"No time to explain, Twi! We have to get up there first!"
Twilight could tell, just thinking about that horrible imposter gave Cadence a new boost of energy as she sprinted forward, catching up to her side and now leading the way out.
Again, Twilight gave a nod and followed her.
"You're not going anywhere..."
"Huh?", Twilight turned around.
"What?", Cadence turned back as well.
Three figures emerged from the darkness, each of them showing a pair of gloomy green eyes. Cadence got into a defensive state as Twilight followed suit. The three missing bridesmaids, Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings and Twinkleshine, were slowly approaching the two, each of them having an evil smile on their faces.
"We cannot harm them! She's obviously casted a spell upon them", Cadence straightened up to her full size, her wings spread wide in order to protect the younger unicorn.
"We're so close! There has to be a way... What are we going to do now?", Twilight yelled as the three mares began to close in on them...
Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, the wedding ceremony has already started long ago.
The walls and the ceilings were decorated festively with all kinds of flowers and garlands, of course only the ones with the finest combination of colours, as ordered by 'Cadence'.
The halls were filled with ponies that would never want to miss such event in their lifes. The rest of Twilight's friends were all lined up next to Princess Celestia, more or less patiently awaiting the brides arrival as she stopped right next to her future husband. Spike had already prepared the rings that would seal the bond of marriage, still with an awkward feeling in the back of his head. Where once Twilight was supposed to stand, right next to her brother, was now an empty space which continuely reminded the little dragon and his pony friends that this day could have been better if things wouldn't have gone the way they did.
In the huge crowd of mares, stallions and fillies, there was even a certain small figure allowed to be present. Chopper watched with glee as both bride and groom both gave their vows to each other, he clearly enjoyed not drawing all the unwanted attention at him this time.
Only noticed by few though, the groom always seemed to wear this slightly empty expression on his face. Wether it was because of his bride's beauty or because of guilt for his sister, no one could clearly tell.
But most importantly, Princess Celestia was just about to finish her last words left to say:
"Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, it is my great pleasure to now pronounce you -"
As if on cue, the doors flung open:
"STOP!"
The entire crowd looked back to see Twilight Sparkle. Tears formed in the bride's eyes once more.
"Ugh! Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother? Why does she have to ruin my special day?", she cried into her future husband's chest. This time however her crocodile tears would be in vain:
"Because it's not your special day!", another voice answered. Every single pony in the hall was speechless to see another Princess Cadence entering the room. "It's mine!"
With everyone's jaws agape, the ponies watched the two arrived mares approaching Cadence's evil duplicate.
"But how did you manage to escape my bridesmaids?", the impostor managed to ask.
Back down in the caves, the three of them were too busy fighting over a bouqet of flowers Cadence had luckily kept with her.
"Take your hooves off! It's mine!" "Never! It's MINE!" "No! I saw it first!"
Spell or not, they surely would be preoccupied long enough.
"Well, clever. But you still are FAR too late!"
"Ah don't understand! How can there be two of 'em?", Applejack called out, pretty much the same question everyone else had in their minds as the actual bride finally found the time to reveal the truth:
"She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them!"
Cadence's evil counterpart growled in anger, her plans of taking over Canterlot in her disguise being foiled. A green aura formed around her, completely engulfing the pony within.
The green sphere of magical energy began to slowly ascend, flooding the entire hall in its light. Almost everybody had to shield their eyes at the sheer sight of it.
However, despite that, they were all still able to witness the changes within the forcefield.
Horrible changes.
Her pretty pink wings lost their feathers rapidly and eventually bursted left ones off, revealing their new shape, a pair of disgusting insect-like wings.
Her already long legs grew out to abnorm length. They also became much thinner and had lots of holes running through them, increasing their already fragile appearance even further.
An oddly mishappened horn was what was left of the alicorn's source of magic.
And finally, her face began to change drastically:
A tiny muzzle, accompanied by thin pointed ears and a long cyan mane.
Her eyes opened, now at least twice the size as before.
As the transformation was completed, there was no more a second Princess Cadence standing in front of them, but the true evil creature that has made the threat to all of Canterlot.
Queen Chrysalis.
The new figure descended back to the ground as she began to speak, now in her actual voice:
"Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects."
She slowly walked down the few stairs between them, her shadow passing by Spike and Chopper, who instinctively hid behind the nearest column, the latter of course executing it backwards.
"Equestria has much more love to give than any place I have ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!"
"Changelings? What are Change-......", Rainbow Dash asked before looking outside the windows into the sky.
".....-lings..."
Through the forcefield, small dots could be seen moving around in the sky. They certainly did not look like ponies, but they weren't too far from it either. Small fangs, bug-like wings and holes running through their body structure. And thousands of them. On every side of the castle.
They have been surrounded from the very start!
But Cadence remained calm. "That will be unlikely! Because they'll never get the chance! Shining Armor's protection spell will keep them from ever even reaching us!", she objected.
Chrysalis now directly approached Cadence, amused by her futile hopes: "Is that so, Princess? Because I'd highly doubt that. Isn't that right, dear?" She gave a look back at Shining Armor, who in turn nodded in his trance-like state.
Seeing her future husband, Cadence didn't hesitate, to take the chance and run over to him. Only to be stopped by Chrysalis landing in between them: "Ah, ah, ah. You don't want to go back to the caves, now do you?", she mocked the pink alicorn princess. "Ever since I took your place, I have been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now, my minions are chipping away at it."
Laughter was heard from outside the castle. Chrysalis' subjects seemed to be just as amused as their mistress. "He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now."
A gasp escaped Twilight and Cadence's mouths.
"And I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as captain of the Royal Guard." "Not my Shining Armor!", Cadence yelled in desperation, unable to stay away from her love.
Chrysalis then stepped forward and continued: "Soon, my changeling army will break through! First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"
"No."
Chrysalis' smile vanished. She turned around to see who the response came from - Princess Celestia herself.
"You won't."
The changeling queen landed a short distance from her, the two now being face-to-face, ready for combat as Celestia spoke up:
"You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self..."
All of the sudden, the two clashed horns, a clear sign to begin their duel:
Celestia spread her massive wings and quickly rose into the air, a beam of her powerful magic was shot from her horn. Her opponent reacted fast enough to summon a small shield before her, reflecting the alicorns attack back at its source.
Seeing this, the princess immediately began an aerial maneuver to dodge her own beam. It hit the wall behind her, bashing an impressive hole into it. Without paying attention to that, Celestia locked her gaze on Chrysalis, intently waiting for her next move.
Now that it was the changeling queen's turn to attack, she didn't waste a second to fire a large bolt of green magical energy at the immortal being.
After evading the attack again, the white alicorn's ear twitched, alluring her to turn her head.
Instead of herself it was one of the large windows mosaic glasses that was hit by the her opponents attack. And the now shattered pieces rained down on the paniking ponies below.
Celestia's eyes widened as she quickly conjured another shield above her subjects, causing the shards to collide with it and obliterate fully.
But Chrysalis didn't hit the window by accident. Instead, she knew Celestia would not allow herself to let any pony get harmed. The queen smiled, now seeing her enemies major weakness.
The love for her subjets.
The changeling queen smiled, her deformed horn beginning to glow again, this time pointing directly at Celestia.
Celestia in turn watched her saved subjects get into a safe distance before turning back to Chrysalis, only for her to receive a direct hit. The impact sent her flying across the hall into a wall, smashing pieces of stone out of it.
Spike tried to get over the battlefield, over to his friends. After his ears picked up the clashing sound of the princess's fall he turned around to see a large boulder falling down towards him.
"OH NO!", he managed to call before shielding his head with his claws.
However, before the it could hit the baby dragon, he suddenly dissappeard in a purple flash.
Twilight managed to use her magic to teleport her assistant safely onto her back. Both reunited with the rest of their friends, watching the fight, as Chopper too dared to peek from his hiding spot, just in time to witness the two currently most powerful beings in Equestria in combat.
"Unbelievable...", he muttered, unable to find more words to describe what he saw.
Chrysalis descended back onto the ground, pleased with what she saw. "It seems you have gotten old, Celestia...", she taunted with a smile of certain victory in her face.
"Silence!", Celestia's voice was heard from the emerging cloud of dust.
As it cleared, Chrysalis was stunned to see Celestia back on her feet, not a single scratch on her body.
Her eyes glowed in a bright yellow.
"I won't EVER let you hurt anypony!", she yelled over to the shapeshifter as she slowly began to get angry.
"We will see about that...", Chrysalis remained confident as Celestia narrowed her eyes. With all of her strenght left, Celestia rose up into the air once more before firing a beam of magic down at her opponent as Chrysalis followed suit.
The two powerful beams clash and began struggling back and forth between the combatants.
Eventually, Celestia's beam grew stronger and stronger during the fight, slowly pushing back her enemies beam.
Chrysalis witnessed the alicorns magic approaching her in horror as she started to shut her eyes tightly, trying to concentrate to keep up her own beams power. And it seemed to work.
Against all expectations of the sun princess, Chrysalis' beam gained more and more power and started now push back her own.
Celestia's eyes widened as she watched the green beam returning to her, eventually defeating her own magical beam and colliding with her horn.
The last thing she noticed was a huge explosion of light.
Then silence. Dead silence.
