//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: A Royal Canterlot Wedding: Deleted Scenes // by Raugos //------------------------------// A Royal Canterlot Wedding: Deleted Scenes (Chapter 3) Boom. Tinsel Hoop, assigned usher for the royal wedding, looked up from the list of guests and down the empty corridor on the right, where he thought the sound had come from. It had been faint, but it sure sounded like somepony had taken a sledgehammer to a brick wall or something. Strange, that section was walled off – nopony had used it in a long, long time. Putting the thought aside for consideration at a later time, he returned his attention to the resplendent couple in front of him and said, “You are rather fortunate, Mister and Mistress Jade, the ceremony is underway, but you have not missed too much of it. Please, do go on in.” The couple nodded their thanks and went through the doors into the Great Hall, and Tinsel went back to his list of attendees. That was pretty much the last of them – everypony had already gone in. Then, his eyes fell on one name he’d been told to cross out earlier – Twilight Sparkle, the bridegroom’s sister. He wondered just what she must have done to have her invitation revoked. Boom. A cracking sound followed the dull explosion. Tinsel was just about to ask the two guards posted at the entrance to check it out, when he remembered that they’d both rushed off to the restroom – at the same time, too. Slackers. Boom. Crack. This time, the sound was louder, and much, much nearer. Tinsel frowned and trotted towards the sound. When he turned round the corner and into the old corridor, he found pretty much what he expected – an empty walkway that abruptly ended in a solid wall of stone, windowless and dimly lit by a lone torch. It leaned downwards at a slight angle, had no adjacent rooms, and if memory served, the last chamberlain had declared it structurally unsafe and ordered it to be sealed off. He trotted right up to the wall, shed a little light on it from his horn and tapped it with a hoof. Solid stonework. Boom! He yelped and jumped backwards and landed on his rump. Somepony was on the other side of the wall! Boom! Fractures appeared, and some of the stone blocks shifted out of place. Dust drifted off them in little clouds. Tinsel felt another explosion rock the barrier, and the cracks widened and zigzagged out. “Guards! Help!” he yelled. Several ponies came running; none of them were guards, and they gawked as the middle of the wall fractured further and bulged out. Tinsel yelped again and scrambled out of the way just before the middle of it exploded in a shower of stone fragments and dust. The spectators gasped, and after he had wiped the dirt out of his eyes, Tinsel felt his jaw drop. Twlight Sparkle? What the hay was she doing in there? The purple mare seemed mildly annoyed that she had an audience staring at her, but she simply ignored them and proceeded to widen the opening in the wall, ripping out more stone blocks with purple magic. No wonder they called her the Element of Magic – those blocks looked ridiculously heavy, and the grinding noise they made as she forced them apart were cringe-inducing. When she was done, Twilight Sparkle turned around and addressed him directly, “Where is my brother?” “Uh… in the Great Hall?” “And where is Princess Cadence?” Tinsel noticed that she’d pronounced the name as if it was a dirty word. Was that a trick question? “Uh… she’s… with him?” And then, another figure clambered out from the other side of the wall. Pink, this time. Princess Cadence? “I, but… but…” He looked back in the direction of the Great Hall, where he was absolutely, positively certain that he’d seen the bride with the groom. He looked back at the pair of dishevelled, dusty ponies in front of him and stammered, “But… what… how?” “How, indeed,” Princess Cadence muttered. “Catch your breath, I’m going in,” the purple unicorn announced. “Now, wait just a minute, you can’t – ” He didn’t get to finish the sentence. One moment he was standing in front of her, the next, there was an explosion of light and he was suddenly hovering in air – after which gravity took over and he landed on his rump for the second time in the day, facing an empty, broken wall. When he turned around, he saw Twilight Sparkle galloping past the small crowd, who were giving her a very wide berth. Tinsel glanced back to the ruined wall, then to the weary pink alicorn, then back to the crowd who were muttering amongst themselves and beginning to trot after the purple unicorn. He sighed. When this is over, I’m asking for a