//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Flight, Friends, and Fury // Story: The Balance of Harmony // by The Rising Tide of Night //------------------------------// The next few days passed in chaos. The three of us ran from the Changelings, hiding wherever we could and fighting when we had to. We hid deep within the buildings at night, taking turns resting and watching for trouble. It seemed like the Changelings were everywhere, and without Fluttershy’s senses, we had a hard time avoiding them, especially when they were already waiting for us. There were a few times when they tried to copy our friends, but I was able to spell them back to their true forms before Applejack or Spike took them out. The hardest times were when they copied Applejack’s family, but since we were the only ones in the city, we knew there was no chance Big Mac or Applebloom would be anywhere near here. We did our best to work our way to the city wall and follow it down to the river. The third day, we ran across a pack of Changelings pulling down a building, blocking the easiest path to the river and we had to turn into the town quickly before being spotted. We were able to take a roundabout way to find the wall once more, but it delayed us a few more hours. The morning of the fifth day, we finally reached our goal. Battered, bruised, and bloody, we arrived at the river and began searching for our friends. We carefully scoured the buildings next to the river, flushing out a couple of Changelings in the process. It wasn’t until the fourth building that we got lucky. As we were climbing the stairs, exhausted, I came to a landing and saw a flash of pink. Wary of more trickery, I carefully approached the doorway where I had seen the movement and slowly looked around the corner. I caught a glimpse of what I thought was Fluttershy’s long pink hair before I felt movement behind me. I quickly turned around, catching Pinkie Pie’s hand as it descended with her wicked-looking dagger. She looked shocked for a moment, then recovered and drove her other fist into my stomach. I fell back, gasping for breath, and Pinkie was on top of me, driving her dagger towards my face. Panicking, I raised my arm, feeling the dagger slide along my armored shirt. The skidding dagger landed in the floor next to my head, and Pinkie strained to pull it out for a moment before being tackled to the floor by a flying Applejack. As they fought, I got to my feet, only to find myself staring down the barrel of Fluttershy’s shaking gun. I raised my hands, trying to reassure her, and said, “Real me! Real me!” Fluttershy cocked her gun, still shaking. “The last Twilight we fought already tried that one,” she spat harshly. “Gotta try something else.” I looked over at Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who were both rolling on the floor, each trying to get the upper hand. I saw Spike come up the stairs behind them and pause, taking in the scene, a look of indecision on his face. Thinking fast, I said in a quiet voice, “You tried to sleep with me the first night after Rainbow Dash died. I spent every night of the rest of the week comforting you in the middle of the night after you woke up crying.” Fluttershy lowered her gun, shocked. I used her hesitation to grab my staff and cast my revealing spell on her, which flowed off of her harmlessly, as I had expected. Satisfied, I quickly cast the spell on Applejack and Pinkie Pie, causing them both to hesitate in their attempts to kill each other. The spell flowed off them both in the same way, indicating that they were their true selves. I stood on shaking legs, relief washing over me. “You can stop fighting now,” I called to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “It’s ok.” They looked at each other, Applejack on top of Pinkie Pie, her hands around Pinkie’s neck, and Pinkie Pie holding another dagger near Applejack’s throat. Slowly they disengaged themselves from each other, and Applejack stood up, offering a hand to Pinkie. “Sorry ‘bout that,” Applejack apologized. “No problem” Pinkie replied brightly. “I would have done the same thing.” Fluttershy was still standing there, holding her gun. I looked closer at her, and saw tears starting to form. I hugged her tightly as the tears began to flow. “I’m sorry,” I murmured into her ear. “It was all I could think of to say.” She hugged me back, and shook her head. “It’s alright, Twilight. I’m ok. It’s just… it caught me off guard, that’s all.” Spike came into the room with us. “Is the fighting over?” he asked. I nodded, disengaging myself from Fluttershy. “Yeah, it’s over.” He looked as us oddly, but made no comment. We took some time to recover after that episode, with Pinkie and Fluttershy regaling us with the tale of their escapades. It sounded like they ran across more Changelings that attempted to duplicate us, and one that nearly killed them after getting close enough to mimic some of my own mannerisms. Without my magic to keep them safe, they had to take the gamble on when to trust or not. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie’s abilities were enough to catch any Changeling that deceived them enough, though they didn’t escape completely unscathed. “That’s why I was so surprised when you blocked me, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie described. “None of the others had ever realized what was going on.” “I’ve seen you do it enough times – and been the target of your surprises – to know what to expect. I’m just glad you used a dagger instead of a gun.” “The guns draw their attention,” Fluttershy pointed out. “They swarm like locusts at any noise that loud.” After a good rest, we scouted out our location as best we could. We were able to determine that the river did run right up against the castle, but without getting any closer, we couldn’t tell if there was an entrance or not. We decided to hunker down and wait until night before trying to navigate the river. As the day turned into night once more, we carefully moved out into the open, heading directly for the water. Rushing to the edge of the river, we slipped quietly into the cold water, and began to pull ourselves along the ledge towards the castle. After an hour pulling through the water, we were just near the castle, and I was starting to shiver. I looked back at Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Fluttershy, who were behind me. Pinkie and Spike seemed to be doing ok, but Fluttershy was shivering as well. “Applejack, do you see any openings?” I whispered ahead. Applejack, who was a few feet ahead of me, whispered back, saying, “Ah see what looks like a steel doorway just ahead. We can try gettin’ in there.” “Good,” I replied. “I’m freezing here. Let’s go.” “Hang on, Ah’m gonna see if there’s any guards.” She carefully pulled herself out of the water and dripping, moved quickly over to the door. She inspected the doorway carefully, and checked the area around it as thoroughly as she dared. Finding nothing, she motioned to me to come forward. I motioned for the others to come up by me, and indicted for them to wait until I gave them the sign to come out. I pulled myself out of the water, looking around quickly, and hurried over to where Applejack was waiting. “Can we get inside?” I asked. “The others are waiting, and Fluttershy’s shaking.” “Ah think we can get in,” she replied. “Ah just need your help. Can you magic this thing open somehow?” I looked at the doorway, and pointed my staff at it. “Let me try,” I said, and began concentrating. My staff began to glow, and Applejack began to panic a little. I motioned for her to relax, and continued to carefully work my magic on the door’s lock. After what seemed like forever, I heard a click, and the door was unlocked. I reached forward and opened the door, carefully looking around to see if anything was alerted to our presence. After nothing appeared out of the shadows, I opened the door further, and motioned for the others to come in. Fluttershy was next, shivering and dripping. We waited a few minutes for anything further, then motioned for Spike to come. After he arrived, we paused once more to wait for Pinkie Pie, but our wait was short-lived as she appeared behind me, dripping. Applejack closed the door behind us, and we moved further into the building, looking for a corner to try and get ourselves warm again. Locating a small storage room, we slipped inside and took off our cloaks in order to try and dry them out as I conjured a small fire in the center of the room. Wringing our clothing out, we did our best to warm up and get dry. After a half an hour, we determined that we were going to be as dry as we could considering our location, and decided to move out in order to find Rarity. Our first thought was to try and locate the lower levels, since we figured our best chance of finding Rarity would be to start at the bottom and work our way up. We searched around the level we were on, and finally located a stairwell that led both up and down. Heading down the stairs, we came across a doorway at the end. Applejack carefully pushed it open, and slipped through the doorway. I heard a couple of thuds, and Applejack opened the door to let us through. I saw a couple of Changelings unconscious on the floor as we stepped around the door. “C’mon,” Applejack motioned. “Let’s move. They looked like they were guarding the back area here.” I nodded, and we headed through the opening into a long hallway, flanked by doors on either side. One by one, we checked the doors, finding very little aside from supplies and empty rooms. Frustration growing, we reached the last room and opened the door. Inside, it appeared that the room had been used as some sort of jail, as there was a pile of straw on the floor, chains bolted to the walls, and some well-worn eating utensils in the corner. Spike knelt down and inspected the straw and froze as he looked closely at it. “Twilight,” he announced quietly, “There’s blood on the straw. A lot of it.” I knelt next to him and pulled up a handful of straw, looking at it closely. “You’re