//------------------------------//
// Taking the Swarm 
// Story: Dusk 
// by Resda 
//------------------------------//

Dawn comes without incident - which, incidentally, means that Princess Celestia has seen fit not to sear the flesh from my bones with cleansing sunfire. It's a refreshing thought, to say the least, and it gives me hope that today will be a good day.

Applejack, true to form, awakens with the sun. She yawns and shakes her head a few times before replacing her hat on her head. "Mornin', Dusk. Didn' expect ya t' be up," she drawls in an accent made heavier by the remnants of a sound sleep. "Ya sleep okay?"

"It was alright," I answer. "I'm glad you're awake."

"Well, we've got a friend to rescue. Best to get an early start," she says, off-hoof. "So, I hear tell you've got a plan. Wanna fill me in on where we're going?"

I close my eyes for a brief moment. The buzzing is still there, in the back of my mind. We're still being pulled to the southeast. "We're going to descend into the river valley up ahead. The hive is past there."

Applejack pulls out a map of Equestria that she had rolled into her saddlebags. "How do you figure?" she says.

Oh, son of a diamond dog...

No. I'm not going to own up to this... instinct, this stupid changeling thing. I've gotten away with not talking about it up to now, and I sure as Tartarus am not going to start. I hate having Chrysalis in my head, I hate following an instinct that, by all rights, a pony shouldn't have to follow, and I really hate giving the others any other reason to be afraid of me.

Besides, it's too early to start up this kind of drama.

So I grin, preparing to lie through my teeth; it's going to take a lot to convince the Element of Honesty. "Remember when Shining Armor used his shield to send the changelings flying?" She nods, so I continue, pointing a hoof at Canterlot on the map. "Chrysalis was thrown clear to the south, towards the Dragon Badlands and Haysead Swamps." I trace an arc from Canterlot towards the southeast, drawing a large circle around the swamp at the end of the winding river valley. "If we approximate her mass, and take into account the imparted force - assuming, of course, that Chrysalis herself made no attempts to correct her trajectory..."

Applejack wrinkles her nose and mutters something about fancy mathematics before nodding her head. "So you're thinkin' she holed up in there. Fair enough."

I hold back my sigh of relief. It worked.

I'm pretty good at this deception thing, aren't I?

...Oh. Wait.

Dang it, now I'm depressed again.

"Breakfast!" Pinkie chirps, getting the attention of us both. When we look back, she gives us a quick greeting and tosses us a wrapped package before moving to awaken Fluttershy.

Pinkie has produced a scone for each of us from somewhere within the recesses of her saddlebags. The dense pastry is none the worse for wear for two days' worth of travel, and I dig into it with enthusiasm, savoring the sweetness and the flavor of tart blueberries.

Fluttershy awakens with her usual quiet grace, rising to her hooves and stretching her back. Her wings unfold and stretch involuntarily before settling against her barrel. 

"How are you feeling?" I ask between bites of scone.

"Much better," she replies. I light up my horn, and a pale magenta aura illuminates her chest, where the manticore had struck; the wound has closed properly, with minimal scarring, but it's probably still tender. It'll be another day at least before she's fully healed.

"We'll take it easy today," I decide.

Fluttershy blushes. "Oh, no, I wouldn't want to slow us down. I'm fine, honestly. I can keep up."

I smirk. "Just let us know if we need to take a breather, okay?" She replies by nodding and rolling up her bed and blanket.

Within minutes, the campsite is picked up and we're back on the move. I do my best to lead everypony in the right direction, only half-conscious of exactly where we're going, but before I know it, we've covered a lot of ground.

Having somepony with us that was so deeply in tune with the earth and its flora only made our journey easier. A large, fallen tree blocked our path, impassable on either side; Applejack found the exact spot to kick it and collapse the old wood. When the river suddenly widened in front of us, she found the safest way across by forging ahead herself. And when we prepared to snack on a patch of wild berries, she slapped them out of our hooves, pointing out another, non-poisonous bush nearby. Her expertise has gotten us much farther than we ever would have managed on our own.

