//------------------------------// // Chapter 1-3: Deceptive Cadence // Story: My Paper Pony // by Garfield //------------------------------// The four giant changelings advanced on the party, baring their teeth. "It looks like we have a few trespassers. How about we show you what pain really is?" said the monsters in unison and licking their lips. "Enough! Who are you!" shouted Mario, standing defiantly to the advancing bugs. "Why, we're your worst nightmares" they said, in unison once again. Their voices were smooth as usual, yet had an undertone of cruelty to them. One of them transformed into a yellow earth pony with black hair. "Do you miss me, Macintosh?" called the new pony. "I've missed you so much". Big Macintosh was snarling at the group. "How dare you use her image like that!" he yelled at the fake pony. He charged at her, but was intercepted by a green bolt of energy. It knocked him over, and caused him to tumble into a bookshelf. "Big Mac!" cried out Applebloom. she looked over at the source of the bolt and saw Twilight Sparkle standing there. Behind her was the other two female changelings standing with huge grins on their faces. "Move a muscle, filly, and I'll hit him again" she said, pointing her horn at the incapacitated stallion. "You ain't Twilight. You're just heartless monster, who needs to be put in their place!" she shouted back with tears in her eyes. "Little Applebloom, why are you crying? Don’t worry, mummy is here to console you" said the fake pony walking towards the filly, chuckling as she approached. "Get away from her, bug brains!" yelled Scootaloo, as she dived headfirst at her, smashing her face into the copy of Mrs. Apple. The impact caused the clone to stumble and collapse unconscious, and drop its disguise. Its true form was that of a regular changeling, but much larger than normal and wearing regal armour. Scootaloo also was knocked out by the impact, due to her prior head injury, and she slouched to the floor. In the wake of the fight, Big Mac had managed to sneak up on the fake Twilight. He reared up a buck and unleashed it on the unsuspecting fiends head, knocking it flying into another wall. In a similar fashion, it transformed into its true form as well, leaving only two able to fight. "Fools, you have incurred the wrath of your princesses!" shouted the Luna copy. Their forms were now that of the two rulers of Equestria, but with expressions of pure anger on their faces. "Give it up, we know you're just a pair of bugs there" said Mario. "Now surrender, or I will kick you so hard, the real queen changeling will feel it!" "Never!" replied the Celestia clone, hissing at the trio. A brilliant light filled the room, as the temperature began to rise. "Now burn to cinders!" it screamed. Mario ran towards the white fake princess, and grabbed her face between his hooves. He jumped up on her back, and began to hit her in the face, causing her to shriek. Applebloom also ran over and did the same to Luna clone, and steered her towards the one the stallion was controlling. "Unhand me, you filthy cur!" shouted the fake Celestia, trying to shake Mario off. "Now, kick Luna as hard as you can Big Mac!" called out Mario. He unleashed a gigantic buck into the side of Luna, sending her flying into the side of her sister. Together, they crashed into the wall, but had left their riders unscathed. Finally, the last two changelings transformed back into their base forms. "Tie those clowns up, AB, and look after Scoots, Big Mac" the moustached pony ordered. "Eeyup" said the larger stallion, picking up the unconscious filly. Mario searched the room, checking every nook and cranny in there. At long last, he found a switch hidden in the wall. "Aha!" he exclaimed, "Found something". He pushed in the switch, and immediately, the stones in the wall began to fall down, opening passage to the elusive chamber. Inside was very small, with a few candles to light the room. But in the centre was a most shocking secret: A large playing card with a pony on it. Running over with the filly on his back, Big Mac said "Why is there a playing card with my sister on it in here?", with a bemused look on his face. "I don't know. Maybe princess Luna could elaborate more on it?" replied Mario. He picked up the large card and placed it on his back, so the horrified face of Applejack was pointing towards the sky. "Come on missy, we should be gettin' along now" the larger stallion said to his sister. "Coming!" called Applebloom as she ran towards the group. "Why do you have a card of my sister on my back Mario?" she said with a confused look on her face. "Just as puzzled as you are. We're going to need some clues to explain what is going on, don’t we?" he replied. In all truth, he didn't even know where they were going to go. The royal guard were bound to be on their way to the castle to arrest the captured changelings, but they hadn't found an element of harmony there. He sighed and began his journey back to Ponyville. As they approached the town, Scootaloo woke up quickly. "What did I miss?" she asked. "Just Big Mac kicking Twilight and Luna in the face" said Mario, trying not to crack a smile. "WHAT!?" she said, with a shocked look on her face. "Relax, they were changelings, I ain't no traitor" he replied calmly. In the bushes near them, there was some rustling. "I have you now, Mario" said the unseen hunter under its breath. