A gentle acoustic guitar strummed soft notes through the air as Twilight Sparkle watched the Changeling immigrants hum along in perfect unison, all in the exact same tone, with the exact same voice…her own, actually.
“Ohhhhh!”
“Ohhhhh!”
“Ohhhhhhh!” Shinedown sang out as he began to strum a bit more passionately on the guitar, the light filtering gently down through the windows of Applejack’s barn as their group session continued.
“Soft summer light on gossamer wings, makes me forget so many things!”
“Like war and hate and basic badness, prejudice and deepest sadness!” Twilight and her “chorus” sang out together. “Because the summer’s so sublime, we can while away the time, the days get long, and long and long, and engage in joyous song!”
“Yes, summer light on gossamer wings, makes us forget so many things!” Squirt added with a faint imitation of APPLEJACK’s voice as she poked her head in, waving her hooves in the air for them to get up and move out of the way. “But most of all for Goodness sakes-”
KRAKKA-THROOOOOM!
CRAAASSSSHHH!
“Big Mac forgets his parking brakes.” Applejack finished wryly as the apple cart’s wheels spun uselessly, held up slightly in the air, having crashed into the opposite end of the barn as Big Mac nervously gulped, sweat pouring down his brow as everybody slowly pulled themselves out of the bales of hay they’d jumped into to escape being in the line of destruction. “How y’all doin’ today?”
“Today we’ll be talking about the Queen.” Twilight admitted. “You know-who?”
Applejack cringed. “Oh. Right. HER.” She murmured, Shinedown and Squirt glancing over at them and Twilight especially, who looked rather…pained…to discuss Chrysalis. “So she’s a half-breed?”
“If you’re going to be like that, you could argue ALL us Ghainham are so far from the original clan in how we “evolved”, we are all “half-breeds”.” One of the Keobijil Changelings murmured. “Our fur used to be much more…oily in tone, I’ll have you know. Looking more pony-esque than insectoid wasn’t our default.”
“I take it as a positive.” Applejack complimented as she trotted inside. “Your kind wantin’ to look more like ponies and wantin’ to perform shows you wanna be a part of our world. And we’re happy to let you in…long as you promise you ain’t keepin’ anybody down in the basement, stuck to a wall?” She added with a tilt of her hat, all the Changelings holding their hooves up.
“Cross our hearts and hope to die.” The eldest one there remarked.
“Evidently their Queen, Chrysalis, was the daughter of the Shadowland’s brightest and best military mind. By the law of succession they had, if the king went and the queen went, the immediate family would be in charge, and if Sombra and Luza had gone, Chrysalis would rule supreme.” Shinedown admitted. “Not that Sombra would have minded, at least at first. From everything they’ve told us, he LOVED how she did things.”
“Mister Lack of Subtlety went goo-goo over the Queen of Mean? The Lordette of Lies?” Applejack asked, frowning a bit, lips pursed as she snorted. “What they’d bond over?”
“Split-open head of a minotaur.” Shinedown cheerily remarked before cringing. “Wow, when I say that, it DOES sound bad!”
…
…
…
…a gentle acoustic guitar strummed soft notes through the air as the ponytailed young Changeling girl sat across the fire with Sombra as he hummed perfectly in tune. Queen Chrysalis bobbed her head back and forth, waving a hoof in the air as Sombra kept strumming, the fire flickering little embers above them as Chrysalis listened to Sombra’s deep voice.
“Changelings are better than griffons…Chrissy, now isn’t this true?
“Of course it is so, but we SMELL worse you know, except for your family and you!” Chrysalis sang wistfully back, Sombra laughing slightly as she waved a hoof in front of her nose, then cleared her throat and sang out her OWN lyrics. “Sunghbohn are better than Ghainham…Sommy, don’t you think I’m right?
“Ghainham will cheat you and beat you and eat you! You got me, let’s call it a niiiight! And don’t worry, I never biiite! Sombra added, snapping at the air with his teeth before he and “Chrissy” began giggling madly, falling flat on their back and howling with laughter before slowly settling down, looking up at the starry night skies above, sighing a bit. “We used to do this all the time before the War Games with Manechuria started…and the ones with the Griffon Kingdom too…and now they’ll be new ones with the Minotaurs and Isla Regina.”
