//------------------------------//
// The Justice League of Equestria Vol. 1: Invasion: Issue #5: Unity 
// Story: MLDC: The Justice League of Equestria - Omnibus 1 
// by littleman001 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash made her way towards the castle as fast as she could. And with her super speed, that meant she was at the castle in the literal blink of an eye. Naturally the first place she assumed the princesses would be was the throne room, so that's where she started, but to her dismay, she only saw a few ponies in there among the colourful wedding decorations.

Twilight Sparkle, Jean Jeans, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were in the middle of the room, deep in conversation, while some guards have been gathering around them. Rainbow's super speed also extended to her awareness and observation skills and she quickly noticed how pointedly and intently the guards were staring at the four ponies in the center of the room.

Suddenly, all the guards' eyes widened as they all diverted their gazes away from the four ponies and just stared ahead of themselves. As if they were remote controlled machines that suddenly lost the signal moving them. It was pretty creepy. Rainbow's fear only grew when she saw that the guards' eyes suddenly lit up with green lights. The same green lights she saw around the creatures that tried to abduct her friends.

Twilight was in the middle of discussing further wedding preparations with the two organisers, when she suddenly noticed Pinkie Pie staring off into the distance with a surprised look.

"What's wrong, Pinkie?" She asked. Pinkie didn't say anything for a while, she slowly raised her hoof and pointed at something behind her.

"Is that... The Flash?" She wondered. The three other ponies turned to see that the scarlet speedster was indeed standing in the throne room and she looked quite alarmed. This in turn made them rather nervous too, with the exception of Pinkie Pie. "Do you think she's invited to the wedding too?" She asked enthusiastically. "Wouldn't that be awesome?!"

The pink mare never got an answer to that question, since before anypony could do anything, the hero moved with speed undetectable to the naked eye. She then came to a sudden halt right in front of them as the guards around the room all collapsed on the ground.

The three mares' jaws fell upon witnessing the Flash attacking Celestia's guards but strangely enough, the stallion remained unfazed. Their surprise only grew when the knocked out guards' bodies began to glow and they turned into pony shaped bugs. Twilight gasped when she recognised the creatures.

'Shapeshifters! That explains everything!' She thought, but she didn't get to form any more thoughts because the hero called out to them.

"Get out of here and hide somewhere! These are not ponies! The entire city is full of these shape-shifting bugs!"

Twilight's heart nearly stopped. The entire city? If this was the case, then things were far worse than she thought. The four ponies did exactly what Flash told them to and ran. When they exited the throne room, they split up and headed off into different directions, but none of them with the intention of hiding.

Pinkie Pie ran down the hallway and hid behind an empty suit of armor. She peeked out to see if anypony was around and when she was confident there wasn't, she closed her eyes and let out a yell.

"Shazam!"

CRACK!





Fluttershy reached the room she was residing in and locked the door to make sure nopony or any other creature would interrupt her. She ran to her bed and pulled out a green saddlebag which she placed on the bed before opening it and pulled out her power battery. She extended her right wing, revealing the green ring at the tip of her wing and pressing it against the battery's center.


"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight!
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power - Green Lantern's light!"






Twilight ran into her room and pulled out the walkie-talkie she used to connect Spike whenever they were separated. Her heart nearly stopped when she received no repaonse when she called out to her draconic assistant, only static noise. If what the Flash said was true, those shapeshifters were everywhere and Spike could have easily fallen victim to them. The very idea filled her with dread and rage.

She saw the computer on Spike's bed that he used to monitor her descent to the mine last night. This was one of the things she was never proud of, but in case Spike would ever get into serious trouble - which was a serious possibility at the side of a costumed vigilante, she installed a small tracker device into the dragon's body.

She dreaded to think about how badly the young drake would flip if he ever found out about this, but it turns out, it was the right move on her part. Now she had a way of locating him. The computer already had the program she needed to locate the tracker installed, she just needed to type in its numbers and click.

Her pupils shrunk. The signal was coming from the exact same location she and her fellow heroes located Princess Cadance last night. The creatures have dragged Spike off into their lair. Her fear quickly turned into anger. Those things had no idea who they just crossed. She would make them dearly regret taking Spike.

She put the computer away and pulled her suit out from under her bed and suited up faster than she possibly ever had before and gathered a fresh supply of gadgets before bursting out her room. To her surprise, she immediately ran into two of the creatures in front of her door.

"Not even bothering with the disguises anymore, are you?" She snarled. The creatures looked no less surprised when saw her already in her suit and ready to fight, but they quickly got over it and prepared to attack.

They leaped at her, but Batmare jumped back and shut her door. She heard the creatures slamming against it before opening it and running off inside the castle, not even bothering to check if the creatures were knocked out or not. After all, she knew there were several more where they came from.





"Can we take a break already?" Rarity asked with a yawn. Fighting criminals in the night along with her partner, the Green Arrow was one thing. At least that was exciting. But tailing the impostor Princess Cadance with him all day was most certainly not. "I haven't eaten all day." She complained, which was further confirmed by her rumbling stomach.

"Neither have I, love, but I cannot relax until I have something concrete to prove to my aunt that this Cadance is a fake and Canterlot is in grave danger." Blueblood reasoned. "But you may rest if you wish."

"No." Rarity shook her head. "I wouldn't have the heart to leave you to do all the work yourself. We're partners remember?" She winked, causing the prince to blush.

"I will never get tired of hearing that." He smiled. That mare was always able to melt him on the inside. But he couldn't allow himself to lose focus. He quickly turned his attention back to the creature impersonating his cousin.

She was currently walking down the hallway accompanies by two maids until all three of them came to a sudden halt, as they were frozen. This was already unnerving enough for the two ponies spying on them, but their nervousness turned to downright terror when they saw them slowly turn around and send a spine chilling glare their way.

"Um... I think we have been spotted." Rarity uttered nervously as they backed away when the three mares ahead of them began to advance on them. Blueblood instinctively got in front of Rarity protectively before the reality of the situation dawned upon him.

"Wait a minute! Why would the maids be playing along with her?" He wondered.

"Because they're the same as her!" Blueblood and Rarity both jumped when they heard the familiar voice come out of nowhere. They turned to look behind them but before they could, a black object flew between their heads and flew towards the impostor Cadance, hitting her in the face.

She fell back on the ground, much to the shock of the other ponies in the hallway. But Blueblood and Rarity's shock grew even bigger when the impostor turned back into its original form.

"What in the name of Aunt Tia?!" Blueblood exclaimed, but he got to make no further comment as a black and gray shape dashed past him and threw itself at the two maids. Despite its fast movements, they were able to identify her as Batmare as she uppercut one of the maids in the jaw, sending her up in the air before grabbing her hoof and pulling her down right on top of the other one, knocking them both out, turning them back to their changeling forms as well.

Batmare turned to see Blueblood and Rarity staring at her in wonder. She didn't know if they were stunned by the discovery of the changelings or seeing her in action, but at the moment, that didn't matter. Despite her reservations about alerting Princess Celestia of the situation, she saw no other solution at the moment. Surely even she wouldn't be ignorant of these creatures overrunning the palace.

"Find Princess Celestia and warn her!" She ordered the two ponies. "These shapeshifters have infiltrated the entire palace and possibly the entire city as well!" Their eyes widened. The entire city? In that case, three vigilantes wouldn't be enough to stop them. Blueblood turned to Rarity.

"You go and find my aunts! I'll go and alert the Royal Guard!" He was about to take off but Batmare stopped him.

"No! The Guard had been infiltrated too! I have seen many of them turning into these things! We're gonna have to do this on our own!"

"On our own?!" Rarity exclaimed. "No offense, darling, I know that you are a capable fighter but if these creatures are invading the city, I think this may be more than you can handle."

"None taken." Batmare replied drily. "But the Princess is all we need. And I'm not alone. There are others like me out there." Rarity and Blueblood gasped in realisation.

"Supermare!" They cried out as they recalled their rescue by the Mare of Steel last night. "I'm sure she will be able to fight off this infestation singlehoofedly!" Rarity added. "We need to find her!"

"No!" Batmare shook her head. "You need to warn the Princess of this attack immediately. I will find Supermare. And any others that may be out there." The two white unicorns raised an eyebrow in unison.

"You will find them?" Blueblood wondered. "How?" Batmare only stared back at them through her mask for a few seconds, but for some reason, they could make out a knowing gaze behind it.

"I know things, your higness." Was her only reply. If they got her implication, she didn't stick around to find out and ran off to find the ponies she knew could help with the current crisis. Finally, the meaning of what she said dawned over Rarity.

"Do you think she knows?" She asked nervously, making the stallion scoff.

"I wouldn't be surprised. But that doesn't matter right now. Come, we need to warn my aunt."





Despite the upcoming joyous occasion, Princess Celestia was not in the best of moods. First her second biggest mistake after her sister's banishment came back to haunt her in the shape of her former student returning to Canterlot to help with her brother's wedding preparations.

At first, she thought this could be a good opportunity for her to make amends with her for the loss she had inadvertently caused her all those years ago. But she had no way of talking to her since her arrival and the one time they did end up in the same room together, Twilight clearly had no interest in speaking with her. Strangely enough, she was pretty talkative with her sister.

Speaking of her sister, Luna became the second issue for her as she had turned secretive on her once more. It was obvious that there was something troubling the princess of the moon, but anytime Celestia asked about it, she would just wave off her concerns and say there isn't anything wrong.

Luna should have known that Celestia wouldn't buy this excuse. The last time she did, her sister turned into a power hungry monster that she had to banish to the moon for a millennium. She didn't want to go through that again, but she didn't know how else she should approach the subject.

And then there was the wedding. Much like all of the castle staff, Celestia also noticed her niece's drastic change in behaviour, but at first, she just shrugged it off as wedding stress. But after a few days, as it got increasingly worse, she had no choice but to confront her fellow princess.

The results were catastrophic. Celestia had never seen Cadance act the way she did during that confrontation before. She was everything the Princess of Love shouldn't have been: spiteful, petty, entitled and selfish. It was so bad that for a moment, Celestia could have sworn that the Nightmare was trying to affect her niece this time.

She was only prevented form unleashing her magic against the pink alicorn by the interruption of the groom, Shining Armor. The captain of the guard came to his bride's protection and the alicorn easily wrapped her around her hoof to save face in front of her aunt.

Speaking of her future in law, Captain Shining Armor provided the next issue she needed to worry about. The stallion barged into her office this morning and reported something alarming to her. According to him, several of his guard units failed to report to him that morning. What was even stranger, he found them all at their posts later and they didn't even acknowledge him. That alone was stange enough. But Celestia suddenly remembered that her own staff also failed to turn up that morning and she could have sworn she saw them around the castle earlier that day.