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ In the castle in the sky, the two princesses were still brainstorming on how they could help. "I've got it!" said Cadence, eyes filled with glee. "Do explain, dear" replied Celestia, who was very tired and trying to stifle a yawn. "Discord himself doesn't act on a plan, but one of his cronies might. If we can steal it, we would be able to find where he has taken the elements" exclaimed the pink princess. "That way, we could be one step ahead of him". "A very good plan, but how do you suggest we get out of the room and to one of their control rooms undetected?" asked the white princess. "There must be some secret passages in this castle that lead from here" said the younger pony. She walked towards the bookshelf, looking for a book on the castle. She saw a book labelled 'Canterlot Through the Ages', and tried to pick it up. As soon as she picked it up, a loud rumbling sound shook the bedroom. "This may be our escape route in here" said Celestia, extinguishing the fire with a spell from her horn. The tunnel behind the fireplace was small and dark, with a foul musk coming from it. "It would appear to be too small for me to enter. Be a dear and follow the tunnel, would you?" asked the princess. "Why thank you, auntie," said Cadence sarcastically, "but I think that if I was to be discovered on the other side, our entire plan could be ruined". "I understand your plight, and I think I have a solution. Put this suit of armour on" she said, pulling a box out from her closets. "It's the armour I wore a thousand years ago when I faced Nightmare Moon. The brainwashed guards aren't too smart so they should let you pass without too much persuasion". The armour consisted of a silver helmet, golden chest plate and a set of silver chain mail across her back. Cadence slipped into it, finding it was almost a perfect fit. "Good luck, and take care" the sun princess said. The disguised princess crawled into the dingy tunnel, crawling over the putrid puddles and musty moss. She barely fit, and her fur and feathers were being tarnished by the rotten route. A small grille was allowing light in, and she could hear two voices talking. She leaned in, listening to the conversation beneath her. "Once again, I bring bad news" said a shrill female voice. "The changeling occupation at Trottingham Tower has been repelled. According to the bugs that fled, it was that red stallion again who attacked them. Also, the Honesty card is missing from its chamber, and we have no clue of its whereabouts". "Do you have any of the deserters here with you?" said an angry male voice. "Whole unit of them" replied the girl. The unit was frogmarched in, taken as prisoners by the brainwashed soldiers of Discord. Cadence climbed to get a better view of the situation and saw it was indeed the spirit of chaos and his assistant standing in the throne room. With a snap of his fingers, the draconequus turned all of the changelings into chickens, and then into multiple colours. He turned to his assistant and said "Raise the alarm at all other places, and warn the bugs queen. Failure won't be tolerated again, tell her." "Understood, my lord" she replied, saluting before she floated out of the room above the mass of panicked poultry. With some new knowledge under her belt, Cadence continued her crawl to her destination, through the foul tunnels. Underneath a large flight of stairs, Cadence emerged from her tunnel. She looked around and saw that the chamber she was in was mainly empty, which meant she didn’t need to be as stealthy. Slowly but surely, she searched rooms around the castle, spotting only a few guards blocking access to the throne room and other important rooms. Eventually, she found herself inside a large room, full of maps. On the central table, there was a map of the great desert that covered much of Equestria's southern half. In the middle was a large red X, seemingly marking a point in the desert near a small town known as 'Dodge Junction'. Cadence quickly took note of this, memorizing the position of the cross. Suddenly, she felt a blade on the back of her neck. "What are you doing here?" said the loud, brash voice that had accosted her. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "I think we may finally be back!" said Scootaloo, seeing the pleasant town close by. "It was nice to be able to make a journey without being attacked for once" said Mario, helping Big Macintosh to carry the Applejack card. "Not so fast!" shouted a high pitched voice, jumping from the bushes. "Goddammit" cursed Mario. "What the hell do you want?" "I'm here for my revenge! Not only did you break my doll, you humiliated me! At least now I am able to beat you up with my new technique" Diamond Tiara shrieked. She pulled a metal helmet from her bag, and placed it on her head. "Try kicking me now, it wont work!" "Why is she out for your blood Mario?" asked Scootaloo, with a bemused look on her face. "Honestly, I don't know. Come on, let's just ignore her" he replied, walking past her. Suddenly, a hoof swung out and smacked him on