Rarity’s hooves plodded slowly in the clean dirt path out of Ponyville. Of course, she was carefully to avoid any muddy spots that looked like they might stick to her hooves. That would just be dreadful! If she really wouldn’t be able to find a real spa or something until they chased the changelings out of Canterlot, then all the more reason to chase those icky bugs at the first opportunity. She supposed she would just have to do with cleaning herself in any rivers they stumbled upon until then.
Oh, the hardships she went through for the sake of her friends!
Like the others, she wasn’t too concerned about the changelings. Sure, those monsters could be a bit scary if they caught you by surprise, and those faces were a little bit spooky. Also, their fangs were slightly disconcerting, and those holes in their hooves were rather disturbing. There was also the simple fact that they were bugs the size of a pony, and that was just all kinds of icky. Rarity shuddered at the thought. She couldn’t stand bugs. Flies were irritating, moths made her nauseous, and spiders gave her the willies. Nasty things.
Fortunately, it wasn’t like chasing the changelings out was going to be hard. While she didn’t have a flyswatter big enough for the changelings, they weren’t exactly a threat. Other then the Queen, the rank-and-file changelings were rather crummy fighters. Rarity didn’t consider herself very strong – her time digging for and hauling gems had given her more muscle then the average unicorn, but she still had nothing compared to a earth pony or pegasus – but even she had managed to defeat over a dozen changelings by herself when they had first invaded. They were only really fearsome when they had surprise on their side.
The Queen herself was the only worry. But even then, it was a small worry. Nothing compared to, say, Discord, Nightmare Moon, or that beast from the Everfree. That Queen with those delightfully long legs and neck, those beautiful lashes, that long flowing mane. She was still a pretty freaky bug, but, in her own way, there had still been an undeniable beauty about her.
Oh, I wish I could design some dresses for her, Rarity thought. She knew the thought was ridiculous, and she would still do everything in her power to bring down the Queen when the time came, but the thought was an amusing one. A little something to mind her mind busy while she walked, otherwise she would only be fretting about Sweetie Belle. Colouring would be a little tricky. She’s mostly covered in a black carapace, her eyes are a bright green, and her mane’s a deep blue. I should try to work all three of those colours in there somehow… But what about the style? I remember she had a rather rough natural charm. I doubt she would look good in flowing material or frills. Hmm…
Rarity pondered the problem. Designing a dress for a whole different species was the kind of challenge she relished. Maybe she could ask Princess Celestia to let her design something for the Queen changeling once all this blew over? That could be fun. Even if the Queen would never be let out of prison, that didn’t mean she couldn’t at least try to be fashionable.
Behind Rarity, Rainbow Dash was walking alongside Pinkie. Applejack rode on Dash’s back, a bored expression locked on her face as she listened to the conversation going on beneath her. She’d much rather be at the back talking with Fluttershy right now, but she was completely unable to escape this nonsense.
“Are you crazy, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash said, her voice squeaking at the end of her sentence. “I mean, no offence, but are you even thinking straight? Spitfire could totally beat up Nightmare Moon.”
Pinkie shook her head wildly, her mane flailing around in the air as she bounced beside Dash. “No way, Dashie,” she protested with a smile. “Queen Meanie’s got way too much magical mojo to be beaten by any one pegasus. Besides, she can turn into smoke and even shapeshift and all that other freaky stuff she does.”
“Well, yeah, but so what?” Dash protested. “Even if she’s as strong as Princess Celestia , that won’t do her any good if she can’t hit her opponent. Spitfire’s just too fast for her. And turning into smoke wouldn’t help her. Spitfire’s a pegasus. We deal with clouds and stuff all the time. Smoke’s not that different.”
Pinkie tapped her hoof against her chin thoughtfully. “Okay… Okay, yeah, I can see that. But Spitfire’s speed wouldn’t be very useful against Nightmare’s mental attacks. Don’t forget she can look into a pony’s mind and tempt them with their greatest desires.”
“Pinkie, you and I were able to break through Nightmare Moon’s mental attacks,” Dash said flatly. “Spitfire’s the captain of the Wonderbolts. What’s she gonna be tempted by?”
Sweet Celestia, make it stop, Applejack thought hopelessly with a groan.
“Hmm,” Pinkie said, her expression scrunching as she thought. “Well yeah, but there’s one point you can deny. Nightmare Moon is the bad part of Luna, so she’s immortal,” Pinkie proclaimed victoriously. “It doesn’t matter who wins. Eventually, Spitfire’s going to drop dead of old age, but Nightmare Moon will still be going strong.”
