//------------------------------// // Crimson battle // Story: Past Secrets // by BloodHive1998 //------------------------------// Twilight's horn lit up and Midnight found her self in her room. "Get your armor on, take as long as you need!" Twilight yelled over the Localized Hivemind. Midnight Locus only nodded as she ran over to her main armor and opened the wing panels, sliding the body armor over herself before bringing her wings through the panels and closing them, leaving only a small ring of exposed chitin around the base; tied her tail with a silver band, like the one she had used before; straightened out her mane while bringing it through the helmet; ensured the helmet went over her horn properly; and slipped on the hoof-shoes. Next she grabbed the, bat-pony based, wing blades off the weapons wall and put them on, watching as the five back blades snapped out of their hiding place and over two of the 'fingers' of her wing with the other three coming out between the first two and between the outer parts of the wing and the first two, she folded her wings back up after getting them on; next were the hoof-claws, after grabbing them, she used her magic to put the claws on the small pegs on either side of both her front hoof-shoes, once they were on, she put the small purple eight-pointed stars that acted as the holds for the claws on and snapped the claws up, thus having them stay at the sides of her hoofs and not in attacking position. After that, Midnight sat down. She greatly wished to help her friends, and by extension, the Group Hive she had created with them, however, she wasn't a warrior, she had only ever been a nurser or infiltrator. Another factor was that the hive attacking was her former hive and, even though she didn't like them that much, she still felt like she was a small part of it. A final question was weather or not she'd actually be able to bring herself to fight. "Midnight... what's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked. "S-sorry, I'm... just not sure I'll be able to fight them." Midnight admitted. "all-right." Midnight walked over to her window and watched the battle playing out bellow. Crimson Hive Changelings darted from left to right as they attacked the Rainbow Guard and Midnight's friends. In the air, several Pegasi and an unidentified blur of white could be seen attacking airborne changelings. Midnight could see that even a few Changelings were among the guard, each one without an altered color scheme. Midnight's wondering eyes suddenly fell on the white blur, which had stopped and was revealed to be Aurora in white Pegasus armor, seeing her made Midnight's mind up. Aurora Light was giggling like the filly she was as she dodged Changeling after Changeling. As one of the Changelings closed in on her, Aurora sliced his gut open with the sword that the filly had in her mouth. After another two Changelings fell to her sword, one managed to grab it with her magic and pull it out of the fillies grasp. "Hey no fair, you used magic!" Aurora yelled as storm clouds began forming around her. Before Aurora could strike down the cheating Changeling though, it stopped flying and fell in two pieces, followed closely by three more. Midnight flew over to Aurora and hoofed her back her sword, revealing her hoof-claws to be extended. Aurora took the sword and flew off as Midnight spun around and slashed open another Changeling. "Hey, good move!" Twilight said aloud from nearby, she had a bit of a seductiveness to her voice. Midnight spun around and cut apart another changeling before facing the Alicorn. "You've got three things wrong. First, Twilight doesn't have six smaller stars on her cutie mark, second, she doesn't talk to me like that, and third, I can feel Twilight's exact location." Midnight said without even blinking at the Changeling. The Changeling didn't have so much as enough time to drop her disguise before Midnight had cut through her and hovered a few feet away. Midnight launched herself into the swarm as she started cutting open Changelings in her path. Midnight wasn't entirely sure about why, but she was most violent towards the Changelings that impersonated Twilight. She also wasn't sure why seeing Aurora being attacked had ended with her going into battle, though she was pretty sure it involved the fact that Aurora was her niece. At the other end of the Kingdom, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were easily fending off the Changelings attacking them. By this time, Twilight's anger had reached its max. Her wings, mane, and tail had all become fire and stayed in their original forms with thin trails of flames flowing off them; the pupils and irises of her eyes had merged into a single glowing blood-red form; her coat had turned tan; her teeth had become far sharper; her magic had become orange; and her cutie-mark's