"Changelings!? Evil changelings?!" Cozy Glow shrieked.
"Wait, why are they colored?" Leo asked.
Indeed, something was different about these changelings... they were colored. One of them was an incredibly light shade of purple. Another was bright orange with a patch of orange-white in the middle of its face. The third one was blue, and was the only one with eyes that weren't blue... these ones were similar to the color of the first changeling.
"That's strange..." Chrysalis mumbled. "...It's... not right at all."
As the changelings got closer, their prey already prepared to fight back. They all lit up their magic, prepared to fight back... except for Chrysalis.
"Wait!" she stopped. She analyzed the orange changeling, and briefly glanced at the others. "They're the same colors as our friends. Starlight... Sunburst... Trixie!"
"Yeah... they are, but-" Leo stopped himself, and he started to lower his charge. "...they're not actually them, are they?"
As the idea settled in, Tirek and Cozy Glow began to hesitate as well. As the thought settled, the idea that Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie were all evil changelings felt too real, in spite of how impossible it was.
"But... it can't be them..." Cozy Glow said. "After all, how would something like that be entirely possible?"
Just then, a familiar evil laughter erupted through the castle. The sound of it made Chrysalis grit her teeth in increasing anger. A pair of piercing green eyes on a familiar figure could be seen at the far end of a hallway as she approached the group.
"Oh how sad..." Cicada mockingly cooed. "Seeing your own friends, turned against you through brainwashing and change. Now where have I seen that before?... Granted, I never considered my subjects 'friends', but they were still one my own."
"What did you do?..." Chrysalis hissed bitterly.
"What Starlight Glimmer did to us twenty years ago. I took away your friends, and remade them into what I wanted. I changed their lifestyle into something against what you've built up with them all these years."
Leo spoke up. "Technically, either Twilight built up their lifestyle, or they did it on their ow-"
"SILENCE!" Cicada hissed, forcing the stallion to swallow a lump in his throat. "Anyways... this was no ordinary spell. After all, it would be too foolish and basic if I only took away three of your friends. That's why I took everything one step further."
Chrysalis snapped, and tackled her counterpart. Her chest swelling and deflating, she stood over Cicada, who only smirked. The three changelings hissed.
"I have no time for monologues..." Chrysalis growled. "I'm ending this."
"But what about your friends?" Cicada asked. "And... what about your little town?... If you would have let me finish, you would have learned that I didn't simply cast a spell. I manipulated that rhyming zebra into allowing me to convert a spell or two into a liquid. After invading the weather factory, and pouring in my little concoction, all I had to do was wait for the result to spread."
"That's why the fog is green?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Indeed it is. The moment it comes in contact with anypony or creature, they will have no choice but to be a part of my new, growing hive. A hive that knows exactly what I want the moment they get the message. And it won’t just spread here. "
Something suddenly started bashing against the doors. The sight of her enemies watching the doors with confusion and horror made Cicada smile wider..
“Have fun..."
Chrysalis raised her hoof and brought it down, but Cicada teleported away before the hoof bashed her muzzle.
The three changelings growled, and the Starlight changeling hissed.
And then, the doors burst open, and more colored changelings stormed in. And with them, more green fog.
The Sunburst changeling pounced, but Tirek grabbed him by the neck and threw him at the crowd.
"Apologies!" he exclaimed.
"We need to run!" Cozy shouted.
"And stay away from the fog!" Chrysalis ordered.
Tirek sent a shockwave to stun the incoming changelings. When that was done, the group barged past Changeling Trixie, and joined Chrysalis in their run down the hall. Even though Tirek took out a good number of changelings, a few still chased after them down the hall. At some point, Cozy Glow looked behind her and started shooting at changelings to stun them. She did miss a few, but she successfully hit a few others.
Eventually, they finally found the library. They ran in as fast as they could, and Tirek shut the doors, and used his magic to hold them shut. Although he didn't need to, he felt the need to focus on the door... even though they were held shut, they weren't exactly staying still for each impact.
"What are we going to do?" Cozy Glow squeaked.
"We're getting out of here, that's what we're going to do," Leo answered. "Except we'll probably need to break the windows to get out."
Cozy Glow flew up to a window, her horn at the ready. "Already on it!"
She broke the window, and looked outside, but the moment she saw the slight green haze, she backed away.
"Son of a feather!" Leo shouted.
Right when things couldn't get any worse, a changeling suddenly popped up in the window. As if it was a reflex, Cozy Glow blasted it away.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed.
"Now what?!" Leo yelped.
"We'll need to charge through!" Tirek exclaimed.
"Even if we did that, we'd all end up running into the mist!" shrieked Cozy Glow.
"So there's nothing we can do?!" Leo shouted.
"Unfortunately..." Tirek sighed. "If it's not safe to be outside, then there's nothing that can be done."
Chrysalis thought about any potential alternatives, before something came across her mind. "Not exactly."
Leo tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"A long time ago, I decided to do a bit of cleaning for my 'inner peace' exercises, and I came across something under the carpet. It looked like a door or something, but... I never bothered with it."
