Gallus stretched and quietly slipped away from his sleeping pile of friends. He had been exhausted last night when Starlight had returned with their other three friends. The story of how they fought three corrupted dragons had been exciting enough to keep him awake until the end. The discussion about what to do next that came afterward had quickly lulled him to sleep.
“You’re up early,” Starlight said. “Grandeur let us borrow a food creating bag, so just let me know what you want and I’ll get you breakfast.”
He groaned and rubbed his face while he tried to think. “One of those cheesy egg sandwiches sounds good. And some waffles and fruit. And a glass of milk.”
“Coming right up!” Starlight focused on the magic and pulled a plate out of the bag with exactly what he requested.
“Nice! Thanks!” He started to gulp down the breakfast to sate his grumbling stomach.
“You fell asleep, but everyone agreed on what we should do next. Grandeur had information that made it easy to decide. We can probably free the ponies if we deal with Queen Cordys, but it would be much harder to restore the hippogriffs that have lost their true names and memories to the beings of madness and chaos that Storm Surge serves.”
Gallus took a swig of milk before responding. “Do we have a good plan? And is everyone okay with more fighting?”
“This entire experience has been wearing some of them down, especially Sandbar and Silverstream. But they’re willing to fight if it’s for a good reason. We don’t have the best plan. Queen Cordys has changeling spies and scouts and probably knows a lot about what we’ve been up to. She’s going to be ready for us. We can only free the ponies if we defeat her and take her crown.”
“We could split up and divide or distract her forces, or we could stick together. I think the first would work best. If we stay together in one place, we’ll have to face down an entire hive of changelings.”
“But if we split up, it will be easier for them to trick us by copying our friends. We’ll need to come up with some code to keep that from happening. Ocellus wrote down what she could remember of the hive, so we have a rough map. But it’s also a changeling hive, so things can shift around over time.”
“A tricky situation, regardless of what we do. Maybe we should talk about it with everyone over breakfast.”
Gallus pulled out a seat for Silverstream as she approached. His other friends soon followed, and they all began to eat and talk about how to make their plan of attack better.
After brainstorming and breakfast, he looked over their plans. The notes might have a few syrup spots, but they had all pitched in and made something that seemed solid.
“Okay, let’s go over this one last time. Starlight will teleport us far enough away from the hive to avoid magical detection. After that, we’ll split up. Me and Silverstream will take the upper entrance by the village and see what we can do to draw their attention. Yona and Sandbar will take the main cave tunnel and create another distraction. Ocellus and Smolder will take another tunnel and slip into the hive. Starlight will help us with communication and will pull us out if any group is getting overwhelmed or is about to be captured. Once someone reaches the queen, Starlight will have a brief window of time to teleport everyone there. We’ll need to win quickly before the changeling forces can regroup and trap us in the throne room.”
Ocellus nodded. “That’s good, but you forgot a few things. The hive’s tunnels may shift around and may have traps. I know our old hive had all sorts of things designed to confuse and separate invaders. We’ll also need a few passcodes that won’t be easy to guess or fake. If you lose sight of someone, a changeling could replace them quickly. They could even try to replace several of us at once. Each of us should pick a codename and number. Make sure someone gives you those if you lose contact with them.”
“What about a backup plan?” Starlight asked. “Things didn’t go as planned when I tried to attack Queen Chrysalis on her home turf.”
Gallus tapped his beak and thought. “We need to figure out what our main failure points are. We’re relying on you for a lot of magic. What happens if your communication or teleport spells don’t work?”
“We made a plan that can work even without those,” Ocellus said. “As long as we can teleport in, we can do the rest without magic. If you lose contact with Starlight, continue with your part of the plan.”
Sandbar nodded. “I wish we had more, but it sounds like the best we can do. And let’s not forget the extra ponybalm and antiparalysis potions that we got from Grandeur.”
“Those should come in handy against those giant frogs,” Ocellus said.
“There is a little more of Harmony’s magic left,” Starlight said. “I’ll give you what I can, but I’ll have to save most of it for getting us back home. And I’ve also made a few magical shielding amulets. They only have a few uses each, but they will protect you from any strong attacks.”
