//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13: Changelings 
// Story: Dean's New Life 
// by Moon_Skritch 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 13
Changelings
_______________________________________________________________________________


I hear voices and I feel a presence at my side, I open my eyes to find a pink pony next to me, though she looks different, her hair is straight instead of being poofy. I look around and see the others. “Pinkie...” I manage to say.

“Dean!? She yells causing everypony including me to jump a bit. “You're alive!” She picks me up and hugs me tightly, I put my hooves around her and hug her, she then sets me down and gives me a deep kiss. This is the real Pinkie, and she loves me still. So glad the letter was fake.

I pull away from Pinkie and look to see the others, everypony looks beat up a bit. “What happened?” I ask them.

“Chrysalis sent her changelings in the middle of the night and captured us, I don't know what she is up to. I thought we got rid of her before my brothers wedding.” Twilight says. “I am glad you got my letter. I hope the ones she left didn't upset you.”

I look down at the ground and sigh, “I didn't believe the one she left for me at Pinkie's at first, but then I saw the bangle... I then believed it.” Pinkie taps me from behind and says, “You mean this one?” She holds up her hoof, bangle still around it. “The one she left you was a fake.” she says. I notice my pack is still on me, amazingly after all that fighting and stuff. I reach in there and grab the fake bangle, I look more closely at it and notice that it's not even gold, It's painted.

I throw the fake bangle down and kick it, it goes through the bars and smacks one of the changeling guards in the head. We all laugh at the changeling, it glares at us and says something in the strange language they speak. “What is that language they speak?” I ask Twilight, she should know. “I have no idea what language it is, but it sounds like Norack, an ancient language that isn't spoken or even known about anymore, I read about it in one of my books recently.” Twilight says, she is such a bookworm.

“So what do we do now?” I ask, everypony shrugs. We all sit there on the slimy floor waiting for whatever will happen to us, what does Chrysalis want with us? changeling guards walk up, open the door and come in. One says something and the others go over to five of the girls and grabs them, another group comes up and grabs Pinkie, Alex, Spike and I run up to stop them but we are stopped by other guards, who appeared out of nowhere, they stand in front of us as they take the others away. Spike yells out “Don't you dare hurt them!”

The guards take them away and the other changelings leave with a creepy smile, we rush up to the door and try to open it, it's too late, it's locked already. The changelings laugh at us through the bars, my face changes to pure anger, I walk up to the bars and say “You lay a single hoof on them and I will end you.” The changelings laugh again and walk away, speaking in their language.

It's quiet, too quiet, “What do we do guys. We need to help them!” Spike says, Alex walks over to the door in anger and kicks the door hard, It rattles a bit, “If I get my hands on one of those changelings I will beat the living shit out of it! No one, I mean No one, Hurts Rainbow and gets away with it!” He yells and kicks the door again, I hear a small crack sound.

“Alex!” I say looking at the door, “What Dean can't you see I am pissed off right now?” He says kicking the door again, more crack sounds resonate from it. “Keep kicking the door, in fact here I will help!” I say, walking up next to him. He looks at me confused, he must not hear the sounds of the door. “Come on Alex kick! Its about to break!” I say, we both kick the door and a loud crunch sound comes from the door. We kick a few more times and the door eventually falls over, making a loud clang as it smacks against the slimy cobblestone floor. I hear the voices of the guards coming to inspect on the sound, we walk out of the small prison and take off down the hallway.

I hear a loud screech and I look behind me and I see about a dozen changelings charging after us, I look over at Alex and Spike, and say  “Lets waste these assholes.” They nod and we stop, the changelings look at us and growl. 

I stomp my hoof and then charge at them, followed by Alex, rage in my eyes I tackle the first changeling I see, punching it in the face, Alex grabs one of the changelings and picks it up and slams it into another one, our adrenaline is pumping, Spike says “I'll go look for the others!” and he runs off. One of the changelings goes after him and I tackle it.