"So there was a secret door, and you never told us?" Cozy Glow asked.
"I'm 50 percent certain that Starlight Glimmer and her friends knew and never told us either."
"It doesn't matter if we're told these things or not, we need to escape!" Tirek exclaimed.
Chrysalis noticed another set of doors suffer impacts by the changelings, so she had to hold those shut, forcing only Leo and Cozy Glow to search for the door. They went over to the carpet, and peeled it back.
"I can't see it!" Leo shouted.
"Keep looking!" replied Cozy Glow.
They continued moving the carpet back, before Cozy Glow found something that seemed peculiar to her.
"I think this is it!" she exclaimed, pulling back more of the rug to completely reveal the door.
"Looks kinda big..."
"It does..."
She and Leo both grabbed the ring and pulled it back, opening the door. They didn't expect it to be that big... it seemed to be just as large as Tirek!
"What's in there?" Chrysalis asked from the door.
"Hard to tell! Looks like it a deep slide that dips nearly straight down!" Cozy Glow shouted back.
"It works! Is it big enough for someone my size?!" Tirek asked, looking back.
"Um... maybe? I dunno," Leo answered. "It is pretty big for a door!"
"Just go! We'll catch up!" Chrysalis ordered.
"But what about the size?"
"That's not really important! He can fit!" Cozy Glow huffed. She grabbed Leo and leapt in the door, taking the stallion with her.
Chrysalis and Tirek were the only ones left, but hopefully, not for long.
"Together?" Chrysalis asked.
"Together," Tirek nods. "Can you still spit that... goo stuff?"
"I don't know. I haven't tried it for a long time. But at a time like this, I guess it's time to find out."
Chrysalis backed away, and she coughed a little in her throat... as she said, it's been a long time since she did something like that. The thought never occurred to her. But she had to try. After working up the goo in her throat, she spat at one of the doors. Turquoise goo launched out, and stuck at the door.
"Well, now we know..." Tirek mumbled.
"I guess so... step aside."
"Well you better make it quick..."
Chrysalis spat more goo at the door, sealing it shut, and then she and Tirek went over to the trapdoor.
"You go first," insisted Chrysalis. "If I go last, it will be easier to shut the door and cover it up."
"That's a fitting plan..." Tirek looked down. "Mother of father, that looks deep..."
"It's that, or a fate chosen by changelings."
"Oh no, I'm going, I'm going."
Tirek hopped into the trapdoor, and slid down the large drop making up a slide. Chrysalis could hear his horns touch something, likely a wall, but it was incredibly distant.
She was the last one to go. She raised the door, and the folded piece of the carpet, and went partially into the door, in its path. Slowly, she lowered the door and the carpet, moving out of the way the closer it got down. She took one last look at the door. It got impacted again, harder than before. Usually, the goo isn't supposed to break even with massive strength, but Chrysalis didn't want to find out if changelings breaking through in large numbers was an exception. She lowered the trapdoor, got close to the slide, and stopped flying, allowing herself to fall.
Luckily, the massive dip of the slide didn't abruptly stop. It curved slowly, allowing Chrysalis to be caught nicely without too much of an impact. Finally, the slide had a more comfortable curve, and it came to a quick end. Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Leo were all waiting.
"Wow, look at this place..." Leo admired. "It's like the area underneath the School of Friendship."
"I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same place..." said Cozy Glow. "But... I don't remember a tunnel leading here. Maybe I skipped it?"
Chrysalis noticed that the tips of Tirek's horns looked a little more scratched, frayed, and dull since they escaped. "Tirek, your horns?"
"Hm? Oh, yes. That slide may have been big enough for my size, but even then, my horns were well within' reach of the walls when it curved. It's a good thing I was smart enough to keep my arms close. It was just a small graze though, so I wouldn't worry..."
"Well, I suppose I don't need to. I'm just glad none of you are hurt..."
"So, now that we're in the part of the attack where we hide from danger and need to plan... what now?" Leo asks.
"It's very simple!" Chrysalis exclaimed, having a quick mood change from relieved to angry. "We take out Cicada, and figure out how to reverse whatever she's done!!"
"Well, Chrysalis, with the planner you are, I should be expecting a little more... plan?" Cozy Glow said.
"Sorry... I just... need to think..."
"What we do know is that she's turned all of the residents into changelings due to the fog outside. She told us that she tampered with the water at the weather factory," Leo explained. "We'll need to know if and how it's reversable, and then we fix it."
"We may need to defeat her first," said Chrysalis. "Knowing her, since we're one and the same, she will do whatever it takes to not lose her 'hive' again."
"Well, I think we should move and look for a way out while we discuss this, because there's no way we're leaving through there," Cozy Glow stated.
"Agreed," Tirek said.
And they were off.
"I'm surprised nobody told us about this," Leo said. "I mean, throughout the course of 21 years, there's no way that carpet sat there 24/7."
"I'm surprised no one told us when they found it," Cozy Glow replied.
"Let's focus on the more important matters," Tirek interrupted.
