//------------------------------// // Ch. 2-9: A Pilfered Pony // Story: Seeking A Quiet Afternoon // by Tired Old Man //------------------------------// “Who are you?” Chrysalis hissed as she landed in the center of Luna’s bedroom. “A little colt who got lost trying to find a bathroom,” Point sarcastically remarked, which irritated her quite easily as her wings buzzed in annoyance. “But...to be more serious, I’ve come to ask you a few questions on behalf of my Lord.” Her face twisted at the sound of the word “Lord.” Point raised an eyebrow as he waited for her response. “...this Lord of yours wouldn’t happen to be called ‘Locus’, would he?” Point grinned. “Precisely. I was unaware that my Lord had an operation going underway here that involved you, Queen Chrysalis. Was he the one that helped you get in?” She scoffed. “Hmph. I was familiar with the caves of Canterlot long before he told me about them! I was completely aware of the entrance he proposed that I lead my army through to get past Luna’s shield.” “Ah ah, don’t be so uppity. I was the one that told him about the caves in the first place. I didn’t expect Lord Locus to pass that information onto you, however. I wonder what deal he’s struck with you in my absence...mind if I ask?” Point paced the floor near him as he spoke, careful not to approach the Queen as he did so. The Queen grinned at Point’s question, which made him cringe slightly. “He offered me Canterlot and free reign to do with its citizens whatever I desire! In exchange for information on how to take Canterlot as swiftly as possible, he asked for two very small things. The first was the capture and transferal of a certain pony in this castle tonight, and the second a mere fang from one of our changelings! I must say, your Lord is a very generous pony to offer so much in return for so little from us.” Now it was Point’s turn to grin widely, which wiped the smile off Chrysalis’s face. Lord Locus was a cunning and conniving mastermind. Though Point did not know his plan, he knew this fang Locus acquired would be very instrumental for it, and that Chrysalis was but a mere pawn in his little game. However, the fact that Locus wanted a pony was news to him. Lord Locus usually had other ways to acquire followers that didn’t involve capture...which meant that the pony he sought was either one of the captured Princesses in the room, or somepony else that he knew would be here in Canterlot Castle at the time of the attack. As much as Point wanted to think on this, he began to feel like he’s overstayed his welcome, so he decided to wrap things up. “Is that so? Very well. In that case, I’ll leave you to your conquering then.” The door slammed shut in front of Point, covered in a poisonous green glow. Point tipped his head downward toward the ground. “...I take it we’re not finished here?” Point asked without turning around. Instead, he closed his eyes and began to plan an escape route, just in case a struggle was imminent. Her voice was both sultry and venomous as she spoke. “I have another question, assassin.” Point flinched at the last word, and she sneered. “Don’t think I didn’t recognize that garb of yours. I’ve seen such clothing on other ponies during my meeting with Locus, and he happily clarified that they wouldn’t kill me if I didn’t make a move for his life.” Point slowly turned around and raised his head defiantly. “Then ask, Queen Chrysalis. At this point, you are wasting my precious time, and surely you know how important that is to me.” Her question was blunt. “What are your Lord’s plans for the rest of Equestria?” Point smirked, and gave a confident answer. “He didn't tell you? Well, I wouldn’t worry about that. If he has struck a deal with you, then he means no harm to you or your followers, regardless of what plans he may have for the rest of Equestria. However, this is not to say that he will leave you alone. My Lord is a patient pony, and when the time comes, he will seek you out again. This, I am certain of.” Point knew all of this was a lie...but it was also a well-constructed one. Chrysalis was hesitant, believing firmly in her heart that she wasn’t getting the whole story...but so long as her changelings wouldn’t be harmed, then all was well with her. She released her grasp on the door to the room, and Point opened it with ease, releasing the tension he had built up from her antagonizing response moments earlier. “Thank you, my Queen. Lord Locus sends his regards.” With a flick of his tail, he shut the door behind him and flew off into the dark hallway, ears keen on picking up any sounds of battle, for that is where he reasoned Mender would show up next. ------------------- “C’mon you three, don’t fall behind!” Applejack spoke as she cast a glance back on the ponies behind her. Mender took the rear spot of the group to keep the fillies in between him, Applejack and