Clang!!! CL-CLAKK!
Sparks showered in the center of a dark hallway, revealing a pair of identical, sweat-stained beaks. Not-so-identical limbs slashed and swung and parried with a pair of like-metallic staves. Some of the sparks fell on a collection of rags spilling out of an abandoned storage compartment. The dry material erupted in flames immediately, bathing the nearby bulkheads in amber firelight.
Wildcard's goggles glinted with the miniature blaze. Taking short and swift breaths, he backstepped, propping his staff horizontally over the stub of his left limb. Cuts and scrapes along his body glowed faintly in the chaotic dimness. Wildcard's headcrest lowered as he tightened his muscles in anticipation of his doppelganger's next attack.
Seething, the mimic Desperado approached. His lion's tail twitched, belying his next movement.
Wildcard readied himself. He lifted his staff at the last second, knocked the enemy's weapon down, then slammed his feline limbs down across the length of the metallic extension with all his weight.
The air rang with a sickening CRACK! Green blood poured out of the hollow of the fake bo-staff.
"Aaaaaaaaugh!" a pegasus mare's head erupted out of the fake griffin's neck. In a blood-curdling second, the changeling switched to Ariel, cradling her bleeding forelimb as her pained body banged against one wall, the next, and back again.
Panting, Wildcard leaned against Bard's staff, watching his crazed opponent with somber patience.
"Mmmmm—Mommmmma!" Ariel shrieked, then shook her head to the other side, forming tusks, hair, and spectacles. "Brrotherrssss!!!" Eyes flickered green, then turned magenta. "Celestia..." Rainbow Dash whimpered. "Why does it h-hurt so much?!"
Wildcard gulped. He steadied himself in the penumbra of the flames' warmth.
Seething, the creature looked up, glaring through the rising smoke. "Bloodwings."
Wildcard raised an eyecrest.
"You must be... hrkkkk..." The changeling's eyes flickered green once again. "A horrible name for horrible creatures... snkkkkt... she wrote them... mother etched them..." She choked on a sob. "...black scratches against the bone white surface of my dr-dreams..." Green bile dribbled out of the creature's muzzle. "I will... tell find her... tell her where you are..." She seethed as her eyes narrowed to hawkish slits. "...kill... every... one..."
It was then that the Desperado finally chose to charge his opponent. But just as he reached her, staff swinging—
"Raaaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!" With an explosion of wings and feathers, a bleeding Seraphimus leapt straight into his charge.
"!!!!!" Wildcard could scarcely raise the staff in time to defend himself. The doppelganger pounced him, swinging merciless talons and stabbing with the Talon Commander's beak.
The flames flickered brighter as a streak of glowing blood littered the bulkhead beside the blaze.
"Rainbow..." Fluttershy squirmed with sudden fright. "Rainbow, we have to go up to the top floors! Now!"
"Yeah, I get it, Flutters," Rainbow said, already gliding along with Ariel for the nearest stairwell. She illuminated the path ahead of them with her ruby pendant. "If we hurry, we might just meet up with Logan and check—"
"Logan's fine!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "It's Wildcard!"
Rainbow did a double-take in midflight. "Wildcard?"
"Wildcard?!" Ariel stammered.
"I... I'm afraid he's hurt!" Fluttershy's voice cracked. "He must be in battle with the changeling."
"And what?" Applejack craned her neck. "The changeling's winnin'?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Pinkie Pie winced as her body vibrated in two alternating places. "Fluttershy's right. We should hurry."
"What does that twitch mean, Pinkie?" Rarity asked.
"Well, back home, it usually meant that I was burning brownies in the oven!"
"There's... no bakery for thousands of miles!"
Rainbow clenched her teeth. "A fire..."
"Rainbow...?" Ariel murmured.
"Move your wings!" Rainbow Dash flapped harder as she shot her body up the stairwell. "The situated just shifted from 'holy crud' to 'holy mega super crud!'"
"Cr-crud!" Ariel wheezed, struggling to keep up.
"Thattagirl!" Rainbow sped vertically through the heart of Darkreach. "Keep it brief!"
For the fifth time in a row, Kepler struck a match.
He slowly waved the meager light about, squinting through his glasses to make out any possible detail in the pitch-black common room. All he caught was the glint of firelight against the tile of the Verdestone Mosaic.
Somewhere in the distance, growing faint and fainter, a series of metallic impacts echoed.
"Could... it be the powerr going back on?" Kepler stammered.
"Don't be so foolish, wyvern," droned a cold voice from the shadows. Kepler turned around, and the matchlight illuminated Seraphimus pale feathers. "There's combat going on deep in these halls," Seraphimus said, her voice tense. Cautious. "The longer we wait here, the more we delay the inevitable."
