//------------------------------//
// The Last Resort 
// Story: Happy Adventuring, Twilight! 
// by Pennington Inkwell 
//------------------------------//

	After sending the soon-to-be-previous king of the changelings to the ground, Pennington looked up at the slightly taller changeling with a curt nod. "I'm guessing that you can take things from here?"

"We can, but there's no promise that we can help get you out of here in one piece." She looked back down at Pennington with an expression that showed the gravity of her position. "This has been a long time, coming, though. You may as well have stepped into a powder keg."

"I've been in powder kegs before. This is more interesting." Pennington shrugged, then nodded again to her. "Thank you. I won't forget this..." He cast a semi-anxious glance to the king, who was struggling to stand again. "Chrysalis is your name, isn't it?"

"Yes. And yours?"

"Pennington. Pennington Inkwell."

"Well, if we win this, Pennington Inkwell, you will not be forgotten, I can assure you of that." Chrysalis looked at the growing army behind her with a smile. "The majority of the hive is empty, and we can try to hold the fighting to the arena, but you should run, because I can't make any promises."

"Duly noted." Pennington nodded and, without another word, turned to Twilight, who, rather than look at the forces behind her, watched as what appeared to be a small army of the royal guards gathered behind their king, trying to help him up.

Pennington walked to Twilight and gently pulled the black ring off of her horn. "It's time to go, Twilight."

Twilight finally snapped out of her daze and looked straight into his eyes. "So... We're not dead."

"Not yet... But we should probably start running if we want to keep it that way!" Pennington grabbed her hoof and gave it a firm tug. "Run!"

Twilight followed the tug, forcing her hooves to work again. In a sight that she thought that she would never view, the changelings that had gathered behind them moved to the side to let them pass, providing a clear path.

"GET... THEM!" King Entropy screamed. In a massive burst of energy, he charged forward and took to the air. His legion of guards followed suit, charging towards the opposing side.

"Charge!" Chrysalis, already standing tall as a leader, motioned for the masses behind her to launch a counter-attack, and the air and floor were soon filled with changelings battering and smashing one another with hoof-to-hoof combat and bursts of magical energy. The sound was awful, and Twilight cringed as she tried to run faster, moving towards a door that had opened in the side of the arena.

"Look out!" Pennington cried, and before she could respond, Twilight felt a flash of heat behind her and shattered pieces of one of Pennington's scimitars sprinkled across her back, where they quickly dissolved away.

"I've got your back, Twilight! Just don't stop running!" Pennington had a silly grin plastered across his face as he ran next to her.

Twilight felt a sense of familiarity when they had finally reached the doors and stormed to the other side. With Pennington leading, they raced back through the rooms that they had marched though on their way to the trial. 

"Wha- What are we going here?" Twilight panted as they seemed to reach their destination: the jail cell where they had been kept only a short time ago against their will.

"Well, my dear, you see, the changelings made on absolutely horrendous mistake whilst transporting us here!" Pennington was speaking fast and furiously, forcing Twilight to pay rapt attention, in spite of her tiredness. "Our foes failed to bring to their notions the conception that I would be visibly making mental notes as to particular units and abnormalities that would guide us along our way back out of the hive!"

"Why are you talking like that?" She asked as she watched him investigating what appeared to be containers within the wall.

"Just stopping you from zoning out the same way that you did in the arena! If I speak in an advanced manner with a vocabulary that takes time to process and comprehend, I'm guessing that your head will stay out of the clouds." Pennington, who seemed to be more joyful than nervous, finally found what he was looking for: his saddlebags. With hardly a thought, he juggled a few objects between the two of them, then dropped only one onto his back. "Only the essentials!" To Twilight's surprise, some of the "essentials" included three quills that began to rapidly orbit around him, suspended by his magic.

"Pennington, this is no time for writing!" Twilight stomped her hoof. "If you were making mental notes of the landmarks, then you had better well get us out of here!"

"I suppose that this means an acquittal, doesn't it?"

Twilight froze as a changeling voice echoed through the room. Both ponies turned around slowly to reveal Ace standing in the doorway, his horn glowing with a neon-green light.

"You're not a message courier, are you, Pennington?"

"Nope, that was complete nonsense." Pennington didn't even seem worried at the sight of Ace, but Twilight couldn't help but worry about the aggressive glow coming off of his horn.

"And the dune worms?"

"Total bollocks!" Pennington chirped. "Just trying to buy us a little pity."

Ace's eyes narrowed. "Then why are you really here?"

"I'm just a tourist, really." Pennington shrugged. "I came here seeking to understand what it was like in the changeling hive! I must say, this has been a most fascinating visit! Perhaps even more interesting than Mount Neverrest!"

Ace seemed to be thinking about this as he turned to Twilight, who took a step back under his scrutiny. "And you?"

"I-I- came to stop him from getting himself killed." Twilight let out a long sigh. "Seems as if it's been the other way around, though."

