The 7th Element

by Tracer0311


...They do now

"Are you certain this is the place you saw in the dream, Princess?" Iron Side quietly asked. We were high atop the roof of an estate in the upper class housing district. Luna had teleported us here, along with Applejack, Twilight and a few members of the guard. The local patrols in the area had been informed of the stake out, and were ready to provide backup if need be.

"As said before, Captain,” the Princess answered him, "the alleyway up ahead leads to the door from the changeling’s memory. I am more than certain." She pulled herself next to me and poked her head over the roof. "Keep an eye on any pony traveling down it, it does not appear to be commonly used."

"Well, you’re right, Princess, it’s been several hours, and indeed, nopony has traveled down there." I said, adjusting my posture. This was uncomfortable as hell. The shingles of the roof were stone and pointy in design. We had been up here since Celestia had lowered the sun, and it was now somewhere closed to midnight.

Twilight and Applejack were next to Iron Side, also observing, though Twilight looked as if she was about to pass out. "Hey Applejack, I think Twilight's asleep." I told her.

"What, am not!" She said, a little too loud for our current situation. Applejack shushed her, tactfully.

""Keep it down, there, Twi! We don't want everypony knowin' we're up here now."

Twilight blushed and closed her wings. "Ahem, sorry, but I wasn't sleeping, as much as I want to."

"Nothing is going on anyway," I said, "we could probably take turns sleeping if you want. Between the five of us, and the other guards, we'll get plenty of sleep even if we are here all night." Iron Side nodded in approval of my idea.

"Well, just who gets tah sleep now, and who has tah stay up?" Applejack asked.

"I'm sure nopony will mind if I do," I said, "and I don't think Twilight would last five minutes right now!" I chuckled, as did Applejack and Luna.

"Hey, you want a moustache, buster?!" Twilight asked, obviously annoyed at joke.

"Ok, if you guys want to pass out, now's a good time then."


"Maybe not," the voice came from Iron Side, "look, coming in from the left." Everypony hushed up and turned their attention to the street. A shadowy figure of a pony was casually walking down the street from the left, occasionally looking back from where it came. I squinted and tried to focus on it, but it was too dark to distinguish whether it was a male or female.

""It's too dark to see," Twilight said before I could. "Shouldn't we be trying to ID them?"

"No, the plan is to wait for anypony to walk down that alley, " Iron Side explained, "then we move in."

Sure enough, the figure turned and headed down the alley, only pausing to take a quick glance behind him.

"Gotcha!" I said excitedly, "Princess, we should move in.:

Luna nodded, "As soon as he's out of sight, Twilight will signal the nearby patrols, and I will teleport us down. Prepare yourselves."

* * *

The courier checked once more over his shoulder before knocking on the door. He knocked three times, paused, and then repeated the knock. This was the "all clear" signal, letting the drones on the other end know it was safe to open the door. A lot of safety precautions were in order to conceal their work here. Even while inside the safe house, the changelings maintained their cover, in case anypony was able to briefly look inside. House searches had not been authorized by the Princesses, because they felt it was too much of an invasion of privacy.

The door cracked open, and a drone disguised as a blue pegasus allowed the courier to pass through. The door led into the kitchen of the manor, where food was always being prepared in order to maintain cover. As the courier walked inside, the leader of the watch, disguised as a colt servant, approached him.

"What business do you have, drone?" He asked in a normal pony voice.

"I have a message from the hive," He replied, using his covers voice as well, "it's to be delivered straight to the Intel Chief."

"The Intel Chief is in a meeting," the watch leader said. He pointed towards the atrium door. "You'll have to wait."

The courier shook his head. "It’s code four, sir"

Code four, this meant the courier had a directive for action. It was highly sensitive information, and took priority over all other operations. "Very well," the watch leader called to another disguised drone. "Escort him to meeting room immediately. "

The courier was taken through the atrium to a hallway. At the end of the hallway, a spiral staircase led down to a cellar, stocked with bottles and barrels labeled with various juices. At the far corner of the cellar, just below a coal shoot, a table was set up, covered in maps and pictures, and two changelings, undisguised, and sat around it. They took notice of the new arrival.

"What isss the meaning of thisss interruption?" The larger of the two inquired.

The courier bowed and addressed them, changing form. "Ordersss directly from the hive, code four." He said.

Both of the changelings at the table dropped what they were doing. "Well, don't jussst ssstand there, courier, what isss our Queen'sss will?"

The courier had recited what he had been passed from the last station before heading out. To him, it was as if he was reading from an actual letter. This was the best way to pass information without leaving a paper trail.