color scheme had changed, the main star had turned red and the rest had become the same purple as the main star once was. Rainbow Sliced apart another Changeling as Twilight drove a sword through a different one's chest. "These bugs better not harm Midnight, or I'll rip their queen to bits." Twilight said, her voice having a sound of crackling fire mixed in with it. "Oh does somepony have a little crush?" Rainbow mocked as she stabbed another Changeling. "No!" Twilight said in a voice that had now gained a bit of a demonic tone, though she was blushing. Twilight spun around and sent out a wave of flames then, incinerating several Changelings. Rainbow glanced at the Kingdom-turned-battlefield, it had mostly been covered in the blood of Changelings, but now there were only a hoof-full remaining. Scootloo jumped off her scooter as she brought her sword through another Changeling before landing back on the scooter and riding to where Rainbow Dash and the others had met up. It took her a bit to recognize them though because of all the inverted-rainbow blood that covered each of them. "What about them?" she asked as she motioned towards the large mass of Changelings that had gathered into a tight sphere. "Hive Sphere Tactic, they're protecting Queen Black Wing." Midnight said. "So we kill the bugs then kill the queen?" "No, we kill the queen, but not the Changelings, they are only following orders, they don't deserve to die." "I think being part of their hive at one point is clouding your judgement." "It is a bit, but think about it. If you were in an orphanage with thousands of other ponies of different races and the only caretaker was controlling and evil, would you rather the caretaker and the orphans die, or just the caretaker?" "Just the caretaker... I guess I understand." "Come on, let's form a tornado to blow the Changelings away and break their ranks." Rainbow said as she flew up, followed by the others. Pegasus magic filled the air, looking like a whitish trail of wind, and began to shape something. "What's going on?" Black Wing asked herself as the magic began to swirl around the area bellow the swarm. Soon a tornado formed and her Changelings were blown away, leaving her to be hit full force by several events. First was Rainbow Dash moving with the speed granted from her Sonic Rainboom; then there was a spike of extreme pain through her horn as Aurora performed her Magic field Razor, effectively cutting off Black Wings magic for a time; next came several cuts in her chitin from Scootaloo's lunar charged sword; then Midnight's Dark Light Twist destroyed her visibility as it inverted the position of the presence of light and lack of light; and finely came a blast of practically every magic Twilight currently had control of that sent her flying into a nearby wall. "H-how?" Black Wing asked as her executioners landed in front of her. "Secrets must remain secret until the time they must be revealed, until then all that can be said is that you are not the true target." Midnight said, unintentionally quoting what she would often say back when she was Spirit Vengeance. "W-why?" Black Wing would never hear the answer as her life ended there. Midnight slowly bowed, as did any remaining Changelings. "May the great queen allow you a second chance at life." she said in a language of hisses, clicks, and buzzes. Midnight got back up and turned towards the semi-lost Changelings, who all nodded before picking up the body and flying off. "What was all that about?" Rainbow dash asked. "When a Changeling Queen dies, the members of their hive give her a final bow and request that the first Changeling queen give the recently killed queen another chance in a different life. Midnight's an ex-member, but she's still subject to the tradition. Afterwards, the Changelings retreat to their hive to give her a proper burial and then they select a new queen, even if the hive was an insect hive." Twilight explained as Midnight pulled out the parchment Spit Fire had given her. I have a deep liking of Changelings and their culture, this is why I wish to stop Celestia from waging war against them. Chrysalis' hive has separated into two different hives, the Poison hive is lead by a vengeful ling with the name blood wind, Chrysalis now commands a hive named the Venom Hive, you will need her help. Only when a new pony is in charge will the Venom Hive aid Equestria, but Twilight has no intentions of dethroning Celestia, I doubt she does even after everything she's learned. *Go to Canterlot and enter Starswirl's undead wing, from their you will find Clover's diary, read it for it will aid you later on. (remember, Twilight Sparkle, what you learn from the diary will do more damage to your trust of Celestia than anything else has so far). There are more secrets to be learned, but those will come in time. signed Spirit Fire.