But after traveling this way into the late afternoon, I can't help but be curious. I reach a hoof out to Applejack, who has already kicked out a hole in a particularly thick patch of brush to let Pinkie and Fluttershy through. "Wait," I say, and she turns back to face me. "Why are you doing this?"

Applejack's brow furrows. "I thought I explained that."

"No," I backpedal, "it's not that. It's just... it seems like you're taking on every obstacle yourself! What gives?"

The farm pony blushes. "Well... lemme give it to ya straight. We're not even. I still did y'all wrong."

"You know, Pinkie Pie's already forgiven you." I look past her to where Pinkie is bouncing circles around Fluttershy.

"That's not what I'm talkin' about," Applejack replies. "See, Dusk, this could have gone all different." Her gaze darkens, and I listen with rapt attention. "What if we had caught you first? What if we dragged you all the way to Canterlot? Or worse, what if, in the forest that night, what if we..." She trails off. I don't need her to elaborate, so I simply nod my head. "Chances are we would have left Pinkie and Fluttershy all by their lonesome... and then Shy might have..."

"No," I argue, "You would have gone looking for them first, I'm sure of it."

"No, we wouldn't've." Applejack glares at me for a moment, before sighing. "Me an' RD an' Rarity... we were just... we were so... angry..." She shakes her head, in what looks like an attempt to drive away whatever darkness is haunting her. "Bottom line is, Ah've done wrong by you. I'm not gonna let that happen again."

"Girls," Fluttershy interrupts, "there's something up ahead."

Applejack smiles at me for a brief second before pushing her hat down to settle on her brow. She turns and steps through the brush, ready to valiantly throw herself in harm's way for us, just like Pinkie and Fluttershy had.

It takes a quick application of magical force to stop her. 

She stares back at me, confused, before actually taking a look in front of her, seeing what Fluttershy had already noticed - and what I had already sensed, thanks to my ringing horn.

A horde of changelings mill about in front of us, blocking the entrance into a deeper part of the valley. We watch them carefully, but they pay us no mind, distracted by a disturbance in a nearby bush.

"Holy fruitcakes, that's a lot of guards," Pinkie comments.

Fluttershy's eyes narrow at the group of changelings as they move about, circling the bush like a swarm of ants. "No, Pinkie. They're not guarding..." Before our eyes, a body is dragged out into the open, its scaly red tail carving a divot into the ground. It disappears beneath a swarm of drones, all eager to get their share.

We watch in fascination and horror at the changelings as they begin their work. Somewhere beneath the pile of changelings, a scream rings out, growing weaker by the second. I finish Fluttershy's thought for her: "They're feeding."

Chrysalis isn't controlling this group, not directly, anyway, and without her influence, they're operating on instinct alone. I don't know exactly how they captured a drake by themselves, especially one that size, but it's pretty clear that there was plenty of love to be had. I get a perverse thrill as I taste the lingering traces of it in the air.

"We ain't gonna stand a chance of fightin' past them," Applejack says, snapping me out of my stupor. "Dusk, you got a way to sneak us past?"

I ponder the thought for a moment. There are one hundred changelings on the path in front of us, scattered over an area of a few dozen square meters - never mind how I know that. "An illusion spell won't keep us cloaked," I think aloud, "not from that many eyes."

"Um, how about a distraction?" Fluttershy suggests. "Do you have an illusion for that?"

I'm suddenly reminded of another unicorn, one who was particularly proficient with illusion magic, that would be perfect for this kind of plan. I shunt the borrowed memory from my mind before replying. "Even if I did, there's no guarantee I'd distract them at all. Instinct is a powerful thing."

Pinkie stares past the drones into the valley, and for the first time, I notice a curious phenomenon. It's a subtle thing, not something that I can see directly, but something seems to be flowing out from her hooves into the ground itself. With a start, I realize that I've just seen earth pony magic - I'd never been able to sense such a thing, not before my ascension. But I don't have time to be fascinated by the concept. 