the nose. "Ow, what the hay?" exclaimed Mario, holding his face. "I told you, I'm not letting you past without me smacking you around a bit" she said, getting angrier. "Let me go past, and I won't have to hurt you" he replied stomping on the ground. "Fine. Be that way" she said, walking away. Mario let out a sigh of relief, thinking "It's always the crazy ones". As soon as he thought that, he heard Applebloom shout out for him. "Look out!" she yelled. Mario turned around and saw the armoured filly flying towards him. He ducked, causing her to narrowly miss, and making her roll on the ground to her feet. She prepared another dive, but her body was tackled by the duo of Scootaloo and Applebloom. "Buzz off, Diamond Tiara, this isn't a game!" the orange filly said, struggling to hold the squirming pony. "I never said it was! This common thug attacked me in that dumb farm of yours, and I want revenge!" she screamed, stamping her hooves. The group of four ponies began to advance on her, causing her to take a few steps back. "However, I don’t think this is the time for it. Mark my words, colt, I will kick you in the teeth soon" she said, running away. The party looked on, at the fleeing filly, confused as to what the moustachioed stallion had done to her. "Why do I get the feeling we're going to see a lot more of her?" asked Mario, shrugging. "Because you attacked her?" asked Scootaloo. "Not on purpose. Besides, she's insane" he replied. "Agree with you there" said Applebloom. "Shall we continue our journey into Ponyville then?" asked Big Macintosh. The other ponies agreed, and began walking towards the centre of town. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Why aren't you at your position, soldier?" asked a huge pegasus. He was pale blue and had a silver mohican, and had a large scar on his face. "ANSWER ME!" he bellowed. Cadence stumbled, trying to get to her hooves. "I thought I saw an intruder sir, I followed him sir. No intruders here, sir!" she said, in an attempt to imitate the royal guard, albeit horribly. "You look different to the regular guardsmen" he said, closing in on Cadence, still with his sword in his mouth. She began to nervously twitch her eyes around and sweat heavily. "We don't see many female guards ponies here. 'Specially not after the boss took over" "Only working to protect and serve our great overlord, sir" she said, her voice beginning to crack with fear. "You seem like a good soldier. You might have Discords will appeased on you" he said, walking out of the room. When he was out of earshot, Cadence gave out a huge gasp of relief. She was centimetres away from discords third in command, and she had somehow not been caught. She looked down at herself and saw that the grime in the tunnels had stained her and feathers brown, which improved her disguise. "Are you going to go to your post, soldier?" she heard the captain bark. Running out of the door, she fled the room and stood at alert at the bottom of the stairs. She waited until the old pegasus left the room, and she ducked into the hole in the ground and began her journey back to the princess. Cadence crawled out of the small tunnel, and into the bedroom. "My gosh, dear you look awful" said Celestia to the filthy princess. "The tunnel doesn't look like it gets cleaned often" said the younger princess to her elder. "I have discovered some intelligence that could well be useful" she said, taking off the helmet that was loaned to her. "Interesting, do proceed" said the sun princess, cleaning the helmet that was just set on her bed. Brushing her mane, Cadence said "First of all, they have lost control of the element of Honesty. Also, it would appear that there is some operations taking place in the desert regions near Dodge Junction. It would be well worth an investigation into the area, just in case it could hold more clues". "I agree" Celestia said, placing the helmet back on her niece. "Go and find Luna and inform her of the new intelligence, as well as the great news regarding the recovery of the elements". "Will do" said the mucky pony, opening the windows and diving down to the earth. Celestia smiled, and closed the windows. She turned and looked at the carpet, and saw a stain on it. She frowned, and summoned a bucket and mop to her hooves. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ At the town centre, they could see the library tree, still covered in police tape. The farmer stallion tapped Mario on the shoulder, and began whispering in his ear. "After what happened up at the tower, my little sis is going to have questions about our mother. I'll take her back to the farmhouse, and I'll explain to granny what's going on as well" he whispered. Mario nodded and said "We'll be at the library if you decide to rejoin us. Thanks for the help anyway". "Just looking after my family" he said. "AB, we're going to visit granny!" he called out. "See you later, Scoots" she said, running over to her brother. The two began to walk towards the farm leaving the other two behind. "Are you going to stay and be my assistant too?" he asked the orange filly beside him. "Only if I get to be a sidekick" she said excitedly. "Fine." Mario sighed and led her towards the library, past the yellow tape.