One would probably assume they also suffered from the wedding stress, especially due to Cadance's appalling behavior, but even during the height of the preparations during the previous days, they never forgot that before. It was almost like everypony around the castle forgot about their duties to them.

"How many units are we talking about exactly, Captain?" Celestia asked anxiously.

"About a quarter of them." Shining replied with equal unease in his voice. "It's like they're under some sort of spell. They just pace around the place almost mechanically. There's something strange going on around here, Princess. And right the day before a royal wedding? I don't like the implications." Celestia couldn't agree more.

"I believe this issue requires a thorough investigation, Captain." She told him. "I realise you may not approve, but I believe under such strange circumstances, perhaps it would be best to postpone the wedding." Shining sighed. He was hoping that could be avoided, but deep down, even he believed that would be the right call.

"Good luck, trying to convince Cadance of that though." He muttered. It was Celestia's turn to sigh. Her captain was right. That was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

The discussion was suddenly interrupted the room's door slamming open quite loudly. The two ponies inside jumped in surprise before turning to see Rarity and Blueblood standing at the door, panting heavily as if they just ran a Trotathon. Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"Nephew, it is quite unfitting for a royal pony to barge in like this. Especially on the Princess of Equestria. I believe you have a good reason for it."

"Aunt Tia..." Blueblood panted, struggling to catch his breath. "The castle..."

"...is full of shape-shifting pony bugs!" Rarity finished for him. Unsurprisingly, given her special ability, her lungs had a much higher capacity than the stallion's. "And possibly the entire city too!"

"Shape-shifting pony bugs?!" Shining Armor questioned incredulously. "What is this nonsense?!" Celestia however was more accepting of the possibility.

"Changelings. Shapeshifters that feed on other creatures' love." She explained to him, narrowing her eyes. "Have you seen them?" The two nodded.

"We saw them turn back!" Blueblood confirmed. "They impersonated the maids! And even Cady!"

"What?!" Shining exclaimed as he jumped up, his mind immediately overflowing with concern for his bride. "What happened to Cadance?!" Celestia put a hoof to her chin in thought.

"That would explain a lot." She concluded before turning to Shining. "Assemble the Guard immediately! Now that I know what I'm looking for, I will be able to detect any hidden Changelings among their rank easily!"

"No doubt you could." The four ponies in the room turned to see a squad of royal guards entering the room with menacing looks on their faces. "Too bad you won't get the chance." The front one spoke as he and his comrades all turned back to Changelings. Blueblood and Rarity backed away from them while Celestia and Shining stood up and went to confront the creatures.

"Your presence in my city is unwelcome, you monsters!" The princess spat. "Leave Canterlot and Equestria as a whole while you still can." But the Changelings were not intimidated in the least.

"I don't think so." The leader taunted as they used their magic to levitate the Celestia and Shining and throw them against the wall.. They then all opened their mouths and spat out a yellow substance towards the Princess and the Captain, pinning their hooves and their horn to the wall. The substance immediately solidified, sticking them to the wall. No matter how hard they struggled, they couldn't break free.

"Don't bother." The Changeling said. "We have drained the love energy of the Princess of Love herself! We are more powerful than you can imagine!"

"What did you do to my bride?!" Shining demanded in rage, but the Changeling just smirked.

"Don't worry. You'll be with her soon enough." He laughed before he and his comrades resumed to incase the two ponies in their amberish prison while Rarity and Blueblood could only watch in horror. The mare's horrified gasp was what finally brought the Changelings' attention to them.

"Ah, yes, we almost forgot about you!" He pointed at the two, instructing his comrades to seize them. They began to approach Blueblood and Rarity as they backed away. They were no slouches in a fight of course, but they didnt't know if they can take on so many enemies at the same time in such a small room. They both knew they only had one way out of this but they were uncertain if they should use it in front of Celestia.

They looked at the trapped princess but the substance holding her was so thick at this point that they couldn't see her anymore. They deduced that this meant she couldn't see them either so Rarity decided to do it.

She opened her mouth and let out the biggest wail she ever produced towards the Changelings. The insectoid equines were blasted away and slammed against the wall. The windows of the room were shattered but the coccoons that held Shining and Celestia remained intact, much to Rarity's surprise.

"We have to get out of here and suit up!" Blueblood shouted. He was about to run out of the room, but Rarity stopped him.

"What about them?!" She asked, pointing at the coccoons.

"It your wail couldn't crack them, what can we do?" The prince reasoned. "We'll have to find Supermare! She's our only hope!" Rarity looked at the cocoons one more time. With a heavy heart, she was forced to admit that her partner was right. There was nothing they could do for them at the moment. She also saw the Changeling group about to recover and she followed Blueblood out of the room.

She just hoped the Changelings didn't reach theirs yet.





For the past several minutes, the Flash has been running through the castle in search of more shape-shifters. He search was relatively slow as she was forced to stop everytime she saw somepony to make sure they were actually ponies. But after a while, she began to come across more of them undisguised. They probably realised they have been discovered. This made searching for them significantly easier, but she was a little worried that it might also make them more dangerous.

After clearing the castle as best as she could, she headed to the balcony to see what was happening around the city. What she saw, horrified her to her very core. It was much worse than she expected. Canterlot was completely overrun by the creatures. Ponies were attempting to flee them in terror, what little remained of the actual Royal Guard was putting up vain resistance, buildings were on fire and the sky was almost black from the Changeling swarm.

Rainbow had never felt so small before in her life. She may have been the fastest mare alive, but she had more than certain doubts that she was gonna be able to deal with this by herself. She may not be able to fight off the fight off the swarm by herself, but there was one thing she could do. She would go down there and save as many ponies as possible.

She was about to do just that, when she noticed some Changelings closing in on her location. They landed right in front of, blocking her path to the exit. Rainbow was about give them a taste of the speed force, but she didn't get the chance. From behind the Changelings, an explosion of both lightning and green light blasted the creatures away. It was so bright that Rainbow had to cover her eyes to protect them and jump back to avoid being blown away herself. When she opened them again, she saw Green Lantern and Captain MareVel floating in front of her.

"Need a hoof, Flash?" The alicorn hero asked as they landed in front of her.

"Always in the right place at the right time, Cap!" Flash cheered, sharing a hoofbump with her.

"Good to be actually part of the action this time!" MareVel cheered, but Lantern didn't look as confident.

"Speak for yourself." She muttered almost inaudibly before looking up. "What are we going to do about that?" She pointed at the swarm in the sky.

"I'm sure the three of us together could blow them out of the sky like you did just now." Flash encouraged them. "Let's go get them!"

The three winged heroes didn't get the chance to take off as more Changelings came down from the sky and pinned them to the ground. MareVel quickly blasted them off of herself with a wave of lighting from her horn before dashing over to Flash and punching them off of her as well, while Lantern conjured up a giant fly swatter for the same purpose.

The Changelings still kept coming but they wouldn't catch them off guard again. Three of the creatures combined a magical blast from their horn and directed it at Captain MareVel. The alicorn hero was quite surprised at how powerful the blast was, despite the Stamina of Air Last, it was able to knock her off her hooves.

'Tough little pesties.' She thought as she got back up. 'Let's see if they're fast too.' Using the speed of Merry Breeze, she got behind the changelings and the strength of Hoof Acres was all she needed to incapacitate them.

Green Lantern raised a barrier around herself but it threatened to give away under the relentless magic blasts of the Changelings. They saw this too and banded together to unleash one final blast that would surely do the trick.

'Think, Fluttershy, think!' She thought, trying to come up with a way to turn this situation around. And finally, she got it. She waited for the Changelings to unleash their attack and when they did, she let down her barrier and conjured up a giant mirror, which reflected the attacks and sent them back at the Changelings, knocking them out of the air.

The Flash's speed gave her the perfect advantage over the creatures. She flew around in the air, creating a whirlwind strong enough to draw many of them towards its center with such force that they were all knocked out upon crashing into each other.

Unfortunately for the speedster, the rest of the Changelings noticed what was happening and blasted magical rays of energy into the whirlwind. Flash was so preoccupied with keeping up her speed that she wasn't looking ahead and ended up flying straight into one of them.

Her entire body burned as she crashed into the ground. Fortunately, super speed also came with super fast regeneration so she should be fine again in a few seconds, but the Changelings weren't about to let that happen. Three of them dogpiled the wounded speedster and began to drain her of her energy.

"Hey, uglies!" The Changelings looked up, only for two of them to be hit in the face by two arrows with boxing gloves attached to them while the third one was uppercut into the air by a black hoof-boot. "That's no way to treat a lady!" Green Arrow snarked at the defeated creatures.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you, darling?" Black Canary retorted as she helped the Flash up.

"Oh, come now, birdie! How much longer are you going to hold that over me?" The archer didn't get an answer because another wave of Changelings immediately surrounded the group.

"There's just too many of them!" Lantern exclaimed as she conjured up a raging bull that circled around the heroes and knocked the creatures away. "We can't keep this up forever!"

"We don't have to!" The five heroes turned to look for the source of the voice but they couldn't find it. Suddenly, a black bat shaped object flew out of nowhere, circling around the heroes as if it was an actual living creature. It hit the remaining Changelings in the head, knocking them all out before flying back inside.

The heroes followed it with their gaze and saw it being caught by a black booted hoof. Even the mighty Captain MareVel and Green Lantern stepped back in awe as they watched the Batmare walk out of the darkness of the room in full battle armor, the angry scowl of her mask enough to send chills down all of their backs.

"We'll just need a plan." Before any of the other heroes could say anything, another group of Changelings dropped down onto the balcony, ready to fight.

"This balcony is getting a little too crowded." Batmare said as she pulled out a few smoke bombs. She smashed them onto the ground, covering the room in smoke, blinding the Changelings and making them step back. When they regained their sight, they pounced forward to throw themselves at the heroes again, only to find them all gone.





"Who knew there were so many secret tunnels beneath Canterlot Castle?" Green Lantern wondered as she floated onward in the tunnel, lighting the way to the other heroes with her ring.

"I did. And I'm fairly certain the princesses do too." Green Arrow replied. "But thankfully, not many other ponies. That should give us an advantage over the Changelings."

"Changelings?" Batmare asked, raising an eyebrow beneath her mask.

"That's what the princess called them." Black Canary replied. "We tried to warn her of this invasion but the creatures captured both her and Captain Shining Armor." Batmare was glad she was wearing a mask right now, that way, the others couldn't see the panic that suddenly overtook her face. But she had to keep her calm.

