Now that he had been captured and his plan discovered, the Changeling reluctantly returned back to his original form under the glare of Shining Armor and the mixture of disgust and intrigue Rainbow Dash was regarding him with.
“Hold him still.” Shining Armor instructed Dash as he gestured to the Changeling.
Rainbow Dash grabbed one of the Changeling’s forelegs.
“Hey, what are you doing?” He demanded.
Ignoring him, Dash pulled the leg behind his back.
“Argghh!” he grunted in pain.
“Okay, got him.” She confirmed.
Shining closed his eyes and concentrated on the collaring spell every Unicorn within the guard was taught for taking in prisoners.
The tip of his horn began to glow an intense shade of violet before pointing it at the Changeling’s neck before a magical collar of the same shade materialized around his neck.
“What’s this?” The Changeling grumbled in annoyance.
“The spell I just cast,” Shining replied before turning to Dash. “You can let go, now.”
“Are you sure?” She asked, hesitantly.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Shining affirmed, confidently.
Dash did as she was instructed before the Changeling’s insect-like wings began buzzing as it took off into the air.
“It’s getting away!” Dash growled, but as she was about to take off after it, Shining Armor stopped her by placing a hoof in front of her.
Before she could ask him what he was doing, he just looked back up at the Changeling.
“Wait.” He instructed, calmly.
The Changeling was laughing victoriously as it nearly had enough altitude to clear Shining’s barrier, but was cut short as it felt a lurch in its throat, pulling it back down.
Rainbow Dash looked on as the Changeling came crashing down onto the ground before them as it released a small groan.
“How did you do that?” she asked Shining Armor.
“Collar Spell,” he replied. “It’s one of several we are taught to use in case we ever need to incapacitate hostile forces.”
“Like the Changelings.” Dash observed.
“Exactly, there is sort of like an invisible chain from the collar to my chest.” He continued.
“I can make it as long or as short as I want, this way we can have him walking in front while he leads us to the others and not have to worry about him running off.”
“Awesome!” Dash exclaimed as her wings fluttered excitedly, lifting her a few feet off the ground.
“We should get going, now-we’re losing daylight and we don’t know if these Changelings can see in the dark.”
“We can.” The Changeling hissed.
“Then we’d better get going, you lead the way.” Shining ordered.
The Changeling released a low growl before crawling towards where the shield Shining Armor had cast earlier had been before it faded.
While it crawled through the back alleys with the two ponies in tow, the thought occurred to the Changeling that it could take the shape of another resident of Ponyville and act like it was being wrongly imprisoned.
Of course, the flaw in that was the fact that the stallion holding him captive was the captain of Celestia’s royal guard and the mare was one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony; anyone who tried to intervene would almost certainly take their word over his.
Another option would be to attempt an escape by killing them, only it was weakened from the struggle earlier and even if it got lucky, there was no guarantee that the stallion’s spell would wear off once he no longer had a pulse and that would leave him struggling to drag a creature twice his size all of the way back to the hive.
Once one the outskirts of town, the Changeling lead the two ponies towards the Everfree Forest.
“Careful,” Dash muttered as they entered. “There’s a lot of weird and dangerous stuff in here…”
“Then it would make sense for the Changelings to make a home here.” Shining replied.
The Changeling released a hiss in annoyance at their talking as he continued to lead them back to his home.
“So, that spell you used…” Rainbow began.
“Yeah, what about it?” asked Shining Armor.
“It seemed like you were really struggling to cast it…if it’s so difficult, then why use it to take prisoners in combat?”
“It isn’t,” he explained. “Using magic is sort of like using muscles it takes effort and the more you practice, the stronger it gets…but, the longer you go without using it the less effective it is…sort of like when muscles begin to atrophy from inactivity, I attached the chain to my chest because if it was connected to the horn he could easily snap my neck by pulling sharply in one direction or another.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, appreciating the fact that Shining explained it in a metaphor that she could understand with the use of her own interests.
“So, how do you get be a royal guard?” Dash wondered aloud.