“Yeah, but- Still- You know-“ Dash fumbled for a few seconds before conceding defeat with a smile. “Alright, yeah. You win.”
Oh, thank you Celestia!
“Yaay!” Pinkie said, doing a happy bounce before looking at Dash with a quizzical expression. “Now who?”
“How about… let’s see… How about Discord?” Dash asked, tilting her head.
“Yeah, yeah,” Pinkie nodded excitedly. “He could go against… the Princesses! He’s pretty strong, so all three of them at once!”
“Celestia, Luna, and Cadance? Add Twilight in there and you’ve got a deal,” Dash said, quirking her lips into a grin. “She is Celestia’s student, after all.” The pair started up their conversation about who would win the hypothetical fight, neither noticing the little whimper from Applejack.
Behind the rather silly conversation, a much more serious one was taking place between Twilight and Zecora. “So you think Discord’s a practitioner of this… world magic?” Twilight hissed quietly. “I’ve never heard of world magic before. Princess Celestia always called what Discord did chaos magic. So he’s more powerful when there’s chaos going on… That means we could beat him permanently if everything was harmonious, right?”
Zecora nodded, the bulging saddlebags on her back shifting slightly. She took a second to fix them before she replied. “That is indeed what I believe, even if he uses his magic to control and deceive. This magic is renowned for its power. If unicorn magic is a trickle, then the magic of the world is a mighty shower.” She waved a hoof vaguely towards a nearby tree. To Twilight’s eyes, that was all she did. There was no glow of spellcasting, no muttered incantation, no potions. But either way, after Zecora waved at it, the tree just… vanished.
“Whoa,” Twilight mouthed silently. She had known the zebra had some amount of magic, but this was amazing. She stepped off the path and walked up to where the tree had stood, waving her hoof in the space where it had been. It’s not invisible, it’s actually gone. She turned to look at Zecora, her face alive with curiosity. “What did you do with it?” she asked, her voice actually quivering with her desire for knowledge.
Zecora smiled enigmatically. “I simply displaced the tree from time. It will return at the sound of the chime.” She tapped her hoof against one of the large earrings she wore, creating a quiet bell-like chime.
Twilight blinked as the evening sunlight was suddenly cut off. Looking up, she realized she was standing under a large expanse of leafy branches that hadn’t been there a second before. With a squeal of excitement, she hopped beside Zecora. “That’s so amazing! I’ve never even read about anything like this before! The zebra tribes are really secretive. Are you really so strong?”
Chuckling, Zecora shook her head. “Stronger than the average unicorn, but that’s hardly set in stone; your magical potential far exceeds my own.”
“Oh,” Twilight whined, her ears flattening against her skull. “I wish I could take you back home right now. I’ve got so many questions I want to ask you!” She sighed in disappointment. “But I guess we’ll have to put those off for now. So you think I can use this magic too? How?”
“I couldn’t even begin to assume,” Zecora admitted. Her tail lashed anxiously behind her as she confessed her own ignorance. “Every zebra I’ve ever known has had to drink a special potion for their power to bloom. It is this potion that unshackles the mind. I assume you have not had anything of the kind?”
Twilight cast her mind back, thinking hard about the events of the past week. But no matter how much she thought she couldn’t think of a single thing that might explain it. “No… nothing. It’s been a strange week, but I think I would have noticed something like that. I’ll tell you if I think of anything.” Her eyes shimmered with curiosity. “So you draw power from the shifts of the world around you? Is that why you live in the Everfree Forest? Because it’s less controlled there?”
“That is the reason in part.” The smile on Zecora’s face faded, replaced with a wistful expression as she stared up at the sky. “But it was also where I chose to go for a fresh start.”
Something in Zecora’s tone caught Twilight’s attention, making her stop and look at the zebra in surprise. “Come to think about it, I’ve never asked you why you’re living in Equestria. I’ve almost never heard of a zebra choosing to live outside of Zebrabwe. Hay, a lot of ponies don’t even know what zebras are.” Her head fell slightly as she sighed. “And so we got that nonsense where everypony believed that you were an evil enchantress.”
Zecora covered her mouth with a hoof, barely hiding her amused chuckle. “You speak as if you were uninvolved, but I recall you and your friends barging into my home before that mess was resolved.”