"Did she..." She tried to ask on a wavering voice. "Did she say anything else?" Arrow and Canary thought for a moment.

"She said they fed on other ponies' love energy." The stallion told her. "And before they captured Celestia, they told her that they drained the Princess of Love herself which made them more powerful than ever." Batmare narrowed her eyes.

"So that's why they needed Cadance."

"So let me get this straight." Flash spoke up. "Those things took Princess Cadance, replaced her with a fake and have been draining her love energy to take over Canterlot and possibly all of Equestria?"

"That seems to be the case." Batmare replied dryly.

"Are you sure you're the fastest mare alive, Flash." Captain MareVel retorted, earning an annoyed glare from the speedster. "You seem kinda slow on the uptake. I think we've all pieced that together by now."

"So if the princess' love is what powers the Changelings, we should free her from their clutches and they'll be rendered powerless!" Canary theorised.

"Then we'll have to go back to their lair." Batmare decided. "Arrow, is there a tunnel that can take us to the mines?" The stallion shook his head.

"I don't think so, but I know an exit that will lead us close enough to the mountain it's under."

"What about the other ponies the Changelings took?" Lantern asked in concern. "We have to save them as well!"

"Don't worry. They'll be there too." Batmare replied, remembering the signal of Spike's tracker. "They took all of their hostages to the same place."

"And just how do you know that?" Flash asked in suspicion. Batmare stopped and looked back at the speedster.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me." The pegasus replied, walking up to the other hero until they were only inches apart. "How do you know they're all gonna be there? Is there something you're hiding form us?"

"Isn't there something we're all hiding from each other?" Lantern asked, pointing at her mask. "You know, secret identities and all that." The gaze of the other heroes quickly made the space cop shrink back, but Batmare knew that she was right.

This was perhaps the hardest decision she ever had to make, but Spike's life, as well as half of Canterlot's population was at stake. Not to mention all of Equestria’s sovereignty. If she couldn't gain the trust of the country's biggest heroes and forge them into a team, this battle was already lost.

She stepped back to make sure all the others had a good view of her and raised her right front leg to her mask. The rest of the group all gasped as the Batmare removed it from her head to reveal a purple unicorn with a broken horn beneath her mane. A unicorn which most of the group quickly recognised.

"Twilight?!" Blueblood yelled in disbelief, completely forgetting about being in character, but thankfully, the others were far too shocked to care. "You're the Batmare?!"

"I am." She replied. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. Years ago, I was the student of Princess Celestia until I lost my horn and moved away from Canterlot. I moved to Manehattan and fell in love with a stallion with whom I was engaged to marry. But when he was taken from me by the city's criminal elements, I dedicated my life to fight criminal elements of the city that took him from me. But now, my dearest friend and assistant was taken by the Changelings. He is held hostage at the same place as all the other ponies they took. And if we don't save him along with the others, who knows what will happen to them and the rest of Equestria?"

The other heroes just listened in silence. Flash immediately felt a surge of guilt wash over her. She could tell that every single thing Twilight said was perfectly genuine. This was not the hardened vigilante known as Batmare or an evil shape-shifting Changeling who wanted to lure them into a trap talking. This was a concerned pony who was worried what would become of her best friend if they failed to save him. And the Flash would be damned if she let somepony down by not saving them when she could.

"I hope that gains your trust." She told the speedster sarcastically with a dirty look, making her back down in embarrassment. She did feel bad for doubting her, but the comment also raised a little resentment in her.

'Way to rub it in, jerk.' She thought as Twilight put her mask back on.

"Now if we're done here, can we move on? We're wasting precious time." She snarked as turned around and kept walking. The others were about to follow her, but Green Lantern spoke up.

"Guys, since she revealed her identity to us, do you think we should do the same?" None of them knew how to answer, but unbeknownst to them, Batmare heard what the yellow pegasus said and did it for them.

"Oh, I already know your identities." She replied casually before continuing on, surprising the other heroes greatly. Flash suddenly reconsidered just how trustworthy this secretive vigilante really was.





After a few more moments of walking, Green Arrow finally lead the group to an exit that lead out of the castle near the woods surrounding the building. The trees should provide enough cover for them to avoid the patrolling Changeling units in the sky.

The screams of ponies around the city still rung in their ears as they left the city. It made them feel absolutely powerless and they hated it. But they know in order to stop this madness, they will have to free Princess Cadance first and cut off the Changeling's power supply.

Eventually, they reached the hidden entrance to the abandoned mines, which was trickier than they remembered as the rock wall that concealed it had no distinguishing features and blended in perfectly with the mountain.

"We should have marked where the entrance was." Arrow remarked as he kept tapping around on the rock to find the entrance. Batmare, as always, was one step ahead. She pressed a button on her belt and suddenly they all heard a series of beeps coming from nearby. The black clad hero knelt down and picked up a small bat shaped tracking device from the ground before putting it away.

"I have."

"Of course, you have." The archer muttered, rolling his eyes.

"I'm surprised you had the composure to put it there while Supermare was hauling us out of there last night." The other three heroes who weren't there widened their eyes.

"Supermare is in Canterlot?!" Flash exclaimed. "Why isn't she here?"

"I tried to find her but I had no luck." Batmare replied. "I would like to think taking her captive is beyond the Changelings' capabilities." The other five heroes all agreed. They didn't like their chances without the Mare of Steel by their side. Batmare pushed one of her hooves through the Illusionary wall and stepped inside.

"Let's go." She motioned to the others. "Canary, Arrow, you stay out here and keep guard." The two unicorns nodded while Flash, Lantern and MareVel followed the Batmare inside. Batmare easily recalled the trail they went last night to the chamber where Cadance was located so finding it was not an issue. But nothing could prepare the group for what they saw upon entering.

The Changelings have already hoarded dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ponies down here. They were all lying inside the same kind of pods as Cadance did, all of them perfectly still and unconscious. Flash recognised several of her fellow Wonderbolts, Lantern and MareVel saw many ponies from the castle staff who helped them with the wedding preparations inside the castle. Batmare also recognised several royals and nobles back from her day as Celestia's pupil, but she wasn't paying them much attention. Her mind revolved around only one individual.

And eventually, she found him. The scanners built into her lens have quickly identified Spike's draconic features inside one of the pods. His status was "unconscious" so Twilight could calm herself knowing that he was alright. She placed a hoof on the pod that contained her young assistant's body and caressed it affectionately. How could she have been so foolish? How could she have left Spike unsupervised even for a second? Of course he would attempt to spy on the Changelings for her. And of course the bugs would take advantage of it by abducting him and send a drone to replace him and try to get closer to her as well. This was all her fault. 'I will get you free, Spike.' She vowed. 'I promise.'

"We have to get them out of there!" Flash shouted, stating what all of them were thinking.

"But how?" Green Lantern asked. Before anypony could reply, they all jumped in surprise when they heard the sound of glass shattering. They quickly got into defensive stances in a circle with their backs to each other and waited for the imminent attack by the Changeling swarm.

But instead, they saw a very much equine figure floating down the groin from above, dressed in blue with a red cape and a familiar golden S on her chest. On her shoulders, she was carrying two unconscious ponies while carrying a third one in her front legs, placing him on the ground as she looked up at the stunned group of heroes with a cheeky smile.

"What took you guys so long?" Supermare asked before floating off to free more ponies. "Just give them a good whack! That should do the trick!" Captain MareVel didn't need to be told twice. With the strength of Hoof Acres and the speed of Merry Breeze, she quickly freed several ponies already. Green Lantern didn't have super strength, but with a giant sledgehammer conjured up by her ring, she did quite an efficient job herself. The Flash was able gather enough mass behind her punches to shatter the pods while Batmare merely pulled out a batarang and used it to cut the pod containing Spike open.

She carried the young dragon next to the unconscious ponies and laid him on the ground, trying her best to wake him up. Meanwhile, Supermare moved onto another pod and saw a pony in them that she knew all too well. 'Braeburn?! What are you doing here?!' She wondered in her head. She then remembered Granny Smith mentioning something about a big order of apple treats for the wedding but she had no idea that Braeburn was gonna be the one to deliver it. She swiftly released the stallion from the hold of the pod and as she carried him to the ground, she noticed that he started stirring awake.

The stallion opened his eyes and looked up to see the exact reenactment of the scene when Supermare saved him from the stampedeing buffalos in Appleoosa. She looked down at him with her long mane flowing in the air, holding him like a guardian angel. It was the most beautiful thing he's ever seen and despite his drained state, it gave him enough energy to form a small smile.

"We... We really got to stop meeting like this..." He chuckled weakly. "Some ponies might get the wrong idea." Supermare couldn't help but chuckle at that. She never gave him that talk Big Mac told her to so he was still none the wiser about her identity. With Braeburn's little crush on the Mare of Steel, she just felt very awkward about bringing up the topic. But what she really didn't know was why she just played along with his little fantasy by gently lowering him on the ground and take on of his hooves into hers.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." She told him softly. Far softer than she intended. "Everything's gonna be alright." The stallion squeezed her hoof tighter in return.

"I know. Now that you're here." He replied, causing Supermare's heart to melt. But the moment was interrupted when Braeburn winced in pain. Apparently, he squeezed her hoof too hard. "Wow, you really are the Mare of Steel." He joked, earning another chuckle from the superhero.

Meanwhile, Spike was slowly coming to as well. Twilight's eyes widened under her mask as the little dragon sprung up with a huge gasp.

"TWILIGHT!" He shouted out, jumping forward with wide eyes. Twilight quickly wrapped her hooves around him in an effort to calm him down.

"Shh... It's alright, Spike. I've got you." She said, rocking him back and forth like a baby who just woke up from a terrible nightmare. Which was basically what happened.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know those things infiltrated the castle and take the shape of ponies. They caught me by surprise." He cried. Twilight just rubbed circles around his back.

"I know, Spike. It wasn't your fault. We didn't know either." Spike was reassured by Twilight's words, but also a little confused.

"We?" He asked before looking around and seeing all the other heroes freeing the trapped ponies. He quickly slapped one of his clawed hands over his mouth. "Sorry, Twi... Uh, Batmare." He said in a hushed tone. "I didn't know they were here. I almost gave away your identity."

"It's alright, Spike." Twilight reassured. "They already know."

"They do?!" Spike asked, jumping up in shock. A decision he quickly regretted as a nausea came over him, no doubt a side effect of the stasis he just woke up from.

