The Thousand Changeling Warriors

by BradyBunch


Battle

Two blades crashed together, and the world reverberated.

Chrysalis roared and whipped the sword at the soldier again. The soldier barely blocked it in time, and its force was so strong that he stumbled. The next time she swung, the blade met no resistance, and the cruel blade shore through his neck like she was cutting grass. The body spun to the ground, flinging blood onto the parched earth.

“KILL EVERYPONY!” Chrysalis reminded her troops, raising her red-painted sword above her head. “TAKE NO PRISONERS!”

The battle had descended into chaos an hour ago. When Shining Armor's exhausted, angry, and impatient army crashed into the rear of Chrysalis's troop column, the expectant Chrysalis allowed them to penetrate her lines. This allowed the flanks of the changeling column to encircle them about and entrap the Royal Guard in a tight circle, like an amoeba absorbing other minuscule materials in a drop of water and dissolving the offending object.

Shining Armor, who was fending off three changelings at once, knew in hindsight what to do instead. But he knew: the past could never be erased.

Never.

And Chrysalis knew it too. That disruption of his wedding and the subsequent fallout leading to this chain of events was all her fault!

He could learn, however; he could adapt to this awful circumstance. He would survive. He had to.

For his wife. For his unborn child. For Twily, if nothing else.

Just as easily as he beheaded all three changelings in a single swipe, he could imagine doing the same thing to Chrysalis. His sword, bloodied green, directed itself to point at the queen.

She was across the battlefield, taking on three soldiers of her own, but if he played right, he would get in close and duel her to the death. Cut off the queen, cut off the source of direction for the soldiers. Perfect!

He took in more details as he strove to keep himself apart from the action around him. One of his troops was hacking enemy axes apart with broad swings of his own sword in his wing, but abruptly stopped and stiffened, crumpling to the ground to show the grinning face of a changeling drone.

Another soldier of his had just disarmed a changeling of his curvy sword. Slicing upward, the blade then tore into the changeling's chest and through his shoulder muscle, disconnecting his arm from its socket. The changeling fell, wailing pathetically, and the soldier reversed his sword and sank it through his neck so deep it dug into the soil beneath him.

A changeling’s knife strike was deflected by a shield bash, and the insect fell, but while he lay on the ground he spat into the soldier's eyes with some goopy green muck. The soldier stopped his attack and clawed at his face while bellowing, and the satisfied bug knocked his shield out of the way and dug his knife into the pony's neck chink. As he yanked it out, the blade, soaked to the hilt in red, flung bits of blood all over the arid desert terrain. The pony himself keeled over and drowned in his own blood.

Another royal guard elbowed a changeling in the face, and saliva flung from his lips. The guard used the time to sink his sword into the changeling's chest and jerk it about while firmly lodged before yanking it out again. The green blade drip-drip-dripped onto the dry plants beneath him as the corpse collapsed.

Hundreds of similar skirmishes were playing out all around him. The Royal Guard was dreadfully outnumbered, but with that knowledge, they knew they needed to take out as many of the enemy as they could. They were surrounded, but that meant they could attack anywhere they wanted.

Already, thousands of troops had been slain. The losses on both sides were approximately equal, but with less Royal Guard, those equal numbers meant more.

Shining Armor marched across the battlefield. He jerked his body about as needed when an arrow flew by, or when a skirmish broke out near him, or when debris flung into the air.

“Armor!” Estoc cried from nowhere, rushing to him. He slashed through a charging changeling's skull as he did so, and the black body was flung to the side, leaking runny green blood from the long gash.

“Estoc!” Shining Armor began in relief, happy to see his second-in-command all right until he saw the dents and gashes in his breastplate and helmet, his dulled and bloody green sword, the fear and anger in his brilliant blue eyes.

“We have to retreat, Armor!” Estoc pleaded. “We've lost our major captains! The soldiers are confused! What more are we going to do?”