A loud thud broke the period of silence, Princess Celestia slamming onto the ground, unable to get back up, accompanied by a clear clinking noise, her tiara bouncing a few times on the floor before completely stopping dead in its tracks.
"PRINCESS CELESTIA!", Twilight screamed in panic, her mentor now in defeat. The sun goddess lied on the hard floor, smoke emerging from her damaged horn. Gasps were heard and first signs of panic were shown in the crowd.
Even Chrysalis herself was surprised by the outcome of her love feeding. "Hah, Shining Armor's love you for is even strong than I thought... Consuming it has made me EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN CELESTIA!!"
Twilight stopped by her mentors side, supporting her head in worry.
"Princess, are you alright? Please say something!", she panicked.
"I do believe this wouldn't be the best time to take a rest, dear Celestia...", Chrysalis stepped up, her confident smile grew even bigger. "We wouldn't want the princess of Equestria to lose her royal manners."
Twilight and Celestia both looked up at her, not truly understanding what she meant.
"Especially if she awaits some visitors...", she finished, as she looked out of the windows with patience, unable to hold her devilish giggling.
Both princess and librarian took a look up as every other pony did the same to witness in horror:
The army of insectoid ponies continously crashed against the giant shield Shining Armor had summoned around the castle. It already had massive cracks ripping through it and with each single further attack of the swarm, they grew bigger.
It would be only a matter of time until it would eventually shatter.
With their combined strenght, they started crashing into the shield together for the first time.
BOOM!
Every pony startled at the noise unable to move or even speak.
"Now, my fellow changelings...", the queen called out to her subjects. Another combined assault against the shield was heard.
BOOM!
Hearing the second impact, Cadence quickly took the chance an ran over to the hypnotised groom as Chrysalis gave her final command to her army:
"...Let us begin..."
With one last attack, the forcefield ultimately broke into pieces, slowly desintegrating in thin air. Mayhem broke out within the halls and pony after pony ran for its life, exiting the castle.
It was then when Chopper finally realized: "I-, I can help!" The small reindeer quickly ran over to the nearest guard, showing him the bracelet on his wrist.
"Please, you gotta take this thing off!"
"But you won't bite me, will you?", the guard asked, still bewildered.
"Only if you don't hurry..."
Over with Twilight, she and her mentor were surrounded by several dozens of them, every single one preparing for an attack. But Twilight refused to get out of their way, also taking a defensive low stance.
Every once in a while, some of the changelings were actually daring enough to try to attack princess, only to be shot into the distance by her students magic bolts.
"Twilight... forgive me... I doubted you..."
The unicorn turned around to meet her teacher's gaze, full of sorrow and regret. "Please don't say that. There's no way you could have known..." More of the queen's army have gathered around the two of them, each of them unable to wait for the attack. One by one came lunging towards them, which Twilight effortlessly blasted off with her magic.
"Stay away from her!"
Hearing this, the changelings began to eye each other, a grin appearing on every single face. They all seemed to have the same idea in mind as they all simultaneously leaped for one big group attack.
"Twilight, Princess!", Applejack called over from the distance, her friends charging towards them in a final attempt to save their friends.
Hearing the cowmares voice, Chopper also was alerted in time. Now freed from the sea-prism bracelett, he could finally transform again and step in to help his new nakama. He too began dashing over to the two mares in trouble.
"HEAVY POINT!"
The pack of changelings was just about to swoop down on them, With little to no strenght left, Twilight clenched her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact...
"HEAVY GONG!"
Within the blink of an eye, the swarm received a hard punch, each member of it landing hardly on the floor, fortunately knocked out.
After a period of silence, Twilight dared to slowly open an eye.
And she was fairly surprised at what she saw.
The bunch of changelings that were about to attack them was beaten to the ground, unable to get back up. And in between the them and the librarian had appeared a new creature:
The tall figure had a large and bulky torso, Its arms were packed with muscles and upon its furry neck was a relatively small head. The overall image almost reminded her of some kind of oversized ape, yet some details seemed oddly familiar to her.
It wore the same clothing as the reindeer they met a couple of days ago and in the middle of its face was an unnatural blue nose.
Eventually, Twilight's friends joined the scene. They were about to ask her and the princess if the were alright before they too froze. "Whoa! What is that thing?!", Rainbow Dash called out, her eyes widened while the rest gathered around Twilight and Celestia.
The monster turned around and began to talk: "Twilight, are you okay?" Finally the purple unicorn mare managed to respond: "Ch-...Chopper?! Is that you?"
The reindeer looked at them with a slight smile. He knew he had some explaining to do.
Rainbow Dash landend by her friends side as she was the first to speak up: "Hey Chops, I know you told us you were a reindeer, but I gotta ask again: "What the heck are you?!"
Chopper thought for a moment how to sum it up, but then his smile now grew even wider. He used one of his large palms to give a thumb up and simply said:
"I'm a monster." The group of mares and their little dragon friend couldn't help but stare at the hulking creature.
"I-I guess you've seen me my not-so-gentle side now, didn't you?", Chopper finally continued nervously. "Are you kidding me? That's totally awesome!", Rainbow Dash was the first to react "Indeed. It seems that although you look like a brute, there seems to be tender heart beneath those muscles!" Rarity agreed.
"Yes, and you saved Twilight and the Princess too.", Fluttershy mumbled. "You really are the nicest and kindest monster I've ever met... Uhm, I mean, not that I have ever met a monster before."
"What about that dragon?", Rainbow Dash asked her fellow pegasus friend.
"Eek!", Fluttershy was caught off guard.
"And the hydra?", Applejack went on.
"Eek!"
"And what about Discord?", Spike pointed out.
"EEK! Please stop it!"
At this point, the poor pegasus had covered her ears with her hooves tightly, not wanting to recall any of those moments ever again.
"Whatever...", Twilight tried to wrap this topic up, "What matters is that it's really great that we've got us a new friend."
"Oh, don't call me that, jerk! Your gratitude doesn't mean ANYTHING to me!", Chopper bashfully rubbed the back of his head with his large palm.
Suddenly, the group heard a loud buzzing noise, causing everyone to snap back to their serious tone. They turned to see Queen Chrysalis landing close beside them, mocking her defeated enemy.
"Face it, Celestia, your days as a ruler are over. Now comes the era of the changelings!", Chrysalis looked down at her with no mercy.
"You damn bug!", Chopper clenched his fist and ran over to her, trying to strike her with his large fist. Before he could hit her, she vanished in a green flash, reappearing behind him.
"My apologies, but I don't have time for the likes of you.", she spoke calmly before using her magic telekinesis to send him flying into a wall.
"My new kingdom awaits me.", she finished.
Her wings began to flap rapidly again, allowing her to fly out of the exit with insane laughter as the friends watched her leave with worry.
"Chopper!", Fluttershy called over to the transformed reindeer. With the exception of Twilight, who was still holding her teacher with care, they all ran up to their friend.
"Hey, Chops, are you okay?", Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered above him. The large humanoid slowly got back up before shaking his head rapidly, recomposing himself.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry.", he explained to them.
As the ponies watched him get back onto his feet their ears picked up a familar voice:
"There is still a chance..."
They all turned to see Celestia, laying weakly in her students arms:
"The elements of harmony. You must get to them. And use their power to defeat the queen!", she spoke with all her strenght that was left.
"Alright, then let's go!", Twilight said as she led the way to the gates before turning her head back at Chopper.
"Chopper, are you coming?", she asked her new friend.
"I can't. I have to take care of her first. Go ahead, I'll catch up with you as soon as I can!", he explained, walking over to Celestia's injured figure.
"Okay then, lets do this, girls!", Twilight turned back to her five pony friends, all of them answering with a firm nod. They all threw off their pretty dresses, ready to get into action again, all of them charging out of the castle heading for the Canterlot Tower where the Elements Of Harmony were stored.
As Rarity instinctively catched one by another, the thought of her work being ruined was unbearable to her.
All of them called for their missing friend:
"Rarity!"
After carefully laying the dresses aside she too followed her friends, unaware what would await them.
"But I swear, if my mane gets ruined, then so help me!", the white unicorn warned her friends as they all ran off into the great changeling invasion.
TO BE CONTINUED
The Great Changeling Invasion! Chopper VS Queen Chrysalis
Canterlot was under attack. The great threat that Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armor was concerned with revealed itself as the army of shapeshifting insectoid ponies known as changelings.
Not many innocent citizens of Canterlot were able to escape the invasion and even the princess' royal guards had a hard time dealing with the new enemies, some of them actually ending up getting captured themselves.
And yet in the middle of this seemingly endless havoc, a small group of six young ponies and one baby dragon made its way through the battlefield, slowly but surely progressing towards its goal, the Canterlot Tower.
There, their only chance in defeating the evil queen along with her swarm was stored: The Elements Of Harmony.
"Go, go! We have to make it to the tower!", Twilight Sparkle called back to her friends, charging a short distance ahead of her group. "Are ya sure the elements are gonna work on 'em?", Applejack asked, running up right next to her unicorn friend. "Well, only one way to find out..." Twilight guessed.
The army of insectoid ponies quickly took notice of the small group of equines making their way across the place and began rocketing down on them, startling the ponies. One by one began crashing holes into the ground, just barely missing our heroes.
"Woah!", Rainbow Dash yelled, having a hard time dodging the attackers, "That was close!"