Twilight. All of the ponies were on their guard, with their ears tuned to pick up on any sound they might constitute as a threat. They still had no idea how many changelings were left, and didn’t want to take any chances by splitting up. They would find their friends as a group, and pray that they didn’t get into a fight. The hallways felt longer than before for Mender. His body was already getting exhausted from so much movement (and he was still recovering from the kick from earlier). This was the other reason he took the rear spot, just to stay away from Applejack as much as possible. He didn’t slow down the group, however, as he made sure to keep their pace as they traversed the dark hallways toward the hallway branch that led to the throne room. They passed by it after Mender mentioned that Fluttershy and Rarity should still be on this side of the castle. There was little need to investigate the other castle wing. Twilight wanted to be more prepared, however. At the branch, she cast a small detection barrier across the hallway entrance leading to the throne room, in case any changelings from the other wing decided to cross into this one. Applejack wondered why they stopped, so Mender quickly explained what it was. This was one of the common spells he had seen used in conjunction with an illusion spell during infiltration missions his squad had been tasked to handle. Applejack seemed to understand, though she shook her head when he had finished, indicating that she didn’t completely understand his explanation. It wouldn’t really matter, however. She’s seen Twilight cast spells that confused her before and didn’t bother asking questions about them. She did that once some time ago and immediately regretted it, as she nearly got drawn into a long discussion on Magical Theory. What kind of sense would it make for an Earth pony to learn about Unicorn magic, anyway? Twilight finished her casting, leaving a very faint fuchsia haze around the entrance that acted as the detector for her spell. She nodded to the group to indicate she was finished, and they all proceeded down the hallway where Fluttershy and Rarity had gone. It took a few minutes, but they had rounded a corner and faintly heard the sounds of battle from afar...and the sound of Pinkie’s Party Cannon going off, which Mender involuntarily flinched at upon hearing it. They were close now. The sounds radiated from behind a closed set of large double-doors that Twilight knew led to the dining room. With a magical shove, the doors opened up, revealing the chaos inside. Changeling bodies covered the ground to the point where one could barely make out the marble floor and red carpeting underneath. In the center of the dining room stood Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity, while Dash was hovering just above them in the air. Pinkie aimed her cannon upward, and Rarity held about twenty gems suspended in her magical aura. All of them had their eyes directed upward toward an uncountable amount of changelings that obstructed any view of the roof outside of the corners of the room. Their fighting had become so clamorous that it must have summoned almost every changeling to the room, and Twilight and company had just burst in during a brief intermission in the battle. All of the mares were panting, very clearly exhausted from the fighting they had done thus far. Given the hundreds of changelings lying on the ground, Mender had to wonder why they didn’t collapse from exhaustion even now. He certainly would have. Naturally, when the door was slammed open all eyes fell on the new group of ponies to enter the brawl. “Hee, glad you guys could make it,” Dash weakly said as she took in deep breaths to ready herself for another battle. Before anypony else could react or say anything else, Twilight conjured a barrier around the four ponies in the center of the room. She then did the same for her group of ponies as a hemisphere dome formed around them. WIth careful precision, she began to walk forward, taking the barrier with her slowly. Mender, AJ, and the fillies quickly got the idea that she wanted to move toward her friends. She had said nothing as she devoted her concentration to maintaining the barriers she had summoned...but she didn’t need to say anything. It was then that the giant swarm of changelings began to attack the barriers Twilight had put up. Driving their bodies into the shield with all the force they could muster, the changelings impacted into the shield in a mostly uncoordinated manner. Twilight was able to buffer the blows with little hindrance as her group continued to make progress toward her friends, though beads of sweat were starting to form on her head as she did so. The minute it took to reach the center of the room felt like an hour for Mender and the Crusaders. The fillies flinched every time a changeling impacted their