Lower District
November 30, 2011 2:58 P.M. Canterlot Local Time
Canterlot, Equestria
The battle was not going well.
Actually, that would be an understatement. The battle was already over except for the kicking and screaming. The defensive line had been broken once again by that terrifying dive-bomb attack that had so quickly given the changelings the upper hand in their initial strike, and when more changelings began pouring out of tunnels they had either found or dug themselves, the remaining guards quickly found themselves surrounded. That they had lasted as long as they did was a miracle in its own right, one owed mostly to the efforts of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna.
The last stand was being held in a large square, somewhat ironically occupied by a rather impressive statue of Princess Celestia. Of the paltry few dozen guards left, most were already succumbing to changeling sedation spells, with a handful already out cold. Though the dispel was fairly easy, such sustained casting was beginning to ware on even the princess’s magical reserves, and even as Luna watched, a black, chitinous form broke through the defensive formation maintained by earth ponies and pegasi and dragged an unconscious unicorn into the surrounding swarm.
The only glimmer of hope the tired ponies maintained stemmed from Twilight Sparkle, who seemed indefatigable as she fired a constant stream of stunning beams into the buzzing throng. For Luna, however, that last hope flickered out as she was alerted to a feeling she had hoped would never again plague her mind. Something had invaded the space above, where only her moon should rightfully be. This time, however, the object was far more massive than the thing that had taken her sister. As the vast size of the new threat dawned on her, Luna couldn’t help be turn her gaze to the sky, certain that she should be able to make out such a monolith no matter how far away it was.
“By the ancestors, it’s huge.” Her unintentional utterance was lost among the din of battle.
UNSC Guam
30 November 2551 0300 MST
In orbit above unidentified planet (Equestria)
“Transition successful,” Agatha called out. “No immediate change among personnel. Local topography matches the maps provided by ONI, and I have already identified Canterlot.”
Princess Celestia had joined Captain Arnold on the Guam’s bridge, in order to be among the first to know when they reached her home planet. Shipboard life had definitely been an interesting experience, and although the ODST had kept her out of any serious harm, even they had been shocked by a particularly close call involving an empty rocket launcher, a ten-gallon drum of salad dressing, and a malfunctioning fire extinguisher. It had taken a truly frightening amount of her power to remove those stains, and some of the toilets on deck fifty-seven were still frozen over. Still, at least nopony was hurt.
“Sir, you’re going to want to see this.” The AI almost sounded nervous, and Celestia’s attention moved immediately to the holodisplay as an image was brought up on it. It took her a few seconds to recognize the aerial view of Canterlot, as it was far more detailed, and with a far larger view than she had seen on any of her own flights above the city. Once she realized what she was seeing, however, she knew immediately what was wrong. Instead of colorful citizens, the streets were occupied by craters. Instead of pegasi and clouds, a thin veil of smoke filled the air. Though most of the city seemed abandoned, the lower district was awash in activity, mostly centered on the lower main square which seemed consumed by a black cloud. There was a flash of unmistakable violet magic, and the cloud parted briefly to reveal the shining armor of the city guard, fighting equine shapes that positively boiled out of the surrounding mass. Before the swarm closed back in, Celestia managed to glimpse the forms of both her sister, and her prized protégé and pupil, Twilight Sparkle.
She turned to Captain Arnold, who was still staring at the screen, a very thoughtful look on his face. “Captain.” At the word, he looked up. “I must go. My people need me.”
“I understand,” he replied. “I’ll send word to prepare some dropsh-” There was a flash of light, and the princess was gone. “-ssshhhit.” The captain turned back to the display in time to see a similar flash of light fade among the now-scattering swarm. With lightning reflexes, he pressed the icon for a shipwide broadcast. “All ODST prepare for a combat drop, mixed hostiles and friendlies. Combat teams Lima through Romeo, take some armor and follow them in. Find and protect the princess at all costs.” She’ll be lucky if she doesn’t get herself killed; God knows I’m tempted to do it myself for a stunt like this. And why the hell was I not told she could teleport?!
Lower District
November 30, 2011 3:05 P.M. Canterlot Local Time
Canterlot, Equestria
The sudden teleport had surprised everyone on the battlefield, pony and changeling alike; there were only a handful of unicorns alive that could manage the spell and all who knew what was happening were already present. The figure present when the light faded, however, was an even bigger shock: Princess Celestia, returned from the grave to save them all. The changeling assault immediately broke, scattering to evade the vengeful spirit of the supposedly dead ruler, and soon the square was engulfed in a stunned silence.