"The Queen hears of your recent discovery, and approves of your plan to capture this creature. She asks you retrieve all possible intel from him before disposing him. She also states that operations in Canterlot need to continue despite the recent increase in security. The final stages of the invasion are underway, and there is only a month’s time till the Crystal Ponies celebrate their Fair. The Pony Princesses need to be distracted with matters in Canterlot when the Crystal Heart is powered up. Once it has been retrieved by the Queen, the Canterlot cell is authorized to openly attack the city. Such is the will of our Queen."

The two at the table took it all in, the larger one writing it down on scroll paper. "Issss thiasss all the newssss you bring?" The smaller one asked.

The courier nodded.

"Then return to your ssstation and await any outgoing messsagessss. Be careful on your way back to the operationsss cell, patrolsss have increasssed recently."

The courier bowed to his superiors and was escorted back into the atrium. The walk over to the operations safe house was short, but it required him to walk across the open street to the manor facing the one he was currently in. He assumed his cover once more and headed for the service entrance in the kitchen. The drone on duty nodded to him as the courier walked over to the door. He turned the knob with his magic...

*BOOM!*

* * *

With a loud smack, Applejack bucked the shit out of the door. It gave way instantly, flying off its hinges, and into the room. Immediately, the squad of guards under Iron Side's command rushed in, followed by the captain himself, Applejack, Twilight, Luna, and I. When we entered the room, I looked around and saw, we were in some kind of kitchen. The guards fanned out and pinned the residents, who all looked shocked and disoriented. Others looked in from a doorway at the end of the room, equally surprised as their comrades. I could smell food being prepared, and for a moment, I thought we had made a mistake. Twilight quickly confirmed we had hit the right house by firing up an ID spell.

"Hold on, let me scan them!" She yelled, lighting up her horn. She targeted one of the ponies who had been knocked out by the door. Sure enough the pony lit up in a green light and took on the form of a changeling.

The remaining residents smiled and quickly changed. Before we could react, they moved in on us from the other room, hurling green energy beams at us. One of the guards pinning a changeling was immediately struck down as a beam made contact with him.

"Twilight, call support up!" I yelled, pulling out my knife. She nodded and shot a purple beam of energy straight through the roof of the building that would be visible to all patrols in the area. She then turned her focus to the incoming changelings.

One of the bugs broke free from the guard holding him and hopped up in front of me. I reacted quickly and smashed its face in with the back of my knife. He fell back, and I gave him a swift kick. Iron Side pushed him and a few of his guards through the second doorway following Twilight's blast of energy. Applejack and I followed through the doorway, dodging a beam of green light. "Wow, Nelly!" Applejack exclaimed, ducking. It struck the wall behind us, covering it with a layer of green slime. "Note to self, don't get hit by that." I said out loud.

Luna and Twilight entered in behind us, and just as the guards were tangling with the changelings in the atrium, both Luna and Twilight enveloped the bugs in their magic and lifted them in air. One by one, they closed their eyes, and were dropped on the ground. "They are asleep now," Luna told us,
Start rounding them up."

"You heard the princess, pile em up!" Iron Side barked. The guards began gathering up the now sleeping changelings as Twilight cast the magic nullifying spell I had seen Celestia use in the dungeon. Through the doorway, a squad that had no doubt seen our signal filed in.

"First squad, second platoon reporting," the lead guard said to the Captain, where do you need us?"

"Help the others in gathering up the prisoners." He said.

"Actually, Captain," I said, we need to finish clearing this house, you should send your men to the upstairs and lower floors to search for any changelings left behind." I gestured to the stairwell leading up.

Iron Side gave me a stern look, but then nodded. "Very well, take your squad upstairs, clear each room and yell if you need support. "

"Yes sir!" the squad leader replied. He motioned to his men to follow him, and then charged up the stairs.

I looked around the room and saw a hallway on the left, under the stairs. "We need to search over there as well." I pointed to it.

Iron Side saw where I was pointing and called over two of his squad. "Go with Louis, clear any rooms down that hallway, and report back."

They acknowledged the order and followed behind me.

"Hold your horses, ahm goin' too! Don't think you're gettin' all the action now." Applejack said, running up next to me.

I chuckled at that. “The more the merrier, let’s go!”

We moved under the stairwell and into the hall. It had four doors, two on the left, one on the right, and an open door leading to what looked like spiral staircase. “Let's split up,” I told the group, “you to clear the two smaller rooms, Applejack and I will get the larger one, and then move to the one at the end of the hall.”

“Sounds good to me, one of the guards said.’ He and his buddy moved to the door and bucked it open before running inside. “Clear!” he shouted a second later.

Applejack and I moved to our door. “I’ll buck it down again,” Applejack said, taking her bucking stance. I stood ready, holding my knife in my right hand. “Ready when you are.” I told her.

*BOOM!*

We rushed in. There was a table with places set, a few paintings, and a drawer. Light from the moon shown in through a stained glass window. Other than that, the room was empty. “Looks like it’s clear.” Applejack said.

