//------------------------------// // Chapter Forty : Lyra - Breakout Beatdown // Story: This Platinum Crown // by Capn_Chryssalid //------------------------------// - - - (40) Lyra: Breakout Beatdown - - - “Gah!” “OH!” Blueblood and Cadance gasped in stereo, sucking in the dank air of the crystal prison that had been his home since his abduction. A third sound followed, that of Night Shade groaning and slumping into a boneless heap on the floor. The first thing Prince Blueblood noticed, however, was not the bedraggled and filthy pink Princess and step-sister next to him. It was not the unconscious Night Shade who had tormented his dreams and trapped him in that horrible imitation of the already horrid Gala Loops. It was not the shocked look on the face of a mint-colored unicorn mare fretfully guarding the door, her horn lit up with a mixture of twinkling gold and shadowy black. It wasn’t even the shadowy apparition of his Aunt, hovering overhead. “No. No. NO!” he cried, struggling desperately against the chains holding him splayed over what had to be a gruesome-looking medical bed. “What have these brutes done to my perfect, white coat?! My majestic golden mane?” He turned, wild-eyed, to Cadance. Her mane was a wretched mess, too, and it only seemed to set him off again. “You maniacs! You cut it up! Celestia damn you! Damn you all to Tartarus!!” He wriggled and writhed beneath the restraints. “Oh, the horror! The horror…!” “Is… is he always like that?” the unicorn by the door asked, deadpan. “Unfortunately,” Cadance answered with a bereaved sigh. “Lyra Heartstrings, this is Prince Blueblood the fifty-second. The Unicorn Royal of Canterlot.” Lyra waved a hoof in greeting. “Hey.” Blueblood raised an eyebrow, seemingly over his earlier histrionics. “Well, hello,” he replied, suave despite struggling to move his front hooves with the table’s restraints taut around his wrist. “Finally, somepony who doesn’t look like a total mess. I do like what you’ve done with your mane, actually, and green is coming back this year for mares. Rarity simply hates green for some reason but--” “Uh, don’t you want to get out of those?” Cadance asked, stretching her neck and leaning over him. She pointed to the thick leather straps around his chest and legs. “Hmm? Oh! These? Yes.” He wiggled around again. “Quite tight. I take it nopony even bothered with a safety word or those wonderful emergency release buckles?” Cadance opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but seemed to think better of it. “Miss Heartstrings, how much time has passed?” she asked instead as, with magic and nimble hooves, she began to free him. “Have we been found out?” “No, Princess!” Lyra responded, and she sounded as eager as she should have been afraid. “There’s been some rumbling, like an earthquake, but I’ve kept the door closed. We should still be good for our escape! And it’s only been a couple minutes.” “Excellent, then… then! Oh, this thing is just…!” Cadance growled at one of the locks on Blueblood’s restraints. “I can’t seem to…” “Could you please free my horn?” Blueblood asked, calmly. Cadance nodded and ripped off the magical containment seals on the cylinder covering the Princes’ horn. It then came apart in two halves, revealing the horn itself. Unlike her own horn-restraint, the seals on Blueblood’s were fresh and untouched. Nopony had expected him to use magic in a comatose state. The precaution had only been applied once and then forgotten about. The moment the horn restraint came off, Blueblood cast an unnamed spell. There was only a moment’s delay. Then, with a crackle and a snap, every belt, buckle, lock, and knot came undone, flying apart in some cases with a degree of violence. Blueblood immediately clasped his hooves together and stretched his legs. “Braid’s Bond Breaker,” he explained, at Lyra’s wide eyed amusement. “Useful against both potential kidnappers and mares who leave you tied up… mostly the latter, honestly.” Cadance shuddered at the implications involved, but kept on-task. “Miss Heartstrings. We’re making our escape. You’re the only one who knows the way out, so we’ll be following close behind you.” “One moment,” Blueblood objected, floating his detached horn-nullifier over to the unconscious Night Shade. With a click, he locked it in place over the dreamwaver’s horn. He then coiled a loop of his blond mane around his hoof and ripped it free. His horn glowed again, and this time his star field enveloped the strands of hair. They promptly vanished and with a flick of his hoof, turned to ethereal fire. “If this works as Auntie Luna said it would…” For a moment, nothing happened, but then the fire circled around an area, where it slowly seemed to feed its glow onto an invisible shape, which slowly became the outline of a young mare. The silhouette's mouth seemed to move, but no sound came from her. She stomped a translucent hoof, but nothing happened again. Finally, the spectral silhouette nodded and turned to look at them, lifting a small hoof. Blueblood touched the ghostly spirit’s hoof with his own, bumping it gently. Then the shadow of a filly nodded, once, and faded away entirely. “Blueblood--” Cadance started to say, her voice sober. “I know,” he interrupted. “H-hey! W-w-what was that? Woah! Was it a ghost?” Lyra asked, for once expressing a degree of skepticism. “Bon Bon was always saying ghosts were real, but that’s just silly!! Ghosts aren’t real! Right! Right?” “It wasn’t a ghost,” Blueblood told her, staring for only a moment longer at the spot where the phantom had once stood. Then he turned to the bridesmaid. “Don’t just jump to crazy conclusions, Miss Heartstrings. Perhaps it was a dear friend of mine from another dimension come to visit.” Lyra stared hard at him… and laughed. “Yeah, right! That’s a good one! How gullible do I look, anyway?” Cadance inhaled deeply, and stepped towards the door. