It wasn't unusual for Spitfire to be called to Canterlot Castle on the occasion, be it for something with the Wonderbolts, or just for a friendly visit. Though the latter was on the lesser of the spectrum because what overshadowed all of that, was the main reason that she was here in the first place. Since she was currently the Captain of the Wonderbolts, she wasn't a stranger to the idea of being a branch of the Equestrian Royal Guard. Since Equestria hasn't had an official military in over a thousand years, when Celestia was still referred to as an Emperor. Empress? she wasn't sure, she wasn't a history buff.
Moreover, she was currently back in Canterlot for business that pertained to her dealings with Wonderbolts.
At first, she thought that she was going to meet face to face with and talk to about their whole changelings situation with Princess Celestia, she was pleasantly surprised when it was Princess Luna who was waiting for her in the throne room instead of Celestia. But she wasn't going to comment on it since she wasn't really perturbed by the lunar alicorn, unlike other ponies who've outwardly projected their distrust and wariness over the princess, she wasn't much of a judge. Also for the fact that trying to childishly judge a pony over what she did when they were currently dealing with a crisis that was almost as the whole Canterlot Wedding Scenario, as the internal affairs like to refer to it as, was stupid.
Also because two ponies she cared about were in the middle of the ordeal.
She came to a stop in both her thoughts and her stride and stood in place, straightening herself up towards Princess Luna and giving her a curt salute.
"At ease captain, I am not my sister" Princess Luna was first to speak, standing a few ways away from Spitfire, not quite sitting down on the throne, and instead resting a hoof on the armrest before she turned towards her.
Spitfire simply nodded before dropping her hoof back down onto the tile, the sound a hoof would usually make when making contact against tiling wasn't present as the cloth of her suit muted the nose and instead let it something more akin to a thud. Her thoughts quickly formed into words and she spoke up, her voice formal instead of its usual raspy and boisterous tone, preferring to use that inflection she used when she was acting as a drill sergeant to newer Wonderbolt recruits. But without its layers of aggression and force, as that would just be inappropriate when dealing with somepony of higher stature like Princess Luna.
"What's the situation looking like, princess?" she questioned. Watching the princess let out a small sigh to herself before letting her hoof fall from the armrest, her much larger hoof giving a louder noise as she turned and walked towards her, hooves loudly clacking due her horseshoes.
"We will be honest with you captain, the situation is less than ideal" she talked as she walked, her usual tone of speech was a mixture of the older speech pattern she was used to and the modern rendition of that speech pattern she was still struggling to fully adjust to. "The guards are unraveling themselves from within as more and more changelings are being ousted from their positions in the garrison, and the revelation is much more grim than how it sounds."
Her horn briefly flashed before she closed her eyes and sighed in relief.
"More than a half of the guards have been identified as changelings" she admitted.
This caused Spitfire to blink as her eyes had been widened to an impossibly large size that the idea of there still being more changelings than ponies masquerading around the sisters, even after the whole wedding fiasco, where Chrysalis and all of her changelings were thrown out of the city by the huge beam of love that Princess Cadance and her husband formed. She would've thought that Celestia would've had more fierce detection and prevention spells in place since they were able to pull something off as large as that, but with this new piece of information, she was ultimately flabbergasted.
"Wait what? I thought that the Canterlot Wedding would've done something to help prevent something like this?" Spitfire questioned once more. "With Princess Cadance herself being replaced by the changeling queen, there should've been something in place to prevent something like this, right?"
Princess Luna looked down at the floor for a few moments before raising her head back up and shaking her head "sadly, no. We were not wise in our course of actions and instead chose to try and essentially.. sweep things under the rugs, as you would say?" she said in more of an asking tone instead of actually knowing full and well what it meant. While also not fulling answering Spitfire's question, which she could understand, even if it slightly perturbed her.
"Through the folly of our own actions, we have ultimately allowed an... unknown changeling queen in tandem with Chrysalis, to attempt to and.. su-" she wasn't able to finish her statement as Spitfire was quick to interrupt her by taking a step forwards and letting her concern over the ones she knew were the main idea behind Princess Luna's hesitant form of speaking towards the end.
"They got Speckles and Hazel!?" she uncharacteristically exclaimed. Eyes widened in disbelief as she looked over Princess Luna's features to see if she was getting the wrong idea from her incentives, but was disheartened as she did nothing to disagree with her.
