Emerald Gleaner: Viral Unicorn

by Legionary

Chapter 14: Red Wedding

“We took out pretty much all of the statues and decorations,” a Diamond Dog said as he waved to the walls around him. “We also dismantled the traps like you asked and fixed them up or expanded them to be actual passages.”

“And how was the fortification work?” Emerald asked as she looked about and examined her surroundings. “There is a difference between a palace and a fortress after all.”

Emerald was back at the palace in the Everfree forest, or rather the fortress. After several months of work, the palace was transformed from a crumbling overgrown ruin to a formidable fortress… that was still overgrown but now purposefully so.

“Here, let me show you,” the dog said and waved for Emerald to follow. Soon the two were walking up a stone staircase onto the newly constructed outer curtain of the palace. The crenulations stretched out over the open space in front of the walls a bit; this was done so small holes could be placed every few steps. Normally these holes would be rather big so one could throw large rocks down onto people below, but here they were designed so grenades could be dropped. Every few crenulations, though, the block was designed oddly and sat much lower. The purpose behind these lower blocks was so that large weapons could be emplaced upon the walls. The towers were already strengthened to hold large cannons that would fire explosive rounds; these emplacements would be where guns even larger than the ones the Warhounds were given would be placed. Of course neither the large cannons or the super heavy machine guns were ready for deployment just yet, hence why both areas were currently empty.

Those weren’t the only things helping to fortify and protect the fortress, however. As was mentioned, the fortress was purposefully overgrown. This was done by Sovereign. Along the base and creeping towards the top of the walls were many thick vines and roots, all with sharp barbs to dissuade assaulters from climbing them and were strong enough to provide a not inconsiderable amount of protections to the walls themselves. And hanging from the sides of walls and towers like gargoyles were timberwolves, just waiting for an enemy to attack the fortress so they could drop down and do their deadly work. This wasn’t the only things Sovereign had done either, as the vines and roots extended deep under the fortress, blocking not only attempts to dig under the walls but collapse tunnels as well, not to mention the many hundreds of timberwolves emplaced throughout the interior of the castle like the very statues that had been removed.

“You’ve all done some wonderful work here,” Emerald smiled as she leaned over the wall.

“Thanks boss!” The diamond Dog smiled toothily. “That forest spirit did a lot of good work too.”

“Yes he did, didn’t he?” Emerald asked as she stared down one of the murder holes to look at the tough vines creeping up the walls.

“Virus,” Emerald heard from above her and looked up. One of the Timber Wolves attached to the sides of the towers was looking down at her, normally closed eyes wide open and glowing green. “As you can see, I’ve fulfilled my promise… however, I find my means lacking.”

“Oh?” Emerald said and took a seat upon one of the crenulations. “What do you mean by that?”

“Your dogs have different weapons and are trained to handle many different roles,” Sovereign began. “And now you have begun to create creatures to fulfill yet more roles. I have only myself and the timberwolves I have created. I do not wish for stagnation.”

“Okay, how about you start with just the basics, first,” Emerald replied. “Perhaps something that can serve as both a heavy hitter and to absorb a massive amount of punishment, something to serve as ambush troops, something to sneak up on the enemy and suddenly assault them or set traps for them. Your timberwolves are good as basic frontline troops, but along with them perhaps you should think of something to use as ranged support?”

“Hmm…” Sovereign hummed in thought. “You are giving me many ideas. Perhaps… a large bear to serve as the “heavy hitter”… I know many spiders that seek out their prey along with those that await them with traps. As for range… that will require some thought, but I have ideas…”

“Glad to help, Sovereign.” Emerald smiled as the proxy the forest spirit used went back to sleep.

“So now where do we go next?” Emerald asked as she turned towards the dog who was waiting patiently.

The Dog was about to answer when a stream of glittering smoke rushed towards Emerald out of the sky and quickly the form of a scroll manifested in front of her. Reaching out, Emerald grabbed the scroll before it fell and quickly unwound it.

