The meeting with the changelings had gone quite well in Twilight's opinion, even with Creme Brulee staggering in dead–drunk halfway through, leaning heavily on his "brother" Caramel. After hearing their stories, Twilight had decided to inform Princess Celestia and request that she grant an unofficial audience. Pinkie, Caramel, Lyra, and Bon Bon were doing their best to manage the changelings, while Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash stood next to Twilight. The crowd talked amongst themselves nervously at the news of Princess Celestia's impending arrival.
"Wow, we'll get to see the princess!"
"Does her mane really glow like the sunset?"
"Ugh. I'm never downing that much Wild Stallion again."
"There's a joke to be made in there somewhere, Creme."
"Shut up."
"I hope she doesn't banish us to the moon..."
"I wouldn't mind if she banished you. Remember that time you fed me pony laxative? They say love hurts. Turns out it burns."
Twilight looked over the chattering changelings; she had no idea there would be so many. "I can't believe this was going on under our noses."
Lyra approached Twilight cautiously. "If it makes you feel better, Twilight, we would have told you right away if they were up to something. The only reason nopony noticed was because we were covering for them."
Rainbow Dash looked over the crowd of changelings thoughtfully. "Makes you wonder what it would have been like if Chrysalis had decided to go all out, though."
Scootaloo looked at her, aghast. "Don't say that! Who knows how much trouble she'd cause?"
"Eh, we'd kick her flank in the end," Rainbow scoffed. "Just like we did last time."
Scootaloo gagged theatrically. "Last time you had the...ugh...the power of love."
Twilight and Rainbow Dash both stared at her in confusion. Twilight in particular looked flummoxed. "But...you’re a changeling. You eat love."
"Doesn’t mean I have to like it. I mean, it tastes like Pinkie’s baked bads. Yuck."
The Pink Peril popped up out of nowhere between the pegasus and the changeling, and everypony jumped, startled. "Hey! I've only maybe–almost–could've killed somepony with my muffins once or twice or three times, back when I was young and impressionable last year! Those were Applejack's baked bads! I have a reputation to maintain, you know!"
"Look!" Spike said excitedly, pointing through the window. "Princess Celestia's here!"
"What?" Twilight looked up, surprised. "I was sure she'd be teleporting into the basement to avoid drawing attention to herself, not flying in with twenty guards!"
The small dragon scratched his neck uneasily. "I don't know, maybe she wanted some security. I mean, you're asking her to meet with changelings, Twilight."
Twilight shook her head. "Well, whatever the case, I hope she has a good cover story. I don't want anypony in town to panic over this."
Spike put a comforting claw on her shoulder. "Relax, Twilight, what could possibly go wrong?"
Pinkie blinked a couple of times as she stared at Spike before sliding over to the side, well away from him. "I think I’ll just stand over here for a bit..."
Twilight sighed. "I don't know, but she's landing now. It's time to get this started."
Spike held the door open for Princess Celestia, who entered regally along with her guards. They circled the walls of the library as Celestia stepped into the middle of the main room. The changelings present all bowed in respect, while Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked up to their diarch.
"Princess Celestia, it's so good of you to come on such short notice," Twilight said. "As you can see, I've assembled several changelings who want to talk to you."
Celestia smiled. "Thank you, dear Twilight. You've saved me all the trouble of finding them myself."
"Pardon?" Twilight looked puzzled. "I don't understand."
Celestia chuckled. She lowered her head and shot a blast of green magic out of her horn, which caught Twilight in the chest and pinned her to the wall, where it solidified into a mass of green goo. "Gotcha."
Several guards seized Rainbow Dash and forced her to the ground as Celestia wreathed herself in an emerald fire, which burned away her appearance to reveal the changeling queen.
"Chrysalis!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she struggled and kicked, trying unsuccessfully to buck off her captors. "You lousy, no good, stinking—"
"No, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo ran towards her idol, but the guards caught and restrained her. "Don't make her angry! You won't like her when she's angry!"
"I don't like her now!"
Twilight tried zapping the adhesive mucus with the spell she used during the wedding. Unfortunately, not only was the goo tough, it also absorbed any spell she used and expanded as a result. It was feeding off of her magic. ‘Buck it all,’ she thought as she changed the modulation of her magic and tried again. It did the exact same as before. ‘Nothing’s ever easy.’
