Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Chop and Change: Infill

Gilded horseshoes clicked rhythmically down the hallway leading to the private chambers of the princess of the sun. The rhythm was strong and confident, betraying neither a single worry nor a wavering of purpose. The tall, pale coated mare to whom those proud hoofsteps belonged opened the doors to her room without missing a beat, and closed them gently but firmly behind her.

Celestia’s steady gait immediately broke down into a frantic gallop to her window, where the tip of the sun’s disk had just kissed the horizon. For her and Luna, the times when the day and night overlapped also brought a more literal overlap of the two sisters. While this was strongest during the dawn, the dusk also brought with it a powerful connection, and it was through this bond that Celestia could feel the mounting distress of her younger sibling.

Luna, she prodded. What’s going on? You seem perturbed, and there is a powerful Darkness radiating from Ponyville.

A flash of annoyance from the moon princess flooded Celestia. ‘Tis naught for Thou to worry, Sister. The queen hath shown her hoof, and I shall handle it.

Celestia felt an icy stab of fear, and she knew that her sister would feel it as well. You don’t have to face this alone, Luna.

Thine offer is appreciated; yet, unnecessary, Luna insisted. Thou hast thy duties to attend, and I have Mine. After a pregnant pause in which Celestia could practically taste the embarrassment her sister was suddenly feeling, she continued. That being said, it may be required that Thou coverest Me on the whole “moon raising” thing. I am rather occupied at the moment.

A soft sigh escaped Celestia’s lips, and her resignation was broadcast to Luna loud and clear. She gazed worriedly over Ponyville, so far away that it would be completely missed by most ponies in Canterlot even from this vantage point. Her eyebrows pinched together in worry as she watched the power of the changeling queen radiate from the tiny town. “Twilight…”

“Is fine,” a voice said behind her. When Celestia whipped around, however, there was nopony there. “Well, mostly fine. Depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” She turned her head back around to face Ponyville, only to find the hideous face of the draconequus who claimed the title “agent of Chaos” at a muzzle hair’s length from her face.

“Discord!” Celestia declared accusingly.

The selfsame draconequus gave Celestia a wide, snaggletoothed grin. "I do love it when you say my name like that, you know. Just gives me the shivers all over."

Celestia snorted, turning away from the window. "What are you doing here? Have you come to help?"

"Help?" Discord asked. "Celestia, we may have been foalhood friends, but..."

"We were never 'foalhood friends,' Discord," Celestia countered. "I'm easily a millennium your senior, in fact."

"Really?" Discord said, putting his lion's paw to his cheek. "Huh. Is this the one where you were a unicorn and your sister was a pegasus and you were transformed into alicorns by magic? No. This must be the one where you both were earth ponies and randomly sprouted horns and wings and went on wacky adventures discovering the different races of ponies. No?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Discord," Celestia said, placing her hoof firmly on the bridge of her muzzle.

Discord rolled his eyes, though in his case he did so not unlike the way one would roll a pair of dice. "Ooh, look, snake eyes!" He picked his eyes off the floor and popped them back into his sockets. "You ponies are so one dimensional in your thinking. Sure, you can wrap your heads around the idea of the future always being in motion, but you never seem to grasp that the past is, as well. Besides, I prefer my origins like Twilight prefers her history exams: multiple choice." He gestured to the corner of the room while mugging for some nonexistent camera, and a small, white bunny at an equally small drum set played him a sting.

"Just get to why you're here, Discord," Celestia said coldly.

"I swear, Celestia, you've gotten just as stuffy as those bores on Olympus," Discord complained. "Why, just the other day I just happened to pop up in Neptune's bubble bath and—oh, that's the one." He struck his talon with closed paw in understanding. "Thank Chaos, I was afraid this might be the one where you freed me to get a date. It's always awkward when that happens." He swam through the air and landed in front of Celestia. "As for why I'm here, I thought that you might deserve to know what this is all about."