“Sometimes I wish we too could have crazy-long childhoods.” Chrysalis sighed. “No threat of war hovering over our family’s heads…” She cringed a bit, quickly sitting up and flinching. “Dad’ll kill me if we screw this up.”
“When we get back, they’re gonna be amazed at how much we’ve done.” Sombra insisted happily, putting the guitar down and clapping his hooves together, beaming over at Chrissy. “We do this, we’ll nip it in the bud, really.” He added with a nod to the side, smiling broadly. “Let’s go set up the traps…”
“Yes, they’ll be here in about ten minutes.” Chrysalis admitted as she looked off in the direction of the north. Sombra had hypnotized the captured minotaur he’d had and ordered him to warn them that they needed to find a different encampment, a large platoon of Lord Seoul’s troops were on their way. And that hypnotized idiot was going to lead them right into a trap. THEIR trap.
It was time to get ready…
…
…
…
…the moon was rising higher in the night sky as the clouds began to roll in, more and more of the pale light becoming obscured by velvet cloaks of clouds. The forest’s shadows began to elongate, stretching and bulging unnervingly in the twisted lighting around the minotaur party as each one of the two dozen minotaur cringed, readying their thick axes, double-handed blades and hammers, their leader flanked by several longbowmen as he glanced left and right, a gold stud embedded in his nostrils as they flared and he tasted the air.
“…there are Changelings youngers close. I can smell them.” He murmured out, waving a hand in the air. “Spread out. Fifty feet, no more, no less. Eyes peeled, ears open, and remember…they’re changelings. We discussed this when we came to this country: everyone remembers the passwords and they won’t be able to trick us.” Their leader insisted as one of the longbowmen bit his lip in a nervous shudder, his voice rising up.
“Sven, sir, uh…it’s ust…what if they got the passwords from Delmar?”
“You and I BOTH know not even TORTURE would do it, Beri.” Sven insisted proudly. “We’ve all taken that oath.”
KRAKKA-THROOOM!
Lightning split the skies above as all of them glanced at each other, halting in place for a few moments. “…it’s going to storm soon. If there ARE young changelings out here, it’ll be hard to track them by their scents…” Beri gulped out. “…and it’s getting darker and darker…”
“We’ll make this fast, then.” Sven reasoned before another lightning crack filled the sky and they saw a figure off in the distance, slightly hiding behind a tree, Sven grinning proudly. “THERE he is. GET him!” He yelled out, Beri drawing his longbow, an arrow shooting through the air, clipping the figure, bringing it down. “Got ‘em! Hansel, Ford, check the body. If we’re lucky, we can get some information out of them as prisoners.”
Hansel and Ford ran towards the fallen form before there came a loud crashing, KRAKKA-KRAK noise, and Ford let out a scream…a scream that was quickly silenced by a loud THUNK, the other minotaurs surprised by this before a swift and small volley of arrows shot through the air, one embedding in the skull of a minotaur, a squelchy, meaty THA-THLUK sound echoing out through the forest as he fell dead to the forest floor.
“What the?!” Sven growled out, Beri firing off his longbow as he crouched down, hiding behind several bushes, firing in the direction of the figure as it seemed to rise up anew, several other minotaurs launching off tomahawks in the direction of the figure with angry war howls before lightning flashed again…
Brighter…longer…
Revealing it was just a big dummy. Sticks wrapped together in blankets and logs to make a thing that LOOKED like a young changeling.
“It’s a damned SCARECROW!” One of the minotaurs snarled out, Sven furiously standing up, glaring at his fellow men as another volley of arrows shot forth, the minotaurs ducking and diving to avoid them, glaring in the direction they’d come from, one of them twirling an enormous hammer.
“You SONS OF!” He screamed out, barreling through the forest in the direction the arrows had come from, snarling and hissing…
Before a loud THUNKA-THUD, then a KRAK noise rang through the air, Sven’s eyes narrowing. “They’re out of arrows. Ford and Hansel didn’t carry any more than that…let’s get them.”
“They mighta made more!” Beri whimpered piteously as he cringed, Sven frowning at him.
