The blurry, dark silhouettes of three changelings soared over the barren landscape. Any hopes of the fleet of pegasi in pursuit being able to locate or track them down was practically zero. It was the dead of night, and seeing anything for a creature without nocturnal vision would be impossible. Tarsus, Poison Fang and Thorax flew in a line back towards the hive, with Tarsus carrying the young princess Flurry Heart in his bruised and rugged forelegs.
Before she had any chance to use her misguided, yet powerful alicorn magic on any of them, they were sure to prevent it from the start. Before Tarsus had even left the crystal castle for more than thirty seconds, he made sure to drain a bit of the energy from the filly to put her into a deep, weakened state of sleep. Enough to get the job done, but not too much to make sure their bargaining power wouldn't be lost.
It was sickening, Thorax thought to himself as he looked at the two of them flying and carrying back the poor filly. What was the queen's plan once they had Flurry Heart? What would be their demands? That everypony should allow themselves to be rounded up and used by the changelings to feed off of until every last one of them was drained of love and energy? What then? In their current state, the changelings were like poor creatures clinging and grasping at threads, desperately hoping to stay afloat for just a moment longer. Thorax was beginning to think that even the queen herself hadn't thought things through.
Or, he realized upon closer inspection, perhaps she did, and she had nowhere else to go. She had hundreds, perhaps thousands of mouths to feed and seemingly no way through which to feed them. He almost felt sorry for her, for what she had to deal with, and for how simply their problems could be resolved if she just had the right leadership to teach her children how to love one another. That's all they needed. Yet, Queen Chrysalis was blinded by her intense hatred and deafened to reason by her thirst for vengeance.
"You seem awfully quiet," said Tarsus, addressing Thorax. His tone was intriguing, as if he was actually curious what Thorax was thinking instead of setting up something awful to say to him.
"I just...was thinking," he replied, immediately regretting his ambiguous choice of words.
"About what?" Poison Fang jabbed. "You've got some sort of secret to spill? Or do you want me to spill it for you?"
He dragged a fang against his side, hard enough to hurt but not enough to puncture.
"No, I was just--"
Apparently, something about his reaction was seen as a threat to Tarsus, because he suddenly veered towards him taking a jab at his neck with two outstretched fangs.
"Hey, stop it!" Thorax cried out. The thought occurred to him that this was just more rough-housing, but it became immediately apparent that was not the case when Tarsus returned to headbutt him. Poison Fang joined in, likely because that was just what he did. Whatever Tarsus did, he did.
"What's with you? Why are you so secretive? What do you have to hide?" Tarsus continued berating him with questions, trying to attack him all while flying at the same time. Flurry Heart remained in his grasps, but Tarsus seemed more preoccupied with attacking him.
"What's wrong with you? Why can't you just realize that the queen thinks I am more suitable than you?" Thorax replied, mostly in hopes of striking another chord with him.
Judging by his violent response, his bluff must have been at least partially true. Tarsus didn't respond with words at all. Instead, he bared his fangs, lowered his head downwards and pointed his jagged horn directly at his neck and flew towards him at full speed. Poison Fang was in the midst of trying to ruin his balance, his body sprawled out atop his back and wings. Tarsus flew towards them both with anger in his eyes and Flurry Heart in his hooves.
His horn struck flesh, ripping it open like a serrated blade.
Poison Fang screamed in agony and fell off the back of Thorax as Tarsus continued moving in his trajectory. The land below was dark and rocky, and covered with snow. His body hit the ground with a dull thud and slid for several feet before coming to a dead stop. Meanwhile, in the air high above, Flurry Heart was loosened from the grips of Tarsus in the violent attack moments prior. Falling aimlessly through the sky, she began to sink towards the ground below to join Poison Fang.
She continued to plummet for several seconds through the cold, dry air until suddenly, Thorax had swooped down from above to catch her in his outstretched forelegs. He pulled upwards as hard as he could, but was unable to avoid coming into contact with the icy ground beneath him. In the last few moments before making contact, he curled himself around Flurry Heart and took the blow full force, bouncing and sliding a large distance due to his immense horizontal velocity. With each bounce came a surge of pain and suffering, each one slightly worse than the last until he came to a sliding stop near an icy crevice.
Meanwhile, Tarsus was still amidst the skies regaining his bearings, and Thorax managed to quickly hide himself amidst the crevice before he could be seen. But Poison Fang was out in the open, his body still and unmoving. From the protection of his hiding spot, Thorax watched the scene unfold.
Perhaps in a moment of weakness, or perhaps purely out of curiosity, Tarsus came to Poison Fang on the snow-covered ground. The wound from his horn was already beginning to seep out fluids, but the intense cold of the environment seemed to be slowing its effect. Tarsus walked solemnly towards the body, eyeing the wound that was meant for Thorax but was given to Poison Fang.
He stopped at his side and looked downwards for several moments, letting out an exasperated sigh. Several more seconds passed in silence, with only the faint sound of wind blowing and snow falling until Tarsus did something Thorax would never have expected a changeling to do.
He knelt down and laid his horn against Posion Fang's body, channeling an aura of energy that began to swirl around him. As it swirled, it swept up the snow and revealed the grassy ground beneath it and the colors became more vibrant as the swirling became more powerful. Tarsus looked as if his body was slowly decaying, his energy fading away as the aura continued to emanate from his horn. Suddenly, the swirling stopped and he collapsed into the snow, barely able to breathe.
Poison Fang remained lifeless, and Tarsus laid beside him as he regained enough energy to stand again.
Thorax retreated into the icy crevice. His wing was badly damaged and he had an alicorn princess to protect.