"What?" Celestia asked, her annoyance evaporating in the glare of her curiosity.

Discord chuckled. "Well, now, I might have been a scion of Chaos for thousands of years, but I was fully in the thrall of Darkness for almost as long before that under my old..." He suppressed a shudder. "Master... Anyway, I understand how Erebos thinks, and probably better than even Luna."

"Do you, now?" Celestia asked, with an arched brow.

"Oh, yes. You know, for all their bickering, Erebos and Aether aren't so different. Both are obsessed with the concept of Order," Discord said. "Of course, they don't exactly agree on each other's methods of imposing order."

"That much is certain," Celestia agreed.

Discord summoned a mirror and looked into it while fixing his mane. The reflection showed the back of his head. "Aether is fairly bold and straightforward, and likes to impose Order on the world with a similar tactic. Erebos likes things a little more... tactful. He thinks it's best to work in the shadows and tease out Order by—"

Celestia interrupted with a snort. "Unscrupulous manipulation."

"Well," Discord said, tossing the mirror over his shoulder, whereupon it burst like a water balloon. "I supposed that's accurate, if a bit biased."

"What's your point?" Celestia demanded. "What do you know?"

Discord pursed his lips. "Just about everything, I imagine. Just not at once, I'm afraid." He leaped into the air and curled about in a complicated pattern before sliding next to Celestia and putting his eagle arm around her neck. "For instance, I remember how you let me be torn apart in your own temple and put back together in this beautiful form... oh, but that wasn't really you, was it? That was Eos... or had you started calling yourself Aurora, yet? You divine types do go through names like I go through bad puns." He zipped around to her other side. "I seem to recall what you did to your dear little brother, too... the reason you have his cutie mark and took that lovely new name of yours..."

"That's enough," Celestia said. "You know very well that I had no choice in the matter... not after what you did to him."

Discord disappeared and then reappeared in a tweed jacket with square-framed glasses and a clipboard on which he was scribbling furiously. "Yes, and your little sister forgave you... so why can't you forgive yourself? Is it something to do with your mother?"

Celestia frowned, and turned her head from Discord. "I'm growing weary of this..."

"Come now," Discord said, leaping out of his therapist costume and floating over her head. "I just remembered something else. Don't you want to know what happened to the Princess of Ponyville after she fled?"

Celestia's ears perked up at this, and she raised her head to stare at him. "What do you know? What happened to my dear friend...?"

Discord smirked.

Scootaloo stared at the pony with her face standing in the center of the stump of a mountain she had managed to cut in half. Her heart sank as she saw the white unicorn beside her, bearing the same signs of battle on her body that the Rarity she had fought high in the sky had borne. These were the real changeling invaders. Her eyes drifted to the real Rarity, who had already returned to her hooves, standing defiantly in spite of the hole through her body. That hole hadn’t really been meant for her, but Scootaloo was responsible for it just the same.

Princess Aurelia began to chuckle. It began lightly enough, but then began to build, her malicious glee becoming more evident until she was in the throes of malevolent mirth. It reached such a volume that it even gave the princess’ mother pause. Finally, her bout of merriment subsided, and she fixed Scootaloo with a mocking gaze. “You were far too easy to fool, Scootaloo.” She turned her head to Rarity, who stood poised behind her. “And you as well.”

“I can surmise most of it,” Rarity said. “But I think I would appreciate an explanation… while we’re here.”

Aurelia turned her chin up haughtily. “I may oblige. Yes, it would please me that you should know of the genius maneuvers that were executed here, today.” She began to stalk back and forth, her eyes constantly fixed on her prey as she recounted her tale. “I should start by explaining that I am no ordinary changeling. I am the princess of all changelings! As such, my abilities are beyond that of the ken of my peers.”

“Naturally,” Rarity concurred.

