//------------------------------// // FOTC: Chapter 11 - The journey begins // Story: Fall of the Changelings // by Dream Whisper //------------------------------// Once again Twilight regretted not having allowed Spike to come along. There were several reasons that had spoken against him coming along, most prominent being the dangerous situation they would find themselves in. It’s not like he hadn’t been in dangerous situations before, but if something would happen to him, could she live with that? Now, she felt nothing but the searing pain of regret as Spike would have been a wonderful help in organizing this journey. While she had been able to finally assemble everything, the lack of her companion had eaten at her the whole time. Maybe it was more than just the organization… Maybe his grounded way was more important to her than she had ever recognized. Now she was standing in the middle of the road, left alone by all her friends who had turned against her again and again. Their oblivious minds would be their demise if she could not help them… but how could she actually help them see the danger they were throwing themselves into? To openly accuse the changeling would bring nothing but further disapproval, so she would have to somehow get him to show his true self before it would be too late for them. A trap! There had to be a way to lure him into giving away his secrets, but what could it be? “Twilight?” As she heard the soft spoken words, Twilight turned around to see that Fluttershy had come back. Since everypony was finally here again, they could finally start their journey. Rainbow Dash and the thing had flown ahead to scout their path since there had not really been anything else for them to do after they had finished their training. Well, the ‘scouting’ was probably just a different word for training in this case. That would only leave the location of Rarity unknown as Applejack had challenged Pinkie Pie to a game of cards. For hours on end they have both been sitting in the same tavern, trying to defeat each other. The last time she had checked, it had been 25 to 34 for Pinkie and Applejack had asked for a rematch. “Fluttershy, can you get Applejack and Pinkie Pie? I’ll go see if I can find Rarity.” Without giving Fluttershy the time to speak up, Twilight turned around to find Rarity somewhere in this village. It shouldn’t be too hard to find her somewhere on these sandy streets, jammed between the rusty old houses. She was still not sure what kind of city Rarity had expected, but this would have probably not met those expectations. It was, like most villages around here, a random assembly of wooden barns and small market stands than anything that could be considered a proper city. Twilight started to arbitrarily trott throughout the streets, crossing to the right or left from time to time. Before she had reached the fifth corner, she had already found Rarity talking to another pony in a small market stand. Only when getting a bit closer had she realized that, somehow, Rarity had found another ‘fashionista’. The stand was tiny and the dresses were randomly strewn throughout it, yet Rarity seemed to be quite interested in the style of them. And to be quite honest, Twilight could see where she was coming from. These oriental designs were really a wonderful sight, but it was not what she had come here for. “Rarity, we want to head off now!” The tone in of her voice conveyed the sense of urgency, or at least she hoped that it was conveyed correctly. Rarity at first didn’t seem to be bothered, but after Twilight repeated herself, now in a much angrier tone, the mare finally complied and turned away from the small stand. When Rarity walked by her, the disappointment was obvious in her eyes: “Couldn’t you have left me just one more minute? She was about to reveal the technique to those wonderful designs!” “It was your own decision to come with me. Now you’ll have to bear the consequences.” With a bit of muttering, Rarity complied and started trotting alongside Twilight towards the stack of supplies the librarian had assembled before. In the meanwhile, Fluttershy had somehow managed to get Applejack and Pinkie Pie to end their game and come out as well. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t need to be informed as she had probably kept an eye out for the village the whole time. The amount of time that the Changeling spent with Rainbow Dash was in fact slightly worrying, but on the one hoof that meant that he wasn’t spending time in her proximity, and on the other hoof Rainbow Dash has proven her loyalty often enough and even a sly Changeling wouldn’t be able to change anything about it. But just to be sure she would keep an eye out for her unsuspecting friend… “It’s impossible!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, almost too loudly. It was nothing unexpected to hear the pegasus call out like that, since the situation really seemed hopeless. The towering castle throned up high above the long decline in front of it, watching out for anypony or anything to approach. The landscape gave them nothing to work with, no place to hide behind. It seemed really impossible to somehow sneak into the castle unseen, yet it was no reason to give up their hope. While on this side of the castle there was just the plain open. On the other side were thousands of boulders and steep cliffs, spikes and strange deformed parts of landscape that had seemed like the idea of a storm that an ingenious engraver had depicted. It would surely be a rough and a dangerous climb, but they would be rewarded with an unseen entry to the castle. Although Ethereal Tear still did not like the idea to take such a dangerous path when the sky above them was open, it still made sense after all. “It would indeed be impossible to just straight up rush towards their hideout,” he carefully placed his personal pronouns knowing that the purple alicorn was still staring at him “but there is another way we could take. Before you consider it though, I must warn you: The path is dangerous and steep, yet unseen from most castle windows and definitely not patrolled.” “Yeah, and you said it was a bad idea to take him with us!