If you have sex with a changeling that looks like your beloved and you didn’t know and you end up having a child together, does it count as cheating?

by TheWraithWriter


Battleground Ponyville

Battleground Ponyville

Celestia’s sun was dipping low on the horizon. Shadows elongated and deepened, ponies finished their work for the day and headed home. There were a few of course who would stay up to pay respect to Luna’s moon, but besides them, most of the town would be asleep in an hour or two.
It was familiar. It was routine. It was predictable.
Nearly silent wings carried a dozen ponies to the woods just outside Ponyville. Not the Everfree mind you. That place was too unpredictable and they needed certainty on this task.
The group of ponies were mostly pegasi, their coats dark and their wings like bats’, but a few were unicorns, their coats dark as well. They were all garbed in dark robes that hid their tactical vests.
They were armed well. It had been decades since the last time Equestria had gone to war, but while the public believed that weapons had not advanced since that time, the truth was quite the opposite.
The Night-Guard were privy to the latest the R&D Department had to offer. They had been given rifles that automatically cycled the next round into the chamber after the first had been fired. They had attached suppressors to the barrels of their weapons. They canceled the flash and reduced the sound of a gunshot significantly.
But that was the Night-Guard’s purpose. Quick and quiet.
The leader of this particular incursion was a unicorn that had more brawn than one would expect and less refinement as well. His coat was dark grey and his equally grey mane was cut extremely short. This unicorn’s name was Blind Justice and he seemed to deserve it.
“Alright then, you know the mission. You find the little changeling spawn, you secure it, and you radio it in so we can all pull out. Weapons loaded, safeties off.” he said in a gruff voice.

Blind Justice

He has perfect 20/20 vision

“Belay that.” said a female pegasus as she walked up to the front of the group.
Her coat was a blue so dark it was almost black. Her mane was actually black, but had a healthy shine to it. Her eyes were her most striking feature though. They were a golden yellow that seemed to almost shine in the dark. He legs were long and shapely and more than few fellow Night-Guards had been floored when she had caught them staring at her flank.
This pegasus’s name was, ironically, Sunshine, and she was the usual leader of the Night-Guard. But after an incident involving the Wonderbolts, she had been temporarily demoted to second.

Sunshine

She has issues

“Weapons loaded, but I want safeties on unless you make contact with hostiles. These ponies are asleep and if they wake up they’ll likely freak out if they see one of us in their homes. Can’t have any of you being jumpy and killing innocents.” Sunshine glanced at Blind Justice. “Unless you have a problem with that BJ.”
A few of the ponies snickered at their temporary CO’s nickname. They wouldn’t have if he could actually figure out why they always laughing when someone called him that.
“No, no problem.” Blind Justice grumbled. “Now, I want a full sweep of the town once it’s good and dark. Standard grid pattern.”
“Always stay in pairs, and if you go off of the pattern, radio it in. I don’t care what your reason is, just make sure we all know where you’re going.” Sunshine added.
The assembled Night-Guards nodded and they all got comfortable on the grass. Night wasn’t far away.