Kepler took a deep breath. "My frriends have things underr contrrol."
"Only a Blighted fool could believe that," Seraphimus muttered. "But if you believe in what the Rainbow Rogue says, then that's not a grand surprise."
"Shhhh!" Kepler waved her off while craning his hairy neck towards the distant echoes. "I must ascerrtain what is going on!"
"What's to figure out?" Seraphimus glared. "Judging from the ferocity of that noise, it can only belong to one griffin." Her crest feathers raised on end. "Let me go."
"Bite yourr tongue!" Kepler snapped. "You know verry well I cannot do that!"
"You can and you should!" Seraphimus snarled. "Jordan is in trouble! And if you're too weak to help him—"
"I have my station, just as he has his."
"Wyvern..." Seraphimus stared solidly at him. "I do not care for the Rainbow Rogue or your foolish brothers-in-arms... but if there's any scrap of respectful spirit left in Jordan's beleaugered body, then I would be remiss to let him perish at the hands of whatever goddess-forsaken monstrosity dwells here."
Kepler turned to smirk at her. "Currious... that cerrtainly does not like the thoughtless crretin who attacked us on the Gondola..."
Seraphimus clenched her beak shut. She sat silent where she was handcuffed to the pipework.
"Arre you rready to embrrace exactly wherre you arre?"
Silence.
Eerie silence.
"Shhhhhh...!" Kepler craned his neck. "Do you hearr that? The sounds of combat have stopped."
Seraphimus fumed. "I swear... if he's dead, wyvern, you will have to own up for—"
"Silence! Please, fickle one!" Kepler insisted. As his match went out, he lit another one and hobbled towards the nearest hallway. "Wildcarrd?"
There was no response.
"Brrotherr...?"
Sill dead silence.
Seraphimus and Kepler held their breaths.
Then... a light... flickering.
Bzzzzzt!
The manalights lining the ceiling of the common room lit up with a pale glow.
"Ha-hah!" Kepler beamed through his tusks as the room traded pitch black for a comfortable dimness. "Flynn, you brrilliant crreaturre!"
Well that's pretty cruddy...
Well, Wildcard probably has it under control
...does he?
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/216484430175272960/339601573682610176/unknown.png
For posterity
I hope that Wildcard can hold out till Rainbow and Ariel get there. I mean he is a great fighter but with him missing limbs and the changelings having those crazy powers it's unlikely he can actually win this one on his own.
Yeah, it's really hurt if it's going through forms like candy.
Though, I don't see why it hasn't tried the forms of the phantom 5, even with their ghosts nearby, it would've made Dash hesitate.
Think Tchern knew about the Austraeoh, like Chrysalis?
She's probably left eggs everywhere there are ruins, on the off chance that they're found, like an early warning system.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Now that Logan is fine, time to worry about Wildcard.
You know, it occurs to me its a rather bad sign that one Changeling that also happens to be a newborn is capable of giving the group this much trouble. Doesn't bode well for when they have to deal with more than one.
The Changeling also doesn't seem to know what Dash or any of the Herald are. Makes it seem like s/he wasn't placed there to watch for their coming specifically, but rather to watch out for 'Bloodwings', aka the bat ponies. The Changeling still seems pretty confused, thinking of Wildcard and the others as having to be 'Bloodwings', but if its gotten into their heads to mimic their shapes shouldn't it also be able to snag memories of the Light Side and know more? Or is being a newborn limiting what kind of memories it can access, or at least put that information together? It seems to copy combat skills pretty damn fast, I wonder why actual information like where the Herald are from and why they're here are so much harder to glean?
Did a bit of a double take on this. For a second, I thought Sera somehow managed to get her way in.
So wait...does this changeling think that Wildcard and the group are Bloodwings?
Maybe it got quiet because... they're making love?
Counting down the chapters to when Darkreach explodes as the Herald and co outrun the blast front via an emergency exit tunnel, Descent-style
Looks like Seraphimus is about to activate Big Damn (anti-)Hero Mode.
Dammit Fourths.
Bloodwings? Either the changeling thinks WC is one or it can sense some on the way.
Hang in there Wild Card...
8323551
Hah!
--
Wildcard sure knows how to pick the angerturkey mimics..
Wonder if seph was being sincere about wildcard.
Is the gas methane?
Might explain why...
I wonder if this is just any kind of run of the mill dark side changeling, or if this is some kind of special agent type that the queen can make for special jobs like this. Because if they're all like this, Rainbow Dash and her marry band will have to start thinking about using some more powerful weapons in the fights to come.