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, already having decided they would take the dangerous route in her head. While most of what he had said had been nothing but the truth, one word was painfully a lie: Definitely. It was nothing more than a wild guess that the backside of the castle was unpatrolled. He had never seen somepo-... someling walk towards these parts, and it seemed as if no pony ever talked about them either. His logical conclusion had been the abandonment of those parts, but what if there had been something different? Well, either possible way would result in either being caught or not. The one was easy but would lead to definite discovery, while the other one was extremely difficult but would have decreased chances of being found, especially since one could hide behind the strange formations. Now that he thought about it, they kinda reminded him of the holes in the legs of the Changelings, almost as if nature had copied the design from them... Or maybe the other way around? “Then what are we waitin’ for? Let’s go. Yehaa!” It had been the farming pony yelling a bit too loudly for his taste but he had heard worse. Old Mrs. Winneehbee had always screamed at anypony crossing “her” street. A demented old lady, whom time had taken the talent of logical thought from. Often her words were general mumbling, sometimes she screamed for no reason, but never ever did she answer a question given to her. Her reactions generally had been slow and even though it always had pained him to talk about such a topic like this: She was probably going to die very… She was already dead… Like his wife and son. Even though the pain had not lost a bit of strength, he tried as hard as he could to not give a single tear a chance to escape as it would only lead to more pain explaining his company why a Changeling randomly started to tear up. Yet he could not stop the memories rushing through his brain, the light laughter of his wife came out of some distant world, trying to remind him of what he had had… and what he had lost. To ignore his memories was incredibly hard but there was a task at hand that had to be completed, there were ponies staring at him. “Why don’t we simply send the Changeling? I mean, it could get into the castle without being noticed…” Of course it had been the purple alicorn, who else could it have been? Always complaining and relentlessly whining about every little detail. “Well, excuse me princess, but Changelings know themselves well enough to notice an intruder like me and they would not appreciate my sudden appearance.” Again, partially a lie since they would probably appreciate my appearance, just sadly in a manner that would not allow him to leave again. A rather strange escape, now that he thought about it again… It really had been too easy. The purple unicorn just groaned and without even trying to converse, she simply started to trot through this far end of the valley where there were still enough boulders in addition to the distance to make it hard, if not impossible, to be spied upon. Quickly, they started to follow the annoyed mare through shadows and stone sculptures. While the front of the castle had a gently declining slope, the back of it revealed a mixture of broken boulders and bizarre formations on an incredibly steep slope. Interestingly enough, the color also changed from the greyish black to a paler white. One could only guess that it was a result of missing dragonfire… For minutes there was no sound except the continuous clapping of hooves onto the dark surface below them and the occasional stone being sent on a journey further down the hill. Only when the steep cliff on the backside of the castle came in sight, a sudden discussion was ignited. “We can’t climb up there! This was all for nothing!” the purple alicorn complained once again. And once again it were her friends, not Ethereal, being annoyed by the constant demonstration of complaint. Although it really was nerve-racking at times, mostly he didn’t mind or he could even understand her distrust as he would have distrusted himself just a couple of month… a long time ago. For some reason he suddenly felt sorry for her and the more he thought about it, the worse it got. Everything seemed to fade away except for the nagging feeling of regret and pain. He looked up again, away from the black ground below and right into the purple eyes staring at him in this very moment. This anger… It wasn’t just her… “Twilight, I am sorry.” In the instance of a single second, he had ten more eyes staring at him, questioning faces and an incredibly confused Alicorn. “I am sorry for everything. I have come into your life and all I have done is threatening your friends lives whether by intention or rather by accident. Still, they have given me a chance, a sign of such forgiveness I could have never hoped for. You however were much more cautious to protect your friends from whatever harm might have come from me. I understand that. Yet, I am the reason why your anger grows, a corruptive splint in your friendship. However, I cannot change anything about who I am or what I look like. Please just accept my apology… and accept me.” Beyond her pupils was the coming night, the sun in its dusk, the brightly colored clouds, colored in memories of the wonderful days together with her friends. Slowly, her lids closed, sealing away that world of wonders, just to then reveal the fire that could not be extinguished by such puny merits. The fire that burned down so deeply in her heart, ignited by the fear to lose what she held dearest. “You described yourself very well, corruptive splint. You are trying to rip everything apart, aren’t you?! And then you are playing dumb, you are PLAYING them all, you