raise. * * * * * Celestia squinted against the blinding green pillar of fire, and then felt her hairs stand on end as she stared at the dark figure that had been her niece just a few seconds ago – the creature before her was a changeling queen! She had not seen one of those in centuries. Caution warred with the instinct to quickly strike her down, but thankfully the former won. Wherever there was a queen, there too would be the swarm. The guards had to be alerted. She only had a few precious moments – when she was certain that the changeling was not intent on attacking immediately, she closed her eyes and cast a teleportation spell. It was a silent one, and it left no smoke or soot when she popped back into existence in the barracks. “Guards!” she thundered. Groans and retching noises answered her call – the guards were mostly on the floor, throwing up greenish gunk, along with whatever they’d had for breakfast that morning. Others were clutching their bellies and grimacing and moaning. Their weapons lay all about the floor, completely forgotten. What happened here? There was no time to find out; she could not rely on them. Her next teleport took her to the garrison by the city’s gate, but she found the place oddly devoid of guards. There were only civilians milling about the place, looking on in astonishment at the sudden presence of their monarch. She frowned. The changeling queen... It had to be. There was no other explanation. She had done this to the guards, somehow, and the remainders were out on patrol! The third time, Celestia teleported into her private chambers, where she found Philomena casually preening herself whilst perched on the mantelpiece. “Philomena, I need your help,” she called out. The phoenix tilted her head in curiosity. “We are under attack, and the guards have been incapacitated – I need you to fly out of the city and gather every sentry and patrol you can find. Do whatever it takes to bring them back. Please, go!” Philomena acknowledged her with a reassuring warble and flitted out the window, leaving a golden trail of fiery dust in her wake. It was a flawed plan, but it was the best she had and she could not afford another delay. Celestia teleported back into the Great Hall just in time to find the changeling queen in the middle of a grand speech. “ – soon, my Changeling army will break through. First we take Canterlot, and then, all of Equestria!” Enough was enough. Celestia took a step forward. “No, you won’t,” she growled. * * * * * Rax could see beams of light flashing out through the clerestory windows of the Great Hall – one side was green, the other was gold, and from the way the angles kept shifting back and forth, it was apparent that a magical duel was taking place within, most probably between Queen Chrysalis and the sun princess. He watched with mounting tension as neither light seemed to give way. Then… the gold portion flashed and grew until only a feeble ray of green shone out of the windows. Not good. “She can’t lose!” Chitin exclaimed, jaw dropping. “She won’t,” Mandy asserted. “Our queen is much stronger than any pony princess.” Rax wasn’t so sure, but all the doubt vanished when the green light suddenly flashed brighter, growing in intensity until it overwhelmed the gold. And then the light faded altogether. Their queen had won the battle. “Told you,” Mandy huffed. Looking up, Rax could see cracks appearing in the translucent pink dome above – the rest of the swarm were pounding on it, hundreds at a time. Poor grubs, using their faces as battering rams couldn’t have been very pleasant. Overseer Skeehar must be having a field day making his siblings martyr their complexions for the swarm. Oh well, it wasn’t as if they all looked amazing to begin with. A guard, one who apparently hadn’t drunk any cider, was making his way towards them, led by a concerned-looking earth mare. He froze when he got closer, staring. Rax raised a hoof to touch his ear and felt his stiff, chitinous one instead of the soft and hairy version of his pony form. Oops. His disguise must have slipped off from all the pheromones coursing through his body. The air was positively thick with it. Time for the real fun to start! He smiled at the mare and stallion and shifted fully into changeling form with a flash of green fire, baring his fangs for good measure. The mare leading the guard screamed. Mammals. If he still had pony eyeballs, he would have rolled them. They pounced all at once, and Rax savoured the look on the guards face, with the tiny pinprick pupils, gaping mouth and drooping ears when he realised that he had four