Princess Luna was the first to speak. “But you were! And then it! And then Fwoosh! And huh?!”
Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle warmly at her sister’s dumbfounded attempt at speech, and the accompanying frantic hoof gestures.
However, that jovial noise was soon replaced by a far more menacing laugh issuing from the reforming swarm. Soon, a changeling of regal stature separated herself from the swarm, and led them towards the haggard remains of the guard and the unexpected guest. “So,” Queen Chrysalis hummed, “I see rumors of your death were somewhat exaggerated. Wouldn’t you say, Princess Celestia?”
“Oh, I quite agree,” Celestia replied almost amicably, “although I’m afraid I haven’t had the pleasure of making your acquaintance.”
“I am Queen Chrysalis, Ruler of the Changeling Collective, and soon-to-be overseer of all of these little bundles of love you call ponies.”
As confident as Chrysalis was, Celestia didn’t seem too worried by the prospect of losing her kingdom. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” she stated matter-of-factly.
After a second confused by the princess’s apparent lack of worry, Chrysalis let loose another howl of laughter. “Hahaha! You can’t be serious. My people and I have been feeding off of the love of this city for weeks. Even you can’t possibly stop us all.” The surrounding swarm buzzed and growled in agreement, spurred on by their queen’s assurance. Many of them even took to the skies in hopes of getting at the doomed ponies sooner.
Celestia, on the other hand, didn’t even seem to notice the threat the changelings around her posed. Instead, she looked up to the sky and said, in a rather amused tone, “My, it looks like rain.”
Confused by the apparent non-sequiter, the guardsponies, the changelings, the alicorns, a pink earth pony in a nearby town whose tail had suddenly pulverized a brick wall with its twitching, and the rainbow-maned pegasus who had been watching the battle from an overlooking cloud, all looked up.
Rainbow Dash had been warned that there would be a major battle today, and had been told to stay away for her own safety. Naturally, she had immediately grabbed a cloud and some snacks, and settled in the watch. She hadn’t known what she was expecting, having never seen fighting in anything other than silly little plays and schoolyard tussles, but she swiftly decided to never make fun of a guard again.
As the battle wore on, she became more and more worried. But why should she? Twilight could always teleport them out if things got too bad, couldn’t she? And though she loathed admitting it even to herself, the sheer number of changelings down the scared her.
“That’s no excuse, darnit!” she shouted to nopony in particular, “I should be down there helping them! Not hiding up here like a scared foal!” She was about to swoop headlong into the swarm, when suddenly Princess Celestia appeared in a flash of light and singlehoofedly drove back the evil creatures. “Eeh… it looks like they’ve got things under control.” She grabbed another hoofful of popcorn and sat back down in time to see a princess-looking changeling fly out of the crowd. There was some talking that she couldn’t here, and then everypony looked up.
At first, she couldn’t see what was so interesting, but soon dozens of pinpricks of light became apparent, even in the daylight. It looked like a patch of stars had decided to ignore their schedule and come out in the middle of the afternoon, but instead of just sitting there twinkling, the kept getting brighter, or maybe … closer? That wasn’t right. Stars didn’t move.
But they also didn’t come out during the day, either, and the more she stared at them, the more she could see that there was more to these “stars” than just light. The moment she realized that they were not, in fact, stars, she also realized that they had to be moving very, very fast to be making that kind of glow, and that the only direction they were moving was straight down.
It took her only a second more to realize that she was in their way. Unfortunately, by then it was too late for even her to get out of the way. Fortunately, all of them missed her on the way past anyway, and the shockwaves they produced as they moved past were manageable for a pegasus of her skills.
Looking back down onto the now somewhat more crater- and smoke-filled city, she spotted one of the things that had just fallen. It looked like some sort of big teardrop-shaped hunk of metal, and it had completely shattered the bakery it had fallen through. What surprised her the most, though, was when a chunk of it flew off, and out jumped a pony. It was wearing some sort of full-body suit, and had a big, long thing on its back, but it was obviously a pony. In fact, it was obviously a pegasus, since it spread its wings and flew up onto a rooftop as though it hadn’t just fallen from significantly farther up than anypony could possibly travel. Wow... that makes my Sonic Rainboom look like nothing.I have to find out how they did it.
