A loud knocking against the cottage door awoke the young Insectum from her slumber and caused her to accidentally roll off of the couch that had been her bed for the past couple of days. Fortunately the floor was nice enough to catch her, so with a large yawn the small changeling staggered to the door. She stopped in front of her mother long enough to taking in the snoring and drooling queen who lay on a sofa across from hers before reaching out for the door handle, letting in the morning sun into the house when she cracked the door open.
"Hello there princess Insectum. I am sorry to wake you at such an early hour, but I have news that simply could not wait," a kind and regal voice said to the princess, who was unable to see through her bleary eyes due to the sun being a jerk. Yet despite her temporary loss of sight, Insectum still identified who the pony speaking was due to her voice and the fact that her mother cursed Celestia's name in her sleep.
"Morning Princess Celestia, what are you doing here so early?" Insectum half sleep talked as she moved slightly to the side while rubbing her eyes, allowing the princess to enter the cottage with a slight bow of her head.
"I raise the sun, my dear child. I am up when it comes up," Celestia reminded the princess with a smile before her gaze was drawn by the queen of the changelings, who was standing on all three of her legs with a regal stance as she looked at Celestia with cold, but still slightly sleepy, eyes. "Good morning Chrysalis. You are definitely one that I did not expect to be up this early."
"A mother wakes with her children Celestia and since you were so rude as to wake my daughter up, then I am up as well," Chrysalis growled at Celestia as she watched Insectum crawl back onto the couch. "And since you are here, I can tell that today is going to suck. But for the sake of argument, please tell me why you would be bothering us at too early o clock?"
"Because, oh grumpy one, the device is ready." Celestia fought back the desire to smile as she saw her words slap the sleep and annoyance right off of the changeling queen's face, changing Chrysalis from a grumpy mother to a respectful queen within seconds. "We have set it up in the middle of town and shall tell all of the ponies what it does when we get there, but I figured that you would wish to lay eyes on it for yourself before you allow us to try anything."
"You thought right, oh princess of the sun," Chrysalis agreed before walking over to her daughter, who had covered herself with blankets and was trying to fall back asleep. Celestia smiled at the sight of Insectum trying to fight her mother off before she did a quick scan of the cottage with her eyes, surprised that she could not see a figure that she was certain that she should not miss. "Looking for the brute? He sleeps out in the back since there is no way in Equis he's getting through the front door without there being bodies. He's probably out there right now if you want to go look."
Celestia nodded to Chrysalis before exiting the cottage and circling around to the back of the place. She did wish to inform Zangief that the machine to feed the changelings was ready (something that she was certain that he would be interested in) but she also wanted to learn a bit more about him, since she was now receiving at least twelve letters a day from Twilight as she tried to figure out how the Russian broke the laws of physics so casually.
Those thoughts however, were thrown right out the window when Celestia reached the back yard to see Zangief doing the Cossack dance with a bear on one shoulder and what seemed to be an unconscious chimera on the other. The bear had a look of both fear and admiration for the Russian wrestler who danced with the two beast so easily while all three of the chimera's heads looked dazed. Zangief's face was one of sheer determination and so focused was he on his training that he did not notice Celestia walk over to him until she had entered his sight.
"Princess Celestia! Greeting!" Zangief bellowed with a laugh so loud that Celestia was certain that all of Ponyville was awakened by it. Zangief rose to his full height and shrugged the two beasts off of his shoulders. The bear landed on it's back and rose back to it's feet while the chimera landed on it's faces and stayed on the ground. "Such a strange beast, is it not?" Zangief asked when he followed Celestia's gaze to the chimera. "For a creature with three heads, you think it would have the brains to know not to attack a cyclone while it sleeps, eh? Unfortunately for it, I do not sleep and so I was ready when it tried to ambush me. And then I dropped it on all three of it's heads! Now it is making up for it's mistakes by helping me train!"
"That is...certainly an interesting training method," Celestia dumbfoundedly muttered before shaking her head slightly and informing Zangief of what she had told Chrysalis moments ago.
"That is wonderful! We should go see this machine in action immediately!" Zangief agreed before turning back to the bear. "You keep an eye on that coward there. If he...she...if it tries anything you can use him...it as a training dummy and throw it on it's head! HAHA! Come Princess!"