The ponies came to halt, looking at the massive crates pound into the earth when suddenly, Pinkie Pie had a shaky feeling in her body, from the bottom of her hooves to the tip of her plushy mane.
"Wha- My Pinkie Sense... tingling... LIKE CRAZY!", Pinkie shrieked, rubbing the sides of her head before taking notice of Twilight.
"Twi, DUCK! And I don't mean rubber-duckies!", she screamed amazingly fast and high-pitched, her eyes widened.
Twilight did as she was told, as to her own surprise two changelings flew above her, crashing into one another.
Twilight smirked: "Let me guess, Pinkie Sense?"
"Yup, thank me later!", Pinkie said with a wide grin, happy to see her friend unharmed.
"Uhm, girls...", Fluttershy stuttered, backing up to her friends "We... we got company..."
One after another of the aerial attackers crawled out of the holes in the ground, forming growing crowds of changelings, all of them giving a devious grin to the now clearly outnumbered ponies.
"Like that's gonna stop us!", Applejack stepped up, wanting to release some stress on those changelings.
"My thoughts exactly. Looks like we're gonna have to do this THE HARD WAY!", Rainbow Dash stated, charging into the groups of enemies, only to encounter... herself?!
Rainbow Dash was baffled to see an exact copy of herself mimicking every single movement like a mirror.
Until it rose its front hooves and knocked back the real Rainbow.
The pegasus mare only groaned and rubbed her head in pain: "What?! How did -"
"They're changelings, remember?", Twilight explained before a couple of perfect Twilight-clones came up.
"They're changelings, remember?", They repeated the librarian's sentence with her very own voice.
"Don't let them distract you. We have to get to the Elements Of Harmony. They're our only hope!", Twilight remained focused, reencouraging her friends as they all prepared to burst their way through the hords of enemies.
And so did the copying insectoids in turn.
From both sides the combatants began to clash, beginning their fight over Canterlot.
Twilight kept her focus on the changelings surrounding her, quickly blasting one by one of the creatures that leapt for an attempt to assault her.
Rainbow Dash's speed easily outmatched that of the changelings, quickly manuevering past their attacks and rocketing through their swarms, sending several of them flying.
Rarity stood in a martial arts-like pose, though not entirely up for a fight: "I-I'm warning you... stay back, you... icky... bug-thingies...", she stuttered as a couple more of her duplicates closed in, on of them pouncing onto her, pinning her to the ground. The white unicorn mare struggled as hard as she could before she whined: "No! Please, not the mane! I just made it extra shiny for this occasion!" But before she could free herself, even more clones jumped on top of her, burying her underneath. With a final effort, Rarity managed to pull herself out of the pile of foes. "Why that was a close call. I'm just happy that my-", she spoke before she gasped in horror. "My mane! It's ruined!"
Her eyes started to twitch, her breath sped up rapidly before she screamed: "You're all - going - DOWN!", she shrieked as she let out an karate-like yell and leaped straight into the army of her duplicates, many of them finding themselves kicked in the air by the original Rarity.
Pinkie Pie on the other hand was having a great time, watching the changeling in front of her switch from one form to another, trying to show her its power and intimidate her. But for Pinkie this was more like watching a magic act.
"Oh! Do me! Do me!", she cheered, apparently enjoying the show given to her. The shapeshifter rolled its eyes before giving in to her request and becoming a perfect copy of the earth pony.
Pinkie Pie's excited mood however quickly seemed to wear off: "Meh, I've seen better.", she said before grabbing Twilight and pointed her horn and the shapeshifter. She then rapidly pulled Twilight's tail up and down like a trigger, causing the unicorn to quickly shoot several beams into the enemy hords.
Applejack too was surrounded by them. She kept her body at a low stance, ready to counter an assault in time while backing up. She eventually ended up back to back with Twilight.
Or was it? After a green flash from behind her, Applejack turned around to face yet another changeling growling in her face.
"Now this is just gettin' weird...", she pointed out before more and more of her clones began stacking themselves on top of her.
Twilight took notice of the cowmare in trouble, as she ran over to her, throwing off one by one of the attackers with her magic and picking up the remaining last one with a serious stare.
"Real me! Real me!", was all she got out as Twilight luckily knew when she saw the real Applejack and put her down on feet unharmed.
Fluttershy had a hard time finding her way back to her actual friends, avoiding as many fights as possible. Sadly, her luck didn't last forever as she saw three more Fluttershy's coming her way. In a desparate attempt she put on a serious face, trying to appear like a transformed changeling.
And ironically enough, it seemed to be working. Her clones let her be and moved on through the chaotic battlefield. Fluttershy took the very next chance to run off only to be caught by four more Rainbow Dash's. The timid mare only put her forelegs over her head in fright, the clones rising their hooves to attack her.
But before it would get that far, one of them began punching and kicking aside her other look-alikes before landing next to Fluttershy, picking her up and sitting her back on the ground safely. It was the real Rainbow Dash, who also cleverly figured out how to use these creatures' own disguise against them.
Meanwhile back in the castle, Chopper continued to carefully treat the wounded Princess Celestia. The fight with Chrysalis seemed to have taken its toll. Both her right front leg and her right wing were heavily sprained and from her injured horn emerged smoke, along with occasionly a few magic sparks lighting up on it.
Still in his hulking humanoid form, Chopper was about to finish attaching a splint to each leg and wing, unfortunately he never knew anything about equestrian magic, so there was nothing he could do to mend her horn and its magic abilities.
"Why...", a voice spoke up weakly.
"Huh?", the young doctor looked up in surprise to see the princess looking at him, giving him a confused look.
"Please don't misunderstand me, I will always be grateful for you saving my dear student and me. But why did you interfere with this, thus putting yourself in harm's way? This is not your battle to fight."
The reindeer tried to give an answer, but suddenly, an image popped up in his mind:
His crewmates and nakama, Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Robin, Franky and Brook.
"When I first met my friends, they helped in saving my home island. Even though it wasn't their own business, they still accepted me as a friend and freed my home country. And this is exactly what I will be doing here now."
He remembered that one special day, when his path crossed with that of Luffy and his friends.
The insane man who once had climbed a 5.000 meters high mountain to save his sick and injured friends.
He could still recall those moments, when an avalanche was nearly caused and just in time Chopper saved him from falling.
Half frozen, he grabbed Dr. Kureha's arm, stammering a last few words before losing conciousness:
"T-they are m-my... NAKAMA!"
Wapol, the cruel king of the former kingdom of Drum Island had returned to claim his thrown and the only ones between him and his castle were Dr. Kureha and Chopper, for now the building had become Hiluluk's grave.
Up on the highest tower on the castle was a certain flag that Chopper held dear ever since his friend's demise. It was a sign of his determination and a symbol of his dream, to free the world from any sickness.
Even though the rubber-man never knew the meaning of this Jolly Roger, he continously protected it with his very own life, claiming that this would never be a symbol to be laughed at:
"Listen, hippo-face, I don't know whose flag this is... And I don't know its meaning either... But it's surely not hanging here for no reason... THE SKULL AND CROSSBONES ARE A SYMBOL OF A MANS CONVICTION!!!! AND IT'S NOTHING FOR YOU TO LAUGH AT OR DESTROY!!!"
This was Chopper's first impresson of a true pirate. To fight for your friends and your dreams. Chopper never asked him for help nor told him anything about the flag's meaning, but for Luffy, all that mattered was to help a friend in need.
And now Chopper would have the chance to do the same for his new friends.
"Despite them being humans, it seems they are the best kind of friends one could ask for.", Celestia muttered weakly. "They are.", Chopper agreed.
To his surprise, the injured alicorn began to rise back up onto her hooves, smiling down at him. "Then I believe I shouldn't be in your way."
"But what about your wounds?", Chopper asked in disbelief.
"Don't worry about it. Our first priority is to get the elements and save everypony.", she explained, still with a mild smile on her face.
"Got it!", Chopper nodded, now returning the smile.
He too got back up and began running across the now empty hall towards the gates.
'I just hope I can find them in time...', he thought to himself as he got down on all fours while running, changing his form.
"WALK POINT!"
As the princess watched him leave the castle with great speed, she recalled his words in her mind.
'Could it be... that humans actually have changed after all these centuries?', she asked herself, lost in thought.
As he arrived at the entrance, Chopper quickly came to a halt from what he saw:
Chaos was spreading across the place, ponies were running for their lives, and more and more of Chrysalis' army seemed to take notice of the new opponent.
The army of changelings began to land in front of the reindeer, blocking his way to the Canterlot Tower, slowly closing in on him.
"How do I get through there?", he quickly aksed himself, becoming more scared as the swarm surrounded him...
After a lot of tiresome struggle, the six ponies have made it just about halfway to the tower and yet, they already ran out of energy.
Whenever a changeling was beaten, a dozen more were there to replace it.
"Oh, enough already!", Even Rainbow Dash groaned in annoyance before her higher view point allowed her to notice several changelings in the distance, being propelled high into the air.
Twilight kept an eye on each of the creatures while her ears picked up high pitched, shriek-like noises, becoming louder and clearer.
The ponies and dragon stayed close to each other, as finally, the line of shapeshifters was broken by a new kind of monster.