changelings sitting on top of him. The stallion wriggled and thrashed, but to no avail, as Rax and his siblings set their glands to work and began wrapping him up in sticky resin. When they were finished, the pegasus was sprawled over the ground in a very compromised position, with limbs outstretched at odd angles and a new, panicky expression on his face as he struggled to break free. The rapidly hardening resin creaked and stretched a bit, but held fast. Satisfied with their work, Rax glanced about and found the tattling mare nearby, shaking and shivering as she cowered under a table of a nearby eatery. Still here? That pony really needed to get her sense of self-preservation checked – it was probably broken. Not that he was going to complain if they wanted to make it easy, though. He began trotting towards the mare, but Mandy beat him to it. The mare stared at his sister, apparently rooted to her spot under the table. Rax and the others caught up and stood by their sister, effectively cutting off any escape for the petrified mare. Mandy grinned and leaned under the table. “Boo,” she said. Rax had to make several attempts to review his memory to make sure he’d gotten the details right – he wanted to cement that moment in his memory forever. The pony had basically screamed her loudest wail of terror yet, and bolted out from under the table faster than most changelings could blink. The table and several chairs had been overturned, and Mandy had had her legs bowled out from under her, doing several somersaults in the air and landing on her chin, with her forelegs splayed out, body bent backwards and hind legs and tail dangling over her head in the most undignified manner. Her eyes were scrunched tight from the pain, and when she tried to right herself, she found that her fang was tightly wedged in a gap between the pavements. That was too much. Rax, Chitin and Scritch started snickering. Mandy narrowed her eyes at them and growled, “Har har. Now stop acting like clowns and help me up!” “It’s amazing how you totally got your shell handed to you by that pony,” Rax quipped. Chitin and Scritch continued laughing. Still, he did assist her by grabbing her head and yanking it off the ground like a turnip. She shoved him away after that, but he was feeling gracious enough to let that slide. Changelings didn’t go red like ponies, but Mandy’s translucent wings were flushed with a lot more colour than usual at the moment. It totally made up for the sugar incident earlier. Screams began to fill the air. Looks like the ponies had finally noticed them, plus the army directly above the city. Rax eyed his surroundings, taking note of the frightened faces peeping out from windows, the clip clop of hooves as ponies on the street fled in the opposite direction whenever he looked directly at them. Well, that’s no fun. Chasing was good, but fighting was better – the pheromones were making him itch for a real battle. Back at the palace, he spied six ponies galloping down the steps and into the courtyard, apparently heading for one of the annexes in the royal keep. As he watched them, there was a sound like shattering glass, and the protective barrier above the city disintegrated. “Took them long enough,” Scritch commented. Rax took to the air and angled in the direction he’d seen the six ponies running. “Come on, we’ve got mammals to hunt.” * * * * * The creatures looked like some disgusting cross between a bug and a pony, and they were everywhere, making horrible buzzing noises like a swarm of bees. Tufty’s gastric plight was temporarily forgotten as she watched one of them come whizzing down like a green firework, crashing into the ground barely five tail-lengths away. She shielded her face with a hoof, and gasped when the thing clambered out of the crater and leapt at her. She cried out in alarm and groped for something, anything nearby with her magic. Her spell found a loose object, and she swung it with all her magical might – and a foldable deck chair smacked the bug-pony aside. Pain wracked her belly once more. It felt like her guts were all ballooned up, holding in an entire river that was just waiting to come out – and a muddy one at that… No, she did not need that kind of imagery right now! She glanced around, saw royal guards being violently subdued and wrapped up in greenish-yellow stuff. More bug-ponies were raining down. Tufty made up her mind. She galloped towards the nearest bush and leapt right into the middle of it, making a mental apology to the gardener for what she was about to do. The sounds she made as she went about her business