//------------------------------//
// Ch 14. Striking Back 
// Story: Equestrian Knights 
// by HeatherIsBestPlayer 
//------------------------------//

	Trixie, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Flim, Flam, Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and Iron Will traveled back to the city and crawled back through the sewers. When they reached the grate they had used before to get out of the city, they opened it up and Trixie, Flim, and Gilda poked their heads up out into the alley way they had been in before. Outside the alley, they could see a bunch of Changelings on the street. With them was a group of captive ponies, shackled together by their ankles with chains, being lead through the city by the black, bug-like creatures. And if that wasn’t scary enough, up above them, stuck to the sides of the buildings, they saw semi-transparent green cocoons. Inside of them, they could make out the forms of unconscious ponies.
“Oh my gosh!” Trixie gasped in awe.
“This is not good!” said Gilda.
“You can say that again!” said Flim.
“What do you see,” asked Upper Crust from down in the sewer.
The three of them described what they were seeing to the others below. Their reactions were not enthusiastic.
“Any sign of those rock monsters?” Dumbbell asked.
Trixie shook her head. “Thankfully, I don’t see them,” she said.
“Even so, I don’t see how the heck were possibly gonna make it to the castle,” said Flim. “Changelings are everywhere!”
“Um, I’m starting to have doubts about this plan,” said Jet Set nervously.
“Yeah, me to,” said Flam. “I think Blueblood was right. This is hopeless. Lets get out of here.”
“WAIT!” said Trixie, stopping them before they could leave. “We can’t just give up! We just need to think of a plan.”
“How about we gut them open and wear their organs as hair nets?” suggested Gilda.
“No, we’d have to get close to them first,” said Trixie.
“Oh,” said Gilda, disappointedly.
“Do Changelings even have organs?” asked Hoops.
“How about I tie a bunch of explosives to myself, and then fly at them like a kamikaze Pegasus!” suggested Lightning Dust.
“No, I think they’d see that coming,” said Trixie. “Plus, we don’t have any explosives.”
“Oh,” said Lightning Dust, disappointedly.
“How about we use Iron Will’s head as a battering ram?” suggested Jet Set.
“HEY!” shouted Iron Will at Jet Set.
“No, his head’s too soft,” said Trixie.
“HEY!” Iron Will shouted at Trixie.
“Maybe we could jump on them and use their tortoise shells to get extra points!” said Score.
Trixie glared at him. “That’s you’re answer for everything!”
Score frowned. “Well it would work if you just gave it a shot!” he pouted.
“Hey, I have an idea,” said Iron Will. “What if we just let ourselves get captured?”
They all stared at the Minotaur in shock.
“WHAT!?!” they all exclaimed.
“Think about it!” said Iron Will. “We let ourselves get captured by the Changelings, and then trick them into taking us to see Chrysalis, and once they do, we grab the Elements of Harmony and use them to save the day!”
Trixie thought for a moment. “No, that’s a stupid idea,” she said.
“Oh,” Iron Will said in disappointment.
“WAIT!” said Trixie suddenly. “Trixie has an idea!”
“What is it?” asked Dumbbell.
“We let ourselves get captured by the Changelings!” Trixie exclaimed. “And then we trick them into taking us to see Queen Chrysalis, and once they do, we grab the Elements of Harmony and use them to save the day! Trixie is so glad she thought of it! That’s why she’s the one in charge!”
Iron Will glared at Trixie.
“And I thought Blueblood had a big ego,” Gilda whispered to Lightning Dust.
“Um, are you sure this is such a good idea?” asked Upper Crust.
“Relax, everything will work,” Trixie said. Her mind was currently full of images of everypony in Equestria praising and worshiping her as a great hero. She wanted it so badly that she refused to let anyone tell her this plan wouldn’t work. This was her big chance to finally get to be in the spotlight, to get the fame and recognition that she knew she deserved!
“Follow me,” Trixie said as she began climbing up out of the sewer into the alley, “and just let me do all the talking.”
The rest of them all climbed up out of the sewer and, following behind Trixie, they walked out of the alley into the open.
“HEY!” Trixie shouted at the Changelings. “OVER HERE!”
The Changelings all turned their heads and looked over at the intruders. In an instant, they had them surrounded.
“Okay, okay, we surrender!” said Trixie, doing her best to feign fear and panic. “Just, please, what ever you do, don’t take us to see Queen Chrysalis!”
The Changelings all looked at each other.
“Why?” hissed one of them in confusion.
“Because…” Trixie thought for a moment, “because… we have valuable information that Queen Chrysalis would want to torture us for, and we couldn’t bare that."
The Changelings all looked at each other again, thinking.
“You can’t full us!” said the Changeling again. “We are taking you before the King and Queen!”
“Oh no!” said Trixie, continuing to act terrified. She winked back at her companions. They all looked back at her with uncertainty.