“No. Because that thing that just killed Lars didn’t sound like an ARROW, now did it?” Sven hissed out. “Everyone listen. Skirmish line, forty feet apart.” He murmured softly, all of them inching through the dark depths of the forest, faint mist rising from the forest floor as they clutched their weapons. Owl calls echoed through the woods, lightning momentarily illuminating the woods as they climbed over fallen trees and past ferns and bushes, all of them on the edge, unwilling to admit just how frightened they truly were.
Sven glanced left and right before inching underneath a large fallen tree, readying his double-handed sword, taking a few cautious steps forward, eyes peeled for any sign of any changeling children. Beri readied the knives he’d brought with him, inching around another tree, panting slightly, biting his lip as he slunk by some ferns…
…one of which wasn’t actually a fern.
“Nice knife.” Chrysalis whispered huskily into his ear, pinning him to the tree with one hoof, the other ripping the knife from his hands, slamming it into his chest. He howled in agony, Chrysalis stabbing him again, this time in the lungs, the blade sliding in smoothly, silencing his cries as the other minotaurs flinched, cringing in fear and terror as they raced towards where he was…
One of them ran by a half-blown-off tree…unaware of the form that was hiding atop it, it’s eyes peering down, faintly glowing…that is, until it was too late, and it was upon him, Sombra’s fangs going for his throat, tearing through flesh and bone with big, meaty bites.
“AAA! AAA-”
One of the others took off running towards the crying, growling angrily, his friend joining him as they saw Sombra glaring in their direction, his muzzle matted with blood as his eyes blazed. “You’re OURS now!” The first one hissed, drawing an enormous hammer, the other readying an axe…
As they ran right into a trip wire, large spikes whipping out from the tree they’d been attached to, the sharpened staves slamming into the minotaur’s legs. With a howling wail they fell to the ground, crippled on the spot, Sombra trotting over to them, putting one hoof on the first one’s head. “No. You’re MINE.” He whispered. “Be lucky YOU…get to live.”
Sven cringed, looking left and right, every single one of his men were being picked off. He heard a THUNKA-THUD, one of his fellow minotaur’s bodies falling from atop a large tree above, seeing Chrysalis above in the tree. He snarled, holding his sword up, swinging it at the tree, cutting it down as Chrysalis leapt from tree to tree, cackling madly as she mockingly waved at him. “Oh come now, bull! You’ve got to do better than that if you’d like to catch me! Could you be any more slow at what you’re doing?” She asked. “Do I have to wave a red flag in front of you-no, no, I’ve got it.”
She reached into a pouch, pulling out what appeared to be a bloodied piece of meat, smirking a bit as she sat atop a tree limb. “One of your lieutenants. This is his trachea. He’s not going to need it anymore.”
“KILL YOU!” Sven snarled, leaping up at her…only for a tomahawk to slam into the back of his neck, making him slump to the ground as he heard soft, careful footsteps trotting towards him. He couldn’t move his head, all he could do was lie there, his heart thumping in his ears, cold ice spreading from the back of his neck before he felt it be yanked out and heard Sombra’s dark voice.
“The Shadowlands…are Changeling territory. You minotaurs should have stayed home. Now…you pay the price for your arrogance.” Sombra growled out, Sven managing to get out a cold smirk at him, Chrysalis hopping down to join Sombra’s side as he glared at the minotaur. “What’s so funny? We’ve captured more of your men, they’ll tell me everything I could want to know about your species’s upcoming battle plans.”
“We operate in CELLS. We’re only concerned with how we do things. We don’t really know what other groups pull off…except for the Assassination Squad we sent to the capital.”
“I dealt with them.”
“No, you dealt with the fake one. The real one’s still there. We sent a fake one after your family to draw attention away from the real threat…and look at you. Your father’s two best warriors are wasting time out here when you should be back home. We watched you leave the city through your secret entrance, sneaking out with her…you gave us everything we needed to get in.” Sven remarked calmly, a horrible chill now rising in SOMBRA’s body as he stammered.
“Th-there were…two? You…you LET me track the other group? You…you’re sacrifices to distract…?”
“The transient joys are the sweetest.” Sven sighed wistfully, Sombra’s stunned, horrified face turning foul and deadly as he raised the tomahawk he’d taken higher, higher. “Just ask your fellow insects.”
