The train grind to a halt as it reached it’s destination.
The doors hissed open and Sunlight trotted out with the others. Sunlight looked around to noticed that they were now in Ponyville, far away from the siege of Canterlot.
Suddenly Sunlight was hugged tightly by someone. It was Twilight who seemed to be very worried for the halfling.
“Thank Celestia that you're alright!” Twilight pulled back to look at Sunlight better. “When we heard Canterlot was under attack we all waited to hear news about what happened.”
Sunlight looked down, looking like she would cry again. “Mom didn’t make it... She stayed behind to make sure we got out.”
“Oh Sunlight, I’m so sorry.” Twilight hugged Sunlight then let go of her, still having a hoof around her. “Come on, the rest of the girls are waiting for us.” And with that the party comprised of two princesses, two guards, a maid, and a unicorn teacher went to the library.
Canterlot Castle
Celestia groaned as she woke up, slowly but surely getting back up to her hooves. Her eyes weakly opened to see that she was in her own dungeon. She could hear the whimpers from other ponies that were captured during the assault. She hoped that Sunlight was not among them.
“It seems that you are fully conscious enough to join us.” She heard the voice speak to her and turned to look at the changeling who the voice belong to. It was General Chale of the changeling army that managed to seize canterlot. “How are you fairing Princess? After our men busted down the door, you suffered quite the little headache.”
“How did you control your queen like that?”
Chale’s smirked lessened. “Straight to the point I see.” He lifted up his gauntlet covered hoof to show the dark red crystal that laid in it. “This is the tool I used to seal your Kingdom’s demise.”
Celestia’s eyes widened and her mouth hung agape. “You fool, don’t you realize the kind of magic you're playing with?!”
“I do not care what it is. All I know is that it has the power I need to change the fate of my hive forever!” He looked at his gem and admired it. “You may call me simple minded for saying that, but this is what must be done for the changelings.” His eyes traced back to Celestia. She could already see the faintest of taints of corruption inside them. “I’m sure you understand what it means to do what must be done for the betterment of your ponies no matter the heavy price that choice comes with it.”
“I’ve seen everything I needed to," Celestia simply said, and sat down on the hard floor of the dungeon cell.
The general smirked. “Enjoy your slice of peace now, Princess, for it will be a very long time that you ever get it again.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Chale chuckled. “Why every changeling does what he or she does; to gain love to become stronger than ever before.” Chale chuckled again and shook his head. “But I suppose you need more than just the basic reasoning. Stay here for a while and I’ll tell you my personal reasoning for this attack.”
Changeling Hive, 20 years ago
(Key)
(This is Text-Chale telling the story)
(This is Text-flashback)
“My Queen, I urge you to rethink this strategy. The Princesses are bound to notice that you’re a fake.” It started a few days during The Queen’s plans to infiltrate your niece’s wedding and then attack from the inside. I had my concerns with the plan, thinking it would put every changeling at risk.
But the Queen just would not hear it. “I do not understand your concern, General. This plan is flawless in just about every way imaginable. Once I have the handsome sap under my hoof we’ll have the golden keys to Canterlot.”
“But my Queen, what if-”
“Are you questioning my judgement, General Chale?”
“Only that-” Before he could finish Chrysalis attacked him with a magical beam of light, burning one of his eyes. The general laid there on the ground holding his face and screaming in pain.
“Never question me again General, or you’ll face more pain than a burned eye.”
The general looked up at his queen and watched as she left, shifting into Cadence again and leaving the hive. “I knew from that day forward that she was never fit to guide our hive to our perfection. I had to do something or our race would have faced the most serious problem.” The general got up slowly and trotted weakly over to one of his queen’s desks. He opened the drawer and pulled out a rolled up letter.
It was the sealed letter of invitation to Shining Armor’s sister, Twilight Sparkle. Shining had given it to Chrysalis to check over and make sure everything was in order for it to be sent. With the green glow from his horn he sent the letter away to the address coded into the magical letter.
“Thanks to me, Princess, your prized student was able to sniff out Chrysalis and save the real Princess Cadence… Though if I am being completely honest with myself I regret that decision...”
“But that doesn’t explain how or where you got Dark Magic from.”
“I was getting to that part.”
Ponyville Library, Present
Sunlight was in the middle of a heated debate at the moment.
Rainbow Dash, Vanilla, and Luna were arguing that they should just storm the castle already and kick the changeling right out of town like last time. While Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were trying to explain to them why the plan wouldn’t work... more or else Rarity and Applejack. Fluttershy was just throwing in bits of her opinion and suggestions.
Sunlight and Twilight were standing in front of their bickering friends and it was all starting to get on Twilight’s nerves. Her horn started to glow.
“Alright, enough already!” She used her magic to separate the two groups. “Nothing is going to get done if we just sit here and squabble about what we are going to do.”
Dash flew over to Twilight. “It’s pretty obvious what we SHOULD be doing, Twilight. We should be going over there and kicking some major changeling flank right now.”
“Rainbow Dash does have a point. The longer we wait here the more time the changelings have to fortify themselves inside Canterlot.” Luna spoke up, trotting over to Twilight.
