Chapter 80
Palace Rendezvous
“There it is. The Everfree,” Shining Armor coolly stated, surveying what they were up against. Usually from this height on Fizzle’s back, he would at least be able to see the towering spires of Essence’s palace. Instead, all he saw was a wall of black, made of densely-packed changelings. At least the changelings pestering them had finally departed. With the sun going down, it was hard to tell where the changelings ended and the night sky began- without Luna’s artistry, the skies had been pitch black and starless. It appeared as though whomever now controlled this solar entity was putting in a minimum amount of work in maintaining Equestria.
“It appears as though Chrysalis has finally decided to take the matter seriously,” Trident turned up his nose in distain.
“Sling Shot, ready the soldiers,” Shining Armor called. “Once I cast the spell, I won’t have enough energy to maintain the shield. We’ll be exposed.”
“Ay, sir!” The crystal guard darted away, shouting down to the troops below.
“You sure this is a good idea?” Pierce wrung his claws. “When those shields come down... we’re fair game.”
“You’re not jumping ship, are you?” Fizzle jibed.
“You took on three rogue dragons as a kid- we all did!” Clump reminded.
“That was different,” Pierce argued. “There were more of us. And even if they were rogues, they were still dragons.”
“Even rogues have some sense of honor,” Vex shuddered. “But with changelings, anything goes.”
“Not you, too,” Soot groaned.
“Stay behind if you’re too chicken,” Garble barked. “But as soon as that shield comes down, I’m going after my brother.”
“Time Turner won’t be here for another hour,” Shining Armor argued.
“Then I’ll just clear the palace out for them.” Garble’s eyes shone with mad fury, startling even the unicorn. Shining Armor realized there would be no talking him out of this.
“Then at least let me go with you,” the prince requested. “Chrysalis and Kindling have my family, too.”
“Alright,” Garble consented. He glided below Fizzle, allowing Shining Armor to leap onto his back.
“The soldiers are ready and awaiting your command,” Sling Shot reported upon returning from his rounds.
“Now or never, I suppose,” Shining Armor sighed.
“SOLDIERS! READY YOUR WEAPONS!” Trident hollered. A crash of metal reverberated through the Everfree as spears were lowered, clacking against armor. Shining Armor was already firing up his horn. He took aim at the changeling wall, and released an immense pulse of light. The prince immediately crumpled, instantly exhausted by the expenditure required by a spell of this scale. The shield, in turn, crumbled.
The changelings hissed, both perplexed and content by the barrier’s sudden collapse. Now they had access to the ponies, but what kind of spell could have sapped that much energy from the royal guard’s captain all at once?
They were to find out as the light washed over them. They were blinded by the light, but they soon learned that was not the only ability the spell had hindered. Many changelings clutched their heads, groaning in discomfort.
“The voices! The voices! I cannot hear the hive!” a changeling cried. Similar cries were breaking out all over. Some changelings were already retreating.
“You disconnected them all from the hive mind,” Sling Shot gasped in awe.
“Let’s go,” Garble spoke, taking Shining Armor and making for the castle. In the prince’s absence, Trident was more than happy to step up to the plate. He raised his trident, pointing it towards the changelings.
“CHARGE!” Fizzle screeched a war cry, inspiring the ponies below to shoot out from below him. Likewise, the remaining changelings shrieked a battle cry of their own before moving forward as a unit.
“Now?” Fizzle asked, itching to head out with everyone else.
“Hold,” Trident ordered, gauging the changelings’ distance. ‘A little closer,’ he thought.
“Now?” Clump pleaded.
“Wait!”
“How about now?” Pierce snickered, just trying to be ornery. Trident eyed the enemy force one last time, and slowly began lifting his trident. In perfect sync with the pitchfork, the water of the Hock Bend River rose like a giant cobra sizing up its prey. Tiny specks of color were revealed within- the waiting hippocampi army. The changelings slowly began to stop in their tracks, nervously glancing over the wall of water rising behind them.
“NOW!” With a violent flick of the trident, the water rushed toward the changelings, carrying the soldiers with it. By that time, the original charging ponies had reached the wall, slamming the changelings in the middle of a two-front assault. Fizzle finally jerked forward, leading the dragons into the fight. At his size, he could definitely punch a hole in the wall. Trident slid off just before he furled his wings to cannon-ball into the changeling barricade.
“NOOOOOO!” Kindling wailed, a searing pain tearing through his head as the hive mind was ripped away from him. What had they done?! He couldn’t redirect their thoughts back- his rerouting spell could only redirect an existing hive mind, and now Shining Armor had destroyed that. Those meddlesome ponies... he would have his revenge!