were best left un-described and forgotten as soon as possible. Oh… She let out a huge sigh of relief. The pressure was gone; her bloated innards could finally relax. Tufty ground her teeth and singled out one of the creatures harassing a civilian. Okay, payback time. She exploded out of the bush and bucked it right in the flank. Belatedly, she realised that she was still a little weak from the indigestion – the thing recovered after a second and struck back with a vicious kick. She angled herself so that the blow glanced off her armour, then grabbed its extended leg with magic and jerked it off balance, then tripped it with a low kick of her own. It landed on its side, and Tufty bucked it again and sent it spinning on its back and tumbling down the street like an upside-down tortoise – those things had pretty slippery shells. The stallion she’d just saved stammered his thanks and galloped off. “Come on, bring it!” Tufty roared at the bugs. About five of them crashed into the ground before her, and before she could do anything, there were multiple explosions of green fire. When the flames were gone, there were five of… five of her… all of them grinning menacingly. “Bring it!” they shouted back, in her own voice. Shapeshifters? Oh, ponyfeathers. Tufty wasn’t stupid – not completely, anyway – she wouldn’t be able to handle five-on-one. She chuckled nervously, spun round and broke into a gallop just as the band of fake Tufties charged. She went back the way she’d come, rushing past houses and shops and gardens that were in the process of being wrecked by the swarm of bug-ponies. Her belly still ached a little, but that was pretty low on her list of concerns. Civilians and fellow guards were being pummelled and wrapped up in green stuff like gross cocoons, and she felt a pang of guilt for not helping – but she had problems of her own. She ran on and on, until she was nearly back at the street where she’d left Hay Bale, still with the five copies of her close behind. She saw more ponies being captured, and her conscience decided to move up from pricking her hide to outright sticking her flank with a pitchfork. This wasn’t what a Guard was supposed to do – maybe being stupid was better than being a coward. She found a discarded spear by the street and grabbed it with her magic, then whirled round to face her pursuers. That seemed to surprise them – the closest one skidded to a halt, and she whacked its head with the shaft of the spear. The next one received similar treatment, and she bucked the third. The next two leapt upon her before she could defend herself, and they transformed back into their bug shapes and started smearing green stuff on her coat – it came oozing out from the holes in their legs. The stuff was sticky, and it was hardening fast. Tufty struggled as they went round and round, smearing more of it and hitting her every now and then to keep her off balance. She fell, and her cheek landed in a patch of green and stuck fast. No no no! In desperation, she reached out with magic and grabbed the spear she’d dropped, but only managed to distract one of the bugs. The others were coming back. One of them slapped her horn, and her spell fizzed out. The creature hissed in her face, and on a moment’s whim partially fuelled by hysteria and frustration, Tufty snarled back at it. It flew away. She blinked in surprise, and it took her a moment to realise that it had flown sideways, and it had begun with an impact. She then saw the figure that had taken its place and could have pranced in joy if she hadn’t been glued to the ground. “Baley!” “Be with you in a sec,” said the stocky mare as she bucked the other insect and rammed another that was beyond her line of sight, stuck as she was. Tufty strained against the sticky stuff again, wincing as it pulled painfully at the hairs on her cheek. Suddenly, she felt Baley grab hold of her, and the mare said, “Sorry bud, this might hurt a bit.” “Yeow!” A bit? It was a massive understatement. The hardening stuff stretched like taffy and snapped like rubber, probably taking off a good patch of coat on her cheek. Still, Tufty counted herself lucky that she was wearing her helmet, or she might have lost quite a bit of mane as well. They wasted no time in rallying everypony within earshot. “This way, ponies!” Baley shouted, “We’re moving to the barracks!” Tufty retrieved her spear and whirled it around like a rotor blade whenever a bug-pony got too close. It was more for show than anything and was magically taxing, but it did give pause to potential assailants. Some civilians and guards rushed to her and