..................................

Meanwhile, Prince Blueblood was walking through the woods by himself. His mind was full of thoughts as he wandered through the forest. For one thing, he was worried about Surprise. He hoped she was okay, wherever she was.
“She’ll be all right,” he told himself. He knew the Changelings kept ponies alive too feed off of their love.
He also felt kind of bad about leaving his companions behind, even if he was completely in the right because he knew their plan would never work.
To his surprise, he found that he was actually worried for them, and hoped they would be all right. Also to his surprise, he found that he wished they were still with him. This was the first time he had been by himself in days, and after having spending so much time with them for the last few days, after all they had been through together, he found they had actually grown on him I little bit.
He couldn’t believe it. He actually missed those uncouth commoners.
He couldn’t help but think about Trixie’s last words to him. ‘Are they right?’ he thought to himself. ‘Am I really as pathetic as ponies say I am? Do I really not act like a proper prince should?
‘NO!’ he told himself. ‘I’m just being rational, while they just want to go play hero! There is nothing that can be done about this situation. There is absolutely no way they could get into the castle…’
Suddenly Blueblood remembered something and stopped in his tracks. He remembered there was a secret passage into the castle that he had discovered back when he was playing in the castle as a young colt.
“IDIOT!” he shouted at himself, mentally kicking himself for not remembering this back when the others were still with him. He could have at least told them about the secret passage.
Blueblood thought for a minute. This information could really help them. He still believed the plan was foolish, and he still wasn’t going to go along with it, but at the very least he could do this for them. He just hoped he wouldn’t be too late.
Blueblood spun around and began galloping back towards Canterlot as fast as he could.

..................................