Emerald hummed in thought as she read the contents of the letter. Twilight, Emerald and the other girls were invited  to Shining Armor’s wedding, both to attend and help plan it out so they were leaving soon to help with the preparations at Canterlot early. However the part of the letter that conveyed this information was only a small part. Twilight had filled the other three quarters of the letter with her own personal grievances over not being made aware of the events in Armor’s life.

‘Bit of a two way street here,’ Emerald thought as she read through the tirade Twilight had wrote. ‘Out of all the many, many letters to Canterlot I recall Twilight sending, I don’t think any of them were addressed to Shining Armor. He probably would have put more effort into keeping her in the loop if she did the same. Well… I don’t have the full story here, so I’m not going to judge either side.’

Emerald frowned in some discomfort as the thought of attending Shining Armor’s wedding unsettled her. This was Twilight’s family and she no doubt caused him quite a bit of emotional turmoil by outsmarting him at pretty much every turn when she was acting as the Gray Fox. Needless to say attending the celebration of what is supposed to be his best and happiest day seemed wrong in her mind. But Twilight would be so disappointed if she chose not to come…

‘Well, I guess I should just suck it up and attend,’ Emerald thought with a nod and turned towards the distant sight of Canterlot, under protective magical shield that glittered in the sun. ‘I wonder if the upcoming wedding is the reason for the shield over Canterlot? Well, I can’t blame Armor for going to such lengths considering all the losses he suffered at my own hands.’

“I’ll be looking over the rest of the fortress later,” Emerald said to the still patiently waiting Diamond Dog. “I’ve got some other business to attend to just now.”

“Of course, boss.” The dog nodded and a moment later Emerald disappeared with a flash of crimson, teleporting directly home to the library.

Sometime later found Emerald on a train to Canterlot. Twilight, Spike and their friends were on the train with them and all of them were rather excited about the wedding.

“A sonic rainboom? At a wedding?!” Rainbow Dash shouted excitedly. “Can you say ‘best wedding ever’?!”

“Best wedding ever!” Pinkie shouted cheerfully.

“So you all get to help with the big fancy wedding, but I'm the one who gets to host the bachelor party!” Spike said, but had a confused expression on his face. “I have just one question. What's a bachelor party?”

The girls laughed at that and Emerald couldn’t help but start laughing either, as she imagined Spike going around looking for a stripper to hire for Armor. Though that wouldn’t be the case considering how Equestria was like, it was still a funny thought.

“Why the long face, sugarcube?” Emerald heard Applejack say, and saw that she was over by Twilight, who was looking a little miserable where she had purposefully sat away from everyone.

“I'm just thinking about Shining Armor,” Twilight replied with frustration in her voice. “Ever since I moved to Ponyville, we've been seeing each other less and less. And now that he's starting a new family with this ‘Princess Mi Amore Ca-whatshername’, we'll probably never see each other.”

“I’ve met Mi Amore Cadenza a few times in the palace, Twilight,” Emerald said as she got up from her seat and walked over. “Honestly, I think you would like her. I mean, I don’t exactly know her since we only met a few times, but she is a very kind and open minded sort and doesn’t at all mind interacting with people from all walks of life. She also prefers to be called by her informal name though. Cadence I think it was.”

“WAIT!” Twilight said with wide eyes and shot over to Emerald, stopping with her face mere inches from Emerald’s. “Her name is Cadence?! Does she have a light pink coat, purple, pink and yellow mane and a crystal heart cutie mark?!”

“Yes, that sounds exactly like her…” Emerald said after blinking in surprise from Twilight’s sudden change in mood. “I guess you actually know her?”

“She’s my foalsitter!” Twilight shouted excitedly and started hopping all over the car like a hyperactive little filly. “My big brother is going to marry my favorite foalsitter! We’re going to be sisters!”