Twilight felt her face heat up as she remembered that whole fiasco. “I am still so very, very sorry about that,” she muttered almost inaudibly.
Zecora smiled, her eyes twinkling merrily. “Do not fear, I only tease. Now I think your curiosity I believe I should appease.” Her hoof moved slowly across her body, she tapped the earrings, neckrings, and legbands in order. “These tell all who know that I was once a mganga long ago.”
Twilight frowned in puzzlement, and her ear twitched as she tried to puzzle through what Zecora had just said. “What’s a managa?” she asked, stumbling over the strange word.
“’Doctor’ is probably the word in your language that most applies,” Zecora said after a moment’s thought. “Though it can also mean ‘One Who is Wise’.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me,” Twilight replied with an easy laugh. “You’re probably the wisest pony I know.” Her faint smile vanished as she realized that Zecora hadn’t quite answered her question. “But you said that only highly-ranked individuals were taught magic, right? What would somepony so important be doing here?” She suddenly caught Zecora looking at her out of the corner of her eye, and flushed as she realized she may have pushed too far. “I-I mean, you don’t have tell me if you don’t want to! It’s not-”
“I was banished by my tribe,” Zecora said bluntly. “The details of which I would prefer not to describe. However, myself and the elders could not see eye-to-eye, and they demanded something I would not abide by. I left my home with nothing more than a pack, and they made it clear I would not be welcomed back.”
Twilight gasped in horror, her hooves covering her mouth. “That’s terrible!” she exclaimed, shocked. “I had no idea! I’m so, so sorry for asking!” She couldn’t imagine what that must have been like. Her family had always been there for her, even when she was at her worst. She didn’t know what she would do if they had decided to stop supporting her at any point in her life.
Zecora shrugged, as if it didn’t matter to her. “You did not know. And it all happened so long ago. The elders were trapped in their own mental cage, but I expect by now they have all died of old age.”
“Couldn’t you head back, then?” Twilight asked uneasily, unsure about how far she could push for information. She was so curious to learn more, but she didn’t want to risk her friendship with the zebra. “Surely you have family that misses you? Or what about your friends?”
“The one I considered a father passed on shortly before I left. As for friends…” Zecora shrugged her shoulders again. “The training tends to leave one bereft.”
“So you don’t have anyone?”
Zecora hesitated for several seconds before speaking, and her words were slow and drawn out when she finally did speak. “There is… one. My daughter, whose smile was brighter than the sun. She could always make me smile with her playful antics, even if some of her adventures could drive me frantic.”
“Aww,” Twilight cooed. “I didn’t know you had a daughter. She sounds so adorable.” After a contemplative moment where she imagined the playful rambunctiousness of a zebra filly, she turned to look at her traveling companion. “Where is she now?”
Zecora’s expression darkened as she looked away from Twilight, staring at the side of the dirt road. “I do not wish to talk about it.” Her tone was crisp and firm, not even allowing the possibility of any further questions. That, combined with the lack of rhymes, effectively meant the death of the conversation.
“Oh, um,” Twilight coughed awkwardly, “sorry.” She wanted to ask a little more but a piping voice in her ear suggested she should change the subject instead. “Riiiiiiight. Anywho, about this magic…”
Zecora shot Twilight a grateful look, obviously glad to get the conversation back on track. “Now, world magic must be drawn out before it can be applied. It’s drawn both from the world around,” she tapped her hoof against her chest, “and from inside.”
Twilight flicked her ear, tilting her head as she tried to puzzle out the zebra’s meaning. “Inside… That sounds pretty close to what unicorns do, actually. Is there a connection?”
Zecora nodded, a small congratulatory smile spread across her features. “Very good; all magic is connected. It is only simple differences in how it is directed.”
“What’s it like?” Twilight asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “When I cast a spell, I usually feel the most strain here,” she gently tapped her horn, careful not to accidently jar it and increase the damage. “But it looks like your magic doesn’t have a focus.”
Biting her lower lip thoughtfully, Zecora scuffed at the ground as she pondered how to answer the question. “It feels like… it’s a feeling that persists” she said after a few seconds. “Like you are one with the universe and everything that exists.”
The pair were so caught up in their conversation that neither of them noticed Fluttershy trot past them, the pegasus heading towards the front where Rarity was. The magic shop-talk was going right over her head, and she just needed somepony to talk to. I never knew Zecora had been through so much, she thought morosely. It must have been very hard for her. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she failed to notice the pleading look Applejack shot her while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were busy discussing possible romantic leads for the next Daring Do book.