Without seeming to cross the intervening space, Pinkie suddenly stood between Chrysalis and her prey with a party cannon she had pulled out of nowhere. "Hold it right there, Chrysalis! Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Did she fill her party cannon this morning, or not?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a Party Explosion Mk VII, the most powerful party cannon in the world, and it would blow all of you right out the window, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Chrysalis sighed and mentally commanded the changeling impersonating Spike to grab Pinkie Pie from behind. He was obviously much stronger than he looked to hold down the hyperactive party pony so easily. "Don't monologue, dear," she taunted as she delivered a condescending pat to Pinkie's fluffy mane. "You don't have the style to pull it off."
Twilight continued her struggles to free herself. "How did you know Celestia was supposed to be here?" she demanded.
Chrysalis sneered. "You really shouldn't dictate all your letters, dear. Someone might overhear you." She looked away from the princess and focused on the changelings cowering in front of her. "But if you'll excuse me, I have some words for my subjects. I fear it has been far too long since we last talked."
Bonling growled. "Not long enough, 'Your Majesty.'"
Chrysalis fixed the impudent changeling with a wicked glare as she forcefully re–established the empathic link between herself and her subject. Bonling screeched and collapsed to the ground under her psychic onslaught, writhing in pain as her mind was laid bare before the queen.
"Kneel! Kneel before your queen, you fools!" Chrysalis gloated. "Did you honestly think you lowly drones and workers could stand up to me, who defeated both Celestia and your precious Twilight Sparkle?"
Twilight tried prying at the goo with her horn, but it remained unscathed, and she growled in frustration. "Yeah, well, you didn't suck off a load of my brother's love this time!" she shouted. Everyone present stopped what they were doing to stare slack–jawed at the princess, who slowly turned a deep shade of red. "Wait. Let me rephrase that."
The Ponyville changelings looked at one another in fear, but most remained upright, despite the queen's obvious attempts at psychically crushing them.
"What is the meaning of this insolence?" Queen Chrysalis roared as she redoubled her efforts. "Bow to me now, or do I have to feed you to the recycling pools when I take over Equestria?"
Her wrath flowed through the link into the minds of every changeling present; some collapsed from the assault and clung to their friends, but none gave in to her demands.
Chrysalis signaled her guards and smiled viciously at Bonling. "I have had enough of this. I think it is time for you to learn the price of defiance. I'd hate to put you to waste, so I'll let my new elite warriors recycle your biomass into something more...productive."
The warriors dropped their pony forms as they advanced on their fellow changelings with razor–sharp fangs bared. Queen Chrysalis's psychic powers had crippled their prey, so all they needed to do was feast on their siblings and grow stronger.
There was a bright flash of light from outside, and the window exploded. Glass shards filled the air as Thunderball crashed into Chrysalis and slammed her through the library wall in an explosion of splinters. The empathic link vanished in an instant as Chrysalis became much more focused on the pony assaulting her. Her elite guard rushed out to protect her, which left Rainbow Dash free to rescue Twilight.
She quickly shattered the bonds with a series of well–placed kicks and pulled Twilight off of the wall. "What's the plan, Twilight?"
Twilight glanced around at the non–hostile changelings left in the library, many of whom were still shaken from Chrysalis's psychic domination. "First, we get the changelings and ponies safely into the basement. Then we start kicking flank."
"You heard the princess," Rainbow shouted. "Move!"
Pinkie ran to the basement door and flung it wide open. "Get in, everypony! Auntie Pinkie will keep you safe!"
Lyra put her hoof around Bonling's shoulder to pull her along. "Come on, let's go.
Bonling stood her ground, shaky but recovering. "No. No more running. I will stay and fight."
Bon Bon gasped in shock. "But there's so many of them!"
"All the more reason I should be out there fighting. I want you to survive. I want this town to survive." Bonling hugged Lyra and Bon Bon. "Stay safe. We'll be drinking at the Prancing Pony at the end of the day laughing about this, I promise."
"Yeah!" Creme Brulee slurred enthusiastically. "Me too! I’m going to kick some flank with you!"
Caramel sighed and dragged Creme to the basement by his tail. His speech was muffled by the mouthful of hair. "Not while dead drunk, you’re not."
Twilight ushered the obviously terrified changelings through until only she, Rainbow Dash, and Bonling remained.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. "Fine. Let's do this!"
Meanwhile, outside...