Her horn glowed and a faint shimmering rainbow glow flowed out from it to Gallus and his friends. The magic made him feel strong and powerful. He felt memories and emotions about his friends welling up from deep inside him. He walked over next to Silverstream and placed his talons around hers. She leaned against him.
“I’ll protect you. We can do this. Together.”
The other two pairs gathered together as Starlight readied her teleport. The sudden jolt of the spell made Gallus blink. The thick jungle around them would be difficult to get through on foot, so it was good that Silverstream and him would be flying as soon as they found somewhere with enough room to take off.
“Best of luck,” he whispered to his friends as they started to split up. “Don’t get caught.”
The foliage made everyone else but Silverstream disappear in just a few moments. They started to look for an opening to the sky somewhere in the thick canopy, but they had to work their way around some thick bushes first.
“Testing. Can you hear me?” Starlight’s voice sounded inside Gallus’s head. “Answer quietly and I’ll hear you.”
“This is Blue Skies 2,” Gallus said.
“Pink Coral 3,” Silverstream added.
“Avalanche 1.”
“Shell Shocker 4.”
“Lava Bomb 5.”
“Bug Out 6.”
“Good. That’s everyone. If this spell cuts off, remember those. I have a location spell running. Gallus and Silverstream, turn to your right and go straight. There should be a clearing there. The village is also that way.”
They followed Starlight’s directions, but a large dead log was in the way. They tried to go over it quietly, but Gallus stepped on a dead branch on the other side when he leaped. He hoped the loud snap didn’t carry too far in the hot, humid air of the jungle. He held some bushes out of the way for Silverstream as they reached the edge of the clearing. A small patch of ground around a small river and a corresponding hole between the trees would give them just enough room to take off.
Silverstream froze in place. “Did you hear that?”
Gallus jumped back as a changeling warrior crashed down where he had just been standing.
“Give up now,” the changeling said. “And I shall take you to my queen without any pain.”
Gallus crouched and readied a pounce. “Quick! Get him before he sounds the alarm!”
Silverstream fluffed up her feathers in surprise. Her shield amulet flashed as the changeling hit her with a solid kick.
The soldier was wide open, and Gallus was going to make him pay for hurting his friend. He heard a loud thump and looked over just in time to see a massive frog open its mouth. The sticky tongue wrapped around him. He tried to get it off and slip away, but the warm darkness of the frog’s mouth surrounded him the next moment. It smelled gross, and everywhere the frog’s saliva touched suddenly felt dull. It was getting hard to move his paws or wings.
Gallus was spat out in a sticky tangle of his own limbs. He could see the frog hopping around, partially on fire. Silverstream had dropped a torch on it. Or maybe created it. She had out her magic paintbrush. She was doing a poor job of avoiding the changeling’s attacks, but her shield pendant protected her again.
“Rrr… just gotta get up!”
He wanted to help Silverstream, but his body wasn’t moving right. He focused until he could feel the magic of Harmony overcoming the venom. He pulled out one of the potions meant to neutralize it and felt relief as soon as he drank the syrupy liquid. His little vial of potion was smashed out of his talons as the frog jumped on him.
His shield amulet flashed. His side hurt, but he kicked the frog with his back legs. It flew into a nearby tree and didn’t get up. He rolled over and watched Silverstream deliver two excellent kicks to the changeling. She gave him the perfect opening to pounce. He slammed down onto the changeling guard right as its horn flashed. The spell either finished or was cut off. The light around the bug’s horn dimmed.
“Are you two okay?” Starlight asked.
“A little beat up, but we’re fine. I’m a tough griffon. Ugh, this slime is going to take a while to get out of my feathers.”
“What was that spell?” Silverstream asked.
“It was small, so give me a moment. Oh. That’s not good. Basic changeling telepathy spell. Sort of like this spell I’m using, but simpler. They’ll be looking for you now. I can get you out of there soon, but we still need you to drop the smoke bombs on the village to confuse the changelings. Do you think you can still do that?”
Gallus looked over at Silverstream. She nodded and pulled out the four magical smoke bombs. Starlight had designed them to be similar to Trixie’s smoke bombs, except these were magical and would make much more smoke and last longer.
“We won’t fail everyone,” Gallus replied. “Let’s get going.”