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. According to Aunt Luna, Chrysalis lied to me when she said the wedding was a week away. My wedding is today, and I intend to crash it on time.” “And I’m feeling rather lively for having been unconscious for however many weeks,” Blueblood said and agreed with his step-sister. “I assume I wasn’t invited to this party, but I’ve never let that stop me before.” He took a step forward, but paused and abruptly spun around. “Blueblood?” Cadance asked, seeing him march towards the unconscious Night Shade. “What are you…?” For a moment, the stallion loomed over his former tormentor. Then, to Cadance’s surprise, he snatched Night Shade up with his magic and draped her over his back. He spared one last look at the changeling corpse splayed out against the far wall and marched towards the door. The creature’s neck had been broken and twisted around a hundred and eighty degrees to the point where it was drooling between its own shoulder blades. “We’re taking her with us?” Lyra asked, clearly having mixed thoughts about taking a prisoner along for their escape. “She tortured you,” Cadance added, also more than a little concerned. “The things she did to you in that nightmare…” “Nopony knows that better than I do,” Blueblood cut the Princess off. He was scowling, but it wasn’t an expression directed at either of the two mares with him. “What I also know is that she is no less a victim than any of us. Furthermore, she is one of our subjects. One of our little ponies, without whom, we would rule over rock and grass and empty cities. I will not abandon her here.” Cadance stared at her brother for a few long seconds, and he stared back, as if expecting an argument. Was it really practical to carry another pony, a pony who had done what Night Shade did, mind control or not, all the way back to the surface? What if they had to fight? It would definitely slow them down. Wasn’t there already too much at stake to worry about the life of just one little pony? “You’ve changed,” Cadance said, and, by now, it was hardly news. She smiled softly at him, approvingly. “You used to look down on common ponies…” “I looked down on common things,” Blueblood corrected her with a smug grin. “Common ponies pay taxes. I love each and every one of them!” “In that case, there may be more prisoners somewhere close by,” Cadance said, and the two royals turned towards Lyra for an answer. “Yes?” “I think so!” Lyra replied, and then more confidently, declared, “I’m pretty sure! But I don’t know where, exactly…” “I’ll find them,” Blueblood promised, the compass rose cutie mark shifting as he carried Night Shade on his bare back. “I’d appreciate it, Miss Heartstrings, if you could deal with any changelings that get in our way.” “With pleasure, Your Grace!” Lyra said and put a hoof flat against the crystal and iron door. An inky shroud of golden magic flowed over her body, like a rippling wave. “Let’s go!” Watching them leave, Princess Luna’s nearly indistinct avatar turned her eyes down towards the abandoned Shadow Candle lantern. Her nephew, it seemed, had chosen to save the pony rather than the artifact. Still, she had stayed her tongue and let him make the decision he was comfortable with. The candle could be retrieved later. One other thing in the cell also drew her attention, but she did not delay further. ‘Thank you, Sweetie Belle, for watching over my nephew in his trials...’ The bright white eyes of the apparition closed, and the smoke came apart, dissolving back into the air. ‘And for answering my summons. The rest is in Our Hooves, now.’ - - - Luna returned to her body to find a knife pressed to her throat. “Moonshine,” she said, softly, but otherwise unperturbed. “Princess,” the changeling in the guise of her Night Guard answered from behind her. He pressed the knife more firmly against her throat. It was a dark, almost organic-looking spine. A changeling weapon. How bold. She could feel a numbness creeping through her physical form, a numbness she had not felt while in the dream-time. The changelings, it seemed, wanted her alive. “You’ve poisoned me,” Luna stated. “Where is Wrath?” “Indisposed,” Moonshine answered, and she could all but feel his triumphant grin. “I see.” Luna remained perfectly still, but her eyes began to glow. “We do not know your name, creature, but you have made a grave mistake.” “Have I?” The knife pressed into Luna’s throat again. “And what’s that?” “You attacked us from behind.” Luna’s mane flexed, expanded, wrapped, contracted. All to the sound of cracking and snapping. Only when the sounds died down did the Princess of the Night stand up on all fours and turn around, pointedly stepping over the mess she had left on the floor. Blood continued to trickle down her neck, staining the royal raiment around her chest. Crimson inched across the ivory sigil of the crescent moon. “Foals.” She marched, poisoned and bleeding, out of her atelier. “Thou wisheth to see blood? We shall show thee blood and battle to spare.” - - - “Finger Flick Attack!” Lyra announced, her magical battle-hand swooping down and into the face of a sneering changeling. Two of the strange little claws on it curled together, only for one to snap out and hit the hissing insect-pony square in the forehead. Stunned and stumbling backwards, the creature bumped onto a rather irate stallion. Blueblood promptly seized the creature with magic and slammed it hard into the pink crystal wall of the hallway. “Descending Harp Attack!” Lyra declared, pointing dramatically at another changeling menacing Princess Cadance. This one at least put the effort into wearing a pony disguise. It just didn’t act anything like a pony at all. Lyra’s pet hand simply batted it over the back of the head with a golden harp. “Humiliating Slap Attack!” Cadance shied away from the last of the changeling ambushers as Lyra laid into it with her magic, laughing triumphantly – some would say maniacally - all the while. The Princess of Love turned to her brother, stepping carefully over an unconscious shapeshifter. A part of her was sorely tempted to kick the little monster while it was still down. “Are you positive this is the right way?” she asked. They had long since left the parts of the crystal maze Lyra knew by memory. “Mazes are my specialty,” Blueblood assured her