The ponies milling around outside the library gasped in shock as Thunderball and Queen Chrysalis landed in a tangled heap on the ground outside. They soon ran away in panic as the stallion straddled the changeling queen and clapped his hooves together on each side of her head. The iron horseshoes he wore made a satisfying crack as they impacted against her skull with a discharge of electrical energy. One of the warrior changelings immediately tackled Thunderball from behind and carried him off of Chrysalis, while the others landed on him in a diamond dog pile.
There was a mighty flash of lightning, and the changelings were thrown off of Thunderball as he shot up into the sky, his body surging with building electricity. He dove towards Chrysalis, who shot a blast of green energy at him; the bolt of magic hit the electric field surrounding Thunderball's body and exploded, knocking him out of the air and into the branches of a nearby tree. Thunderball looked up in a daze through the smoke to see a changeling warrior pounce at him with its razor–sharp teeth bared before a multi–colored blur whisked him away.
"Scootaloo's off to sound the alarm," Rainbow Dash shouted as they rocketed up into the sky. "We just need to hold out until reinforcements arrive!"
Thunderball looked down to see Bonling and Twilight emerge from the library to confront Chrysalis and her warriors as at least a dozen ponies around town turned into changelings and converged on their position. "While outnumbered and outmaneuvered? Sounds fun!" He grinned in the first genuine smile Rainbow had seen and unleashed a whooping battle cry. "DEATH FROM ABOVE!"
The two pegasi dove into the thick of their enemies. Chrysalis saw them coming and quickly fired off several shots. Thunderball rolled to the side to avoid them and delivered a swift uppercut to the royal changeling's chin, which sent her flying up into Rainbow's waiting embrace. Before she could reorient herself, Rainbow latched her hooves around the queen's midsection and pile–drove her into the village green headfirst.
A rainbow–colored mushroom cloud rose over the area as a shockwave leveled the grassy field. Twilight raced through the fallout towards the crater Rainbow Dash had made and peered over the rim to see her friend out cold at the bottom, with Queen Chrysalis nowhere to be found. Did the queen teleport out at the last second, leaving the rainbow–colored mare to slam into the ground headfirst? Twilight heard the sound of movement behind her and spun around, pointing her charged–up horn at the source of the noise.
"It's me!" Thunderball said, throwing his hooves up in the air.
Twilight kept her horn trained on the pegasus. "Prove it."
Before he could respond, a wave of green energy swept them both into the crater. A green force field sprang into existence over the crater, trapping the three ponies inside. Twilight quickly dispelled the barrier only to see Chrysalis's guards leaping in with their teeth bared.
A red blur jumped in front of Twilight and lashed out with its rear hooves, sending the changelings flying out of the crater. Twilight opened her eyes to see Big Macintosh standing over them protectively, while Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Bonling, (in Bon Bon form), took up positions around her. In the background, the Ponyville alarm siren wailed in the distance, calling for aid from Cloudsdale.
Pinkie bounced around the crater excitedly. "Wow, is it disaster time again? That makes it the second time this month!"
Twilight quickly shook Rainbow awake as the changelings regrouped in the sky. The changeling queen snarled and rose above the battlefield, her tattered wings ablur. She and her warriors fired a barrage of magic blasts down at Twilight, who was forced to cast a protective shield over her friends. The alicorn grunted and collapsed onto her knees from the effort of deflecting the attacks.
"Can't...do this...forever," she panted. "Anypony...have a plan?"
Thunderball raised a hoof. "Rainbow and I should disrupt their fire so Your Highness can move to a better position."
"I can fly as well," Bonling volunteered as she shifted back into her native form, much to the shock of the other ponies. Applejack reflexively turned and bucked at Bonling, but Big Mac blocked her before she could land a blow.
"Remember what Scootaloo told us?" the draft horse reminded Applejack. "She's on our side."
Applejack's expression turned sheepish. "Err...sorry. I ain't used to thinkin' of changelings as bein' anything but enemies."
Rarity idly examined Bonling's gossamer wings with her hooves, much to the changeling's discomfort. "You have to admit, they'd make wonderful models. Not to mention there'd be a lot of ponies quite willing to pay money to spend time with a facsimile of their choice."
"...Thank you so much for that, Rarity." Thunderball tried his best to glare daggers at Bonling, but his eyes were hollow and tired. His head knew that she was innocent, but his heart just did not want to accept it, wanting to live on in a world where the lines between friend and foe were more clear–cut.