It was something she’d wanted to know ever since Princess Celestia arranged a royal visit to Sugarcube Corner to get to know her and the rest of Twilight’s new friends better, but the guard she tried asking refused to answer any of her questions and just stood in place like a statue.
“Well,” Shining began thoughtfully. “You can’t have a criminal record, obviously…and it’s very physically taxing, since you’re job is to protect the Princesses along with the entirety of Equestria-so you have to be in good shape.”
“How did you make Captain?” Dash pressed.
“That’s more personality based; you have to be a able to make difficult decisions under pressure, a good moral compass, plus with me there was the added bonus with my talent for shield spells-that makes you a pretty big asset when your job is protecting people.” He replied.
“So is the pay any good?” Dash asked humorously.
She was surprised to see that Shining Armor actually laughed at that.
“If I had a Bit for every time someone asked me that, I wouldn’t need a paycheck from Celestia.” He replied.
“But yeah, the pay is really good.”
‘Was she flirting with me?’ Shining wondered as he glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who had returned to watching the Changeling ahead of them.
He was terrible in the romance department; every attempt he made with Cadence caused him to fumble over his words as his thoughts would get mixed up as he over-thought his actions under her mesmerizing gaze.
Yet, she stayed with him despite this and whenever he would begin to beat himself up over this shortcoming she would tell him that she found his attempts to be ‘cute’.
These thoughts brought him back to the letter she had sent-if only he had been smarter, faster, stronger…maybe he could have prevented all of this and stopped the Changeling threat that day back in Canterlot.
Shining Armor took notice of a large grove filled with what looked like some form of blue flower before Rainbow Dash caught him eyeing them curiously.
“I’d stay away from them if I were you.” She advised. “That’s Poison Joke; it can do all kinds of weird stuff to your body if it touches you and the only cure is some kind of herbal bath that I don’t know the recipe for.”
“Like what?” he asked. “Have you ever been affected?”
“Yeah,” Dash replied, annoyed at the memory. “But, I didn’t notice anything was different until the next day after I get up, I usually try to get some flying practice in by going top speed and dodging clouds…but, my wings weren’t working right so I couldn’t fly straight and kept on crashing.”
The Changeling let out a hiss.
“Now, what’s his problem?” Dash asked, glaring at the creature.
“Ponies talk too much.” It spat before stopping before the entrance of a large cavern and lifted a foreleg riddled with holes to point towards it.
“This is our home.”
Shining Armor gestured for it to lead the way as Dash followed before he took up the rear, despite his confident demeanor he still felt uneasy about all of this.
What he originally believed to be a tunnel, actually turned out to be a slope as they travelled forward he noticed that they were also moving downward towards and eerie green glow where the dripping and squishing sounds became increasingly audible.
The source of both appeared to be some type of green slime on both the floor and the ceiling along with a series of large chrysalides, trapping ponies inside.
Within were Hoops, Score, Dumb-Bell, Mayor Mare, Holly Dash and Rainbow Dash’s boss; Cloudy Skies along with dozens of others.
Shining Armor then turned to the Changeling that lead them hear as his horn glowed, severing the magical link tethering them.
“Release them, now.” He demanded.
“Very well,” The Challenging conceded as it signaled the others to release the prisoners.
“Really!?” Dash asked incredulously.
“You are only delaying the inevitable.” It replied. “We aren’t the only hive of Changelings in Equestria and once Celestia is overthrown we can recapture them easily and harvest all of the love we could ever need.”
“What does that mean?” Shining’s violet magical aura surrounded the Changeling’s neck as he slammed it against the cave wall. “What are you planning?”
Rainbow Dash looked towards the others and was surprised to see that they were ignoring the scene unfolding before them.
“The downfall of Canterlot,” It choked. “Ponyville and Cloudsdale are just preparation.”
“I don’t get it.” Dash cut in. “Why aren’t you guys putting up a fight?”
“Because we’re too weak,” It growled back. “Without a steady supply of love to feed on, we’re starving and low on power…even all of the love from Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville combined won’t be able to satisfy our hunger.”