as he took the rightmost of two points in the crude intersection up ahead. “Eureka!” “You’ve found the exit?” Cadance cried, initially joyful at the news. Her good cheer only lasted until she turned the corner herself and only a dead-end. Then the weary and wounded Princess groaned, exasperated with the roundabout chase they had been through. They had passed through halls of hastily emptied prison cells and even a macabre storeroom, full of empty green cocoons. There must have been a hundred there, stacked like cordwood. That, she had discovered, had only been one room of several. The changelings clearly had plans to bundle up and cart off ponies by the thousands. “Blueblood,” Cadance groaned. “This is…” “A false wall,” he interrupted her, slamming his hoof against the crystalline barrier. When he lifted it back up, she could see a small hole. “A horn lock?” she asked, recognizing it. Horn locks were clockwork devices powered by magic. They only responded to the right combination of magical energy and horn shape. Obviously, they were much more common in Canterlot and other unicorn-centric cities than in the rest of Equestria. She hadn’t expected to run into one here, though. “I don’t suppose you can pick it?” Lyra asked, trotting up to the side of the Princess. “You know, hands are good for picking things! I could just kind of work a finger around in there?” “Disgusting,” Cadance remarked, sticking out her tongue. “Do we have to break the lock, then?” “Before we try that,” Blueblood replied, shaking his head and turning around to face the two mares. “I think there may be a key lying around here somewhere. Ah. There it is!” His horn glowed, and one of the unconscious changelings hurtled through the air. It thudded, crooked horn-first, right into the wall. The Princes’ magic twisted the creature around, left and right, trying to get it to fit the lock. After only a few seconds, during which Lyra laughed and Cadance grimaced, something in the wall clicked, loud enough to hear. Blueblood withdrew the now angry and hissing changeling and introduced its head to the wall, backside first. It slumped back into unconsciousness. Ahead of them, the false wall parted, revealing a long artificial chamber. Unlike the areas that had been simply hewn from the crystal caverns, this section had also been layered in a thick coating of organic slime and changeling wax. The pods from before were, here, in full use. The changelings had them lined upright against the wall and anchored in place by wax. A small nodule on the side of each pod beat, rhythmically, like a disgusting alien heart. As if to contrast the otherworldly chamber, a simple classroom blackboard was nailed to the wall and partly overgrown with slime. Written on it, in neat chalk lines, the three escaped ponies could see a perfect inventory of every pony in the chamber. In a small stab of irony, the changelings had come to adapt the Equestrian script and number system for the purpose of subjugating the Equestrian race. Consequently, every one of their victims had been listed by name and date of replacement and then sorted into three grades: yellow, purple and green. They were then assigned a number to help identify their pod. “Stacked and labeled like library books,” Blueblood broke the silence of their discovery. “I don’t know if Miss Sparkle would find this exciting or terrifying.” “Terrifying,” Cadance answered. “This is… horrible,” Lyra breathed, covering her mouth with a hoof as if she was about to be ill. “Bon Bon… by Celestia, I didn’t even stop to think… what if she…” “She’s here,” Cadance said, having already skimmed through the blackboard, picking out familiar names. “Yellow. Sixteen.” Lyra rushed off, but the Princess remained behind, boggling at all the other names on the changeling inventory list. “There are so many guards here. I know some of these ponies. Arrow Head. Gale Force. Strong Wind. Even Purple Heart… I knew him from when I was little… and here’s Bristle. I set him up with Minuette years ago. And Rainshine! And… Celestia… Blueblood! Look!” Torn between keeping Lyra close by and seeing what Cadance found, Blueblood ultimately picked the later. Night Shade still on his back, he trotted over and saw one name sticking out, right above Cadance’s hoof. A name he had never expected to see. Twilight Velvet. Twilight Sparkle’s mother. “How do we free them?” he asked, and Cadance shook her head in dismay. “Bon Bon!” Lyra’s voice echoed in the chamber. “Hold on, Bon Bon!” “Wait! We don’t know if it--!” Blueblood and Cadance both ran towards their companion, but Lyra had already directed her star-powered magic hand to bury its fingers into the cap of the pod. Green ooze dribbled out of the tear in the reinforced changeling wax and, with a heave and a sound like a phone book being ripped in half, the front of the pod tore off entirely. A cream-yellow pony tumbled out of the slime and into Lyra’s hooves. “Is she…?” Lyra’s voice was shaky, frightened. Bon Bon sucked in a breath and opened her eyes, instantly zeroing in on the one familiar face present. “Lyra?” “Bon Bon!” She pulled the earth pony in for a fierce hug, nuzzling her enough to cover half her face in pod-membrane. “You just relax and catch your breath! Okay?” Lyra slowly stood back up and turned around in a slow circle, her eyes filled with an inner fire. “I’m breaking everypony out!” She screamed, heedless, at the top of her lungs. A shadowy wreath enveloped her horn, studded with tiny stars, mixing seamlessly into her golden magic. The hand she had been manipulating before trembled as power surged into it. Tendrils expanded from the disembodied base, forming part of what could only be… an arm, almost down to the elbow. Lyra fell forward onto her front hooves, gasping, as the expanded hand now shot throughout the chamber. One by one, it zeroed in on a changeling pod, dug its fingers into the cap, and ripped the front free. Waxxy panels fell to the floor amid pools of spilt ooze. Each one released a victim that had been replaced by a changeling. “That could have been me,” Cadance said, watching at the scene