Bonling needed to help her friends, and working together was their best chance. She flicked her tail, her tone pleading. "Can’t you trust me? Just this once?"
Thunderball turned away. Bonling couldn’t see the look on his face, and she couldn’t tell if it was full of rage or...something else.
Her low voice managed to catch his attention, his ear flicking back for a moment. "I know you don’t like me, but this is about more than just me. Please, Thunderball. For everypony here. For my brother. And for yourself." Bonling shifted around to face Thunderball, carefully extended her hoof. "He today who sheds his blood with me–"
Thunderball flinched, as though she had slugged him. He closed his eyes and remembered how he and Skyfall had sworn to fight and die by each other’s side so many years ago. He raised a shaking hoof and, for a moment, Bonling thought that he was going to strike her, but he simply held hers loosely in his own. "–shall be my brother," Thunderball whispered.
Bonling smiled at the moment of understanding before Twilight spoke again. "Guys? I can’t keep this shield up forever."
Thunderball let go of Bonling’s hoof and turned towards Twilight with renewed vigor in his eyes. "Your Highness, please provide an opening on my mark. Three. Two. One. MARK!"
A circular opening large enough for one pony opened at the base of Twilight's shield. Rainbow Dash bolted through it, followed closely by Thunderball and Bonling. They flew out of the field of fire before Rainbow pulled up sharply and accelerated as fast as she could, triggering a sonic rainboom in the heart of the swarm. The shockwave broke up the changelings, knocking several of them out of the sky, and allowed the three fliers to pick off the remainder.
Rainbow Dash and Bonling teamed up against the bulk of the warrior changelings, using Rainbow's skills in karate and Bonling's knowledge of changeling insults. Bonling would zip around in front of a group of three or four, hiss out insults, and take off, dodging the sickly green blasts the angry changelings shot at her. Meanwhile, Rainbow would perch on a cloud out of sight until the bulk of the enemy was distracted, then hurtle like a rocket and drop–kick the unfortunate changeling warriors to the waiting hooves of Applejack and Big Mac before swooping up to repeat the performance.
The earth ponies, for their part, held their ground, bucking fallen changelings into a magically constructed iron cage Twilight had conjured for that very purpose. "Jus' like buckin' apples," Big Mac drawled, and Applejack couldn't help but grin at her reserved brother's comment.
Rarity sniffed delicately as she telekinetically lifted an unconscious changeling into the cage to the music of Pinkie Pie's party cannon and screaming townsponies. "Oh how I do hate all this uncouth roughness. It will take me hours to get my mane back in shape! Hours!"
Pinkie bounced around her friends, toting her cannon behind her. "Ooh! Ooh! You could style your mane like mine! I never need to brush it! It just kind of...poofs!" She giggled as she unloaded another round into the face of an incoming shapechanger, knocking it out from the concussive blast of confetti.
Rarity's sudden grimace of horror morphed into a fake smile faster than a changeling into a pony. "I...think I'll make do, thank you."
Thunderball worked by himself, moving from one changeling to the next like a well–oiled machine, applying every dirty trick he had ever learned to the battle. He showed no hesitation in dislocating joints, crushing throats, or ripping off wings as he tore through his enemies. Dead and crippled changelings dropped out of the sky in his wake until a whip of emerald fire suddenly wrapped around his body.
The stallion screamed as it seared his flesh, and he saw that the other end was connected to Queen Chrysalis's horn. The changeling monarch snapped her head and the whip tossed him towards the library. Twilight's magic caught him just before he hit the tree. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Bonling gathered around Thunderball as Chrysalis loomed in the sky with a dozen changelings around her. The changelings evaded suppressive fire from Twilight and Pinkie's party cannon (which Rarity had stuffed full of needles) as they advanced on the library.
Six streaks of lightning clouds broke through the changelings' formation as the Wonderbolts joined the battle. The aerial acrobatics team quickly took position alongside Rainbow Dash.
"Soarin, did you bring the ammunition?" Spitfire asked as she watched the changelings rally around Chrysalis, who was preoccupied shielding them from Twilight's spells.
Soarin reached into his saddlebags, but came up empty hoofed. "Sorry, I, uh, ate them. Those pies tasted so good!"
Spitfire glared at him, while Rainbow laughed. "Then I guess we do this the old fashioned way," Rainbow said as she cracked her hooves.