*******

Applejack trotted down the road to the farm, a cart hitched to her. She was currently searching for wherever Granny Smith had thought she could hide the apple cider without AJ finding it. It was getting annoying, Granny’s little game. Applejack was a grown mare and could perfectly well handle her cider.
That time at the spa did not count.
But while the orange pony was moving aside fake rocks and opening the doors on fake trees, she had the nagging feeling that fate was about to buck her in the face. (And not in the good way.)
Applejack heard the rustle of wings and then felt something land on her head. The farmer took off her hat and prepared to begin yelling at the birds for defecating on her when she noticed that the thing on her hat was a bunny. Specifically, a bunny named Angel.
“What in tarnation?” the farmer said.
And then a hammock was lowered down in front of her. In the hammock was that little bundle of cuteness that had been such a problem recently. The ends of the hammock had were held in the grasp of a pair of swallows.
Angel pointed from the baby to Applejack.
“Ya’ll want me ta take the kid?”
Angel nodded.
“Fine.” the apple farmer shook her hat to dislodge the rabbit and then replaced it on her head. She then gently took the baby from the hammock and set the child down in her cart.
“There, but why did ya bring the kid ta me?”
Angel made a complicated series of gestures that would have made perfect sense to a pony with Fluttershy’s level of animal interpretation. Unfortunately, this was Applejack, not Fluttershy, so they were just pointless movements.
“Yeah, sometimes I wish you critters could speak too so that we’d know if Fluttershy was abusin’ ya’ll or not. And why you’d bring me a baby.”
Angel brought his paw to his face.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash came streaking out of the sky and landed on her legs with a thump next to Applejack.
“There you are!” the pegasus said and then she began rapidly babbling about something or another.
“Slow ’er down there, sugarcube.” Applejack said, shoving a hoof in Dash’s mouth. “Now, when I take my hoof out of yer mouth, I want ya to slowly tell me what’s got you all riled up.”
The earth pony removed her hoof from pegasus’s mouth, who drew a deep breath and then began speaking.
“Okay, so Cadance showed up, but she wasn’t thirsty. So then Pinkie challenged her to that drinking game and was losing horribly. And then,” Rainbow Dash gulped. “And then Rarity bucking smashed a bottle on Cadance’s head.”
Applejack stared at Dash for a time. “Seriously?”
Dash nodded.
“Okay, so Rarity’s gone an’ lost it again and Ah am guessin’ that Pinkie drank herself into a coma. Am Ah right?”
Dash nodded again.
“So, why tell me all this?”
Dash blushed slightly. “I needed somepony who was level headed and rock solid.”
“And ya thought of me. Ah am flattered Dash.” Applejack smiled at her friend.
And then something came along and ruined this beautiful moment.
“Give us the child.” demanded a low voice that had a slight buzzing quality to it.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash turned to see three changelings come out of the shadows. They somehow looked different from the ones that the two had battled in Canterlot. They seemed more ragged, less all there. The holes in their legs were not round but jagged. Their teeth were yellowed and decayed. Their eyes cruel and unhinged.
“S’cuse me?” Applejack said, sounding distinctly unhappy.
“Give us the child!” the changeling hissed.
Applejack slowly moved in between the changelings and the cart. “Dash.” she said, not taking her eyes from the changelings.
“Yeah?” Dash replied, muscles tensing as she readied herself for battle.
“Take the kid and fly back to town.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Ah can take these varmints. Ya need to get the kid back to town and have Spike contact the princess.”
“But I don’t even know where Spike is.” the cyan pegasus protested.
“Just fly ya fool!” Applejack shouted as she bucked to cart.
The cart’s contents flew into the air. Dash reacted on instinct. Before she knew what was happening, the pegasus was hovering in the air, the baby cradled in her forelegs. She looked down to see Applejack still staring down the changelings, but now she had a double-barreled shotgun.
“Ah can still hear you!” Applejack shouted.
Dash put on her game face and nodded, even though she knew Applejack couldn’t see her. She then spun a hundred-eighty degrees in the air and sped off for Ponyville.
Applejack heard her friend go and smiled at the changelings. “Good luck catchin’ her.”
The changelings smiled right back at the farmer. “You think it’s just us?” one asked condescendingly.
Applejack scowled. “Keep on smilin’ mother-bucker.”
And she fired.

*******

Twilight gasped and shook her head to clear it as she appeared in a purple flash in Ponyville. The purple unicorn hated teleporting long distances. It would be a while before she could teleport again or use more than beginner level magic. Plus she would be tasting blue for a half hour or so.
She looked around and wondered where Fluttershy had told the swallows and Angel to take the baby.
It’s probably be the library. the unicorn reasoned. That’s where we think Cadance would look first anyway.
Nodding to herself, Twilight began to quickly trot to the library. She would have liked to run, but doing that this soon after a long-distance teleport was a bad idea.
Unless she wanted to fall on her face that is.

