//------------------------------// // Episode 82: Second Wave (Season Finale Part 3) // Story: Life of a Wanted Changeling Season 3: Tyrants, Terrorists, and Tiaras, Oh My! // by Down with Chrysalis //------------------------------// Intro: Moments Before The Announcement TheRutherFord’s Comment While the Pinkie Clones glomp their respective changelings, everyone else feasts on whatever food they can and tries to catch their second wind. Rutherford the Wyvern scarfs down an apple pie while Solarkness eats one as well and sighs. “Makes me wish for a Venison steak right about now,” the Timberwolf mutters. “Yeah,” Rutherford agrees. “This whole situation makes me wish for a lot of things. Being free, not being wanted, seeing my mate again…” Solarkness just shakes his head and with another bite, swallows his pie. “There ain’t no place that’s gonna be safe, even if we somehow get out of this mess.” “You can’t have that kind of attitude Sol. Heck, today is full of surprises. There was a jail break, we found out we were leaders of nothing and most of all, Brown Dog can actually be pretty competent.” They then look over to said Diamond Dog who is chugging a bottle of Apple Cider like there’s no tomorrow. “…When he wants to be…But even still, you have to believe that we can still get out of this, and that when we do, our future isn’t hopeless.” The Timberwolf looks over to the broken furniture, and bits of repaired wall covered in slime. “Seems a bit hopeless to me.” “Well not to me. I am going to make it out of this. And when I do, I’m going back to my clan and mate away from xenophobic ponies. You’re welcome to join me.” The Timberwolf thinks about it and chuckles. “Well, IF we get out of this, what’s so special about this place?” “It’s a fertile farmland located between the sea and a large forest full of wild game, as far from Equestria and it’s ponies as you can get.” “Oh gee, thanks,” Snap Drake replies next to him in mock hurt. “You know what I mean,” the wyvern waves his claw. “Yeah, I just like busting your chops. But yeah, away from anywhere in Equestria sounds good, heck I’d take the frozen north if it meant we get out of this.” “You’re welcome to come along, all of you in fact…I promise you that my friends.” “What’s being promised?” asks Changer as he comes up to the table. “Dragon Boy is offering us a place to crash if we can survive all of Erised’s grandkids,” Brown Dog says as he walks up with a half empty bottle and belches. “They’re no spawn of mine!” the Ink Moth replies indignantly. “So wait, do you really mean you got a spot?” asks Kichi as he joins the table. “Is everyone just listening in on my conversation?” asks Rutherford. “Only the important ones, everyling else is making food or getting love, and I don’t think these Pinkie’s care what we say," Brown Dog explains. “Too busy giving love, no time to listen,” responds the Pinkie hugging him for emphasis. Kichi himself has his own Pinkie snuggling his back as he puts his hoof to his mouth in thought. Kichi’s Comment After thinking about it for some seconds, he says in a seriously dry manner, "I will join too.” “Yeah, alright, you’re more than welcome, just so long as you don’t kidnap any more ki-“ Rutherford is cut off. “Because even if we get out of this, Celestia would still probably try to catch us. Hopefully if we’re out of the country they can’t put us back in jail.” “Well we’d certainly make it harder for them,” Solarkness adds. “Well…there any booze and females where you’re from?” Brown Dog asks. “Um…of course?” he responds as if it’s obvious. “K, Kool. I’m in.” “It’s pointless to make plans as of now. We haven’t won anything yet,” Erised crossly points out. “Oh let them have their false hope Grandpa! It’s better than being…whatever the tartarus your condition is,” Grey Rebl snarks with a roll of his eyes. As the Knights have their little moments, with every one regaining their strength, they then suddenly hear the announcement. Back To Present ErisedtheinkMoth’s Comment Just_another_guy’s Comment "Crimson Knights, we await your answer!" Biff and Tannen say in unison as they watch them both fly up and perch on the nearest building. The Knights just look at one another in awkward silence. Raising an eyebrow at that display, Kichi points out "For all you non changelings" Kichi points at the Duo "That's not normal" "Yeah well, what is normal now a days?" Changer says looking outside at the horde of changelings and then at the group of possible lunatics defending from said horde in a half beaten bar! "...Good point..." Kichi replies. “Well normal or not, The Shining Twins outside mean business, Knight Bros, meeting time.” Brown