Pinkie speaks up. "I think that ridge over there might be sturdy enough to climb. We can go around the whole group."

Applejack and I notice the ridge as well; it juts out of the vertical rock face only a few meters below the top of the valley, and there's a slope nearby gentle enough to climb up to it. It's narrow, only about two or three pony-lengths wide from what I can guess, but it's high above the group of changelings settled below. 

A larger flow of magic seeps from Applejack's body into the earth, and I can't tear my eyes away from the sight. Applejack's power is like a rushing river to Pinkie's babbling brook. I start to try to work out exactly how the magic works when she clears her throat, returning me to the task at hand, a ghost of a blush coloring my cheeks. "I think she's right," she says after a moment. "We can come down on the other side of them without their findin' out."

I plant my hooves, attempting to summon up the same energy. Applejack looks to me expectantly; it takes a moment before I give up, entirely unable to reproduce the effect. "If you two say it's alright, then it probably is," I say with resignation.

"No flyin'," Applejack warns us. "This plan's a long shot if there ever was one. Ain't no need to make it worse by lettin' 'em see a pair of pegasi in the air." Fluttershy and I nod, folding our wings against our sides.

The four of us move as one, circling around the group to get to the ledge. Before long, our group is creeping along the ridge, keeping as close to the wall as possible in single file. Applejack takes point, followed by Fluttershy and myself, with Pinkie Pie taking the rear. The ridge holds up under our weight, exactly as our earth ponies said it would. But when Pinkie Pie twitches and stage-whispers at me to get my attention, I already know that that's not going to be the problem.

I let out an involuntary shudder as an almost painful tingling shoots through my horn from the chatter of changelings communicating among themselves. "We've got to move," I snap, even as I screw my eyes shut, trying to block out the noise, even as bits and pieces come through. Life... energy... food...

Applejack swears as she peers over the ledge. "They're already comin'. Fluttershy, you gotta get outta here."

"Um..." Fluttershy starts, her gaze locked on the path in front of her, blocked by a group of several drones, staring back with hungry eyes.

"Shootfire," Applejack swears again. "Go on back, everypony!"

"AJ!" Pinkie yells. I don't even have to look to know that our exit route is blocked the same way.

The sound of wingbeats fills the air around us as they close in. Taking to the air now would be suicide. Attack... feed... the swarm says. A lump forms in my throat as I fight an overwhelming urge.

Instantly, wordlessly, Pinkie, Applejack, and I form up around the injured pegasus, pressing her back against the rock face. "What's the plan, girls?" I ask.

To my right, Pinkie Pie crouches low, pawing at the ground with her hoof. To my left, Applejack snorts, her eyes dangerously narrow, legs tensed up to explode at any moment.

feed... consume... enemy... energy... life... My head aches, and for a brief second, my heart feels empty... as if I need something to...

Applejack rears up, yelling to the heavens. She charges headlong into the crowd. "Ain't no horde of changelings gonna take me down!" She turns about, planting her front hooves, and lets loose an explosive kick. The force cracks the exoskeleton of her unwitting victim and sends it flying over the edge of the ledge into the valley below. Another changeling dives at the mare, but she ducks underneath it, treating it to the same fate as its kin.

I take the hint, charging magic into my horn. "Let's move!" I yell. I fire off a blast, watching it ricochet from target to target like a pinball. Four changelings go down under my hoof, but I'm far from done as I take aim again, My aim is true, shot after shot, and I watch with relish as our airborne foes tumble out of the sky.

I hear the crunch of hooves against rock behind me and instinctively look back. But Pinkie's in no danger; I watch as she lifts a changeling high over her head and swings it like a flail into the crowd, knocking them over like tenpins. The attack doesn't faze the horde, and a number of the drones are trampled underhoof by another wave of changelings continuing their pursuit. Pinkie gasps and turns on her heels, pushing a bewildered Fluttershy forward with all of the strength she could muster.