unfolded. “I could have been in one of those pods.” “So could I,” Blueblood agreed, snorting. “I suppose they couldn’t have delved into my mind as they did if they had encapsulated me. And you…” “She wanted me to be awake.” Cadance shook her head sadly. “To know what was happening.” “Come on,” Blueblood prompted, walking forward. Ponies were beginning to wake up. None had any idea of how they had been abducted or what had transpired, but virtually all – on seeing the strange changeling pods and organic walls – did what ponies tended to do. They began to panic. “I have to get out of here!” “Don’t you know who I am?” “I demand somepony do something!” “Help me!” “Oh Celestia! Oh Celestia! This can’t be happening!” “Where are the guards? Where are the gendarmes? Where is the bucking Princess?!” “Oh, what… what is all this?” Twilight Velvet saw a pony approach, and, despite being covered head to hoof in goo of a rather unknown composition, the middle aged unicorn instantly straightened up. “Your Grace! Your Serene Highness!” “Cadance,” the Princess reminded her, pausing to gently cup the smaller pony’s hoof. “You’re going to be my mother-in-law. You can just call me Cadance.” Twilight Velvet seemed momentarily thrown, but smiled and nodded. “But, the last time I saw you…” “That ‘Cadance’ will be dealt with soon enough,” the real Princess assured her. “Your Lordships!” A rank of royal guards had already come up, recognized one another, and formed up in a row. The pegasi were all uniform white with blue manes, save two exceptions, and the two unicorns present were the royal signature slate gray. As one, they saluted with wings outstretched and announced themselves. “Sir Silver Wing! Sir Arrow Head! Sir Strong Wind! Sir Black Eye! Sir Worthy Praise! Sir Gale Force! Sir Purple Heart! Sir Moonshine, of the Night Guard!” One pony, at the very end, seemed a bit more overawed than the others: a copper colored stallion with a wild blue mane. He was clearly the youngest of the group of guards. He hadn’t even earned the Royal Colors yet. “Flash Sentry!” he announced and coughed. “I, uh, my Lords… I have not yet been knighted!” Blueblood noticed Moonshine’s eyes widen as he approached, and it had nothing to do with his royal person. The bat-pony tensed to rush forward at the sight of his unconscious wife, but true to his discipline and training, he remained rigidly at attention, eyes fixed forward. Cadance nodded to the stallions, but quickly led Twilight Velvet past them. There were ponies to tend to. Frightened, panicky ponies. She left the guards to her brother. “Gentlestallions,” Blueblood began, keeping his poise even with a mare draped over his back like a saddlebag. “From here on and until I release you, you are bonded to the Blueblood Household Guard and myself specifically. You are to follow my orders and my orders alone. Equestria is facing a crisis. Our ranks have been infiltrated by creatures with the power of illusion. They have disguised themselves as you and taken your place in society. I am to root them out. Are you sworn to me?” The stoic guards glanced nervously at one another, one question on all their minds. “You will have to take my word for it that I am not one of these shape shifters,” Blueblood added. “Though you will have ample opportunity to kill them as we make our escape.” “My family has served Canterlot for four generations!” Sir Purple Heart was the first to step forward. “I will follow you, Your Grace.” “As will I,” Worthy Praise came next. “I swear it!” Gale Force was the third, and then they all followed. “As do I!” “And me!” “Sir!” “By your name, Lord!” “Yes, sir!” “I’m not really sure what’s going on, but count me in!” “Good,” Blueblood said, accepting their oaths with a simple nod. “Moonshine. Come get your wife. She’s heavy.” “Yes sir!” The bat-stallion was quick to relieve the Prince of his burden, and Blueblood continued speaking even as Night Shade was lifted from his back. “We have before us a room full of very confused and very frightened ponies. I need eight of you to watch over them and protect them as we make our escape. Of those eight, I also need one to step up as Captain. Lastly, I will need a ninth to safeguard my sister, the Princess Serene, Mi Amore Cadenza.” Purple Heart started to raise his hoof, but one other beat him to it. “Sir!” Flash Sentry spoke up. “I volunteer to protect the Princess!” “You’re the youngest one here, pup,” Silver Wing grumbled, casting a disparaging eye at the teenage guardpony. “The strongest of us should guard the VIP.” “I am a fully capable and enlisted Royal Guard!” Flash Sentry replied, and to his credit, addressed Blueblood rather than his fellow guard. “I… may be the youngest here, and the least experienced… but Cadance is an alicorn Princess. She is already more capable of self-defense than any other civilian here! Sir.” “Cadance?” Blueblood asked, giving the young pegasus a quick glare. “Mi Amore Cadenza!” Flash blurted out. “Forgive my familiarity.” Purple Heart, who had known the Princess in her youth, snorted. “He’s an eager little puppy, I’ll give him that.” “Very well,” Blueblood decided. “Flash, you have it. Silver Wing, you have command.” “Yes, sir!” “Good. Good.” The Prince grinned, and it was a mischievous smile, the sort his Auntie would’ve been proud of. “Now, before we head out, we need to be sure none of us get replaced in the chaos of our escape. So, to help us identify who is who, I will be placing a small, totally-harmless glamour on all of you. It should make it harder for a changeling to pose as any of you.” “A glamour, sir?” Silver Wing, a grizzled guard old enough to be the Prince’s father, cocked his head to the side much like a curious wolf would. “What kind of glamour?” Flash Sentry asked, wearing much the same expression. Blueblood’s grin only grew. - - - The nine most beautiful guardsponies in Her Majesty’s service formed a spearhead as, perhaps predictably, the remaining changelings tried to barricade their victims in the crystal caverns. Silver Wing’s long, flowing mane sparkled in the air as he twisted and landed on top