Ace examined them both once more, then nodded and turned his back to them. "If there's one thing that I remember from my days before the hive, it's how to tell when somepony is lying. You get out of here, I'll do my best to slow them down."

"Thank you, Ace. I hope that we meet again." Pennington's smile grew less silly and more sincere as he trotted towards the other door. "They knocked you unconscious for this part, Twilight, so you'll have to follow me."

"And why didn't they knock you out?" Twilight asked as she struggled to catch up. She was worried about what exactly was going to happen to Ace, but if he was trying to buy them time, they had to use it as best they could.

"They tried, but I had taken a higher dosage of my pills than usual, so they couldn't. The medication keeps me awake if I take more than I'm supposed to." Pennington looked down the large hall that they had entered, seeing something that Twilight obviously couldn't within the emerald walls, which now seemed to glow from within. With renewed purpose, he began trotting again.

A thought suddenly came to Twilight as her brain once again began to focus and think of multiple things at once. "Wait... How long was I asleep?"

"I would guess about eight hours..." Pennington smiled. "Don't worry about it, you needed the rest more than I did. I only woke up at about one in the morning." Despite his words, though, he let loose a long yawn as he turned another corner. "This certainly is easier when the hive is deserted..."

"Halt! Intruders!" A gruff voice called as three changeling guards appeared at the end of the hall. Without waiting for a response, they began to advance with their horns glowing brightly.

"Honestly?" Pennington groaned. "Why does my sense of timing have so be so-" He was cut off as the leader of the three pounced. Pennington met him with the flat of a scimitar. Without time to respond, Pennington's horn glowed brighter and pressed him and upwards into the ceiling, where the sword pressed against his throat, cutting his supply of oxygen.

The other two seemed to be trying to attack Twilight, each firing off a blast of energy.

"AAH!" Twilight scrambled backwards to avoid the bolts exploding at her hooves, nearly landing on her rear in the process. With a scowl, she fired off a couple shots in return, and each found their mark. To her surprise, Twilight watched them fly backwards, all the way to the other end of the hall, slamming against the wall and falling unconscious.

"See? I told you. Energy boost." Pennington smiled as his scimitar floated back down into sight. When Twilight looked up, the guard was unconscious and embedded in the ceiling, hanging with his back and wings suspended in the goo. "You can have a little fun with it if you know how... Just watch out for when you crash, later. It's like caffeine."

Twilight rolled her eyes and walked back up to him. "Well, we can have fun later, let's run right now!"

"Is that a promise?" Pennington grinned as her face flushed and took off at a gallop down the hall again, forcing Twilight to run again to catch up. The turns came faster now, and Twilight thought at moments that she was going to lose him, but Pennington was always just around the corner, making sure that she didn't.

However, Twilight kept hearing noises behind them... Noises of angry changelings.

"They're catching up!" She shouted as she finally came to the point of running abreast with Pennington again, who was beginning to look tired.

"Well, we'll just have to go faster!" Pennington began to gain speed for a few seconds, but Twilight saw him quickly slow down again. "Not... gonna... happen. Looks as if we're going to have to fight our way out of here. Again."

As Twilight looked over, she saw the unnatural tiredness in his face, which was beginning to droop. "That crash works faster than caffeine, doesn't it?"

"Well, depends on how active you are, how high your metabolism is, gender, and a few other things... But... It's going to work faster on me, yes..." He muttered. "We'll have to find a defendable point, but not this room. It's too big. There are too many places for them to hide."

Now that Twilight had stopped, she took a good look at the room that they were in.

Pennington was right, not only was the ceiling shrouded in darkness, but there were pod-like things lining the walls and scattered on the floor. Some were large, some were small, but they all glowed from within with a sickly-green light. On closer inspection, Twilight discovered dark shapes inside. Curious, she stepped closer to one of the small ones on the wall. When she squinted her eyes, she finally made out the shape: a tiny changeling, blurred and hazy through the gel. She let out an audible gasp at the sight: the poor creature looked emaciated, hardly anything more than a skeleton. As she looked around at the thousands of cocoons, she realized that every one of them held a starving changeling nymph.

We're in the nursery... A starving nursery. She thought. The very idea that there were babies, changeling or pony, starving to death like this broke her heart, and she reached out to the infant, wishing to help in some way. It was some deep instinct for her to try to protect these helpless little ones, just as she had protected Spike in his earliest years.

"Stay back!" A hissing black form leaped out from the darkness, knocking her backwards towards Pennington. Before Twilight could even try to launch a counter-attack, she and Pennington were surrounded by changelings.

These changelings, however, were different. Their lithe figures and gentler curves showed that they, unlike most of the soldiers she had seen, were female. Every one of them seemed as starved as their young, but their hissing and readiness to attack showed that they had by no standards become weak.