*******

Dash heard the roar of a shotgun as she sped away from Sweet Apple Acres. She hated leaving her friend there. It just felt so wrong. But she couldn’t argue with Applejack and the farmer had been right. She could handle herself. The baby was the one who needed protection.
Although, Dash could have done with some protection herself.
(That’s was she said.)
She heard a harsh buzzing and looked over her shoulder to see a pair of changelings descending from above her. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for Dash. She could easily dispatch the changelings or just out fly them. But she could do neither with a baby cradled to her chest.
Dash began weaving, trying to get the changelings to run into each other. It was very unlikely, but what other options did she have?
The changelings failed to crash into one another, but they did miss every dive they made for the pegasus, so that was something. Dash soon saw Ponyville coming up fast and an idea formed in her mind.
She made a beeline for town hall, flying right at the dome as fast as she dared with the baby. The changelings were right behind her, matching and beginning to surpass her speed.
But just before she crashed headlong into town hall, Dash made a sharp turn up and to the left. One changeling managed to mimic her move and keep on her. The other smashed into town hall with a sickening crunch.
Dash climbed rapidly, the remaining changeling not far behind her. Dash made another sharp turn at the apex of her ascent and made a beeline for the library.
The changeling somehow anticipated this move and turned just a nanosecond after she had and managed to grab a hold of her.
Rainbow Dash let out a sharp cry of pain as the changeling sank its fangs into her left wing.
The pegasus spiraled as her wing recoiled from the stabbing pain inflicted upon it. Her swift descent turned into a near tumble, the changeling staying attached to her by its decaying legs.
Then a thought trickled into the pegasus’s mind as she held the baby tightly to her chest. Flaring out her wings, ignoring the pain from her injured left, she stabilized the plummet into a glide. A very fast glide. A very fast glide with her upside down.
The changeling was perplexed by these actions, looking down, or rather up, at the pony it had attached itself to. And as the changeling looked forward again, it let out a shriek that was quickly cut off and replaced by the sound of chitin shattering under high impact.
In short, Dash scrapped the bugger off as she flew dangerously close to the roof of a building.
The pegasus righted her herself with a grin, but that was dropped as she realized that she could neither slow down nor halt her descent. So as she neared the ground, Dash held the baby high above her head and braced herself.
Now, plowing a furrow in the dirt with your own fast-moving body might be deadly to lesser beings, but this is the Dash we’re talking about here. Her head is quite literally harder than a number of substances. Granted some of those listed substances are paper, but still.
Rainbow Dash hit the ground hard and did indeed dig a furrow in the street with her own fast-moving body, burying her head in dirt. But she was totally okay. As was the baby, who escaped without a scratch thanks to Dash holding the little tyke above her head.
Another interesting thing, Dash’s body stopped just in front of a startled Twilight Sparkle, the baby at eye level.
“Baby! When did you get here?” Twilight exclaimed. Looking over the child and at the partially buried Dash. “Rainbow Dash, did you know baby was here?”
A muffled reply that sounded suspiciously like ‘Buck you.’ came from the mound of dirt around Dash’s head.
“Oh you!” Twilight said whilst waving a foreleg at Rainbow Dash. She then snatched the baby out of Dash’s hooves with her magic. Bringing the child close, Twilight began a series of reassuring statements. “There, there. It’s okay. Everything is going to be just fine.”
You know the thing about reassuring statements? You always hear them right before bad things happen.
“Hand over the child.” a low voice demanded. The sound of a rifle being cocked was then heard, as if to punctuate the order. “Now.”
Twilight froze and then looked over her shoulder. There was a pegasus with a black as coal coat, holding a rifle that wasn’t pointed at her.
The Night-Guard said Twilight’s mind.
“Oh shit.” said her mouth.
One wonders how often those two coincide.
Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, bearer of the Element of Magic, powerful magic user, bibliophile, and vanquisher of gods of Chaos did the most logical thing she could think of.
She ran like she had just set fire to a public structure.
But as the purple unicorn fled down the street, more Night-Guards appeared, emerging from the shadows in between every building. Twilight though she might escape as she neared the street’s end, but ended up digging her hooves into the dirt and sliding to a stop as a muscle bound unicorn landed in front of her and blocked her path.
“Stop right there, criminal scum!” he roared, causing Twilight to let out an ‘eep’ as she slid to a stop in front of him.
“You will surrender the child now!” the unicorn demanded.
Twilight nearly wet herself as she cowered under the unicorn’s malevolent gaze. Was this how Fluttershy feels all the time?