"Fortunately, Hazel was spared the same fate as her foal.. who was unfortunately taken during the brief insurgency" she added in, mistakenly thinking that it would be better than the both of them being captured. Though was proven wrong almost immediately as Spitfire took a step back and ran a hoof through her hair as she let out a breath, eyes now looking down in the ground as her disbelief turned into realization, and her concern turned into worry.
"Do.. do we have any leads as to where the other changeling queen went off to? and can I see her?" she said after a moment, steeling her resolve and looking back up at Princess Luna.
"We have gained nothing new from the situation currently with Chrysalis, who is currently in custody in the dungeons" she shook her head. Momentarily grimacing at the thought of the rabid changeling queen refusing to come to her senses. "She is vehemently.. refusing, to come to her senses."
"You may see Hazel after a moment. I have some things to discuss with you." she said as Spitfire nodded and returned to the current situation.
Tilting her head in a show of confusion, her resolve dissolving as the look on Princess Luna's face was a mixture of something that was familiar to her yet she couldn't really explain what exactly the princess looked like she was thinking about. Though Spitfire new exactly what she herself was thinking about that little tidbit, it made her even more outraged and angered at the changeling queen. First she decides that she's going to be in cahoots with this unknown changeling queen and try to invade canterlot castle, for like what, the second time and then she has the audacity to get herself captured and act like she's still all high and mighty. It really grinded her gears.
Her lips pursed for a moment as she bent her head backwards and let out a breath through her teeth as she gritted them before turning her head back to its original position to lock eyes with the lunar princess once more, the obvious question she had forming in her mind coming out of her mouth before she realized that she actually asked it.
"Can you explain what you meant by refusing to come to her senses?" her thoughts forming an image of the changeling queen giving a fang filled grin while sitting as straight as she could in that damp jail cell that the guards presumably threw her in. "If it's a matter of getting her to tal-" she was then interrupted as the princess spoke once again.
"Well, it is more of a matter of getting her to stop throwing herself against the bars of her cell" Princess Luna admitted.
Spitfire was a bit confused when Luna said that to her, if she wasn't already confused and contemplative over a lot of things that were happening and in the process of happening after this whole chaotic mess. She knew that the changeling queen's temper was a bit larger than her even larger than life personality, but she really didn't expect her to start trying to break out of the cell that way. She'd've thought that she'd wait for her little changeling soldiers to try and infiltrate their way into the castle and try to break her out that way.
She wanted to respond though wasn't able to as her own body stopped her from uttering anything and instead focused on her thoughts trying to rationalize what exactly was meant by Chrysalis throwing herself against the bars of the cell.
Princess Luna sensed this confusion and instead approached Spitfire, closing the distance between the two of them in a matter of seconds before she let her horn faintly glow a dark purple hue. "We think it is better if thou would see for thine self" and with that, Spitfires vision was sent for a twist as the room seemed to flash a bright white color that lasted for as long as she could even register it. But she didn't let the discombobulation sway and shook her head rapidly, shaking away the little purple swirls of color that were making their way all across her vision as she blinked them away.
"Now, if you were to follow me, Captain" Princess Luna's voice broke Spitfire out of her little stupor and she actually took in where they were. The dungeons, which was less damp and gothic as she'd expected it to be, being that she'd actually never been in here she really had no idea, so this was a pleasant surprise. She guessed.
She dutifully walked alongside the princess as the walked down a corridor that was lined with many different cells of the same size, same length, and same color. Which was a very light green color. A very unpleasant and annoyingly green color, if that made any sense. It did to her, since she was the one being repulsed by just looking at it for too long. But there was nowhere else to focus her gaze that wouldn't look weird, so she just pushed through and continued looking forwards until the princess slowed to a stop at the end of the corridor. Where there was a door made out of reinforced iron that was guarded by two very anxious looking day guards that seemed to flinch every time a loud bang reverberated from inside of the room.
Spitfire furrowed her brow and briefly looked away from the two of them to look up to Princess Luna, who's gaze had turned steely as she gave the order for the two of them to open the door for her. Which they did a few seconds after she gave out the order, their bodily expressions and very prevalent expressions on their faces helped to show that they were very well, scared. Which they had every right being, since all that was coming from inside of that room was very loud and constant banging.