“I am fairly young; not yet entered my cocoon to reach full adulthood,” Aurelia went on. “Changeling larvae like me don’t normally have the ability to consciously change shape. That comes with adulthood. I’m different in that respect. However, all larvae have a particular defense mechanism that is unique to us. When exposed to violent emotional energy, we are able to take on not only the shape, but also the memories, power, and skill of the threatening pony.” She gestured, encompassing the stadium. “When it comes to violent emotional energy, what better place to be?”

“So you used our fights as a way to copy us flawlessly, and then replaced us when we were at our weakest?” Rarity asked coldly.

Aurelia chortled. “Indeed, I did. I, alone, collected all your fighting spirit and transferred it when required to my peers. Then we foalnapped your fighters as soon as they were alone after their loss. Now, each and every one of the originals is trapped in a cocoon, where I can continually siphon off energy and not only transfer it to my subordinates, but even use it, myself.” As demonstration, she shifted her form to Derpy, Big Mac, and even Tom before changing back to Scootaloo’s form.

“Somepony’s pretty fond of my body,” Scootaloo muttered.

Ignoring Scootaloo’s comment, Aurelia went on. “We even made sure to stoke the fires of conflict. When we replaced your little girlfriend, Ran Biao, it was her replacement that then incited Spike to the rage he displayed during his fight with Applejack by letting the beans spill on your illicit love affair.”

“That’s quite inaccurate,” Rarity said. “And once I’m flesh and blood again I’m sure I’ll be properly offended at the implication. Assuming I don’t bleed out too quickly, naturally.”

“You two, though, were by far the richest buffet of conflict on which to feed,” Aurelia said. “With the amount of fighting spirit you’ve both used over the course of this tournament, I’m pretty sure we could sustain this for days rather than hours. Still, it would be foolish to allow such strong ponies to run free.”

“Why are you doing this?” Scootaloo asked. “What do you have to gain?”

“Oh, my dear Scootaloo,” Aurelia said, shaking her head like a disappointed dam. “This is what it’s always been about: power. We’re about to get our hooves on the kind of power that will let us changelings dominate Equestria, and then we get all the food we could ever want. No changeling will ever go hungry again!”

In the royal box, with her gaunt features still plastered all over the shield spell, Chrysalis blew her snout on a sheet of tissue, tears of pride in her eyes. “Th-they just grow up so fast, don’t they? One day they’re stumbling through their first evil laugh, and the next they’re monologuing their evil plans to their defeated foes!”

“Mo-o-o-om,” Aurelia cried in annoyance. “Not in front of the victims.”

“We’re not ‘defeated,’ yet,” Scootaloo growled.

“‘Yet’ being the key word,” Aurelia countered. “You used up nearly all your energy with that last attack, and she,” Aurelia gestured toward the crystalline unicorn. “Has a gaping hole in her chest which will kill her the moment her spell wears off. Believe me, I don’t want that to happen any more than you do. She’s a valuable resource. If she can be put in one of my cocoons, however, she can be kept alive.”

Scootaloo paused. She was right. Rarity’s spell didn’t last very long, and there was no way a flesh and blood pony could survive that kind of wound. She mentally bucked herself once more for letting herself follow through on such a lethal attack. What would she say to Sweetie if she let Rarity die like this?

“Nonsense,” Rarity said. “You’re not taking me anywhere. I have every confidence that Princess Twilight Sparkle will be able to save me. All I have to do is beat you and get to her before my spell wears off.”

Aurelia’s face went slack, disbelief evident in her eyes. “And you think that’s plausible?”

Rarity leveled her gaze on Aurelia and said, “Too easy."

Twilight's horn flared once more and her image seemed to wink out for a moment before she reappeared in the same spot as before. "What kind of ward could possibly keep me trapped here?" she wondered aloud. "I've gotten far more powerful than when Chrysalis and I locked horns the first time."

"Your brother's doing," Luna's voice echoed throughout the chamber, causing Twilight to jump.