*******

Sunshine glided down from her position on a rooftop on silent wings, landing to Blind Justice’s left. She was not at his left though, she was a few feet away, facing the space between him and the lilac unicorn who was holding the baby to her chest and looking like she was going to cry.
Something was familiar about this unicorn though. Like a friend that one had not seen in a while. Where had Sunshine seen this pony?
“You will surrender the child to me at once!” Justice was saying, and it looked like that only scared the unicorn more.
Meanwhile in Twilight’s brain, her mind was moving at a frantic rate. She couldn’t think of what to do, only that she could not just hand the baby over to the Night-Guard and particularly this brute.
“I can’t.” she said, beginning to shake.
And then something clicked in Sunshine’s brain. She knew that voice. That was the voice of a filly that was in near tears over accidentally setting fire to a tapestry while practicing magic. A filly that had cowered from her, a newly appointed royal guard, when she had come down the corridor to investigate the burning smell. A filly that had given her the tightest hug when she promised not to tell the princess.
Of course, Sunshine did tell the princess that tapestry had been set alight, but said she had no idea who had done it. The princess had known already, of course. But the tapestry was not important and truth be told hardly damaged.
But Sunshine had never forgotten that scared filly, trying quite unsuccessfully to hide behind some curtains.
Blind Justice aimed his rifle at Twilight. “Final warning!”
That snapped Sunshine out of her nostalgia.
“Put the rifle down, Justice.” Sunshine growled.
“No.” he said, not taking his eyes or weapon off of Twilight.
“She’s an innocent!” Sunshine shouted.
“That remains to be seen!” he spat. To Twilight, he said, “Now, you have to the count of three, not four, not five, three to hand over the child.” his eyes narrowed.
“One.”
Twilight was shaking uncontrollably now. She couldn’t teleport. She certainly couldn’t beat him in a physical confrontation. She could try a shield spell. She wished Shining had taught her more about them.
“Two.” Justice cocked his rifle for dramatic effect.
Sunshine quietly pulled her pistol from its holster. The gun was fitted with a silencer like the others’ rifles and was a reliable weapon for soft targets. Sunshine wasn’t going to kill Justice, but a bullet to the knee would likely get him demoted to street guard.
“Three.”
Sunshine was squeezing the trigger as she heard him begin to say the word, but stopped when she heard a peculiar sound. There was a crunch, a wet crunch. A snick like a blade parting flesh. A gurgle.
Sunshine saw Blind Justice being lifted off the ground by what looked like a massive, talon shaped spear tip going through his abdomen. It was a shiny black, like the shell of a beetle.
Behind this spear tip was a segmented shaft. A flexible segmented shaft that was appearing segment by segment. Sunshine soon realized she was looking at a tail.
There was a clatter as Justice’s rifle fell from his grip as he was lifted higher by his assailant, whose entire body soon became visible, whatever magic that made it invisible fading.
It was a changeling, obviously some sort of mutant. A huge changeling, easily as big as the queen herself. It appeared as muscle bound as a changeling could, with grey metal armor covering its body. A skull like helmet with a black visor covered its head, but left its fang-filled lower jaw free to bite.

Changeling Brute

*Predator chittering noise here.*

Blind Justice knew he had time to say one last thing as he was turned to face the thing, still impaled on its tail.
“You, are one ugly, mother, fu-”
Before he could even finished his last words, the changeling whipped its tail to the side and sent him crashing into a wall.
It then zeroed its sight on Twilight and let out a screech that would reduced battle-hardened griffons to quivering in puddles of urine.
And then Sunshine’s combat instincts kicked in.
Contact!
Even as the word left her lips, Sunshine saw more changelings emerge from the shadows, attacking her fellow Night-Guards with cruelly curved blades. The pegasus brought her pistol up and began firing at the changelings as fast as she could, sending a double-tap of bullets at each of them until the slide locked back.
She then dared glance at Twilight, who was still standing frozen on the spot, still as a statue.
Run!” she shouted at Twilight.
Twilight just stared at her for a moment, and then she suddenly spun on her hooves and bolted down the street. The mutated changeling roared and began sprinting after her, tearing up clots of dirt.
Sunshine leapt the half-dozen feet or so to where Blind Justice’s rifle had fallen and snatched it up. She pointed it towards the big changeling pursuing Twilight and opened fire.
Thanks to the weapon’s suppressor, there wasn’t a flash or loud chatter as the weapon fired. In fact, the sound of the weapon cycling was the louder than the weapon firing.
Sunshine’s bullets were on target, but it mattered not. The weapon had been loaded with subsonic hollow points, which simply dinged off the changeling’s armor with a spark or two. It didn’t even slow the bastard down.
Sunshine tossed the weapon aside and pulled her shotgun from her back. She didn’t have a silencer for this weapon, but Sunshine had always favored a good pump-action 12-Gauge over a rifle.
She heard a screech and whipped around, angling her shotgun up. A changeling was leaping off of a roof, waving a knife. She fired, the weapon bucking in her grip and the changeling tumbling away from her as the pellets tore its body.
Sunshine racked the slide and began moving as fast as she could after Twilight and the big changeling.