"It doesn't matter." Twilight replied, gently pushing him back on the ground. "Just calm down and rest. You need it." She then stood up and went to check on the other ponies who just began to wake up. She hated leaving Spike unattended, but she knew others needed her help just as much as he did.

There was one thing however that kept bothering her. She saw a lot of ponies in the crowd, but Princess Cadance was not among them. Come to think of it, she didn't see any Changelings guarding these tunnels either and yet last night the place was swarming with them. There was something suspicious about this whole thing.

"Flash, go and check if there are any pods left." She told the speedster. Flash did as she was told and she came back before Batmare could even blink.

"Nope." She reported. "No pods left." Batmare looked around one more time.

"So where's Princess Cadance?" That question got the attention of all the other heroes. They all searched through the awakening crowd but even they couldn't find the Princess of Love. Before anypony could say anything, they were interrupted by Green Arrow and Black Canary who barged into the chamber, looking quite concerned.

"What is it?" Batmare asked, worried that the Changelings might be back.

"Come out!" The stallion exclaimed, motioning for her to follow them. "There's something out there you should see!"

"Is it important?" Batmare asked, not wanting to leave the rescued ponies behind. The crimefighting couple shared a glance, not knowing if what they had to say would be enough to convince the Dark Knight.

"Interesting." Canary replied. Batmare sighed before taking off after the duo, followed by the other heroes whose interest were also peaked. Eventually they reached the entrance of the mine and upon stepping through the illusionary wall, their jaw fell.

Canterlot Castle, as well as the surrounding city was entirely surrounded by a giant green barrier, preventing anypony from getting in or out. They began to run until they reached the barrier's edge, pounding on the engergy wall mercilessly with everything they had. But it wasn't enough, it stood firm against their superpowered assault.





General Scutellum stood triumphantly in the throne room of Canterlot Castle as a group of his underlings carried Princess Cadance inside in their magical hold, still trapped inside her pod. They placed the unaware alicorn onto the throne in the middle, next to the other two where the trapped Princess Celestia and Shining Armor were placed.

Though the alicorn of the night was still unaccounted for, Scutellum wasn't worried. His plan worked like a charm. His forces managed to take Canterlot, it's defenses were irreversibly compromised and it's biggest defenders were trapped outside the city. He had everything he needed to complete this operation.

He walked out of the castle with heavy hoofsteps, carrying his mighty battle axe on his shoulder as he exited. His troops were lined up in front of the building with pony hostages lying in front of them on the ground, shaking in terror. Everything was going according to plan. It won't be long now until their final victory was at hoof.





Flash yelled at the top of her lungs as she crashed into the barrier at top speed, only to receive the same result as she did the first seven times. Excruciating pain as the force field knocked her back. The other heroes were beginning to tire of it by now.

"Will you cut that out?!" Supermare yelled at her frustration. "It's not working!" Flash only gave the Mare of Steel an irritated glare as she got back up.

"Like you have a better idea." She growled in pain as she slowly tried got up.

"Supermare's right. This won't achieve anything." Batmare said, helping the speedster back on her hooves. "We'll need a plan if we want to get past this thing." Flash just looked at her, unamused.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was your plan that lead us into this mess in the first place." The other heroes were beginning to get fed up with the speedster's attitude.

"And your 'plan' of getting splattered on the barrier doesn't exactly get us any closer to the solution, Flash! So shut up!" Green Arrow snapped at her.

"Calm down! Both of you!" Captain MareVel asked, standing between the two heroes. As she was able to resist Wrath, she didn't give into her frustration over the situation. Neither did Green Lantern, as possessing the willpower to resist rage was a requirement to being one.

"We need to keep our heads!" She told them, uncharacteristically confidently, earning the attention of all six of her fellow heroes. "Batmare is a better planner than any of us! I'm sure she is going to come up with something!"

The black clad vigilante in question suddenly found herself on the receiving end of six eager pair of eyes, lookin for guidance. It was a little overwhelming for her. She was but a mere, disabled unicorn in a costume and yet all these godly beings were looking at her, expecting her to lead them to victory against an enemy they barely knew anything about.

But still, she knew Green Lantern was right. She needed to take charge and organise these godly beings into a team if they were to have a chance at saving their home. And she was the most capable pony for the job. She walked up to the barrier and placed a hoof on it, looking at the green energy field it in contemplation as the cogs turned in her head. Her eyes then widened.

'Green energy?! That's it!' She thought before turning to Green Lantern. "Lantern, can your ring analyse this barrier? Track it to its source?" The space cop became a little embarrassed for not thinking of this herself and raised the ring on her wing to her mouth.

"Ring? Can you analyse the energy field in front of us please?" She asked timidly. The answer came in the form of a green energy beam bursting out of her ring and connecting with the barrier. After a few seconds, the beam disappeared and the ring glowed up.

"This type of magical energy is not recognised by the Green Lantern archives." The ring's wielder frowned.

"The Guardians did mention that their knowledge about the magic of our world is severely limited." She said, much to the others' chagrin.

"Can it at least locate the source?" Batmare asked. Lantern once again asked the ring to carry out the task.

"Energy source located." The ring reported.

"Show us where!" Batmare asked and the Lantern conjured up a map of the castle with the power source of the barrier flickering as bright spots. "There!" Batmare said, pointing at the lights. "Whatever is powering the barrier, it's on the castle's balcony."

"That's a great discovery, Bats." Flash said sarcastically. "But I don't think it gets us any closer to getting past this thing." The bat gave the speedster a long, contemplative stare that the pegasus could almost see even behind the mask. It made her very uncomfortably.

"Maybe it doesn't." Batmare said eventually. "But perhaps you could."

"I already tried." Flash replied flatly, but Batmare shook her head.

"Not like that. Try to vibrate your body fast enough to warp through the barrier." Flash only gave her another suspicious look in response.

"And just how do you know I can do that?" Before Batmare could answer, a groan from the other heroes interrupted them.

"Seriously?" Supermare asked in irritation. "You're still doing this?"

"Everypony in Equestria knows you can do that." Green Arrow told her and Black Canary nodded.

"Remember that one time where they caught you inside the bank after the Rogues got away from you?"

"Yeah, so please just shut up and play along!" MareVel ordered. Flash didn't like being bossed around, but seeing that all the other heroes were on Batmare's side, she had no choice but to suck it up.

"Fine, I'll do it." She conceded with an irritated groan. Batmare merely nodded in response before turning to Green Lantern and Captain MareVel.

"Lantern, MareVel, once the barrier is down, it's your turn. The Changelings will no doubt swarm out instantly to check on what happened. Keep them busy while the rest of us search the palace for Princess Cadance." She instructed.

"I should go with them too." Supermare offered but Batmare shook her head.

"No, we're gonna need you in case we run into the big guy from last night." She explained. "Not to mention you're the most capable of locating Princess Cadance in the palace. With your super senses, you can find anypony. I'm gonna assume the big one is their leader so the most likely possibility is that he's watching over her. Once we find her, you'll have to keep him busy while me, Canary and Arrow free Cadance. Everypony got that?" Batmare received six nods in return. "Then let's begin!"

"What about the ponies we just rescued?" Green Lantern asked as she pointed at the crowd that finally made its way out of the mines.

"I will handle them." Said a new voice from between the crowd, surprising not only them, but the heroes as well. The ponies parted to make way for none other than Jean Jeans, Princess Luna's assistant.

"Mr. Jeans?" Batmare said with a raised eyebrow. Funny, she doesn't remember seeing him among the rescuees.

"I know a safe way through the mountains towards the nearest settlement. I can lead these ponies there where they will be tended to." Batmare had no reason to trust this pony. He worked for Princess Luna who made it clear she didn't like her. He was secretive and she was sure he knew more than he let on, but she could also feel that he was benevolent and genuinely wanted to help.

"Thank you." She said. Jeans merely replied with a nod before motioning for the crowd to follow him as he made his way towards the mountain, leaving the heroes to began their preparations for the final battle.

"Whenever you're ready." Batmare told the Flash. The speedster noticed that the gazes of all of the other heroes fell onto her. It put a heavy pressure on her, but she was never one to break under pressure.

She stood before the barrier and looked at it as if it was the most hated enemy she ever faced. She began to vibrate her body harder than she ever did. The tingle she felt inside herself was very uncomfortable but when she remembered what was at stake, it was easy to ignore the pain.

When she felt like she couldn't vibrate any harder, she launched herself forward, straight at the barrier. But instead of being knocked back like the previous eight times, she finally felt herself getting through the energy field. It was a slow process but eventually, she managed to squeeze her whole body through it.

Once she was on the other side, she wanted to let out a cheer, but then she remembered she still had a job to do. She immediately flashed towards the castle's balcony and quickly noticed what was the source of the barrier. Or more precisely, who. Standing on the balcony with green energy beams shooting out of their horns and fueling the barrier in the sky were ten hooded Changeling mages standing in a circle, chanting in their strange, alien language.

Since they didn't see the pegasus coming, they had no way of defending themselves as she knocked one of them down from their hooves, which proved enough to break their spell that was fueling the barrier, making it disappear.

But not for long. Six of the remaining mages quickly put the barrier back up as the other three turned to deal with the hero. They created another barrier around the pegasus to trap her, but since this one was only sustained by three of them, it was nowhere near as powerful as the other one. Flash quickly broke through it and knocked down two of the mages, but the third one had enough time to fire a blast at her, smashing her back against the wall.

She became a little disoriented and the mage intended to take full advantage of that. He no longer bothered with the barrier as he now knew that wouldn't work. The Changeling began to drain the hero of her love energy, but he didn't know that Flash's super speed allowed her to regenerate all of her energies instantly. But this was a double edged sword, her quickly regenerating energies would make an all you can eat buffet for a Changeling, making him infinitely more powerful. She needed to stop this fast.

She got back on her hooves and threw herself forward at the mage, taking advantage of his surprise that she had energy left to attack. She tackled him on the ground, landing between the other mages and disturbing their barrier spell one more time. She knocked the mage under him out before turning to see two others charging their horns to blast her. With a smirk, she flashed away from between them and the two mages only blasted each other.

The remaining four mages finally abandoned the barrier and stood back to back with each other, raising another barrier around themselves for their protection. Flash's smirk widened. The fools only made her job easier. She began to fly around the barrier with enough speed to create a small whirlwind around it that was so powerful it began to break through the Changeling's magic and eventually, it managed to destroy the barrier and blow the Changelings away. With her job done, she flashed back to the other heroes.

"It's done! Let's go!" They needed no further invitation. Batmare, Supermare, Green Arrow and Black Canary headed to the secret tunnels that will take them back inside the castle, while Green Lantern, Captain MareVel and the Flash took off into the sky.