Everyone turned and smiled at Twilight who was now looking so happy and enthusiastic about the wedding. Suddenly, a magical barrier appeared and passed through the car; they were arriving at Canterlot. Two things happened when the barrier passed through the car. When it passed through Twilight she was looking away from the barrier at the time and didn’t see it coming, causing her to get startled and fall flat on her face when she hopped. When the barrier passed over Emerald, there was a brief lightshow of sparks and the train seemed to slow slightly for that instant, then the barrier was passed and the train continued on its way with Emerald looking briefly dazed before shaking it off.

“You okay there, Twilight?” Emerald asked the other unicorn on the ground.

“You should be asking yourself that, dear!” Rarity stated worried and trotted over to give Emerald a careful look over before looking her straight in the eye. “That was quite the sight, Emerald. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Emerald replied honestly. “I think the barrier just didn’t know what to do with me for a moment there.”

“If ya say so...” Applejack muttered as she looked out the window and saw the fast approaching train station. “Ah jus hope that little light show didn’t raise an alarm or anything.”

Emerald walked over to the window beside Applejack and blinked at the sight that greeted her as the train screeched to a stop. There was Royal Guard ponies everywhere; all over the train platform, on the walls, on the balconies of buildings and on the roofs as well. Emerald certainly could give Shining Armor props for going all out for this; in all likelihood, Emerald would have gone the same lengths in Armor’s place.

The group of eight disembarked the train, but Twilight was extremely excited about what she had just learned and so she had immediately ran ahead of everyone. The guards at the checkpoint barely had any time to say hello before Twilight ran past their checkpoint.

“Ehhh… I’m kind of a fifth wheel here,” Emerald stated as she looked at the others. “Hope you guys don’t mind, but I think Twilight is expecting to introduce me to her family. Well… part of it, anyway.”

“Oh darling, getting to know the future relatives is mandatory!” Rarity said with a cheeky grin and the others easily matched it. Even Dash gave a tiny smile. “Go on, dear. I wager your job is just as important as ours in certain views.”

“Thanks. I’ll be sure to help out with your girls’ tasks whenever I have some free time to myself,” Emerald said and quickly got to catching up to Twilight.

“Have a good time, Emmy!” Pinkie shouted after the virus.

“Miss Gleaner,” the guards greeted as she passed their checkpoint.

A few minutes of tracking later found Emerald following Twilight’s trail to the palace. The checkpoint at the palace gates were a bit more complicated here, in that Emerald needed to promise to be good before passing the checkpoint. When she had passed the gates, she saw Twilight standing in front of Shining Armor, scolding him but ruining the effect with the smile on her face.

“…Still, how could you not tell me about something as big as your wedding?” Emerald heard as she closed in. “And to Cadence of all ponies! I would have been so happy and excited for the both of you if you had kept me in the loop!”

“Aww, who ruined the surprise?” Armor asked, though there was a hint of relief in his expression.

“That would be me,” Emerald answered as she took up a spot beside Twilight. “I kind of ruined it when I mentioned ‘Mi Amore Cadenza’s’ casual name to her.”

“And you must be the mare the capital was buzzing about,” Armor greeted with a smile, though Emerald noted there was tiredness to it. “I am Shining Armor, little Twiley’s big brother.”

“I’m Emerald Gleaner, Twilight’s fillyfriend,” Emerald replied politely as she took in Armor’s visage and body language. The first thing that leapt out at Emerald was the tension in his body, then was how stressed out and tired he looked. Really, now that she got a good look at Armor, Emerald was surprised that he wasn’t asleep on his hooves. She supposed that could be chalked up to sheer dedication and strength of will.

“I’m so glad to finally meet the mare that stole Twiley’s heart.” Armor smiled at her before turning towards Twilight with a teasing smile. “I guess Cadence and I will be attending another wedding sometime in the near future, huh?”

“Oh my g-gosh…” Twilight said wide-eyed with a crimson blush. “I-it’s a bit soon to be talking abou-”

“Oh I’ll be sure to pop the question sometime soon.” Emerald smiled and got a shocked look from Twilight. “It’s definitely going to be hard deciding who the best stallion is going to be. Normally it would be the father’s job, but you are so close to Twilight, soo…”

“I’m sure dad and I will figure something out,” Armor replied with a grin as Twilight’s face turned utterly crimson.