Dog announces. Heeding the call of their surprisingly impressive impromptu leader, the Knights all huddle together, leaving the other refugees in their own group. "Alright gang, looks like they'll back off until they get an answer from us. And unlike Lord Humongous, they didn’t give us a time limit. " "Good. We should use this time to take stock of our situation, and come up with a plan." Erised joins in, with Nines still hanging onto him. “Sorry Pinks, Knights only,” Grey explains as he pries her off the pale changeling. “Awww, but I wanted to hear the super secret plans,” she whines as she sullenly walks back to the other group. “Wow harsh Grey. This love triangle between you her and Erised is getting brutal,” Rutherford chuckles smugly. “Oh Go Buck Yourself!” Grey growls giving a braces filled snarl. While everyone snickers Brown Dog raises his paws. “Alright, we’ll be sure to put that one in the book, but yeah, Inky’s right, we gotta plan some stuff out.” "Your semi competence is still unnerving. But yes, first of all, we need to know how many of them we still face. I have these two enthralled,” he says pointing to his two minions. “But that’s not much. How many did you all manage to kill?" Everyone balks at the pale changeling. "Uh zero. We don't do that whole... killing thing." Snap tells him, with the others nodding in agreement. "Yeah. We might be criminals fighting for our lives, but we're not murderers." Brown Dog shakes his head at Erised, "Seriously, tone it down a notch or twelve." "What? But that’s asinine! We were all apart of this organization after what Flag Burner did!” “Well actually, we all kind of got bumped up to General because we were the only high ranking members of the fan club left after he beefed it,” Kichi points out. “And not to mention that was only because these bugs wanted stool pigeons,” Solarkness adds. “But…You three,” Erised points to Silver, Snap and Brown, “You tried to kill that movie director a few months back.” They all cross their arms at that. “That jagoff ruined Transformares and Ninja Turtles, what we tried to do wouldn’t have been considered murder in any definition of the word,” Silver responds indignantly. “And besides, we kind of screwed that up,” Snap Drake adds. “Not like we were actually trying,” Brown Dog sums up. “I…Even you Grey?!" Erised says, grasping for some sort of morbid kinship. "Don't drag me into your filth, you old roach." The janitor spits, "I beat the cleanliness into them until they were too weak to stand... and it was cathartic as Tartarus." "You..." Erised clenches his teeth in frustration. "You idiots are bucking worthless! Do you hear me?! Worthless!" "What's the big deal? So we didn't kill any of them. We still kicked their flanks! They're not gonna be getting up anytime soon. And those freaky twins outside know it" Snap points out, as evidence by all the destroyed furniture and windows around them and the ultimatum given. "Sooner than you might think." Erised says in a low growl. "During raids, changelings often employ a tactic known as 'Infinite Legions'. When the first wave is exhausted, the second moves in to draw the enemy's attention while the first drags their injured to safety. By feeding on captured ponies, they can recover in time to relieve the second wave... and the assault continues until the enemy crumbles.” “Well yeah, we know that, but we can do the same with our stores, love in ponies doesn’t last forever” Kichi points out. "No, but neither will we! This is why we needed to finish them. Because now," Erised jabs a hoof at the force massing across the road, "we still have about 300 enemy combatants to deal with! Worthless... worthless... worthless..." With that, Erised walks away muttering 'Worthless' over and over, his two ink-puppets angrily mimicking his movements. “That guy’s got some real problems,” Candy mutters. “Oh really? The crotchety old fart who openly admits that he wants to drive his own kind into extinction has problems?” snarks Grey. “Yeah seriously. I may not like the Queen, but that doesn’t mean I want all the Changeling’s to die out,” Kichi mumbles. “Well regardless of what he thinks, he does make some good points. How the heck are we going to win in this situation?” Rutherford speaks up. “Well one thing’s for sure, we can’t go accepting their offer. I’d sooner trust Kersey to keep watch on my cookies than hope that they keep their word,” Brown Dog says causing the others to nod. “You’re right on that account. But what should we do? Stay here? We must be doing something right if they’re even ATTEMPTING to negotiate,” Solarkness muses. Kichi’s Comment “Well noling likes their