"Luna, you're alright! It was so horrible! Chrysalis pretended to be you and I let her have control of the shield, and she banished me again..." Twilight said frantically as she turned to see the owner of the voice trot out of one of the tunnels. "But what do you mean about my brother?"

Luna lidded her eyes, a frown playing on her face. "Your brother's stolen power is responsible for our inability to teleport from this place. Shining Armor's defensive spells are stronger than any unicorn's, and while we might be able to break his normal force field with some effort—which has stymied my progress considerably, in itself—his anti-teleportation barrier is unfortunately too strong for even me to power through."

Twilight shook her head. "Wait, what are you doing down here, anyway? I don't think there are any bathrooms in the vicinity."

"Quite right," Luna said. "That was... a ruse. I had to act quickly to save Spike. The changelings have been combing the catacombs for him. He is under protection from my young operatives, but I fear they will not be enough."

Looking around, Twilight pinched her eyebrows together. "These catacombs... they look familiar."

"They are an extension of the ones that run under the Everfree Forest... and the Two Sisters Castle," Luna said.

Understanding dawned on her. "Oh... the castle of Old Ponyville. This is where King Kenbroath was..."

"Yes," Luna said. "I put him into his thousand year sleep, myself, with specific instructions from the oracle that the first pony who touched the flower he held would wake him and need to be trained as a princess." Her expression soured. "It is too bad that he was never much of a morning dragon, and didn't fully awaken until the second pony touched the flower."

"I remember," Twilight said. "Poor Wysteria... I wish there was something we could have done to prevent what happened."

"It was Fate, Twilight," Luna reassured her. "Tampering in the past is a very dangerous thing, regardless of what that mad stallion in the blue box believes."

Twilight giggled. "Well, we should probably be on our way to help Spike, don't you think?"

Luna's eyes turned cold with determination and she quickened her pace. "You are correct. Fortunately for all of us, we are very close to where he should be. We merely need step through this—" She paused as they came to a tunnel with a rose colored barrier covering it. "My dear Twilight, would you do the honors? I'm getting something of a headache from doing this over and over again."

"No problem!" Twilight said. No shield spell was going to keep her from Spike. Her magic built up quickly, coming to a climax within two seconds, and she released its fury upon the barrier, which shattered immediately from the impact. "Not a very strong one, thankfully."

"I imagine even our Prince Shining Armor gets exhausted," Luna said with a smirk. "Let's hope the changelings on the other side of this barrier have been equally taxed."

Twilight peered through the tunnel, and saw that the cave into which they'd entered was indeed filled with changelings. "This isn't good... where's Spike?"

"There!" Luna said, pointing her horn at a purple dragon who was struggling with two of the chitinous pony-like creatures. She blasted the changelings off him with her magic.

"Wait, he's over there!" Twilight cried when she saw another Spike barely holding his own in what looked like a boxing match against another changeling. Her magic ripped the changeling away from the dragon.

Throughout the cavern, the changelings began transforming into copies of Spike, and fighting amongst themselves. The two princesses found themselves unable to discern which Spike was real and which were changelings or, for that matter, whether the real Spike was even still there.

Twilight and Luna stood flank to flank, their horns charged with magic but indecision etched upon their features. Too quickly for either to react aside from wildly aimed magic bursts, the Spikes were pulled abruptly into the darkness, and only the echo of Spike's cry for help remained. The only other pony in the cavern was an unconscious hippocampus, to whose side the princesses rushed.

"Wavedancer?" Twilight prodded her impatiently. "Wavedancer, what happened?"

Wavedancer groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. "Oh... Twilight!" She turned to regard the princess of the night as well. "And... Your Majesty!" She bowed low to Luna.

"I'm a princess, too, ya know..." Twilight muttered. She shook her head, realizing that was hardly important at this point. "Listen, Wavedancer, Spike's been foalnapped!"

"Oh, no," Wavedancer cried. She hung her head. "I'm so sorry. I was supposed to be watching, but I got... distracted. They hit me over the head from behind. I guess I got... knocked out." She grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and exclaimed, "We have to save him. We just have to! Who knows what those little monsters will do to poor Spikey?"