of a changeling, wings thrusting downward to impale the screaming creature. Purple Heart’s teeth glinted, pearly white, even as he struggled with another changeling in midair, the insect-pony snapping furiously at him with her fanged jaws. Other changelings tried to disguise themselves as either guards or civilians, but the detail of pointponies were relentless in intercepting anything attempting to get past them. Blueblood did little more than watch from behind the lines, between the guards and their small, frightened herd of civilians. Cadance and Flash Sentry remained close by, also watching to make sure no changeling tried to sneak through and disguise herself as one of their party. That left the butcher’s work to the older royal guards, a duty they took to with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose and revenge. He was privately a little less sure about letting Night Shade remain among the civilians, but Twilight Velvet had promised to keep an eye on her and it clearly put Moonshine’s mind at ease. The oneiromancer had recovered from her earlier ordeal – their ordeal, really – and quickly broken into tears at the sight of her real husband. Blueblood had insisted they keep her horn restraint locked and intact, but she did appear to be free of the changeling mind control from before. The Prince glanced back over his shoulder at them. ‘Twilight Velvet is a royal mage,’ he reminded himself. ‘And she’s Sparkle’s mother. She should be able to keep the other ponies back there calm.’ That just left them to press forward. Up ahead, the Fabulous Five – the five guards on point, all sporting the metrosexual glamour Blueblood had stamped them with – stormed the changeling barricade. The creatures had been in the process of walling in part of the cavern with more of their curious construction wax. It wasn’t a bad plan, but the changelings were clearly unaware of the pocket bulldozer they had in the form of Lyra Heartstrings. A soft melody filled the air, pleasing to the ear, but the remaining changelings screeched in pain. The guardponies descended on them, ending the fight with hooves and bladed wings. The incomplete barricade proved easy to tear down, bereft of defenders. Miss Heartstrings was the most capable, making good use of her magical hand to tear apart the hardening wax, while the guards and even a few of the unicorn prisoners assisted with muscles and magic. It was all going rather swimmingly. A fact that put Blueblood on edge. His discomfort was only magnified by what they encountered in the next room. “Ponyville?” Lyra asked, the first to speak her mind. “No way…” Just behind the phalanx of stoic royal guards, the trio entered what, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be a dusty street in a small pony town. Colorful buildings lined the street, running the gamut from a two-story house with a flower garden outside the second floor balcony, to a bright candystore with a slowly revolving candycane near the entrance, to a ubiquitous Barnyard Bargains superstore, to a corner grocer. There was even a store called ‘staples and sofas.’ “That’s supposed to be Quills and Sofas,” Lyra explained, pointing at the abandoned store. Her concerns were echoed by the muttered voices of a dozen other ponies behind them. The procession advanced down the mock street, more exposed than they had been in the cramped crystal halls they had left behind. Thankfully, no changelings seemed to be present here. At the end of the street, there was a right turn, and the scene changed yet again. This time to another street with fancy, larger buildings. The decorated fronts of brownstone apartments greeted them, along with a sampling of commercial buildings opposite: a nightclub with once bright lights, now dark, the fantastic façade of an arcade and theater, and next to that, a modest train station. There was even a salon advertising ‘horn sharpening.’ All had either been transplanted or faithfully recreated. “This looks like Canterlot,” Blueblood marveled, “if Canterlot were crushed down into a single block, anyway.” “What is all this?” Lyra asked, looking up at the ceiling. It was crystal, still, and all this had been built into a large grotto. A strange organic mass glued to the ceiling seemed to provide enough ambient light to imitate the sun, though without any of the warmth. “It must be a training ground for the changelings,” Cadance guessed, her violet eyes taking in the surreal sight. “A place where they can safely practice being a pony before actually finding somepony to replace,” Blueblood realized, agreeing with her. “Rather clever, actually.” “We’ve got to be close to the surface by now, right? I don’t suppose you could just teleport us out of here?” Lyra asked, anxiously rubbing behind her horn with her hoof. “You can do that, right? Um, Your Grace?” Blueblood nodded, but continued walking forward. “I have little sense of where we are or how far it would take to be elsewhere. Especially with all this magic-disrupting crystal… it would not be wise.” “And if we run into a thousand angry changelings?” the harpist persisted. “I could always teleport us back the way we came!” “That’s useless!” “My dear, you’ll find that my specialty is the ‘strategic withdrawal.’” “So you’re good at running away?” “No!” Blueblood objected, now side by side with the unicorn mare. He pointed proudly to himself. “I am among the very best when it comes to running away!” Cadance sighed and hurried to keep up with the pair. It wasn’t long before they came to a long upturn in the grotto, including a plainly manufactured bridge over a large crevasse. What followed was a long, steep, upward incline. The changelings had repaired an ancient-looking funicular – a type of lift common in mountain cities like Canterlot – and loaded it up with more of the empty cocoons. There must have been a hundred or more on that one lift, with rows of them neatly piled up alongside the wall. The stink of fresh changeling organic construction reached their noses, causing a few ponies in the train to gag. Soon, they passed into and through a large, entirely