"What in tarnation is that?", was all Applejack could ask when they saw the new figure that had arrived:
A large creature with a rather round and squatty body type stepped up. It had relatively short limbs, small antlers and a wide mouth. It kept itself in a martial-arts-like pose, kicking and punching the attacking changelings as it approached the ponies.
"Hey girls, it's Chopper again!", Pinkie Pie said, a wide grin on her face.
"I came as quickly as I could.", Chopper asked, kicking another attacker aside. "Are you okay so far?"
"Good thing you're here, we could need your help right now!", Twilight called over to him.
The mares all gladly ran over to the reindeer, only a certain blue pegasus had a dumbfounded look on its face. In a silent moment, she just gawked at this form of Chopper. He looked back at her. His ears twitched. And Rainbow Dash collapsed on the floor laughing.
"What- what happened to you? You look like you swallowed a barrel!", was all Rainbow could get out in a weak voice, rolling on the floor while laughing.
"Oi, oi, don't mess with me!", Chopper growled angrily, watching her roll from one side to the other.
"Rainbow Dash, could you please get a hold of yourself? This is not the time!", Rarity objected.
"Okay, sorry, I'm done now.", Rainbow calmed herself, wiping away a small tear from her cheek before looking back at Chopper. His ears twitched again. And it started all over.
"Nevermind, still funny!", Rainbow tried her hardest, but just kept on laughing at him slamming her hoof on the ground.
"We still have to make it over to the tower, girls! Chopper, do you think you can keep these guys busy for a while?", Twilight asked, running out of time.
"Yosh, I'll try my best.", Chopper answered, reassuming his defensive stance, before starting to spin rapidly, rushing into the hords of changelings.
Finally regrouping at the Canterlot Tower, the team dashed through the door, smashing it shut behind them, finally allowing them to take a quick break.
"Alright, did everypony make it?", Twiligth asked, trying to catch her breath. Her friends all eyed each other before Rainbow Dash spoke up: "Think so, last time I checked I was me..."
The ponies and baby dragon carefully walked through the hall, the noises from the outside weakly echoing in here.
They came to a halt when they got to their next obstacle: "So how are we supposed to get the elements?", Rarity pointed out, her hoof pointing at the large door decorated with gemstones. "Isn't this door protected by Princess Celestia herself if I'm not mistaken?"
"Luckily the princess taught me the spell needed to open this door in the case of an emergency ever since we got rid of Discord.", she explained to the rest before sticking her horn inside the opening in the middle of the gate, using her magic to break its seal.
Slowly, the door opened, revealing a small chest inside the chamber.
Using her magic, Twilight levitated the box towards them, finally seeing a spark of hope.
"I'm just surprised those things haven't gotten in here by now...", Spike said with confusion, looking around the quiet halls.
Rainbow Dash fist-pumped - or rather hoof-pumped: "Alright, mission accomplished!... Now what?"
"Uhm, Twilight?", Spike pulled on the unicorn's tail nervously.
"We have to get back to the castle. If we can manage to disable their queen, we might have a shot against the rest of the swarm."
"Twilight..."
"What, Spike?", Twilight finally answered, looking down at the little reptile.
All he did was point upwards.
"Oh..."
Before they could react, the black mass fell right on top of them, putting an end to their little quest.
In the meantime, Queen Chrysalis has made her way back to the higher balconys of the castle, in order for her to watch her greatest triumph from the best seat possible. Clearly satisfied with what she saw, she once more rose her voice to sing:
"This day has been just perfect, the kind of day of wich I've dreamed since I was small. Every pony I'll soon control! Every stallion, mare and foal! Who says a girl can't really have it all?"
Back in the safety of the castle's corridors, Cadence managed to get her fiancé out of any possible harm's way. Desperately she tried to bring Shining Armor out of his hypnotised, dream-like state.
"My Shining Armor, please... wake up!", she begged, carefully rocking her beloved back and forth, hoping to snap him out of Chrysalis' spell. A few groans were heard from the finally awakening stallion, before he shook his head violently, regaining his senses. "C-...Cadence! W-what happened to me, what's going on?", Shining Armor immediately tried to get back up, only to be held back by an agonizing pain in his head.
"Careful now, you're still in a weak state. I'll explain it to you..."
Cadence told Shining Armor about the incidents while he was unconcious, about Chrysalis locking her up in the Canterlot Caves, taking on her identity and fooling Shining Armor to let her feed of his love instead. About the invasion that was already in full motion, about Celestia's defeat at the hooves of the changeling queen and finally, about Twilight and her friend's current mission.
The more Shining Armor was told by his love, the more he began to slowly understand Twilight's behavior earlier, and the more guilt began to emerge within him:
"So... this all my fault isn't it?", Shining Armor
"Don't say that. You couldn't have possibly known.", Cadence spoke softly, her forelegs still holding onto him.
"No, I am a royal guard! It's my DUTY to make out such dangers in time! You were locked up all alone in a cave because of me, because I have failed! Not to mention that my very own sister now has to make it right for me, even though she was the one who saw this coming before any one of us!", he yelled, angry at himself.
Just remembering how he was scolding her earlier that day made him feel miserable.
"No time to waste, I'm going after her! I have to apologize right now.", The royal guard's captain got up.
"And I'm coming with you.", Cadence said.
"No, you had to endure enough already.", Shining Armor refused as he walked a few steps before he started to trip.
Before he could hit the ground, Cadence was there to support him, smiling mildly at her fiancé:
"Don't think I'll ever leave your side again."
"I am so lucky to have somepony like you.", Shining Armor said, a small blush on his face appearing as he rubbed his cheek against hers.
'Now where have I heard that before?', Cadence asked herself, an image of a young filly called Twilight popping up in her mind.
Calm on the outside but worriying on the inside, Princess Celestia was still quietly watching the gates, hoping her student would make it back with the elements.
"Your highness!", Shining Armor's voice snapped her back out of thought.
"No need for questions. Twilight is on her way.", Celestia spoke calmly, leaving the couple in concern.
"Once this is over, I have to make up for this.", Shining Armor muttered.
"Oh, it is over alright..."
The three ponies startled, quickly observing the hall, before with a loud thud, the changeling ruler herself landed right before them:
"ITS ALL OVER!"
Not wasting a second, Shining Armor immediately stepped before his bride, ignoring his weakened state. Celestia, despite already having lost a battle against her, also rose onto her hooves, glaring at the enemy.
"And just so you know, my loyal subjects have done rather well so far. I'd highly doubt that your little friends will even put up that much of a fight for us.", Chrysalis spoke triumphantly.
"We'll see about that! Twilight and her friends will-", Cadence's statement was interrupted by the castle gates hurling open.
The total of six mares and one young dragon was captured by Chrysalis' subjects, along with the chest containing the Elements Of Harmony.
"As you were saying?", Chrysalis asked with a smug smile.
"Oh, and thank you for showing us those wonderful trinkets of yours. I'll make sure to keep them... as a souvenir."
The queen slowly marched through the halls, amused by her victims' efforts:
"It's quite funny, really. While all of you ponies were busy with the preparations of your precious little wedding, Twilight Sparkle has been suspicious about me all along. Too bad that only now you realise that her suspicions were indeed correct!", she cackled, unaware somebody else had joined the scene.
"Hey, you! Stop it!", a child-like voice demanded, making the evil queen's ears twitch and turn around to see Chopper at the gates of the castle.
"It's Twily's little racoon-friend...", Shining Armor murmured.
"Why does everyone keep calling me that? I'm a reindeer, I have horns!", Chopper yelled, again deeply insulted.
Chrysalis casually watched the awkward scene before speaking up:
"Oh please, we've been through this already, kiddo. What else is there to be settled?", she spoke in an calm manner, obviously not taking the small creature for a threat. "I... I won't forgive you!", Chopper stammered, trying to sound brave.
For a short moment, no more words were spoken, the queen had a dumbfounded look on her face, eyeing the small creature, her large eyes wide open. But soon, her gaping jaw turned into a smile, letting out the most evil chuckle Chopper ever heard. And out of nowhere, Chrysalis bursted out laughing madly at the diminutive reindeer. Her cackle managed to send a shiver down Chopper's spine.
"You... you cannot be serious. YOU won't forgive ME?! Is this supposed to be a thread, dwarf?", she taunted before covering her mouth with one hoof, letting out a devious giggle.
"Well, since you went through all the trouble of getting back here I should at least give you a sporting chance. But I must ask you this:", she said as she stepped up on the altar, her glare reaching all the way across the hall to Chopper, who was now standing at the exit in his Brain Point.
"Do you truly think you can defeat me, Mini-Monster?"
"My name's not Mini-Monster! It's Tony Tony Chopper! And... I won't let you terrorize the ponies that took me in as their friend, you mean bug-monster!", Chopper yelled, surprised that he managed to said that out loud.
"My, how rude, that wouldn't be my name either. Allow me to introduce myself properly to you mere ponyfolk: I am Chrysalis, leader of the changeling race, and soon, ruler of the former Equestria!"
Her horn began to glow in a gloomy green tone, summoning dozens of small green orb-like sphere around her, waiting to be fired at the small hybrid.
"This should be fun. For me that is...", Chrysalis spoke, pointing her sharp horn at Chopper.
"How can he possibly think he'll have a chance? She even bested the princess, there's no way he can win!", Twilight gasped as she and her six friends too had no options left but to watch.