"Whichever path they took," Luna said. "They will be heading for the surface. Of that I'm certain. We must move quickly."

Twilight and Wavedancer nodded sharply, and made to follow Luna as she galloped down one of the tunnels.

Scootaloo was being blocked blow for blow by her copy. It was as if her opponent knew instinctively just what move she was going to make, which—Scootaloo reasoned—was understandable given that she apparently had intimate knowledge of her skills as well as her special talent.

It wouldn't have been so bad, except that every so often, Aurelia and her subordinate would swap places randomly to attack the other's foe, much as was occurring, now, as Aurelia ducked and a white hoof swung over her head to strike Scootaloo in the cheek. This provided just enough of a distraction that Aurelia was able to deliver a rapid fire burst of uppercuts to Scootaloo's barrel.

Scootaloo and Rarity were on the figurative ropes, and fading fast. A whistling sound from above drew their attention, however, and a pink blur hit the ground between Aurelia and her subordinate. Out of the inexplicably pink dust cloud that formed from the impact, a rubber chicken lashed out, striking the Rarity clone in the chin. "Polymeric Poultry Punch!" Pinkie Pie emerged from the dust and pointed a daisy mounted on her jacket at Aurelia. A stream of liquid squirted from it and right into the changeling princess' eyes. "Jolokia Juice Jet!"

Aurelia screamed and clutched her eyes with her hooves. "Oh, Erebos, why?!"

Out of the cloud, Pinkie then pulled two cannons, twirling them around her before settling them both on either side, each aiming at a changeling. "Double Party Cannon!" She pulled the cords across her barrel, and party paraphernalia exploded from the muzzles, filling the air with balloons and streamers, while somehow garbing the targets with colorful rainbow pants, silly wigs, false noses, and clown makeup before blowing them across the stadium and causing them to collide with the shield.

Pinkie took out a red cloth and threw it into the air. "I'm afraid that for the penalty of interference, those two had to be," she put her shades back on her face and continued, "Redressed."

"The ref is blind!" Chrysalis' voice boomed over the stadium.

Pinkie puffed out her chest. "Arguin' with the ref, eh? That's five minutes in the penalty box, then!"

Chrysalis reared back. "Outrageous! You're nothing but a homer!"

"Ten minutes!" Pinkie countered.

"You...!" Chrysalis paused when she felt a great rumbling from beneath the stadium. She smirked. "Oh, looks like my cavalry has arrived. I'm very sorry. It's been fun, but we have business to conclude."

Pinkie cocked her head in confusion. "Huh?" A large crack formed beneath her hooves and spread across the whole of the stump of a mountain before it began slowly separating. Pinkie's legs stretched out to grip either side until she was doing splits over a wide chasm. In the darkness she saw terrible glowing blue eyes staring up at her hungrily. "Uh, oh... girls? I can't hold on much longer!" She slipped, and despite both Rarity and Scootaloo making a dive for her, she disappeared into the crevice, screaming all the way.

"No, Pinkie!" Scootaloo cried.

"Most inconvenient," Rarity muttered.

Terrible screeches filled the air as numerous black forms swarmed from the air. In their midst, Scootaloo caught a glimpse of purple scales before losing sight of it. After a moment more of desperate scanning, she spotted a bound Spike being carried toward the ship above them. His eyes locked with hers as well, and she saw as he mouthed the word "help."

"They've got Spike!" Scootaloo said to Rarity.

"Yes," Rarity said, looking up with a calculating expression on her crystal face. "If Chrysalis desires him for whatever plan she has, it would behoove us to deny her."

"Y-yeah," Scootaloo said. "Let's do this together and kick some haunches."

"I... would enjoy that," Rarity said, a small smile playing on her face. The edges of the hole in her chest, Scootaloo noticed, were turning red.

To be continued...