The pair of ponies passes me by, and I fire off a few shots. The purple beams take down a few drones, but it's a pittance compared to the inexorable wall that was bearing down on us. I back away slowly, but my haunches come into contact with Applejack's. With horror, I turn around to see that she, too, has been pushed back by overwhelming numbers.

"Dusk, take Fluttershy and go!" Pinkie Pie suggests.

"Not a chance," I reply, preparing a shield spell. "I almost lost you once, I'm not going to let that happen again." Before anyone can protest, the barrier goes up, putting a half-sphere of magenta force between us and the drones. Sure, it's no city-sized impenetrable barrier, but it'll do for the time being.

"Nice work, Princess..." Applejack starts.

I beam with pride. "Thank you. It is nice spellwork, isn't it?"

"...but now we're trapped like rats in a cage!"

My face falls. "That... could be a problem," I say after a moment.

Fluttershy curls into a ball, watching as the drones press into the shield. "How long will this shield last, Dusk?"

I cringe, knowing they won't like the answer. One of them tries to dive at us, only to bounce off of the shield with a dull thud. But the impact sends a tiny ripple into the barrier, resonating across its entire surface and back into my horn. On top of that, the constant buzz of changeling chatter fills my ears with white noise. "Not... long," I choke out, unconsciously putting more effort into maintaining the shield.

Applejack looks around, finally turning her gaze to the floor. But it's not defeat in her eyes... it's something else entirely. "How much force can this thing take?" she asks me.

I run the calculation in my head. "A few thousand Neightons," I start to explain, "give or take a few hundred depending on the-"

"Not what I meant," Applejack says. "How'll it do against, say, a long fall?"

I purse my lips. "It might hold up, depending on the height. But at that point it's not about force, it's about impulse. A strong shock might be able to-" The rest of my brain suddenly catches up to my calculations. "Wait, Applejack, you're not thinking of-"

A tremor shakes through the earth, bringing us and the nearby changelings to our knees. I look agog at Applejack, who has a devilish grin stretching from ear to ear. She turns to Pinkie Pie. "How about it, Pinks? Feel like shiftin' a rock?"

"This is one doozy of a rock," Pinkie feigns protest as she lifts herself to her hooves. "Ma and Pa will be so proud." She rears back, just as Applejack does the same.

The pair of earth ponies brings down their hooves hard, and I can almost see the magic rush out of their hooves, penetrating the rough stone and leaving behind deep cracks. 

The changelings outside the shield relent for only a moment before instinct sends them back on the attack. I steel myself, willing all my magic power into maintaining my shield, but it won't last for much longer...

Instantly, chaos.

The drones break through my shield, shattering it into shards of magenta glass that vanish into motes of light. At the same time, Pinkie's and Applejack's efforts bear fruit. A large chunk of the ridge is falling towards the ground half a mile below. The changelings scatter, much like ants do when their path is blocked, and though a few follow us, it's nowhere near the same kind of threat.

Of course, now we're tumbling towards the ground at high speed without a shield. I try futilely to reignite my horn, but keeping the first barrier up had taken more out of me than I expected. I flare my wings to control my descent, watching thankfully as Fluttershy does the same. Together, the two of us go into a dive, aiming towards where Pinkie and AJ were still in freefall.

Fluttershy closes in faster, summoning up the wingpower she had demonstrated so expertly during the tornado fiasco to dodge around falling rocks. I launch a blast of fire at a changeling that threatened to dive down into her, and she continues unhindered. In an instant, she has scooped Pinkie Pie into her hooves, slowing her descent to a safe level. It's up to me to close the distance between myself and Applejack before she reaches the ground.

I shut out the sound of buzzing from above and below, screwing my eyes shut once again as I drop straight down. But the ground is getting a lot closer than I had anticipated.

I watch as the earth pony cringes. Not even the hardiest of earth ponies would survive a fall like this. I pour on the speed, channeling one particular polychromatic pegasus as I streak towards the ground. I dare to make the calculation... and yes, I'll get there just in time to...