"I wonder if the Changelings have noticed that the barrier is down." The Lantern wondered.

"Well, if they didn't, they sure will now!" MareVel replied before flying over the castle and unleashing huge waves of lighting that spread across the sky, releasing a deafening boom that made even the two heroes cover their ears. That was a signal of they've ever heard one. As expected, only a few seconds later, the Changelings swarmed out from the castle and between the other buildings of the city, heading straight at the trio in the sky.

"That's it!" Flash said, cracking her hooves. "Come and get us, you damn insects!" She was so eager to finally get a crack at them that she didn't even wait for them to reach her. Activating her super speed, she launched herself forward, knocking dozens of Changelings out of the sky in seconds.

But even the Flash's speed had its limits. Since the Changeling invasion didn't give her a chance to eat enough to sustain her super speed for very long and her metabolism was already beginning to kick in. She didn't have enough fuel for this battle and that began to show at the worst possible time.

She was flying straight at the sharp, horned head of one of the creatures when she felt her speed level beginning to drop. Unfortunately, her momentum was so strong that she couldn't stop herself before colliding with it. The Changeling noticed this and charged at Flash at full speed, ready to impale her on his horn, but fortunately, Captain MareVel flew in and punched the creature away before they collided.

"Wow! Thanks!" Flash said as she caught her breath. "How did you do that?"

"You think you're the only one with super speed?" The alicorn hero grinned as she backhoofed a Changeling without even looking. "The M in Shaz..." She quickly got her hoof in front of her mouth to stop herself from accidentally turning back. She was ashamed to say it wouldn't have been the first time that happened. "The word of power stand for Merry Breeze." Flash's eyes widened in amazement.

"The messenger of the gods?!" She screamed in joy as she dodged an attacking Changeling by flying over him and pouncing on him, kicking him down from the air. "That's awesome! Once this is over, we're so going to have a race!"

"Girls! I'm sorry to interrupt the conversation, but we're kind of in the middle of something!" Green Lantern yelled to them. The space cop was currently using a ballista construct to fire an infinite wave of arrows at the Changelings. However, there was only one side she could cover at a time and she had to rapidly spin around to make sure the Changelings don't get her from behind.

"Don't worry! We've got your back!" MareVel yelled to her as she and Flash flew behind her. The alicorn unleashed a huge wave of lightning, zapping dozens of Changelings at once, while Flash - who may have lost the ability to reach her maximum speed - was still fast enough to easily dodge the Changelings leaping towards her and counter their attacks.

Once she managed to get a little pressure off of herself, Lantern spoke to her ring. "Ring, how much energy you have left?" She asked.

"Power level at 71%." The weapon replied. The Lantern sighed in relief. Thankfully, she's been using her ring sparingly since the start of this battle.

"I wonder how the others are doing." MareVel said as the trio prepared themselves to another wave of onslaught.

"I'm sure they'll give us a sign once they are done." Lantern replied. "In the meantime, stay sharp! Here comes the next wave." Indeed, another swarm of Changelings was already approaching them at great speed. The three heroes quickly got into battle stances and prepared themselves for the next round.





"Eek! I hate these filthy tunnels!" Black Canary cried, wiping a piece of gunk off her boot as the group made their way through the secret passageways beneath Canterlot Castle. "How much further is it?"

"Hard to tell." Supermare replied as she scanned every wall with her super senses. "There is so much movement and so many lifesigns in the castle. It's almost impossible to tell them apart."

She heard so much buzzing from above but most frighteningly, not all of them were Changelings. Through her x-ray vision, she could see several ponies, all of them chain bound and being herded into different parts of the castle like cattle. But Cadance was nowhere to be found.

"I don't get it!" Green Arrow growled. "If she's not here, where is she?!"

"She has to be here!" Supermare insisted. "I'll just need some time to locate her among all those Changelings and Ponies."

"Ponies?" Batmare asked as the three other halted in surprise. "There are ponies in here?"

"Of course there are!" The Archer growled. "Cadance probably isn't enough for those insects! They want to steal as much love as they can!"

"We'll have to help those poor little ponies!" Canary exclaimed in concern over the hostages.

"You're right." Batmare nodded. "Even if we free Cadance and cut the Changelings off from their main power supply, they'll still have several ponies to feed on in here."

"Really?" Canary asked with a raised eyebrow. "That is your biggest concern?"

"Would you keep it down?" Supermare interrupted them. "You're making it harder for me to focus!" With the others finally silenced, the Mare of Steel could once again turn her attention to scanning the castle. She finally managed to identify almost every single heartbeat and heat signartue from the building, save from a few coming from the center of the castle, the throne room.

Turning her attention to this particular room, a horrifying sight appeared in front of her eyes. She finally managed to locate Princess Cadance, that was the good news. But the bad news was, the Changeling leader was also present in the room, along with a group of Changeling mages who were standing around her in a circle and chanting in a strange language as they extracted something from the alicorn.

But what worried the kryptonian the most was that the lifesigns of the pink alicorn were dropping at an alarming rate. It was obvious the extraction process was taking a heavy toll on her. The others noticed her troubled expression and knew that whatever she saw was not good.

"What's wrong?" Batmare asked.

"The princess! I see her! She's in the throne room!" Supermare replied worriedly. "They're draining her far worse than the other ponies. I don't know how much longer she'll be able to take."

"Then let's not waste any more time!" Batmare said, turning to Canary and Arrow. "We'll head to the throne room and save the princess. You search through the castle and save as many ponies as you can while the others keep the majority of the Changelings busy out there." None of the heroes raised any objections to her orders.

"OK! I know an exit that is only a few turns from the throne room." The Archer told them, taking the lead. He lead them to the back of a huge painting hanging on the wall and used the eye holes to check of the coast was clear.

"It's clear!" He told them, pushing the painting out of the way to open the secret door. "Come on!" The mares followed him out before he sealed the exit shut again. "The throne rooms that way! Hurry, Cadance might not have much time left!"

After they parted, Canary and Arrow began to prowl the corridors in search of hostages. They kicked in every door, but so far they didn't come across anypony. They did however come across a group of Changelings escorting some of the chained ponies in quite a hurry.

Not even bothering with ordering them to stop, the Archer fired a few arrows into the chains, breaking them while Canary rushed forward and swiftly incapacitated two of the captors.

"Get behind us!" Canary cried to the hostages who immediately followed her instruction. Another Changeling rushed at Rarity, but she easily got the upper hoof by jumping on her back and kicking the attacker away with her hind legs.

Green Arrow fired an arrow at the Changeling that was tied to a rope and pulled him down on top of another, while Black Canary run up to the last one of the group and roundhouse kicked him in the muzzle.

"Where are the other hostages?" Green Arrow asked ocne the fight was over.

"They were herding us towards the ballroom!" Answered a blue unicorn stallion with puffy blue mane. "We managed to slip away but they caught us! I thought for sure they're gonna kill us!"

"Don't worry, darling!" Black Canary assured him. "They won't do that. They feed off of pony's love. They need them alive to drain them." The hostages and even Green Arrow just gave her an odd look in response.

"Not sure that's any better." Another hostage - a yellow pegasus mare with light blue mane - commented. Canary just chuckled sheepishly before clearing her throat.

"But don't worry! We will put a stop to that! Go and find someplace to hide! It will be over soon." The hostages ran off to do just that and the two heroes made their way to the ballroom. Just as the freed ponies described, all the ponies the Changelings rounded up in the city were being held here, cowering on the floor as armored Changeling soldiers kept patrolling the room.

"I only count a dozen." Green Arrow told his partner.

"It seems rather negligent of them to leave so few of them to guard the hostages." Canary noted. "There is an entire army of them out there."

"I don't know, birdie." The archer replied. "These bugs look like they pack one heck of a punch." But the female fighter wasn't convinced of that point.

"So do we, darling. So what do you say? Fifty-fifty or shall we make it a contest?" Arrow just smiled in response.

"Normally I don't mind a friendly competition, but I think efficiency should be our priority here." He said, loading an arrow into his bow. "You take the six on the right, I'll take the six on the left."

"Sounds good to me." Canary said, cracking her hooves and neck. "Just give the word." Arrow looked up at the huge chandelier hanging over the room just as two of the elite Changelings passed under it and smirked.

"You know what they say, beloved." He said, aiming at the chain that held chandelier. "Every party should start with a bang!" He then let go of the arrow and it hit the chain with perfect accuracy. The Changelings beneath it heard the sound and looked up only to see the chandelier falling down towards them. They didn't even have time to move." That should make things a little easier." The archer quipped. "Let's go!"

Both of the heroes charged into the room to ambush the surprised Changelings. Canary ran up to one of them attempted another roundhouse kick, only to get the worst pain imaginable in her hind legs, causing her to back down with a scream of agony. Green Arrow was right, these guys were in the tougher than the average Chanegelins. And the armor plates they were wearing probably also didn't help.

No matter. The bigger they are, the harder fall, after all. When one of them rose up to its hind legs to squash her, Canary jumped back and when the creature tried to stomp on her, she jumped up, grabbed its head and smashed it into floor with enough strength to knock it out.

Two more Changelings ran up to Rarity and each pulled out a massive broadsword. But the unicorn wasn't intimidated. In fact, this actually gave her an idea. She unleashed a wail that made both of the massive insectoids cover their ears and drop their weapons.

Canary snatched them up from the floor and began to twirl them around with such precision that even their original wielders would have been impressed if they weren't still recovering from the sonic blast. Canary used their swords to slice the straps holding their armor together, leaving their bodies vulnerable. She then proceeded to punch and kick them until they could no longer stand up.

Before she could savor her victory, another Changeling charged into her, knocking her off her hooves. The creature ran towards the wall with the stunned mare dangling from its shoulder, fully intent to crush her against it. However, Canary recovered fast enough to escape in the very last moment, causing the creature to run headfirst into the wall. She then kicked its head into the wall several times with her hind legs, making sure it was down.

There was only one Changeling left facing her and seeing his comrades failures against her, it decided on a different approach. A touch of magic. The creature ignited its horn and levitated the swords its comrades have dropped and sent them at Canary. But the quick reflexes of the herione made her rather difficult for the enchanted swords to hit her. When they did manage to, she just raised one of her boots in the weapon's way and the sharp diamond attached to it managed to block the strike.

But she knew she couldn't keep this up forever. She had to find a way to end this. She noticed all of the swords pulling back to strike at her at once and that gave her an opening. She jumped forward just before the blades struck together in the air and rushed at the Changeling. She performed a somersault, kicking the creature over the head with both of her hind legs. She then swpet both of its front legs out from beneath it, making it fall on the ground and stomped on its head for good measure. The Changeling's consciousness flickered out along with the glint of its horn.