“Hello Fluttershy,” Rarity greeted the pegasus with a friendly smile. “Perfect timing. I wanted your opinion. Listen, do you think a cross stitch or a chain stitch would be better for embroidering?”
Fluttershy shyly ducked behind her mane. “I’m not sure, but I suppose it would depend on the dress itself. What are you planning?”
“I’m glad you asked, dear. You see- Hold on.” Something up the road caught her attention. Pointing her hoof at it, she turned her head to look at the group behind her. “Twilight, darling, I think you’re going to want to see this.”
“What is it, Rarity?” Twilight asked, breaking away from her conversation with Zecora.
“Looks like somepony’s in a spot of trouble.” Just as Rarity said, there was a stallion standing in the middle of the road, scratching his head as he stared at a cart with a broken wheel. The stallion was smaller than average, and looked like he was barely out of colthood. His dark green mane and tail were short and mussy, and his coat was a moderate blue. He was a pegasus, as evidenced by the pair of wings on his sides. A cutie mark of a raincloud was emblazoned on his flank and his eyes, when he turned to look at the approaching group, were a rusty brownish-red.
“Why, hello there,” he greeted the mares, a smile on his face revealing a mouth full of broken teeth. “So nice to meet fellow travelers on the road.” His gaze shifted up at the unmoving sun, peeking over the horizon. “Something tells me that’s going to be a rare pleasure nowadays.”
Twilight walked up to the head of the group to greet the strange stallion. “Isn’t it a strange time to be traveling? Especially with a-” she stopped, blinking in surprise when she saw the contents of the cart. After a few moments, she licked her lips and tried again. “Rather, an empty cart.”
The pegasus chuckled awkwardly, his wings rustling slightly at his side. “Yeah, it probably seems a little weird. I borrowed this cart from one of my friends in Canterlot to move some stuff around. I was going to return it today, but, well,” he gestured at the broken cart, letting the sight speak for him. His ears perked up and his extended a hoof to her. “Ah, how rude of me. The name’s Sky High. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, Twilight Sparkle.”
Looking at the cart, Twilight wasn’t surprised that it had broken. Actually, she was more surprised it had managed to work at all. It was obviously poorly designed; looking like it had been made by somepony who didn’t know how to make carts. Strangely, it also looked surprisingly new. Putting the mysteries aside, Twilight looked uncertainly at the extended hoof for several before slowly reaching out to grasp it. “…Same. How do you know who I am?”
“Of course I know who you are,” Sky High said, giving Twilight’s hoof a firm shake. “You’re the Element of Magic as well as Princess Celestia’s only current student. It would be stranger for me not to know who you were. I’ve been wanting to meet you for quite a while now.”
Blushing faintly, Twilight glanced down at the ground. “I’ve never had a fan before,” she muttered faintly. Her eyes wandered over to the cart again. That’s weird, she thought, noticing something she hadn’t spotted when she had been further away. There’s no tracks leading up to the cart. She moved to look at the cart more closely, but was pulled up short by the hold the stallion had on her hoof. “Could you let me go, please?”
“No.” A hard yank on Twilight’s foreleg had her stumbling forward into the stallion’s chest. Before she could react, a foreleg reached out and wrapped around her neck as he spun her around so she was facing away from him. Leaning forward, he whispered into her ear. “And by the way? I never said I was a fan.”
“Hey! Let her go!” Pinkie shouted while Dash snorted and pawed at the dirt.
“I don’t think so.” A flash of green passed through the stallion’s eyes as he returned the mare’s glares. Raising his voice, the stallion shouted a single word. “Now!”
Black shapes dropped out of the surrounding trees, launching themselves at the mares. The ponies scattered as the objects struck the ground where they had stood only seconds before. Silence lasted for less than a second before a loud buzz filled the area and several changeling heads popped up from the holes they had landed in. Applejack’s firm voice suddenly rose up over the sudden clamour. “Ambush!”
More and more changelings continued to swarm out of the vegetation, trying to quickly overwhelm the gathered ponies. A sharp wind whipped down the dusty road, throwing up a great cloud of dust that concealed the battle from sight.
Twilight quickly focused magic into her horn, preparing to launch a quick spell that would blast the stallion – no, the changeling – off of her. Before her could do anything more than glow, the changeling struck her horn with his hoof. A sharp pain shot through her horn, spreading down her spine and through her entire body, breaking both her concentration and her spell.