"Thirteen to nine," Thunderball observed wryly. "They almost have a chance."
Bonling readied her wings. "Let's go!"
Rainbow Dash took off towards the enemy, followed by the Thunderbolts. They flew in a tight formation and harried the changelings with hit–and–run attacks intended to split them up, while Bonling and Thunderball opted for a direct frontal assault. Bonling's horn glowed as she focused on the emotion of fear that Chrysalis had forced upon her earlier. She reached out to the nearest changeling and activated their empathic link so that he could feel it. The changeling stopped dead in his tracks, dazed, as the sensation overwhelmed him.
Thunderball's mane stood on end as he sped towards the changeling Bonling had stunned. His front hooves connected with the changeling's face, and a deafening static discharge exploded in the space between the two. Lightning rippled through the air and sent the changeling flying off into the distance. Thunderball immediately set his sights on a cluster of changelings and powered through them with another electric burst.
A pair of changelings charged him from below. The lead flier impaled Thunderball upon his horn, goring the pegasus in the ribs before firing a blast of energy while still inside him. A ray of green magic exited through Thunderball's body, spraying the air with blood. Thunderball cried in pain as he grabbed the changeling by the base of its horn and gouged its right eye with his hoof. He pulled himself off of the horn and kicked the changeling in the face hard enough to knock it out.
As his attacker fell, Thunderball felt himself growing weak from the blood loss. He tried to evade the second changeling, but several of his muscles had been damaged and he could not fly properly. The changeling's horn charged up with magic, and Thunderball stopped trying to fly and pulled into a steep dive. To his dismay, he noticed the changeling's beam firing directly into his fight path, and try as he might, he could not pull out. His eyes seemed like the only functioning part of his body, and they tracked the incoming shot dispassionately, as if it was some other pony who was about to die.
A dark mass slammed into him just before the ray could strike him, taking the full force of the blast. A shower of green ichor clouded Thunderball's vision, but he recognized the solid smoothness of a changeling's chitinous skin as Bonling carried him down to the ground. Above him, he could see a bright flash of light that heralded the arrival of Princess Celestia herself. Queen Chrysalis gave a impotent cry of frustration as the tide of battle turned firmly against her and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, while her warriors dissolved into puddles of black tar, ending the battle.
Thunderball was dimly aware that they had won as Bonling laid him to rest on the ground. He felt strangely cold despite the bright sun and warm air outside. He struggled to breathe but choked on something that tasted like a mouthful of copper bits. A wet, sticky sensation crept along his body, and it took him a moment to realize it was his own blood.
Twilight rushed to the side of the fallen pegasus. "He's losing too much blood!"
Thunderball twisted his head around to examine his wounds. On an intellectual level, he realized that the proper response to seeing so much blood would have been shock, but he felt more amused than anything else. "You know, I never thought this would happen, but it's rather appropriate that my last decoration be the same as my first."
"Decoration?" Twilight asked as she conjured bandages out of thin air.
Thunderball felt a wave of giddiness wash over him and laughed. "My red badge of courage, of course."
Celestia descended from above and placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight, he has suffered massive internal damage and has likely severed major blood vessels. We have to operate on him if we want him to survive long enough to reach a hospital."
Thunderball gazed up at the sky as Celestia lowered her horn to his wound. A soft beam of light covered the wound in an attempt stem the internal bleeding. "I always found it interesting how earth ponies and unicorns buried their dead. I get that they'd want to be connected with the earth, but pegasi want our spirits to be free after death and fly forever." Thunderball's voice grew shaky as the blood pooling beneath him grew larger. "I'll have none of that burial nonsense. When I die, I want my body cremated and my ashes scattered in the faces of my enemies."
"Stop talking like that," Twilight growled as she joined Celestia in mending Thunderball's wounds. "You aren't going to die!"
Thunderball smiled as his eyes glazed over. "Of course not. I would never do such a thing...without your permission...Your Highness."
"Buck it all! Don't you quit on me!"
"Oh come now, Your Highness," Thunderball chided gently. "It's not so bad. I'll get to see my friends again."
Thunderball reached his hoof up towards Twilight, but it faltered halfway up and fell limp to the ground. His vision swam as his neck muscles gave out. He found himself staring at the badly damaged Golden Oaks library as the world faded into darkness.