unlit section of the incline. A dozen unicorns lit up their horns to provide light for their fellows. The ground beneath their hooves rumbled, not for the first time, and the tension in the air become palpable. Maybe sensing that it was only a matter of time before somepony panicked and bolted for the surface, one pony among them started talking. “So! Here’s a fun fact! Did anypony here know that these caves were originally carved by the founders of Canterlot, more than a thousand years ago? A lot of ponies think that the Bluebloods were the founders, since the First Blueblood married Princess Platinum, but actually the foundations of Canterlot were laid down by another family, the Regal Regrets, who were supported by a group called the Masons. Now everypony knows that the Masons were fleeing persecution in the Old Kingdom, but how many of you knew that the Platinum Compact was actually funded by the Mason refugees? I bet if you look around, you’ll find a triangle cut somewhere. That’s the sign of the Masons and it often points to hidden treasure…” Amazingly, ponies actually listened to her and began looking around for triangles cut into the walls. “They actually believe that?” Blueblood muttered under his breath. “You mean it isn’t true?!” Cadance, Blueblood and Lyra all started at Flash Sentry, and the young guard chuckled in embarrassment. “Only those two would know the truth,” Lyra remarked, pointing to the pair of royal ponies. “History wasn’t really my strong point,” Cadance admitted. “It isn’t true,” Blueblood stated, simply. “And that’s exactly what I’d expect you to say if you were covering up the truth!” Lyra exclaimed, pointing accusingly at the Equestrian Prince. She slyly slipped a hoof around his shoulders and winked, conspiratorially, grinning that silly grin of hers. “Come on! You can tell me. Just between us. What did happen at Rosewell? What kind of things are you guys doing at Boom Lake?” “Why, I believe the pegasi test weather balloons there…” “That’s a cover story, and you know it!” “My Lords and Ladies!” Sir Silver Wing announced, directing their attention forwards. “Light up ahead!” “About time!” Lyra cheered, starting to trot ahead of both the royals and their phalanx of guards. “This was easier than I thought!” “Blueblood,” Cadance warned. Her ears twitched, and a feeling in her stomach clenched anxiously. “She’s right. This has been too easy.” “Come now,” Blueblood scoffed, picking up the pace but still lingering well behind Miss Heartstrings and his guards. “There’s nothing wrong with a little optimism!” “You know, of course, that the moment you say such a thing, you invite--” Cadance’s rather valid point was interrupted by her trotting right into a shimmering blue and black barrier. A barrier that twinkled with captive stars. It also spanned almost the entire width of the funicular incline. Only a few triangular gaps could be seen in the upper right and left corners, and with how it seemed to dig into the earth, the shield itself also appeared to be one giant triangle. “—trouble,” Cadance finished, pulling her nose back from the wall of magic. “Don’t blame me,” Blueblood preempted, stopping just short of the barrier as well. “Miss Heartstrings jinxed us first.” “A barrier,” Silver Wing noted with an unhappy grunt. He and the other guards were now separated. Three had been ahead of it when it took form, and the rest were behind. “This magic,” Worthy Praise spoke up, his hoof against the shimmering shield and his horn alight, “this sort of magic is…!” He glanced over his shoulder at the Prince and Princess. “It is like Lady Heartstring’s!” The sound of hooves clopping drew everypony’s attention forward, to the bright light at the end of the tunnel that they had mistaken for the surface. It wasn’t. “Twinkleshine?” Lyra asked, shielding her eyes. “Rainshine, actually,” a voice answered, and not one but two ponies stepped down into view. It was a pair of unicorn mares, both white coated. The one on the left with the entranced green eyes had a pink mane, the one on the right with the smug smirk had a mane of highlighted blue. A brief tremor shook the walls of the mine, and flakes of crystal and stone fell from the ceiling. The mare with the blue mane paused at the interruption before scoffing and gesturing to the pony on her left. “You’ll forgive my sister, Twinkleshine, for not being very talkative,” Rainshine said with a chuckle. “The Queen wants us to keep a tight leash on her strongest pets.” “Her slaves you mean!” Lyra yelled up at the two ponies. “Semantics,” Rainshine replied with a fanged smirk, “though ‘slaves’ isn’t inaccurate, either.” “You’re a changeling,” Sir Black Eye, a unicorn with one distinctly off-color onyx eye, growled up at the pair of mares. It was all he and Sir Strong Wind needed to hear. The two surged forward, the spellcaster unleashing a blast of golden energy. The pegasus, meanwhile, angled his wings forward, the leading feathers enchanted and hardened into decapitating blades. “And you’re a nuisance,” Rainshine stated. With a musical chime, two more of the triangular, shimmering blue star-shields appeared in front of her. Black Eye’s energy fusillade broke against the wall like a tide of water, ripping apart into coils of magic that scored and sliced into the cavern walls. Behind the barrier, Rainshine’s smirk never faded. If anything, it grew, as Strong Wind’s blade-wings crashed into the third triangular shield. Both blade-feathers bent, stressed, and snapped clean off. Strong Wind howled in pain as the twisted and mangled feathers, meant to be tough as steel, pinwheeled through the air, trailing blood from their quills. His cry was cut short a second later as both star-shields shot forward, plowing into the two royal guards. Black Eye tried to offer some resistance, his horn glowing with telekinesis… Only for both stallions to end up crushed against the walls to Lyra’s far left and right. Then, just as quickly as they had struck, the triangular barriers streaked back to hover at Twinkleshine’s sides. The unicorn mare and bridesmaid had a blank expression on her