Everyone in the room stared at the weapon with shock. The thing was massive, possibly 15 meters in height, and its entire body was made of some kind of metal. In its helmet was a blue horizontal light that served as the visor of whatever was inside it. In its massive metal hands, which were bigger than a pony, was a round object that none in the room could identify. It was made of metal, like the weapon carrying it, however, it looked more brown and rusted compared to the silver armor that made up the walking weapon.
Twilight couldn’t imagine what this thing was. Was it a robot? No, that was impossible. It must be impossible. Technology has not progressed enough to develop a robot of such a size, or with such intelligence. Was it piloted? Perhaps, but unlikely given how robotically it moved. Was it a golem? That was the most likely explanation. Golems were magically powered automatons that could certainly be built with metal. These kinds of machines were given various instructions by their creator, which usually involved defending an area from trespassers. Even then, the required skill and intellect in making such things made them extremely difficult to construct. This gets even more difficult the bigger it gets. Not to mention, giving instructions to a golem required even more intellect than building one. This is why it was so shocking to see such a thing that was 15 meters and could carry out such complex instructions. Whoever made this thing was an absolute genius.
While she was thinking, Twilight noticed that the supposed golem had yet to attack Chrysalis. Chrysalis seemed to finally notice this too, as she raised an eyebrow and spoke up, “Are you speaking to me… thing?”
The metal giant paused to process the statement and determine its meaning. After doing so, it replied.
“AFFIRMATIVE.”
The statement shook the entire room once again, making all of its inhabitants cover their ears from the outburst. Chrysalis looked quite annoyed at the loudness of the thing’s statements. She would simply use a silence spell if she didn’t think that would just make the thing attack her. Contrary to popular belief, Chrysalis did see the value in solving some things diplomatically.
“Goodness, that’s loud,” Chrysalis said as she rubbed her ears, “Anyway, ignoring your comment about eradicating me, you said something about massive energy output?”
“AFFIRMATIVE.”
Chrysalis glared at the thing in front of her. That thing could turn down the volume a bit.
“Can you please speak more quietly? I can only handle so much of my eardrums being ruptured.”
“NEGATIVE.”
Chrysalis glared harder at the thing but did not say anything. Instead, she put protection magic over her ears and the rest of the Changelings in the room, who was on the floor with their ears covered. She didn’t extend that protection to the ponies, however.
“Fine then. Be that way. What else do you want here? You have found the source of the ‘energy’ you detected. I have no willingness or reason to fight you, other than the fact that you have attacked my children.”
The thing leaned over before talking, “YOUR FORCES HAVE ATTACKED UNIT LIBERTY PRIME AND FORCED A RESPONSE. UNIT LIBERTY PRIME DOES NOT ATTACK UNLESS PROVOKED.”
Chrysalis flew up to meet the height of Liberty Prime, sneering as she peered into its face.
“Oh, so you think waltzing into a city and breaking down its walls does not warrant such a response?”
Liberty Prime rose up to be above Chrysalis, attempting to intimidate the Queen.
“THIS IS NOT YOUR CITY, THIS CITY BELONGS TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS IS AN INVASION OF AMERICAN LAND. MY TERMS ARE AS FOLLOWS: LEAVE THIS CITY AT ONCE, AND LEAVE ITS INHABITANTS SAFE, OR BE ERADICATED IMMEDIATELY. THESE TERMS ARE NOT OPEN TO NEGOTIATION.”
Chrysalis suddenly started laughing, eventually causing tears to pour down from her face. Prime recognized this as the emotion of humor and immediately responded.
“WHAT IS THE CAUSE FOR THE EMOTION KNOWN AS HUMOR TO APPEAR WITHIN YOU?” Prime demanded of Chrysalis.
Chrysalis finally stopped laughing and faced Prime with a cruel smile on her face, “America? Oh, you must be so foolish to think this land belongs to this ‘America’. Listen here, ‘Unit Liberty Prime’, this land formerly belonged to the nation of Equestria, inhabited by those things over there.”