Shining Armor took another look around. Three more Royal Guards fell to the cruel spears of the changelings. Some especially cruel bugs changed into other Royal Guard members before coming close to the real ponies, then stabbing them in the abdomen and leaving them to bleed out on the battlefield.

Then, to make things even worse, a thousand black changeling reinforcements began to charge out of the nearby forest and form up near the rear of the army, wriggling their way in, getting closer and closer to the action. The bugs already there were confused at first as to the unexpected reinforcements. Then, with collective shrugs, they accepted them into their ranks and allowed them in.

Shining Armor was devastated. Chrysalis had had reinforcements in the forest as well? She had planned for everything! She wasn't fooled from the start!

Despite his failing heart, he stood courageous nonetheless.

“No!” Shining Armor refused. “This is the closest we've gotten to Chrysalis in years! I'm not letting her get away this time!”

Leaving an emotionally confused Estoc behind, Shining Armor reared on his hind legs and charged straight at the queen with his sword floating in front of him.

Chrysalis only saw it coming at the last moment. She used her own magic to levitate her sword between them just as Armor's sword crashed down.

Between the crossing of blades, Shining Armor glared at Chrysalis.

Chrysalis glared back with equal force.

“You are going to pay!” Armor bellowed, flurrying his blade and forcing Chrysalis to parry. “For everything you've done against my family and Equestria!”

“So take it from me, Shiny,” Chrysalis retorted with a sneer. “Get close enough!”

Armor roared and engaged her in a true swordfight. Their blades flew around each other like flies, trying to land a hit on their opposite owners. The battle between the mortal enemies was so climactic that other battles going on nearby stopped for just a moment to see who was going to win.

Armor struck harder and harder. Chrysalis evaded and fired a slice back every time he did. Neither side had drawn blood yet.

Chrysalis's face was spiraling into desperation the further it went on. Shining Armor's face was growing in rage and ferocity.

Unfortunately, the changelings saw it too.

Finally, when Shining Armor’s sword had struck like a snake and sliced a long gash across Chrysalis's side that dropped her to her knees, the surrounding bugs couldn't take it anymore.

Changing into burly, strong members of the Royal Guard, one of the changelings lept onto Shining Armor's back and held his neck in an elbow hold. Shining Armor gagged and struggled, but his magic faltered and his sword dropped.

“ARMOR!” Estoc screamed in panic from across the battlefield.

A dozen changeling-disguised Royal Guards lept onto Shining Armor as well, and down he went in an entanglement of limbs. Small cruel blades showed themselves and began hacking and stabbing downwards furiously.

Estoc and three other Guards roared and charged at the evil enemy with their own swords aloft, waving them and screaming obscenities as they tried to slay the bugs atop their captain.

Chrysalis noticed this all and, despite the pain in her side, rose up again. The battle was won if their commanders were all fallen. Chrysalis rose up and laughed. And laughed.

The entire mass of black bugs began to laugh along with her until it spread throughout the entire battlefield. It was laughing demons, mocking the rise of the righteous, despising their attempts to glory. Changeling after changeling began to gut the Royal Guard with ruthless efficiency. Hundreds fell in an instant. Hundreds more fell in the following moments. The ground was blackened with dark red blood, giving water to the barren plains for relief. And the laughing changelings could taste the fear in the air, the terror, the desperation. They could smell the blood along with the hopelessness that came from the living. Victory was theirs. The changelings were triumphant!

One thousand black changelings all over the battlefield suddenly turned on the comrade next to them and sank their long blades into their necks and sides. They never had time to be surprised at the betrayal. In an instant, a thousand changelings perished.

The comrades next to their fallen brethren, initially shocked at their sudden demise, were even more shocked as their murderers turned on them next and plunged their weapons into their bodies as well. One thousand more changelings perished.

The black-shelled murderers erupted into a flashing pillar of green, and their disguises melted away. In their place was the reformed deserter volunteers. The small teenagers let out battle cries of their own as the surprise attack fell to pieces, and settled for straight-up charging into the soldiers next to them.

“Infiltrators!” “The traitors!” “Filth!” “Scum!” All of these were the last words of the ones who saw them. The reformed changelings, even though they were mere teenagers, were still larger than the warriors of Chrysalis, and the advantage of surprise was on their side. Another thousand changelings fell throughout the battlefield.

The unified enemy army now turned on the infiltrators and began to engage in little duels with each of them.

High into the air appeared a winged, horned figure. She was sudden, with a pop as her only warning of entry. Her horn still ignited, Twilight Sparkle let loose a torrent of magical energy into the mass of black-armored troops beneath, cutting a swath through their ranks and leaving burning chitin in her wake.

Chrysalis, as soon as she realized her army was falling to pieces, had let out a bellow of rage. Seeing Twilight, however, made her produce a powerful, furious sound that was so utterly unnatural that not even the king of Tartarus could recognize it.

A blur of multicolored light appeared behind her and spiraled down into the ranks of the enemy. Rainbow Dash, with her silvery sword out and flashing, sliced and diced through dozens of changelings on the first pass alone. Blood flew out wherever she went, and body parts were hurled into the air by the tremendous inertia she wielded.

“No!” Chrysalis bellowed to her faltering troops. “Stand your ground!” Seeing them look fearfully around, not knowing where to look first, even Chrysalis began to become fearful. “FIGHT, YOU COWARDS!”

Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie rushed headlong into battle. Applejack was the tank that was plowing into one black changeling after another, carving a path through the battle. Pinkie and Rarity were both balanced precariously on Applejack's back. Pinkie was twirling Rarity's tail like a crank, and Rarity's horn shot out beam after beam of turquoise energy, frying or incapacitating changeling after changeling. The three of them charged all throughout the ranks, causing chaos wherever they went.

A colossal thunder rumbled the ground, making the entire battle pause for just an instant. Only a few dozen meters away, Fluttershy came charging out of the nearby forest on the back of a gigantic black bear. A fleet of hummingbirds, sparrows, robins, and ravens flew past her head like an air escort, and on either side of the bear came foxes and wolves, rabbits and deer, snakes and mice alike. Prey and predator forgot their enmity in the face of Fluttershy's overriding call to arms.

The changelings on the fringe of battle screamed and scrambled out of the way, but Fluttershy's animal reinforcements crashed into battle nonetheless. Squeals and roars and tweets and screams from the animals mixed effortlessly into the sounds of the engine of war.

As the animals thundered by Proto, he evaded a sword strike and crashed his sword upon the falling blade, splitting it in two. He then swung his arm, slicing into changeling chitin, and kicked the inert body to the ground.

Another changeling rushed at him with a tremendous axe, but the maroon teenager stepped out of the way, sticking out his hoof. The enemy stumbled over him and fell to the ground.

Three meters away, Meso evaded a spear thrust and yanked on the shaft, sending the enemy tumbling to the ground. Meso lifted the spear with one hoof and stuck the bug through his abdomen.

Another bug got close and swung a tremendous sword at his head, but Meso ducked under the whistling arc and punched the bug under the ribs with a knife blade in his hoof.

As if the universe was still determined to destroy him, two changelings with spears tightly clutched in the holes in their legs charged at him from opposite directions.

He saw both of them just in time.

At the last minute, he thrust himself backward, and both spears crossed in the space where he once was and impaled the other attacker. Stuck together by two long shafts, they collapsed and expired in a growing puddle of sickly green blood.

Ocellus was pressed back against a tall, stone-dry tree by two determined black bugs. She was not very good at fighting in the first place, but extreme conditions and multiple enemies made her ineptitude even worse.

One bug twisted her sword out of her grip. Another bug knocked the shield off her arm.

Ocellus was pressed against the tree by the crossing of blades against her neck. The two of them were grinning evilly.

Ocellus cringed and closed her eyes, waiting for her life to end.

A few moments later, when she did not feel the life depart from her, Ocellus opened one eye.

Arista was there, her bloodied green sword at the end of an arc, and the two enemy changelings had fallen to the earth gushing emerald blood. Arista smiled gently at the scared child and extended a helpful hoof.

Estoc, standing over the inert form of Shining Armor, saw around him that the tables had turned in their favor. He tremblingly raised his sword.

“The changelings are falling!” Estoc shakily proclaimed. “Attack! Attack!”

As Rainbow Dash plowed through one side of the field, Twilight circled low over the other end of the battle. Spike was on her back, expertly wielding Twilight's violet sword in his claws. He swung from side to side, cutting down leaping bugs on the left and right. Twilight was still firing blasts of energy into the fray, clearing a path and exterminating the enemy as she went.

Finally, Twilight settled on the ground in front of the dark queen. Ruffling her wings, Twilight only glared.

Chrysalis breathed heavily through her clenched teeth. Standing up properly once again, trembling from the wound in her side, she ignited her horn and levitated her weapon in front of her.

“This battle is over,” Chrysalis snarled with every ounce of hate she could muster.

“I agree,” Twilight responded. Between the dive-bombing Rainbow Dash and the unstoppable duo of Pinkie and Rarity on Applejack's back stampeding through the ranks and Fluttershy's wild animals causing chaos wherever she went and the element of surprise they started out with, the battle had clearly turned in favor of the forces of Equestria.

“I will never surrender to someone like you,” Chrysalis continued, leveling her evil serrated sword at Twilight's shining weapon. “When this day is over, my army will triumph and your bodies will litter the earth!”

“When this day is over, Chrysalis,” Spike retorted, “you won't even have an army.”

Chrysalis roared and charged.

Twilight flurried her sword in front of her face with her magic and met her strike.

Stern took a break after his own duel had finished and watched the two commanders duke it out. Their swords crashed and chimed and flashed with light from every impact. Stern could not help but admire the fluidity and grace with which Twilight wielded her purple sword, and the fury and power with which Chrysalis used her green weapon.

All that was pushed from his mind, however, when he felt a pair of claws grab him from behind and lift him up in the air. Struggling, Stern tried to break his way out from his captor.

“Come on!” the changeling holding him in the air screamed. “I got him! Kill him, now!”

A changeling in front of him noticed and rushed over with an upraised sword above his head.

When the enemy soldier came close enough, Stern lifted his hips in the air and aimed at the changeling's face.

Straightening his legs, his hind legs shot out and smacked the charging changeling drone in the face so hard his head snapped back, and he flew in the opposite direction before tumbling to the dust.

Stern jerked his own head back, butting his captor in the nose. An audible crack sounded behind him, and the captor released his grip. Stern broke free and leaped out of the way.

The reason he leaped out of the way was because Estoc was swinging the butt of his sword directly into the captor's face.

With a crash, the changeling, with his nose now soundly in his brain, stumbled back and fell unceremoniously onto the earth.

The duel between Chrysalis and Twilight was still going on. Swirls of purple and green spiraled around each combatant, flashing whenever they collided. Spike was clutching tightly onto Twilight's back the entire time.

The two swords collided and threw streams of sparks from the extended contact. Queen and princess shot each other hateful stares from the cross of the blades.

Twilight stepped closer, pressuring the queen of all changelings back a step.

“You think you can come into our lands,” Twilight firmly demanded, “slaughter my people, and take revenge on innocent refugees?”

“They are traitors!” Chrysalis bellowed.

“They found a true source of power,” Twilight corrected. “They found freedom in friendship. They found freedom...without you.”

Chrysalis snarled and swung her sword incessantly, bashing it along the length of Twilight's. “I am so sick of your lectures!”

“I keep on trying to tell you,” Twilight simply said, parrying with ease. “But no matter how many times I tell you, you just can't seem to listen to one. Simple. Lesson.”

Twilight twisted the enemy sword away and held it out to the side. Chrysalis was only staring in paralyzed fear.

Twilight smiled. “Friendship is magic.”

And she fired a powerful blast into Chrysalis's stomach with her horn. Chrysalis hurled across the battlefield, skidded on the hard grass, caromed off an exposed rock, and collapsed on the dust, rolling until she came to a complete stop.

Twilight marched in triumph to the inert queen. The bug was struggling to rise again, but aways stiffened and lay down at a certain point.

Twilight bent over the queen, giving a confident smile. “But that was also magic.”

Chrysalis, incredibly, began to cackle. It was weak and had a coughing fit in the middle, but it was still a malevolent cackle.

“What's so funny?” Twilight asked.

Chrysalis choked for a second and lifted her spiteful eyes to stare Twilight in the face. “At least I was able to kill one of you today!”

Twilight gasped; she somehow knew who it was she was talking about. “What have you done with Shining Armor?”

“The last I saw of your filthy brother, he was buried under an avalanche of my warriors!” Chrysalis triumphantly proclaimed.

Twilight’s eyes were filled with tears in an instant. Barely sparing a glance at the monster, Twilight galloped off in search of Shining Armor.

Chrysalis grinned once more and weakly lifted her hoof. “Prepare to retreat! Our work here is-”

A torrent of emerald flames bathed Chrysalis's ugly black behind.

Chrysalis yelped loudly and covered her fiery butt with two hooves, then whirled her legs and sped off in the air in a blur.

Spike watched her run off with two crossed arms, giving a little smirk. “Don't be so sad! Fire is harmless! For me, at least.” He casually blew a few sparks onto his palm.


Twilight hurriedly searched for him in the fringes of the battle, where little fighting was going on. He was everything to her in that instant. He needed to be there. He was definitely still alive. It was simply impossible for her to think of the alternative; it had never crossed her mind.

She happened by chance upon the tall blond Estoc, who was guarding a white body in purple armor. Twilight didn't hesitate.

“Princess,” Estoc rushed out, and moved aside for royalty.

Twilight knelt by her brother and pulled off his helmet. Scratches and dirt marks marred his face. His lips were split and his face were dark; his hair hung in matted tangles. With effort, he opened his eyes. They were bloodshot and tired of life.

“Twily,” Shining Armor croaked.

“Armor,” she breathed. She propped his upper body in her lap and held him gently, alleviating the pain in his body.

“My ribs are giving out,” he choked, his voice no longer deep and confident. He was so weak. “Internal bleeding. There's nothing...the medics...can do.” He took a few more small breaths. “I'm sorry, Twilight. I'm so...sorry.”

“No,” Twilight admonished him, on the verge of tears herself. “You have nothing to apologize for, Shining Armor.”

He clasped his hoof with hers. “But I wasn't there for you...when I should have been! Like I should have been...for all those years growing up. You're not at all...sad about that?”

“You're my big brother...and best friend,” Twilight confessed. “You're the...I mean, you...you…” She wailed momentarily and pressed him against her. “Don't go and abandon me now! You have to be there for me, remember?”

Shining Armor was really leaking tears now, his mouth open as he wheezed. “That's why I'm saying sorry now!” He gulped something down and trembled as his final words were whispered only for Twilight to hear. “I'm sorry...Twilight!”

Shining Armor slowly fell asleep for eternity.

Twilight was bent over his body, feeling his body, because that was all that was important now, was to harvest his memorable aspects, his physical form.

To remember him was the best for him. To remember him, and the pony he was, a strong, dependable, loyal brother who loved his country dearly, but loved his family even more.

Twilight's eyes watered his face. Her lament joined the darkening sky above the plains, threatening to water the soil beneath her.