The Changeling Wars

by Alkonium

A Good Mare Goes To War

Sipping on her cup of coffee, Twilight pondered on the work she had been leading over the past week. In many ways, it felt like an affront to everything Equestria stood for. This wasn't the town she had fallen in love with. This place was armed to the teeth, there were no families, only ponies capable of fighting, and nearly every important building had magical shielding over it. Each of her close friends had their own part to play: Rainbow Dash was leading a team of Pegasi, engaging the Changelings hoof to hoof to in the air, Fluttershy was operating the gunnery position near her cottage, Rarity was maintaining the shield over Town Hall, Applejack was piloting the lead gunship, and Pinkie Pie was serving as one of her gunners, along with Caramel and Big Macintosh. In accordance with her position, Twilight had donned a black military jumpsuit, while Derpy now wore an eyepatch, to keep ponies from being distracted by the problem with her eyes.

She was almost spat out her coffee when Derpy shouted, "Twilight! We've got movement!"

Snapping out of it as quickly as she could, Twilight then asked, "Where?"

Checking the display table, Derpy answered, "They're trying to go through the minefield!"

Then, opening a comm channel with Fluttershy, Twilight called out, "The Changelings have entered the minefield; be ready to open fire at any moment!"

"I wish I had been with the ponies who left for Canterlot," Fluttershy thought as she heard the order from Twilight. While she had volunteered for the gunner position at her cottage, it didn't make the experience any better, or the waiting any less nerve wracking. She shuddered as she heard thunder coming from the woods south of her, and the fluttering of countless, pony-sized insectoid wings to the west of her. As the sounds got closer, the butterflies in her stomach built up, until she got a visual on the Changeling Horde, at which point, she took a deep breath, and squeezed down on the triggers.

The turrets let loose countless bolts of magical energy into the oncoming horde. While she managed to make short work of the Changelings she did hit, there were simply too many, and most of them flew past, heedless of Fluttershy's gunfire.

"Twilight! There's too many of them!" Fluttershy shouted over the comm.

"Are they going after you?" Twilight asked.

"No, they're just flying past," Fluttershy explained.

"Then keep firing; it'll lighten the load for everypony else," Twilight instructed, turning to the Mayor, "Give the order."

"Changelings have breached our first line of defence. Scramble all gunships! I repeat, scramble all gunships!" the Mayor called out over her microphone.

"Read you loud and clear, Miss Mayor!" Applejack responded. While she knew the Mayor wouldn't hear her, it seemed appropriate to acknowledge the order. As she lifted her gunship off the ground, the other gunships began to follow suit. The eight gunships leaving the main barn at Sweet Apple Acres then lifted up above the trees, clearing the minefield and moving to intercept the Changelings at the clocktower.

Even with the gunships coming in from other parts of the town, they would be vastly outnumbered by the Changelings, but what the ponies' gunships lacked in numbers and manoeuvrability, they easily made up for in firepower and durability. Each gunship was fitted with two frontal cannons, plus an additional gunnery position on each side, not counting the horns of any unicorns on board, while the Changelings only had their horns for ranged combat. Even then, it would take several shots to down a gunship, while one was enough to rip a Changeling apart.

Unfortunately, the gunships were not able to reach the clocktower in time, and the Changelings soon overran it, using it as a starting point to spread across the rest of Ponyville.

Applejack then heard Twilight's voice over the comm, saying "All gunners, fire at will!", followed by an expected "Eeyup" from her brother, an "Okie dokie lokie" from Pinkie Pie, and a "Yes ma'am" from Caramel. The four of them then opened fire on the Changelings, ripping some apart, while only sending others to the ground. As one hit by Pinkie Pie fell, it cast a shield spell on itself, allowing it to hit the clock tower with enough force to topple it.

"This is descending into chaos too quickly," Derpy commented, watching the feed of the clock tower's destruction.

"Gunships, concentrate your fire on the clock tower; that's where the Changelings are the most heavily concentrated." Twilight instructed. Switching channels, she then said, "Rainbow Dash, I need your team ready to to take out any that get past the clock tower."

"You got it, Twilight!" She heard in response over the comm.

The Changeling Horde managed to reach Sugarcube Corner before being intercepted by Rainbow Dash's Pegasus Attack Force. "Pegasi, attack!" Rainbow Dash called out to her team. The Pegasus Attack Force then engaged the Changelings, supported by the nearby ground turrets.

Amid the carnage, Rainbow Dash spotted one of the four nearby gunners jump out of her post and make a run for Town Hall.

"Vinyl! What are you doing?" One of the other gunners shouted at her.

"Following orders, Octavia!" Vinyl shouted back at her.

"What is Twilight planning?" Rainbow Dash thought to herself.

A Changeling then took the opportunity to attack Rainbow Dash, but was quickly shot down by another one of the gunners.