food to fight back, I think they might just be doing this for convenience,” Kichi shakes his head. “They don’t want to risk killing their food, so they’re trying to avoid armed conflict as much as possible.” “Well then we’ve thrown a wrench into their little plans then haven’t we?” chuckles Snap Drake. “Yeah, but maybe we should think outside the box…” Kichi then looks to Brown Dog. "You are the one with more experience in tunneling right?” Brown Dog folds his arms. “That’s a stereotype that just so happens to be true, yes.” “Well, Do you think you could make a tunnel for us to flee or at least one we can fight in?” “Fight in a tunnel? That doesn’t sound very smart,” says Rutherford. “Why? We could bottleneck them in there and then their numbers won’t mean anything.” “Yeah, first of all, I’m one Dog,” Brown Dog points out, “Making a tunnel that big and that structurally sound for all of us to fight in by myself would take, oh…a couple of days.” “Oh…” Kichi says as his ears go down. “I mean, I could try to make a tunnel, but it’d be small, and we’d all probably be buried alive for our efforts.” "Well shoot,” Kichi spits. “There goes that idea, because now that they have the rest of the town, we might not fare so well.” “You really think so? I mean, all things considered our little band of rejects were able to hold them off, which is more than we can say for the Elements,” Grey asks. “Even still, the Elements got their kicks in before being overwhelmed, but this will be different than Canterlot,” Kichi points out. “How different?” asks Silver Strange. “The Invasion at Canterlot was rushed because the Queen didn’t think she would be discovered. When she was, the majority of the force was still swarming the entire city. But this invasion actually has field officers like those two creepy guys out front, and in only twenty minutes they’ve practically taken the town.” “Alright, so we can all agree that this was actually a better invasion force than the one at Canterlot. Somebody deserves a promotion,” Solarkness snarks. “But we should worry about those two out front, and any more like them. Officers tend to have more power behind them. They call these kinds of Officers the Queen’s Chosen.” Silver and Candy perk up at this. “You really think they could be Chosen?” asks Candy. “I wouldn’t put it past them. Heck, those two out front could be as powerful as the Crimson Vengeance for all we know.” Several of the Knights shudder at that name. “Oh yeah. You know, it’s weird but I kind of wish that guy was here to buck up their lives as well,” Rutherford muses. “Well too bad, that…individual isn’t here, and nor will he come,” Erised grumbles as he walks back to the group. “Had enough moping because we’re all not on the genocide train?” snarks Grey. “Go die in a fire,” he growls. “Oh dude, not cool!” Brown Dog chides while cupping Changers ears, causing said pony to roll his eyes. ErisedTheInkMoth’s Comment "Whatever!” The Ink Moth growls. “The larvae is right, if the field officers are Chosen, then we won’t be able to hold this place indefinitely, and that’s not even including the Legion tactics.” “Well it’s not like we have many other choices,” Rutherford points out. “True, but even still, a change in scenery might be beneficial. This place is barely holding together." Erised says motioning to the many times repaired windows with spare timber and changeling slime, and the massive hole boarded up with an open fire burning just outside. "There's a problem however. Even fighting to our fullest extent, we can't possibly get EVERYONE to a new location and these ponies won't stand a chance." Grey Rebl smirks at this. "Well well, look who's got a heart of gold after all." "Shut up Grey. If we really are going to fight our way out of this, we need to deprive our enemy of every resource we can. I'd sooner drink the life out of everypony here before I gave those vermin a single drop." Erised says with straight-faced conviction. Nothing about his tone says he's joking. "It would be a quick and merciful death compared to what you'd get from the Chrysalis Hive, and your bodies would aid us greatly as my puppets,” he says matter of factly to the town ponies causing them to grimace. Before that plan, or offence to that plan can take place though, one pony bravely presents an alternative. "N-now, there's no need to do that! T-there's a basement in this saloon!" he stutters. By his waistcoat and bowtie, the lanky stallion seems to be the owner. "We could hide down there; it's big enough to fit all of us, I think... I hope." “Well why didn’t you say so in the first place?!” Erised chides. “Yeah, in the future you ponies