Chapter Thirteen: Changeling Steeple
After laying unconscious for some amount of time, Spike finally came too. He sat up and held his aching head.
"Wha…. Twilight?" He shook his head, looking around. He began to remember 'Twilight' transforming into their old foe, Queen Chrysalis, before he had been knocked out. He stood up and walked out of the bushes.
"Freeze, dragon!" He stopped in his tracks, forgetting that the Alicorn Princesses were still terrorizing the town. He turned to face Celestia, who was accompanied by Luna and Cadence. "You can't escape from us this time. You shall fall under our curse just as the other ponies have." He looked at the mares and, after realizing Chrysalis wasn't among them, picked up another stone and dropped it again upon Celestia's skull. Her magic faltered as she stumbled, shaking her head and reverting her eyes back to normal.
"Spike? What's going on here?" She turned to see her sister and Cadence. "Cadence? Luna? What is going on?" The other Alicorns approached her, looking angry.
"Destroy him now, Celestia!"
"If thou does not do it herself, we shall do it instead!" Beginning to comprehend the situation, Celestia's horn glowed, sending a light to the Alicorn's heads. They tried to resist the magic, but Celestia was too powerful for them and they fell to the ground. When they had come too, they're eyes were normal as well.
"W-what? What am I doing here? Where's Shining Armor?"
"Sister, what is the meaning of this?" Celestia shook her head as she approached her fellow Alicorns.
"I believe we were put underneath some sort of trance by Discord. I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but I'm sure Equestria is in a dire state right now." She looked around at the various pony statues, fearing the worst. Finally, she turned back to Spike. "I must return to Canterlot immediately. There's no time for you to explain anything, so please have Twilight send a letter of explanation as soon as possible. Cadence, you may come with me. Sister, can I trust you to aid Spike in sorting out this mess?" Luna bowed to her sister.
"As you wish, my sister. We shall do our best." Celestia nodded in return.
"Good luck. I shall try to sort out things in Equestria as best as I can, as well as figure out how Discord has managed to escape his prison." She beckoned to Cadence. "Let us go, quickly." The two unfolded their wings and headed in the direction Spike had told them to go. Luna looked at him.
"Can thou explain what is going on?" she asked him. Spike scratched his head.
"Uhh, not exactly, but you may want to do something about the statue ponies." He pointed to one near a house. "You and the Princesses… kind of made those." In shock, Luna walked up to one of the statues. She touched her horn to the stone and, in a flash, the statue disappeared, revealing a live pony.
"M-monster mare!" he cried as he fled in the opposite direction. Luna appeared hurt.
"It seems as though the events of Nightmare Night are going to happen again, does it not?" Spike forced a laugh.
"Don't worry, Princess, everything's going to be alright." He suddenly remembered his friends in the cellar. "You continue to do that, I'll be right back."
After frantic knocking on the door, he was finally allowed access by one of the fillies.
"Did you succeed in your mission?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I did! The mare's are alright now and they're going to change everypony back to normal!" The filly gave him a confused look.
"Then where are your friends?" she asked him.
"My friends? Aren't they with you?" She eyed him curiously.
"No, did you send them back here when you reached the steeple?" Spike gulped.
"The steeple? I never said I was going there." He suddenly remembered Chrysalis' ability to shape shift. "Oh no… did I come back here a while ago and get my friends to come with me?" The filly nodded. Princess Luna came up behind him, the filly looking a bit terrified.
"We have cured all of the ponies of their illness, but they have all fled inside of their homes. Have we done something wrong?" Spike stopped the filly before she could close the door.
"Hold on, there's one more." He led her inside of the house and down the cellar, where the other two sisters shrieked at the sight of Luna. Upon seeing the statue of the mare, Luna cured her of her illness as well. The fillies stopped cowering in fear.
"She's… really ok now?" Spike nodded, then pulled on Luna's wing.
"Yes, it's safe now, but we really have to go!" He led her out of the house and rushed her to the edge of town where he could spot a steeple off in the distance. "Let's go, Princess Luna, I don't know how much time we have."
As they soared across the dense forest of dead trees, Spike was hoping Chrysalis and Discord weren't working together to accomplish the same goal as Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara were. They circled the top of the steeple, but to no avail as all of the tower's windows had been boarded up. Giving up, Princess Luna landed on the ground where they entered the base of the tower. After ascending a long flight of stairs that reminded Spike much of Hooktail's tower, they reached the top, where he spotted his worst fear.
"Spike?" Sweetie Belle asked, spotting the duo first. The second 'Spike', Chrysalis, shook her head.
"No, it's not Spike, it's Chrysalis! I told you, she's a shape shifter, remember?" Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Fluttershy surrounded Spike in protection, staring angrily at the two.
"Don't listen to her, Princess Luna!" Fluttershy cried out.
"Give up your act, Changeling! We know you aren't the real Spike!" Spike put out his hands, shaking his head.
"No, it's really me, guys!" He pointed at Chrysalis. "That's the real Changeling, not me! She's tricking you!" Scootaloo looked back and forth at the two.
"How are we even supposed to tell?" Spike hit his forehead in frustration.
"Well, ask Luna, for one thing! She's completely normal now!" The Princess stepped forward, still not sure what exactly was going on.
"Um, yes, we can confirm that this is indeed Spike. He saved us earlier from the curse my fellow Princesses and I were put under." Chrysalis spat, getting the attention of the other three ponies back on her.
"How can you believe them, though? Obviously she's put the Princess under her spell, too! She's probably still in some sort of crazy trance!" Spike groaned, getting fed up with all the nonsense. Fluttershy was looking quite panicked, not sure who to believe.
"What do we do?" she whispered to Sweetie Belle. She looked at Scootaloo, who shrugged back.