“I don’t think so, little princess,” Sky High said coldly, his voice dripping with vitriol. “Sit quietly and watch.”
Twilight snarled as she glared the stallion. Her horn sputtered weakly, and a tiny voice in the back of her head warned her that that blow must have cracked her horn even further, but she found she didn’t care. “What do you want?”
“Want?” The disguised changeling leaned until his snout was almost pressing against Twilight’s, giving her a glare that didn’t lose to hers in ferocity. “We all want different things. And at the moment, all I want is for you to watch as your friends fall. Let’s see how much pain that causes you.”
A gap opened in the dust and Twilight was able to see how her friends were faring. Pretty well, in fact. Applejack and Rainbow Dash in particular were cutting a wide swath through the changelings. They had tied a lasso around Applejack’s tail, and she sent it lashing out at the horde with practiced flicks of her tail. Even with her body immobilized, she was still fully capable of roping changelings and swinging them into their companions. Any of the insects that managed to get past the quick rope were met with Dash’s heavy hooves, and the steadily building pile of unconscious bodies that Dash was standing on paid a silent testament to how well their methods were working.
A little ways away, Zecora was making her own way through the chitinous multitude. From the outside, she didn’t appear to be doing anything more than slowly walking up to the changelings and gently touching them, but the changelings would freeze up and stop moving the instant she laid a hoof on them. Not far away from her, several changelings were fleeing from Rarity, scrambling over one another in an effort to put distance between them and the unicorn. The fashionable mare had a wild look in her eyes and her mane was slightly singed. She had picked up a changeling by its hindlegs and was swinging it erratically at the fleeing pack, screaming about how much work it took to get her mane to look just right.
Twilight smirked up at Sky High’s unsmiling face as he frowned at the one-sided battle. “Doesn’t seem like you’re doing a good job of it,” she snarked. After all the time fighting that creature from the Everfree, some changelings really didn’t seem like much of a threat. Something caught her attention in the dust and she let her legs collapse out from underneath her. Caught off guard by the sudden extra weight, Sky High staggered forward just in time to take a rubber chicken to the face, blowing him away from Twilight. For her part, the purple unicorn calmly flicked at her shoulder, like she was brushing off an invisible speck of dust. “Thanks, Pinkie.”
“No problem,” the pink mare giggled before leaping backwards into the dust cloud, her legs outstretched like she expected someone unseen to catch her.
Twilight turned to look at where the disguised stallion lay in the dirt on his back. He wasn’t making any motion to get back up, and was simply staring up at the sun. Red-hot anger boiled up in her as she glared down at his pathetic form. She didn’t have time for this. “I’m sick and tired of everypony thinking we can just be pushed around. Nightmare Moon, Discord, and now you changelings. All at once, the world seems to be throwing everything it has at us. Well, I’ve got a message for your Queen. We are the Elements of Harmony, and there is nothing in the world that will stop us. We’ve beaten you – all of you – before, and no matter how many times you come at us, we will defeat you again and again. We will set everything right, and you can either get out of the way or end up trampled beneath us.”
Her mane and tail whipped out behind her as she turned away from him, sprinting into the cloud of dust. Raising her voice, she shouted as loud as she could over the sounds of conflict. Her mind felt oddly clear, free of any confusion or misapprehension “We’re leaving, girls! Make a break for the trees!”
“Right!”
Several minutes later, the false pegasus by the name of Sky High was still lying on his back in the middle of the road. Glassy-eyed changelings shuffled around him as he lay in the sun’s rays, each of them carrying either branches or dead timber. A shadow fell over his prone form, and he cracked an eye open to see a large changeling wearing sunglasses standing over him.
“You finished making yourself look pathetic?” Innocent Sin asked, a frown on his face as he glared down at the pegasus.
Sky High flashed a broken-tooth smile before a wave of green washed over him, leaving Last Breath lying in his place. The smaller changeling rolled over before standing upright. “They were underestimating us,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t like it was necessary to correct them just yet. Good work with the dust cloud, by the way. You timed it perfectly.” Noticing the glare the other changeling was still giving him, Last Breath leaned in and wrapped one of his forehooves around Innocent Sin’s thick neck. “Aw, don’t tell me you’re still mad! If we had tried to capture all of them, they would have gotten away.”