better have full disclosure so our psychopathic friends don’t try to eat you,” Brown Dog announces before Candy slaps Erised upside the head. “And quit threatening the ponies we’re trying to save. It’s counter-intuitive!” “Oh you little- *Smack* Ow! Quit hitting me!” Erised growls. “Right, so I do like the plan of the ponies hiding in the basement. Once this place is breached though, we should try to find another refuge, and hopefully their attention will be drawn to us and not them,” Rutherford motions. “Yeah alright,” Brown Dog agrees before looking to the Town Folk. “Attention ponies, buffalo, etc. Non combatants are to follow the owner and hide in the basement. To those that can fight, don’t be a weenie!” And with that, several of the younger and weaker ponies start going down into the basement. "They're not going to overlook a huge group of ponies simply disappearing." Erised points out, as he then turns to his ink-puppets. "Deceive." On his command, inky black tendrils ripple over his thralls as they transform into a duo of earth ponies in stetsons. "Two diversions are better than one." Erised explains, looking over his transformed thralls. "Hopefully seeing some 'ponies' fleeing will draw them away." "Hey! They're not the only changelings we've got here!" Kichi jumps forward and transforms as well. "I'll lead them away too, and then when they think they have me. BAM! I turn right around and give them a spanking they won't forget!" "I guess I''ll help too." Silver says as he too takes a disguise. "I hope they're ready to have a bad time." he grins, his ponified eyes glowing bright blue. "Y-yeah. I'll help too." Candy apprehensively dons her pony form. "Count us in as well." the charismatic guard and his squad step up, along with the two buffalo. "Tis our duty to protect and serve Equestria and its people. To that end, let us stand together!" "That's the spirit, bucko! Be the most distracting piece of meat you can be!" Solar gives him an encouraging slap on the back. "How'd you know my name was Bucko?" the charismatic guard asks, bewildered. "Save the heroic silliness." Erised growls. "When the spit finally hits the fan, we’ll break into three groups, head in separate directions, and try not to die too fast." “Alright, and where are you going to run?” asks Grey. “I can’t run, so I’ll stick with the ponies in the basement,” he responds. The rest of the knights go silent at that. “I’m not going to do anything to them,” he defends. “Uh Huh,” Brown Dog replies not believing. “Yo Nines, you seem attached. Make sure the old buck doesn’t do anything creepy down there.” “You got it Dog person who is the color Brown,” she salutes before latching onto Erised again. “By the gods that’s adorable,” Brown squees before looking to Zappy. “What about you and your other sisters? You gonna fight, flee or stay?” She scrunches her face in thought before declaring, “A little of all three I guess. Whatever helps those ponies.” “Good to hear,” Snap Drake nods. “So we have a pink distraction, a guard distraction, and an us distraction. Three’s better than none, even if they’re not big and flashy.” To that sentence, Changer suddenly puts a hoof to his chin. “Hmmm,” he ponders. “What are you hmming about?” asks Silver. “Just a thought…” he then walks over to Kersey, and using a bit of broken glass, makes a cut on his arm, drawing a bit of blood. “Well that’s quite a morbid thought,” Silver gags seeing the thickness of the blood. “No not that, it…ugh whatever. Ink Moth,” Changer addresses the glomped Erised. “What?” “Can you identify anything within this blood using your powers?” “That’s blood? That looks like Spaghetti sauce,” gags Candy. Erised ignores this and analyzes the sample on the glass. “Hmmm. It’s the fat one’s blood alright, though there are some…irregularities to it. Some foreign substance that pumps along with it…” Both Brown Dog and Snap Drake raise an eyebrow at that. “That stuff is still in him?” asks the pony. “Apparently. As much as I despsise him, it could be an option,” Changer says. Brown Dog shudders and says, “Let’s call that option of last resort…” “What are you three going on about?” asks a curious Erised. “Something incredibly stupid, but besides that let’s summarize. We have a plan for the worst, we fight back as long as we can, but when it all goes down, we split up and hopefully confuse them, giving the ones in the basement a chance. That sound about right?” Brown Dog summarizes. “Sounds about right,” says Solarkness. “Luckily we won’t have to worry about that till we give our response back,” Rutherford sighs in contentedness. “OI! CHANGELING’S!!!” comes a shout, causing all the