“No way we’re gonna just rush in all plum stupid like a filly who just got her cutie-mark.” Applejack started up again. “We got to be smart about this and not get ourselves caught.”
Rainbow Dash flew in face to face with the southern pony. “How do we know that you're not a changeling?”
“Wha- Why would ah be a changeling? Where did you get such a stupid idea like that?”
“You're trying to stop us from going to Canterlot and saving everypony there.”
“I’m saying that we should be smart about this!”
Pinkie Pie, hopping around like a Pinkie Pie should, pulled a shifty look around the whole room. “How do we know that ALL of us aren’t a shifty shifty bug?”
The girls started to look at one another. Even Luna was giving them all looks.
“Well... um... I know that I’m not a changeling... if that helps…” Fluttershy spoke up for the first time during the meeting.
Suddenly Rainbow went right into Fluttershy’s face. “How can we know for sure that you're NOT one?”
Fluttershy trotted backwards and eeped.
Twilight stamped her hoof to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, enough already!”
They all blinked at her.
“Pointing hooves at each other won’t help anything. What will help everyone is calm thinking.”
“Maybe you have a spell?” Sunlight brought up. “You know... to detect changelings in disguise.”
“Thats brilliant, Sunlight!” Twilight hugged her and started to look through her books. “Sunlight, can you help me look?”
Sunlight nodded and trotted over to Twilight’s side to help search for a book like Sunlight had described. Even Applejack joined the search while just about everyone else kept a close eye on each other.
Chale’s Story
Where I found this crystal of power was during the Queen’s so called “Banishment” and my hive’s lowest point…
Chale was patrolling the area around the Hive’s entrance. His mind burned with hatred that he held for the ponies of Canterlot and also for his own Queen! Her blunder nearly cost the life of his own people and the safety of their hive!
He also cursed himself out as well, seeing the blunder of his own ways when he sent that horrid letter. But he knew deep down that Chrysalis was the one with the most blame for this mess.
But before he could rant on this topic further there was a large crack of energy through the air, a highly visible energy, and the general could feel something of a high potency coming his way! With a slight check of his head he felt the object pass right over his head and crash somewhere in front of him.
He galloped over to where it landed and gasped at the sight of it. It was a single, curved gemstone inside a tree that glowed with an ominous purple shade. Chale slowly approached the odd gem and inspected it more. It merely looked like a Unicorn’s horn but twisted to fit a more darker image. Where the gem was submerged into the bark of the tree, tiny crystals with a grey shade to them started to grow on the surface of the tree. Chale had never seen anything like this before and did not know what it was truly capable of. It could have been a threat to his hive! He reached out to touch the thing but as soon as his hoof made contact with it, a devastatingly cold wave passed through his body and seemed to rest in every inch of himself. His vision slowly turned to black as he heard tiny whispers.
I was told that I was found later in a deep sleep. I awoke in the medical care and found the very same bracelet on my leg.
Canterlot Dungeons
“And that, Princess, is my story.” Chale finished.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “You truly are a bigger fool than I first thought, Chale.”
Chale banged on the cell door and sneered at her. “Shut your mouth. Be lucky I still let you live along side your precious subjects.” He leaned in closer. “Soon you will see how you are-... uh… I… Shut up!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow and tried to extend a hoof to Chale. “General?”
Chale backed away Celestia as if she was on fire! His breathing was irregular and his eyes were as wild as any wild animal Celestia had ever seen. “SHUT UP! ... I’m trying to listen! ... Mirror? What mirror?! GET OUT!” He ran off, still screaming his head off to things that were not there.
Celestia was now pitying the poor changeling…
Celestia’s room
Chale galloped in and slammed the doors behind him. He was currently using the
princess’s quarters as his own personal headquarters. He rubbed his face and looked
around, trying to find the source of all the voices he was hearing around him.
“What? What do you want!?”
“THE MIRROR! TO THE MIRROR!”
Chale looked around the room quickly, spotting a mirror and galloping to it. He tried to take a moment to himself to catch his breath, but the voices, the cold unyielding pain forced him to look into the mirror.
What he saw made his whole face turn pale and made him jump back in fear. In the mirror’s reflection he did not see the proud general… he saw a monster. It’s fur was an inky black and seemed to look like it was dripping off of it’s body and forming back on. It’s jaw was formed into a snake like grin that showed off a pair of monstrous fangs that could pierce the souls of brave colts and mares alike. The worst part was it’s EYES its discolored eyes the reeked of corruption. Purple smog came from them as it just looked and grinned at the frozen general.
“Hello General Chale, I thought it was high time you and I met face to face!” The
monster spoke to him through his mind.
“Wha-What are you?”
“Check your shadow recently?”
The General blinked at that and took one simple look at his shadow, and saw a form that was so unlike his. It looked to be that of a tyrant’s shadow.
“T-Thats not mine…”
“Thats right, it is my shadow! And very soon that will be my body!”
The general didn’t understand what this thing was telling him. “You're not making sense! What magic did that princess place on me!?”
“This is something you brought on yourself! Soon I will be whole once more thanks to you, General Chale! There are no elements or magic from the heart to stop me now! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The thing continued to laugh as the General looked at the mirror in total fear about what he had done this time to put his people in harms way once more.