Chapter 11
Riot
In a flash of purple light, seven ponies appeared outside the entrance to the Crystal Caverns. The statue of the Alicorn of Justice lay in a pile of rubble while several guards tried to dig their way through. They were having difficulty as is, and the driving rain wasn’t helping. Twilight stumbled briefly, feeling completely drained from the massive teleport.
“Captain!” A guard saluted Shining Armor. “Thank Celestia you are here, there was a cave-in. We have no idea how it happened.”
“I have an idea,” Shining Armor grumbled. “Is Cadence trapped down there?”
“Yes sir, but we have no way of knowing if she is alright, or what else is going on inside.”
“Psst! Twilight, can’t you just teleport in?” Rainbow Dash whispered.
“No, the Crystal Caves interrupt teleportation magic. Even if the trip from Ponyville hadn’t exhausted me…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She just let it drop. “I was hoping they hadn’t had time to prepare anything this elaborate.”
“So, we’re stuck outside?” Rarity asked, then gave her friend a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”
Shining Armor’s horn flashed, and with awe-inspiring power, he erected a massive shield around the prison and the immediate area. The lavender mare took a deep breath. Without the rain distracting her, she could collect her thoughts a lot better. Even if her magic was weak for the moment, she could still use her brain. She smiled confidently and started giving her friends their instructions.
“Rainbow Dash, Rarity. You two get to the palace and alert the princesses to what’s happening.”
“On it!” The cyan pegasus jetted off skyward.
“Certainly.”
“Applejack, Pinkie Pie. See what you can do about helping them move the rocks.”
“Gotcha.”
“Okie DokeyLokey!”
“Fluttershy?” Twilight said turning to her timid friend.
“Umm…yes, Twilight?” The yellow pegasus asked, trying to be brave in the face of more changelings. She was still flinching at the sound of thunder, though.
“I need you to see if you can get several of your animal friends to get us a look inside,” she smiled calmly.
“Oh, okay, I’ll see what I can do.”
The changelings had finally cracked the shield that surrounded Ancro. At first, he had a desire to help, but then realized he didn’t know their motives, and since coming to Equestria he had learned just how little he did know. Reading being the most recent that came to mind. They had stopped and lowered themselves into a position he had learned to take in order to get the most energy to flow to his horn. What happened next was something that hadn’t occurred to him.
Ancro had assumed he had seen all the attacks that changelings could perform in their brief appearance in the show. It had not occurred to them that he could transform to augment certain aspects. Like, for instance, get a second horn in order to throw more power into a spell.
The fireballs started to form in between their horns and shone like miniature green suns. He could feel the pressure building, and could taste the emotion they poured into the fireballs. Finally, when they reached the size of the changelings’ heads, they fired at the crack in the shield and shattering it in a violent explosion that rocked the cave. For a terrifying moment, Ancro believed the crystals would fall and impale him.
“Thank you for helping, I guess,” Ancro said, collecting himself. “I’d offer you a drink but unfortunately I don’t really have anything.”
“Una, second-in-command of the fourth decana of her majesty, Chrysalis’s praetorian guard,” she said, in such a painfully plain and bland tone that it nearly made Ancro wince.
“That’s nice,” he said, secretly hating all the latin in her speech. “How can I help you?”
“You are coming with us, her majesty queen Chrysalis has demanded you be brought to her.”
“What if I’m not in an oblig-“ There was a crackle in the air, and he could feel the magic in their horns charge up. He didn’t like the idea of surrender, not at all. In fact, it made his stomach flip as an inner image of himself screamed ‘no’ in his ear. Survival was something he was fond of, and patience was another thing. He’d wait for his chance to escape. “Which way are we heading?”
“This way,”Una said, leading him out of the cell and past the charred remains of the three guards who never saw the sneak attack coming. Ancro was surrounded. He couldn’t tell if it was to protect him or to keep him from running off. He assumed both.
