With all the commotion that was happening at Canterlot Castle, very few ponies paid much attention to the lone guardspony dashing down the streets of Canterlot. Royal guards patrolled the streets every day and in many places, and anypony who might have given it a second thought was distracted by the sudden appearance of a magenta containment spell going up over the castle proper.
As such, nopony saw the guard slip into the back door of the Metamorphosis spa and massage parlour and shut it behind himself.
Once the lock clicked into place, Queen Chrysalis let her disguise dissolve into green fire, revealing her true self. She wiped a few droplets of sweat off her face.
“Ponies. Easily deceived, as usual.”
It was then that Chrysalis realized she was not alone. All six of her sister’s infiltrators were standing in front of her, some looking more enthused than others at her appearance. What were their names again, Chrysalis wondered internally.
“So. You’re here, your majesty,” the infiltrator with the red mane said, somehow managing to make the royal title sound like an insult. “Where is the princess?”
“Salegg…” The white-maned changeling warned. Chrysalis remembered his name was Azal, one of her sister’s seconds in command. The other one was the mute, Nahara.
“What?” Salegg shot back at Azal. “I want to know where the princess is. I’m allowed to ask, am I not?” She returned her glare to Chrysalis. “So where is she?”
“My sister,” Chrysalis said at last. “Opted to stay back and draw the ponies away so I could make my escape.”
“You mean, she’s still in the castle?” Hafet asked, her expression uncharacteristically serious. “With all those guards?” She then snickered. “I pity the guards.”
“She’s going to have to fight her way out…” Mava muttered. “Then it is just as well we gave her our strength. I only hope that none of the princesses get involved.”
Azal stepped forward. “In the meantime, we must make arrangements to smuggle Queen Chrysalis out of the city. We may have to wait a few days, seeing as we have instructions on what to do should our princess not return in three days. I hope that doesn’t inconvenience you, your majesty?”
Queen Chrysalis snorted. “So I have to lay low for three days. I can do that. What do you take me for, a rank amateur?”
It took all of Salegg’s self control not to respond to that last question. Instead she simply gritted her teeth and walked away, hoping that her princess would be able to return safely.
“Aarggh!”
This shout came from a guardspony’s throat as Psithyra slammed the side of her weapon into his helmeted head. The changeling princess’s blade glowed green, a testament to the powerful stunning spell she was channeling through it. Around her lay twelve other guards, lying senseless on the ground from her attacks. So far she had been able to avoid drawing any blood; a simple touch from her twinblade was more than enough to defeat her gold-armored foes.
Around her, dozens more guards circled, unsure of what to do. They had already backed out of striking distance, keeping their spears away as the metal shafts would also conduct her stunning spell. Every few seconds, another guard would break off from the group and attempt a charge, only to be knocked out cold.
Psithyra knew she couldn’t keep this up. Sooner or later they would either bring in some heavy-duty casters or she would run out of energy. The stunning spell she was continually channeling was taxing on a changeling’s love reserves, and although she was still going strong she wouldn’t last forever.
She was still trapped inside the concert hall, with no windows and only one way in or out. She windmilled her weapon, forming a blazing circle of green that forced the guards back a few steps. Immediately following this she launched a volley of spells from her horn, striking three more guards and sending them falling to the ground. This was followed by a trio of spears thrown at her, but Psithyra deftly took to the air and avoided them, not even watching as they stabbed into the wall behind her.
“That's the best you’ve got?” Psithyra asked with a steely grimace.
As if in response, a bolt of freezing ice magic arced her way and she was barely able to deflect it with her blade. The unicorns had arrived.
Through the doors to the concert hall, about a dozen unicorn guards scrambled inside, struggling to stay in formation. They saw the guards lying on the floor around Psithyra and opened fire with all manner of magical attacks, including stunning spells.
I can’t let them get in so much as one hit on me.
