Chapter 15
Ancro held onto both his friends for dear life as they tried desperately to steer through the pitch-black water. They fought to the surface, and struggled to stay there as they were whisked through the sewers. When the floor fell out, Ancro had grabbed hold of Stigandr. Then the splash came, and Ancro grew some fingers and grabbed the griffin so they wouldn’t get separated.
At first Ancro considered this akin to a Disney ride, minus the safety features, so he just closed his eyes and held on tight. Stigandr tried desperately to steer through the water, but upon realizing the futility of fighting the current, just consigned to providing light. Scott just screamed and swore, and tried to break Ancro’s grip. The guards that fell in did their best to relax, and let the flotation magic in their armor take control. Still, rushing blindly through tunnels of water was more than a bit unnerving. Shift and Specs dove and grew gills, but still found the current nearly impossible to fight.
“Left or right?” Ancro yelled, over the roaring water.
“Left!” Scott yelled.
“Nope!” Stigandr replied, kicking off the wall before Scott could argue, and sent them down the tunnel to the right.
The tunnel was smaller, and had a much faster current. This brought about new bouts of screaming from all three of them as they started to tumble and spin through the water, occasionally catching a glimpse from the light of Stigandr’s flickering horn. Then he hit it on something, and it went out. Now they were in complete darkness. Suddenly, they came out and breathed. Soon after. they became aware that they were falling. Still gasping for air, they fruitlessly flapped their wings. Ancro’s were no good because they were wet, and Scott couldn’t lift both of them, only managing to slow the fall down.
They landed in calmer water, and took a few deep breaths. Though the sound of rushing water was still near, there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it. Then they started moving again, Stigandr lit up his horn and it revealed that they were in large chamber with multiple pipes like the one they were in, emptying into it. That wasn’t what caught their attention though, what got their attention was the large whirlpool in the middle of the room. The one they were heading towards. The three friends screamed.
Princess Luna stood in dark blue armor, and was flanked by her bat-winged pegasi. She examined the sizable hole that was the laundry room’s floor. She secretly knew that she would have to reprimand Shining Armor. He rushed blindly into what was obviously a trap. Now, not only was his life in danger, but also twenty guards. According to a report by Twilight Sparkle, several changelings and Ancro’s friends. Much to her disbelief, they were not under a control spell. She took a deep breath before giving her orders to the guards.
“Examine everypony who has been inside the prison, and see if they are changelings,” she said begrudgingly. The changelings had forced not only her, but the whole of Equestria to be more cautious with how they treated ponies. The stigma particularly went towards ponies that had just arrived, however some friendships had been ruined by the paranoia, when somepony had taken up a new hobby. Also, this would easily tie up a third of the guards, doing something that she already knew was unnecessary. However, with changelings, she also knew she couldn’t be sure. “Have all the guards that are cleared for duty take up posts at all the exit pipes. Anything that is alive, bring them to the prison for examination. We don’t care if it is Captain Shining Armor or any other guard stallions, they are to be thoroughly examined and handled with extreme caution.” She stopped short of imprisoning them in irons and put to the rack. She had to remember that these were different times.
After the guards had left and she was alone with only her two pegasi, she descended into the water. The rushing water parted around her as she flew through the tunnels, with her guards struggling to keep pace. She was the only one who knew their origins, but suffice it to say, she liked the mystery that surrounded her so-called ‘lunar stallions’. She made it a point to keep up with all the rumors bouncing around, and had to smile as she thought of some of them. She got a particular good laugh out of one of the rumors that they were, in fact, merely foals disguised in a suit of magic armor with no real responsibilities. Celestia had been struck by the curiosity as well, and had sought to find their origins. It had become a game she played with her big sister, one she was winning.
The demigoddess shook her head clear of the thoughts and focused on the task at hoof: Finding the guards and Shining Armor, then the changelings and his friends.
“I’m sorry ma’am, but Princess Luna believes it is necessary,” the guard pony said, as he finished waving his horn over Cadence.
“It’s okay, I understand,” she replied in a voice that was tired, both physically and emotionally. “How are Hoplon and Firecracker?” She looked over and saw her two personal guards being examined by doctors.