"Right..."
"If we're going to take out Cicada first, then we'll have a lot of changelings to get past," said Leo.
"Hey, if Starlight could do it, then so could we!" Cozy confidently exclaimed.
"Yeah, but we're not up against a hive that's like a maze... yet. Whether she's gonna be in Canterlot, or here in Ponyville, we'll have a lot of open space to get past if they're going to roam the streets. And two of us can't fly."
"One. You just don't choose to fly."
"Because I'm afraid of heights and I haven't fully learned it yet."
While Leo and Cozy Glow had their own discussion, Tirek felt that Chrysalis may have needed a bit of comfort, knowing how Cicada's been affecting her.
"Are you okay?..." Tirek asked.
"It's just not a pleasant feeling..." Chrysalis answered. "It's one thing watching a simple, evil copy of yourself causing havoc. But watching the manifestation of your past, and everything you want to put behind causing trouble... it's just frustrating. I think it's safe to say that it affects me more than it affects you."
"Perhaps it does. But if we win and you don't permanently get over it, things won't get better for you. Your happiness will always be short lived, and as far as I can tell, perhaps, it could even descend into something worse."
"What makes you say that? I don't see myself becoming anything worse. I've never went too far.."
That wasn't entirely true. Although she never did anything, when Chrysalis last encountered Cicada during her date night with Tirek, her dark desires felt stronger at that moment than with anyone else she's ever fought.
Leo and Cozy Glow joined in on the conversation.
"Just because you change for the better doesn't mean you'll never go too far," Leo said.
"He's right..." Cozy Glow agreed. "If your anger takes over, it could lead to some pretty poor choices."
"Even if you three have... less of a grudge towards her than I do... I promise I won't let any overly negative feelings take over and cause problems."
"That's not something that sounds easy," said Tirek.
"Maybe it's not, but I can try..."
"Are you sure? I mean, we can always stop you if you go too far," Leo offered.
"That would be appreciated, I suppose... after all, what are friends for?"
Leo and Cozy Glow nodded.
"I know we just got here only a few minutes ago, but I already feel certain that we're in for a long trek down these tunnels..." Tirek said.
"Aye-aye-aye..." Leo mumbled.
*-Time passes...-*
Time passed. Not too much, but it passed. Soon, though, the group finally came across something that wasn't just one long tunnel that turned or went up and down every now and then.
"Guys, look!" Leo pointed.
"I see it," Tirek replied.
They all rushed over to what it was that they found. It was a staircase, that when they went up it, led to what looked like a large trapdoor.
"We're going inside that door, aren't we?" Leo asked.
"Yep!" Cozy answered immediately.
She flew up to it, and tried to open it, but it could barely lift, so she had to ask for help since it was obviously unlocked. Tirek, Leo, and Chrysalis all joined her, using their magic or strength, and managed to open it. Dirt started to pour into the tunnels, which was not satisfying at all. They were able to open the door, though, and they all stepped into the room.
The room seemed dark and empty, though there was a little bit of light coming from an unexplained source... likely crystal. Chrysalis and Tirek couldn't recognize the place, but Cozy Glow knew almost immediately.
"I remember this place..." she whispered. "This was when I tried draining Equestria's magic."
"Yeah, yeah, we heard that one a hundred times..." Leo muttered.
In response, Cozy Glow rolled her eyes. "Still had to say it... Though during my short time in this area, I never knew there was a trapdoor in here linking to the castle."
"Judging from all of the dirt that poured in there, and the difficulty it took to open it, I'd say it was decently buried," said Chrysalis.
"Well, this is quite convenient!" Tirek exclaimed. "This will be the place where we collect our bearings, and figure out what to do next."
"Are you sure?" Cozy Glow asked. "Because if they find the trapdoor in the school... or maybe even the castle..."
"It will be a while before they suspect we're in here," Chrysalis said. "We have enough time to figure things out from here."
"Got it!" exclaimed Leo. "So... any ideas?
*Library*
Cicada was notified by the changelings that the escapees were last seen in the library, and that they've been searching for them ever since.
"And you're sure that they weren't outside?..." Cicada scowled, when she arrived at the room.
"We've asked some of the others outside, and they never saw them leave," the Starlight Changeling explained.
"So there's some sort of little secret in this room..."
"Exactly! That's what we've been looking for."
"UGH! I wish I didn't use a spell that erased your memories while pitting you under my control..." Cicada grumbled.
"My Queen!" A changeling shouted. "Over here."
Cicada approached the changeling that called for her, and she saw that he apparently pulled back the carpet, revealing a door. She opened it, forcing the changelings in the way to move, and she peered inside. It looked like a slide that had an incredibly deep drop.
"I have you now... You three! Go in after them! And bring the spell with you!!"
The Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie changelings nodded, and flew into the trapdoor. It was a pretty big way down... more than twice the size of a pony. That, of course, should explain how Tirek was able to flee with them.
Once they reached the bottom, they stared down the tunnel. When the Trixie changeling landed, they all nodded, and ran off down the tunnel.