She pointed to the ponies to her right, who were all cowering at this point.
“Whatever this ‘America’ is is not here. Your precious nation is either a long way from here or gone,” she spoke with humor still present in her voice. To anyone watching, it was incredibly condescending. However, to Liberty Prime, this was enlightening. If it was not in America, then where was it? It must find its nation immediately, this invasion was not in its interests to get involved in.
“PRIORITIES ALTERED. NEW OBJECTIVE, LOCATE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IMMEDIATELY.”
The ponies’ hearts sank as their possibly only hope as salvation put away the metal object and began to turn around. It took a while for it to fully turn around, but once it did, it advanced down the hall.
Chrysalis began to laugh at the ponies as they despaired. She knew she had won, and there was nothing they could do. She turned around to face the Changelings in the room, who looked relieved that the giant metal beast was leaving. Chrysalis began to speak to them, “My children! You have performed well for your Queen! Your duty to the hive is fulfilled, and today we shall become victorious over all other nations! We shall bask in the love of Equestria, and together, we shall unify the world under the rule of the changeling race!”
The changelings in front of her cheered at their victory, and outside, she could hear an even louder cry. She smiled at her situation. She had finally done it.
She stopped smiling when she noticed the footsteps of Liberty Prime had stopped. She turned back toward the hall door and noticed that it had stopped mid-step. Suddenly, it began to turn around. Following this, it began to walk toward Chrysalis.
“PRIORITIES ALTERED. NEW OBJECTIVE: EXAMINE INVASION LEADER FOR COMMUNIST ELEMENTS.”
Chrysalis raised her eyebrow at Liberty Prime’s statement.
“Communist elements? What is that supposed to mean?”
When Prime did not respond, she was angered and stomped her foot into the ground, “WHAT DOES IT MEAN, IDIOT?”
Liberty Prime seemed to respond, but not in the way she anticipated.
“EXAMINING STATEMENT MADE BY LEADER.” Liberty Prime paused for a moment to begin its investigation. When it was done, it finally talked again.
“STATEMENTS MADE BY LEADER SUGGEST THAT SUBJECT ‘CHANGELING RACE’ IS MADE UP OF A ONE-PARTY STATE UNDER A DICTATORSHIP. SUBJECT ‘CHANGELING RACE’ ALSO EXPRESSES WISHES OF WORLD DOMINATION AND BY LEADER’S DESCRIPTION OF SOCIETY AS A HIVE, SUGGESTS THAT SUBJECT ‘CHANGELING RACE’ IS MADE UP OF A COMMUNAL SYSTEM.”
Liberty Prime then leaned down toward Chrysalis, who seemed to be getting anxious from Liberty Prime’s statements. Liberty Prime then concluded its investigation.
“COMMUNIST THREAT DETECTED. LETHAL FORCE ENGAGED.”
Chrysalis barely had any time to react before Liberty Prime’s visor lit up with red light. Just as she put up a shield, a massive red laser erupted into existence and discharged its energy straight into Chrysalis’s shield. The force pushed Chrysalis back toward the back walls of the wedding room, and Chrysalis attempted to dig into the ground with her hooves to resist the force of the laser. Suddenly, the laser stopped, and Chrysalis fell forward as the force she was trying to counteract had suddenly decided to leave, and her shield dissipated. While she tried to get her bearings, Liberty Prime had pulled out a Mark 28 thermonuclear bomb. It got into its throwing stance before winding up for the throw. Its arm went high above its head before coming down toward Chrysalis. Noticing the danger ahead, her horn lit up, enveloping her and Shining Armor in a massive shield. The Mark 28 came into contact with the shield, and the room was enveloped within a bright light as the bomb detonated, sending the unprotected occupants flying toward the walls. The bomb had destroyed many of the seats surrounding Chrysalis, and Celestia, while unharmed, was shaken by the explosion.