“They’ll be fine,” He replied, “Just going to be put up for a few days.”
“Thank you,” She replied.
“Just doing my job ma’am,” The guard responded.
Twilight was together with her friends again, and after they were examined, walked out of the prison. They immediately basked in the blinding light that was princess Celestia.
“Princess!” Twilight exclaimed, rushing towards her mentor and greeted her with a hug. “Where were you, why didn’t you answer any of my letters?”
“I was away on business in Fillydelphia. I didn’t get any letters. It wasn’t until the messenger from the palace came, that I became aware of the situation and rushed back.” She smiled. “I’m glad to see you were able to help your brother.”
“Not as much as I would have liked,” she said, a mixture of anger and sadness in her voice.
“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Celestia said, looking into her student’s eyes. “As we speak, weather control ponies are clearing up the skies and search teams are being organized to search the sewers for your brother and the changelings.”
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight said. She had the hint of doubt in her voice that would typically overtake her when she was about to tell the princess something she may have thought she overlooked. “I-I think that there may have been ponies inside the palace working for the changelings, and I’d like to stay in Canterlot until we discover them.”
“What makes you think that, Twilight?”
“How many ponies could have known that you and Shining Armor were going to be gone?” She asked, then decided to add, “And besides that, they knew Cadence was going to be in the prison as well at the exact time.”
“You are right to worry, my faithful student.” The alicorn replied with a sigh, “It is a problem that I’ve been worried about for a while.”
“I can help.” Twilight replied, almost as fast as Celestia could answer the question.
“I admire your enthusiasm, but it-“ She cut herself off when she saw the rest of her friends getting ready to step up and say they’d help save Equestria. Something they had already done multiple times. “Very well, but be careful. We’ve already learned that the changelings have different powers than they showed during the invasion. We don’t know what else they can do.”
“Don’t worry princess, we’ll be careful,” she replied.
“After that beatin’ we dealt ‘em, they’d haftah think twihce ‘fore they mess with any of us,” Applejack responded.
“I’m going to make a larger bore to my party cannon!” Pinkie proclaimed.
“It would be dreadful for any of those things to come across me in a dark alley,” Rarity said.
“I’ll tear ‘em limb from limb!” Rainbow Dash said, “What the hay gives them the right to do this?”
“I’ll try and help too. I-if you don’t mind, that is...”
Shining Armor washed up along the side of one of the wider tunnels, where the current wasn’t as strong. After coughing up water, he lit up his horn, looking for any other of the guards and any of the changelings. Last he checked there were three, plus the unicorn and griffin that were under the spell. Unless there were any of them hiding in the sewers, and… Given how his day was going, he had a feeling he would stumble across their entire army. Granted, that still wouldn’t stop him from saving his sister or his wife.
With some effort, he stood up and looked around, using his horn to light the tunnel. He found that he was alone as far as his light would extend. With no signs of the changelings or any of his guards, out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow move up the wall. He called out to it. It stopped momentarily, before it disappeared around a corner, heading upstream. Shining Armor cautiously followed.
Shift and Specs were latched to the side of a wall, after nearly getting sucked in the whirlpool that had just sucked up Ancro and his friends. They kept getting more and more baffled by his behavior, he didn’t do the things that a changeling normally would do. He seemed to fight when running was a better option, he wouldn’t do the basic transformations like growing gills, so he wouldn’t drown or hold onto the walls. He was clinging to his friends for dear life.
“Specs,” Shift said, looking at the pipe they had gone out of, “I don’t think I can manage swimming back through that.”
“I know, neither could I.” She smiled to her brother, “Even if we hadn’t been running from praetorians, we wouldn’t have had the strength.”
“So what’s the plan, sis?”
“I don’t really know,” She shrugged. “Right now, following them seems to be the best way to go.” A pair of gills grew along the side of her neck, and she tucked her wings as close as they could get to her body. She dived into the whirlpool, with her brother nervously following behind her.