Chrysalis' eyes narrowed.
"Try to dodge THIS!", she yelled, as the spheres rocketed off, one by one, towards the reindeer
"WALK POINT!", Chopper called out as he charged towards Chrysalis, changing into his full reindeer shape.
With a quick zig-zag-maneuver he managed to avoid his opponent's quick bullet-like blasts, each of them leaving small holes in the stone floor.
"Ha, all you do is change shape! And here I was expecting something special. I will have this settled in an instant!", Chrysalis remained unimpressed while Chopper continued his charge.
As another demonstration of her new powers, Chrysalis began concentrating harder as one of the large collumns began glowing in the same green as her magic. To the ponies shock, it quickly ended up being completely ripped out of its grounding, levitating above Chrysalis herself, ready to strike the opponent like a ginormous club.
"I don't think so! HEAVY POINT!"
Again Chopper changed shape to reassume his large human form, again he swung his fist at the changeling queen, and again she teleported herself out of harm's way to reappear behind him.
"No matter how many of those ridiculous forms you have, they are NOTHING compared to the full potential of a changeling queen!", Chrysalis taunted him reaching out with her large weapon.
"GUARD PO-"
The collumn was smashed right onto Chopper, burying him underneath.
"Chopper!", Fluttershy called out. "A direct hit!", Twilight gasped.
Chrysalis smirked.
"Do you see now what happens if the likes of you don't know their place? If you would have known what's good for you, you would have stayed back with your puny pony-friends over there!"
From underneath the mass, a large ball of fur began bouncing backwards before coming to a full stop.
"Another one?", she yelled, eyeing Chopper in genuine confusion, only his head peeking out of the front.
"Cool!", Rainbow Dash grinned.
"Enough of your little tricks, you are wasting my time!", Chrysalis was starting to get annoyed by his counters.
"Those aren't tricks! KUNG FU POINT!", Chopper yelled, shifting into his more agile form again.
Chrysalis swung her horn at him which he blocked with a kick before flic-flac-ing backwards to get a good distance between them.
"What's the point of you trying to fight me? You've seen what I could do to Celestia."
Chopper didn't answer but instead just charged for another attack. Chrysalis continued propelling magic bolts at him, who in turn dodged each of them with all kinds of maneuvers before leaping for an aerial kick against her.
He was just about to reach her as suddenly, in mid-air, his body became stiff like a rock. A glowing green aura around him, summoned by Chrysalis was what kept him from his attack.
"Not so fast.", Chrysalis smirked, clearly having the upper hand in this fight.
"What? I- I can't move!", Chopper stuttered, squirming to free himself from her grip.
"I guess that means farewell, critter.", Chrysalis showed her fanged grin, her horn pointed again at Chopper. She surely wouldn't miss this time.
Unbeknownst to all the ponies of Canterlot, out in the skies something what seemed like a blue cloud of smoke was rapidly approaching the castle.
"Oh no, Chopper!", Fluttershy yelled as both Applejack and Rainbow Dash struggled to get free, only to be held back forcefully by the outnumbering swarm of changelings.
The cloud picked up speed, quickly losing altitude as it fell closer and closer to the large building.
Through an already broken window, it finally crashed onto the ground bursting into a large body of smoke covering the entire room.
For a moment, everyone inside lost their bearings, the changelings however still making sure they kept a good grip on their hostages and the chest with their elements.
Twilight and her pony friends coughed, trying to find the origin of this as they all locked the gazes on a shadowy figure emerging from the mist.
"What is this? Our sister hurt, our subjects in pain and panic?", the figure spoke, rising to its full size.
As the dust cleared, the young ponies were happy to see the pony that had arrived in just the right moment:
Princess Luna.
And she was furious.
"Princess!", Twilight shouted happily over to her.
The changeling queen herself however didn't quite seem to follow. "What, who are you?", she asked, unaware that her lost focus released Chopper, allowing him to retreat back to his friends.
"Thou might not know, but we know who THOU art!", the princess of the night stomped her hoof angrily "You are the intruder my sister has spoken about!"
The princess of the night was at a loss for words, her teeth clenched.
"And now we will put an end to this.", Luna said, closing her eyes.
"And how precisely do you plan to make that happen?", Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. She already took over the city, what could possibly go wrong now?
Powerful winds blew through the halls as most of Chrysalis and her lackeys found themselves pushed back, hardly able to withstand its force.
Soon, Luna's horn lit up in a bright blue, setting up for a spell.
Seeing this, Twilight managed to warn her friends: "Everypony, take cover!"
"What? Why?", Was all Rarity could get out before being pushed down by Rainbow Dash.
"Just do it!", the pegasus yelled at her.
Finally, Princess Luna spread her wings and rose in the air, her horn lighting up massively, blinding the hords of changelings.
The light then bursted into a ginormous shockwave which expanded rapidly, sending each of the enemies flying out of the castle into the distance, but leaving every other pony untouched.
"No! The elements!", Twilight called out witnessing two changelings flying by, their grip still on a certain chest.
Chrysalis tried to keep her feet on the ground as she watched one by one of her subjects fly past her.
"This cannot be! I will not be taken down so close to victory, not now!", she yelled, refusing to admit defeat. Her strength however did not seem to match her will power as she too lost the ground under her hooves, being propelled backwards, out of the castle into the distance.
Charging up her horn one more time, Luna shot a beam of her magic straight into the open sky. Above the castle, the tiny spark of magic soon bursted into a large dome, forming itself around the castle as a new forcefield.
Finally silence had returned to the halls. With the exception of the heavy breathing of Luna, who was still a bit exhausted from her sudden outbreak. She slowly sank back to the floor, the winds and storms around her ceasing, the glow on her horn vanishing.
"Princess Luna! You're here!", Twilight ran over to Luna, her group of friends following suit.
"Hold on! A-another Princess?", Chopper stuttered, perplexed to see a second ruler of Canterlot.
"Oh yes, of course...", the young librarian remembered, she hasn't filled her new friend in on that yet, as she began to clear it up. "You see Princess Luna is the younger sister of Princess Celestia."
"CHARMED!!!", Luna accidentally screamed with her powerful Canterlot Voice into his face before clearing her throat.
"Our apologies... charmed.", she corrected herself as Chopper tried to recover from the intense volume.
"S-so... SO COOL!", Chopper shrieked in a fan-like manner giving Luna a starstruck look.
"Why thank you. We take it thou must be our visitor from the human world our sister has informeth us about?", Luna questioned.
"Yes, I am.", he nodded, his excitement never seemed to end in this world.
"Beg pardon your highness, but where did you even come from all of the sudden?", Rarity asked as the princess of the night began to explain:
"Celestia has sent us to observe the outskirts of equestria for any sign of the threat made against Canterlot. Unfortunately though, it seems the has already made it past our defenses.", She said while walking towards the injured Celestia.
"Forgive me, sister, I wish I could have come sooner", Luna bowed to her big sister in an apologetic way, who in turn just gave a warm smile back at her
"Don't trouble yourself, Luna, you did good.", Celestia reassured her, proud of little sister protecting Canterlot.
As he watched this scene, Shining Armor realised that now would be more than a great time, to clear things up with his own little sister as well. He cleared his throat nervously when his sister noticed his approach.
"Twilight... about what I said earlier... I-I'm so sorry... I didn't know-"
"It's okay, brother. I forgive you. None of this was your fault. After all, she tricked everypony.", Twilight smiled warmly, knowing what her big brother was trying to get out so desparately.
"And once this is over, I would certainly love to have you as my best mare. That is of course, if you... still would like to...", Shining Armor said unsurely, not knowing what answer to expect.
The next thing he knew was a couple of forelegs wrapping around him, his little sister's face leaned on his neck:
"I'd love to, B.B.B.F.F. Apology accepted...", Twilight smiled, happy that things actully turned out fine in the end as Rarity spoke up: "So what do we do now? I mean, they do have the Elements Of Harmony after all."
"Isn't it obvious? We're going after them!", Rainbow Dash called out, ready for some more action.
"And we're gonna give 'em some serious flank-whoopin'!", Applejack added, showing a similar determination.
Only Fluttershy stuttered: "Um... I-I really don't want to whoop anypony's flank right now, so maybe I'll be waiting for you girls here."
"Ah, come on, don't be a bad sport, Flutter's! The more there are, the more fun we'll have!", Pinkie Pie hopped past her, trying to reencourage her.
"Well, you call it fun, I call it... fear. Terrible awful fear."
"Now don't worry about that, Fluttershy, sweet. Remember, as long as we are together we can accomplish just about anything!", Rarity tried to cheer the timid mare up.
"I hope.", Fluttershy added, still unsure.
"Alright Twilight, ready whenever you are.", Spike ran up to the librarian.
"Okay girls, then lets go!", Twilight led the towards the gate as a light voice managed to speak up:
"Wait!", Chopper, stuttered, making the ponies turn their heads.
"I... I want to help you!"
"It's alright, Chopper, ya helped us out plenty by now.", Applejack assured him.
"Are you kidding me? Did you forget what he just did a few minutes ago? Would be pretty cool to have him around!", Rainbow flew next to the librarian, not noticing Chopper trying to keep himself from dancing at her compliment.
"I was lost in this world, but you guys took me in as your friend and... I promised to make up for that by helping you however I can.", Chopper reminded them, eager to feel useful to his new nakama.