Once the initial fire of the explosion disappeared, the Element Bearers began to rise to their hooves. They were launched toward a wall by the explosion and were only okay because of a protection spell by Twilight. Applejack was the first to get up and looked at the surrounding ponies for any injuries.
“Y’all alright gals?” she asked with no small amount of worry.
Rainbow Dash responded first, having got up just after Applejack, “I… think so. My head kinda hurts, but other than that I’m alright. Fluttershy? Are you alright?”
She walked over to the timid pegasus, fearing that the weaker and far more easily scared pegasus was injured. However, her fears were betrayed.
“I-I’m fine, Rainbow. Just a little shaken up, that’s all.”
“I’m goodarooni!” yelled Pinkie Pie, who suddenly appeared at Rainbow Dash’s side.
“My mane is all messed up. That robot better explain himself for this atrocity!” Rarity whined to the others, “but yes, I am almost fine.”
The others rolled their eyes at her behavior before remembering about the explosion. They turned back to look at the result.
“Yo! Did you guys see that explosion? It rocked the entire building! Look over there! It completely obliterated that shield and everything around it!” said Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be more impressed than worried about the robot’s power.
She looked up to make sure Celestia was okay. She found that she was, although the Princess now had wide eyes.
“Celestia’s okay too!”
Twilight Sparkle looked at the smoke-filled area where the shield was, noticing that the shield had disappeared. “I don’t think that Chrysalis is okay, though,” she commented in a somber tone, as she remembered who stood there with her.
Cadance, who had just come to her senses, came to the same conclusion, “Shining…”
Before she could mourn her lover’s death, a pair of glowing green eyes appeared through the smoke. All the ponies had their mouths wide open in shock at such a revelation. How powerful was she?
Chrysalis hissed at Liberty Prime, “FOOL!”
Suddenly, the outline of her horn lit up with green magic. A massive beam exploded from her horn, hitting Prime squarely in the chest. Prime was sent flying back from the force of the beam, sending it crashing through the hall doors. The beam continued blasting it through walls and doors before it finally sent him out of the castle. Prime flew through the air as the beam vanished, sending him falling through the sky. Now a victim of gravity, Prime turned his body around and braced for impact with the ground. The weapon slammed a building at full speed, causing the entire thing to collapse from his weight. Prime flew through the building and met with the ground, causing a shockwave to travel through the area that shook buildings and threatened to outright collapse them. Thankfully, the shockwave showed mercy to the houses around it, and the carnage ended.
In the castle, Chrysalis shook from the power she had just discharged from her horn. Her entire body felt like it was on fire and she was left breathless from the attack she had just unleashed. She steadied herself even as she felt like her legs were broken. Now that she had done this, she was almost one hundred percent sure the thing was dead.
The ponies looked on in shock at Chrysalis. They had never seen so much power used before. They still felt its effects as remnants of the beam fizzled and died in the air. The ponies then looked toward each other, wanting to know if what they saw was even real. Suddenly, Chrysalis flew up into the air in an uneven line before flying straight out of the hole she just made with Liberty Prime. The ponies watched as she disappeared from view of the hole.
The ponies looked toward Cadance, who seemed to be focused on something else. Suddenly, Twilight Sparkle remembered her brother and looked toward where he last was. He was still there, with no injuries visible. However, he was on the ground and breathing heavily.
“Shining!” both Cadance and Twilight said. They rushed forward to make sure he was okay. However, before they could get there, a group of changelings dropped in front of them. They glared at the changelings, and the changelings glared back. The changeling leading them began to speak.
“You will not touch our Queen’s groom while we still draw breath. You will stand down or-“ suddenly, the changeling was blasted with magic by an enraged Cadance, who looked like she wanted blood.
“HE IS NOT HER GROOM, YOU DISGUSTING MONSTERS, I AM HIS LOVE, AND YOU WILL NOT STOP ME FROM SAVING HIM!” she screamed at the group of changeling. They stumbled from the unexpected shout before getting back up and preparing for combat.
