//------------------------------// // Five // Story: The War for the Sun & Moon // by Maxes Altho //------------------------------// It has been a week since the changeling known as Chryssid dropped into our oh so wonderful lives. Somehow, word got around that Chryssid was a guest, so everypony pretty much ignored us. Pretty much, except for the doubled guards posted everywhere. I get the feeling it’s more for our protection than the other pony’s, but it’s still kind of unsettling. We managed to avoid all but two disasters. The first was during the tour of the base. In the Armory, Battleborn was in one of his dark, PTSD-fueled moods, and pinned Chryssid halfway up the wall with a rotary saw. Me and a few of the guards were able to calm him down, but it left its marks. Never bring Chryssid to the Armory before first checking Battle’s mood. The second involved the Crusaders. The foals absolutely loved C. They bombarded him with questions, and he answered as best he could. Then, Squirt comes up. “Wow, you can change shape, right? Didja know Shining can do that too?” Shit. C shoots me a death glare, so I explain the whole Hybreed thing to him. I show him my hooves as I change them to griffon claws, lion paws, and even going so far as to pull off a Minotaur hand change. “It’s just a part of who I am.” “I care not; the breeding of a pony-changeling bastard is not natural.” “Hey! I may be a bastard, but I’m a damn good bastard!” “Really? Then who gave you your name? You said you were left on the stoop of an orphanage, another thing I will never understand about you ponies. If you had no parents, how did they name you?” Damn, he had me there. Don’t ask me how, but pony parents all seem to have a knack for looking into the future, and naming their kids what they’ll be good at when they get their Marks. Like Angel, for instance. She hasn’t shown much magic potential yet, but her skills in healing are astounding for such a young filly. “Well, at the orphanage, the caretakers had the parental knack for naming, but it took some time to figure it out, I guess because they weren’t the natural parents. I got the name Shining Star when my magic started working, and my first spell was this,” I concentrate, easily summoning a ball of light, bright like the sun. “Before I got TK, before I even got walking down, I could do this. They named me ‘their little Star, shining in the night’. So, in a reversal, how did your quote-unquote ‘mother’ name you?” “Simple, Shining Star. I was named with the male version of the name Chrysalis. My caretaker named me so I could carry the legacy of the last true Changeling Queen.” “Some legacy,” I huff. He stalks up to me. “And what, pray tell, does that mean?” “It means, Your Royal Nothingness, that Chrysalis didn’t leave a good impression on Equestria. She tried to kill the Princesses, for fuck’s sake! How is that a ‘legacy’?” “You were not born a changeling; I don’t expect you to understand. With the attack, even though it failed, Chrysalis made us a force to be reckoned with! No longer were we restricted to the shadows! We became fear for your kind!” “Actually, no. The Empress created the fear for us, the Warriors. The only reason we have guards at all entrances at all times is to test for changelings! We can’t risk having an infiltrator impersonate one of us and find the base! In fact, the only fucking reason we haven’t offed you yet is because of some stupid dream I had!” I storm off. Shield, that guard from before, works as our primary shadow now, and will get Chryssid back to our room. I just need to vent, so I make my way to the rec. room. I lay various kicks to the training dummies about the place. The few other ponies training there know to stay out of my way; the few times I’ve come here in a bad mood, I’ve ended up throwing a pony through a mirror, breaking several pieces of equipment (which I worked to replace), and badmouthed everypony who thought talking could calm me down. Talking can’t calm me down like this; the only cure is to work out my frustration. Smack. I’m not truly mad at Chryssid, per say, just mad at the universe in general. Why put him under me? I’m a nobody! I failed my test, have next to no friends I can relate to, and no family to call my own! Smack. Thwack. And then there’s this Commandant person. Who is it? As far as I know, Battleborn, High Mighty, and The General, who forsook his name for his position, are the ones in charge of the Warriors. Now I find there’s another pony behind the scenes, pulling the strings? Wham! “Ow.” I spin; Chryssid was hiding behind that last dummy. He steps out, rubbing his nose. “What the fuck do you want?” I growl as I do a spin kick at another dummy. “I have come to apologize. My actions were unjust.” “Doesn’t make them any less true.” “What do you mean?” I slump. “I am a sorry excuse for a pony; a.k.a. a bastard. I don’t have parents, no friends… I’m a failure.” “I do not believe that is accurate.” I look up. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “The young ones told me of your recent test. Why did you fail?” “Loudmouth said I don’t have the heart of a fighter.” “No. Why do you think you failed?” “I-I… I…” I stop. Why did I fail? “I guess I let my heart rule what my mind was saying. I knew, somewhere in the back of my brain, that I shouldn’t have investigated the crying. My heart refused to listen. I have this want, you know, to make sure everypony is alright, except for the ones who try and hurt me. My heart rationalized that a crying pony wouldn’t be a threat. It’s my greatest weakness, you could say.” He doesn’t answer. I look up just in time to catch a holey hoof to the side of my head. I fall to my side. “The fuck was that for?” He starts walking away. “You say you do not hold back against those who wish you harm. I have now struck you, causing harm. I can see you are a liar as well as weak. Your mother was right to leave you abandoned.” Oh, the little shit. There’s obviously some things he doesn’t understand about pony culture; you don’t make passes at a guy’s daughter without permission, you always wipe your hooves before entering somepony’s house, and, if you value your life, don’t. Insult. The mother. I roar, and launch myself at him. He ducks at the last moment, sending me flying into one of the dummies. I get up; it is so