Celestia's sun was about to reach the highest part of the day as Surprise and Swiftwing made their way to a nearby bench, each holding an ice cream cone. After the two sat down, Swiftwing took a small bite of his ice cream while Surprise took a much bigger bite out of hers.
"Good gracious!" Swiftwing said, shocked. "You nearly ate the whole thing at once!"
"Mhmm!" Surprise muttered with her mouth still full of her chilly treat.
"Aren't you worried about brain freeze?"
Surprise swallowed and tilted her head, "brain freeze? What's that?"
"Never mind, I get the feeling you're immune to it." Swiftwing took another lick of his ice cream and looked at it. "You know, I just remembered. I was never much a fan of chocolate ice cream."
"You don't like chocolate?"
Swiftwing shrugged, "eh, every now and then I have some. It's just not my favorite."
"What is your favorite flavor then? Is it Vanilla? Strawberry? Rocky Road? Rainbow? Chocolate Chip? Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough? Strawberry-oh wait I said Strawberry didn't I..."
While Surprise continued to name off flavors, Swiftwing took a few minutes to try to think clearly before he finally remembered. "Orange Sherbet! That's my favorite!"
"Aww, I was gonna say that next! Good choice by the way!"
Swiftwing chuckled and took another bite, while Surprise ate the rest of hers. "Now let's see..." Swiftwing said. "Where was I with our story?"
"Uhhh, I believe you had just left the café."
"Ah yes, that's right. Well, all day long I kept repeating what I said to Hawkeye in my head, and I kept feeling more and more guilty. I was finally able to apologize to him late in the evening. I wanted to apologize earlier, but due to that threat Hawkeye deciphered, Shining had us working around the clock."
"That and the wedding was the next day right? So he probably needed some help setting things up" Surprise said.
"That's right. Princess Cadence, well as you know the fake Princess Cadence, dealt with most of the wedding preparations, but, whenever he could, Shining would help and also get some of us to help him."
"That sounds really stressful."
"Oh yes, I've never seen the Captain of the Guard that stressed, but he seemed to hold together quite well. Anyway, that night I made my way to Hawkeye's room to apologize."
* * * *
"Um...h-hello? Hawkeye?" Swiftwing said as he knocked on Hawkeye's door. "Hawkeye, its me." Swiftwing tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked. "Can you let me in? I just want to talk is all."
Swiftwing stood there for a few minutes waiting for an answer, but no answer came.
"You're going to make me stand out here aren't you?"
Swiftwing pressed his ear up against the door to listen, but couldn't hear anything.
"Fine then, have it your way. Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I said earlier today. I was completely out of line when I said that you're not a soldier...well, you're not but....look, you're on our side, so that's good enough for me. Honestly, you're one of the smartest stallions that I know. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have been able to decipher that threat until it was too late. You're very loyal to Celestia and I'm sorry for brushing you off like I did and...and..."
Swiftwing tried turning the doorknob again, but it was still locked.
"Alright listen up, Hawkeye, I can't talk to a door. Can you please let me in so I can apologize to you in person?"
Still no response; this caused Swiftwing to become frustrated.
"Alright, fine!" Swiftwing said as he took out some keys. "If you're not going to let me in, then I am letting myself in!"
Swiftwing stuck his key into the lock and unlocked the door.
"You know, it's not like you to give anypony the cold shoulder" as he opened the door, he noticed that the lights were turned off.
"Well...now I feel stupid; I actually was talking to a door...wait a minute...if you're not here, then where are you..."
"I turned on the lights and froze at what I saw...his room was completely ransacked. It looked as if somepony took his room, shook it upside down for a while, and then set it back down. I stood there for what felt like hours before I finally started searching the room for clues as to what happened. I shut the door and looked all around trying not to disturb too much of the room; while I was searching, I noticed that his fax machine was completely destroyed and his little leather-bound book was missing as well. I was about to leave to report this when I heard a noise, that sounded like something falling onto the floor, come from the bedroom. I froze, listening for any other movement. I then turned, and entered the hallway as quietly as I could; listening for any hint of sound."
"I finally arrived at his bedroom, and stood perfectly still at the doorway; I even held my breath so that I could hear better. The silence was deafening. From the doorway, I looked around, but didn't see or hear anything else out of the ordinary. I stood for a few more minutes, stuck where I was. I wanted to leave, but a voice inside me was screaming that I was missing something that was right in front of my face; that turning around would be the worst mistake of my life...I wished I had listened to that voice."
"Not hearing or seeing anything unusual, I turned to leave and almost immediately afterwards, was tackled by somepony. I tried to fight back, but whoever tackled me knew what they were doing; my attacker punched me hard at the base of one of my wings, disabling it."
* * * *
"Wait," Surprise said, completely absorbed into the story. "You can ground a pegasus just by punching its wing?"