Suddenly, Cadance was joined by Twilight in facing down the changeling.
“She is correct. He is not your Queen’s groom! A groom is given a choice in marriage! You have not given him this choice!” she stood in solidarity with Cadance. A determined look was on her face when fear has dominated it moments ago.
Rarity then appeared next to Twilight, joining her against the changeling.
“You have ruined so much of what was once a glamorous city! You ruined the beautiful decoration and architecture that was once here! You steal from others their valuables as well as their love, turning them into husks because you refuse to love each other! You will pay for your crimes!” she glowered at the Changelings as she spoke, enraged someone would not even show a shred of generosity in their lives.
Pinkie Pie appeared next, this time next to Cadance.
“You take away people’s happiness and turn them into a shadow of their former selves, all for your selfish gain! You rip away the ability for one to feel a shred of happiness and then take away everything else! I’ll make sure you never do anything like this again!” Pinkie Pie’s movements were especially exaggerated while she talks, but her point was made regardless.
Rainbow Dash appeared next to Pinkie Pie.
“You trick people and ruin their sense of loyalty in your invasion! No one knows who to be loyal to anymore when they could be an impostor! All of this just for some temporary food that you could have if you showed any compassion! You’ll regret this real quick.”
Applejack appeared next to Rainbow Dash with a sneer on her face.
“Ya lie, ya deceive, ya steal. Nothin’ more ta say. You’ll be wishin’ ya stayed home when Ah get mah hooves on ya!” she lashed out at the Changelings. The Element of Honesty felt nothing but rage for a bunch of lying thieves.
Fluttershy appeared next to Rarity with a determined expression on her face instead of the usual timid face that Fluttershy wore.
“You have shown nothing but hostility to Equestrians. Instead of showing any kindness or willingness to keep the peace, you attacked Equestria for your own selfishness instead of being kind and seeking help from those around you. You must be disciplined before you can be taught kindness.” she spoke in a quiet but stern voice.
Cadence looked at the changeling in anger, although her bloodlust had cooled significantly. This allowed her to speak clearly.
“You attack Equestria in search of love, but you do not understand love. To you, it is merely food or power. To Equestrians, it represents an unbreakable bond that can never be broken. Those who attempt to use love for nefarious purposes, like yourself, will inevitably fail.” she spoke with power in her voice, which the changelings recognized. They shook in fear at what would happen to them if they angered the princess.
However, their leader was now back up and was commanding them.
“ATTACK!”
The command caused the changelings to immediately rush forward. They aimed not to capture, rather kill. Their teeth were bared and their fangs were fully extended.
The squad made up of Equestrians had different ideas in mind, however. Pinkie Pie suddenly pulled out her party cannon and blasted it at the changelings, making them stumble. Applejack took advantage of this, charging at the changeling group and knocking them over like bowling balls. The fallen changelings got up quickly, but we’re now separated. A group of them charged to charge Rainbow Dash, but were stopped when she spun around them at high speeds, causing them to spin as well and making them dizzy. Another group of changelings chased after Fluttershy, taking her for defenseless. This opinion changed when she started to stare at them. Each changeling felt a primal fear churn up within them, causing them to back up into the previous group. The changelings all knocked into each other, knocking them out and creating a changeling pile. Another group of changelings went after Pinkie Pie, but instead of running away, the party pony dodged and weaved between the changelings in the group, causing them to bump into each other and form a tight circle of changelings. Applejack saw this and pulled out her lasso. With a single swing, the lasso wrapped around the changeling group and stopped all movement from the bugs. Another group of changelings chased after Rarity. However, the fashionista held a wrapper on the floor in front of the charging group, causing some of them to fall over. The rest jumped over and continued the chase. However, one changeling had a blindfold taped to his eyes, causing him to go blind. The changeling flailed around and ended up knocking over many of his fellow changelings. When all the changelings were incapacitated, Rarity wrapped them all in wrapping, leaving all of them trapped. Another group tried to charge at Twilight. Twilight blinked before summoning a large dome that trapped the helpless changelings within. The last group charged at the Princess of Love. As they got closer, Cadance decided to give them what they wanted. Each changeling was given an unhealthy amount of love from her, causing them to stumble and fall with dumb smiles on their faces. The changelings were effectively incapacitated.