Meanwhile, Green Arrow was dealing with his own bunch. He knew his arrows probably won't do much against the armored, elite Changelings but he had a few tricks up his quiver. Before the behemoths in front of him could do anything, he loaded four arrows into his bow and shot them at the straps holding their armors to their chest, leaving their chests exposed, before pulling out two more arrows and shooting them into them.

The projectiles pierced themselves into their chests but as they expected, it did nothing to them, except making them laugh. Until they heard the increasingly rapid beeping sound coming from the arrowheads and by that time, it was already too late. A huge explosion sent the two Changelings flying against the wall, taking care of them.

"Respect the bow now?" The archer quipped. But his smile quickly faded when he saw a massive broadsword flying his way. He barely had time to roll out of the way as he fired another arrow at his attacker. The Changeling easily cut the arrow in half. A move he instantly regretted as it exploded into a huge cloud of smoke, blurring the creature's vision and making it cough heavily. Eventually, the Changeling started feeling drowsy and passed out from the effect of the gas.

Learning from his mistake, he looked around to see if there was any imminent danger around and that proved to be a good move as he saw another sword being swung at him. He dodged it with a backflip and shot another arrow at the Changeling’s hoof that held the weapon. The creature pulled its hoof back just in time, but in doing so, he had to divert his attention from the archer and he used that to his advantage and jumped onto the Changeling’s back.

It began to thrash around in an attempt to shake the stallion off, but he got a good hold of the creature and stabbed an arrow into its back that had electric wires attached to it. As soon as it was deep enough, Arrow pressed a button on it and it sent a giant shockwave through the Changeling’s body, incapacitating it. The archer gracefully jumped off of its back and used his magic to retrieve his arrows, before beginning to search the room for the last enemy left standing.

He didn’t need to search for long. The final Changeling stood at the end of the room with a hostage’s neck beneath its sword. Arrow’s horror at the sight only increased when he recognised the hostage as Prince Blueblood’s personal maid, Scarlet Feather. His rage was fueled by the sight as he loaded in another arrow, but as he took aim, the creature pressed the sword harder against the pegasus’ neck.

“Put it down!” The Changeling demanded. “Or she’s gonna be a head shorter.” Green Arrow growled in anger. He was very tempted to make a pincushion of this monster but he couldn’t risk Scarlet’s life. Reluctantly, he dropped the bow to the floor. The Changeling smirked in satisfaction. “Now kick it over.” To the creature’s surprise, it was the archer’s turn to smile.

“Well, as a lazy tailor would say, suit yourself.” He replied before kicking the bow with his front leg, right at the Changeling’s hoof, knocking the sword out of its grasp. Scarlet felt the sword’s pressure leaving her neck and flew away from beneath the creature. It was about to take off after her, Green Arrow pulled out another arrow and threw it at the Changeling. The creature effortlessly caught it, but only a second later, it exploded in its grasp in a blinding flash. By the time its sight cleared, the stallion retrieved his bow and shot two arrows with a rope between them at the creature’s legs, tying them together and tripping it. With the battle over, the archer was about to take a relaxing breath, but he was interrupted by two hooves wrapping around his neck and pulling him into a crushing embrace.

“My hero!” Scarlet Feather squealed before planting a kiss onto the stallion’s cheek.

“I… uh…” Arrow stuttered, not sure how to react. Funny, in his alter ego as Prince Blueblood, he would have no trouble talking to a pretty mare, but as the archer vigilante, he just froze and blushed in embarrassment. Not to mention his beloved Black Canary was here as well. Who knew how she would react to this? Well, he found out pretty quickly when he heard the costumed mare clearing her throat from behind him. He quickly turned around and saw Canary giving the two an unamused stare.

“What is going on here?” The archer escaped the embrace of the pegasus and gave his partner a nervous grin.

“Nothing, my dearest. Just saving another grateful citizen.” He chuckled, but the heroine did not seem convinced. “Anyway, I believe it’s time to get these ponies to safety, wouldn’t you agree?” He said before leaving to free the hostages. Canary watched him go before turning to glare at the pegasus mare in front of her who only laughed sheepishly before flying out of the room. She may have been saved from the Changelings, but she felt like she still wasn’t safe right now.





General Scutellum stood in the throne room as the mages kept draining Princess Cadance. But instead of feeding on it, the energy they drew from her floated into the middle of the room, forming a bright orb of light. The orb kept increasing in size and brightness as the process went on, to the point that the general had to look away to prevent it from hurting his eyes. In the corner of the throne room, the projection of Pharynx floated over the Changelings, emanating from another green crystal placed nearby and observing the process.

“The queen’s patience is at an end, Scutellum!” The projection yelled at the massive Changeling. “If you do not finish your task by the end of the day, the consequences will be dire.” The general was starting to have enough of the insolent Changeling’s attitude.

“You can tell the queen…” He began, but Pharynx cut him off.

“No! YOU can tell the queen why you weren’t able to carry out your task when you return in shame! Her armies need a new leader anyway. A more efficient one.” Scutellum narrowed his eyes at the projection before beginning to approach it menacingly.

“When I return - triumphantly, I will chop your head off and put it on a pike in my trophy room.” He snarled. Pharynx just smirked.

“I find that unlikely.” Before Scutellum could reply, he heard crashing sounds from outside which gained both Changelings’ attention. “It appears you’re about to have company.” He mused. “I shall leave you to it then.” He said before his projection disappeared. Scutellum growled furiously as he turned to the mages.

“How much longer will it take?” He growled, growing rather impatient himself.

“The process is almost finished, sir.” The archmage replied. “It will take less than ten minutes now.” This finally improved the general’s sour disposition as his lips curled up into a smirk.

“Good.” He said as he walked up to the orb, observing it in awe. “Finally, after all these years, the source of ultimate power for a Changeling is almost within our grasp. Soon, nothing will be able to stand against us!”

“Think again, you overgrown flea!” Scutellum turned to see Supermare floating in the air behind him, holding one of his elite bodyguards in each hoof, smashing their heads together and tossing them aside. “I don’t know what you and the rest of these insects are up to and frankly, I don’t really care. But I’m ending it now!” But the Changeling wasn’t intimidated by the Mare of Steel.

“I do not think so.” Scutellum growled, echoing the mare’s words during their last encounter back at her as he pulled his new axe. Supermare just smirked. She remembered how easily she shattered the Changeling’s previous weapon and had not doubt that the result won’t be different this time. She paid a heavy price for her overconfidence.

Scutellum ignited his horn and summoned a wave of electricity around his weapon before swinging it at the kryptonian. Supermare suddenly felt her strength beginning to leave her as the axe came nearer her body and only her reflexes saved her life as she managed to jump back before it struck her body. However, it still managed to slice her a little, tearing at her suit and drawing some blood, making the hero hiss.

‘Magically charged axe.’ Supermare observed. ‘Should have seen this coming.’ It seems the Changeling wanted to make her work for her victory in their second round. Well then, she would be happy to comply.

She used her heat vision in an attempt to blast the axe out of the Changeling’s grasp, but the general blocked the heatwaves with his weapon and the magical energy around it absorbed their energy, becoming charged with it as a result. Scutellum then leaped forward to strike Supermare with his axe and while she managed to jump back in time, when the axe hit the ground, it released a magical shockwave that knocked the Mare of Steel back against a wall.

Scutellum left the mare no time to recover. He leaped forward again and raised his axe, aiming straight at the Supermare’s neck. But she flew up in the last second and the Changeling only hit the wall. Supermare took advantage of the momentary stun Scutellum found himself in as he became surrounded by a field of debris and a cloud of dust. She landed behind the Changeling and grabbed him from behind, throwing him up into the ceiling. But Scutellum managed to prevent himself crashing into it by slowing himself down with his wings.

Supermare flew up and pulled her hoof back to punch the creature, but Scutellum was ready to counter the attack as he flew down towards the mare with his axe raised high for a preemptive strike. They met each other midway and the two attacks colliding knocked both combatants back. Scutellum recovered first and flew down to slice Supermare in half, but the kryptonian dashed out of the way and punched the Changeling away towards the throne room’s entrance. She needed to get the behemoth as far away from the Princess as possible.

As the two battled it out, the mages kept draining Princess Cadance. They only hoped that their general will be able to keep Supermare off their backs until they were finished. But as it turned out, there was another individual they should have worried about. As they kept chanting, they didn’t notice that a shadowy figure was swinging toward them using a grappling gun. The figure crashed into one of the mages with its hind legs and kicked it into another one, causing the others to briefly stop the spell and turn to the figure which turned out to be the Batmare.

“Maintain the connection!” The archmage ordered. ”The spell must be completed!”

But the Batmare had other ideas. She punched one of the mages in the head, knocking him out, then turned to another one to do the same, but he reacted in time and raised a magical barrier in front of himself. He was soon backed by another mage who created several spears out of magical energy and launched them at the vigilante. She easily managed to dodge all of them, in fact, she even managed to trick the mage into hitting the other mage.

The attacking mage then changed tactics and summoned a barrier around the vigilante, trapping her. Batmare tried punching her way out of the energy field, but it was too strong. She had one more way of escaping. She only used this on ponies before so she had no way of knowing if it would work, but she saw no other way. She picked a small metallic device off her belt and pressed a button on it, making it beep loudly. The barrier slowly began to flicker until it faded out of existence, much to the mage’s shock.

“How is that possible?!” He exclaimed.

“Do you think you’re the first one who tried that?” Batmare taunted. “Unicorn thugs also have their own magic. I had to design a jammer that nullifies their energy.” She explained before knocking him out. He was still so shocked that he didn’t even have the chance to react. The other mages were still busy keeping up their spell on Princess Cadance’s pod.

She pulled out a batarang with a remote targeting system and marked all the mages on it as targets before throwing it away. The batarang hit all of them in the back of the head, rendering them unconscious and returning to its owner’s hoof. Only the archmage was standing between the Batmare and Princess Cadance and for all the magical powers he possessed, he had to admit that this mare was beginning to make him feel scared.

Batmare took one step closer to the Changeling and that was enough for his eyes to widen enormously and send him flying out of the throne room. Once the enemy was out of the way, she rushed over to the three pods placed onto the thrones and began to cut them open with a Batarang, freeing her brother and the two princesses. She checked their lifesigns and sighed in relief when she saw that all three of them were alive.

