//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Straggler // by Parravin //------------------------------// There were no other changelings in the city of Canterlot. I, Vespur, a lone changeling general, made it in. The only other changeling within the vicinity was at the castle, in disguise. You can hardly call the Queen a changeling, though. Too regal. She had requested my presence in the city, and my job was to find all weak points in the large dome shield around the vicinity. I looked up to see a rather large pink surface, clearly my target. I saw some points there earlier with my rather keen eyes, current disguise, a grey unicorn with a brown mane that I had seen just outside the city, prevented me from reaching them, as he had a lack of wings. Damn unicorns are useless. Next time I'll be a pegasus instead. Clearly I wasn't paying enough attention to my surroundings, as I was caught off guard by one of those nasty pony creatures. "Are you okay sir? I saw you standing there and thought you looked out of it." After I finished being surprised (which was rather quickly, I would like to say,) I responded as politely as one could in such a predicament. "Well, I WAS just FINE, until somepony came and pestered me!" I turned to face the mare, who I realized was one of the so called "Elements of harmony." She seemed almost as annoyed as I was. This Lavender mare, whom I assumed was the notorious Twilight Sparkle, was taken aback by my outburst. "Geez! Everypony here is either ignorant, rude, or evil! I can't even catch a break now!" She fumed. I wondered what made her so angry. It's not like SHE was just snuck up on by some scoundrel! “I mean, Cadance is acting strange, and nopony even believes me! And now some RANDOM unicorn decides to yell at me for 'sneaking up' on him!” She glared at me, steam coming from her nostrils. Well, I guess that makes since. Still, The Queen has a foolproof disguise. How did she notice? I looked up from my contemplation to see that she had moved on; probably because I wasn't paying any attention to her. I realized that in all my pointless pondering I had forgotten to work more on my mission. Alright,Vespur,To the barrier! Ah. Finally. Some peace and quiet so I can do my work. After maybe an hour of walking I had arrived at the edge of the city, and upon reaching the end of the large buildings, I discovered a familiar pink surface directly ahead of me. I decided that since I was away from any signs of equine life, I could use my magic. As a changeling, magic often uses a sort of green-ish fire, like the ones that come from those magic baby dragons. Anyway, I ran over to the edge of the barrier and closely examined the massive wall using a magnifying spell. It looked solid at first, but upon closer inspection, I discovered a series of cracks all round the barrier about the size of a wagon. I peered at the structure, then levitated a few logs in the shape of an X, as to mark the spot. I looked down at the detailed map of the city, given to me by Chrysalis. I soon found the part of the map I was at and marked it with an X as well. As soon as I had made sure everything was in order, I quickly ran over to the station of Queen Chrysalis. Canterlot Castle is majestic. Even somepony as brilliantly hateful as me has to admit that. Beautiful as it may be, the possibility of getting in undetected without some sort of plan is rather low. Since the beginning of this whole "wedding" craze, the guard has increased in number by at least tenfold. Fortunately, they chose quantity, not quality. I had just finished writing my status report, including several convenient locations to use during the invasion, and walked up to the front gate, where two royal guards in gold armor were standing. Clearly, it was my lucky day, as these guards were fairly stupid. Now don't judge me for saying that! They were actually too busy looking at a butterfly with dumb grins stretched across there faces to notice me when I approached. "Afternoon, gentlemen!" I said cheerfully. "Good morning, sir!" This was going to be too easy; the guards can't even tell afternoon and morning apart! The pony in front of me realized he made a complete violation of his orders, and quickly tried to recover as I grinned at him. "I-I mean halt! State your business!" The guard sputtered. "Easy! Easy!" I said, grinning. "I'm Princess Cadance's courier. I need to deliver a letter." I pulled out the letter. "It has the royal seal and everything." I held it up and showed them the gold stamp with a sun and moon circling each other. "Very well, you may proceed." These guards are dumber than I thought! a royal courier bringing a message into the palace? I mean, wow! Anyway, I made my way to the throne room. Almost as soon as I made it in, I heard a voice behind me whisper, "I thought you were going to be here earlier! Were is your report?" I turned towards the location of the voice, mainly to avoid suspicion. She was a bright pink alicorn with with a heart made of crystal for a cutie mark. Though small for said race, she was still rather large for a regular pony. It was Princess Cadance. Or rather, it was Queen Chrysalis in disguise. "I have my report here, my queen. And I did a more thorough search of the barrier than originally planned." I held up the letter, and she took it with her perfectly disguised magic. "Very good, general. Stay in the castle and await orders. I will send for you soon." She turned away before I could give my reply. While I was here, I decided to go and feed. Most ponies think changelings only feed on love, but they feed on any emotions; love is just the sweetest. Anyway, I found the perfect target. A royal guard near the barracks was on break