“Yea, time to move on.” I turned and went back through the door.

“Second room clear!” I heard the guard shout from across the hall. We came out at the same time and the four of us moved to the final doorway. It was open, and did in fact lead to a spiral staircase as I had assumed. With no door to buck, we headed down, single file. I took point, which was probably not the best choice, seeing as I had no armor and only my small Gerber, but I was really getting caught up in the moment. I realized this, and took a few slow breaths, telling myself to calm down.

At the bottom of the stairwell, we found ourselves entering a dark lit cellar, full of shelves with bottles and barrels. “Fan out>” I said quietly, motioning with my arms. The three ponies did, and we moved forward. The shelves blocked our view of the rest of the cellar, so we moved up to them. When I reached the shelf in front of me, I peered around the edge. The first thing I saw was a flash of green light. I snapped my head out from around the corner and saw a table ablaze with green fire. Applejack saw the flash as well and moved over behind me.

“What is it!?” she asked, trying to get a peek herself. In doing so, she knocked me off balance, causing me to step out of my cover. Instantly, I spotted a large changeling next to the table, apparently generating the magical fire that was consuming the table. He spotted me and Hissed. I squared my body with him, but an instant later, I saw another flash of green, and I was flung back.

“AAARRRGGHH!” I yelled, hitting the wall. It was ok, my extreme ninja skills enabled me to stop myself with my backbone, totally a smooth and skillful move. When the pain hit, I tried to roll over, but found myself stuck to the wall by a blob of green slime. “Fuck, Applejack, get him!” I shouted. I saw her move around the shelf, but a moment later, she and the two guards came back around.

“He’s gone,” she said, shaking her head, “Through the coal shoot.”

“Motherfucker!” I tried to twist free. “Help me get out of this shit.”

* * *

The sun was rising as we entered the throne room. Celestia was waiting for us to give our report. All of the changeling prisoners had been brought to the dungeon as usual, and were undergoing the “dream interrogation” process I had suggested. Iron Side and I both brought in a few scraps of paper that we had managed to recover from the burning table. Unfortunately, most of what was there before had been completely incinerated, and the only thing we had recovered was a picture of a patrol, a list of food a noble would eat for dinner, and a bunch of names scribbled down.
“I am happy to see you have all returned in one piece,” Celestia said, descending the stairs from her throne, “please tell me how the raid went.

Iron Side answered for us, bowing. “Well, your highness, we discovered that there was indeed a group of changelings hiding out under cover in the manor Princess Luna found in the changelings dream.”

“Yes, I am aware, my sister and a number of your guards brought quite a few of them down to the dungeon. Good job on your capture.”

“Thank you, your highness, however, we were unable to recover any information on their plan here. They destroyed almost everything they could before we could recover anything useful.”

“I’m afraid a few of them escaped as well,” I said, “Applejack and I failed to stop one of them, and it headed out through an alternate exit.”

Celestia didn’t look to bothered by any of this news, she instead, maintained a smile.

“Princess?” Twilight asked, “Aren’t you a little disappointed?”

“No, Twilight, my dear, I want to congratulate you on the wonderful job you did. Every Changeling you captured is another one of the streets, and another pony’s live saved. “

It occurred to me that this may have been the first good new Celestia had heard in a while. That explained why she was taking this so well. Ultimately, without having recovered any information, we were no closer to stopping the changeling invasion than before.

“Now wait just a minute,” Applejack said, putting a hoof down , “We still have the captured changelings. Ah know Princess Luna is searchin’ their dreams and what not. Don’t you all think something will turn up from that?” That was a good point.
“As I said, I am happy with the raids results. Applejack is right, There is a great chance we will come up with something thanks to Louis’s Idea.”

“Well, Thank you again, you Highness, other than that, everypony has returned un injured. It appears the changeling’s most common attack is to launch immobilizing goo at their enemies. A few were hit by this attack but nopony was otherwise affected.” Iron Side explained to her.

I bloused, having been hit by this attack myself, the only injury to me was my pride.

“Well, now we shall wait on what Luna discovers, I suppose.” Celestia said., returning to her throne. “I believe tonight calls for a special dinner, one that I’m sure Pinkie Pie would be happy to host.”

*POOF*

A flash of Blue light quickly illuminated the room, leaving Luna standing in the center as it faded.

“Sister, we need to talk, you’re not going to like this.”

* * *
I sat with Twilight and her friends in the dining room, struggling to keep my eyes open. Luna had told us to gather there and wait for her and her sister. Captain Iron Side was there as well, writing notes on the events of the night raid. Twilight had given up the fight and gone to sleep. While Applejack was nodding off as I was. Everypony else had enjoyed a full night’s sleep, and had no trouble staying awake. They all, however, had trouble not worrying about what was going on.