“Fine,” Innocent Sin grumbled with barely-suppressed anger as he shrugged off the smaller changeling. Fixing his sunglasses, he turned his attention to a shaded hollow just off the side of the road. The hollow had been perfect for his needs, large enough to hold several ponies, but invisible from the road if you didn’t know it was there. “Just remember the plan.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Last Breath said blithely as he walked alongside his commanding officer. “I would hope I would, it was my plan. So when are we starting?”
Several minutes’ run away, a group of pones came to a stop, their breath rattling as they gulped down large lungfuls of air.
“Everypony made it okay?” Twilight gasped after several seconds. “Dash?”
“Here,” Dash said, her sides heaving. “AJ’s here, too. And let me tell you, she’s heavy!”
“Rarity?” Twilight asked, ignoring as Applejack smacked Dash on the back of her head.
“Don’t worry, I’m here.”
“Zecora?”
“Do not fear, I am here.”
“Pinkie?”
“Prrrrrrrrrrrresent!” Pinkie exclaimed, rolling out her r’s.
“Fluttershy?”
Silence.
“Fluttershy!”
Innocent Sin came to a halt at the top of the hollow, staring down into its dark embrace. There, held down by several changelings, sat something that most definitely was not a changelings. A pair of crystalline baby blue eyes stared up at him in terror, silently pleading for him to let her go. Green goo covered her mouth and prevented her from crying out. A hole had been punched in the goo over her nose, allowing her to breathe.
A loud crash from behind him drew his attention away from the yellow pegasus, and he turned to see a large pile of dead and dried wood set up in the center of the road. There had been no storms in this area for weeks, and the wood was brittle and dry. Perfect tinder. It would burn well.
“Immediately,” Innocent Sin said coldly, answering Last Breath’s earlier question. “Remember your part.”
“Sounds good,” Last Breath said, watching the larger changeling walk away. His gaze hardened as he turned to look at the tree line. “You think you’ll trample us, Twilight Sparkle?” The wind stole away his hissed words, carrying them away. Maybe the wind would travel all the way to the one he was speaking to. His words might vanish, but the meaning would remain. “I think you’ll find that we won’t just lie down and die for you. We’re going to live, and you are not going to stop us.”
Movement beside him drew his attention, and he saw the yellow pegasus forcibly being removed from the hollow. She struggled against them, but there was nothing she could do against so many changelings. “Hold,” he told them, walking in front of the scared pegasus. Minutes passed as he waited in silence until, finally, Fluttershy happened to glance up and look him in the eyes.
Last Breath mouth twisted into a grin, baring his shortened fangs. “I do apologize for the rough treatment, Mistress Fluttershy, Element of Kindness. Oh, don’t be scared,” he assured her with a blatantly false smile. “It’s not like I blame you for the near-extinction of the changelings.”
A green bolt of light shot from his horn, striking her in the middle of her forehead. Intense drowsiness washed over her and her eyelids started to droop. She tried to hold them open, but they were… just… so… heavy… Her eyes slowly slid shut, and the voice of the changeling was the last thing she heard before her mind fled into slumber.
“Sleep well. And don’t worry, everything’s going to be over shortly.”
Several minutes later, Innocent Sin stood before his gathered troops. A torch burnt beside him, the flickering green flames reflecting off of his dark sunglasses. They stood before him, nearly forty changelings strong, ready to fight at his command. Some of them were already starting to regain their sense of selves, their deep green pupils almost visible beyond the crystalline blue mirrors. The changelings were being reborn. It was time to send that message to the world.
Innocent Sin cleared his throat, and all the changelings turned their eyes towards him. His clear voice reached all of their ears, and most of them were able to understand him. “My brothers!” he proclaimed. “My sisters! We stand on the cusp of history! For almost as long as we have existed, we changelings have lived in darkness! We have lived on the run! Always fearful that we would be discovered! Always afraid that we would be exterminated! Hunted down like vermin! Whenever a species would come close to discovering us, we would immediately flee the country! Just recently, we fled from the gryphons! And before that, the zebras!”
He swung his hoof in front of him, instantly cutting off the quiet chatter that had risen up. “But no more! Thanks to our Queen, we now stand at the top of a country! We are the ones in control! No more will we need to fear for our lives with every waking moment! No more will we have to hide what we are! We are changelings! And it’s time for the world to know it!”