"I say let him. After all, we could need as much help getting the elements back as possible", Spike told his pony friends, remembering how their were easily caught back in the Canterlot Tower.
"I say YES! He looks like fun!", Pinkie Pie bounced around her friends. "You just wanna see his forms, don't you?", Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the earth pony mare. "Sure do! Don't you?", Pinkie smiled back at her. "Well, duh!", Rainbow Dash grinned with excitement. A dangerous mission, a new pal with awesome powers, loads and loads of bad guys to pound, this day was really becoming her kind of day.
"Well, he did risk his life for us just now. I don't think we should put him in too much danger.", Fluttershy told her friends, feeling conflicted about letting such a small, adorable creature endanger his life.
"Oh, that's okay, me and my friends get into situations like that all the time!", Chopper called over to her with a happy smile. Fluttershy cringed at that, trying not to picture how ridiculously dangerous his homeworld must be.
"Okay, Chopper, you can help us if you really insist.", Twilight smiled down upon the small reindeer.
"Thanks, everyone, I promise I won't fail you guys!", Chopper grinned, saluting like a marine soldier.
"Now let's get going, everypony!", Twiligth finally called out to her friends.
"Right!", everyone agreed as they went on their way to wherever their search would lead them, not knowing the trouble ahead.
"Good luck, Twilight, I know you can do this.", Princess Cadence laid a hoof onto Twilight's shoulder with worry in her voice, as she, along with the rest of the princesses and Shining Armor watched the group of eight marching outside castle, outside the city and outside the protecting shield sphere, out into the unknown.
'Luffy... everyone... Can you wait for me, just a little longer? I have to help my new nakama first. You would do the same, right?'
TO BE CONTINUED
Into The Unknown! The Quest For The Elements Begins!
In the protection of the ever increasing darkness, the seemingly defeated hordes of changelings slowly but surely gathered at a small clearing in the woods of Everfree. All of them were confused, not knowing what to do, what next step to follow in this unforseen complication of their leader's plan. With a clear, echoing thud that startled the swarm and caused them to raise their heads, their queen herself landed on top of a large rock, enabling her to oversee most of the trees and look back at the once again protected capital of Equestria.
Her eyelids formed slits around her reptilian eyes as her voice gained her subordinates full attention:
"It seems that once again, Celestia is sending out her loyal lackies to do the dirty work for her... But it won't matter... they will come back, sooner or later. And to make sure we'll keep emphasis on 'later'..."
Chrysalis looked up in the peaceful evening skies, where a few pink puffy clouds were innocently floating in silence.
The queen's frown became a grin, her horn lit up and a green beam of magical energy was sent skywards, directly aimed at one of the clouds.
When it was hit, green sparks could be seen rushing through it as it slowly began to spin. Chrysalis watched with a grin as the clouds rotating motion soon picked up speed, changing in size and color to a dark and gloomy purple.
The changeling underlings watched in terror as the large cloud slowly descended to their queen's level, almost immediately stopping its swirling movement, as a small pair of red lights shined out of it.
Chrysalis then gave order to her 'creation': "Twilight Sparkle and her pathetic little friends... find them... and end them."
Without an answer, the purple smoke did as it was told and flew its way into the thicket, beginning to track down the ponies.
"Even if it fails, it should keep them busy long enough. After all, we still have something far more precious than magic, now don't we, my little sweeties?", she calmly spoke as one of her servants carried a certain small blue container towards her.
"W-wait, so you're telling me every single one of those turned into you?", Chopper stuttered. "Yes, and there were dozens of thousands of them! It was really confusing.", Rarity replied with worry in her voice.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends were wandering through the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, just simply headed in the direction they saw the changelings fly off to.
As the sun set and the and most of the woodlands' birds fell silent, the ponies became unsure, hoping to find any indication of the Elements Of Harmony, as they knew once Princess Luna would lose her energy from maintaining her protection over Canterlot, it would basically become a wide open weakpoint, just waiting to be attacked again.
Time was of the essence.
"One reason more to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I hate to imagine what they could have done to Canterlot if it hadn't been for Princess Luna. Think about it, they can take the form of everypony. Keep your guard up, girls... and boys...", Twilight warned, leading the way with the light of her magical horn illuminating their path through the thicket.
"Yeah, speaking of forms...", Rainbow Dash began, her flying altitude slowly lowering to Chopper's side who was traveling alongside the ponies in his form as a complete reindeer, carrying Spike on his back.
"How DID you manage to pull off those neat tricks back there?"
"What tricks?", Chopper turned his head to the flying equine.
"Well, you know, that round barrel-thing you turned into...", Rainbow tried continue before she got interrupted.
"Oh, oh! And don't forget that puffball, Dashie! That one was funny!", Pinkie Pie yelled, amused despite this serious current situation they were in.
"Well, you see...", Chopper said as he hesitatedly began to further explain his powers.
"In my years of research I did on my powers, I discovered a way to distort the wavelenghts of my Devil Fruit's transformations to a total of seven forms.", He explained in one quick sentence, not expecting anyone besides him to understand it.
"So, long story short, you did sciency things and now you've got more forms. Pretty cool, but hard to keep track of. I mean, did anypony understand that?", Rainbow Dash couldn't help but cringe at the amount of new questions created in her head, before looking at the others.
Her fellow pony friends either shrugged, shook or scratched their heads, only Twilight nodded smiling, unaware the question was rhetorical.
"Would be useful if we could jus' be 'morphin'' our way out of this forest.", Applejack tried to snap her friends back to the problem at hand. "Ya sure we're on the right way?"
"We are, I can still smell them, although the scent is getting weaker by the minute.", Chopper looked around, his nose twitching to keep track of the fowl, otherworldy smell of changeling.
"Meaning we're running out of time. We'll have to hurry, even though they will probably expect us to come right after them." Twilight announced.
"You mean we're being led into a trap?", Fluttershy spoke up.
"Not if we have anything to say about it! Bring 'em on, we can take them again!", Rainbow Dash simply refused to be scared.
"Just as well as you did back in Canterlot?", Applejack smirked while raising an eyebrow.
"That... didn't count! That was victory by... catching me off guard, okay?", Rainbow countered quickly with a blush.
Twilight looked back at her friends chattering, half of her mind was still worried about something else.
Spike could tell.
"What's the matter, Twilight?", Spike's question made the unicorn mare startle a bit before she turned to her assistant.
"It's just...", she began before exhaling deeply. "I just hope everypony is doing fine back at Canterlot."
Spike tried to comfort her: "You're worrying too much. You did all you could back there. Hey, if it weren't for you, we would've never known about Cadence's doppelganger and the real Princess would still be stuck in a dark cave and not with your brother as she is right now."
"Exactly, dear. Don't beat yourself up over it anymore. We are here now, and we will make it right.", Rarity patted Twilight on the back before Spike added:
"Not to mention that Princess Luna had arrived just in time to take care of the city. And what can that bug-lady possibly do against that?"
Twilight thought about these words as, to her horror, an image of the heavily beaten Celestia laying before her flashed through her memories.
'Hopefully nothing more than we know, Spike.', she replied in thought.
"I spy with my eye... something... green!", Luffy began.
"A tree.", Usopp guessed, appearently not for the first time.
"Wow, you're a tough one, aren't ya?", Luffy grinned.
Now it was Usopp's turn: "Okay, I spy with my eye... something else green."
"Another tree?", Luffy took a guess.
"Nope." Usopp replied smiling.
"A bush?"
"No."
"Come now, what is it?", Luffy groaned.
"Sorry, but you gotta guess.", Usopp said with a grin, secretly taking a quick gaze at the sleeping Zoro while holding back a chuckle.
After finally reaching the unknown island, the Strawhat Pirates decided to take the route through a thin river system, which eventually ended them up in the middle of this dark, imposing forest. Both Usopp and Luffy had nothing to do while looking for signs of their missing friend than play a game. They were leaning onto the Sunny's railing, Luffy on the left, Usopp on the right side.
Nami sat at a small table nearby, making quick drawings and notes to keep track of their course to make sure of a way back, should they end up at a dead end.
"It is getting quite dark now, I can't even see my hand anymore. Well, at least not the flesh of it...", Brook chuckled quietly as he too walked up to the railing, eyeing the waters below. Not that he had eyes.
In darkness of the evening, he could have sworn he saw a silhoutte darting by beneath the surface. Without hesitation he leaned closer, trying to make out what would linger-
SPLASH!
Without warning, the figure broke through the surface, startling the musician half to (a second) death.
With a hysterical shriek, Brook quickly fell on his back, as the large creature actually completely leaped out of the water over the ship, revealing itself to the bystanders on board: A fish, approximately half the size of the Sunny, with scales glittering in a dark, gloomy purple tone, red glowing eyes, countless rows of small and sharp teeth and a long and pointy spear-like appendage upon it's snout.
As it landed and resubmerged on the other side of the ship, causing the latter to wobble uncontrollably on the surface, the now alarmed crew completely gathered at the reiling on Luffy's side.
"It's Usopp! He became a fish! Sugoi!", Luffy called out impressed.
"Oi, oi, I'm right here.", Usopp murmured next to him, slapping him on the shoulder with the back of his hand.
"Look at the size of that thing! Don't you let it get away!", Sanji shouted, running up to them.