Then as the door was undergoing the brief unlocking process, with one of the guards raising their spear up in a ready position while the other used his unicorn heritage to remove the locks that were visible and those that were hidden inside the hulking door made of metal. After this the unicorn took a step back and wrapped the entire door in his magical grasp before taking an audible breath before pulling the door open, letting the bangs that were muffled behind the door come out in full force. Causing the two guards to flinch instinctively as they suddenly came to a stop and a very guttural hiss sounded its way to everyponies ears.
This caused her heart to start beating a little faster against her chest. As the door fully opened, giving her a full view of what was clearly Chrysalis's cell she turned her head back to look at Luna. Her face was unmoving as she nodded at the guards before looking back down at Spitfire, who was a bit taken a back by the sudden force that she felt wash across her face as Luna looked down at her. She nodded her head forwards and the two of them went to enter the cell, with Luna taking the lead.
Spitfire stopped when Luna suddenly stopped, stepping around her and walking a bit in front of her she let her eyes fall on the cell that held the fearsome changeling queen. The same eyes that immediately widened upon seeing the state the the walls of the cell looked like, covered in scratches and impact marks that drilled pretty deep into the bricklike material the cells walls were made of. What also drew her attention was the viscous bright green fluid that was left in puddles around the floor of the cell, each of the puddles feeding out into a single stream of green liquid that drew her eyes over to the back of the cell. Everything of her figure was shrouded, except those very unnerving eyes. Causing her to stop as the two glowing green stared right back at her from the darkness.
She opened her mouth and turned her head away from the very disturbing sight, looking back at the princess with the intent to say something. But was interrupted by the fur on her back raising as a chill passed over her, she went to turn her head back to the cell, and almost immediately jumped backwards as the figure of Chrysalis leapt out of the darkness with great speed and crashed against the bars of the cells. The metal bars were sturdy though, with a very familiar golden aura flashing as soon as she impacted against it, causing the changeling to simply let out another hiss as she took a few step backs from the bars.
"Woah." was all that Spitfire was able to say as her heart finally stopped trying to break out of her chest. Taking in the appearance of the queen with a very surprised look on her face, her hair was a mess, her pupils were thin slits, making them even more intimidating with the vibrant green that surrounded it. The green liquid that was all over the cells, was also all over her neck and muzzle, dripping from her mouth actually.
"Woah is right Captain" princess Luna broke the silence and also approached the bars. A lack of fear was evident in her disposition as her eyes narrowed. Drawing another hiss from the changeling as she bent her body down, letting her jaw open wide, as wide as a snakes for comparison. Letting every single one of her fangs covered in that green liquid show much to Spitfires very unsettled expression.
Her long and snake like tongue licked all around her teeth as she tore her gaze away from the changeling and back to the princess.
"I.. I didn't expect her to be.."
"Out of control? Neither did we" Luna responded.
"I didn't expect her to be this.. feral" she said instead before her eyes were drawn upwards to the stump on her forehead "and her horn.. it's broken."
"Yes, sister and I are still trying to figure out what is the cause of her mental break. Well, more I than my sister and I" she lingered on that end of the sentence before continuing "..but still the question of why is still unanswered, neither is the reason behind her broken horn. We have many speculations, but nothing is concrete."
"I.. just wow." to the wonderbolt captain, it was unfathomable.
To the princess, it was another concerning variable to add into the equation, who's answer was that little foal that was targeted.
"Now, let us go meet with Mrs.Snowdrift. There are topics that require her presence as well" Princess Luna said as she held a staring contest with the rabid changeling queen. The latter of the two hissing and breaking the contact as she snapped her jaws at her. Luna then let out a hum and turned on her heels, with Spitfire doing the same as they walked towards the exit.
This whole same patterned tunnels and rooms that we kept going in and out of was getting really annoying. Plus, with all the sharp twist and turns this guy was taking while dodging sight of any of the changelings and maneuvering through the tight spaces and dark areas, was just leaving the two of us covered in all of this gunk. It was all mainly getting in my hair and causing the strands that hung over my face to start sticking to my forehead and any of the fur that was attached to my face. It was really annoying to take a hoof off of my grip on his neck and trying to let my eyes have some sort of clear line of sight without the constant coverage.
But I was getting really prissy for a moment there. Let's dial it back down and focus on what's at hand, getting out of this hive and not getting the two of us drained out of our love and you've already got the gist from my constant reminders with the changelings totally being rapists and all.