face, her horn glowing with starry blue and black magic. Rainshine seemed to be emoting for them both and she laughed, freely and easily, at her so-called sister’s display. “I’d call you insects, but that insult always irked me,” Rainshine remarked. “Good job, Twinkleshine. I love you.” “I love you,” Twinkeshine repeated, unthinkingly. Lyra hissed in frustration and anger as Strong Wind and Black Eye fell limply to the ground. She forced her eyes on Twinkleshine and Rainshine, trusting that the two ponies were only unconscious, despite the damage and imprints they had left in the walls, a tribute to the power behind Twinkleshine’s strange shields. This – it was now crystal clear – was another bridesmaid, and not just in name. This was a mare with access to the same font of power she had started tapping into. This pony had Brass’s gift, but none of her free will. “Lyra,” Cadance yelled, her voice distorted behind the barrier that separated the Princess from her bridesmaid. “Be careful! Her power is the same as yours… We can’t get through the shield!” Lyra clenched her teeth, resisting the urge to look back and try and find Bon Bon. “Now that the pecking order has been firmly established,” Rainshine continued, holding out a hoof in faux amiability. “You won’t mind telling me how all of you managed to escape? And, of course, what happened to Bon Bon, your keeper?” “That thing is dead,” Lyra snapped at the changeling. “The Princess killed it and set me free. Don’t you even dare call it ‘Bon Bon’ again!” “Testy,” Rainshine quipped, but seemed to concede. “You’re right. Calling her ‘Bon Bon’ is a disservice.” Rainshine’s brows furrowed into an angry, ugly scowl. “She was my sister, after all. A true blooded changeling and daughter of the Queen. I can’t harm Mi Amore Cadenza, but I will make all the rest of you pathetic little horses pay for her death. And I will. I promise you that.” Rainshine rolled her head, as if trying to keep her calm. “But,” she amended, “that doesn’t explain how a little pet pony like you broke her shackles. How did she undo your mind control, Lyra Heartstrings?” “Like I’d bother telling you,” Lyra replied, and her magical hand flexed its fingers, reflecting her own anxiety. “Aren’t you curious what Lord Brass did to you?” Rainshine asked, and the question made Lyra start and stare. The changeling noticed her interest, and her smile broadened. “You are. I can tell you, if you want. He did to you what he did to Twinkleshine here… and that other mare, Minuette. Have you considered that using this borrowed power is doing you more harm than good? Oh. I’m guessing you haven’t.” Rainshine pointed to her. “Rejoin the swarm, Lyra, and you needn’t suffer the--” The barrier in front of her sprang to life as a gold and black fist crashed into it with a sound like a ringing church-bell. Yet the shield held. Where everything before had yielded or broken, this shield held. Starry magic met starry magic, leaving them both at an impasse. “The--” Rainshine tried to finish. “I don’t want to hear another word of your crap!” Lyra roared, advancing on them. “I don’t care about any of it! I don’t care what secrets you have about me or about anything! Get. Out. Of. The. WAY.” Rainshine’s upper lip curled, and she shied back. “T-Twinkleshine!” “Yes, sister,” the bridesmaid intoned. Her horn glowed softly, and her one free barrier – aside from the one blocking the funicular shaft and the one protecting her changeling ‘sister’ – shot forward to crush Lyra just as it had the two royal guards. The other unicorn was at least partly prepared for this, however, and she stood on two legs and held her forelegs up, the flat of her hooves forward. Her golden harp materialized in front of her, intercepting the triangular barrier with another deafening gong. A blast of air rushed away from the impact, and Lyra’s legs almost buckled, but she held tight onto the giant harp. Feeling at least partly secure in her hoofing, feeling the eyes of dozens of ponies on her back, watching and placing their hopes on her, Lyra ducked her head and ran her horn along the strings. A shimmer passed through the air, upwards into the two mares blocking the tunnel. Rainshine’s shield rippled, but the sound echoed in the enclosed space, and a simple wall of force offered no protection from it. Lyra’s song bounced off the walls and the bridesmaid and changeling hissed and cried in pain. The changelings, Lyra suspected, had nopony to blame for this except themselves. It was nearly the exact same spell she had been given to use against Princess Cadance. “Just give her ears a little ring,” Bon Bon insisted, pointing at Cadance. Since Twinkleshine had stopped her assault, the mare had recovered. She was crouched and tensed as if to pounce, rage in her violet eyes, a rage fixed firmly on Bon Bon and Rainshine. Lyra felt a protective impulse rise up. This mare… this Princess… she wanted to hurt Bon Bon. She deserved to have her ears ring. “I’ll give your ears a little ring!” Lyra yelled, running her horn against her harp a second time. “Twinkleshine!” Rainshine roared through the sound and pain. “Protect me! My ears! Now!” “Yes, sister,” Twinkleshine muttered through the auditory barrage, forced to obey despite the pain. Her dull green eyes were squinted and on the verge of tears, but she obeyed. Her two free shields retracted, shrunk down, and zipped into Rainshine’s ears, plugging them. “Good! Yes!” Rainshine cheered, standing up again without difficulty. “Now!” She pointed at Lyra. “Destroy her! Slice her in half!” “I don’t have any shields left,” Twinkleshine replied, dully. “What should I do?” “Anything! Anything!” “Anything,” the enslaved unicorn repeated. “Twinkleshine!” Lyra screamed, trying desperately to get through to the mare. With the changeling immune to her agony melody, she had opted not to strike another note of it. It would only hurt her fellow bridesmaid. “Snap out of it! The real Rainshine is behind me! Just look! Look for her!” “What’s she saying?” Rainshine asked, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t listen to her.” “I won’t