They broke the surface after being underwater, for god knows how long. Stigandr struggled to light his horn, gasping for air as Ancro loosened his grip and they started to drift apart. It was at this time, Scott and Stigandr realized that their heavy metal armor wasn’t sinking them and was, in fact, floating with them like a life jacket.
“Lucky bastards,” Ancro said, between waves washing over and against his head as he struggled towards the ledge that he had to assume was used by maintenance ponies.
“Do you want a lift?” Stigandr asked, swimming next to him.
“No, I’m good,” Ancro said, struggling along. Swimming is hell when you have holes in your legs and several broken ribs. ‘Weren’t those supposed to heal?’ He kept thinking as the weight of his body started to drag him down.
“Dude, we just went through all that effort to save you,” Scott said, extending a wing out to his friend. “I’m going to be real pissed if you end up drowning.”
“Fine,” He said weakly, grabbing hold of the wing with his forelegs after trying unsuccessfully to grow fingers. “I was about to cave anyways.”
After a few minutes of paddling, they reached the edge of what looked like a maintenance area. There was a nice dry area with a sloping ledge that had a door for easy access. From the rust that was on the hinges, it looked like there wasn’t much maintenance done down here. They decided to take a quick breather. No one said anything for the longest time, until Scott spoke up.
“I thought Equestria was supposed to be a happy place, with a lack of horrible shape-shifting monsters and near drowning experiences,” the griffin said, lying down with only the upper half of his body out of the water.
“Yet, here we are,” Ancro finished.
“Yeah Scott, if you watched the show, you may have had an idea of what might have been going to happen,” Stigandr teased.
“I didn’t know I was going to have a migraine from hell if I didn’t have any love to feed off of,” Ancro said, then continued with a chuckle. “I also didn’t know I’d experience physical exhaustion, along with a redefined emotional exhaustion.”
“Magical exhaustion does suck.” Stigandr added something Ancro nodded to in agreement.
“I’m just ti-“ Scott continued talking as the words tumbled mutely out of his mouth.
The trio shot up and immediately looked around. Scott immediately got to work on the door while Stigandr and Ancro took up positions to cover him if they were attacked. Ancro fumed that his choice feeding time of sitting around a joking had been interrupted by some eavesdroppers. The changeling was even more irritated that they wouldn’t show themselves and release some of the tension. The stress added a sour taste to everything.
Stigandr lit what little of the area he could with his magic. It revealed nothing, the unicorn’s eyes shifted cautiously for any signs of movement. This only made him double his efforts. He looked for any reflection or out of place ripples while the griffin swore under his breath.
Shift and Specs were safe from the light while they treaded just below the water’s surface. They had masked their presence nearly perfectly. The brother and sister glanced to each other cautiously as they slowly backed away from the edge. She didn’t know if those three had any other talents that they could be hiding. She just saw that all of a sudden, they had been talking, and when she listened in they had stopped and began looking around.
“Scott, move aside.” She heard Ancro say. He may have been struggling to hide it but he was running on empty. Any love he had been getting was healing his body and he was making it worse by his continued moving. Didn’t he know that rule number one of any injury you stop moving until it’s healed? Even with the love flowing in from his friends it would take a half hour for him to heal back to a position he should move in. She heard the sound of hooves on wood followed by a groan. ‘Best make it an hour.’ She thought having been convinced that this changeling was utterly stupid.
“We need to go before whoever is out there decides to do something besides listen,” Stigandr said, and she heard him walk up to his panting friend. The door clicked and she felt a tiny bit of resentment form in Ancro. It was gone as soon as the changeling made a comment about him being the ‘master of unlocking.’
Princess Cadence was walking back to the palace to wait for Shining Armor’s return. Luna had assured she would find him, and he had every confidence in her.
Discord saw this, and glanced around until he found the only other pony on the street. A blue mare with a silver mane, who herself was full of self-doubt. She had a star cape, and one of those pointy wizard hats that reminded him of some pony he had hated so long ago. Except his was a lot more authentic, not some cardboard creation.
Trixie was packing up her show. She had finally started to get back on her hooves and draw crowds once again. Not nearly the size of which she was used to, but enough to make the down payment for a new wagon. This was going to let her make her way back to the top, as long as she avoided Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle.