Nevertheless, the darkness from the most recent tunnel we were flying through finally dropped us out into a very large room. Larger than most of the rooms that we've already passed through and from my brief glances at the ceilings, it was good to know that there was only one exit to this room. A curved out doorway that fed out into a hallway that was imbued with the changeling hive material and some sort of stone, at least from what I could see. I'd have to get closer to actually see if my hunch that was creeping along the inside of my head was true. Also with how I found those stalagmite/stalactites earlier and used them to break this guy out of his prison, that's really giving me the idea that this hive is probably situated inside of or below some sort of cave system.
Maybe even a mountain. I'd even relate this to High Charity and that whole fiasco with the flood. But I was really fucking grateful that the flood didn't exist in pony land. I'd be beyond dead by now if that was something even fathomable.
Anyways, he furled his wings back into his sides and started scanning the room once again. Giving me the time to remove myself from being pressed against his neck and pushing myself up onto my feet on his back, I rolled my neck around for a moment before I hopped off of his back and started walking around the room. Even with how stupidly dangerous it was to start scanning around the room without continuously moving like I was doing earlier, I had some sort of mental fluctuation between being completely out of myself, but now I am fully focused on this. Pushing back the prospect of getting captured and never seeing the light of day again, I'm focusing on what we're going to do. If there's going to be an us in the future.
Since I never really took the time to really analyze this guy. Even if he says that he is a royal guard, I can't just resort to snuffing the idea that they decided to shapeshift into one of the guards they already sucked the love out of and locked him away until I showed up.
I drifted my eyes away from him and looked back at the room in detail. If I haven't already done so, because I am just like that. So I took the chance and turned myself towards the doorway and started lightly jogging towards it, coming to a stop just where the stone met the gunk and brought myself down to its level so that I could take a better look at it. Now I wasn't a geologist in the slightest, so I had no idea if these were a specific type of stone which would mean something else entirely. But I did play Minecraft quite a bit, so I know for a fact that this stone is definitely telling of being underground. Even with how stupid it sounds. Don't judge me.
I turned at the sound of footsteps and looked up to see him stopping just in front of me, a small grin was on his face as he brought his gaze down towards me and bent downwards slightly. Before he could ask me a question, I was quick to ask a question of my own "-before you say anything, you already know my name. So I'd like to know yours as well, Mr. Royal guard" as I moved a hoof towards the stone and rubbed the flat part of my hoof against it.
He adjusted his position and acquiesced "yeah, sorry about that. I'm Spear head" he said with a small chuckle. Trying to make light of this very crappy situation, I know, he was trying his best. But still, I couldn't help but internally shrug my shoulders and instead let a small nod of acknowledgment be my answer. Giving him the time to go back to asking what he was originally going to ask.
"Anyways Speckles, are you doing alright?" he said in a concerned manner. Making me turn my head back up to him and tilting my head at the question. Replaying it in my head, since he'd already asked me that question before. "I know this question was already asked, but I really got to make sure that you're all good. You're my main concern right now" he said with a smile sigh.
I was touched. Ignoring the fact that he was talking to me like you'd talk to Clementine if you were Lee, but still.
So I gave him an actual answer. Not a really truthful answer that vented out all of my real feelings on the situation, since that'll really just be a lot to process, coming from a child at least. And trying to comfort a traumatize child while trying to get yourself and said traumatized child out of the belly of the beast, was not easy, I understood that. So I wasn't going to try and make this guys job any harder than it's already been.
"I'm not dead, so that's something isn't it?" I said with a small chuckle of my own, garnering a small smile from Spear before he gave another sigh.
"And it's something that I'm going to not let happen, I promise you" he said as his face turned serious.
As much as I knew that this was 50/50 chance on whether or not to outright trust him all the way, but since I've already been relying on him to get us out here, I've got no other choice but to do so. If it bites me in the ass, then I'll deal with that if it happens. There was a reason I've been sparse on my usage of my time powers after all.
He offered out one of his much larger hooves with its flat side facing me, his serious expression affording a small smile to break through as he offered me this little.. er, hoof bump, if I remember it correctly. Much like a fist bump, but it was less of knuckle on knuckle contact and instead just two flat surfaces touching each other, so I reached up my own hoof and lightly bumped it against his before dropping it back down to the ground.