*******

Rarity was going through Twilight’s closest.
She wasn’t being nosy of course (the nerve!), but she did feel it was her duty to ensure that dear Twilight had at least one fashionable dress.
What did this apron say? ‘Kiss the cook… No, not there!… Well, if you insist…’
“Oh sweet Celestia, which is worse? This being Twilight’s or Spike’s?” Rarity asked herself.
She didn’t get an answer, but what she did get was knocked over as a midnight-blue pegasus came crashing through a window.
Sunshine shakily got to her hooves, putting the butt of her shotgun on the floor to use as a crutch to get herself up. That big changeling had hit her with its tail, sending her flying through the air and a window.
Sunshine turned and saw there was a white and purple heap where she had landed. A fabulous white and purple heap.
“Thanks for breaking my fall.” the pegasus said, shaking her head to clear it.
“No… problem.” Rarity said, groaning in pain.
Sunshine looked around the room and barely glanced at the passed out pink earth pony. She did however stare at the unconscious form of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza slumped on a table.
Sunshine shook her head and began looking around the room for something, anything, that could help her fight that monster outside. Her eyes fell on a bowl of dark liquid.
Trotting over to it, Sunshine dipped a handy cup into the bowl and took a sip. The liquid burned her throat.
“Yep, that’s the stuff.” she said hoarsely. She then turned to the white unicorn with the fabulous purple hair who was currently getting to her hooves. “I need your help.”

*******

Twilight was cowering inside a building that was slowly being demolished by the monstrosity that was after her and the baby. She held the child close to her body, trying to keep she shaking down. The baby was awake and seemed to understand that something was wrong. The baby was quiet, face buried in the fur on Twilight’s chest.
The changeling beast was screeching and roaring as it pummeled the building with its legs and spear-like tail. Twilight wondered why it was after her and the baby. What were its reasons? Did Chrysalis send it?
These questions were temporarily rendered moot as Sunshine and Rarity suddenly burst out of the library’s front door. Sunshine was wielding her shotgun while Rarity was holding a large bowl of dark liquid in her magical grasp.
Rarity threw the contents of the bowl all over the big changeling, which halted its assault on Twilight to turn and stare at her. Sunshine then aimed and fired her shotgun, which she had loaded with a Dragon’s Breath shell.
The incendiary projectiles made contact with the soaked changeling. The changeling promptly went up in flames and began wailing in pain. It flopped on its back in a vain attempt to extinguish the flames. Sunshine went up to it and pinned its head back with a hoof and proceeded to empty her pistol into its throat and chest.
“Oh my,” said Rarity as she trotted up next to Sunshine. “I guess they call it a flaming cocktail for a reason.”
Sunshine smirked. “And I guess you could say that he-” she gestured to the changeling whilst putting on a pair of sunglasses “-couldn’t take the heat.”
(YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)
Twilight nervously made her way out of the partially destroyed house.
“Sunshine,” she said nervously, still holding the baby tightly against her. “Is that you?”
The pegasus nodded. “It’s me Twilight. And don’t worry, everything is going to be just fine.”
Oh, she had to say it.
There was a roar of rage and a changeling similar to the one Sunshine had just killed suddenly came crashing out of the sky. The changeling landed with a solid thump just opposite its dead brother. This one looked less decayed though and wasn’t as brawny as the other, but that made it no less terrifying.
“Give me the child!” the changeling roared in a distinctly male voice.
“Twilight.” Sunshine said as she tightly gripped her shotgun.
“Yes?” Twilight asked, feeling the adrenaline beginning to pump through her body once more.
“Run.”
It was a simple command and Twilight happily followed it. The lilac unicorn began sprinting away from the changeling as Sunshine racked her shotgun and tried to bring it up. The changeling’s tail whipped around as he started after Twilight and smashed into her body. The pegasus was sent flying through the air, her shotgun and sunglasses flying away from her. The back of her head connected with a wooden beam with a solid thunk.
In an instant everything went black.