small barrier, but Mender urged them on from behind as they moved. He knew that if even a hoof were to stick out from this barrier, they would swarm to it and drag the helpless victim out kicking and screaming to do Celestia-knows-what to them. Most of that fear dissipated as the two groups finally reunited in the center of the room. As soon as the barriers connected, Mender rushed forward and began inspecting the mares up close for any major injuries. He checked Rainbow Dash first, who stopped flying for the time that Mender inspected her. Her body showed some bruising and a few primaries were all bent out of shape from her aerial assaults. She winced in pain as Mender carefully bent the feathers back so that they would not hinder her flight. She tentatively flapped her wings as soon as he had finished, before flashing him a smile signifying that she was ready for more action. Rarity was next. Her mane and tail were frazzled, and exhibited similar bruising to Dash along her body. What bothered Mender more, however, was that she had suffered a gash to her head, the blood covering one of her eyes and staining her white coat. He asked Rarity if she had packed a needle and thread in her satchel, and she nodded. It took him a bit of time to sift through her belongings, but he soon pulled out a sheet of cloth, black string, and a sewing needle. “I’m not going to lie, this is going to hurt a bit,” Mender spoke as he began to thread the needle. “Darling, do your worst. These changelings have given me far more pain than you will inflict,” she huffed. Mender rolled his eyes at her statement before he started suturing the wound over her eye. It took him only a few seconds, and he used the cloth to wipe away the remaining blood as best he could. The blood flow did not cease, though it did slow to a point where it wouldn’t be much of a hindrance to her eyesight now. She gave Mender a grateful smile for his hoofwork before he moved on to Pinkie next. Unsurprisingly, Pinkie had suffered minimal damage, suffering only a few scrapes from the “lucky” changelings that somehow managed to get past her Party Cannon. None of her wounds seemed life-threatening, and Mender was thankful for that. Her mane did appear less poofy than usual, though, but that didn't really bother Mender enough to warrant further inspection. He was looking for wounds, not split ends. Fluttershy was last. Mender had her pegged as the one to suffer the most, as she didn’t exactly make herself out to be as tough a fighter as Dash, or a versatile one like Rarity and Pinkie. However, the complete opposite of his prediction happened...and that bothered him immensely. She didn’t have a single scratch on her. No bruising, no cuts or grievous wounds...nothing to indicate she even remotely participated in the fight. Without warning, Mender struck Fluttershy in the face. Dash was the first to react and pulled Mender away before he could hit Fluttershy again...but she let go when she heard Fluttershy hiss in anger. Rarity quickly fired two gems into “Fluttershy” just as she lunged at Mender. She crumpled to the floor and her yellow fur vanished to reveal the chitinous covering of a changeling, freshly knocked out cold. The collective sigh of relief of everypony soon changed to a gasp of fear. If that Fluttershy was fake… ...then where is the real one? ------------------- “Let me go...please!” Fluttershy’s cries for help fell on deaf ears. Only minutes ago was she taken from the dining room outside one of the many glass windows that lined the wall overlooking the gardens. Four changelings had to restrain her as they carried her writhing, resisting body up to Luna’s tower. The changelings had caught a break. They had managed to separate Fluttershy from the rest of her friends long enough to pin her down and whisk her out of the room, replacing her with a duplicate before anypony noticed the switch was made. The changeling that transformed made sure not to speak and to look as feeble as the real pony, and the illusion worked like a charm. Now they had a prisoner, and they decided to bring her to their Queen. The balcony was filled with the sound of buzzing wings. Chrysalis heard the noise and walked out to see Fluttershy, held by her hooves as she weakly flapped her wings trying to squeak out what little resistance she could manage. She waved a dismissive hoof towards Fluttershy and the changelings as she spoke. “Take her to the mines where Lord Locus resides, my children. Use the caves, for we must not alert the town to our takeover yet.” Just as quick as the group visited Queen Chrysalis, they vanished, flying off into the night toward the caves they had used to infiltrate Canterlot undetected. Fluttershy could barely make out her words, but she did catch the name. She had said, “Lord Locus.” This was not a name she was familiar with...but since she couldn’t