Back at Canterlot, group was shackled by their ankles and lead by a group of Changelings into the castle throne room.
The first thing they noticed when they entered the room was Queen Chrysalis, or rather, her current state. She was standing in the middle of the room, and descending from her lower torso was a long, fleshy, tube-like structure, more than three times the length of her body, extending along the floor behind her. At the very end of it, something round and slimy was coming out of an opening. The round thing eventually came out with a wet pop and landed on the floor, and it was only then that the group realized it was an egg. Queen Chrysalis was laying eggs!
The group all stared in disgust at the scene as another Changeling quickly picked up the egg and flew away with it out of the throne room to another part of the castle. Trixie noticed Upper Crust struggling not to throw up at the sight.
"So that's where baby Changelings come from," muttered Iron Will. "They really are like an insect colony."
“Looks like the author is a fan of the ‘Alien’ movies,” said Gilda.
They began to notice a few other things about the throne room after the initial surprise of the egg-laying queen wore off. King Sombra was sitting up on Celestia’s throne. He was gazing down at Chrysalis with a blank, love-struck expression on his face. The stain glass windows they had shattered earlier had now been replaced with windows depicting various images of Sombra and Chrysalis. They noticed the statues of the Princesses and the Element Bearers were still standing right where they had been.
Chrysalis opened her eyes. She frowned when she saw her visitors standing before her.
“Why have you brought these fools before me?” she asked the Changelings in annoyance. “I told you they don’t matter anymore!”
“Answer your queen!” King Sombra stated threateningly, getting up from the throne and walking down next to Queen Chrysalis.
“My queen,” said one of the Changelings. “They said they have valuable information that you would want-”
“Yeah, here’s your valuable information!” Trixie suddenly interrupted. She pumped magic into her horn. The Elements of Harmony on Chrysalis all glowed with her magical aura. “YOU ARE GOING DOWN, BITCH!” She pulled the Elements of Harmony off of Chrysalis with her magic.
“HEY!” Chrysalis shouted in surprise.
Trixie put the Element of magic on herself and gave the others to Gilda, Upper Crust, Jet Set, Iron Will, and Hoops, who quickly put them on around their necks.
Suddenly, Dumbbell and Score began trying to grab the Element of Laughter away from Hoops.
“Hey, I wanna be the one to use it!” said Dumbbell.
“No, me!” said Score.
“Hey, I’m gonna do it!” said Hoops.
“Hey, stop it!” Trixie shouted at them, trying to get them to stop bickering, but just then she noticed Lightning Dust trying to grab the Element of Honesty from Gilda.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Gilda shouted at Lightning Dust.
“I wanna use it! I didn’t get one!” Lightning Dust stated.
“Too bad! It’s mine!” growled Gilda.
“We didn’t get any either!” Flim and Flam both shouted at the same time.
“Would you all stop it!” shouted Trixie. She couldn’t believe they were actually bickering over this! She also noticed out of the corner of her eye that Chrysalis, Sombra, or any of the Changelings weren’t doing anything to try and stop them. In the back of her mind, she thought this was odd, but she chose to ignore it. She couldn’t let anything distract her from her victory.
“There isn’t enough for all of us!” Trixie shouted at her bickering companions. “Now whoever has one, USE IT NOW!”
They all reluctantly stopped their little argument and stared at Chrysalis and Sombra. Gilda, Iron Will, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and Hoops all closed their eyes and concentrated on using the Elements around their necks.
“TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHER BUCKERS!” Trixie shouted at the two evil villains. She used her magic to activate the Elements.
Nothing happened.
After a few seconds, everyone opened their eyes and looked at their Elements in confusion, and then looked at Trixie.
Trixie looked up at Element atop her head in aggravation. “Come on, you stupid things, WORK!” she shouted. She concentrated again and tried to make the powerful items activate, but again nothing happened.
“What, is there like some sort of magic words or something?” Trixie wondered out loud. “Abracadabra? Hocus-Pocus? MOON PRISM POWER? COME ON, WHY WONT YOU WORK?”
At that moment, Sombra and Chrysalis broke out laughing. Then the rest of the Changelings in the room began laughing as well.
In frustration, Trixie took off the Element of magic with her hoof and threw it across the room in rage. It landed on the far side of the room with a clatter. “THESE STUPID THINGS ARE USELESS!” she screamed.
“You’re all even bigger idiots than I thought,” said Chrysalis in amusement. Her horn glowed and she used her magic to levitate all the Elements of Harmony back over to her.
The group stared up at Chrysalis and Sombra, now truly terrified.
“You want to know why the Elements of Harmony won’t work for you? Because you fools are a bunch of jerks! The Elements of Harmony only work for good ponies, like those poor souls over there.” She pointed to the statues of the Princesses and the Element Bearers. “They would never work for greedy, selfish, arrogant, cruel souls like yourselves.”
The group all glared at Trixie angrily.
“YOU SAID THIS WOULD WORK!” Gilda growled.
“I… I thought it would,” Trixie said solemnly, realizing that she had lead them all to their doom.
“I just noticed one of you is missing,” said Chrysalis. “Where is Blueblood?”
“He didn’t come,” said Lightning Dust.
“Well, I guess he was the smart one then,” said Chrysalis. She turned to King Sombra. “Lets send them to the dungeons. Perhaps we’ll have some fun with them later.” She turned back to them. “Tell me, have you ever heard of a pony-centipede?” She laughed cruelly. Then her horn lit up with emerald light.
Suddenly, green flames appeared around Trixie and the others, forming a circle around them. The green flames opened up a hole in the floor beneath them, and they all screamed as they fell down into it, down into darkness.