"Dusk!"

A changeling drone tears into me from my right side, sending me tumbling through the air. A blast of purple light blows the offender to smithereens, but the damage is already done. I can only watch as...

...as a rainbow-colored bullet streaks past my vision and collects Applejack mere seconds before she would hit the floor.

"Oh, thank Celestia, it's Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy says from above me. I could scarcely believe it myself, but as I look up, watching the rainbow streak cut through swaths of changeling drones as if they were puffs of storm clouds, all the while carrying a shell-shocked farm pony, my face splits into a grin.

Of course, if Rainbow is here, then that means...

A trio of changelings descends upon me, surrounded by green flame. I light my horn, preparing for battle, when the lot of them are instantly cut down by a glittering barrage of gems, wrapped in a familiar shade of pale blue. I flail about wildly in the air, searching the ground below for any sign of-

"Come now, it's not much farther!" Rarity's voice rings out from above me. I look up, confused, but as another welcome sight flies into view, it becomes clear; Rarity is seated on top of none other than the Lunar Princess herself. Her horn shimmers for a second, and the swarm of razor-sharp gems flies back into her saddlebags. "There's a glade up ahead. We can rest there."

Luna and I descend to the valley floor. Rarity bows her head in gratitude and hops down from the Princess's back, taking a moment to adjust her coiffure before beaming at me with confidence.

"You came for us," I say.

"Why, of course," Luna says. She and I share a mutual look of understanding. "We have identical goals, after all. It would be foolhardy not to pursue an alliance."

Rarity steps forward. "I won't pretend there isn't any bad blood between us," she admits, "but you seem to want Twilight safe and sound just as much as we do." She extends a white hoof. "If Pinkie, Fluttershy, and even Applejack can trust you, then I see no reason not to do the same."

I take her hoof eagerly, "That's really all I could possibly ask for, Rarity." The two of us share a smile before the sound of strained wingbeats catches our attention. Fluttershy is panting heavily, trying her best to keep Pinkie Pie in the air, but steadily losing altitude. The pair more or less collapse right next to us, and we immediately help them to their hooves.

The sound of fluttering wings gets louder, so I take a look- Oh, horseapples, we're not done fighting yet.

The remains of the swarm have taken advantage of our slow recovery. There's a mass of fifty or sixty drones remaining, and they're not bothering to try anything tricky, hoping to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. It might just work... that is, if they weren't dealing with two alicorns and half of the Bearers of Harmony.

I light my horn, standing alongside Luna. She gives me one look and shakes her head. "Get the Bearers away from here, Run. Teleport, if you must." she says - no, she orders. "I will face them alone."

I know better than to call one of the Royal Sisters stupid. She has centuries of experience on top of me. But any way you slice it, this is hardly an even fight. "Luna, how are you going to..."

Luna smirks wryly. "Ah. The fall must have addled your brain. I will assist you." Her horn glows, wrapping me in a cerulean blue aura. I turn around to see the others are being held the same way. "Join them so I can teleport you to the glade at the end of the valley. Reconvene with Applejack and Rainbow Dash there, and I will join you shortly-" A dozen drones suddenly break formation, leaping at the distracted Lunar Princess.

"Luna!" I yell out. Luna turns, and with a single blast of chain lightning loosed from her horn, all that remains of them are cinders. 

"As I was saying... leave the rabble to me." 

I nod sagely before trotting briskly to join the others.

As the teleportation spell begins to take effect, I catch a glimpse of the Princess. She rears up onto her hind legs. "Have at thee!" she yells before charging headlong into the crowd. Her outstretched wings knock scores of drones to the floor, and an array of perfectly executed kicks of her hind legs put neat holes into the enemies unfortunate enough to get a glimpse of her cutie mark.

Her grin is almost manic, eyes wide... she's enjoying this.

I feel a gentle tug against my navel, and the world swirls away in a blur of color.