Finally done with the changelings, the Element Bearers and Cadance rushed for Shining Armor.
——
Liberty Prime lay still in the hole it had just created, unresponsive to outside stimuli. As Chrysalis looked at the damage she had done, she smiled. It seemed like she had finally dealt with the annoying thing and could go back to finish her plan.
Suddenly, she heard sounds coming from Liberty Prime. Her eyes widened and she backed up as Liberty Prime began to speak.
“WARNING. WARNING. EXTERNAL HULL DAMAGED EXTENSIVELY.” Liberty Prime stated with the same voice as before.
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. Was this thing even living? It should at least be in immense pain, but it speaks like it doesn’t feel any at all.
Now done with the warning, Liberty Prime rose up and began to stand. A black scorch mark was visible on its chest plate, but no other damage was visible. Chrysalis’s eyes widened in fear and she flew backward. Prime’s head snapped in her direction but had yet to fire. As it stood to its full height, it began to talk again.
“EXTERIOR HULL HAS SUCCESSFULLY SUSTAINED EXTENDED FIRE. PERCENTAGE OF INTERNAL SYSTEMS DAMAGED: ZERO PERCENT!” Prime stated with what sounded almost like enthusiasm.
Its visor began to light up with red light once again, and it spoke in a confident voice.
“PROBABILITY OF COMMUNIST CHANGELING VICTORY: ZERO PERCENT!”
Liberty Prime’s laser opened fire, and a sustained beam shot toward Chrysalis. Chrysalis had already been dodging but felt the heat of the laser on her back as she flew through the air. The laser continued to follow her, and she dodged upward when it attempted to slice through her. She flew back down and attempted to find cover so she could think up a strategy. She spotted such cover behind a massive concrete statue of Celestia. She flew downward as fast as she could and nearly slammed herself into the ground behind the statue. When she landed, she breathed in and out rapidly, attempting to catch her breath. She heard as the laser blasted against the statue, penetrating the concrete little by little. Suddenly, the beam stopped firing and Chrysalis thought that perhaps the thing was going to try and get closer, which would give her enough time to come up with a plan.
Chrysalis then remembered Liberty Prime’s other weapon, and she nearly broke her legs trying to push herself away from the statue. Just as she was out of range, the Mark 28 hit the statue, blowing it to pieces and causing pieces of the statue to fly into Chrysalis. Despite the pain, it caused her, Chrysalis kept pushing as she knew she had to be as fast as possible. Recognizing that Liberty Prime had a direct line of sight on her, she began flying in an irregular pattern, dodging many of the lasers that Prime shot at her. However, when she was just about to reach cover, a laser hit her, and she was sent into a tumble as her shell was scorched. Eventually, she bounced into cover.
——
Liberty Prime watched as its target bounced into cover. Seeing as it had lost its target, it decided on an alternative.
“COMMUNIST TARGET LOST. ACTIVATING ENHANCED THERMAL IMAGING SYSTEM.” Prime stated.
Prime’s sensors could now detect thermal signatures, and it scanned the buildings around where it saw Chrysalis. It noticed nothing in the thermal imaging except for small rodents, which was expected in a city such as this. Prime continued the search for the Queen.
——
Chrysalis breathed in and out as she heard Liberty Prime’s steps fade away. Now a large rat, she scurried around the building she had emerged and watched as Liberty Prime walked away, searching for its target. Now that she was not being attacked, she thought of what to do. Obviously, she couldn’t just hit it with another massive magic blast. For one, this thing was sensitive to large amounts of energy being discharged, and would likely blast her with its laser. Secondly, she was much weaker now that she had used so much magic and was slightly wounded. If she wanted to take this thing down, she needed to be smart. Then, an idea came to her mind. Smiling with confidence, she changed her form to that of an eagle, flying upwards into the sky.