are trying so HARD to fool us. They might be BLIND towards your facade, but I AM NOT.” She looked up into the sky for a second, then brought her piercing gate down to him and added: “I hate you.” It wasn’t the kind of ‘I hate you’ that one threw out there in anger, it was much much more painful than that. Even though - or maybe just because - he had tried to stop it, her hatred had started to consume her very core. Suddenly he realized something: It had not been his fault, nor had it been hers. It was the strength of their friendship that would have forced anypony into a fear of losing it. To cling to the most wonderful thing that had probably happened to their life would be natural to anypony - especially after what he had heard about Twilight’s past from Rainbow Dash, he was sure that her friends meant everything to her. The idea of losing what defined you was more threatening than anything else. And once again he was here, analysing their lives, almost like an outside visitor. It wasn’t a feeling of distance, much rather an absence of feelings. ‘Cold and Hard’ were the words that he found most fittingly, not only for his own state but also for the entire situation they found themselves in. Looking up at the steep wall, he found that another word could be added: ‘Dangerous’. For some reason, he felt like he had lost control over his emotions, but there had never been any to begin with. There was a question slowly growing in the back of his mind: Was he still himself? Who or what was he? There was no simple answer anymore. How could he know that he was still himself and was not somepony different? He didn’t look like himself anymore, he didn’t feel like himself anymore and he had forgotten so much about his past, almost as if he had never really lived it. Was he still himself? “I hate you”. It was a mere whisper that came from her friend’s mouth and yet it could not have been screamed louder. Fluttershy had never before seen Twilight as hateful as the mare had grown now. The Changeling in the meanwhile seemed to be struck by a sudden numbness, staring into the black distance. This land seemed so sadly dead, and even though she knew there was life - she even had some in her bag - it still saddened her to see such devastation. She wasn’t sure whether it had been brought by the Changelings devouring much more than could be sustained, by the dragons spreading fire throughout the lands or simply by the climate, a hot sun burning down relentlessly. However, Fluttershy knew best that even though the condition seemed so horrifically dark, there was still more than the eye could see, life hiding beneath the black blanket settled over the land. One proof was right there in her bag, deeply asleep. When Fluttershy looked up again, Rainbow Dash had already started climbing wordlessly. After a couple of steps, the pegasus turned around, her eyes calling for them to follow her. Only slowly Fluttershy’s hooves complied her command to start trotting. While her friends were still more reluctant towards that idea, soon they also followed her and Dash’s example. Soon they all found themselves trying to find spots for their hooves to properly stand on, even Twilight. It struck Fluttershy that Twilight didn’t just teleport ahead, maybe in the fear of being discovered. The more she thought about it though, the more certain she got that it was actually the solidarity she displayed towards them. She wanted to thank Twilight, but she wasn’t sure if her voice would reach the alicorn down below; and if it would it would be too loud, too dangerous, bringing them all into trouble that she wanted to avoid. Even though she hated to admit it, the silence hung over them like a thick asphyxiant blanket, drowning out all happiness. Fluttershy, even though she didn’t allow herself to even think about it, could feel the searing pain of knowing that their friendship was slowly dying beneath it. She would have screamed out in the pain of knowledge if it was not choking her too. The deep depression was stealing her words, sealing them away beyond the darkness. “Hey, Fluttershy, are you alright?” Fluttershy looked up again, and was shocked to find a giant creature of darkness right before her. It took her less than a second to realize that it was just Rainbow Dash hovering before her, but her sudden expression of shock seemed to have gone unnoticed, or maybe just ignored. “Ermm… I think I am. I mean, it’s dark and cold here and all and I hope you don’t think I would feel good when you don’t so you think something is wrong with you.” Without even noticing, Fluttershy’s voice had declined to a mere whisper, impossible to hear over the sharp wind gliding through the rocky formations. Rainbow Dash had obviously dismissed the idea of climbing at the first sign of somepony needing her help. “What was that?” “Nothing.” Fluttershy looked back sadly and Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but without saying anything she shut it again and flew back to her position, up hundreds of hooves further. Suddenly Fluttershy’s mind got swept by a sudden wave of terrible thoughts. Should she have said something? Should she have spoken about the feelings she had or was it more cautious to have said nothing? Had her answer hurt Rainbow Dash’s trust in her honesty? “Come on, Fluttershy, we don’t have all day.” Again, Fluttershy was slightly startled by the loud call, but when she looked up she realized why she had been called. While most of her friends were already close to the edge of the steep mountainside, she was still only a third of the way up. Slowly and steadily she increased the tempo of her steps, their stomps the only sound now that the direction of the wind had tilted just a bit. It was a rather difficult task climbing up through the spike-filled deathtrap of a cliff. More than one time, her hoof slipped, but before the rainbow colored pegasus could dash down to her, she quickly found grip again. Fluttershy winced