I punch the last changeling, knocking it out as Alex kicks one into a wall. “We need to go find them!” I yell, we take off down the corridor, we go through a lot of hallways and then finally arrive at large doors. Alex and I kick the doors open and we see them, on the ground, with a green haze around them, I look up and see Chrysalis' horn glowing green, I run over to Pinkie as quick as I can and try to pick her up, I get thrown backward by some magical force. “Pinkie!” I yell, and then the green aura around the six disappears, they stand up with a smile on their face, but it's not a happy smile, it's an evil smile.

Eyes glowing green, evil smiles, they walk toward us, the six, and Chrysalis flies over and stands behind them, “You fools, you're too late, they are already under my control, there is nothing you can do now.” Chrysalis says, “Why not give up and join me!” she laughs.

“I would never join you, you bitch.” I say. She laughs and says, “You have no choice.” her horn glows a bright green and I feel an overwhelming magical force try to take my mind over. Everything then goes dark.

It's dark, everywhere I look, I walk around in the darkness and I can hear voices, but they are inaudible, I then see the six walk out of the darkness, who just stand there blank faced, I run after them and they disappear into thin air, all except Pinkie, “You're love for her is great, and that is what I need.” I hear Chrysalis' voice speak, I turn around and see nothing behind me. “Why do you do this! I just want to go back home!” I say, she laughs at me, “I do this because I have to, to survive.” She says, I look back at the Pinkie who is still standing there, but she is fading. I run up to her, “No, don't go Pinkie, please.” I say as I try to reach out and touch her but my hoof just phases through, she then disappears, “Pinkie...no...” I cry, a tear falls from my cheek.

I lay there, thinking, what can I do, how do I get back to the real world, how do I help them? I then hear a familiar voice, “Follow me.” I look up and see the human me standing there, holding his hand out to help me up, I hold out my hoof and he grabs it and pulls me up and says “I can help you.” 

I follow him to a strange white floating orb that has pictures flowing through it, he picks it up and hands it to me, I feel a surge of energy flow through me.

I am in the throne room standing next to Chrysalis, I don't think she noticed I have broken her spell, I look over and see the others standing there with their glowing green eyes and blank faces, I don't know how I did it but I am out of that trance, I then hear Chrysalis speak, “Dean! Do your queen a favor and go bring me the prisoner!” I do as I am ordered, so she still thinks I am under her power, I walk toward the east door, I then see Pinkie Pie in the corner of my eye, I glance over and see her blank face and glowing green eyes, I will fix this Pinkie I will fix all of this.

I walk through the door and down the hall, thank goodness none of the changelings in the hall notice that my eyes aren't glowing anymore, I walk to the dungeon and look in the first cell, and I see a baby dragon laying there on the ground, crying. I look around to see if any changelings are around, I don't see any.

“What do you want fake Dean? Did Chrysalis send you here to torture me?” Spike says, I grab the keys that are hanging on the wall and open the door, and I walk in, trying to keep a straight face. I blink my eyes and then I say “Spike, I am busting you out of here.” He looks at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears and says, “What?” I smile and say, “Well don't you want to help the others?”

He smiles big and says “How did you break her spell?” I shrug and say “Come on, We need to go finish this, I am going to keep the look as if I am still under her spell and you follow me back to the throne room, so that none of the changelings suspect anything.” 

He nods and asks “Then what do we do?” I shrug and say “I don't know yet, but I will figure something out. Okay ready? Just follow me, don't talk, and look like you're sad also, so the changelings don't suspect.” We walk out and I put on the blank face look, it's rather hard to do.

We walk down the corridor, the changelings don't pay us much mind at all, they really don't notice anything. We get up to the door and I open it, staying silent, I walk up to the changeling queen, bow, and walk back to her side, once I get out of her vision, I relax my face.

Chrysalis starts to say something to Spike about Twilight, I don't pay attention, because I can hear this strange humming noise behind me. I turn around, I don't know I missed it, but there is a humongous green jewel behind the throne, it looks to be about six feet tall. I walk behind the throne, hoping Chrysalis doesn't notice and I get a closer look at it, as I get closer the humming becomes louder, I look down at the base and see strange characters, it's probably the changeling language.