Psithyra blocked an incoming spell and did a backward loop in the air to dodge another two. The brilliant bolts of magic just barely missed her body, striking the wall behind her with a pair of shuddering impacts.
More guards began pouring in and some of them rolled in huge wooden devices. Psithyra had never seen them before, but one fired its projectile at her, forcing her to dive to one side to avoid it as it unfolded and smacked against the back wall.
“Netcasters…” she breathed. They fired faster than she had expected them to. Enchanted with shock magic, wouldn’t you know it.
Another net flew at her and entangled Psithyra’s hoof, but thankfully because her armor was made of hardened chitin and not metal, the electric shock didn’t conduct to the rest of her body. She simply sliced the net off and bucked another guard in the face who probably thought he was going to get a sneak attack. The crunch of her armored hooves impacting his helmet made the other guardsponies back off a few steps as they watched their colleague get flung into the wall, cracking the plaster.
It was only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed, Psithyra thought grimly. As good as she was, numbers would overcome even her skill and power. And if it came to that, she might actually have to fight to kill. The changeling princess’s gaze grew even more steely. She did not want to give the ponies another reason to despise her kind, but her own life took priority over all others, perhaps save her elder sister’s.
That left Psithyra with only one option. She would have to make a break for it, and she had the perfect weapon for that purpose.
As the ponies closed in around her, Psithyra closed her eyes and channeled another spell through her horn. This was the most tricky part of the move, as she would have to focus on more than forty individual objects at once with her telekinesis. She hoped that the surrounding enemies would give her the three seconds she needed to pull this off.
All at once, the sets of knives that she had dipped in the love poison earlier that were attached to all four of her limbs lit up, rattling in their holders before launching out like a swarm of fireworks, each one leaving a glowing green light trail as they flew. The sudden blast made the ponies falter and stop in their tracks for a moment, and that was all Psithyra needed to guide each and every knife into an exposed part of a guard. They wouldn’t cut very deep, as the knives were only sharp at the tips, but that would be enough to inject them with a dose of the love poison. Psithyra had obtained the recipe after hearing about its effects in a faraway town called Ponyville and what it had done to the ponies who were afflicted with its effects.
Psithyra watched as the guards who had been hit looked at their injuries curiously, some of them pulling the knives out of the shallow puncture wounds and tossing them onto the floor.
Then she felt it.
A massive surge of love filled the room as the guardsponies’ eyes turned into pink hearts. There was instant chaos as many of the ponies grabbed and tackled at each other in a ferocious display of lust and affection. It was utter pandemonium as the ponies who were not afflicted tried to return them to order, barking instructions and trying to hold their colleagues apart.
As for Psithyra, she felt love energy fill her up, almost overflowing from the raw, unbridled emotions of forty ponies. She grinned and charged up her horn, shooting a powerful concussive spell into the mass of writhing bodies. The ponies were launched aside, leaving a clear path open out of the room.
So she ran. Psithyra darted past the armored bodies and leapt over a prone guard who she had knocked out earlier. A net flew her way, but Psithyra shot it out of the air with a flick of her horn. This was a temporary high, Psithyra realized, like eating sugar to try and stay away. The love poison provided love, but it was artificial and she could already feel her inner stores of energy depleting the further she got from the concert hall.
But it was still enough for her to make a clean getaway. Looking over her shoulder, Psithyra saw nopony following her. There was still the matter of the magic barrier around the castle, but the changeling princess was confident her weapon could cut her way through it to freedom. So long as she didn’t run into any more guards, the mission would be a complete success and she would be sipping cider with her fellow infiltrators back at the spa in no time.
However, all thoughts of cider disappeared as she went down the stairs to the ground floor. Around the corner came a group of guardsponies that were covered in different armor than the ones upstairs; it looked more streamlined and custom made. It took her a moment to recognize it; it was the same armor worn by the guards who had searched her spa a few days before. Eclipse Guards, trained personally by Captain Shining Armor himself.