The changelings trotted down the hall at a relatively brisk pace that was giving Ancro some trouble keeping up. He didn’t think his cardio would’ve suffered that badly from his time in that small bubble. “Guess I should’ve waited thirty minutes after eating,” he groaned.
The other three changelings came to a stop that Ancro hadn’t noticed, and nearly ran face first into Una. She promptly slapped him, hard.
“We are in a hurry, and I have neither the mood nor the time deal with your ‘humor’,” She said, smacking him as Ancro opened his mouth to talk. “If you endanger the changelings on this mission, I will be sure that Chrysalis receives you in a box, with a tiny bow wrapped around it, are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Ancro said with a salute. Typically, he would’ve pushed her, but she gave off the vibes of someone who would really enjoy torturing anything too much.
They rounded another corner, and Ancro suddenly became aware of a powerful presence heading towards him. It took him a second to recognize it as Cadence, through the panic she was letting off.
Shift and Specs ran through the prison, not believing how lucky they had been to get the assignment that led to them going right where they needed to go. They had their plan worked out down to the last second. They had calculated how long it would take for the parasprites to burst out of the ventilation system and flood the prison, causing chaos and disarray. While several inmates breaking out had led to similar results, it was a lot more violent than what they wanted. They had already seen too much violence their entire lives, the life of a changeling is anything but peaceful. They were outcasts in that they weren’t as violent with the ponies they replaced, or they just showed up as two entirely different ponies that hadn’t been seen before. Sure, the work for food was harder, but no one got hurt. Of course the majority of the changelings didn’t seem to care, and in fact relished their sadism as part of their heritage and their lives.
“Specs, you feel that?” Shift asked as they neared the checkpoint for maximum security.
“Yeah bro, I feel that,” Specs replied hesitantly, but containing her fear for her brother’s sake.
The duo stopped short of the guard post and saw the five ponies and alicorn through the reflection on one of the many crystals that provided the light in the caves.
“What’s going on? There was a cave-in? Somepony could be hurt?” Cadence asked the guards at the post for the umpteenth time. “I could be of help.”
“Sorry ma’am,” The guard replied, “but until we have deemed the situation under control we cannot allow you to pass.”
“How do you know if it’s under control?” Firecracker said, letting the agitation show in her voice.
“Somepony will come by and give us the all clear sign,” he replied, patiently flipping the page in a magazine.
“Are you supposed to do that on duty?” Firecracker asked the unusually lax guard. The changeling was losing his patience with this pony. Weren’t guards supposed to blindly follow orders and not ask questions? He looked behind them and smiled wickedly as his disguised dropped.
There was a split second of fear on Firecracker’s face, but it was quickly replaced with anger as she bucked the changeling in the face and sent him soaring through the guard post. Hoplon was immediately on the other two guards and had wrestled them into a headlock.
“Princess, run, we can take care of them!” He exclaimed as one of them broke free and charged its horn for an attack, but he still had a hold on into a shield.
“B-but,” Cadence stammered.
“Don’t worry your majesty; we are more than able to take care of this scum,” Firecracker retorted, popping her neck.
Cadence just nodded and ran back to fetch the ponies who were guarding Ancro.
“Now, that wasn’t very nice,” the changeling who had been knocked through the small shack said, rising up from the rubble, all of his injuries healing. “You let our prey get away.”
“You’re going to want to stay down,” Firecracker said, spreading her wings, “or we’ll see just how fast you can heal.”
“I find that highly unlikely,” he retorted, a green flame enveloping his body. “You see, we are not like the ordinary rank and file from the invasion that you are so familiar with.”
“Yeah, so you’re just a bigger bug,” she said, quickly glancing at Hoplon who had been forced to let go of the changeling as it was consumed in magical fire.
“There’s a bit more to it than that, little pony.” The changeling chuckled as a flame engulfed him. When the smoke had cleared, he was taller, leaner, and a second horn had grown atop his head. Where before, his forelegs were two-holed hooves, there were now three claws as long as his fangs had been before the transformation. Now, the fangs were as long as a unicorn’s horn. “We are the Praetorians, picked by Chrysalis herself.”