"About time we had some action around here! Brook, you're okay?" Franky asked while inserting his last bottles of cola into his stomach fridge.
"I'm... I am doing just fine, thank you very much, Franky-san...", Brook stuttered, laying on the floor, while shakingly holding a thumb up.
Nami was confused, leaning over the reiling: "What is a fish of that size doing in such a narrow river anyway?"
"Did it get lost here? Or could it sense us?", Robin, who stood next to the navigator, held up her arms in a crossed state, seeing the shadow underneath had turned around to come in for another attack.
"Well, no idea about that, but...", the green haired swordsman who had awoken from the turmoil pushed one of his blades out of its sheath with his thumb, "... I could use some excitement here."
He grinned as he walked up next to Franky, who aimed both arms at the creature in the water, waiting for it to pop out again.
"Franky, you go first.", Zoro said calmly.
"You got it.", the cyborg grinned as his forearms began to inflate:
"COUP DE..."
The large sea-beast ripped through the waves again, this time with its mouth wide open to swallow the crew hole, some of them already panicking.
But before it could do so, Franky aimed his metallic arms upwards to release his destructive air cannon:
"...VENT!"
The incredible output of air-pressure actually lifted the attacking behemoth several meters higher above the ship, giving Roronoa an easy target:
"SANTORYUU: TATSU MAKI!", Zoro called out with his three blades as he performad a quick spin too fast for the eye, sending a tornado of airwaves, thin and strong enough to cut steel, upwards.
The creature was hit in mid air, groaning in pain before falling back into the water.
Silence was all that followed.
"It worked! Way to go, you two! Couldn't have done it better, really!", Usopp announced, his legs still shaking.
"Even if it looked like it... it wasn't all that effective.", Zoro calmly explained, putting his swords back to rest in their sheaths.
"Huh? What do you mean?", Nami raised an eyebrow at his statement.
"Yeah, I saw it too.", Sanji agreed. "When that marimo sliced it up, there was no clear wound in those cuts, but smoke. Sorry, Luffy, but I'm starting to doubt that's an edible one."
Luffy only exhaled in dissappointment, before the ship began rocking once more.
"Something's happening below!", Robin, alarmed her crewmates, addressing the dark shadow underwater that started to grow.
The rather thin hydrodynamic body of the predator began to change into an even bigger balloon-like body shape, several long appendages sprouting from its bottom side.
Said appendages began folding themselves around the lower side of the Thousand Sunny, slowly crawling their way up to tighten the creatures grip.
When they reached the reiling, the crew began to realise what this next problem to deal with was.
"Tentacles! It's a giant squid!", Usopp called out before pinning one of them onto the ground with his large slingshot before it could grab him. "Really? Then where'd that funny fish go?", Luffy wondered while using his stretchy limbs to protect the ship.
"That WAS the fish from before! No wonder it seemed odd! That thing changed its form!", Sanji yelled as he began to spin rapidly.
"So, it's not edible either?", Luffy's eyes widened, only now putting two and two together.
When he came to a sudden halt, both of his legs seemed to have caught fire:
"Edible or not, that thing's in our way wasting our time. If we wanna find Chopper as soon as possible, we gotta stop getting distracted! DIABLE JAMBE!", Sanji said with tension in his voice, before running to the edge and leaping off the ship straight into the river.
"Sanji-san, wait!", Brook called after him, ready to jump off also, only to be cut off by Zoro.
"Don't worry. The cook's got it under control already.", He said with his armes crossed, ignoring the tentacles closing in around them.
Beneath the surface, Sanji swam straight down to find the source of the trouble:
A large and bulky squid was clinging upside down to the bottom of the ship, most of its tentacles giving his crew members up there a hard time.
The sea creature's glowing red eyes took notice of Sanji approaching and launched a pair of tentacles at him.
The young man however easily managed to avoid it's attack.
'BLUE WALK!', he spoke in his mind, his quick movements bringing him close to the creatures head.
'Alright, you oversized takoyaki.' , Sanji eyed it angrily, the cephalopod gazed right back at him.
'Let's dance!'
Sanji began repeatedly kicking with his ignited limbs, greatly picking up speed, as each kick left a great burn mark on the octopus' fleshy head, despite it being undewater.
"POELE FRIRE SPECTRE!"
Sanji's doings were immediatley noticed on board as the attacking squid's limbs all began twitching in twisting in pain, finally letting go of the Sunny.
Just as the ship had calmed upon the surface, the next thing the remaining crew saw was the squid being violently catapulted out of the water, most of it's head smoking with foot imprints of the Strawhats' cook.
"Oi, if you're not even edible, then get the hell outta here!", Luffy yelled up to the kraken in the air, which now had cast a large shadow over the ship.
"GOMU GOMU NO...", The captain started his attack by punching the air again and again with both his fists. As he did, he quickly picked up speed and momentum, turning his two limbs into a blurry of fists.
He finally stretched his charged limbs far behind him, before letting them snap back skyward with one more hit for the airborne squid:
"...CANNON!"
This one final blow ultimately transported the enemy FAR into the clouds, a small twinkle in the sky indicating that it would indeed be no more business for the pirates.
"And that's what you get when you mess with us!", Luffy grinned as his limbs snapped back to their regular lenght.
"Wow, just wow, what is this place anyway?", Usopp sat down while breathing heavily.
"I was so scared, I was afraid my heart couldn't take the pressure. Not that I still have a heart, of course!", Brook quickly recovered from his shock earlier and returned to his casual, joking nature.
"Yosh, we best keep moving and stick together. No telling what's behind the next corner.", Sanji added while climbing back on board soaked.
"If we already keep getting into trouble like this, imagine what it must be like for our ship doctor.", Robin, explained quietly.
"Dammit, she's right! He's all by himself right now!", Franky yelled. "And leaving our friend out in the open like that is SUPER-NOT-COOL! OW!"
"That's it!", Luffy called out, getting his crews attention. He was fed up from the lack of progression in their search. And the lack of nutrients in his system.
"I'm going ahead! I want food and I want my Nakama and I want both right now!", he yelled as he ran to the edge of the Sunny, jumped off and stretched his arm far out into the forest before grabbing a tree and shooting right into the thicket out of his crew's sight. This all happened within two seconds, leaving his crew speechless in an awkward period of silence.
Until Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji and Franky yelled after him in chorus:
"BAKA! WE GOTTA STICK TOGETHER!"
Silence and - at least partly - peace had returned to the city of Canterlot. The royal guards were ordered to check on the citicens and patrol the outer ranks, in the case of a second assault.
Princess Cadence and Shining Armor were giving orders to the guards, exchanging information in hopes to find out about the whereabouts of the elements. And although weakened from her imprisonment underground, she refused to leave the stallion's side.
Princess Luna carefully guided her injured sister to her bedchambers, trying to calm her about her actions towards her student.
"She was right, Luna. Had I recognised the danger earlier, I would not have to ask this of Twilight and her friends.", Celestia muttered, Luna however shook her head.
"Blame yourself no more, sister. The changeling queen is a powerful manipulator. I could have done no better than you did."
"Luna, your words are kind... but false.", Celestia remainend persistent.
"Shining Armor is currently thinking much like you. Blaming himself for not taking action when in truth, only one fiend is at fault.", Luna reassured her.
"All you need to do now is save your energy. We must trust in Twilight Sparkle and her companions."
Celestia was touched by her little sister's care. She gave in and did what she was told by her when entering her chambers, laying down onto her bed, careful not to futher injure her wounded wing and leg.
A she exited the chambers and closed the door behind her, Luna went on her way to check on the damage done to the outer ranks of the city. Commanding Celestia's guards along with her own ones, she managed rather well to secure the scared and confused citizens. Until further informations regarding the situation were at hand, Canterlot would stay under Luna's protection, unaware that plans to infiltrate the city were already in motion.
"Chopper!", Luffy called out again and again, utilizing his stretchable limbs to swing from tree to tree. However, the only thing that occasionly answered was his own stomach, desperately begging his owner for food. Luffy lost focus on his search and held his belly with one hand before landing back on his feet.
"Urgh, I'm not feeling too good. Gotta find something to eat first.", he decided and began carfully scanning his surroundings for anything edible, leaving no stone unturned and no bush unflattened. After several attempts of trying to catch small woodland creatures or trying to chug down rocks, he finally found a small silhouette, little thick brown body, large round blue top, Luffy's eyes and grin widened as he began to ran: "Chopper! I knew I'd find you sooner or later! What, were you hiding here the whole time, trying to be funny?", he joked while landing in front of the small figure.
A mushroom.
"Hey, you're not Chopper...", with his smile gone, the young man walked up to the fungus, grabbed it by it's stem, ripped it out of its hidden spot and casually took a bite from its bulbous blue top. Overwhelmed by the bitter taste, Luffy's rubber face distorted in a clearly unsatisfied way before he coughed and spat out the chewed pieces violently. "Yuk! And you don't taste good, either! Get that crap outta here!", he called as the mushroom was being thrown into the nearest bush.
As Luffy continued to walk, he noticed his vision starting to blur, a possible side effect from the mushroom.
The now dizzy Strawhat Pirate thought to himself: 'Maybe I SHOULD go back. Doesn't look like a place anybody would wanna hang out at. The food is terrible!'