"Then I'll look out for you as well, goes vice versa since were both stuck here right?" I said with a smile of my own. Causing him to nod before standing back up to his full height.
"Definitely, now lets see where this hallway leads to" he said to which I nodded and turned back to the hallway. I walked towards the middle and looked back to him as he took one final glance at the room we were just about to leave before walking over to me. He came to a stop just beside me and gave me a look before he started to lead the way.
To which we were only able to take a few steps before a very low pitched hiss echoed from right in front of us. Causing the two of us to immediately jump into high alert as our attention focused in on the darkness that was further into the hallway, me squinting my eyes to see where exactly that changeling was before a large blue hoof blocked my sight and instead snaked its way underneath met, hoisting me up and dropping me further behind him. I offered a glance up to him as he intensely stared into the darkness.
"Stay behind me.."
I simply nodded and took another glance at the darkness as another deep hiss came out.
it's like all the circumstances for something going wrong always like to make themselves known whenever it seems very inconvenient for them to do so, since these seems to always happen when something goes right. The universe wants things to go flipping wrong for me.
A skittering noise ran on for quite a bit of time before two glowing red eyes made themselves known in the darkness, causing me to purse my lips in distaste before two more sets of glowing eyes appeared right after the two large ones. This cause me to instinctively take a step back because I know for a fact that if anything with glowing eyes hisses at you from the darkness, and also has two more sets of eyes to stare at, you'd be immediately walking in the other direction.
But since there wasn't really anywhere else to go, besides backtracking. We had to face this.. changeling? I hope its a changeling.
Spear Head physically readied himself for whatever was going to show itself from the darkness, his mind was shifting back into how it should be in a confrontational situation. Thinking of every way he was taught to fight and block somepony.
Though I'm sure that the honing of his skill were surely interrupted by the sound of skittering intensifying as the eyes bent downwards and suddenly closed. Causing the two of us to be on high alert as all that was heard was more and more skittering of whatever this thing was, and I was ready to do whatever I could to try and fend off this threat.
While I was looking to the side and searching for anything that either of us could use as a weapon, I suddenly felt my body tense up and felt compelled to look back up to where the creature was hiding.
"Spear.." I suddenly spoke, causing him to look back at me out of the corner of his eye "..I think we should get out of- Oh shit! stop!" I immediately let my vulgar tendencies spill right out of my mouth as leaped backwards and let the magic words slip out of my mouth right afterwards, watching the world go gray as I landed on my ass. A hoof went right up to my chest as I felt my heart starting to pound against it.
My head snapped up to Spear head, who was in the process of looking back at what I'd just screamed at. He was reared up on his hindlegs like you'd do with a regular horse on earth, and what he was facing. Was something out of fucking nightmares. Or at least, something you'd find inside of Tim Burtons nightmares.
I quickly jumped up onto my feet and looked at what was currently lunging clearly right at me, it was what looked like a regular changeling, sure. The front half of it was a normal changeling, despite the extra eyes and bug like mandibles that extended from the base of its jaws, and the rest of its body was what I could only describe as an unholy amount of thin-centipede like legs connected to an even longer and thicker centipede-like body. It's mouth was outstretched and its long snake like tongue was on display.
What I could see at the moment was definitely not all of it. I could only see a few feet of the centipede part of its body, and from what I know about centipedes, which was very little, I knew that they were very fucking long and creepy.
That's exactly what this hybrid mutant like thing was. Absolutely fucking creepy, and I was having none of it.
The door loudly slammed closed and the guards outside worked on getting the locks back into place. Neither them or the two who were just inside of the prison cell were aware of the two bright red eyes appearing from a corner of the room that was shrouded in darkness. The eyes moved forwards and from the darkness a very bizarre looking changelings face was visible, before it pushed the rest of its body downwards and dropped onto the floor. Revealing itself to be rather distinctly different from a normal changeling, the front half of the changelings body was normal, but as it moved forwards, it's limbs were instead that of an arachnids. All eight of the silently gliding them across the cell until they came to stop in front of the cell, where Chrysalis stood facing away from them, before her ears suddenly perked up and her head snapped around, fangs bared as her eyes fell on the spider like changeling.
She let out a hiss that led into a click. Tilting her head as she looked at them. Who reciprocated with a few clicks of their own. Which then caused Chrysalis to narrow her eyes and widen her frothing mouth into an animalistic grin.
To be continued.