Most of the stuff they use is made to be melee and/or non-lethal. Mite be time to take that perk in ranged or explosives guns.
Geez. Tchern didn't raise any quitters did she. At least it's showing some signs that it's actually getting hurt, even if it keeps transforming.
8323478
Not necessarily. It seems to me more like this changeling is basically a cornered animal that is just lashing out at everything around it. I think Tchern's actual soldiers will be very different. Hopefully they will have more of a sense of self preservation. Of course, they will also be trained soldiers, but hopefully
the murderchickenSeraphimus will have been rehabilitated by the time that happens so it will all balance out.This is when it's revealed the WC is actually Tchern in disguise and this whole journey was a long con set up to trap Rainbow in Darkreach
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8323915
If anything the Changelings that have been not only trained for battle, but have probably survived numerous battles on the Dark Side, will be even more difficult to fight. There's little reason to think they won't have the same lack of self-preservation that this newborn has, and be just as if not more viscous due to being experienced warriors. Not to mention fully mature Changelings might have all sorts of extra weird bug powers, or specific morphology like freakin' different types of Zerg. They're going to be probably the toughest foes to beat, although the Night Shard might have some crazy stuff of their own...
Speaking of which, in regards to Seraphimus, I don't think her rehabilitation, if it happens, is happening anytime soon. I mean, I could be seriously wrong, but I figure she's not going to fully join Team Dash until she learns about the souls being taken from the Light Side. When she learns of that, sees undeniable proof that the souls of the dead are being taken somewhere and possibly tortured or used for some nefarious purpose... that's going to be the point she turns to Dash's side. Not out of any real liking for Dash, but because she'll know the souls of her husband and child are on the line and helping Dash is the only way to save them. But I don't think we'll be learning much about what's happening to the souls of the dead for a long while yet.
But we'll see. Like I said, I could be way off.
Damn it, Kepler, don't you fucking do it. I swear to fuck I will smoke you until your wings shrivel and beg for mercy.
Run in place for two minutes. Get your knees up as high as they can go. Knock 'em out!
Did he say that on purpose? Dammit, Kepler.
Sera is only handcuffed to a structural beam? But at teh Edge Of The World she was secured by multiple high tensile wrapps. And she broke, sliced those.
Due to Kepler, Mortana walks out of that tunnel, takes out Kepler, then moves to Sera?
Then it will be time to Evacuate everything?
Hmm... Needs more splosions.
8323437
Nope. You presented him with an adjective. The word in the title seems to be a noun. I guess that's his own original word, do not steal.
Sera vs Fake Sera fight? That'd be hardcore, though I'd expect the Talon leader to slaughter the changeling effortlessly, at least until it brings out her family. Of course, that's assuming that Kepler is foolish enough (or desperate enough (or unlucky enough)) to let Sera break free, accidentally or otherwise.
When the pin is pulled,
Mr grenadeMrs murder chicken is not your friend.And now, the match you've all been waiting for...
8323974
I think her seeing the souls of the dead being devoured by the night shard might drive her to hate Dash even more honestly.
8326425
Quite possibly, but at the same time Dash will be the only possible way to save those souls, too. So I figure Seraphimus can either accept working with someone she hates to save the souls of her family, or damn them by trying to kill Dash again. We'll see which side of the coin lands face up when the time comes.
Hm. If the changeling is mistaken about their identity, maybe it's not entirely too late for the Diplomacy option.
You know, I don't know what will happen when whatever they face is too much for the Herald. Sera brings up a good point because she is very capable of holding her own and being a great force of good, but do we really trust her? Or are we going to be brought to a point where there will be no choice? So far, they are only dealing with one Changeling, and everything is at the precipice of disaster. That's not a good sign at all.
8323462
Maybe its first instinct is to transform into people the victim misses, which is no longer the case for the m5 in case of Dash. I doubt it could actually sense the girls' ghosts being around.
Smaragdines, heh. Her eyes weren't emeralds.
8323478 We've learned that the changelings' skill to assume the shape of others' beloveds is a rather instinctive, habitual thing. They need not know what they're doing, or even be aware of it. They just do it. They won't let their dreams be dreams.
Wonder how the changeling will screw up the disguise?
Okay, so Bloodwings are super scary creatures from what we've gathered from two separate pieces of evidence, from different kinds. They ain't good.
He went and buffed Changelings
This 'ling is freshly hatched, yet can fight with the best of them and instinctively uses some top-shelf psychological warfare. It's probably a good thing it isn't an expert, capable of fluidly mixing transformations into its combat. I'm not sure the Forward-Horse squad could defeat that without losses.
I am still convinced that—
Kepler going for the slam dunk!