//------------------------------//
// The Last Resort 
// Story: The Lost Race 
// by EvilNaab 
//------------------------------//

"What are you talking about?"

Twilight looked around if she can see the book which she was looking for, what in the last couple of days read over and over, but she had no idea where she could put it. 

"Twilight?"

After a minute searching she gave up, closed her eyes and tried to summon the book with her magic. It appeared right in front of her at the page which she needed and placed it in front of Spitfire.

She cleared her vision and looked at the page. The title told her almost everything what she needed to know: The Soulcrushers Spitfire finished reading the two pages short description what ponykind knows about these creatures then closed the book.

"It crawls into a ponies' body when they are in a weak state, takes over their mind and slowly kills the person's soul." The last line from the book stucked inside her mind.

"Are you saying this thing is inside Dash?"

"Yes, I'm quite positive."

"Twilight, I didn't read anything what would help us get that thing out from her."

"Because not even Celestia can do anything about this, but I may have an idea, we have to ask Chrysalis to do us a little favor."

"Are you talking about the queen of the changelings?"

"Yes, I've already asked Celestia about it and she thinks it's worth a shot, plus Luna might join us in our little adventure deep inside the Everfree forest, but like I said we don't have much time.

Spitfire wiped her tears, jumped on her hooves and rushed to the door, but when she saw Twilight now following her she stopped.

"What are you waiting for?"

Spike walked outside with a tray full of food on it when Spitfire looked at it her stomach when it made a sound what almost made Spike drop the tray from laughing, but he was managed to put it down on the desk.

"For this, eat something I'll inform the princess that we will leave shortly."

Spitfire sat down in front of the untold amounts of food and ate as much as she can get before Twilight comes back, but she tried paid attention not to eat too much since she will probably need her speed. A few minutes passed when both of them were ready to leave. Twilight opened the door, but she stopped when Spike pulled her tail.

"Can I come with you?"

She gave a sign to Spitfire to go forward then turned around and smiled at the little dragon who already have a little pack on her back.

"Spike, I'm afraid you can't,  It's going to be dangerous enough and I don't want to worry about you too."

"But."

"Spike please don't argue with me about this."

She turned away and went after Spitfire. They were standing at the edge of the Everfree forest, home of the several wild creatures and where the sunlight couldn't shine. After a few steps inside Luna appeared behind them with a popping sound.

"Twilight where are the rest of the elements of harmony?, we will probably need their help."

She looked at the ground before she would answer to Luna.

"They know about Dash's condition, but I'd rather not risk their lifes so I asked them to keep an eye on her while we...."

"So they don't know what are we trying to do."

"Yes."

While they were talking Luna walked forward and took the lead, Spitfire and Twilight follow her close to each other. They were walking for hours now, going deeper inside the forest, but so far without any sign of the changelings. The route which they were following was getting darker by every second, Luna decided to stop and placed a spell on their eyes before continue their way. It took a minute for Spitfire and Twilight while they got used to it, but it was better than walking blind.

Luna made another stop, but this time she raised a shield around the group as well a few seconds later several spikes got deflected by it. Almost twenty pair of red eyes appeared around them cutting their way off in every durection. The princess turned around.

"I can scare them off, but we will have to move quickly after that."

Before Twilight could answer another rain of deadly spikes hit the shield, this time the spikes were smaller, but a lot more targeted them than before.

Twilight and Spitfire looked at each other, then at Luna.

"Do it."

"Close your eyes."

Luna begin the spell, her horn was glowing like the sun itself and she channeled as much magical power into it as she could, while she held the shield as well. When the light show was over Luna turned around once again and said only one word.

"Run."

As they were running deeper into the forest as fast as they could Spitfire saw a pair of blue eyes.

"There is a changeling" 

She opened her wings and flew to the direction faster than they could run, just before she could catch the changeling, the last moment he changed his course. The wonderbolt avoided as much branches as she could with the necessary speed to catch up to the changeling, but she still hit a few which made planty of scares on her body..

The changeling turned around to see where is his chaser, but when he didn't see Spitfire, slowed down. The moment before he could land to take a rest Spitfire crushed into him.

Luna and Twilight tried to follow the way where Spitfire flew off, but they were stopped by a group of hungry timberwolves. Luna tried to raise the same shield as before, but it was too late one of the timber wolf jumped forward to slice Luna into pieces with his sharp claws, but in the last second Twilight shot him with a burst of magic which blasted him into pieces. A couple of seconds later the wooden creature reformed. The two pony looked at each other they knew if they teleport now, they will lose Spitfire.