“I know what you’re thinking, Shift, and the answer is no,” Specs said, as she tasted the air around her little brother. “They are Praetorians. We can’t even get close to touching them.”
“I know.”
“I do agree, she is cute,”she said, citing the only reason her brother would risk his life for a pony.
Hoplon was suddenly and violently introduced to the stone wall behind him as the two changelings proceeded to beat the tar out of him with ease. Hoplon couldn’t remember the last time he had taken such a pounding. Even Iron Will didn’t hit that hard. His special talent was that he didn’t give up no matter how bad it hurt; he earned it when his best friend was being picked on and made them go after him instead.
Firecracker was trying to do something… anything… to get away from the beating and do some damage, but she was fast. He was faster, and it didn’t take long until she was coughing on the ground with both her wings broken. Standing over her, she caught a good glimpse of the changeling and it wasn’t like any creature she ever imagined could exist. It was the length of a griffin, but a lot sleeker in stature. On its fore legs where holed hooves had been, now there was a three-clawed hand, the rear legs resembled something similar to a cat, except the claws were larger by a terrifying margin. Its wings had become larger also, and an extra set had grown folding down the back with the other pair. A hard carapace covered the body. The head was also different, being more angular in shape with teeth as long as a unicorn’s horn. Another horn also adorned his head.
The changeling put his claw on her head and squeezed, while pressing down with what felt like his entire weight. The air between the horns started to crackle as a fireball formed between them and a sadistic, twisted smile formed on his face as he drank in Firecrackers hopelessness. There was a flash.
“This is your fault!” Cadence yelled at Ancro as she tried to attack him through the green gunk the changeling’s had encased her in. They finally got her head covered, a most difficult task.
“Don’t look at me,”Ancro defended, “I only found about this plan five minutes ago.”
Cadence was about to make a retort, but they covered the entire cocoon in another layer of gunk, denying her the clear bit that Chrysalis had left for Celestia during the attack.
They got further down the hall and Ancro heard the sounds of a struggle. Thanks to his changeling senses, he knew it was a very one-sided fight. He felt the energy spike from a seriously charged attack, like several times more powerful than anything he could’ve mustered.
“Damn him and his love of overkill,” one of the changelings chuckled.
A blast came from down the hallway, and a changeling mid-transformation from something mean looking went flying down the hall, until it skidded to a halt along the ground. Two more blasts followed, and a pair of exhausted changelings walked through the haze and developed the deepest look of ‘you have got to be kidding me’.
Una gestured with her head, and the other two took off after the two new changelings, leaving Ancro standing there wondering what the hell was going on. He didn’t stand there for long and quickly took his chance, trying to come up with a one-liner before deciding to keep it simple.
“Excuse me, Una?” Ancro said, tapping her on the shoulder.
“What do you wa-” She was cut off by a point blank blast from Ancro’s horn that knocked her back into the other three changelings who were just starting to get up. He caught Cadence with his magic before she could hit the ground and bolted off, silently feeling guilty for having hit a woman.
“What in the name of Tartarus is wrong with you!” Specs yelled to her brother as they bolted down the hallway, trying desperately to dodge the blast that came from the Praetorians. “You are aware you’ll probably never meet her right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he yelled back, his ears folded back and showing his depression. “Still, she was cute.”
“Shut up and run, you idiot,” Specs yelled as a fireball sailed over her, nearly singeing the membrane that adorned her head.
“Hey, Stigandr,” Scott said, as they snuck through the prisoner-occupied part of the prison. Graffiti decorated the walls, apparently recognizing this as that prison gang’s turf.
“Yeah, Scott?” The unicorn whispered.
“What do ponies go to jail for?”
Stigandr was about to say something along the lines of just how stupid that question was, then he realized it was in fact a really good question. Although, not one he would like to say he wanted answered.
“I really don’t know,” he finally replied after a long silence.