But she knew that the crisis was not yet over. The Changelings were still out there and she could do nothing but hope her new friends will be able to fight them off. But now that they have rescued Princess Cadance, they should be significantly weaker. The others should be fine at this point. She began to place the three weakened ponies onto the thrones and tended to them as best as she could. But in the process, she failed to notice that the bright orb which was floating in the center of the room has disappeared.





In the corridors, the battle between Supermare and Scutellum continued to rage on with unbroken ferocity. The kryptonian had been knocked through the wall of the library, crashing between several knocked over bookshelves. The general burst through the hole she’s been knocked through and raised his axe, bringing it down towards the mare who lifted one of the huge bookshelves and hit the Changeling with it, knocking him away.

‘I’ve got to do something about that axe!’ She thought. That weapon was the reason Scutellum could keep her at bay. The Changeling was well aware of this so he kept a firm grip on it. It won’t be easy to take it from him. The two fighters slowly got back on their hooves, panting in exhaustion. It was clear that both of them were beginning to run out of energy.

Scutellum grabbed his axe and charged it with everything he had, ready to make one finally attack at the Mare of Steel. He used his wings to float up over the mare and raised the axe to strike her down. Supermare stood still, as if she just resigned herself to being sliced up by the enormous Changeling’s weapon, only to raise an enormous wall of ice with her freeze breath. Scutellum noticed far too late what the mare was up to and couldn’t stop himself in time. His axe ended up buried and stuck between the ice formation. All of his attempts to pull it out were futile.

Supermare quickly flew behind the ice wall and raised her hoof to punch the Changeling who had no choice but to abandon his weapon. He pulled out a large round shield before charging it with the same magical energy he did with his axe. It was enough to withstand the mighty blows of the kryptonian, but now the Changeling was forced on the defensive.

When Supermare pulled back for another punch, Scutellum countered by charging at her, catching her so off-guard that he managed to knock her back with enough force to send her crashing through another wall. She crashed into one of the castle’s windows, making it crack before falling onto the floor. Before she could get up, the general burst through the wall and punched the mare again with his shield and sent her flying through the window. But he knew she was gonna be back soon so he needed to retrieve his weapon quickly. He was about head back to the library to do just that when he saw the Changeling archmage flying towards him.

"General! It is done! We have the artifact!" He reported, holding the bright orb of light in his hoof. Scutellum immediately took it from him, staring at it in wonder. He couldn't believe it. After all this time, he finally held the key to ultimate power in his hoof. But it was not the time to revel in his victory. They had what they came for, but they were clearly outmatched by these heroes. It was time to leave.

"Open the portal." He ordered the mage. "It's time to return home." They flew up to the top of the castle and the mage quickly summoned a portal back to the Changeling Kingdom while Scutellum lit up his horn and sent out a signal to his soldiers.

All over Canterlot, all the Changelings suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked into the direction of the recently opened gateway back to their home. They all abandoned what they were doing and took off towards it. Even the ones that have been rendered unconscious by the heroes have quickly awoken and joined the others on their way back to the portal and the ones who didn't were carried back by their comrades.

Flash, Green Lantern and Captain MareVel were quite surprised at first when they saw that the Changelings that still surrounded them just gave up and flew off. Their confusion was soon replaced with different emotions in each of them. Flash felt satisfaction as she was sure they were the ones to send the Changelings running. Lantern felt relief as she was certain her ring was running pretty low on energy. And MareVel felt slight concern. Through the wisdom of Starswirl, she deduced that there had to be something behind this unexpected move.

The retreating creatures swarmed towards the portal like locusts. Scutellum and the archmage observed their retreat to make sure none of them was captured by any of the heroes to be interrogated. Luckily for them, they seemed to be content with the fact that the Changelings were retreating and didn't intend chasing them. After all the Changelings entered the portal, the archmage followed suit, but before Scutellum did the same, he briefly turned around and looked down on the heroes who have gathered on the castle’s balcony, staring at the retreating creatures in contempt and triumph.

They thought they have won. Foolish ponies. If only they knew what was in store for them. They kept staring each other down for several more seconds before Scutellum gave them a menacing, dark grin. The battle may have been over, but a war far bigger than they even could have imagined was still ahead of them. The heroes frowned nervously as the Changeling grinned at them. It was so ominous that they half expected him to launch another attack on them, but eventually, the general finally followed his soldiers through the portal which swiftly closed behind him.

An eerie silence followed the Changelings' retreat. The ponies hiding in their homes and among the rubbles took it as a sign that the battle was finally over and slowly dared themselves to come out. The seven warriors who fought the Changelings off looked down from the balcony and saw the gathering crowd of ponies beneath the castle looking up at them. It made them feel a little awkward but that feeling quickly dissipated as the crowd erupted in applause and cheers.

They looked at each other, unsure of how to react to the scene, with the exception of Flash who was quite used to the love of the crowd as a Wonderbolt. She happily returned the waves so the others did the same, although a little more shyly at first as they weren't used to this much attention, but they quickly got into the spirit.

"You know, I could get used to this." Canary told the others as she blew kisses to their adoring fans.

"I don't know." Supermare replied jokingly. "I think I could go without fighting an invasion every week."

As they celebrated, they didn't even notice that one of them has slipped away.





"Here they are! In the throne room!" Twilight Sparkle cried out as she lead a group of guards to the Princesses. With the Changelings gone, they quickly managed to regroup and organise a search for survivors. Their biggest priority of course was the safety of the Princesses.

They burst into the throne room only to see that they weren't the first ones to come to their aid. Princess Luna was there already and awakened Celestia and Shining Armor, Cadance however was still unconscious. Luna quickly noticed them and called two guards over.

"Guards! Please escort my niece back to her room and summon the medical staff to her! She is not well!" Two pegasi immediately flew over and took the pink alicorn off to her room while the rest of them were dismissed to aid the rest of their comrades with the rescue operations outside. Twilight raised an eyebrow upon the sight of the Princess of the Night. She didn't see a sight of her during the invasion and now that it was repelled, she suddenly appears and takes charge? But before she could question her, she heard her brother's  voice.

"Twily..." The Captain groaned when he noticed his sister. He slowly got up from the throne and tried to stumble over to the mare, but Luna stopped him.

"At ease, Captain." She told him soothingly. "You are severely weakened. You need to rest." Shining frowned. He didn't want to rest. The capital of the country he was supposed protect as Captain of the Royal Guard was just invaded and he couldn't do anything to stop it. The love of his life was foalnapped and he was powerless to stop it too. He felt like a failure. He wanted to immediately go out there and began to help as much as he could, but he had no energy to do anything. He quickly sunk back onto the throne.

"Luna..." Celestia groaned to her sister. "What happened?" Luna gently squeezed her sister's hoof with her own.

"It's alright, sister. The threat has been averted. The Changelings have been defeated. Our little ponies are safe."

"Defeated?" Shining asked. "How? Half of the Guard has been abducted." Luna didn't answer. She didn't need to because Shining quickly figured it out. "It were them, weren't they?" The Princess of the Night merely nodded in response. Shining sighed as he leaned back on the throne with a dark look on his face. Twilight wanted to ask him if he was alright, but Luna beat her to it.

"Thank you for your aid, Twilight Sparkle. I will take it from here. You may leave." She told her before returning to tend to her sister. Twilight didn't want to comply but when she looked at her brother who quickly looked away, she could tell that the stallion didn't want her to see him like this, so in the end, she reluctantly left.

She returned to her room and sat down on her bed. She felt like she should be happy. After all, they have defeated the Changelings and saved Equestria, but the victory was bittersweet. Cadance still hasn't awoken, the city was in ruins and Celestia and her brother are going to take a  very long time to recover. She didn't even know how Spike was doing.

She fell back on the bed as she sunk into her thoughts about what was gonna happen now. It was safe to say the wedding was off. The most logical move for her would be to pack up and head back to Manehattan. She could still catch the last train if she hurried. Spike would find his way back to the library. He always had an emergency stash of bits on him.

But then she remembered that she revealed her identity to six heroes she fought alongside with. That was a risky move that she wouldn't have even thought about making under normal circumstances, but she had to gain their trust. Before she left the city, it would be best to speak with all of them to make sure where she stood with them. And the opportunity for that would present itself earlier than she expected.

As she laid on her bed, a shadow was suddenly cast on her from the window. She looked up to see an equine figure floating behind the glass. She didn't need to be the world's greatest detective to know it was one of her new colleagues out there, wanting to talk to her. She opened the window to see Green Lantern in the air in front of her. The Emerald Mare was smiling warmly at her, but she seemingly struggled to say what she wanted.

"Uh... Hey." She said after a few seconds. "If it's okay with you, we'd like to meet with you at Donut Joe's. We'll be in our civilian identities. We talked about it and we decided it's only fair we all got to know each other." Twilight frowned in uncertainty. She wasn't really in the mood for socialising after everything they've been through, but she remembered that she wanted to talk to the other heroes anyway and this was the perfect opportunity for that. In the end, she tried to return the space cop's smile as best as she could as she replied.

"Sounds good. I'll meet you there."





Since she spent her entire foalhood in this city, Twilight would have normally had no trouble finding her way to Donut Joe's shop. She still knew her way, but actually making her way past the ruined buildings and large crowds of ponies who were trying to locate their friends and families among the ruins made the trip significantly harder.

She did eventually found her way to the building, which survived the battle with relatively little damage. Upon entering, she saw only one pony sitting at one of the tables whom she immediately recognised. It was none other than Fluttershy, the civilian idently of the Green Lantern. The pegasus also quickly recognised her, having seen her at the Atheneigh Library when she was researching Nightmare Moon.

"I never thought I'd be having lunch with the Batmare." She said once she made sure that nopony was listening in.

"The same could be said about me and the Green Lantern." Twilight replied as she sat down. "Where are the others?"

"They'll be coming soon. We agreed that I would be the first to greet you. That way, they would know which table to sit at if other customers would show up." Twilight nodded and turned to watch the entrance in anticipation of the others. Only a couple of minutes later, a pink earth pony bounced into the shop, humming a merry tune.

"Pinkie Pie, aka, Captain MareVel." Twilight identified her.

"Yup, that's me!" She said as she bounced to the table. "It is so nice to meet you, Twily!" She cheered, pulling the unicorn into a crushing embrace.

"Um... Likewise..." Twilight replied as she struggled to breath. She was afraid she might pass out, but thankfully Pinkie finally let go of her. 'Sweet Faust! Does she have super strength in her earth pony form as well?'

"Pinkie, remember. Restraint." Fluttershy reminded her.