Then it hits me, this must be the source of power for the changelings to survive, I wonder how protected it is. I will probably need Alex's help to destroy it, but how will I break Alex out of his trance?

I walk back up next to chrysalis and I look over to my right and see Alex staring off into space still, I look down at the ground and see a small rock, maybe if I hit him with the rock it will knock him out of the trance. I only have one chance at this.

Chrysalis gets up from her throne and walks over to Spike, still talking about something I don't pay attention to, I move my hoof over and kick the rock as hard as I can, it whizzes through Alex's mane, Crap I missed, I look around for another rock, and I don't see one. I sigh and I look around for anything I can use to wake him up, I feel something hit me from above, I hear a clack sound as a rock hits the ground next to me, where did that come from? I look up and see that the ceiling is really old and tattered, it's made of stone.

I pick up the rock, and fling it again, hitting Alex in the side of his head, “Ow.” He exclaims, and shakes his head, the glow from his eyes go away, he looks around frantically then looks at me, I hold up a hoof telling to be quiet and act normal. I look back down to where Chrysalis is talking to Spike, who is now crying about something, its time to move, now.

I quietly walk over to Alex and whisper very quietly, “We need to destroy this gemstone behind us, it's what gives this place power.” He nods and we slowly walk over to the tall green gemstone, I say quietly “On three we kick.”

We get into position and I start counting, “one...two...THREE!” We kick it as hard as we can knocking it over, it falls onto the ground and it shatters. “No! What have you done!” Chrysalis screams as the place starts to crumble around us. I look down at the six mares, they are still in a trance, I thought that would break them out of it.

“We need to break them out of their trance!” I say through the sounds of crumbling rock. We run down there and I reach Twilight first, I give her a little shake and yell “Twilight Snap out of it we need to get out of here!” She blinks her eyes and asks “What happened?” I shake my head and say “Don't worry about that now, wake the others up! We need to get out of here!”

Alex runs over to Rainbow and kisses her which breaks her out of her trance immediately. Twilight goes over to Rarity and shakes her awake, who then wakes up Applejack, who wakes up Fluttershy. I run over to Pinkie who stares at nothing, I put my hooves around her and give her a deep kiss, she blinks her eyes, the green glow fading, “Dean? What's going on?” She asks me. “Don't worry about that now, we need to get out of here before this place falls apart on us!” I say.

The ceiling begins to fall apart large rocks landing everywhere around us, we all start to head out the front door and Chrysalis lands in front of it with the most pissed off look on her face. “Now where do you think you ponies are going?” She says in an angry voice. “You may have destroyed my castle, but I am still here and you are not going to get out of here alive!”

We all charge her at once, her eyes widen and she flies up. We bust through the door, Spike runs and jumps on Twilight's back as we head out the door, “Changelings after them!” She yell and then the whole castle crumbles and falls down on top of them.

I stop and turn around, for some reason I get this feeling that if we leave her there she will die, and I don't want any death's on my conscience. I run back and I hear from behind me, “Dean, what are you doing! We have to go!” I ignore the calls behind me and I run back up to where the front door was.

I see a hoof poking out of the rubble, with holes in it, must be Chrysalis. I move the rocks that are covering her, I hear trotting behind me, I turn around and see the others standing there. “Help me, I don't want her to die.” I say, and turn around move more rocks off of her, we don't have much time, I try to pick one rock off of her but it's too heavy, I use all the force I have and it doesn't budge,

I notice another pair of hooves appear beside me lifting, I look up and it's Alex, I smile a bit and lift also, the rock slowly rises and we move it aside, we see a bruised changeling queen lying there, still alive, but really beat up.

She groans in pain and says “Wh-What are you doing here?”, I look down at her and hold out a hoof, “Here to make sure you don't die, come on we will take you to Celestia.” I say, She sighs a bit and says “Okay, that seems much better.” I smile and look at the others, they smile too. We help her up and she says “I think I can manage to walk a bit.” she smiles a bit, she starts to walk but almost falls down, her leg is hurt. How will we get her to Canterlot?