listen to her,” Twinkleshine repeated, but it was a moment late. She had already identified something behind her enlarged shield, the one blocking the tunnel. It was another mare, a unicorn with her same color coat and a familiar blue mane… “Rain… shine…?” she whispered and shook her head. “I can’t listen!” Twinkleshine’s eyes glowed green, so bright they drowned out her pupils. “I have to – I have to…” “You stupid pony!” Rainshine screeched. “Blind her! Now!” “Blind her!” Twinkleshine repeated. “Now!” Her horn didn’t just glow. It flashed, and the entire tunnel was filled with light. Lyra cursed, stumbling back. “I’ll finish you myself!” Rainshine howled, buzzing wings erupting out of her back as she raced down on the stunned bridesmaid. She and Twinkleshine were the oldest of the bridesmaid pairs. They were the originals. The first mare Brass had delivered. The first and the strongest. An ink-black changeling knife flashed in the dying light of Twinkleshine’s spell. “Lyra!” a voice cried out from behind the tunnel barrier. “Eh?” Rainshine sneered, feeling her thrust come to an abrupt stop. There was a hand clamped around her right foreleg. “How,” the changeling hissed. “How could you see…?” It was only then that she noticed another hand – a second hand – covering Lyra’s eyes. “Two of them?” Rainshine whispered, and the hand that had been around Lyra’s face turned and slammed right into her chest. The changeling howled, and a heartbeat later, she tumbled through the air in a lazy arc, like a piece of garbage thrown into a waste-bin. “Now!” “Go!” Lyra rolled back onto her hooves in time to see another flash as two ponies appeared to her left and right. She wiped the sweat from beneath her horn and smiled, recognizing them just by their hooves, one white and unshorn, the other dainty and pink. “About time,” she said, just loud enough for them to hear. “The shield blocked teleportation,” Blueblood replied, taking up much of her view. His tail swished back and forth in agitation. “Even Shining Armor's shields weren’t this strong. Luckily, there was a gap. I just had to teleport us in an arc instead of a straight line. The mental math… took some time.” “Amazing work, Lyra,” Cadance praised her, glancing back at the Ponyville unicorn. She grimaced a second later. “That is a rather gruesome trophy, though.” “Ponies always said I danced like I had an odd number of legs,” Lyra joked, and her magical hand shook the changeling limb it had torn off. Severed, it had immediately started to lose its disguise, reverting to black chitin and green ichor. “Now I actually have an odd number of legs!” “T-t-twinkleshine!” Rainshine’s voice came from the crumpled and wounded changeling on the floor. “Sister?” Twinkleshine asked, blinking her eyes. “S-save me.” Twinkleshine continued to stare down at the bleeding changeling. She blinked again. “Save you.” “Save me,” the changeling demanded, gargling the words. “Save me. I love--” Rainshine’s voice cut out at around the same time a shimmering blue barrier removed her head. “I love you,” Twinkleshine repeated, by rote. Even with the changeling dead, her eyes still burned green, even through the tears streaking down her cheeks. She reached a hoof towards the pair of royals and her fellow bridesmaid. “Help me… Oh, oh Celestia! We… what have we… What have I… done?” Twinkleshine looked up again, finding that familiar face behind her barrier. “Sis?” she muttered, and, with a cry, turned and ran. Her star-walls vanished a second later. “After her!” Blueblood ordered, the pegasus royal guards already flying towards the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Silver Wing led them while Worthy Praise rushed over to tend to the fallen Black Eye and Strong Wind. “Please!” A voice so like the one that had taunted them spoke up from behind. For a moment, Lyra very nearly spun around, expecting an attack from behind. But then her rational mind caught up and reminded her that this was the real deal. The real Rainshine. “Please help her!” the unicorn mare pleaded with them. Lyra, Blueblood, and Cadance all nodded and rushed up after the guards and the now panicked Twinkleshine. The two unicorns ran while Cadance took to the air. At the top of the shaft, where it finally met the surface, Lyra found herself scrambling over a huge pile of rubble. The funicular ended in what appeared to be the remains of a house. More cocoons were stockpiled there, but the number was miniscule compared to the hundreds and thousands in the barren below. Of all the places Cadance had expected to emerge into, some pony’s ruined living room had to be near the bottom of her list. Taking a second to gather her bearings, Lyra noticed Cadance and her personal guard – that Flash Sentry stallion – standing and staring at something. A pivot later and Lyra slowly made her way over to the stunned alicorn. Blueblood was the last to emerge, and as he joined the two mares, he found the first words any of them spoke, topside. “Canterlot,” he whispered, standing next to them at the edge of the fallen wall. “My city is…” Overhead, the skies were thick with buzzing black clouds of swarming changelings, matte black against a backdrop of fading sunlight. An eerie tangerine haze hung heavy over the golden plazas, silhouetted the ivory spires, and choked the gleaming streets of the greatest city in the world like a pall. Fires raged out of control, bathing the skyline in poison. Ponies screamed and fled in panic, only to be snatched up by flying changelings or hounded by loping beasts on all fours, like hungry dogs chasing down their terrified prey. The distant thunder of cannon fire echoed beneath a giant city-wide shield dome and a multicolored blaze of stray magic stitched into the air like a flurry of rainbow tracer rounds. “The invasion,” Lyra breathed, her eyes wide and frightened. “It’s already begun,” Cadance said, turning towards the besieged Palace at the very pinnacle of the mountain city. There, high above, mocking the panicked ponies below, a black and green banner hung from the battlements of the Royal Retreat. “We’re too late.”