The other four timberwolves began to circle around the two pony, when their attention was seperated enough one of the evil creature was about to surprise both of them, but he got intercepted by a manticore in the air, after a couple of loops on the ground the manticore threw the creature to a tree. When two more arrived behind him to the battle,  the timberwolves looked at each other and decided to retreat. After the manticores scared the timberwolves away all three of them looked at the ponies, the one which saved Twilight from the attacking timberwolf turned to her.

Twilight walked closer to the familiar manticore and raised her hoof to touch him, the manticore grabbed her and licked her whole face. 

Spitfire was laying inside the mud with the changeling under her when manticores jumped in front of her and she took a couple of steps back. Their leader stepped forward and lowered her body so Luna and Twilight can jump down without a trouble.

When they saw Spitfire is alright, Twilight turned back to the manticores who saved their lives.

"Thank you." was all she could say and hugged the creature as much as she could, the manticore let out a huge roar in return and licked Twilight's face one again before they ran off.

The changeling opened his eyes and tried to flee away, but Luna was faster and held him down with her magic. 

"Take us to Chrysalis." commanded Luna. 

The changeling simple nodded and lead them to a cave which was only a few minutes away from the place they were. The sound of the changelings became stronger as they were heading down inside the cave, when they arrived at the bottom of it, hundreds of changelings surrended them, but they opened up the way towards their queen in front of the group. The changeling lead them in front of their Queen's throne.

Chrysalis was tracking the strange trio since they arrived. She knew two of them, but the pegasus was unknown to her. The changelings stopped them a few meters away in front Chrysalis. 

"Why did you come here?"

Before Twilight could answer Spitfire took a few steps closer and bowed in front Chrysalis.

"We came here because we need your help."

Chrysalis ignored the orange pegasus then turned to Luna.

"How come you need my help and not one of precious princesses?"

Luna stepped beside Spitfire and did the same as her.

"The thing what we need to ask from you can't be completed with our skills."

"What exactly do you want from me?"

Twilight stepped forward as well and bowed like Spitfire or Luna.

"We need you to remove a soulcrusher from Rainbow Dash's body."

When the name left Twilight's mouth deadly silence came over the entire hive. After a few seconds the whole hive along with their queen bursted out laughing. The three pony looked at each other then Luna raised her head and stomped on the ground creating a shockwave which surprised the changelings and they stopped laughing.

"Will you help us or not?"

"Oh Luna you can't be serious, the soulcrushers extinct long time ago, no one saw or heard about a live specimen in the last five hundred years, if they would still be around, me and my changelings wouldn't need to suffer like this.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh didn't you know? We are the reason why they extinct, but if you are telling the truth."

Chrysalis stood up from her throne and walked to Luna.

"Take me to her, I'll do what you ask, but in return I want to capture that soulcrusher and find out where it came from."

With the extra magical burst from Chrysalis, Luna was able to teleport them inside Rainbow Dash's house. When Dash saw the changeling queen, she tried to flee away, but she couldn't do anything when Princess Luna caught her.

Twilight was wrong about the estimated time, Dash's mane, tail almost completly transfered and her cutiemark was barely visible. When Luna floated her in front of Chrysalis's horn she examined Dash's body.

"I'm not sure if I can separate them without taking both of their life, she is gone too far. The best thing we can do is to wait while the transformation finishes, so I can question it."

"No, you have to try it, please."

Chrysalis was facing Spitfire for a while then turned to Luna. A couple of seconds later she turned back to Dash with an angry expression on her face.

"Fine."

The two changeling prepaired the container which they brought for the creature.

The changeling queen stepped closer, took Rainbow Dash body with her magic and pushed her down on the ground, she placed her horn on Dash's face and begin the separation process, when she pulled out the almost invisible creature through Dash's mouth she threw it inside the container and closed it. 

"I don't know if she will ever wake up, but if she does it will take her a few more days to regain her old self, if she is lucky."

"Thank you Chrysalis." Twilight hugged her until the changeling queen pushed her away.

"Don't imagine into this more than it was, i did it to save my race, nothing else."

After Chrysalis and her two servant left, Luna teleported themselves to the Castle's hospital where they can take care of Rainbow Dash until she wakes up.



It's been three days since Chrysalis removed the creature from Dash's body, her colours almost returned to their old shape, but she was still unconscious. All this time Spitfire was there on her side, she didn't left the room for more than ten minutes hoping she would wake up.

The moon was about to take the sun's place and Spitfire almost fell asleep next to Dash when she felt a touch on her mane then a soft voice followed it.

"I love you too."