"That's it! I'm done with you, Chrysalis!" Spike tackled Chrysalis to the ground, clawing at her face. "Change back! Change back!"
"Get off of me, you faker!" Chrysalis yelled, rolling on top of Spike and pinning him down. The two wrestled on the floor, the group of ponies unsure of what to do.
"We have had enough of this!" Luna declared, using her magic to separate the two's tussle. She held them both in the air. "We want to know which one is the real Spike."
"I'm the real Spike!"
"No, I'm the real Spike!" Fluttershy held her head, still confused by what was going on. Princess Luna locked eyes with the two.
"No matter. We know how to deal with this. I'll simply cast a revealing spell." With a bright glow of white light, the view of the two dragons was gone. After the light had faded, one of the two had vanished. After Spike had dropped to the ground, an evil laughter filled the air.
"So, you think you can get rid of me by casting a simple spell, Princess?" the voice hissed. Spike rubbed his head as he sat up. "Just try me, citizens of Equestria. You're going to hand over those Elements of Harmony whether you like it or not." The laughter filled the room as a flock of crows suddenly broke through one of the boarded up windows. The group covered their heads as the birds attacked them, Luna eventually putting up a magic shield to protect them.
"Does thou have a plan?" she asked Spike as she held up the shield. He looked to Sweetie Belle for help, but realized it was time he came up with an idea on his own.
"Well, uh…" He looked at the window. "We fly away!"
"We can't do that, Spike! She'll terrorize the town and everything we'll end up like it was before!" He turned to Sweetie Belle.
"I’m thinking, alright? Give me time unless you have a better idea!"
"We have an idea…. but we need your help. Once we have her distracted, you must weaken her so we may overcome her…" Princess Luna was struggling to keep Chrysalis' flock at bay. Once Spike agreed to go along with her plan, she let the force field go. Fluttershy, Spike, and the fillies ran to the edge of the room as Queen Chrysalis manifested in her true form.
"Do you wish to challenge me, Princess?" she asked in a cocky tone.
"We choose to challenge you, Chrysalis, but thou should not expect to win." Chrysalis sneered.
"We'll see about that." The next scene appeared to be a replica of the battle of magic held between Celestia and Chrysalis in the Canterlot Castle. They held each other at bay for a while, but Chrysalis was slowly gaining.
"Now, Spike, we need your help!" Looking around, Spike finally realized there was a pile of discarded boards that had fallen from the window when Chrysalis had broken through. Picking up one of the larger boards, he dragged it towards the other three.
"Fluttershy, help me!" She ran over to Spike, who lifted the board into the air. "Now!" She turned and bucked it out of his claws. It flew through the air and hit Chrysalis in the head, who had been too focused on overcoming Luna to see it coming. She collapsed to the ground, losing the hold on her magic. Luna approached the Changeling, standing over her.
"We have had enough of you. Thou shall be banished to the stars until my sister and I can find a suitable punishment."
"No… please, stop!" Princess Luna's eyes glowed white as a dark blue magic enclosed the area around Queen Chrysalis. With a spark, she had disappeared. The Princess turned back to the group.
"We thank you for your assistant. She shall be dealt with later, and shall prove to no longer be a problem for us."
"Thanks, Princess!" Spike told her, honestly relieved. "We should head back to Twilight Town now and let everyone know that everything is safe.
The residents of Twilight Town were all too frightened to leave their houses with Princess Luna walking about. It took Spike several tries convincing the fillies to leave their house with their mother to officially meet the Princess.
"We humbly apologize for our previous actions. I apologize as well for the actions of my sister and Princess Cadence." Luna bowed before the four, who looked rather shaken.
"It's… it's alright, dear. I-I'm sure you didn't mean any harm." The mother gulped as she kept an arm around her children. "We're just glad that we can be together again." Luna smiled, uncertain that the ponies actually trusted her.
"Well, as long as this town is safe, we have finished our job here." She bowed once again to the family. "We wish you a good day." The family nodded and she turned, sighing as she led the group to the town gate. "We think that they are just as scared of us as children are on Nightmare Night. We aren't even in Equestria and we can make ponies run in fear!" Fluttershy patted her on the shoulder comfortingly.
"Aww, don't feel bad, Princess. They're just a bit shaken up is all." The Princess ignored her and they left the town. On the path back to the pipe leading to Rogueport, Luna stopped them.
"We see something on the side of the path. Do we see more statues of ponies?" She pointed a ways off of the path. As the group approached, surely enough, there were more statues. "I suppose we should free these stallions as well…"
"Wait, no! Don't do that!" Spike cried out. Luna gave him a strange look. Sweetie Belle stepped up to agree once she recognized the uniform the statues all seemed to bear.
"Uhh, I agree with Spike. That would be a really bad idea, let's just leave them here."
"But as a royal Princess of Canterlot, we cannot just leave these stallions in this condition!" the Princess protested.
"Yes…. yes you can." Spike said, sighing. "Come on, Princess, we can explain everything later."
"Gone? What do you mean gone? Do you know how many days my recruits have been out there? They should be back by now!" The mare recoiled, holding the clipboard tightly.
"I'm sorry, sir, but that's the report. We haven't even received a letter from any of them!" She fixated her glasses. "Maybe… something happened to them?"
"Something's happened to them, my flank." Filthy Rich kicked at the wall. "It was probably that wretched dragon who keeps getting in my way... but how in Equestria could he stop an entire army of my soldiers! It doesn't make any sense!" The mare looked at him with concern.
"Should I inform Diamond Tiara as well?" He shook his head.
"No, I'll just have to deal with this." He sighed. "We'll just have to take the Elements once they have them all. They'll have done all the work for us by then."