"Yup, it's almost like punching somepony unconscious. When you do, you briefly disable the connection of neural pathways from the brain, to the rest of the body; that small gap is what knocks you out. It's the same for the wing, and any part of the body for that fact. If you hit just the right spot, you can disable any limb of an opponent; but you have to be 100% accurate."
"It's not permanent is it?"
"No, the limb is just temporary disabled. It will be usable again, but not for several minutes."
"Wow. So, you were pinned to the floor with a disabled wing..."
* * * *
"I tried to ignore the pain as much as I could and fight back. I then felt him try to punch out one of my hind legs; thankfully he missed. Before he could try again, however, I was able to leap backwards and crash on the floor, letting my attacker take the brunt of the impact. It did the trick as my attacker let go just enough for me to break away. I stood at the doorway while my attacker got up near the bed. I could barely believe my eyes; it was a Changeling glaring back at me. To my relief and somewhat horror, it wasn't Hawkeye."
"Normally, I would've stayed and fought, but if a Changeling was here, that means there were more all around, and inside the castle; I quickly glanced back at the exit, which was closed, and then back at the Changeling. If I could just get outside, I could find some help and warn others. The Changeling seemed to know what I was thinking, after I looked back at him, he glared, took a step toward me and whispered in an eerie voice"
"Try it, I dare you."
"I took his challenge. I made a mad dash for the exit; I tried to fly out, but forgot that my wing wouldn't work. Even without my wings, I'm sure that I could've made it; however my enemy did have wings, so he quickly overtook me. Just as I started to open the door, he grabbed my hind legs and threw me across the room; I was tossed into a bookshelf and then crashed onto the floor. The sudden shift in weight made books fall off the shelves, and then made the bookshelf itself fall on top of me. Reeling with pain, I crawled out just in time to see my enemy kick the door shut with one of his hind legs. He then started walking towards me and spoke again in a voice that just sent chills up my spine"
"You're not getting out of here alive" he said with an evil sharp toothed smile.
"Thinking fast, I lunged at him. Thankfully, it caught him off guard and I was able to pin him to a wall. We stared at each other face to face."
"Where's Hawkeye!?" I shouted.
"That traitorous weakling? Disposed of," He said with a smile.
"He then slammed his forehead into mine; I think he miscalculated though, because both of us were reeling in pain for a few seconds. Unfortunately, he was able to recover faster than I could. He pounced on my back and startled to strangle me with his foreleg."
"I tried my best to not panic, but not being able to breath has a tendency to make you panic regardless of how much training you've had. I grabbed at his foreleg, trying to pull it away. I was able to get a good grip thanks to the holes in his leg, but he held firm; my vision soon started to fade."
"In a last ditch effort I elbowed him in the gut. I heard him grunt and he loosened his grip slightly, which allowed me to breath a little. Thanks to that little amount of breath, I was able to thrust backwards and slam him against a wall; he let go. I quickly recovered and kicked him in the gut as hard as I could with my hind legs; he fell back and crashed into a fish tank, which shattered and spilt several gallons of water over him. Some of the shards of glass even cut part of his chitin. The dazed Changeling looked up at me."
"Now, I kicked him as hard as I could; I'm pretty sure I caused some internal damage and broke some of his bones, but that still wasn't enough to keep him down. Somehow, he quickly got up tackled me again. I'm not exactly sure what happened during that part of the fight, but I remember it ended with him overpowering me and shoving my head towards the shattered remains of the fishtank."
"I tried to fight back as hard as I could, but he was much stronger than I had anticipated; that frail body of his was very deceptive. Closer and closer he pushed my eye towards a shard of glass; it eventually got to the point where I could barely focus on the tip of the shard because it was so close. One slip-up then it would've been all over."
"Fortunately, I felt around and grabbed onto another shard that was laying on the floor. With all of my might, a flipped over and sliced his stomach with the shard. While he was holding his wound with his hoof, I pounced on him and brought down the shard straight for his eye. I would've gotten him too had he not kicked me off. I landed next to the door."
"I was about to quickly leave and get help, when two other guards came bursting through the door."
"Guards, arrest this Changeling!" Swiftwing said. "Send word to Celestia and Luna at once: Canterlot is under atta-" Swiftwing was interrupted by one of the guards hitting him on the side of his neck.
Swiftwing fell to the floor, barely conscious.
"It's...about time you two came..." the changeling said as he staggered to his hooves.
"What's the matter? Can't handle one simple guard?" One of the guards said with a mocking tone as he stepped over Swiftwing.
"Shut up..." the Changeling said, panting for air. "This one was...more slippery than..than Ickwing."
"I don't know," the guard said as he looked around. "It looks like Ickwing was a tough one for you as well. Hope you aren't losing your touch."
Swiftwing groaned in agony.
"Aww look," the second guard said. "He's still awake."
"Not...for long," the Changeling said as he staggered towards Swiftwing.
"The last thing I remember seeing was the Changeling raising his hoof right above my head and then-"
WHACK!
"Lights out."