on! I charge, and launch a flurry of kicks and hoof-punches at him. He either blocks or dodges all of them. He strikes out, catching me in the gut and sending me away again. I struggle to my feet; he’s standing in the middle of the room, confident. “Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!” I go at him with all I’ve got. I don’t care if I’m supposed to take care of him; I’ll rip that shell off of his back and drink soup out of it! If he would… just… stand still! I would so totally go Stallion M. Jackson on his sorry buggy ass if he could just let me! God damn it! Somehow, I’m in a pile of training dummies again. “Do you know why you cannot win?” I stumble. “You’re better, faster. I can’t keep up.” He slaps me again. “Wrong. You can definitely keep up; you are still standing, after all. Your mind and heart are out of sync. Your mind wants to beat me to a pulp, and knows you have the skills to do so. Your heart is holding back, because you have a personal responsibility to care for those you wish to care about. The foals, me, that mare in the simulation. You chose to care, and it led to your downfall, just like here.” I roar (although it probably came out more like a mewl), and try again. Beat him to a bloody pulp! No, we need him alive! Fate, remember? No! He must pay for those insults! What did he insult? You know he’s right. But… mom! You care about our mother, but why did she leave us? We… uh… kill…? No, we are not going to kill him. But he must pay… Yes, he will. But forcing him away will fracture the alliance. So… no kill. But make him pay anyways? Yes, that will do nicely. Make him submit. Suddenly, my punches start connecting. I see a concerned look on his face, but also a new respect in his eyes. I blink, and he’s on his back on the floor, my hoof changed to a dragon claw at his throat. He smiles. “Now, you can pass the test.” I jump off of him; strangely, all of my rage is gone. “The fuck just happened?” “You found the medium. That one place where both the heart and the mind can coexist. Both working in harmony, neither overpowering the other. Your fault is that your heart controls your actions; that would prove fatal on the field of battle. However, you are not a killing machine; you must have both the heart and mind. Now, you can succeed where before you have failed.” ---------- “Private Star, your mission is a go.” I’m moving before Shimmer even stops talking. I’m scanning for any enemies- aha! Sniper on the roof. He’s already seen me, so I use a ball of light to blind him, then turn it into a light-ning bolt and slice his throat. I scan, and don’t see any more. Trap time. This time, I pull off my best trick. I’m sure there are very few ponies who can pull this off, but I found a way to give light mass. I can create solid light. This isn’t like the light-bolt, that trick I heat to a magma point; it will cut through anything with that heat. My name for that? Sun’s Fury. As bright as the star that orbits Equis, and burns like a bitch. Solid light is a whole tier up on the complexity scale. I blanket the street ahead in a layer of light, and push, giving every square the weight of an average pony on top of it. Sure enough, a dozen traps activate. I duck down a side alley, and blast the enemy at the end while he’s watching the fireworks. This pattern repeats until I finally reach the building: an abandoned-looking warehouse. I burst in, downing three guards. Now, if I were blueprints, where would I hide? Probably in that office overlooking the floor. I make my way up, and am about to kick open the door when a voice stops me. “Shining? Is that you? Help us!” “Squirt?” I am literally only a dozen hoofs away from my target, and the wild card happens. I dart in, grab the blueprints, and walk towards the other door, the one Squirt’s voice came from. I still have to exit the building; my mind is telling me to do so, but I can’t leave my friends! Then, the medium hits; I’ve got a plan. I nose open the door, holding my gun to the paper. Sure enough, two hostiles are in the room, pointing guns at Squirt, Angel, and Brick. They look nervous; I can see the sweat rolling down their muzzles. “You guys were supposed to protect this, right?” I wave the paper around. “You know, this very important, one-of-a-kind blueprint where the creator was shot once he finished so nopony would know of it? It would sure be a shame if my gun just so happened to go off while pointed at this priceless blueprint, huh?” “Look man, just put the piece down, and we’ll release the foals, okay? We won’t hurt them.” Suspicious, but I comply. Of course, the moment I set my gun down, the other guy takes it. Now there’s four guns pointed at me, being held in magic fields. “So, chump. Any last words?” I smile. “Uh, yeah. You guys ever heard of the Clapper?” “The what?” I stomp my hoof. “You know. Clap on,” stomp stomp, “Clap off,” stomp stomp, “Clap on clap off. The Clapper!” with a final stomp, I suck all the light from the room, and roll. Shots are fired at where I was. I then turn the gathered light into two beams of Sun’s Fury, melting the hostile’s brains where they stand. As the beams exit the backs of the guy’s heads, the light level in the room returns to normal. I help the foals up and out of their restraints, and we leave the building together. The area turns dark. “Test… success! Private Star, please report to Drill Sargent Loudmouth for debriefing. Good job, Shiny!” I never thought I’d say this, but thank the Goddesses for that changeling! ---------- I end up saying that at least a hundred times over the course of the war. “One hundred and twelve, Sir.” Not helping, C. Anyways, Loudmouth debriefed me, congratulated me on passing the test, flying colors for actually rescuing the ‘secondary objective’, and I was granted the rank of Soldier. That meant better pay, better food at the mess, and a bit more respect. Of course, I couldn’t let myself take all the glory. “You did take all the glory.” Of course I did! Imagine what would’ve happened if it got out that it took a changeling to knock some sense into me? Good Goddesses, C, I knew you were dense, but I didn’t think you were that dense! I got high praise from everypony for passing the test; I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then, I got the summons for my first mission…