They both jumped into the air and circled around the clearing to gain height. They lifted up through the hole in the trees. Three changelings were buzzing in the air nearby. One of them pointed.
“Uh, Gallus, I think we’ve been spotted.”
“Just fly as fast as you can.”
Silverstream was about as good as he was with flying maneuvers. They flew low over the canopy and tried to bank sharply around some treetops to lose their pursuers. The trick didn’t work, but they stayed ahead of the changelings as the village came into view. The ponies in the village all stared up, as if suddenly controlled by something. It was creepy.
They flew over the center of the village and dropped the first smoke bomb. It exploded and filled the sky with a pillar of smoke. One changeling fell behind to investigate the smoke, but the other two kept coming.
“Keep dropping those. I’ll protect you.”
Gallus curved his flight path to intercept the two changelings. They came in fast and hard. One tackled him and nearly knocked him out of the sky, but his shield amulet softened the blow enough to keep him aloft. Another nearby boom sounded as Silverstream dropped the second smoke bomb. Four more changelings emerged from the cave entrance at the middle of the village.
“Crap.”
Silverstream looked over at him. He could see the worry written plainly on her face. He also knew she’d want to come help him. That was how Silverstream was, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. But he also needed to keep her focused on her mission.
“I can handle them. Remember our mission!”
She flew close enough to brush Gallus with a wing tip. “Are you sure? There’s so many.”
He winked at her and grinned. “It’ll be just like the street fights I’d sometimes get into back at Griffonstone. Now go! They’re catching up again.”
“I want you back in one piece. Now go get them!”
Her little cheer warmed his heart. He knew what he was about to do would be stupid and painful, but seeing Silverstream made him want to try his best. He screeched and swooped down at the swarm of changelings. Harmony’s magic filled him and kept him from falling from the sky as the guards attacked his wings. He slashed with his talons to drive them back, but he was breathing hard as he flapped to regain altitude. The distant boom of another smoke bomb let him know his efforts had paid off, but the bugs had managed to block off every direction around him.
The guards stopped trying to go in for attacks. Gallus got a sinking feeling as their horns glowed. He dodged the first magical rays, but one grazed his back. Another hit his side, and one more hit his wing. He shrieked from the small painful burns. A massive pop of pressure nearby sent him spinning. In the thick smoke, he couldn’t tell up from down. He strained his wings to try to stop the rotation.
“Got you!”
Warm, soft arms grabbed him out of the air and wrapped around him. He looked up and saw Silverstream looking down at him.
“That’s the final bomb. I had to throw it close to you to create an opening. I hope they didn’t hurt you too badly. Starlight! We’re ready to get out of here. The changelings are confused for now, but they’ll find us again soon.”
“It’s always tough to teleport a flying creature. Give me just a moment. There! Teleport in three, two, one!”
The sudden snap of the teleport made Gallus feel like his stomach had been left behind, but Silverstream placed him on the ground before landing. She immediately started to look at where the attack spells had hit him. Her talons pushed aside his feathers or fur as she closely examined the spots that made Gallus wince or groan when she touched them.
“You’re bruised and burned. The bruises are worse than the burns.”
Gallus blushed as Starlight watched them. Silverstream took a deep breath and started to hum.
“Sandbar and Mirage Chaser tried to teach me how to heal others. Let’s see if I can do this.”
She closed her eyes and her humming grew louder. A warm glow surrounded her talons. She pressed her palms against each burn and bruise, and the pain suddenly vanished.
“I… I think it’s working! That feels great.” Gallus sighed in relief. “Thank you, Silverstream. I think that’s enough.”
If the situation were better or Starlight weren’t there, he would have enjoyed Silverstream’s touch a little longer. But it felt both embarrassing and selfish to try to do that now.
Silverstream clapped and pulled Gallus into a hug. “Wow! That worked so much better than I thought it would! I had to use some of Harmony’s magic to make it work, but I’m glad I could help.”
Gallus slipped out of the hug before Silverstream could crush the air out of him in her excitement. He tried to play things cool, so he found a few misaligned feathers on his wings and fixed them.
“Now we wait,” he said. “We have to be ready to fight their queen.”