Hay Bale, and only two other stallions in armour were in fighting condition. As one, their little group beat a hasty retreat, with the stallion guards in the lead and her bringing up the rear. Baley circled around them, keeping the creatures at bay with her heavy kicks. Slowly but surely, they made their way through the streets, constantly harried by the black shelled ponies. When they were about two blocks away from the barracks, Tufty noticed that some of them were breaking away and heading off in another direction. There seemed to be a major fight going down in one of the main roads, involving a whole multi-coloured mass of ponies. It took her a moment to recognise the Elements of Harmony from such a distance – all hundred-something of them. “What the heck?” Hay Bale exclaimed when she noticed what Tufty was looking at. “Shapeshifters,” she simply said. “Wow.” “Uh huh.” Her companion looked at their current charges, then shifted her gaze back towards the crowd of Element bearers, as if unsure of who had greater priority. “Shouldn’t we do something?” she asked. Tufty took a second to mull it over, then shook her head. “The Elements can handle themselves, I think.” She glanced at the civilians they were escorting and added, “These guys on the other hoof can’t.” Hay Bale acknowledged the reality of the situation with a curt nod, but her frown made it clear that she didn’t like being unable to help everypony at once. There was something that had been bugging Tufty for a while, and she figured that now was as good a time as any to ask about it. “Are you all right?” Baley gave her an odd look. “Yeah, I feel fine. Why?” She gestured at the guards amongst them who looked positively green and were clutching their bellies every now and then. “I suspect food poisoning – I wasn’t so good myself, back there.” Then the thought hit her like a bag of bricks. “That cider… that must have been it!” The earth mare frowned. “You sure? You look fine to me.” “I do, now. But, remember when I needed to use the bathroom?” A raised eyebrow. “Yeah?” “It didn’t end well.” If only she could scour her brain of that memory for good… Thankfully, Baley didn’t press for details, but she wasn’t entirely convinced, either. “Well, I had plenty, and I still feel okay.” Mystery for the ages. Tufty filed it away for contemplation at a more leisurely time – right now, she just wanted to get everypony to safety. * * * * * The pickings had been easy so far. Rax and his siblings had already subdued and wrapped up several guards and regular ponies, and they were now hovering through the streets, searching for more. Squads of other changelings were busy fighting and cornering ponies, and finding victims yet to be claimed was getting a little hard. He’d lost sight of the six ponies earlier, but it seemed that the rest of the swarm had found them. He spared a few seconds to watch the chaotic tangle of flailing limbs and wings, but decided that there were quite enough of them already. “Aren’t we going to help?” asked Chitin. “A hundred on six? As if they need any,” Mandy scoffed. Rax shared the sentiment – surely there were more ponies that were yet to be dealt with. “How about those?” Scritch suggested, pointing at a group of ponies a street away, being herded to the barracks by several guards. Two amongst them stood out, wearing midnight blue armour and resembling bats in appearance. Rax grinned at his siblings and simply said, “Chase me.” * * * * * A hysterical scream filled the air as a pale blue unicorn mare came galloping towards their group, with three of the bugs close on her tail. One of them snapped at her, and she yelped and nearly lost her balance, but kept galloping as if her life depended on it. “Baley, a little help!” Tufty shouted as she doubled back to protect the newcomer. The fleeing mare galloped right past her, and she whirled the spear once more to deter the three oncoming bugs, who snarled and spread out in three directions in an effort to flank her. Luckily, Hay Bale made it just a little bit harder for them by charging into the fray – one of them panicked and took to the air as she bulldozed another clean through a shop window. Tufty looked back at the group and saw the blue unicorn safely amongst the rest of the civilians, being soothed by one of the other guards as they pushed forward to the safety of the barracks. No sooner had she turned back to face the assailants than there came a flash of green light from behind, giving her a long shadow for a split second. It was followed by a cacophony of screams and confused shouts, and when she’d whirled back