//------------------------------// // Changeling? // Story: Where's My Book! // by TheCrazyAsian //------------------------------// Where's My Book Chapter Three: Changeling? By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon As Princess Celestia cast her spell upon what seemed like a blank wall at the end of the hallway the guards behind her stood at attention, ready for anything. The yellow magic formed into the same rectangle as before and the black wall formed into a door. After a few seconds the glow stopped and the door swung open. The throne room looked the same as before expect for one little detail, in the center of the room there was a familiar looking purple mare. Parthicus, who up until now had been standing still, rushed forward in front of the Princesses the princesses. He put hi hooves in the door way blocking the path to the throne room and shouted to the everpony, "Look out, there's a changeling. It's probably part of the demon attack! Grab your spears and swords and attack!" He grabbed his sword, which up until now had been resting at his side, and his shield, which had been on his back. The princesses just stood there in confusion about what the head of the Praetorian Guards was doing. His shield and sword both had an eerie grayish glow surrounding it as he levitated them in front of him. Without warning he charged past the princesses and out of the hallway. His sword was aimed straight ahead at the purple mare standing in the middle of the room. The rest of his cohort prepared to attack; though they did it rather slowly when compared to what was expected of the a Praetorian Guard. "What exactly are you doing?" Luna asked. A rather large stallion who was at the head of the column stepped forwards and told the princess, "We are just obeying the order of Captain Parthicus." Before Luna could say anything else the column of troops began to march out of the tunnel, two abreast. It wasn't until the first two reached Luna that she realized that they were marching with their swords and shields at the ready. Thoughts began rushing through her head; trying to decide what she should do. Out of no where Luna shouted, "BE STILL!" in the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. With her scream came the crackling of magical thunder and the flashes of magical lightning, conjured up by the princess. All the guards froze in their place not knowing what to do. They were supposed to follow their commander's orders but Princess Luna had scared them, grown stallions of the Praetorian Guard, to the point where a few of them were afraid they were going to urinate on the floor. Celestia, who had craned her head back to see what her sister was yelling about, began to think about including Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice in the training course for the guards. Luna cleared her throat and resumed her orders to the guards in a much more reasonable tone, "As I was saying, just because your CO tells you to do something that you think isn't right doesn't mean that you have to. You have a right to question his orders based on your sense of morality. My sister and I will be sure to bring that up during tomorrow's briefing. I apologize for using the thunder and lightning." Parthicus looked back to see how many of his comrades had followed him in defiance of the princess's orders, he saw none. "Cowards," he thought to himself, "They don't have the guts to do what's right." His heart was now pounding in his chest, no matter how many times he went into combat this never got any easier; doing it alone didn't make it any easier either. He could see the purple pony's head turning to look at him. No, it wasn't a pony, it was a changeling. A creepy, evil, despicable creature who feeds on the emotions of the good ponies of Equestria. He would not back down, he was going to do his part in bringing victory, victory and glory for Equestria! He was about to stab the foul beast when he was lifted into the air. He could see a purple aura around him as he was levitated into the air by the magic of the monster. He wriggled while in the air trying to overpower the purple magic. "Wait, why is this magic purple? Isn't changeling magic green?" he thought to himself, but his conviction that the pony was a changeling overpowered his doubt. "Release me foul beast. Face me like a stallion!" Parthicus screamed. "What are you talking about? You come charging at me, out of nowhere, with a sword pointed at me and you expect me to fight fair? I, for one, didn't even know we were fighting. If you want to fight fair at least announce your name before starting a duel," Twilight rebutted. For somepony who almost got killed she was acting rather irately rather than angry or frightened. She said it almost as if she was an angry neighbor complaining about loud music. "Twilight are you alright!?" Princess Celestia shouted as she ran out of the secret passage. She carried a look of intense concern on her face as thoughts of what could have happened. Twilight could be stabbed, or even worse, Twilight could be dead, and it would be her fault. She had asked Twilight to come to Canterlot and if she had gotten killed it would have been her fault! When she saw Twilight standing up and using magic she was relieved; though she couldn't find any trace of Parthicus, it was as if he had disappeared into thin air. After a few seconds she looked up and saw Parthicus struggling against a purple field of magic as he was levitating in the air. The princess couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, the captain of the Praetorian Guard, who had spent years in training and combat, was overpowered by a teenage mare. The whole situation seemed so silly. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouted in joy as she spotted her mentor. The purple magic field around Parthicus disappeared as Twilight ran toward Celestia. He dropped head first onto the ground and stayed there, presumably knocked out from the drop to the floor. The princess opened her hooves and brought her student into a hug. The feeling of her student wrapped in her hooves helped calmed her down and stirred something in her, something she hadn't felt for a long time. Though to Twilight this hug was strictly platonic, a hug shared between two friends. Twilight pulled back and broke the hug, the princess kept her hooves wrapped around her student as long as she could. When the hug ended she was left with a slight hollow feeling inside of her chest. "So, where's the book?" Twilight asked. Princess Celestia was rather surprised by her student's rather sudden question. She knew that Twilight liked books but she had just been attacked by a member of the Praetorian Guard. Wasn't she at least a little concerned about what had just happened? "Twilight, aren't you at least a bit concerned about the guard that just attacked you?" the princess asked. "No, not really. I assume he thought I was some sort of demon from Tartarus, that's why he called me "Foul beast and tried to kill me. I mean that's why he did it right? It wasn't some sort of attempt at a coup d'état was it?" Twilight responded. "Wow, she was able to piece that together from a two words?" Celestia thought. "Yes, that was what happened. Anyway would you like to request any special punishment for him? After all he just attacked you," Celestia asked. "No, that's quite alright. He was just doing his job based on the information given to him. He did a good job, he faces the enemy without fear. Unlike the rest of them who I assume were scared by your sister," Twilight told Celestia. "So it's almost tea time, would you like to join me for afternoon tea?" Celestia asked. "Sure, but where's the book?" Twilight said. "The book's fine, I let you read it after tea. I wanted to catch up with you, spend some time together," Celestia responded. "Sure then," Twilight replied. "Alright let's go then," Celestia said. The pair turned towards the pair of double doors leading out of the throne room. "Uhh, princess. Shouldn't we help Parthicus, he looks like he's knocked out," Twilight said. "Don't worry the rest of his squad will help him; I'm leaving Luna in charge and I'm sure she'll let them help," Celestia replied. Celestia turned back and saw her sister standing outside of the hallway with the rest of the Praetorian Guard behind her staring at their unconscious commander. Celestia gave an almost imperceptible nod of the head to her sister; Luna then gave a hoof signal to the guards who began marching forwards towards Parthicus. "Princess?" "Yes Twilight?" "Can my brother join us? I promised I'd spend some time with him while I was in Canterlot. If you don't want to he doesn't have to be there. I can just spend-" "Twilight, it's fine. He can join us for tea. It'd be best if he were to know about the book too," Celestia told her. In her head she was thinking, "Great! Just great! Now I'm going to tell her and Shining Armor at the same time. I'll work it out, calm down. I'll just wait until he leaves; or I could arrange for Luna to call him away." End Chapter Three