Kindling stormed over to the balcony, glaring out at the battlefield beyond. Whatever heart Kindling had left stopped in his chest. His forces were crumbling! A surprise attack from the back combined with the frontal assault was proving to be more than the changeling wall could handle. The hippocampus king’s trident was also more powerful than Kindling had anticipated.
The destral’s mind raced. Charcoal had most likely sent that orb to the rebels. If they indeed had it and chose to unleash it upon him and his army, he didn’t have a chance. He could counter it with his own orbs, yes, but all of them were already occupied with prisoners. Though he could most likely cram more inside, the risk of the Elements or Princesses escaping in the process was too great. And he had not been completely honest with Charcoal. One orb was not a significant loss overall, but it had been his last. He had no more carbuncle gems, and he did not want to slaughter his last and only specimen to obtain another one.
That filthy thestral colt... this was his fault! Seething with anger, Kindling started back for the tower. If he could not exact revenge upon all of Equestria, then that colt would have to do.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWL!
Kindling froze in the hallway. Judging by the crumbling of walls, smashing of furniture and all the fleeing or screaming changelings, he’d guess one of the dragons had entered the castle. He grunted in annoyance. He would not have time to get to the colt and escape, too. He had been stripped of his freedom for well over a millennium. He was very reluctant to give it up again, even for the colt.
“You, Changeling!” Kindling addressed, grabbing one of the scattered changelings in a levitational hold.
“Y-yes, s-sire?” it nervously chattered.
“I have a new assignment for you,” Kindling slyly narrowed his eyes.
Moments later, one version of the fiery destral fled to the safety of the catacombs while one lingered in the crumbling castle.
“What’s the plan again?” Spectrum inquired, woozily trying to find his hoofing after the rollercoaster of a ride.
“I’ve just landed us in one of the castle’s utility closets,” Time Turner explained.
“How did you get the coordinates to land us in a tiny closet?” Gilda scratched her head.
“I know the castle very well,” Glitter spoke up. “Time Turner asked me to use my fire to send one of his devices somewhere inconspicuous in the castle. Hey! Isn’t that it?” Glitter spotted something shiny and metallic through a few layers of hooves. “Excuse me, pardon me,” she carefully began worming her way over to it. Time Turner, on the other hoof, rudely barged through to grab the thing.
“Yes, we materialized on top of it,” he shrugged as though it were obvious. “When you sent this device, it transmitted its exact coordinates to the TARDIS, which I plotted as our destination, just a couple hours in the future. According to this, Everypony else should have arrived an hour ago.”
“Shining Armor’s soldiers should have drawn most of the changelings out by now,” Fink went on. “Without the hive mind, they will be confused and uncoordinated. Any changelings we encounter left over in the castle should not pose much of a threat.”
“Either they all will have flocked to the battlefield,” Shift guessed, “or they will fall back to the castle.”
“I sincerely hope your first assumption is correct,” Cascade shivered.
“Our job is to find Charcoal, or the orbs, or even Kindling himself,” Hawk lectured.
“But we must stay together,” Current put in. “We know that Kindling is extremely powerful and dangerous, but we have only one orb to share amongst ourselves. If anyone were to come across Kindling without the orb...” she shook her head. “We have lost enough friends as it is. Let us not add to that number.”
“Do we even know how to work the orb we have?” High Tide inquired.
“I am familiar with the technology,” Fink assured.
“And you have the orb?”
“Here,” the orange-shelled pony displayed the precious cargo.
“Everypony knows what they’re doing, now?” Time Turner glanced around.
“Yep,” Winter affirmed.
“I’ll go out first, and make sure the coast is clear,” Gilda volunteered. “Everyone flank Fink, just in case we run into trouble. We lose that orb, and we lose the war.”
“War. War’s such a strong word. I don’t like it,” Time Turner rambled, even as he and the gryphon strode for the door. “War implies you kill people- er, ponies. Who says anypony has to die? Like that time in Appleloosa, when the buffalo and settlers had a bit of a skirmish over the land. They used pies! Pies! It was brilliant! Why can’t-”
“Shut UP, Time Turner!” Gilda was rapidly becoming fed up with the pony, and clapped a talon over his mouth as she checked the hallway. “Coast is clear,” she reported to the others, removing her claws from the pony’s lips and heading further into the room. Quietly, one by one, the rest of the group filed out, forming a protective circle around Fink and the orb.
“I still don’t see anypony,” Ditzy reported, flitting over to the left hallway.
“Here either,” Whirl Pool called.
“Clear,” Trixie announced.
“So which way do we go?” River hissed, too terrified to raise her voice above a whisper despite the fact they were alone. As if on cue, a loud thud resonated from beyond the middle hallway, accompanied by a low growl.