to see what was the matter, she found their entire group in disarray, with everypony running in just about every direction at once, with a lone bug-pony standing in the middle of it all, smirking mischievously. Ponyfeathers. Those things were more creative than she’d given them credit for… just how many of her companions might be one of those in disguise? It was a disturbing thought, but one that she couldn’t entertain right now. The barracks was close enough – they could make a run for it. It was too late to hope that they could regroup anyway, given the state of panic that the civilians were in. “Get to the barracks, run!” she shouted. "We'll hold them back!" Some ponies obeyed, but it took another shout or two to get the attention of the rest. Her fellow guards quickly picked up on the cue and began herding the others towards safety. More of the creatures were closing in, and there was no time left to dilly-dally – they galloped off, some carrying the injured or incapacitated, leaving Tufty and Hay Bale to deal with the shapeshifters. She glared at the one which had formerly been the fleeing mare, gritting her teeth as she galloped to catch up as it pounced on a hapless pony. “Hey, chew on this!” she yelled as she jabbed her spear at it. Unfortunately, that was exactly what it did. It leapt off its victim and sidestepped her strike, then viciously chomped down on the shaft just behind the spearhead. There was a sharp crack, and Tufty instinctively withdrew and realised that she was left with little more than a long stick with splinters at one end. Oh. The shapeshifter lunged, but surprised as she was about her ruined spear, she was ready for it. She discarded her weapon and braced herself, leaning into the blow with her full weight. They were both staggered for a moment, but quickly recovered and began wrestling and tumbling on the street. Tufty tasted sweat and felt the sting of it in her eyes; there was also the grinding of dirt and stone against her armour and hide as she struggled to pin down the bug pony. It snarled and gave her a head-butt to the face. Oh, really? She growled and paid it back in kind, grinning as it gave a choked off cry and reeled. I’m the one with a helmet, you dummy. With its grip loosened, she swept a hoof low and knocked it off its legs. Gah! She’d forgotten about its wings – as soon as it lost its footing, it barrel-rolled to the side in mid-air, and before she could get over her sudden loss of a tactical advantage, it had flanked her and grabbed her from behind, taking to the sky with all the speed of a racer at full gallop. Tufty gasped as the ground fell away with alarming speed, watching Hay Bale and the bugs she was fighting shrink into the distance. The bug pony chuckled. “Think you can fly?” it asked. Tufty gulped. Under normal circumstances, she might have lost control of her bladder – flight magic was way out of her league, and they were several hundred tail-lengths up in the sky, for crying out loud! But the buzzing of the creature’s wings had given her an idea. A crazy one, but it was better than nothing. “Nope. Can you?” she retorted, flaring her horn. It looked confused for a moment, until Tufty managed to channel enough magic to grab its wings and force them to a standstill. The bug pony let loose a startled shriek as they began to plummet. She felt her stomach rise to her throat and fought the urge to flail around – something which her carrier had no qualms about doing. She held on tight to the holey forelegs around her chest, ignoring the dints its flailing kicks made on her armour and concentrating on keeping its wings locked up. The ground rushed up with alarming speed, and she nearly succumbed to a panic attack when they started spinning in free fall, but through it all, she was counting. Three… Two… One! Tufty released her spell’s hold on the creature’s wings and felt a gut-wrenching jerk from the sudden deceleration as it fought to regain height. Still, it was not enough to stop their fall, and they ripped right through what felt like a canvas roof. There was a dumpster below, with its lid most inconveniently shut. They smashed into it with enough force to make a sizeable dent, and unfortunately, Tufty happened to be underneath the bug when they hit. The first thing she was aware of after the impact was a gnawing ache in her chest and limbs, along with the weight of a limp body on top of hers. Also, for some reason, the world wouldn’t stop spinning, no matter how much she blinked. She moaned and collapsed where she lay, quite happy to just breathe and wait for her pounding heart