"Dear Faust your voice is like an avalanche," Chrysalis groaned once Zangief and Celestia had returned to the cottage entrance, Celestia smiling softly at the small changeling who was still asleep but now resting on her mothers back. Fluttershy was up as well and she joined the group of five as they left the cottage and headed towards the town, Zangief keeping them entertained with the story of the time he fought a great warrior called Ryu.
"...And despite the man looking puny and weak, he throws a mean uppercut that knocked even me straight to my back," Zangief ended the story with a bit of shame as the group reached the town, Celestia glad that Twilight was not there to hear of another human that could defy what they had believed to be true. "And do not get me started on how hard it is to avoid those hadokens all the time. I swear that..."
"As much as I enjoy hearing stories about you getting whipped something fierce, time to put on your best public face because we're here," Chrysalis cut him off before he could finish, looking at the already bustling town of Ponyville with a sigh. "This is going to go well, I can already feel it," she sarcastically grumbled.
"Do not think that way Chrysalis, it cannot be good for your health. Look, already all of the ponies are here to greet us!" Zangief said with a laugh as a large crowd formed around him, all of them asking him for autographs or how he constantly did the impossible.
"Yeah, here to greet us," Chrysalis mocked with a shake of her head before her eye caught a blue and rainbow pony flying towards them, causing a large grin to break out upon her face. "Ohohoho. This should be good." The crowd spotted the Pegasus after Chrysalis had said this and parted to let Rainbow Dash land in front of the Red Cyclone as Zangief looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. The two stared at each other for a long moment before Zangief broke the silence with a joyous laugh.
"Hello Comrade, I am glad to see that you have finally recovered from the blow you received to your head," he said with a good natured smile, but Rainbow Dash's face remained emotionless, something that Zangief did not miss. "Do not be angry about your loss. There is no shame in losing to someone as great and powerful as Zangief is!"
"You mean as lucky as Zangief is?" Rainbow Dash replied in a tone that sounded more devious than it did angry. "Because from what I recall of the fight I was beating you pretty badly until you pulled that trick inside the tornado. Of course, now that I know that the fight wouldn't even last a minute this time." The crowd gasped at Dash's words before all eyes turned towards the mighty Russian, who narrowed his own eyes at the rainbow Pegasus before a smile broke out on his face and he threw back his head with a laugh.
"So you wish to face me again?! Bwahahaha! Khorosho, then we shall fight again once Celestia has shown off her machine," Zangief agreed with a laugh as he looked back to his group and the crowd of ponies that was around them as well. "Come then my friends, let us go see how Celestia believes she can turn love into food. I know that I am interested." The crowd followed after Zangief like they would a superstar, leaving Celestia and Fluttershy to walk over to Dash who was watching the mountain of a man leave with a smile on her face.
"Rainbow Dash, I believe that the doctors have only cleared you to leave the hospital, not have a rematch against the foe who put you in the hospital in the first place," Celestia reminded Rainbow Dash, who's response was to shrug with a smile on her face.
"Come on Princess, this time I know what I did wrong. Now I know how to beat him," Dash said with a smirk that was shot down by a look that Fluttershy gave her friend.
"Rainbow Dash, I am ashamed of you. Do you know how worried all of us were after the last time Zangief piledrived you?" Fluttershy asked her friend, who looked down at the ground instead of answering.
"Well I think it's a great idea. Go for broke Dash and don't let these sticks in the mud tell you other wise!" Chrysalis said with a wicked chuckle that gained her two cold stares from Shy and Celestia. "Come on, we're already falling behind," Chrysalis said while ignoring their glares as she marched passed, getting the princess and the other two to groan as they followed her to the center of town. As they arrived they heard cheers and gasps, as well as the sounds of fighting. Celestia burst through the crowd of ponies that had amassed to see Twilight trying to pin Zangief down with her magic yet the massive Russian was doing a fairly good job of dodging her spells.
"Hello everypony and thank you for coming here on such short notice!" Celestia called out to the crowd with a smile once she had gotten the two fighters under control, though she did keep a close eye on Twilight who continued to gaze at Zangief with narrowed eyes. "As you may have already heard, one of the conditions for the match between Rainbow Dash and Zangief was that if Zangief won, we would help to feed the changelings." The crowd began to boo at her words, but before Celestia could silence them Zangief raised a hand and the crowd fell silent.