"L-Ladies, please! There's no reason to panic!" Pennington, now wide-awake, was looking from side to side for some kind of escape. "We're just passing through, really! We'll be out of your manes in just a minute, honestly..."

His words seemed to have no effect, however, as the group kept advancing, drawing closer and closer with their feral-sounding hissing.

In a moment, though, they drew to a stop as the pods around them began to glow again, this time pulsating more quickly and brightly. They all glanced to one another, as if conferring with one another on some secret matter. The first one that had attacked Twilight stepped forward from the circle, speaking with a raspy feminine voice. 

"You... Care about them?" She ignored Pennington, fixing her eyes on Twilight. Twilight stared straight back into the azure orbs, surprised at the nature of the inquiry.

"Well, of course... They're starving, and they don't deserve it..." Twilight quietly replied, looking around at the countless lights that lined the walls. In the increasing light, Twilight could see several pods that refused to glow... Completely dark. Her heart broke again as she recognized what must have been inside of them. "They did nothing to put themselves in this place... But they can't do anything to change their situation. They need help."

A faint, indeterminable chatter emanated from the group, and Twilight couldn't help but feel as if they were on trial once again, with only her words to sway the jury. "Entropy has completely ignored the nurseries in his fruitless quest to dominate your country. He would kill us all for the simple purpose of getting what he wants."

"Entropy is no longer in control!" Twilight smiled, in spite of their saddened locale. "There is hope. There's a revolution happening right now, and Entropy is going to lose! You can go and fight for them!" She motioned to all of the tiny creatures around them. "You can help them!"

This inspired more chatter, this time louder.

The first changeling looked at Twilight with a mix of suspicion and shock. "A... revolution?"

"Yes, Entropy has already been stricken down by my friend, who chopped of his horn!" She motioned to Pennington, who was staying quiet, for once. "It is the start of a new life in the hive. A new life for them." She swung her hoof around, motioning to the ever-more-brightly glowing cells.

The changelings chattered for a few more minutes, and Twilight could tell that some of the debates were becoming heated. After a short time, though, the leader returned.

"You shall go. You've shown us that you don't want to hurt them, and that's what we were worried about..." A path opened in the back of the group, once again letting them pass. "If you make it back to your home, remember these younglings from time to time. Send them a little love, as you did today."

Twilight nodded solemnly as she realized why they had been glowing more brightly: she had given them love, even if she hadn't been trying to. Slowly, she and Pennington left the room, following the path that was made for them.

The sounds of their pursuers were growing louder, though, and seemed to be at a roar when they finally left the nursery. The moment that they were out, Pennington had recovered enough to run some more, and Twilight was surprised that she hadn't felt the "crash" from the inhibitor ring.

"They're coming!" Twilight cried as they came to a stop in a small hallway. The sound of battle cries and fighting was everywhere, now, with no definite direction. When she looked back to Pennington, he was using his magic to form a wall that sealed off the way that they had come from. Without waiting for instructions, she did the same to the other end of the hallway, creating a momentary stronghold.

Their efforts seemed to be just in time as what seemed to be a sea of black bodies came from around the corner, colliding with their walls in a frenzied storm. Twilight nearly lost her nerve at the sight: half of them seemed to be trying to break through the shield, and the other half seemed to only be interested in fighting one another, creating a cacophony of squeals and cries. She focused her energy on keeping it intact, but it wasn't as hard as she imagined, with the boost from the inhibitor ring still amping up her power. When she turned back to Pennington, she could see that, while it was obviously taxing him, his share of their protection had not a single crack in it, despite their attackers. For once, Twilight was actually beginning to feel confident in their chances. She recognized where they were now, which meant that they could find their way back to the entrance without getting lost again. With Pennington to help her, she knew that they would be able to make it!

But that was a foolish thought. She heard the clamor from Pennington's side begin to die down a few minutes later. When she turned her attention to him again, the storm of bodies had receded, making way for something much worse.

King Entropy had somehow reached them. The stump of his horn was sputtering green energy in spasms and sparks, and even seemed to be bleeding green, running the liquid down his helmet in a morbid coloration. He was simply staring down at Pennington with a glare that could have melted an iceberg in the Arctic. Slowly, and with a calmness that betrayed his rage, he lifted up a single hoof... and tapped the barrier.

Cracks spread out across Pennington's barrier like a spiderweb, and Entropy smiled in a way that chilled Twilight to her soul.

"NO! PENNY!" Twilight rushed to the magical wall, placing her horn on the barrier to try and strengthen it. With a sudden jerk, she found herself pulled away again by one of her back legs. When she turned back, she saw Pennington, panting heavily and with a flushed face, shaking his head.

"Not there... Here..." He pointed to his own horn. "I need... help."

Twilight nodded. She touched her horn to the tip of his, hoping to give him an energy boost.

"Sorry, Twi..." 

She heard Pennington mumble. Before she could question the words, however, her entire world exploded in a blast of pain and light... And everything was silent.