——
Liberty Prime was currently searching the area near where was blasted out of the castle for Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen was nowhere in sight, and Liberty Prime was suspecting something was amiss, as something like Chrysalis could not simply disappear like that.
Suddenly, it detected something approaching it, and fast. It turned around and watched as a small rainbow-colored pony flew at it at an extremely high speed. Seeing as it would not be able to shoot it quickly enough, it covered its chest plate with its arms.
Somehow, the rainbow pony then turned into a massive creature it recognized as a crocodile but made of rocks. The thing collided with Prime at an extreme speed, sending Prime flying back toward the hole it had created with its own body. The impact threw pieces of the castle in every direction as the robot collided with it. The creature on top of it slapped its arms off its chest piece and bit down on the hull as hard as it could. It pulled the hull completely off its body and left its inner working exposed to the hostile on top of it.
The creature yelled out in its victory, “YOU’RE MINE, LIBERTY PRIME!”
——
Cadance hugged her love as hard as she could, tears streaming down her face now that they were reunited. Even if he wasn’t fully conscious, being able to merely touch him was enough to give her joy.
As if on cue, Shining Armor opened his eyes to the sight of his fiancé crying. Seeing that he was awake, the other ponies gasped. Hearing them, Cadance looked up and gasped as she looked into the eyes of her soon-to-be husband. She grasped him harder and cried into his fur as she finally had him back. Shining Armor smiled, as he knew his love was safe. However, he frowned at seeing that much of the room was destroyed and there were strange creatures on the ground.
“Oh no… no, no, no.” he started to cry himself, “I failed. I failed you all. How could I…”
Suddenly, he was grabbed by somepony else. She looked up to see his sister in front of him. He gasped before grabbing her and hugging her.
Someone spoke up after their hugging session.
“Sugarcube, Ah think we all failed today,” Applejack said to the stallion, “…except Twilight.”
Rainbow Dash spoke up next, “Yeah, even when Twilight warned us about Cadance being a fake, we didn’t listen. Sorry, Twi.”
All the other ponies nodded their heads in shame at their failure.
Cadance then spoke to him, “I know that with you, we can finally beat the Changelings.”
Shining Armor gave her a defeated look before speaking with a somber tone, “No, I failed last time and I’ll fail again. How can we beat them now that they’ve captured the Princess?”
Cadance smiled, “With love.”
She nuzzled him as he gave her an inquisitive look, “How can we beat them if they consume love and use it as power? They’ve already done it to me.”
She laughed as he looked at her.
“It’s pretty simple. Changelings have only taken love through force,” she said as she stared at him with love practically flowing right through her eyes, “What if we gave them exactly what they want?”
Shining Armor finally understood her, and he leaned in closer at the same time she did. Finally, their lips met the other, and the amount of love exploded. They glowed with bright pink light before it came out of them in a massive pink ball of energy. This energy condensed tighter and tighter until it met at a single point, then it began to expand.
Chrysalis looked up as she heard a massive explosion. When she looked into the Castle, she saw Cadance and Shining Armor with their lips locked together, forming an inseparable bond with each other. Their love began to explode outward, traveling rapidly toward Chrysalis.
Chrysalis roared out in anger as she realized her plan had failed. She was blasted by the love wave, as were all the other changelings in the city. Ponies drained of their love were rejuvenated and no longer mere shells of their former selves. The love kept expanding until it reached out of the city and finally dissipated, sending the changelings flying into the distance.
——
Liberty Prime watched as the leader of the communist forces was pushed away by a mysterious force. It also saw the rest of her forces fly away into the distance. As it saw the communists fly away, it announced its victory over the enemy.
“CHANGELING COMMUNIST FORCES… EXPELLED.”