right, Spike.” Pinkie Pie spoke up by the wall chains. “These chains are also covered,” she said, holding up the clanking metal. Fluttershy looked anxious. “What do think it means?” she asked. “Ah’m hoping that it’s old blood, and doesn’t mean anything for Rarity,” Applejack said grimly. I looked at Spike, and we shared an understanding glance. The blood on the straw was too fresh to be anything aside from within the last week. We looked up at the others, who were looking afraid and anxious, and I felt a pang of dread at what was to come. We left the jail cell and headed out of the basement area, back up the stairwell, and moved up to the second floor. Systematically moving our way through the rooms on the second floor, we fought our way through a few groups of Changelings. In one of the rooms, we found something that made us even more apprehensive. Folded up on a table in the center of the room, we found Rarity’s armored outfit, including her color-shifting cloak. I grabbed the clothing and stuffed it into my bag as we all looked at each other grimly. Spurred on by our discoveries, we hastened our exploration through the upper floors until we finally reached the top, our anxieties pushed to the breaking point as we pushed our way into the final chamber. The top floor was one large room, supported by large pillars, and decorated with the grisly trophies of the Changelings. Human remains were suspended on the walls alongside weapons, arranged in different positions. Tapestries adorned the walls, depicting scenes of war and devastation. A long, deep red carpet stretched from the door to the back of the room, where a raised dais stood supporting a large throne upon which sat a large, pale Changeling. Instead of being smooth and androgynous like the rest of them, this Changeling had a distinctly feminine form and an air of command about her. She was accompanied by a group of Changelings, and they were surrounding what appeared to be a large cloth sack. We approached the dais, stopping halfway up the room. The Changeling on the throne watched us, a mild curiosity on her face. I stepped forward and announced, “We’re here for our friend and the element of Harmony that you carry. Give them to us and we won’t destroy your city.” The Changeling Queen laughed at us. Her laughter echoed around the chamber, and was picked up by her Changelings, which amplified the laughter until it felt like it was coming at us from every direction. Tensing, we shifted our stances, readying our weapons. The Queen noticed this, and waved at her minions, who stopped laughing. Then she spoke. “You want your friend?” she asked. Her voice had a reverberation to it, almost as if she was speaking with multiple voices at once. “You come in to my city, kill my subjects, cause havoc in my lands, and you dare demand your friend? And threaten me as well? How dare you! Why should I give you anything?” “You attacked us first!” Applejack shot back. “Your little subjects tricked us and tried to kill us after kidnapping Rarity!” “My subjects were merely doing what they always do – find food,” the Queen replied. “To us, you are merely a source of food. We feed off your love for others and provide you a service in return.” “Yeah?” I replied. “What sort of ‘service’ is that?” The Queen stood and stretched languidly. She moved down the dais gracefully, approaching us with a hungry look on her face. “Why, we provide the service of the one thing that you people have never been able to manage.” She arrived at our location, and reached forward, gently touching Applejack’s cheek. Applejack flinched away, and the Queen laughed. “We provide the opportunity to see loved ones.” With that, she changed form into Applejack’s sister, Applebloom. Applejack looked furious, but she had already moved on to me, touching my cheek with the speed of a striking snake. “We provide the chance to see missing family members.” She changed into a familiar male form with crystal blue hair, catching me off guard. “Shining Armor?” I whispered. She watched my reaction with a sly smile on her face, and looked over at Fluttershy. I knew what was going to happen, but I was still too shocked to react in time. “And,” the Queen said, caressing Fluttershy’s face longingly. “We can bring back the dead.” With that, she changed into Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy stared at her longingly, then mastered herself with a look of fury. Pulling out her guns, she aimed them directly at the Queen’s forehead, and snarled, “Don’t you ever take that form again!” The Queen laughed, and changed back into her natural form. As she did, I noticed two items hanging from her neck. One appeared to be the element we were after, a circular stone with the shape of a diamond in the center, and the other was… “Rarity’s crystal!” I exclaimed, pointing at the silver chain hanging from her neck. The Queen looked down at her chain and smirked at me. “Ah, yes, she did have some pretty jewelry on. I especially liked the rings she was wearing.” She held up her hand, and I