“Well, I guess you two bitches are ‘bout to find out,” a wicked voice said from behind them. They turned and saw four rough-looking ponies smiling wickedly at them. The one who had spoken had several tear drops tattooed to his face. Stigandr stood in a confident fighting position. Scott showed his talons, ready for the fight.
Twilight’s brother was standing over a map in a tent somepony had set up for him. Absorbed entirely by the layout, occasionally he’d move a guard figurine around then put it back. Twilight wasn’t familiar with these kinds of maps, nor was she familiar with the tactics her brother was likely incorporating. She did, however, know what a big red circle meant on the map.
“Anything I can do to help?” She asked her brother.
“Not unless you can go back in time and warn me of this.”
“No, I’ve tried that before, it doesn’t work that well,” she said with a comforting smile.
“Damn.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said, putting her hoof on her brother’s shoulder. “Cadence is the best foal sitter in Equestria. She can handle a changeling and his two accomplices.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He sighed, “still… I’m worried it may not be just him.”
“Um…Twilight?”Fluttershy said quietly from behind them.
Twilight and Shining armor turned and noticed a small bat hanging from her mane.
“Yes, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, coaxing her friend along. “Who’s your friend?”
“This, this is Bruce,” she said quietly.
“Does Bruce know what’s going on in the caves?”
“Bruce says it’s really, really bad in there.” The blood drained from Shining Armor’s face. “He says some of the ponies that are locked up are now running around and there is fighting everywhere and some scary black bug ponies, and a lot of things in the vents, and it’s just really bad.”
Twilight turned to comfort her brother, but found he was already barking orders about garrisons and reinforcements and calling ponies in who were off duty on vacation.
“Captain, we’re through,” a guard shouted as the rain had started to let up a little. A sign that Rainbow Dash was making headway, Twilight hoped.
“Twilight, you stay here and supervise the operation from above,” Shining Armor said, fastening his helmet. “We’ll make sure everything is settled down below.”
“Twahlight!” Applejack shouted, running through the slackening rain.
“Applejack, what’s wrong?”
“Please tell me y’all have seen Pinkie?” Applejack asked, running up to them.
“No wasn’t she with you clearing…out the…cave?” They facehoof, and called Shining Armor over to inform him of a new situation.
“That’s one so far, Stigs,” Scott chuckled, while shaking his wrist after knocking out one of the inmates. He turned to look back at his friend, “how many do you…have?”
“Three,” Stigandr said, not showing the first sign of fatigue as he casually trotted off towards what he hoped was maximum security. “Who knows, maybe if we can’t find a way back, we can get a job with the guard.”
“No,” Scott said blankly.
“What do you mean “no”?”
“Just no,” Scott said, rubbing his talons through his feathered head.
“Why?”
“Because, I have full and complete faith that we are going to be finding that book with the way home fairly soo-...” Scott said, trying to stay calm as the thought of being stuck in Equestria until the day he died entered his mind.
“Out of my way!” A black bug-like pony shouted as it buzzed down the hallway. Scott didn’t think he had just performed a flying tackle-hug, on what he assumed was one of his best friends, who they had just found.
“Ancro, it’s you bud!” He squealed, squeezing the changeling tightly. “C’mon, we gotta get out of here before any more crazy stuff happens.”
“Hey Sco-“ Stigandr tried to say, as the bug-like creature struggled in his grasp.
“Dude man, how ya been! It’s been weird without ya,” he said, still squeezing the bug. “We met those six ponies you said we weren’t s’pposed to meet, but then…” His words fell silently out of his mouth like he was talking to someone who wasn’t in the loop.
“Scott, that’s not Ancro.” Stigandr said, and Scott let go of the bug. It fell to the ground, gasping for air.
“Well that’s disappointing, what do you recommend we do with it?”
“Run!” He said, jumping up and trying to dart off, but was just floating there in Stigandr’s magic.
“Run from what?” Stigandr said in serious tone, he was not one to be threatened.