"Thanks, Lyra!" Rainbow Dash called out.

"Vinyl's on her way, just as you instructed," the Mayor informed Twilight.

"Good. There's too many of them for us to just keep picking them off." Twilight replied, opening up a channel with Rarity in the generator room. "Rarity, be ready to lower the shield on my signal." She instructed. "Let's hope this works." She then thought to herself.

Rainbow Dash watched in horror as Thunderlane took several shots of Changeling Magic to his wings, and fell to the ground. He was in serious pain, but he was still alive. Then, four Changelings circled in on him, taking the form of his little brother Rumble. They started to feed, and ... nothing. They just reverted to their true form and flew off again. Coming to his aid, Rainbow Dash made a mental note of this, suspecting Twilight would want to know. She hoisted the black pegasus up by his front legs, and started carrying him to the hospital, with the three remaining gunners, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Octavia, covering them.

Just as Rainbow Dash expected, the hospital was already flooded with wounded, but she didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. "After all, they do want us alive. Why haven't they made an attempt here yet?" She thought to herself, then she remembered how the Changelings had simply ignored Thunderlane after he fell.

Two medic ponies were ready with a stretcher for Thunderlane at the entrance. As Rainbow Dash set him down, one of the medics, a green-coated unicorn stallion, asked, "Shot down by the Changelings?"

"Yes. Apart from the scorched feathers, I suspect he's got cracked ribs, broken hind legs, and head trauma," Rainbow Dash explained.

"We'll do everything we can." The medic replied. They then carried him into the hospital, and Rainbow Dash flew off, returning to the fight.

Applejack's gunship circled the wreckage of the clocktower, laying down suppressing fire in all directions. Pinkie Pie noticed that the number of Changelings flooding in was starting to die down, and the persistent sound of gunfire from the west told her that Fluttershy was still alright. Taking a quick look at the destroyed tower, she thought to herself, There's no way a Changeling could destroy that just by colliding with it. Knock a hole in it, maybe, but not topple it. She then saw a gunship, operated by the trio known as the Flower Ponies, take a serious hit to its starboard engine, and begin spiralling to the ground. Fortunately, all three of them managed to eject in time. However, their starboard gunner, an Earth pony named Noteworthy, wasn't so lucky.

"The Bass Cannon is in position, and ready to fire," Vinyl informed Twilight over the comm.

"Good. Rarity, drop the shield," Twilight then instructed.

"Let's hope this works," Derpy commented.

The light blue bubble protecting Town Hall dissipated, and nearly all of the Changelings in the town focused their attention on it.

"They're approaching Town Hall, just as you predicted," The Mayor pointed out.

"Wait for it," Was all Twilight said in response. The closer the Changelings got to Town Hall, the closer they got to each other, and the more of them would be caught in the Bass Cannon's blast radius.

"They're getting closer!" Derpy called out, starting to panic.

"Wait for it." Twilight said again.

"TWILIGHT!" Derpy finally shouted at her.

"Fire!" Twilight finally called out. Then, they all heard a massive repetitive 'wub' sound from above, quickly building in intensity until it formed a massive beam of sonic energy, tearing away any Changelings in its path. Any Changelings that escaped the blast flew back to the Everfree Forest, while any that simply survived slowly retreated on hoof. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief; they had managed to drive the Changelings back ... for now.

"I want more fortifications around the hospital. The Changelings haven't made any moves on it yet, but I don't want us taking any chances." Twilight instructed the Flim Flam brothers.

"You're one to talk about taking chances, Twilight." Rainbow Dash commented. "They're not interested in the hospital, anyway."

"What do you mean?" Derpy asked.

"After Thunderlane was shot down, the Changelings tried to feed on him, but it seemed as though they couldn't. My guess is that for whatever reason, physical pain protects ponies from being fed upon."

"Interesting." Twilight commented, though unsure of how to use that to Ponyville's advantage. At that moment, Pinkie Pie barged into the War Room, followed by a much calmer Applejack.

"Twilight! We have a problem!" Pinkie shouted.

"What is it, Pinkie?" Twilight asked.

"We can't account for all of the Changelings in the attack." Pinkie explained. "Look." Pinkie then plugged a set of figures into a nearby console, and then the numbers came up of one of the wall mounted display screens.

"Here's the problem, Twilight: We managed to get a count of all of the downed Changelings, the dead Changelings, the captured Changelings, and Changelings that retreated back into the Everfree Forest." Applejack clarified.

"And?" Twilight asked.

"It doesn't add up. There's about twenty Changelings unaccounted for." Applejack explained.

Twilight shuddered at the thought. One Changeling infiltrating the town was bad enough, but twenty? Even with the screeners in place all over the town, they could still do plenty of damage.