“That didn’t sound like a changeling...” Jet mused.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s investigate!” Time Turner trotted ahead without waiting for a response. The others had little choice but to keep up as he navigated through the maze of corridors, all listening intently to pinpoint the source of the noise.
Time Turner, Gilda and High Tide peered around the corner of the last hallway and into the throne room. This was where all of the changelings appeared to have gathered in a collective effort to hold Garble down. None seemed to possess an orb, for they had to manually restrain him with any ropes and chains they had available. He appeared exhausted, as though he had put up quite a fight, but was still defiantly bucking and flailing. Shining Armor, on the other hoof, was completely spent and utterly defeated, trapped in the corner with a casing of goo. With both his energy and magic depleted, he could only hope that Garble could hold his own.
“What’s going on?” Ditzy barged through the assembly to get a glimpse of the skirmish beyond, successfully bowling everyone over and causing quite a commotion in the process. Between ponies yelping, bodies thudding and the orb skidding across the marble floor, all eyes focused on the time travelers. Ditzy winced. “Oops.”
“The orb!” Fink cried, realizing it had escaped his grasp and was now rolling out into the middle of the room.
“Kindling’s device! Retrieve it!” one of the changelings cried, abandoning his end of the rope. As Garble began to break free once more, the rest of the drones found themselves unable to comply with the order.
The single drone made a mad dive for the thing, as did Fink. Their hooves both grasped the orb in perfect sync, and in a blur of black, blue and orange, both changelings became entangled in one another as both desperately grappled for the sphere. Gilda’s huge wings sent her barreling forward to help, while Time Turner fumbled for his screwdriver. The drone delivered one harsh blow to Fink’s stomach, flinging him back to crash into Gilda, and the two of them proceeded to slide into Shining Armor. Glitter barely sidestepped them in time, but resumed her effort to free the prince.
“GLITTER!” Trixie screamed, realizing the drone was activating the device and aiming it right at her beloved apprentice. She shot forward faster than a bullet to protect he best friend. Jet Stream, the fastest and nimblest, attempted to make a quick grab for the orb. The changeling saw her coming and just barely dodged, leaping back out of the way and landing her in his line of fire. Just then, the orb emitted a blinding white light, which promptly engulfed the hippocampus mare. Trixie barely succeeded to knock Glitter clear of the light, though the unicorn herself was illuminated.
“TRIXIE!” Glitter wailed, helpless to stop her mentor from fading away into the orb’s prison. Shining Armor, Gilda, and Fink, who had all been behind Trixie, also vanished. All at once, the rebels were stripped of five of their members.
“NO!” Time Turner exploded, madly waving his sonic screwdriver about. Though it made a lot of noise, it didn’t affect the orb at all.
The drone was about to swing the spotlight over the rest of the cowering ponies when Garble’s tail swiped his legs out from under him. Distracted, the changeling lost its magical hold on the thing, which in turn extinguished the lethal light. Winter Green flung himself over the orb to keep it safe. The remaining changelings finally gave up on restraining the dragon, and abandoned the orb altogether, now just fleeing for their lives. Garble did manage to leave his attackers with a few scorch marks on their way out, however. As soon as they were gone, Winter pulled the orb out from under him.
“Gilda? Gilda, can you hear me?” Winter held it up to his ear and even shook it a few times.
“She can’t hear you, smart one! And for Celestia’s sake, stop shaking it!” She roughly cuffed him on the back of the head and then proceeded to swipe the orb away from him.
“Trixie...” Tears dropped down Glitter’s cheeks, and her body was racked with sobs. She caught Garble’s attention as he shrugged off the last of the ropes. The sight of the pitiful mare caused his heart to wrench in his chest- he, too, had lost most of his family to the wretched changelings. His tail curled around her waist as he pulled her closer, and consolingly nuzzled the mare. She did not protest, but rather, wept bitterly into his scales.
“Get. Them. BACK!” Whirl Pool demanded, nose pressed against Time Turner’s, still fooling with his screwdriver.
“I’m trying! Bah! It doesn’t do wood!”
“Can’t we just take the branches off?” Spectrum wondered, noticing that the timberwolf bark only appeared to make up the outer layer.
“NO! We have no idea how it works! Tampering with it without realizing the consequences could potentially harm them,” Shift exclaimed.
“You were connected to the hive. Do you have any idea how it works?” Current pleaded.
“I know how to activate the orbs, but Fink was the only one who knew how to unlock them,” he hopelessly shrugged.
“So they’re gone,” Glitter bit her lip.
“Not necessarily.”
“CHRYSALIS?!”