She had finished packing up and was heading back to her apartment with more money than she would’ve had if she had not gone out today. It turns out that there was a big commotion out at the prison. She didn’t know what it was about, but regardless, lots of ponies had come out in the rain. She had provided them with entertainment and farfetched stories, albeit with more grounding in fact.
“Excuse me,” a tired voice said from behind her. Trixie turned around after putting on her smile.
“I’m sorry, but The Great and Powerful Trixie is-“ She stopped mid-sentence, when she realized she was talking to Princess Cadence. “I’m so sorry your highness, however can I help you?” She was nearly groveling. Not because she could’ve offended royalty, but because she realized that the pony standing in front of her could take her to the top if she played her cards right.
“You dropped this,” Princess Cadence said, magicking the crystal ball.
“I’m sorry, but that couldn’t possibly be Trixie’s,” The blue mare said, opening her bags to be certain. It was gone, “Trixie was sure she had put her crystal ball away,” she said, grabbing her ball with her magic and cleaning the mud off it. She checked the bottom to be certain it was hers. It was, it had her initials on the bottom of it.
“It’s alright, we all make mistakes,” Cadence said.
‘Yeah, but you have the bits to replace yours.’ Trixie almost said, before catching herself. “Thank you; Trixie has no idea what she would’ve done without this. If there’s any way Trixie can repay you…”
“I’m alright,” she said, before continuing her walk back to the palace. Trixie could tell she wasn’t. Hell, a small foal could tell she wasn’t alright. Trixie needed this sale.
“Trixie knows!” The mare said, pulling out the blanket and cushions from her bag. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will tell you your future.”
“I don’t want to be a bother,” she said again, although with more doubt in her voice.
“I am The Great and Powerful Trixie,” she scoffed. “It is no trouble at all, Trixie’s family has a long history of serving the royal family. It would be an honor!”
“If you are sure it’s not too much trouble,” she said, as she sat down on the cushion.
“There are very few things that are trouble for The Great and Powerful Trixie,” she replied, lighting up her horn and waving her forehooves over the crystal ball. “Tell Trixie what you want to know, what troubles the mind of one of Equestria’s princesses?”
“I’m worried about Shining Armor,” Cadence said. “He was in the prison when the changelings attacked.”
Trixie hid the delight in her voice, to hear the confirmation that there was a changeling attack, and not the rumors and hearsay. This was already turning profitable.
“That was all Trixie needed to know,” she said in an ominous voice. “Now crystal ball, show Trixie the future of the stallion known as Shining Armor!”
The crystal ball showed an image, but not the one she wanted it to show. She wanted to show the image of those two ponies back together again; something vague but something that Cadence could make happen and Trixie was confident would happen. That was all there was to fortune telling, the teller shoots an arrow and it hits the bull’s-eye the pony paints for it.
The image that was appearing on the crystal ball was one that was terrifyingly specific. It showed Shining Armor captured by changelings. He was struggling as they mocked him and beat him. Taking turns, appearing as ponies he loved, each one hurting him more severely than the last. Until Chrysalis herself appeared and changed into Cadence, there was a flash from her horn and the crystal ball shattered into a million pieces. Trixie turned to apologize to the princess for showing such disturbing images, but Cadence was already gone.
(Thanks for reading! Sorry for the lack of action (to those who were expecting more) but this was a cool down after the last chapter, which a good 75% of was fight scene. Anyways big thanks to my editor/artist Sara for making this readable (for commissions check the title). Thanks to my friends for being okay with being included in the story. If any of you saw my post you’re probably aware that I’m going to be staying with my grandparents for a bit and not sure how much time I’ll have to type, factor in I’m also working on a few stories for some contests (Words cannot express the amount of irritation I feel when writing a short story; it’s a true pain for me). Let me know how I did I do enjoy feedback comment or message me on how I can make this a better story. I thoroughly enjoyed the season premiere it went further into the magic as well as the limitations of it. Also good to know I didn’t step on any canon. Also belated veterans day to any and all vets we appreciate your service.)