*******

Twilight was running low on fuel. She couldn’t keep running like this. The adrenaline in her body could only sustain her for so long. She felt herself slowing. Her breathing became ragged. Her eye lids felt heavy.
And suddenly she was in the air, flipping over to land heavily and painfully on her back. But she managed to keep the baby safely tucked against her.
Twilight skidded a foot or so in the dirt, wincing painfully. Opening her eyes, she saw the changeling standing above her, face concealed by his metal mask.
“Such foolish bravery.” he said, eyes burning behind the black visor. “You are a brave little pony and you deserve to know the name of your killer. I am Silas, Grand General of the Changeling Army."

General Silas

Four-Star Monster

Now,” his tail came up behind him, poised to stab into Twilight. “Die.”
Twilight closed her eyes and waited.
But the spear-tail never connected with her body. It glanced off of a pink shield of magical energy, startling Silas.
What!?” he roared.
Shining Armor the burst through the trees near the edge of town and leapt to land between his sister and the changeling.
“Get away from my sister you mother-bucker.” Shining growled.

Shining Armor

Buck Yeah!

Silas returned the growl and the two began to circle one another as Twilight quickly crawled to the relative safety of a house.
“The great Shining Armor.” Silas said, laughing. “I will enjoy killing you.”
“Shining!” called a female voice.
Both Shining and Silas turned to see Cadance running up to where they were. She had a sword in her magical grasp and tossed it to Shining. He caught it and pulled the blade from the sheath, tossing the sheath away.
Silas roared and charged Shining who ducked and lashed out with the sword. The blade skited off of Silas’s helmet with a shower of sparks and left it with a scar, but seemed to do the changeling no harm.
Silas lashed out and hit Shining in the gut, stumbling the unicorn. Grinning, the changeling sent his tail forward, intent on skewering Shining. The unicorn managed to dodge it just in time by turning and the spear point became stuck in the ground.
Shining went with his turn and brought the sword up. Using his momentum, Shining brought the sword down in a vicious chop that cut completely through the tail.
Silas screeched and stumbled back, his now half-length tail flailing wildly. Shining pressed his advantage and closed the distance between himself and Silas. He brought the hilt of the sword against the changeling’s armored head with a dull thunk.
Silas lashed out again and hit Shining in the head. This knocked him on his back and jarred the sword from his grasp. Silas reared up, a wickedly curved blade poised to plunge into Shining. Shining reacted on instinct and lashed out with a back leg.
This caught Silas squarely between his back legs.
The changeling seemed to freeze. He then let out a low breath and promptly crumpled on to the ground.
Breathing heavily, Shining stood up and retrieved the sword. He then went over to the fallen changeling and examined him. It appeared as though he was unconscious.
Shining reached over and pulled the metal mask off of the changeling, revealing the face beneath. Silas’s face was heavily scarred and pitted and looked as though he had his jaw broken and hastily healed.
“You,” Shining said as he stared at the ruined face. “Are one ugly mother-bu-”
“MOTHER-BUCKER!” Silas roared, eyes opening.
He lashed out with all four hooves and sent Shining a ludicrous number of feet into the air before the unicorn crash back to the ground.
“If you have a chance to kill,” Silas said as he got to his feet and picked up the sword. “You better bucking do it!”
As Silas reared back on his hind legs, the sword poised to skewer Shining, another female voice spoke up.
“Well Silas, at least they can say you gave good advice.”
This was followed five loud gunshots in rapid succession. The bullets tore through Silas’s torso, leaving bloody holes as they exited. But Silas was still standing. His and Shining’s eyes met and the unicorn saw cold, naked fear there. Then a sixth shot rang out, almost like an afterthought. It too went through Silas and the changeling general fell to the ground, dead.
Shining was looking at where Silas had stood and he could see Queen Chrysalis herself standing there. She blew on the barrel of a revolver before twirling it and returning it to its holster.
“Miss me, sweetie?” she said, winking at Shining.

Queen Chrysalis

*Smooch*