“Ah, piss,” Psithyra swiftly took off at a full sprint in the opposite direction as the Eclipse Guards caught sight of her and gave chase.
“Halt! In the name of Princess Luna you are to stop right there, changeling scum!” a female voice rang out behind her, the accent foreign to Canterlot.
Psithyra didn’t have time to care about pony accents and kept going, not looking back once. Only a few seconds too late did she realize that not looking back might’ve been a mistake. Two sharp stabs of pain flared out around her flank and she buzzed her wings before taking to the air, looking back to see two knives sticking out of her skin, just under one plate of armor. Whomever had done that had very good aim. Almost too good.
Psithyra knew this part of the castle that she was running into. She was leaving a nice trail of green blood, thanks to the knives. No matter how fast she flew now, they could just follow the blood. She could always transform to heal the injuries, but Psithyra knew better than to do that. Better for them to think she was cornered, and she would need every ounce of strength for her next maneuver.
Psithyra slammed open a door, entering the empty room. She threw the door closed and barricaded it with all the furniture she could find. This was a last-ditch move to shake them off, but it would take nearly all her energy.
Psithyra closed her eyes and lit up her horn. Teleportation was an advanced magic, and normally it took her and all her infiltrators to do it in order to offset the energy usage, but there wasn’t much of a choice this time.
The changeling princess pictured the front gates of the castle, just inside the portcullis and drawbridge. She guessed that the magical barrier would be beyond that area, so she would simply cut a hole after teleporting there and losing her pursuers.
There was the banging of hooves on the door, and Psithyra struggled to maintain concentration for the spell. Around her, a green circle lit up like a ring of viridian flames. A bead of sweat ran down her face. Only a few seconds more…
A hoof burst through the wooden door, showering the floor with splinters.
“Step aside!” A voice said outside.
A blast of magic blew the door apart, and the guards closed in with their weapons just as Psithyra vanished in a flash of green light and a flare of fire that left a burning circle in the carpet.
Psithyra reappeared just outside the inner gatehouse for the entryway of Canterlot Castle. Just as she had predicted, the magenta magical bubble extended beyond this point. Brandishing her twinblade, she walked towards the exit. She was exhausted from the teleport, but at least it was all clear here. Once she was outside, all she would have to do was find some hapless civilian and drain them for love, then get back to the spa in disguise.
Just a few dozen more meters and she would be free.
“Stop!”
Psithyra’s teeth clenched. The shout had come from behind her. A light tan-colored royal guard stood there, sword drawn and wings flared.
“Oh, for the love of…” Psithyra groaned. She could barely hold on to her twinblade with her magic, and this pony wanted to challenge her?
“You’re under arrest, changeling!” The guard said, coming closer.
Psithyra didn’t have time for this. She simply shot a weak stunning spell at him that missed and turned around to run for the drawbridge. She might be tired, but her legs were longer and she was confident she could outrun him.
However, she heard and saw something alarming as she closed in on her destination. The portcullis was rattling as it came down, attempting to block her exfiltration. She turned her head to look back, and saw the guardspony inside the gatehouse. There must be a lever or switch to lower the portcullis in there.
With the last of her magical energy, Psithyra did the only thing she could: she took aim and launched her twinblade into the gears that were lowering the barrier. The weapon flew true, embedding themselves in the mechanism with a loud grinding sound. The portcullis ground to a halt, leaving about a foot and a half of space between the teeth and the floor.
With her muscles burning from the strain, Psithyra made a last desperate rush for freedom. She slid under the portcullis, and had just cleared it when a stunning spell hit her in the back of the head.
Psithyra rolled to a stop, landing in a crumpled heap as her legs gave out. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was the voice of Shining Armor.
“Good work slowing her down, Frigid Night. Now the rest of you, secure the changeling and take her down to the holding cells.”
Chrysalis… Psithyra thought as the waking world slipped away. I hope you’re safe.