knights and the remaining fighters to look over in shock at Kichi yelling out the entrance over Kersey. Kichi’s Comment "You say that you want love?! You sure that is what your Queen wants? Your Queen wants only revenge, and she’ll use any and everyling as a chess piece to win her game!” "We do this for our Queen, and for the rest of our kind unbound,” Biff responds. “We do this for the good of all our people unlinked one,” Tannen adds. “We do this for the Hive deserter,” they respond in unison. Oblvious to the rest of the Knights waving their hands and mouthing “NO!” Kichi shoots back. “Really? You do this for a Hive under her rule? She’s the one who screwed up the invasion by doing a terrible job of disguising herself! Her own hubris brought this down upon us. And seriously, what is taking one town going to do? They’ll notice eventually, and then there won’t be anymore love.” “This town is but a stepping stone to-“ Biff tries to explain, but Kichi keeps going. “You can’t win against them, their two Princesses can move the sun and moon, they got the Elements of Harmony, not to mention plenty of other nations who are allies and would attack. There’s no love in that, so this whole plan is stupid! Just give up!” The two Changeling brothers just look at Kichi silently before they both ask. “Is that your answer then?” “Yeah! The Queen definitely doesn’t really want love, but wa-“ “Very well then,” sighs Biff. “We tried brother,” sighs Tannen. They both then take deep breaths and yell. “Hive! Take The Tavern and ALL Inside!!!” And with that, hundreds of wing buzzes begin to sound off as Kichi looks out dumbfounded. “Uuuhhh…” Solarkness hits him over the head with a wooden claw. “You Idiot! What the Buck Were You Thinking?!” “I was, uh, trying to see if they would see reason for not starting a war?” he lamely admits. “They’ve already been fighting a war these last three years!” Erised chides. Then the overbearing sound of wings starts to descend upon the Tavern. “Thanks Kichi! There goes our stalling time! Everyone, get ready!” Brown Dog orders. “…Oops?” he nervously sputters. You all feel the building shudder as many, many legs strike it, but as you all man the windows, debris starts falling from the ceiling. GreyRebl’s Comment Erised suddenly curses with a sneer. “Kuh! They’re wizening up and breaking through the roof!” he warns as he tries to hobble his way to the basement and away from the fight, but he fails as the ceiling begins to suddenly snap and creak until--- Crash! Crash! Crash! Changelings came crashing in hissing and snarling. The gang rush up to take them, but several are blasted back by fully charged Changeling magic. “Guh! They’ve upgraded,” Solarkness growls holding a burn spot on his wooden chest. As more stream in, Silver places interlocking bones over the breach, but it continues to get hammered. The guards and town pony fighters then try to rush the invaders, but in the confusion, many of the Changelings disguise themselves, causing the guards to not know who to hit. Three of them are pelted by the impostors, and two of them are sent flying out through a window, breaking it and allowing more to pour in. “Crap!” Snap Drake yells as he begins breaking bottles over as many heads as he can hit. Then, amongst the remaining Pinkies, they start taking their form. Which proves to be their downfall. Grey Rebl uses his mop to get the interlopers. “This one smells too buggy!” Thwack! “This one doesn’t smell like apples!” Thwack! “This one’s armor is too dull!” Thwack! “This one is too old!” His latest victim suddenly shouts, “Of course I’m old! It’s ME you idiot!” “I’LL CLEAN YOU ALL THE SAME!” And he pins Erised to the ground with his mop who groans angrily. While Grey madly wails on who he thinks are Changeling enemies, Solarkness and Brown Dog come up with a plan. Using their keen sense of smell, they begin to take out the disguised changelings more efficiently, while Candy and Silver plug the hole with slime which keeps getting punched out. Several of the window defenses begin cracking under the might of changeling magic. And Silver’s Bone plug is starting to fade. ThePonySpartan’s Comment Changer looks up at the roof breach and groans. “They keep coming!” he then takes out his red book and looks at the spine. "Only at 90%,” he then hears another breach and a scream as one of the Pinkie clones is dragged outside. “Oh well, it'll have to do. Silver! Take down your barrier!" he yells as he throws the book up into the air. “What? Are you…crazy?” Silver trails off as he sees the flames erupting from the book. At the last second, he lowers the barrier, allowing the book to unleash it’s