Without friend nor food, Luffy made turn and began heading back for the ship. With his armes crossed, eyes closed, and head resting on one shoulder he mumbled to himself. "What to do... where to look..."
After finally losing the trail of the thieves, Twilight suggested to her friends to split up and search the area individually.
Trying to be reliable, Chopper focused on picking up the strange scent of Changeling throughout the forest, sadly without results. Suddenly, his ears twitched as they picked up a familiar sound.
"Oi!", a voice called out, quickly gaining the reindeers attention.
"Now way, is it possible?", Chopper got excited as he began running to where he thought to have heard his captain's call.
"Luffy, it's me! I'm right here!", he shrieked, almost tearing up, "I'm so happy I've found-"
"Oi", called the little black bird that had peacefully sat upon a low branch next to Chopper.
"Oh, you're not the one I thought you were.", Chopper mumbled in dissappointment, shrinking back into Brain Point.
"Oi!", was all the bird responded before cleaning its feathers with its beak, ignoring the creature near it.
'Do I miss my nakama that much?', Chopper thought before getting back on track to locate any Changelings. Unfortunately, ever since the incident, he started seeing or hearing his crew members everwhere. When he thought to have seen Brook, it turned out to be a large, skinny tree with a round top of leafes. When he thought to have found Usopp, it was nothing but a smaller tree with a conviniently placed branch.
With every failed attempt to reunite with his friends, he felt worse and worse for not staying strong and finding a solution on his own. Finally giving it up, he tried keep his thoughts from them and just rejoining Twilight and the others.
With his thoughts clouded and his eyes on his path, a looming shadow appeared in front of his feet. Chopper stopped dead in his tracks and quickly snapped out his thoughts before carefully lifting his head to see:
Luffy.
Luffy himself stared right back at the little creature, both bearing a blank expression on their faces.
This awkwrd moment of silence continued for about five seconds before both spoke up.
"Oh, I get it, I miss my friends so much I'm starting to see things...", Chopper said. "Oh, I get it, I'm so hungry I'm starting to see things...", Luffy said.
"Hello, hallucination of Luffy..." "Hi, hallucination of Chopper..."
With both of their heads hanging down, they sarcastically greeted one another before walking past each other, trying to get back to their individual groups.
As a series of calls led the group of ponies, including their non-pony sidekicks, to reunite around an ominous purple tree, they soon noticed the rainbow-maned pegasus mare up in it, wriggling back and forth through the leaves.
"What's the matter, Rainbow? Did you find something?", Twilight asked, lighting her horn up to illuminate Rainbow Dash's situation.
"I swear on my wings I saw something move up here!", she explained to her friends before focusing her energy her search, "Come on out here! We know you're hiding somewhere around here!", Rainbow called out, wildly digging through the tree's twigs looking for Changeling spies.
"I don't think you should be doing that, Rainbow.", Fluttershy suggested, not liking the idea of disturbing any wildlife.
"Come on, if I've really disturbed anyone here, I'm sure they would've let me know.", Rainbow Dash quickly shrugged Fluttershy's argument off, before, as if to answer the pegasus' cockiness, a vine quickly lashed out on her, coiling itself around her waist and lifting her out of the thicket.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!", Rainbow called out, completely caught off guard and struggling to get free.
Three holes began to crack open in the wooden stem, two of which started to glow in a menacing red and eyed the pegasus, the third opening wide with teeth-like splinters formed around it.
As the group on the ground got startled as well, Pinkie Pie called out for her friend: "DASHIE!", while Applejack took immediate action and began to charge.
"Hold on, sugarcube, imma get you outta there!", the cowmare yelled running towards the stem in order to climb upwards and reach Rainbow.
Strangely, the tree itself seemed to take notice of her doings and began sending its large branches at her, knocking the earth pony back into her group of friends that followed shortly, like a bowling ball into pins.
While quickly getting back up, Twilight tried to use her magic to pull Rainbow out of the plant's grip, but the flexible appendages simply refused to let go of their victim.
In his full human shape, Chopper came charging up next, winding up his arm for a devastating punch.
"HEAVY GONG!", he swung his fist into the stem, sending a vibrating motion throughout the tree, causing several leaves and twigs to fall out freely, but unfortunately no Rainbow Dash.
The tree soon responded as its thick roots began ripping through the earth, uppercutting the transformed reindeer and effortlessly knocking him onto his back.
"Spike!", Applejack called for the baby dragon before raising her hind legs, her back facing the tree.
Spike understood and leaped on top of Applejacks legs, which in turn bucked and launched him up into the tree top with Rainbow Dash. His small size allowing him to slip through the branches unnoticed and reach the distracted vine holding the blue pegasus, the young reptile took a deep breath before unleashing a small green flame onto it.
In pain, the tendril at last let go of Rainbow, who then landed back on her hooves before the tree, before it took a hold on Spike now, gripping him tightly to prevent more fire from being spit.
Pinkie Pie was hopping circles around the tree trunk, distracting several vines and branches from her friends. A high attack and she dodged, a low one and she jumped, her inner alert system again came in handy.
Via magic telekinesis, Rarity carefully tied several vines into a masterful bowtie-esque knot, further decreasing the trees attack output.
Seeing this, Applejack quickly got an idea as she waited for the next of the trees vines to go after her. When it finally did, she immediately jumped on top of it, pinning the flexible limb to the ground, before tying it up as an instant-lasso.
When the new lasso was thrown at one of the larger branches that tried to swing at the others, it got caught in it and slowly but surely got pulled down to ground level by the strong earth pony mare.
Occasionly, Fluttershy dared peeking from behind her hooves covering her eyes, keeping a low profile and shaking rapidly during the fight.
After struggling for a while, Spike managed to take a bite into the vines, causing them to give in and release him as well. Out of the tree he fell before safely landing on Twilight's back.
After recovering from the trees strong grip, Rainbow Dash began soaring as she prepared her counter attack.
As he got back up from the hard blow he received, Chopper turned to see the chaos around the tree. "Yosh, I have to take this thing down quickly!", he said before reaching back for his backpack and pulling out what seemed like a small yellow jawbreaker.
"RUMBLE-", before he could bring the pill-like object to his mouth, he was interrupted by a rainbow blur blazing by, the following winds almost knocking him over again.
"Out of my way!", Rainbow Dash yelled brashly, going straight for the tree on her own, "Alright, watch me turn that thing into a year's supply of TOOTHPICKS!"
A quick flying kick into the tree's trunk got the plant-monster's full attention directed at her, which she easily used to her advantage.
"You wanted to catch me, huh? Then try to keep up with this!", Rainbow taunted as she flew circles around the large opponent. Accepting the challenge, the tree sent its tendrils after the pegasus, precisely following her movement patterns.
In zig-zags and spirals she flew through the branches, as did the vines after her, the tree not noticing that it was slowly but surely immobilizing itself.
Twilight caught on and began to help Rainbow out by using her magic to grap and tie dozens of other vines to one another, disabling the tree's movements further and further. Combined with Applejack's lassoing, Rarity's skillful tying and Pinkie Pie using her Pinkie Sense to avoid the tree's powerful roots, eventually causing them to tie themselves up, the fight seemed to finally tip into the ponies' favor.
After struggling to catch a single pony, the strange plant creature had ended up completely tangled in itself, as the team of ponies, dragon and reindeer finally regrouped in front of it, all of them breathing heavily.
Chopper still stared in awe.
Incredible. His new friends just defeated a giant tree monster with nothing but sheer teamwork, where he would have already wasted his strongest technique on! On one hand, he was amazed at how smoothly the ponies ended up taking it down, they must've been through more in the past than he would've expected. On the other hand however, he was ashamed of himself for not keeping a cool head and right away resorting to his last ace, knowing that even if he would have beating the tree creature in it's strongest state, he only would've eventually ended up paralyzed and thus rather become a burden than a support.
"Now that that's... out of the way...", Applejack tried to regain her breath, "... what the hay is that thing?!"
Fluttershy added: "And why did it attack us?"
"I don't know, but it doesn't seem natural. In all of the bestiaries I've read, I've never found anything like it!", Twilight was puzzled as well.
In a final desperate attempt, the tree creature began to bend backwards, reaching out like a giant club, as the friends all snapped back to reality, all of them leaping out of the way of this fatal final blow while screaming.
The top of the tied up creature slammed onto the ground with great force, creating a small quake, before it snapped back upright.
When the friends managed recompose themselves from the fight, they all noticed that the tree began to change.
Out of its bark, something that appeared like purple smoke began eradiating into the sky forming into a thick cloud, the red eyes that seemed to belong to the tree now eyeing the ponies through the cloud one last time before it finally retreated, the tree it possessed returning into its natural color.
"Now what in Equestria was that all about?", Rainbow Dash asked while watching the purple figure float into the distance.
"I have no idea", Twilight sighed, "and I'm just too exhausted too think right now..."
"Perhaps it would be best if just take a short break before we go on. Just a small one...", Rarity sat down.
"Agreed.", everyone answered.
"We'll best just stick together from here, just in case...", Twilight huffed, thinking how much more trouble would lie ahead as her friends nodded in agreement.
Chopper returned to his Brain Point and laid on his back, thinking about how to plan his next moves wisely. He only had three Rumble Balls left, using them right away would surely be no good way to go from here and he had to stay cautious with the little he had.
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.