when she looked up to find the next spot to place her forehoof on, the image of the giant castle towering darkly over her. The castle itself was white in color, but the shadows playing around the thick black overgrowth made it a sinister play of grey and black. Were they really going to infiltrate the nest of the Changelings? Suddenly Fluttershy felt the urge to gallop back as quickly as possible, but she had learned long ago to control her fears in any kind of danger. Now she had to be strong, not for herself, but instead for her friends. Without letting further time pass, Fluttershy quickly placed her hoof on a suitable spot. Twilight was furious, not because of the Changeling this time, though. This time it was the fear of being discovered that slowly gnawed away at her nerves. They were standing right next to the thick wall, impossible to be discovered. Fluttershy, however, was still making her last steps. The clumsy mare had somehow managed to require more than double the time everypony else had needed. More than one time the pegasus had stiffened, becoming an unmoving statue. It almost seemed like the Changeling had somehow managed to infect her, causing her to falter again and again. The little flame down deep in her heart yearned for redemption, but her friends were protecting her from burning down. She knew it would be unwise to openly accuse the Changeling again as long as her friends were in proximity. Furthermore there were a lot of other things to do, not implying that they would be more important than saving her friends from their own naivety. Her nights were still filled with the strange image of the red amulet, haunting her dreams and causing searing pain as it started to glow. The nights had been too short and too filled with sweat to really get the rest she had needed. Her body was now slowly taking its toll, causing her legs to tremble under her own weight. Finally the yellow pegasus took a last leap, being carried by the helping hoof of Rainbow Dash. Now her full attention had to go towards keeping them all safe while they would dive through the lion’s den. Once again, Twilight’s mind was plagued by the fear of having done something wrong. What if it had been a bad idea to take her friends with her? She needed them, but could she survive seeing her friends captured or hurt? No, and that is why she should most definitely have everything prepared. The idea was infiltrating the lower floors and exploring the castle as the Changelings were situated mostly in the upper floors. From down there, she would also try to use a certain item-searching spell. She had used it before for finding certain books by their magical signature, but she had given up enchanting every book in an own magical aura because it had only resulted in a giant cacophony of auras making it impossible to single one out. The castle would be different though; Although the dream had given her a general idea of the magical composition of the amulet’s aura, it would still require either hours of concentration, which would be hard to get right in the hornet’s nest, or a very close proximity to the amulet’s influence. The magical aura decreases with the inverse of the square of the distance between the pony sensing it and the source. She had actually conducted some very interesting experiments about that matter earlier in her youth. “Sooooo, Twilight?” When Twilight looked around in confusion, it took her a second to realize that the rainbow colored pegasus who had just spoken to her was floating slightly above the ground. “What is it, Rainbow Dash?” Now the pegasus rolled her purple eyes, obviously annoyed by her question. “How are we going to get in?” “Well, there has to be a door somewhere.” Now the rainbow colored mare just groaned out loudly. “There is a door. A giant wooden gate with huge metal knobs and everything!” Now it was Twilight’s turn to moan. “Then, why is there a problem?” “It’s locked!” “Oh well, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. Being a princess brings a lot of duties, but I still take my time to learn new spells. It is indeed a very delicate work of levitation art to exactly shift multiple objects at once, but nothing in comparison to teleporting or time travel.” Twilight felt her face transforming into a childish grin and she quickly exchanged it for a cold smile. It wasn’t the time to have fun, this was a serious adventure and life and death could depend on her every move. “Yeah, yeah. We all know you are great, but please get on with it.” At first Twilight was a bit shocked at that harsh answer. Of course her answer had been a bit… overextensive, but this? This was definitely the Changeling’s corrupt influence. The way they look at her, the way they talk, all of them are infected. “Whoa there, nelly. If you ain’t got nothin’ nice to say, just say nothin’.” The rainbow mare grumpily dropped back onto the cold black ground, while Twilight went ahead to find the wretched gate. It wasn’t more than five steps until she reached the giant wooden door, covered with metal platings to keep it safe, even against greater force. It was obvious that the path that had once lead to it was now nothing but rubble down in the valley. The entire hill seemed to be filled with thousands of holes, causing her mind to conjure pictures of a giant mosquito sucking out the stone from underneath until this side had lost the power to support itself. A shattered, dead landscape; Just the right place for such abominations. The door was actually quite hard to unlock, or maybe she had just not had enough training in the last weeks. The different pins often were too rusty to be moved delicately. Either the applied force was too low to move it at all or she applied too much force and the pin shot far over it’s goal. The whole thing was made worse by her blocked view. It actually took her about a minute of absolute undisturbed concentration, until, with a rumbling click, the door slowly opened.