The only reason the guards weren’t panicking was because that would leave the princesses unprotected against whatever had just happened. The only reason the changelings weren’t panicking was because their queen wasn’t, though that almost wasn’t enough, and many of them were surreptitiously retreating under their own initiative. The only reason Queen Chrysalis wasn’t panicking was because she was still trying to comprehend what had just happened. Eventually, she just decided that it was all Celestia’s fault. “What treachery is this?” she hissed.
“No treachery. Just friends.” The princess’s short reply only served to infuriate the changeling queen, even as she noticed the ponies in strange armor appearing all around her.
Though she cared not for the concept of valor, discretion was something all changelings were well familiar with. Despite her outward confidence, she was still uncertain of her ability to deal with the returned Princess Celestia. Oh, she was sure her swarm could eventually wear her down, but they had a time table to deal with. Add dozens of ponies with the ability to fall from very impressive heights undamaged, and who knows what other tricks besides, and the tables could swiftly turn against them.
It was decided when she hazarded another glance upwards, and saw more things descending on the city, things significantly large and, somehow, slower than the first barrage. No… I think we’re done here. “Changelings, fall back to the caves! This battle is over,” she growled as she flew off.
The swarm scattered and dissolved, vanishing into houses and alleyways, and eventually disappeared completely under the steady gaze of the UNSC ponies, who were busy establishing a perimeter around Princess Celestia. They were also marking down everywhere a changeling went into and didn’t come out of.
Seeing that everything was well in hoof, Celestia turned back to the ponies she had arrived in time to save. Looking them over, she had to suppress another fit of laughter. At the questioning gazes of the few who had managed to retain their senses throughout the sustained surprises, she replied, “You all look horrible!”
Finally snapping out of their stunned stupor, both Luna and Twilight immediately tackled Celestia into a tear-stained hug. The surrounding marines, to their credit, managed to recognize the joyful reunion for what it was, and allowed the two ponies to pass without being riddled with bullets.
About a minute or so into the group hug, however, they became aware of a very pointedly tapping hoof nearby. Turning to the source of the sound revealed a mass of marines surrounding one Captain Arnold. “I’m not interrupting your little reunion here, am I?” he said in an obviously, fakely courteous voice.
“Oh, not at all!” Celestia responded, seemingly not catching on to his tone. “Luna, Twilight, This is Captain Arnold. He’s one of the pon- err… people who helped me get home.”
Luna was still in tears as she spoke. “Oh thank you kind sir! We all thought we would never see her again, and if you hadn’t arrived when you did…”
The captain looked slightly awkward in the face of such heartfelt thanks, but quickly remembered why he had come down so quickly. “Well I was under orders to see Her Majesty home safely, and to assure her safety while she got local affairs in order. However,” his tone darkened noticeably, “I would like to ask her what exactly was going through her mind when she decided to leap into the fire five men dug their own graves racing to pull her ass out of.”
All of the native ponies took offence to that, none as vocally as Twilight. “Hey! Who do you think you are, talking about the princess like that?!”
He turned to regard Twilight with a level gaze. “I am the man with strict orders to ensure your princess’s safety.” He began steadily walking towards her. “I am the man who ordered his troops to support her sudden appearance in that battle.” He was now standing directly in front of her, staring down at her with intimidation beyond his noticeable height advantage. “And I am the man who now has to explain to his superiors why five of the people under my command, my responsibility, are dead on a simple diplomatic mission.” His unwavering tone relayed a kind of anger to which a raised voice wouldn’t do justice, and even the royal guards seemed to struggle to avoid backing away.
“Dead?” All attention turned to the source of the small noise. Princess Celestia seemed to be a shadow of her normal self; even her coat seemed to have darkened, the flow of her mane stilled. Ponies have died to protect me in the past, but that was so long ago, and it was never out of my decision. This time… this time ponies died because of what I did, because of a decision I made. Would they still be alive if I had waited? If I had simply taken one of their craft down while they followed, or even stayed behind altogether?
Her doubting thoughts were interrupted as Captain Arnold continued speaking. “Yes, dead.” His tone had softened somewhat as he took in how hard the princess seemed to be taking her mistake, though it was nowhere near what one would have called ‘comforting.’ “They knew the risk when they joined the ODST, and it certainly isn’t the first time a rash decision has cost lives. However, next time you decide to teleport into the middle of an enemy attack without intelligence, backup, or warning, don’t.”