"I am ashamed of you ponies. Are you not supposed to be the most friendly and kind creatures in all of Equis? Are you not the beings that all the others look to when they wish to know of friendship?" Zangief asked them with his booming voice as he swept his eyes across the crowd. "Yet when creatures other than ponies need help you would turn a blind eye? The changelings may have done wrong in the past and you may not like them very much, but they still are living beings with families that need help of they are to survive. So are you going to practice what you preach or will you only be friendly to your own kind?"
Chrysalis's eyes had widened at Zangief's words as she knew full well whose words he was repeating, but as she looked out across the crowd of ponies she saw both guilt and realization in their eyes. A moment later the crowd looked back up at Celestia with determined faces, causing Zangief to look at Chrysalis and give her a quick wink.
"You idiot," she muttered under her breath with a small smile as Celestia began to speak again.
"If no pony has any objections, then we shall begin with the process that will turn the love that you all hold within your hearts," she called out to them, surprised to not hear any objections or see any looks of anger. She then turned to a large, tarped object that rested behind her near the town hall. With a tug of her magic Celestia pulled the tarp off to reveal a large antennae like object that held a large container at the bottom of it. "This process will be effortless and painless, so none of you need to worry about any sort of pain. All that I ask is that all of you think about something or pony that you love and cherish as to make the machines job easier. Are you all ready? Then we shall begin."
The machine began to hum as Celestia flowed her magic into it, creating waves of rainbow energy to wash over all of the ponies. All of the ponies looked around at the rainbow waves as they converted the love that was held within the ponies hearts into a green energy that began to fill up the container, while ponies felt not only their own love but also all of the love around them float through the air, lifting the spirits of all who were near the machine.
"I...have not felt this happy since I threw my first bear," Zangief said with a happy smile as large amounts of energy came off of him, while a decent amount came off of Chrysalis as well, though her energy was not sucked into the machine. But that did not mean that she was immune to the machines effects.
"Indeed. Even I feel...nice," Chrysalis muttered before turning her head so that she could nuzzle her still sleeping daughter. Despite how large the container was, the machine was filled within a few minutes and as it finished the effects of the device wore off. The ponies still held their happy smiles as they all looked up at the now full machine, which Celestia covered again with the tarp as she turned to Chrysalis.
"We are performing this procedure across the land in hopes to collect enough food for your people to last a good while," Celestia said with a smile that caused Chrysalis to roll her eyes. But Celestia did receive a grateful nod as well and decided to be content with the small display of gratitude. But the small moment was broken by a mighty laugh that snapped all of the ponies out of their happy daze and all of the startled eyes were now looking at Zangief.
"Now that we have fed the appetites of the changelings, how about we sate the hunger of those who crave to see battle?!" Zangief asked the crowd as he turned to face Rainbow Dash, who let out a laugh as well as she took up a fighting stance. The other ponies made room for the two as the crowd began to chant while Zangief took up his fighting stance as well, laughing at Dash as the two stared each other down.
"Now then, little sparrow, let us see if you have learned from the last battle!" Zangief roared as he rushed forward, Rainbow Dash throwing herself at Zangief as well. The crowd roared as the two collided and the fight was on.
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"Sir, we've received reports that the princesses have helped to create a source of food for the hive and that can only mean that Chrysalis will be at her strongest as well as have the princesses with her. Are you sure that you want to attack the hive now?" a changeling asked a figure sitting in the darkest part of the laboratory. The sounds of gears moving caused an uneasy silence amongst the changelings that were there.
"Yes, now is the perfect time to attack."
"Um sir? Zangief will be there as well and after last time...I mean, you've only spent a few days getting familiar with your...body." A pair of red eyes looked out from beneath a hooded rob that silenced the changeling immediately, but Tenna decided that he need to put their minds to rest.
"Do not worry about me, I know what I am doing," Tenna said in a far more metallic voice than he used to have, but there was still the underlining hints of joy in his tone as he thought ahead to his rematch. "Because soon I shall be the strongest in the land, whether or not Zangief manages to beat me. Then we shall make sure that all know that I am."