His voice increased in strength the more he talked, drawn from a fierce fire burning within him. “But there are those who would oppose us! They would see us pushed back into the caves, see us pushed back into darkness! They would see us destroyed, and not so much as bat an eye!” He felt a fierce surge of emotion from the trees off to the side of the road, and barely managed to suppress a smirk. Other than the Queen, changelings couldn’t feel other changeling’s emotions. Looks like those ponies had made it back even faster than he had expected. Time to give them a real show.
Scooping up the burning brand beside him and holding it aloft in front of his face, he stared down at his assembled troops. The seconds ticked silently past before he turned away from the gathering, silently drawing all attention to the great pile of wood behind him. And there, placed at the very pinnacle of the mass, one unconscious yellow pegasus quietly lay. “Now,” he muttered quietly to himself, “let’s see what lies down this path.”
His hoof slowly moved forward almost reverently, bringing the burning fire up to the pyre. Seconds before the flickering flame could spread to the awaiting mountain of tinder, he was cut short by a great cry from behind him.
“STOP!”
Rarity stood exposed in the center of the road, her head lowered and her horn glowing threateningly as she pointed it at the large changeling. He slowly turned around to look at her, the flames of the torch he held reflecting off of the sunglasses he wore. The entire mass of changelings had turned to look at her cry, but she didn’t care. If she had to tear through all of them by herself to rescue Fluttershy, her closest friend, then that was exactly what she was going to do. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to. Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Zecora stood behind her, silently backing her up. Twilight had snuck away, and was trying to flank the changelings while Rarity kept them distracted.
“Well, isn’t this interesting?” the sunglasses-wearing changeling mused aloud. He casually wove the torch in the air in front of him, causing the flames to dance with the movement. “I admit, I didn’t think you would actually return.”
“Of course we did,” she said, her ears flattening against her skull. “If you thought we would just leave, then I guess you don’t understand ponies as much as you think you do. Now. Let. Fluttershy. Go.”
“So demanding, are we?” The changeling pointed the flaming brand at her. “And no, I won’t. There are only four things in this world that could possibly be a threat to my Queen. Princess Cadance has already been captured, as has Princess Luna. Princess Celestia has vanished, but even if she were to return now, not even her power would be enough. The last… is you six.”
“You forgot Nightmare Moon and Discord,” Rarity murmured under her breath. “I doubt your vaunted Queen would like them so much.”
The changeling continued speaking, unaware of what she said. “The Elements of Harmony. Six mares, wielding the greatest power in existence. What do you think?” He gestured at the captive mare behind him. “Six pillars holding up such great might. But what would happen if one of those pillars were to be… broken?”
Rarity snarled. “If you dare harm a hair on her head…” she warned threateningly.
He chuckled darkly. “Am I being threatened by the dressmaker? That’s amusing.”
“I guess you don’t know just how cutthroat the fashion industry can be,” Rarity growled out.
“Really?” With a casual flick of his hoof, the changeling tossed the burning torch over his shoulder. It sluggishly crawled through the air, tumbling end over end before disappearing into the pile of wood. For an instant, it seemed as if nothing had happened. With a horrifying roar just like a monster out of a nightmare, flames quickly spread throughout the entire pile, surrounding the comatose pegasus upon it. “Then show me. Show me how your soft life compares against the struggle for survival we have had to live with every day.”
The changeling’s wings buzzed rapidly and he flew into the air. A purple light tore through the spot he had just vacated, the ground shuddering from the sheer force of the magical blast. Swiveling around in the air, the changeling turned to look at where the light had come from. “Attacking from behind isn't a bad idea," he said, his tone almost a taunt. "Pity your emotions betray you.”
Twilight climbed out of the trees that the changeling was staring at. “Hurry, girls!” she yelled, firing another blast of magic at the changeling. He easily evaded it before returning fire, which she blocked with a shimmering purple shield. “Get to Fluttershy!”
Dash rushed forward first, pausing only long enough to speak to Rarity. “We’ll cover you, Rares. No matter what happens, don’t stop running.”
Rarity nodded running alongside Dash. Pinkie and Zecora took up positions beside Rarity, flanking her sides. “Alright.” She cocked a questioning eyebrow at the brash pegasus. “You think you can handle it?”
“Forty of them against the four of us?” Dash gestured at the changelings with her chin, her hooves thudding heavily along the dirt path as she led the charge. “I don’t know. Doesn’t seem fair.”
“Yeah,” Applejack growled contemptuously from Dash’s back an instant before contact. “They don’t stand a chance.”