and napping on the grass outside. More importantly, he was radiating waves of happiness. Ah, dreams, the number one source of changeling food. The way a changeling eats isn't like what ponies think. We don't bite into, or even cast a spell on you (well, Chrysalis does cast a spell). Emotions sort of hang in the air around each pony and a form of vapor. All we do is walk by and breath it in. We don't really need it often. In fact, one nibble of emotion can last 6 months! No, we feed because it gives us more power. Sort of like an energy reserve beyond our natural power that grows with practice. Also, it tastes good. After I finished eating (mmm, happiness!) I decided to see the palace library. I may be a spiteful monster, but I'm not uneducated, and have a hunger for knowledge. As soon as I entered the library wing, I was simply astonished. So many books! There were volumes from floor to ceiling spanning the entire length of the massive room. Glancing from aisle to aisle, I murmured, "I'm in heaven!" After maybe an hour of reading a very interesting book about manticore anatomy, I decided to get up and explore some of the bookshelves on the far wall. As soon as I got there, I noticed a door with a padlock, labeled simply, "FORBIDDEN." I knew I could risk blowing my cover, and kept trying to resist my urge to open the door. There could be some amazing secrets in this room! No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep my curiosity at bay. Just one peek. You might learn some new things! Maybe find some spells to use! Come on, just open the door! I couldn't help myself. "I guess I can just take a peek. No harm there, right?" The padlock was easy to unlock, and I decided that it was a rather poor security measure. When I stepped through the door, however, the tile I stepped on sank roughly a foot, and I heard a click. "Well, that can't be good." I grimaced, too annoyed at myself to be worried, or to notice the crystal powder floating onto my back and face. "...Because it's not your wedding!" I opened my eyes slowly, hearing the voice of Cadance yelling in the throne room. It took me a minute to realize that I had been put to sleep by some sort of trap. After I realized this, I scrambled out of small confines of the dark room, and into the main part of the library. I looked out the window to see that the changelings were at their stations around the barrier in swarms. "Well, I guess I'm late!" I said to nopony in particular. Scrambling to the throne room, I saw Chrysalis and Cadance. Wait, Chrysalis is in her regular form? This is odd! Well, the changeling army is in position, so I guess I should plan something brilliant. My thoughts were interrupted by celestia's voice. Changelings, when in pony form, have very acute hearing. “You must get to the elements!” When those words left her mouth, I had an idea. I had written in my report about the chamber that the elements of harmony are kept in, and knew the building very well. I decided to make use of one of my spells as general: Psychic Communication. Most regular changelings can only speak pony when in said form, so I can't actually tell you what I said word for word, but the main plan was to send about an eighth of the swarm onto the streets to tire out the elements, and then send the rest of the army to the building that houses the elements. I looked out on the balcony, waiting to hear the lovely crack of the barrier. Clearly they had gotten the message of where the weak points were, as it shattered with ease. Soon after, six familiar mares were dragged back in, defeated. I love my planning. I decided to enjoy the chaos the invasion was bringing, and let Chrysalis deal with the mares. I was gazing lovingly over the mayhem I had helped cause, when I heard a slight tingling sound, and the gasp of Queen Chrysalis. Princess Cadance had gotten free and was standing over Shining Armor, and had clearly just cast some sort of spell. It appeared as though he was regaining consciousness. Crap. This can't be good. “What...Happened? Is the wedding over?” I didn't listen to the rest of what was said. There was really no point, anyway. I was edging my way towards the door, when all of a sudden, Cadance and Shining Armor started glowing and levitating. Now, I'm a pretty experienced general. One thing I have learned from my experience with ponies is that it is NOT normal for them to glow brightly in midair, and you should probably get the heck outta there when you see it. I followed my own advice and gathered all my magic to teleport. As soon as I was finshed getting ready, a huge wall of white flew out from the blasted ponies and knocked the Queen out of the building. Just as the wall reached me, my vision was obscured by green flames as I finished my teleportation. Teleporting is another one of those things that work differently for changelings. We can teleport, of course. But the difference is that when ponies teleport, they picture the location they are going, whereas a changeling just thinks the name of a destination and hope they don't go splat. We don't have refined direction senses like those lucky unicorns. So imagine what happened when I thought: take me somewhere safe! When I landed, which was on my head, by the way, I appeared to be in a cave made of crystals. I was only at the mouth of the cave and could see canterlot buildings in the distance, but what shocked me wasn't where I was, but when. When A changeling teleports, they almost never go where they want, and usually it takes a really long time for them to appear at their destination. Where when I teleported the birds were singing and everything was green, the treetops outside the cave were white. Snow? How long was I gone???