We slowly take her through the forest, the pain searing through her body, “I think I know a spell that might heal you. Twilight says, her horn glows and it fixes up the bruises on Chrysalis and heals her leg a little. “Th-Thank You.” The changeling queen says with a smile.

“Twilight isn't there a spell that can teleport us all to Canterlot?” I ask, her face lightens up and says “Oh yeah, I forgot about that one.” Her horn glows again and we are whisked to the front gates of Canterlot, scaring the front guards.

The guards then freak out at the sight of Chrysalis, they crowd around us and Twilight steps up and says “We need to see the Princess, actually she does, and it's nothing bad.” I look up at the castle and see Celestia fly from her tower down to us, she lands in front of us and says, “Hello, Twilight, my faithful student.” She looks at Chrysalis, “Why have you brought her here?”

“To ask for friendship, I have experienced true kindness tonight, by Dean and Alex, if they didn't help me I would have died. I am an enemy no longer. I wish to be friends.” Chrysalis states. Celestia squints her eyes, not believing her. “Princess, if she came here to attack she would have an army of changelings with her; she wouldn't be beat up looking, and she would have attacked already.” Alex says.

Celestia looks down at Alex, “How are you sure that her army isn't hiding somewhere, waiting, and what if she tries to use her magic on us.” she says. Chrysalis sighs and says, “Most of my army has disappeared and Dean and Alex destroyed my gem which contained my power, so I am nothing right now.”

“Very well, but there is still need for punishment for your acts in the past.” Celestia states. “You're punishment is...” Celestia pauses for a second, “...to aid  Twilight and her friends with whatever they need, and if you act up, you will be banished from Equestria, forever.” 

Chrysalis smiles, and says “I will accept my punishment, and aid them in any way I can.” Just then the color fades on Chrysalis's body and her eyes morph to that of a normal ponies eyes, her whole body changes. We all stare at her and she says “What's wrong?” she lifts up her hoof and her eyes widen, “The shell is broken, all I needed was somepony to be kind to me, and for me to be kind back.” Her voice has changed back to a normal sounding mare's voice.

The new Chrysalis' coat is a light gray and her eyes are green still, but not evil looking, her mane is now red, straightened out, her tail is red and long, she also has a horn and wings, still the same height she was. “Thank you so much everypony! I have wanted out of that shell for a long time.” Chrysalis says, now I'm not so sure if that's her real name now. “Red Velvet?” Celestia says. “I remember you, from a long time ago, you were that one pony who was always alone, nopony ever talked to you.” 

Red Velvet looks up and says “Now I remember why I became a changeling, my heart was filled with so much anger and loneliness, I decided to create my own friends and I changed. Now that it is gone, I can be happy again.”

We hear a voice come from behind Celestia. “Velvet?” A stallion peers his head around and Red's eyes widen and she smiles, “Mantalist?! She runs past Celestia and hugs the strange stallion who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She says farewell and walks off with Mantalist.

We stand there for a moment, pondering of what to do next, I guess we go home and go to bed, it is late, and we have had a trying couple of days. We say goodbye to the Princess and we head to the train station, we don't want Twilight to wear herself out using her magic all the time. We buy our tickets and hop on the train, I sit down next to a window, Pinkie sits next to me and grabs my hoof and says “This has been a crazy day hasn't it Dean?” I nod and smile sleepily, I am so tired right now. Pinkie cuddles up to me and closes her eyes, I close my eyes and fall asleep almost instantly.

The train stops and we get off, say good night to each other, and head home, Pinkie and I walk back to Sugarcube Corner, we open the door and go in, we close the door behind us and climb upstairs and go into her room, we get into bed, just as I lay down Pinkie cuddles up against me. “I love you Pinkie.” I say to her, giving her a small kiss on the lips, she smiles and says “I love you too Dean, Good night.” She hugs me,  “Good night.” I hug her back and fall asleep.