recognized the rings that Rarity had found in the city our first day here. They were both coated in blood. She saw the look of horror on my face, and turned on her heels, laughing. “I suppose you would like to see your friend now,” she continued, sauntering back up the dais. She circled the cloth sack next to her throne, the other Changelings scooting out of her way. Pausing behind it, she rested her foot on it, and spoke once more. “I fed well the first day, but instead of just killing her, I decided to let my subjects have some fun. They’ve been so excited about it, they’ve been playing with her nonstop since.” With that, she shoved the sack over with her foot, and it spilled a form out, bouncing down the stairs of the dais. We almost didn’t recognize her. Her lovely purple hair had been hacked off roughly, and blood, both dried and fresh, coated almost every inch of her body. She was completely naked, and we could see cuts and bruises up and down her form, especially on her wrists and ankles where she had been bound by the chains we saw in the cell. Some of her fingers had been broken, and she appeared to have been repeatedly violated. Her eyes were scrunched tightly, and she was curled into a ball as tightly as possible. Horrified, we gaped at her quivering form. “Rarity!” I cried. At the sound of my voice, her eyes flew open, and her head jerked up, searching. As soon as her eyes landed on us, instead of the look of gratitude that I was expecting, she let out a scream of pure terror, and scurried away from us as quickly as she could. I watched her attempt to hide from us as she was sobbing uncontrollably, and my eyes flashed up to the Queen in fury. “What did you do to her?” I demanded. “I told you, my subjects have been playing with her,” she replied, a satisfied smile on her face. “They’ve just been having their fun using your own forms.” The Changelings on the dais flickered into mirror images of us, smiling evilly before changing back. “You – you’re a monster!” cried Fluttershy, watching Rarity’s attempts to make herself as small as possible with a look of pure horror on her face. Pinkie Pie stood stunned, Spike was growling, and Applejack shouldered her rifle, aiming directly at the Queen. The Queen waved away Applejack’s threat. “It was you and your people who made us this way. Especially her,” she pointed down at Rarity. “This one was instrumental in causing our banishment.” “What?” I replied, confused. “What are you talking about?” “Do not pretend to be ignorant,” she snarled, standing. “You know full well that she was the one who incited the people against us – we were not good enough to live among you!” “Rarity would never do that!” Pinkie Pie interjected. “She’s too kind and generous for something that mean!” “Little fool,” the Queen hissed at her. “You know nothing. Discord was right to kill you all before. But he was also right to give me the opportunity to avenge my people and our lifestyle.” “Discord told you about us?” I asked. She laughed once more. “Of course. He told me that you would be coming for your precious elements, and that I would have the chance for my revenge.” She removed both the element and Rarity’s crystal from her neck, and swung them from the end of her hand, taunting us. “Well? Here is your precious, precious element. You can come get it – at the expense of your friend’s life.” At that point, the growling that had been coming from Spike turned into an ear-shattering roar. Covering my ears, I looked over at him to see that his form was changing, growing quickly. His hair stood up, forming a crest, and fused together. His limbs extended, razor-sharp claws growing out of them, and his tail extended behind him, small sharp spikes growing around the tip, giving it the look of a mace. His skin took on a purple sheen, growing scaly, and his mouth extended, fangs growing to deadly points. He let out one more roar before he lost his powers of speech completely. “GIVE ME BACK MY RARITY!” he screamed, his voice deepening until his roars caused the ground to shudder. We scrambled away from him, and I waited for him to leap at the astonished Queen like he had while fighting the timberwolves. However, instead of jumping at her, his form now taller than even Applejack, he continued to grow and grow even further, turning into a full grown dragon. He stepped forward, shaking the castle to the core, and the Changelings leapt at him, hissing. He swiped his claws at them dismissively, and three of them exploded in a spray of blood with the force of his strike. His claws were so sharp that they slid through a nearby pillar with ease, the pillar coming apart completely, stones raining down around us all. “Spike!” I called, dodging the falling debris. “Watch out for us!” He ignored my cries, continuing to destroy any Changeling that got in his way. He shifted to the left to avoid an attack, and his shoulder knocked over two other pillars. I saw the debris rain down near Fluttershy and Applejack, and cried out a warning. They jumped away, but I saw