to calm down. * * * * * Rax groaned. His chest plating felt like it might have fractured; although the unicorn had sort of broken his fall, her armour didn’t help to make the landing any softer. He really shouldn’t have underestimated the stupid mare. There was a buzz of wings, and Scritch appeared round a corner and into the back alley they’d fallen into. “Oh, there you are. We’ve been – ” His brother came to a stationary hover, eyes wide. “Eww, what are you – ” he began, and would have said more if a white pegasus in golden armour hadn’t suddenly slammed into him at an angle from above and smacked him into the wall. He didn’t get back up. “Sergeant… Arrow?” the unicorn beneath him groaned. “Cavalry’s back; more are on the way,” the newcomer replied, and began advancing menacingly on them. On Rax, specifically. That was, until the stallion stopped dead in his tracks and stared. Disgust and rage twisted his face as he roared, "Get away from her, you little hayseed!” Rax blinked. What are you talking about, meathead? He looked down, and found two dazed amber eyes looking back. The mare was apparently still too traumatised from the crash landing to do anything but stare. Then, it occurred to him just what sort of an exploitive position he was in over the female pony – there she was, splayed out on top of the dumpster, with him poised directly over her, both of them seemingly worn out... Oh, you have got to be kidding me. He frantically scrambled off the mare and waved both forelegs in protest. “No, no, no, it’s not what you were thinking!” he screeched. “That doesn’t even work!” Too late, he realised that he’d been speaking Vespid, although later on he would have concluded that the pegasus wouldn’t have been inclined to listen even if he’d had the presence of mind to use Equine. The guard charged, yelling, “You’re going to pay for – herkkk!” Two black projectiles intercepted the pegasus from above, bashing him on the helmet and causing him to crash face-first into the ground. His words ended in a garbled cry of pain. Rax was beginning to sense a theme, here. “Mandible? Chitin?” “Less talking, more helping,” the bigger of his sisters chittered, already busy smearing resin on the incapacitated guard. Rax obliged, and upon closer inspection he found an assortment of scratches and freshly cut grooves on Mandy’s carapace. “What happened with the other bat-guard?” “She got away along with half of the group. It would’ve taken us too long to break into the barracks.” “She was a tough one – I think she cracked my horn,” Chitin mumbled, rubbing it tenderly with one hoof as she used the other to wrap up the pegasus. “You’ll be fine next moult. Get over it,” Mandy asserted. She flexed her forelimbs back and forth, making sure that the joints hadn’t cracked or warped out of shape from all the brawling she’d put them through. Which reminded Rax… he glanced back at the dumpster and found that the mare he’d fought had disappeared. A quick flit about the place confirmed that she was no longer around. Clever girl… Well, at any rate, the city was theirs. Most of the guards were already subdued, and it won’t be long before the rest were taken care of. “Tch… what happened?” Scritch suddenly asked. All eyes turned to the changeling groggily sitting up on his haunches. There was a little puddle of drool where he’d been laying for the past couple of minutes. He was sporting a little crack on the shiny carapace of his head where the stallion guard had struck him, and he looked a little concussed. “Simple. You were napping when we were taking care of business,” Mandy droned. “Was not – oww…” Scritch winced when he rubbed at the crack on his forehead. Just then, the ensnared pegasus began to strain against his sticky bonds and growled, “Urgh… you will not… get away with this…” “I think we already have. Sorry,” Chitin opined innocently. The guard glared at her as if he would have liked to pop her head clean off, but it was impotent frustration – he could not break free. Once done with the guard, they took to the air and scanned the city, looking for a place that wasn’t already being swarmed by their siblings. “Any reason nobody’s taken that one?” Scritch asked, pointing towards a tower. It was pretty much untouched, and judging from the classy style of its construction – by equine standards anyway – it looked like it belonged to an important pony. One that was apparently obsessed with astronomy, considering the dark blue, starry motif. “Easily fixed,” Rax answered. He flitted up to one of its windows and entered, and he heard his siblings buzz in a moment later.