“Course technically I am a bride as well,” Emerald said with a thoughtful hum. “I suppose I can always ask Rarity if she will be the one walking me down the aisle as well.”

“Okay, let’s stop before Twiley faints from all the blood rushing to her head.” Armor laughed and Emerald had to join in when she caught a look of just how crimson Twilight was right now. Now looking rejuvenated, like the talk had done a lot to help him, Armor continued. “How about I show you two somepony special?”

“Are we going to see Cadence?” Twilight asked excitedly.

“No point in trying to keep the secret now,” Armor merely replied with a smile as he started walking away.

“Come on, Emerald.” Twilight smiled at the virus. “When I met Cadence last week, she told me she really wanted to meet you.”

“You met Cadence recently?” Armor looked back at his little sister with a raised brow. “Huh, she didn’t tell me for some reason.”

“From what you told me, it sounds like you were really busy,” Twilight stated. “Maybe she just never had the time to tell you?”

“So… there are a lot of guards about,” Emerald commented. “Are you upping the security for your wedding?”

“I would have done so anyway, but most of the reason has to do with a threat being made to Canterlot,” Armor answered as he led the two through the palace.

“A threat to Canterlot, huh?” Emerald said. “I suppose since the uhh… last threat you’d want to make absolutely certain nothing happens.”

“Yes… yes I do,” Armor answered solemnly as Twilight shot her a look. “Ever since the Gray Fox rampaged all across Equestria, I’ve been putting the Royal Guard through their paces. Obviously if the combat skills that a thief can impart on his fellow criminals is enough to outdo us, we needed improvement.”

“I’m sure under your leadership the Royal Guard has improved immensely, Captain Armor,” Emerald said assuredly, inwardly feeling guilt for her past actions.

“…Didn’t help against the Fox,” Armor said softly. “Hopefully I’ll manage to protect the capital of Equestria, the Headquarters of the Royal Guard from harm, unlike most of the other cities.”

That right there killed any future conversation and the rest of the walk passed in silence. The entire time Emerald felt her guilt broil in her heart. She couldn’t help but think about how the suffering of one person only really affected her because he was family to Twilight, whilst thousands of strangers had been harmed by her and yet she felt nothing for them.

Eventually the three came out onto a bridge leading to another spire of the palace and just as they were crossing, Cadence made her appearance. Twilight made an excited squeal and immediately bounded for the taller mare.

“Cadence, I can’t believe you and Shining Armor are getting married!” Twilight said happily before she started hopping in for a moment before dancing. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Emerald couldn’t help the little laugh she let out at seeing Twilight do a silly little dance, but her laughter quickly died out at seeing the expression on Cadence’s face. Cadence was staring with confused look on her face and arched eyebrow. Eventually Twilight noticed Cadence not looking at all happy of the dance she was doing and stopped with a confused look on her face.

“What are you doing?” Cadence asked like she was expecting a stupid answer.

“Cadence?” Twilight said with a troubled look. “Is there something the matter?”

“Whatever,” Cadence scoffed in impatient annoyance and brushed past Twilight.

For a brief moment, Twilight looked incredibly hurt and angry. She was about to act when she quickly took a brief moment and calmed herself. Whatever was going on was obviously something personal bothering Cadence. Why else would she be acting this way? Emerald had a long list of problems under her belt she solved simply by talking things out with people. Twilight decided it was time to show she could do the same.

“Cadence,” Twilight said and quickly caught up to the other mare before she got more than a few steps away and halted her by standing in front of her. “Cadance, stop.”

“Get out of my way,” Cadence said angrily and was about to brush past Twilight again.

“No, Cadence,” Twilight said firmly and the other mare got a furiously incredulous look on her face. “Cadance, despite all the years we dropped out of contact, I feel we are still so close; so close we are practically already sisters! If there is anything bothering you at all, you know you can talk to me, right? You can trust me, especially after that heart to heart we had last week.”