Applejack get hit on the side with a large rock, and she rolled away, striking the wall with a thud. She lay there, and I couldn’t tell from where I was if she was conscious or not. Spike leapt forward, landing hard on the dais in front of the Changeling Queen, who dropped the element and Rarity’s crystal, losing her balance from the force of Spike’s landing. Spike roared in triumph, and snapped his head forward with an astonishing speed. I was able to see him close his deadly jaws around the Queen, snapping her in half at her midsection, before I heard a cry of warning behind me. “Twilight!” yelled Pinkie Pie. “Watch out for the tail!” Surprised, I looked up just in time to see Spike’s deadly tail flying towards me. I tried to throw myself out of its way, but I wasn’t fast enough as the tail clipped the side of my face, flinging me back with blinding pain. I struck my head hard on a piece of debris and my world went black. I woke what seemed like hours later, but after looking around at the carnage around me, realized it had only been a few minutes. The left side of my face was screaming with pain, and I couldn’t see out of my left eye. I tried to close my eye to make it easier, but nothing changed. Pushing myself up, I surveyed the area as best I could, trying to ignore my aching body. Spike was still in his dragon form, and was contentedly chewing on something up on the dais that I recognized with a lurch in my stomach as the leg of the Changeling Queen. Blood was everywhere in the throne room, splattered on the walls and floors where Spike had demolished the Changelings. I saw Fluttershy, who was tending to Applejack, who appeared to be ok, if favoring her side that had been struck. I looked over at Rarity, who was still whimpering in the corner, trying to keep us all in her field of view, terror on her face. Despair threatened to overwhelm me as I looked for Pinkie Pie, who was carefully picking her way through the debris towards me. She glanced up as she made her way around a large piece of pillar, and the shock on her face was immediate. “Oh no, Twilight!” she cried, rushing over to me. “Your eye!” I shook my head, not sure what I was thinking at the time. “My eye’s fine,” I replied. “I’ve probably just got some blood in it, that’s all.” She looked apprehensive, and I looked at her carefully through my good eye, a cold certainty starting to grow within me. “Pinkie?” I asked quietly. “What’s wrong?” She opened her mouth a moment, closed it, then opened it once more. “You’re eye, Twilight. It’s – it’s gone.” I stared at her for a horrified moment, then pressed my hand to my left eye. Ignoring the pain, I felt around the socket, feeling the shredded flesh radiating from the eye, but not feeling anything resembling my actual eye. As I confirmed what Pinkie Pie was telling me, I broke down crying, tears streaming from my good eye, but nothing coming from the other. A rumbling below us broke me from my feelings of pity, and I realized what was going on. Spike’s disregard for anything around him had caused the building to come off of its foundations, and it was getting ready to collapse. Pushing myself up, I called to the others. “Everyone, we need to get out of here! The building’s gonna fall! Over to me, now!” Spike just looked over at me, ignoring my cries as if I was nothing to him. Fluttershy and Applejack hurried over to me, but I ignored their cries of concern at the sight of my face as I looked over at Rarity. She tried to scurry away from my view, but was unable to go any further as she had backed against a pillar. “Pinkie, get her, quickly. I’ll try to get Spike.” Rushing over to Spike, followed by Fluttershy and Applejack, I tried to reason with him as he gnawed on the leg. “Spike, come on! We need to get out of here!” He grunted down at me, eyes narrowing as he inspected me. “Spike, it’s me!” I cried. “Come on! The only way to save Rarity right now is for you to come back to us so we can get out of here!” The shaking of the building increased as Pinkie Pie hurried over, dragging a struggling Rarity the entire way. “Twilight, I don’t think it’s gonna hold much longer!” she yelled. “Whatever you’re gonna do, you’d better do it now!” “Spike!” I screamed, trying to get through to him. “Remember Rarity!” He looked down at me, then at Rarity, and his eyes softened. Suddenly, the dragon was gone, the Changeling Queen’s leg flopping to the floor, and Spike was standing there in his normal form, looking woozy. Applejack immediately grabbed him and Fluttershy, and I grabbed Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and poured my strength into another teleportation spell. I felt the ground give way beneath my feet just as the spell took effect, and for one brief moment we were falling in midair before the spell whisked us away, and we landed on the grassy hill outside of town just in time to see the castle in the city collapse in a heap of debris and dust. Immediately, the pain in my head became too much to bear, and I blacked out for the second time that day.