“Oooh, all this waiting is making me so nervous!” Pinkie said. She was passing back and forth. In fact, she had been doing that since we first entered the room. It was one of the things keeping me awake. Rarity was trying to help her settle down.

“Please calm down, dear, worrying about it is only going to make things worse. I’m sure they are simply trying to find the best way to inform us of the situation.”

“Bu…But what if it’s about Ponyville? Or our friends back home?” Fluttershy stuttered, burying her face in her hooves.

“I’m sure it’s in relation to the raid we conducted,” I assured her, “It probably has nothing to do with Ponyville or anypony outside of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash was just angry we had left her behind for the raid. "I still can't believe you didn't take me with you guys!" She stammered.

"Rainbow Dash, you were asleep." Applejack told here.

"And you told us not to wake you up for anything, " I added, "Everypony has told me it's a bad idea to wake you up."

"Well, you should have done it anyway, I wanted to kick some serious flank!" She started kicking and twirling in the air. This is why nopony wanted to wake her up in the first place. I'd prefer not to get kicked in the face by and alarmed and disoriented Dash.

I sat on the floor and put my head against the wall. "I know this might be a bad time, but I've been up all night. Can somepony wake me up when the Princess comes in? I can't keep my damn eyes open."

"Certainly, darling..." I heard as I closed my eyes and started to nod off.

Unfortunately for me, my rest was short lived. It felt like an only a few seconds had passed by before the sound of the dining room door opening jolted me awake. I turned my attention to the door and saw the two royal sisters stroll in. Everypony engaged in their usual formalities, while I just rubbed my eye s and stood. I hopped I could pass out for a few hours after this.

Celestia and Luna both looked rather serious, Celestia holding the same expression she had shown when the reports of griffons came in. You always know when bad news is coming your way. I was used to hearing nothing but bad news. I always figured, if you always expect the worst, you will never be disappointed, a logic that had yet to fail me.

Luna was the first to speak. "I must thank you for your actions during the raid, the number of drones you were able to capture has allowed me to gather a great deal of information. " she took a deep breath. "Now I believe I am able to piece together at least partially what their plan may be."

Celestia's horn glowed, and an image of a city I recognized as the Crystal Empire appeared. In the center, tiny images of ponies stood around the Crystal Palace, which glowed in the center with a blue light.

"From what I have gathered through my dream interrogation, the changeling queen has targeted the Crystal Empire as the center of the invasion. Since changelings feed of love, my sister and I believe the goal is the Crystal Heart, the center of the Empire."

Celestia spoke next, letting the image fade. "In less than a few weeks, the Chrystal Empire will celebrate its Chrystal Fair, in which they will power the Crystal heart with their light and love. Such an act is necessary for the empire's protection and must be done."

A new image appeared, showing the Chrystal Heart itself, glowing brightly and illuminating the room. Celestia continued.

"At the moment that the heart is powered, it will contain the full potential love of an entire empire. The changelings and their queen will most likely seek to capture the heart before it's power can be reflected outward to all of Equestria. Feeding of its power will make them more powerful than ever."

"But you can still stand against them, right?" Twilight asked, "together with you and Luna, the queen couldn't take both of you on."

"If we are able to stop her first, than yes, she is weaker than before, no doubt, and Luna and I should have no trouble defeating her. However, if she were able to obtain the heart on its moment of being powered, there is no telling how strong she might become, as well as her drones."

"Well, this sounds like a ridiculous plan," Iron Side remarked, "she'd have to somehow infiltrate Captain Armor’s protective shield, stay undercover, and be close enough to grab the Crystal Heart at the moment it is powered up. Really sounds like a longshot to me."

"I'm aware from what I know of your history," I said, "that she was able to infiltrate this shield before, so I suggest you enact the same measures we have here over there."

"We're going to do more than that, " Celestia said, "I don't want to take any chances this time. I will be sending the Elements of Harmony to stand guard over the Heart on the day of the Chrystal Fair. I would like you, Louis, to travel with the elements and aid Princess Cadence and Shining Armor as you have aided us here. I'm sure they have need of your insight."

"You here that, everypony! We're going to the Chrystal Empire again! For the Fair!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down, despite the seriousness of the situation. Everypony seemed happy about going to the Crystal Empire, though they contained their excitement better than Pinkie.

"Are we to Travel immediately?" Twilight asked, "I have a few things back at the Library I need."

"You all have plenty of time to make the trip back to Ponyville and say goodbye to your families, you will be staying at the Crystal Empire for a few weeks. I will be sending you with a few escorts to ensure your safety. Early tomorrow morning, before I raise the sun, you will depart by train."

"But what about the party?" Pinkie asked, ceasing her bouncing and taking on a frown.

"Do not worry, Pinkie Pie," Luna said, "the dinner is still set for tonight."