Suddenly, the captain was distracted by something only he could hear. A small grin soon found its way onto his face, and he once again spoke. “Good news. It turns out two of the troopers whose pods malfunctioned managed to survive the impact. They’re being dug out of their craters, and will be taken back to the ship for treatment. They're both still conscious, and should recover within the next few days.”
It took several seconds for the news to sink in, and Twilight’s analytical mind managed to recover first. “I take it they were both pegasi?” she asked.
“No, actually. One was an earth pony whose pod crashed into a building with a ridiculous amount of sub-basements, enough to cushion his fall to survivable levels. The other was a unicorn who was apparently using his magic to slow his decent for the entire drop. Pretty clever of him, actually. I wonder how many others were doing that…” He visibly shook himself to get back on track, and continued. “Anyway, while your willingness to lead from the front is commendable, there’s a difference between that and charging out onto the front before anyone is ready to follow you. Consider yourself lucky that those things were willing to wait for us to get down here, or you might have been among the casualties. What were they, by the way?”
Princess Luna was the one to answer that question. “Those were changeling,” she said, “parasites who use their shape-shifting powers to replace ponies and feed off of the love others have for their victims. They have apparently united under Queen Chrysalis, though how long ago, I cannot say, and attacked Canterlot. They trap anypony they can capture in a cocoon, and hypnotize them to produce a continual stream of love. Right now, they have everypony in the city, aside from the ones you see here.” She motioned to Twilight and the guards. “Forces from Stalliongrad shall be here by day’s end, and with the help of your new allies we can crush their forces and free everypony they have taken. You will help, won’t you?” she asked with an undertone of pleading that only the most cold-hearted of thinking beings could ignore.
“We’re already working on it,” the captain said as he gazed up at the increasing number of dropships descending on the city. “Those buggers won’t know what hit them.”
What none of them realized was that as they spoke, they were being watched from the shadows, not by any changeling, but by something altogether more sinister. It had managed to sneak into the city during the chaos of battle, and had immediately sought out its former host. Unfortunately, the jealousy and bitterness that had allowed it access in times past was gone, replaced with a sense of purpose and a sorrow that was directed specifically against allowing further access. To try to take that host again would be suicide, so it had hidden and waited.
Though there were changelings in abundance, they did not make good hosts for a number of reasons, among them being love as an almost required nutrient. It found love to be a most bothersome thing, and did not desire to be tied to it. The selection of other possible hosts quickly dwindled, however, and soon the only beings present did not possess the proper mindset to allow it access.
Now, however, there was a sudden abundance of ponies who all had fear in their hearts and minds. Oh, they hid it well, beneath layers of duty and stone, but the fear was there, and where there was fear, there was a way inside.
Eventually, it managed to find one of these new ponies alone, and quickly entered its mind. Now, what do you fear, my little pony? Exerting its power to keep the pony still and quiet, it searched for the source of the fear, so it could use that fear to manipulate the pony into granting it access.
What it found, however, was beyond anything it could ever have imagined. So much destruction. So much death. Truly these beings have mastered my domain in a way even I cannot hope to match. I must find these purveyors of doom. I must meet these… Covenant.
After analyzing the pony’s mind for information on how to find its objective, it released a final burst of magic to wipe the pony’s mind of its presence and faded away into the shadows. Within the hour, it has hidden away on the Guam, waiting to be taken to the next stop on its new path. Truly, the Celestial Princesses would rue the day they incurred the wrath of the Nightmare.
Author’s notes: Apparently I write best at three in the morning. Who’d have thought?
Poor Celestia. She didn’t really think that one through, did she? Oh well, actions have consequences, and she’ll have to get used to the idea that her decisions will cost lives, especially in the coming storm.
And now you have met the face of evil, and know that ahead lies the stuff of nightmares (Pun very much intended) How long do the ponies have? How much warning will they get, if they get any at all? How much of an ass-kicking will the Covies endure in their attack on Equestria and the surrounding planet? What affect will the universe have on the besieging aliens? These questions will take multiple chapters to get around to, but time (and I) will tell.
Speaking of tell, feel free to point out any issues you may have with this chapter. Your feedback makes me better, and though many things in the future are cemented in my mind, I could always use improvement. Right?
Post-revision notes: very little actually done here.