escape (however hard she tried), she had a feeling she would find out who they were soon enough. Meanwhile, Chrysalis began the next step of her plans. With Celestia and Luna out of the picture, the next step she needed to take was to convince the ponies in the castle that she was Celestia long enough for her remaining changelings to integrate into Canterlot. She may need to take the entire town hostage if the situation escalated to the point where that would be necessary. Already a few of the changelings she had brought had begun to integrate into the town. She reasoned it would take but a few hours for her to completely have Canterlot under her control. With a sickly green glow of her horn, her image began to change. Her long, hole-filled legs turned solid and shimmered a bright white glow, with golden slippers forming upon her hooves. Her deformed horn straightened itself and turned as white as the rest of Celestia’s body. The biggest problem was Celestia’s tricolor mane and tail that seemingly defied gravity. Chrysalis cursed herself slightly, as she would need to maintain a slight magical glow around her horn to keep them both in fluid, constant motion. Beyond that, the illusion was complete as she finished the facial features to look like the trapped Princess hanging from Luna’s roof. All that was left now was to practice the Royal Canterlot Voice and appear regal enough to fool Princess Twilight. She made the mistake of not knowing who Twilight was after she had taken the place of Cadance. This was not an error she was willing to repeat, not when her victory was so close...so very close now. Chrysalis just had to hope that the changeling that replaced Fluttershy would play their part long enough to keep Twilight and her friends calm as she greeted them tonight. That would make things so much easier for her. ----------------------- Locus was irritated. He kept fidgeting, trying to find a relaxing way to sit on his throne. The throne wasn’t uncomfortable to sit on (to the contrary, it was fantastically plushy), but something else was bothering him so much it was impossible to find a good spot on his throne as he thought about it. Ever since Nile had pointed out that his constant killing of Recruits might weaken his numbers, his defense that he wanted strong warriors seemed suitable...at first. Yes, he needed merciless killers...but could there be merit in having those that aren’t? ...perhaps as meat-shields. Bodies to fall on the swords of their foes in place of the killer instead, so that they may continue their bloodshed unimpeded. Locus preferred that his ponies did not die...but he knew that since death would be an inevitability, the ones that die might as well be ones that were near-useless anyway. Locus decided then and there that he would not kill any further Recruits unless they had wronged him or insulted him in such a way so as to be deserving of death, and no longer from mere stupidity. Finally, even idiots have a place in his army now. ...but now there was another problem. Killing Recruits had also been his twisted little method of stress relief, but since he is now limiting himself on how many die by his hoof, he needed an alternate way to relieve his mind of the compounding tension from presiding over a group of ponies fully intent on conquering the whole of Equestria. Hey, nopony said it wouldn’t be a stress-free job. Lord Locus clopped his hooves together in a deafening boom that resounded throughout the mining structure. He had used this signal many times before to indicate an announcement, and the mine shaft, which had been bustling with activity prior to the boom, fell completely silent before Locus’s voice echoed throughout his lair. His voice was firm and demanding of attention. “Attention Recruits, Assassins, and Judicators. I request the presence of one of your burliest ponies from each group to convene within my throne room for a new...personal assignment. I need not explain the details, only the requirement. You have one hour to decide, so don’t keep me waiting. You all know how much I hate waiting.” Locus paused for a moment before speaking again, this time sounding bitter and carrying thinly-veiled hints of anger. “Oh, and if any of you are feeling like being a merry prankster and decide to send me a skinny-stick pony instead, I will personally skin half your group alive, within your own barracks. Do not disappoint me with any childish antics. That is all.” Locus clopped his hooves again to indicate his announcement had finished, and the dead-quiet mine shaft began to spring to life once again, as training, eating, and socializing resumed within mere moments. Locus snickered to himself. This personal assignment of his was not one to be taken lightly. After all, he needed a pony that knew how to take a hit...or a hundred. He was going to be the one delivering them anyway.