“I believe he means me,” said the voice of a changeling that appeared from the shadows in the hallway, he buzzed his wings in anticipation as he looked at the unicorn and griffin.
“Ancro?” Scott asked hopefully.
“No Scott, that’s not Ancro,” Stigandr said through the hoof on his face.
“You two are not changelings?” He said, more with curiosity than an actual question.
“Yeah…what of it?” Scott said, squaring himself up in case things went bad.
“My squad was given orders by her highness to bring her Ancro, and if possible, the other two changelings that assisted him,” he said plainly. “But you two are not changelings, and obviously not under any control that is within his abilities.”
“…and?” Scott said, rolling his eyes.
“Nothing, I just assumed the higher being wouldn’t interact with the weaker.” He said, shrugging. “Now get out of the way, so I can dispatch that deserter.” He charged his horn but seemed shocked when Stigandr stepped up blocking the shot. “Look, I know you’re just a pony, but even you should know that a cha-“
Stigandr used his magic to interrupt the changeling’s monologue and send him down the hallway. Scott moved to give him a pat on the back, but the unicorn kept the same serious, battle-ready expression. Ancro would take hits like that in stride and sometimes push through them. That ability to heal mid-fight was kind of annoying. Still, Stigandr’s special talent was adapt and overcome, and so far he had done just that. Stigandr alerted Scott to stay on his guard, and they progressed.
They came into a large open area of the prison, three floors of barred cells and a recreational area that had what looked like a fully stocked gym and several tables lain out in various states, the most common of which being practically ruined. As the duo reached the center of the room, a sudden crackling sounded, and without thinking Stigandr pushed Scott and himself out of the way of the fireball that came crashing down from the ceiling.
The changeling wasted no time talking as it pounced on them from its hiding spot on the ceiling. It took Scott a moment to collect himself after being pushed, and another moment to realize what was happening. It proved to be one moment too long, and the changeling punched him in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of the griffin. Before Scott could get air back in his lungs, he received a powerhouse haymaker to the side of the face, sending him crashing into a table. All this happened in less than two seconds. Stigandr charged his hooves and leapt at the changeling before it could recover from haymaker.
Ancro knew just how low on emotional energy he was. He was starting to get the first very painful system of burn out. Carting around the alicorn was doing anything but helping. He had already given up on using the minimal amount of energy needed for blocks. He decided that was better suited for running. Besides, with the blocks, he wouldn’t be able to tell that four extremely pissed-off changelings were getting closer. Finally, he came to the one thing he hoped they would’ve gotten rid of when they turned the caves into a prison: The damn mine carts, and the ancient wooden rails that they rode on.
Whimpering, he lowered Cadence’s squirming cocoon into the cart and hoped it would be followed quickly by himself, but that’s where he realized that his plan involved a tiny bit of luck.
“I’m going to break every bone in your body, and send you to Chrysalis in a box!” Una growled as her and her cohorts rounded the corner. “Now give me the cocoon.”
Ancro had a split second to think of a plan that would save Cadence, and maybe himself. ‘Oh well,’ he thought, a grin creeping across his face. ‘I always did have low self-worth.’ With the cockiest smile he could muster, he bucked the mine cart as hard as he could, and watched the rage in the changeling’s face reach terrifying levels. Ancro then stood in the best fighting stance he could maintain, prepared to receive the beating of his life. Time for denying the changelings their prize. As they started to close in, he tried to comfort himself that even a pyrrhic victory was still a victory.
(Big thanks to my editor/artist Sara for getting this done despite the sudden difficulties that come with having one’s laptop stolen. I hope she gets it back and the jerk who took it has many horrible awful things happen to him. Big thanks to my friends for being such great friends and inspiring the characters of the Triumvirate. Also since my editor’s laptop is stolen expect some level of delay between chapters I’m sorry for inconvenience. If you fav it like it and feel free to leave feedback and comments let me know how I did. Also like to thank Stigs for proofreading the story he says it was up to snuff, let me know.)