Sombra brought it down.
…
…
…
…the city was burning.
Minotaurs swept through the streets, taking on the armed forces of the capital as Chrysalis and Sombra barreled towards the palace, smacking and striking aside everyone in their path. The air was hot and heavy, it burned your lungs as smoke billowed up from broken-into homes, the dead and slowly dying bleeding on the streets. The minotaurs were not pulling any punches. This was definitely an all-out assault. Everything placed on this attack, and they’d put all their men to directly attack the capital…and it was working, as the cries of hundreds of Changelings told the two.
“I gotta find Luza and my parents!” Sombra yelled in a panicked tone, sweat dripping down his brow as Chrysalis nodded in agreement.
“I’ve gotta find MY dad too! We’ll split up, look for our parents, meet back at your home, alright?” She called out, leaping over a burning apple car, sailing through the air, green hair flying as she landed atop a shattered rampart. Sombra nodded at her as she slunk over to the other side and he raced off for the center of the capital, which was the hardest hit, given the enormous, thick black plumes of smoke rising into the air.
“I want to DIIIIE!”
“HELP ME!”
“SOMEBODY!”
“AAAAA!”
Sombra was trying to ignore their screams.
…he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Every new cry or wail brought a new, horrid punch to his gut as he cringed and flinched, making his way closer and closer to the capital, the foul smell of the dead hitting his nostrils, strong and hard. Salty-iron…the smell of blood.
There were blown and ripped-apart changeling carcasses strewn left and right, along with a few Minotaurs…all of whom had CIRCLETS on their heads…or rather, what remained of their heads. Magicians.
“MAGICIANS?!” Sombra gaped in surprise and horror, his eyes narrowing a bit. “How? Their culture’s about PHYSICAL strength, not…is our intel on them so outdated-oh, of COURSE it is, minotaur magicians are blowing up my capital!” He moaned. “But Lady Luna’s mane, please let them be alright…” He whispered softly, biting his lip as he slammed through the double-doors leading to the palace courtyard that connected it to the rest of the city.
There. Up in one of the windows. He could see Luza. She was banging on the head of a magician with her hooves, her lower body wrapped around him as her mother and father’s voices rang out, yelling and snarling in battle cries. Sombra raced for the nearest tree, focusing his unicorn powers as he hovered up to it’s topmost branches, shooting across it’s limbs as he leapt at the window, Luza seeing her brother and beaming with pride.
“KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY SISTER!” Sombra roared out, slamming into the minotaur as Luza leapt off, his mother and father turning, smiling in pride as Sombra slammed his horn through the minotaur’s neck, a splurting, BLURGHK of a sound rising up from it’s throat as he wheeled around, turning on the remaining minotaurs and focusing his powers as Luza hopped on top of him, nuzzling his neck and clinging tightly as he and his father combined their might.
SHAKKA-THROOM! Their combined blasts sent the minotaurs flying through the walls, shattering into pieces, fleshy bites flying across like somebody had stuck explosives in their every opening. Sombra breathed a sigh of relief, embracing his mother and father. “I was so worried…” He murmured quietly, the family looking out the window at the courtyard, his guards rallying together, driving back a squadron of minotaur attackers. “They tricked me, they got me and Chrysalis to follow-”
“Now is not the time to reflect on failure, but to act to PREVENT failure.” His mother insisted with a calm nod. “We’ve got to take the city back, they’ve brought in archers and magicians as well as normal soldiers, everyone needs to get to the armory. We were on our way there when this assassination squad-”
Unfortunately she didn’t get to finish that, because one of the minotaurs in the platoon who were trying to fight back had rotten, ROTTEN aim. He fired his bow off desperately in the changeling guard’s direction…
The arrow shooting off wildly…piercing through his father’s head.
For a few moments, all of time seemed to have frozen still. His father didn’t even look hurt…until tiny rivers of blood began to spill down his forehead and he slowly turned to look at his family, looking more like he’d had his blocks knocked over than “I’ve been shot in the head”.
“…oh.” He managed to get out.
And that was the last thing he ever said, his form collapsing in a crumpled heap…
Sombra following soon after, unable to bear the strain, body and mind and soul simply too taxed to handle it anymore.