“And that’s why you want Equestria,” Shining growled before turning to Rainbow. “Everyone make your way outside, Dash you take up the rear to make sure no Changelings follow them and that there aren’t any other nasty surprises waiting.”
“Got it!” Dash replied, saluting.
“Spineless.” The Changeling spat. “Even when we are not hostile, you have neither the strength, nor courage to destroy us-it’s no wonder Cadance dumped you.”
Shining Armor’s eyes widened at this.
“That’s right,” The Changeling grinned. “We’ve been keeping tabs on you ever since you were brought into town-if the failure to protect your precious princess did this much psychological damage-I can only imagine what the sight of your beloved ‘Twily’ beaten and broken at the hooves of our Queen will do.”
Shining glared at the Changeling and raised his hoof in preparation to hit the creature, while it regarded him with a smug grin.
At this point, he tossed the Changeling aside, sending up a small cloud of dust as it hit the ground.
“Like I said-spineless.” It chuckled.
Shining Armor ignored it and the ever-strengthening urge to beat the creature into a bloody pulp and make it suffer as much as physically possible for mocking him as he headed back to the slope leading back up to the outside world.
---
Once he reached the surface, he was surprised to see that the sun was already beginning to set.
Rainbow Dash was the first to greet him.
“You made it!” she sighed in relief. “What happened down there?”
“Nothing,” he lied. “Did any of them follow me?”
Dash looked over his shoulder, but saw nothing save for the dark walls of the cavern.
“Doesn’t look like it.” She replied, “Did you kick there flanks?”
“No.” he sighed.
“WHAT!?” Everyone else shrieked in unison.
Despite her relief that everyone was unscathed, Rainbow Dash secretly wished that the Changelings had tried something and a fight would get started so she could vent all of the frustration for the emotional turmoil they had put her through from getting her fired to kidnapping and feeding off of her friends and coworkers.
“There’s no point-everyone is safe and accounted for, besides they didn’t attack us when they had every opportunity to after we broke into their home.” Shining replied, defensively.
“So you believe that we should leave them, without having to face the consequences for their actions with the ability to pull a stunt like this again?” Mayor Mare demanded.
“I didn’t say that,” Shining stressed. “I just don’t think killing them is going to solve anything…”
“I get what you’re saying,” Dash reasoned sympathetically. “But, the Mayor has a point-we can’t just overlook this.”
“We’re not.”
Shining Armor then turned around before pointing his horn at the ceiling of the cave before firing a blast of magical energy at it, damaging it before causing pieces of rock to break apart into large pieces and crumble before sliding down the slope.
He repeated this process multiple times before he was certain that the tunnel had been completely sealed off.
“What did you do?” asked Hoops.
“I didn’t kill them, but I made sure they won’t be going anywhere or hurting anyone for a while.” Shining explained.
“If they’ve survived underground all this time, then a little longer shouldn’t hurt-besides, sooner or later they’ll probably be able to dig their way out-so all I’ve really done is buy us some time.”
While he didn’t say anything more, Shining Armor had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach that once he returned to Canterlot and unveiled whatever the Changeling’s had planned there, bloodshed would be unavoidable.
He was surprised when no one protested further and wondered how many of them actually knew who he was-and even if they didn’t and insisted on arguing with him, he supposed that could have pulled rank on them.
“What about the Changeling’s that replaced us?” Mayor Mare pressed.
“You’re the mayor.” Dash cut in. “Can’t you just tell the cops what’s going on and keep them in cells until we deal with this.”
“That’s right,” Shining agreed, surprised that she had beat him to it.
‘Wait-what does she mean by ‘WE’?’ he thought to himself.
“I suppose that could work…” The Mayor replied, tapping a hoof to her chin thoughtfully.
“I will also send a letter to the mayor of Cloudsdale, informing them of the situation.”
Rainbow Dash then cantered over towards Cloudy Skies, who was a Pegasus stallion with a light brown coat, blue eyes, and a grey mane with matching mustache wearing a bright orange vest with the Cutie Mark of a cloud.
“Hey,” she put a hoof behind her head nervously. “This is kind of awkward, but the Changeling that replaced you kind of fired me so….can I have my job back?”