payload through the hole. A dragon made entirely of fire. As it flies up, it causes many of the Changeling’s to falter, giving Silver a chance to put back up the barrier. “Well…that happened,” Solarkness mutters. “Since when did you have that? It might have come in handy to know we had a fire dragon construct,” Rutherford points out. “He’s not fully charged. He MIGHT last 7 minutes if we’re lucky, but hopefully he’ll incapacitate some Changelings for us and make our job easier.” You all then hear multiple changeling magic blasts aimed upwards towards the dragon. Biff and Tannen look up at the fire dragon as it attacks some of their troops. ““Hmm. It appears as though they have a magic fire dragon.” “And there’s still one real one of ice inside.” “It wouldn’t do to have chaotic flames spread and kill our food,” Biff muses. “It wouldn’t do to have chaotic flames spread and kill our Hive Mates,” Tannen agrees. They then fly up from their perch as both raise their arms in unison. “Magic is overrated anyway,” they say in unison as their eyes glow green, and from Biff’s arm shoots a large beam of frost and ice, while from Tannen’s shoots a beam of concentrated green flame. The being made of concentrated magic is struck as it begins to dissipate before the might of the Twin’s plasmid attack. The dragon dissolves as his flames go out, causing wet ash to fall to the ground. The Knights inside have their jaws dropped at this display. “Oh Son of a B!$#%!!!” Grey yells. “That’s exactly the kind of plasmid power we were HOPING to make.” “I believe that we did make that Grey,” Erised says grumpily as he pushes himself up from his mop. “But I think they took the real stuff for themselves…” “But…My…Why is my dragon always getting one shotted?” Changer growls. “Because Plasmids aren’t restricted by magic,” Grey growls. “Well if that’s the case, why aren’t those two busting down the door themselves?” asks Solarkness. “They’re using fire and ice, they probably don’t want to risk killing the ponies inside. You can’t eat love from the dead,” Kichi points out. “Oh well that’s just bloody great. Those two outside can eat through magic. What the buck are we supposed to do now?” asks Snap Drake. The attack then commences as more boards are ripped away, and Silver’s magic shields are battered. One even manages to get his torso through the front door and attempts to drag Kersey off. “OI! That’s our Fat Flank! Hooves off!” Brown Dog yells socking the changeling in the nose and trying to haul Kersey back. “Well it looks like we’re going to have to implement the distraction thing now,” Snap Drake says worriedly. “As if we’re going to last long out there either. We’re all doomed,” Erised says grumpily. “Well what else are we going to do? It’s not like anyone’s coming to save us!” Brown Dog grunts. As he says that, a whirring groaning sound permeates the air causing all the knight’s ears to stand up on end. In the hole in the doorway, a big blue box appears, effectively plugging up the hole. All of the Knights stare in awe at the newly appeared box, some of them recognizing it from the show it’s from. Biff and Tannen notice it from outside and stiffen in alarm. “What is that brother?” “I don’t know brother.” “Some new threat?” they muse together. To prove them right, a pinkish spherical barrier goes outward from the point of the box, pushing back the changeling troops and surrounding the building. Biff and Tannen’s eyes widen. “This does not bode well,” Biff says. “This does not bode well indeed,” Tannen mimics. They then both look at each other. “We need to tell Vicky and Mongo.” Inside the building, the Knights take in the fact that a new more powerful barrier is around the wrecked tavern, and the changeling assault has been halted for the moment. The door of the blue box is then opened and all the Knights see a Dark Pink Mare with a blonde mane and her horn lit up walk out, followed by a handsome stallion, and then… They can’t believe it, they really can’t believe it. Many look at him in awe, Others in disbelief, and still a few of them look like they’re about to shout like fan fillies. Because he’s here to save them. After all this time. The Hooded Offender has returned. POV CHANGE: Bugze You stand before the Crimson Knights, each and everyone you took in as the Crimson Vengeance. They look a bit haggard, and the room around them is broken up. They all stare at you in a mix of emotions as you stand between Jack and Mia, the latter of whom has put up a powerful bubble around the building. The others wait inside, waiting for your “Dramatic Entrance” to end. “So…What’d I Miss?” you ask cheekily. WHAT DO YOU DO? Outro: