//------------------------------// // Trust No Pony // Story: The Changeling Wars // by Alkonium //------------------------------// Canterlot The TARDIS materialized in a back alley in Canterlot, and as the travellers stepped out, they soon saw that while no Changelings had set hoof there since the Battle of Canterlot, the war had certainly taken its toll on the capital. Gone was the city's regal splendour, replaced with an air of gloom and dread. Guards were patrolling most of the streets, and shanty towns, brimming with refugees, seemed to have sprung up everywhere. Huge gun turrets had been mounted on the tallest buildings, and all along the outer walls. Even the sky did little to ease the gloomy mood of the place; the skies were almost always clear above Canterlot, but they were overcast now. "Doctor, why did you park the TARDIS here? We could have materialized right in the middle of the War Room." Twilight asked the Doctor, as they entered a main street. "You and Derpy have spent most of the war so far in Ponyville's War Room, Twilight. It's easy to lose perspective in there." The Doctor explained. "You picked a hell of a way to rectify that. Ponyville is my home, but I was born and raised here, and I never wanted to see it like this." Twilight said. She shuddered to think of what Ponyville looked like now. "Celestia only knows what's become of Ponyville." Derpy commented. Fluttershy, however, remained silent, seemingly taking in the sights of wartime Canterlot. Part of Twilight wanted to see her parents, or all the ponies who had been evacuated from Ponyville, but she knew how important it was that they get to the palace. After a while of walking, Fluttershy said, "Um, is it just me, or do all the guards have their eyes on us?" Everypony in the group then looked around, seeing that Fluttershy was right. "New arrivals must be rare." Twilight commented. "At the very least, they should recognise us, Twilight." Derpy pointed out. The Doctor then noticed that the guards were readying their spears. "Something's wrong." He said. He then directed them into another back alley, just as a guard chucked his spear at them. "That was hardly the welcome I was expecting." Twilight commented. "I don't understand. Why would they just start throwing spears at us? They know who we are." Fluttershy asked. "Celestia's orders. Why else?" Twilight surmised, dodging another spear. "Come on! We need to keep moving!" Derpy shouted. The group then took a sharp right, just as another spear lodged itself in the wall. "We should split up; we'll do no good if we're all caught!" The Doctor called out. Derpy grabbed Dinky in her forelegs, and then she and Fluttershy flew up to the rooftops, leaving Twilight and the Doctor to find alternative ways up. Losing sight of the Doctor, Twilight ran inside one of the buildings, caring little for her surroundings, except for what might work as roof access. Carefully navigating through what looked like a restaurant's kitchen, she spotted a stairwell and made her way up, hearing several sets of hooves behind her. Once she reached the room, she exited the building, and shut the door, fusing the hinges shut with her horn. That'll buy me a bit more time. She thought. Twilight then started looking around for the closest rooftop to jump to, hearing the guards making their way up the stairs. Of course, this was nothing like chasing that Changeling in Dodge Junction; there, it was a simple matter of chasing the bomber in a straight line over flat rooftops with relatively uniform height, and here, she was the one being chased, with no clear direction, and Canterlot's skyline was far more diverse than that of Dodge Junction. Aware that she had little time to think, Twilight then made the leap to the nearest building, missing, but still managing to reach an exterior stairwell. Unfortunately, this building did not have a direct form of access to the roof, and it was too steep to walk on anyway. Making do, Twilight made her way to the top of the stairs, and entered the building from there, hoping to find another relatively safe jump on the other side. Luckily, the neighbouring building was close enough that she managed to land safely on its roof. Twilight managed to keep it up for another ten rooftops, but then she found herself cornered on a balcony, with no safe path to the nearest rooftop, nor anything on the side of the building, save for some closed windows. Hearing the guards hoofsteps, Twilight took a deep breath and leaped off the balcony, aiming for the closest of the closed windows. Surrounded by broken glass, Twilight slowly got back up on her hooves, and realized exactly where she had landed. This had been her bedroom when she was a filly. In midst of all that running and jumping, she must have lost track of where she was. Twilight started to look around at her old room, when she heard two sets of hooves approaching the door. Still in a panic, she charged up her horn, expecting guards behind the door, but instead, her mother and father knocked the door open, holding a baseball bat and a frying pan in their horns, respectively. At the sight of their daughter, both of them dropped their makeshift weapons, and started to tear up. Conversely, Twilight let the energy in her horn dissipate, and said, with tears forming in her eye as well, "Mom? Dad?" The three of them then embraced in a group hug, and Twilight's mother, Twilight Velvet, said, "We thought you had been killed." "I'm alright." Twilight said, trying to reassure her parents. "What happened to your eye?" Her father, Crescent Sparkle asked. Twilight took a deep breath. She didn't want to worry her parents, but she didn't want to lie to them either. "I got shot." She finally said, taking off her eye patch. Twilight Velvet gasped, but then said, "No matter what scars you bear, you're still our daughter." "What brought you back to Canterlot?" Crescent Sparkle inquired. "Well, even if I'm not dead, I was still taken out of the picture, where Ponyville was concerned. I ended up outside Appleloosa. When I got here, the guards just attacked me on sight." Twilight explained. "They said they were on the lookout for a terrorist who bombed Dodge Junction's train station." Crescent Sparkle suggested. "I was there, but I caught the real bomber, before it committed suicide, at least." Twilight reassured them. "I don't know why they'd think I did it." "You know we believe you." Twilight Velvet answered. Then, they all heard a heavy banging on the door. Twilight took a deep breath. "I've got nowhere to run this time." "Do what you have to. And don't forget we're proud of you." Crescent Sparkle said, patting Twilight on the back. Twilight gave her parents one final look, and let a single tear fall from her eye, before leaving her bedroom. She watched as the guards broke the front door down, and approached her. However, instead of simply escorting her out as she expected, one them clubbed her with his hoof, rendering her unconscious, and they dragged her out of the house. Canterlot, Prison Twilight awoke to find herself in a cell within the Canterlot prison, with no sign of the rest of her party. I was once the personal protegé of Princess Celestia. How is this my life? She thought to herself, before hearing noises from beyond the door. "Sister, I must protest! Twilight Sparkle is a soldier under my command. She is my responsibility." Twilight heard Luna say from beyond her view. "I don't care who you are. I will not have you using guards under my command to arrest my sister and assault my parents without informing me." She then heard her brother's voice, and both he and Luna entered the wing of the prison, accompanied by Princess Celestia, the doors opening with an uncharacteristically green glow from Celestia's horn. "Twilight Sparkle, my greatest student, and my greatest disappointment. First you abandon your post, and then you bomb a train station? Oh how far you've fallen." Celestia said in a contemptuous tone. "If I was behind the bombing in Dodge Junction, why would I come back here, straight to the palace?" Twilight asked. "Your next target, obviously." Celestia said. "With what? Your own guards gave me a thorough search, and they didn't find any explosives on me. And if I was going to bomb the palace, I think I'd do something a little smarter than going for the front door, without any explosives on me. And where's Derpy, Fluttershy, and the Doctor?" Twilight then asked, finding her mentor's accusations increasingly absurd. "Your accomplices are being dealt with elsewhere." Celestia answered. "Accomplices? I recruited Miss Hooves myself." Luna interjected. "Perhaps you should have taken more care about who you recruited, sister. Unless you're part of this as well." Celestia then accused Luna. "I am the Princess of the Night! It is my duty to lead Equestria in times of war!" Luna retorted. Though she had her suspicions about the Princess, that exchange removed all doubt in Twilight's mind. "You are not Princess Celestia." She accused the so-called Princess of the Day. "You stand in a prison cell, and you accuse me of being a Changeling?" Celestia asked in return. "Twily, that's impossible. Celestia must gone through the screeners dozens of-" Shining Armour stopped there; he couldn't actually think of a single instance of Celestia going through a screener. "We need a screener in here. Now." He then said to the guards by the door. The two guards then ran out of the room to retrieve one. "I didn't say you were a Changeling. Celestia would have listened to my side of the story before having me arrested. She also wouldn't have have superseded her sister's authority, or my brother's, like you did." Twilight explained. "War changes ponies." Celestia countered, starting to panic. "I know that just as well as you do, but one thing that shouldn't change is the colour of your magic; it should be golden, but it's green." Twilight added. Celestia grinned wickedly, and then said with a male voice, "Fine, you've got me."