"Oh, right, sorry!" Pinkie apologised, reaching a hoof out and taking Twilight's into hers before shaking it gently. "See, I'm learning!" She chuckled before sitting down. Twilight barely recovered from the ordeal before the door opened again and a couple of white unicorns walked with the stallion holding the door open for the mare.

"Prince Blueblood and Rarity." Twilight named them as they approached the table. "I think it should be clear who they are." Flutetrshy nodded.

"Indeed." She said as she stood up and shook the duo's hooves. As did Pinkie who finally remembered to retrain herself. The next one who entered the shop was Rainbow Dash.

"Greetings, Flash fans!" She called out to the group at the table as she flew up to them and landed in a chair. "Sorry for being late. I had to make sure my fellow Wonderbolts were ok." She explained before picking up a menu card. "You guys ordered without me?"

"Ordered?" Rarity asked. "I don't know if you've noticed, darling, but the shop is empty. There's nopony to order from."

"Works for me." Dash said, dashing over to the counter and returning with a tray of goods. "After literally saving the city, I'd say we deserve some free food." She said, licking her lips and preparing to devour the food.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that counts as looting." Twilight replied. "I thought superheroes are supposed to fight crime, not commit it." Rainbow sighed.

"Fine. I'll drop some bits at the counter once we're done, but now if you'll excuse me, I need to recharge myself after our fight." She then began to wolf down the food rather messily, much to Rarity's disgust.

"Just because you're the fastest mare alive, doesn't mean you have to be the fastest eater as well!" She scolded her, but the pegasus just waved her off, swallowing her food before turning back to Twilight.

"So you're the Batmare? I must admit, you're a lot shorter out of your costume." Twilight was not sure how to react to that, but she didn't have to.

"Ah, I see you have already gathered!" The six ponies turned to see the seventh member of their group standing over their table. Rainbow nearly choked on her food when she saw her.

"Hey! You're that reporter mare who photoed the Wonderbolts practices!" Lark Cent nodded.

"Eeyup!" She replied simply, much to the pegasus' aggravation.

"So you knew I was the Flash all this time?!" The reporter nodded again, pointing at his eyes.

"X-ray vision, sugarcube. I saw through all of your masks when we met." That shocked all the ponies at the table.

"Wow!" Rarity gasped. "No wonder Lark Cent is the best reported of the Daily Sun!"

"Thanks a lot, Rarity, but I must say, that is not my real name." Lark said and then removed her glasses and her vest, revealing her cutie mark and put her trusty hat on. "My real name is Applejack. I am but a humble farmer's daughter from Ponyville. I just use the Lark Cent alter ego to investigate strange goings on in Equestria without raising suspicion. It earns me a few extra bits and Supermare can always be where she is needed." The eyes of the ponies at the table widened. Even Twilight wasn't aware of that.

"Yeah, I can understand that." Blueblood said once he got over his shock. "I knew all about the uses of putting on masks even before I became Green Arrow." Applejack nodded.

"Indeed. And speaking of masks, I wanted to speak to all of you about ours." She said, finally sitting down. "What happened today would have been far too much for any of us to handle on our own. But together, we managed to save not only Canterlot but possibly all of Equestria. And I believe if another situation like this ever arises again, we should do the same." The six ponies around her listened closely. "I believe that if we combined our forces, we could become a force for justice and good unlike anything Equestria has ever seen." The others processed her words carefully.

"So basically what you're saying is..." Twilight began. "...we should continue working as a team." Applejack nodded.

"Eeyup. That's exactly what I'm saying. I reckon we saved a lot more ponies today than we ever did before put together. And if we can do that as a team, then that team is worth keeping up." She then raised her right hoof and placed it on the middle of the table. "Are you in?"

The others looked at each other in my contemplation. This was a big decision, but they couldn't deny Applejack raised some good points. They were Equestria’s most powerful defender and together, they could be even stronger. Eventually, a yellow hoof slowly but certainly joined the orange one.

"I am." Fluttershy replied. She wasn't one to make the first move in a group, but she really liked Applejack's idea and she knew the others needed a boost to be convinced. "You are right. Our powers combined could protect Equestria and its ponies from anything." Applejack smiled at her in gratitude.

"Anypony else?" Rainbow Dash shrugged casually.

"Rainbow Dash always has time for her fans! You guys are no exception!" She said, joining hoof with the others.

"What a marvellous idea, darling!" Rarity commented, addig her own hoof. "But I do have a condition."

"And what would that be?" Applejack asked curiously and slightly concerned.

"I will become the team's official stylist and you'll let me take a look at your suits! Becoming the fashion designers of superheroes is my fillyhood dream ever since you saved me from those bullies all those years ago!" Applejack's smile returned as she recalled that day. It felt good to be making such an impression on other ponies.

"I suppose this means I'm in as well!" Blueblood said, placing his hoof on his marefriend's. "Wherever my beloved goes, I shall be there by her side!"

"Oh, lucky me!" Rarity said dryly, causing the others to chuckle.

"I'm always down for making new friends!" Pinkie squealed, joining hooves with the others. "Ooh! That sounds good! We could call ourselves The Super Friends!" The others merely gave the pink mare odd looks at the suggestion of that absurd name. "Or not." Pinkie chuckled nervously. "Don't worry, I'll come up with something cooler."

"I'm sure you will, sugarcube." Applejack assured her before turning to Twilight. "I know you're not exactly the most sociable type, Twi and I know you'll be the toughest to convince, but we need you the most. Without your leadership, I'm not sure we would have triumphed today."

Twilight looked down. She wasn't sure she should do this. She always preferred to work alone. It took a lot of time until she convinced herself to partner up with Captain Garden. Not to mention that these godly beings were all worth a million of her. Did she really want to get involved in their affairs?

But the she realised that Applejack was right. Today, she saw for herself just what kind of threats were lurking out there. If another menace like the Changelings ever struck again, what could she do by herself? She looked at the six joined hooves in front of her and made up her mind. She stood up and placed hers right on top of theirs, sealing the deal, much to Applejack's delight.

"Thank you!" She said as she sat down.
"All of you! Alright, i think I kept you away from the delicious treats this shop has to offer long enough. It's time to enjoy our well earned feast!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she grabbed more treats for herself. As the ponies around the table began to eat and share stories above their adventures, something caught Twilight's eye. She looked out the window and saw a familiar figure standing there.

Jean Jeans was looking her straight in eye through the glass and she immediately knew that he wanted to talk to her. She excused herself from the tablet and walked out to confront the observer. She immediately noticed how empty the streets surrounding them suddenly became. The guards probably escorted all the ponies around here to safety at this point.

"Congratulations, Miss Sparkle!" He said. "You and your colleagues have managed to live up to my every expectation." It was clear that they both knew what the other was at this point, so Twilight dropped the facade.

"You knew the whole time, didn't you?" She asked. "You knew about the Changelings. You knew about who we were. You orchestrated everything so that we would meet and be at the wedding exactly when they struck." Jean didn't even flinch at the accusations.

"Yes." He replied simply. "I have. I asked my mistress not to interfere and to let me set these events in motion. I knew the threat looming over our heads can only be defeated by a union of Equestria’s greatest defenders. We needed you together. Equestria needed you." Twilight narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

"Who are you?"

"I have gone by many names." Jean replied. "And taken many forms. I come from a world long since gone. Much like your kryptonian friend in there. I have made connection with Princess Luna while she was sealed inside the moon and came back with her upon her release." Twilight's eyes widened.

"You're an alien?" In response, Jean closed his eyes and his body began to glow with radiant light. Twilight had to protect his eyes but she could still see Jean's body changing. When the light faded, a pure white equine figure was standing in front of her with no hair on his body, blood red, pupilless eyes and wearing a long blue cape attached to his back by two belts that formed an X like shape on his body.

"I am the last of those who once inhabited the moon of your planet. My world is gone, but I have found a new home here at the side of my mistress. I have already lost one home and I'm not about to lose another. If you would allow me, I would very much like to join your congregation." It took Twilight to get over her shock, but she realised she shouldn't be so surprised at existence of another alien. She's seen stranger things after all.

"Well, we'll take all the help we can get so... welcome aboard, I guess." Jean nodded in gratitude.

"I knew I chose wisely when I elected your leadership to build the team around, Miss Sparkle. We couldn't have won the day without it. Your husband would be proud of you." Twilight's face fell at the mention of High Culture. She often wondered how he would feel about her career as Batmare. She didn't know why, but this stranger's words reassured her as she felt they were true.

"I hope so." Twilight whispered sadly. An awkward silence fell upon the two for a few seconds which Jean finally broke.

"Well, if you need me, you know where to find me." He said as he was about to turn away, but suddenly stopped. "Oh, and since your friends all have their crimefighting aliases, you can refer to me as the Lunar Hunter." He told her before vanishing in front of her eyes. Twilight wasn't even surprised at this point.

"Guess I'll see you around." She mused before turning to return to her new friends inside.





In a dark and bleak land far away from Equestria, a pitch black castle was towering over the rest of the crude buildings of the landscape that looked like it was made of chitin, surrounded by hundreds of Changelings both on the ground and in the air.

Genaral Scutellum landed in front of the stairs that lead up to the castle’s entrance looking up at the enormous gates in anticipation. He had the duty of reporting to his queen about the Battle of Canterlot and reporting to the Changeling queen could be a matter of life and death. Often the latter.

He looked around at the surrounding Changelings who have all fled in terror when their general's eyes fell on them before making his way up the stairs and inside the castle. He made his way to the throne room where as he expected, Pharynx was waiting for him with a taunting smirk on his face.

"Mighty Scutellum. Running home in defeat with his tail between his legs." He mocked, earning an angry growl from the much bigger Changeling. "The queen is expecting you. And I assume she's not going to be happy when she hears that her finest warrior failed to take Canterlot." Scutellum just stared down at Pharynx contemptuously before his lips curled up into a smug smirk of his own.

"But that was never the objective." Pharynx frowned in confusion as the general made his way past him and entered the throne room where the Queen of all Changelings was waiting for him on her throne, looking down at Scutellum stoically. Scutellum stood in front of her and fell down onto his knees.

"My queen, thy will is done." He reported as he pulled out the orb of light his mages extracted from Cadance. "The artifact is yours."

The queen ignited her horn and levitated the orb onto her hoof. Her lips curled up into an evil smirk as she stared at it, the outline of her face illuminated by its light. She was right to assume that the Princess of Love would hold what she needed deep inside her.

Love was what gave Changelings power and with this artifact, she could obtain the love of all creatures in existence. She almost didn't dare to believe it. After all these years, ultimate power was within a front leg's reach of her. The Anti-Love Equation was finally hers!