Emerald looked on to the scene before her with a frown. She didn’t exactly know Cadance very well since she had only met the mare a few times in the palace, but she felt she had a good enough gauge of the mare’s personality to know that she was acting off right now. The virus narrowed her eyes when she saw Cadence’s eyes widen in alarm when she heard Twilight mention seeing her last week. She was quick to cover up that expression, but it was too late. Emerald’s suspicious nature was riled up now and she was giving the mare all her attention.

The evolved focused all of her senses on Cadence, and at first she noticed nothing physically odd about the mare. She didn’t carry the faint smell of dyes, her eyes appeared to be naturally purple, nothing at all physically said that this was someone in disguise as Cadance. However, the more she looked, the more Emerald felt … off. Something about Cadence was setting Emerald on edge now that she was looking closely. Something about her caused her to feel like that her personal space was being grossly violated and the virus found herself having to force down a growl to her own surprise.

“O-oh, uh!” Cadence began a bit uncertainly. “I’m uh, I’m sorry Twilight. I’m just a bit… stressed is all. It’s not easy planning a wedding, and this is a very big wedding. Excuse my behavior, I’m just having some trouble coping with it all.”

“It’s alright, Cadance.” Twilight smiled. “I understand completely! That’s why my friends and I are here, after all. We are going to help you get everything all set up and take most of the load off your shoulders!”

“Oh, that’s… fantastic to know, Twilight,” Cadence said with a slightly forced smile.

“I've gotta get back to my station, but, Cadance?” Armor said with a worried frown and stepped in close to his fiancé. “We are in this together; you should have told me you were stressed out.”

“Ah…” Cadence sighed as Armor gave her a comforting hug and got a look like she had been re-energized. “I’m sorry, dear, I just didn’t want to worry you. We both have a lot of responsibilities to handle right now, after all.”

“Well if you need me, you know where to find me,” Armor said with an affectionate smile before taking his leave.

Once Shining Armor was gone, there was a long quiet moment as everyone stood in place, trying to think of something to say or do while the awkward silence deepened. Eventually, it was Twilight who ended the silence.

“Cadence, this is Emerald Gleaner, my fillyfriend,” Twilight said as she walked over to stand beside Emerald. “You said you wanted to meet her when we talked, remember?”

“Ah… y-yes, thanks for reminding me,” Cadance said and stepped closer to Emerald before reaching out to her with a hoof. “Greetings, I am Mi Amore-”

This time Emerald couldn’t stop the snarl that leapt out of her throat and the way she felt her hackles rise at Cadence reaching out to her. Something about the now startled mare before her just utterly rubbed her the wrong way and Emerald couldn’t help but react at Cadence reaching to her with a hoof.

“Emerald!” Twilight shouted in shock before quickly grabbing said virus and pulling her away quickly. “I’m so sorry Cadence, just give us a minute alone.”

The two quickly left the bridge Cadence was on and entered past a door before Twilight stopped and rounded on Emerald with an angry look on her face.

“Emerald, what in Equestria has gotten into you?!” Twilight asked angrily. “I try to introduce you to my most favorite foal sitter in the world and you snarl at her like a… like a vicious animal!”

“I… I honestly don’t know…” Emerald said to Twilight’s confusion. “Twilight, I’ve met Cadence before, and I’ve never had this reaction to her at all. When she tried to ignore you and you said those things to her, I had got this suspicion that she wasn’t actually Cadence and tried to spot the signs. Though she appears to actually be her, but… well all I’ve got this is really bad feeling about her now… I don’t know, maybe it’s just me being paranoid and suspicious. Maybe I should just go for a quick walk to calm down?”

“… Maybe,” Twilight said with a thoughtful hum as she shot a look over her shoulder at the door. “Hmm… okay, you can go take a walk like you said and I’ll stay with Cadence. When you come back and if the feeling about her hasn’t left, then… well, I trust you Emerald and I kind of feel like there might be something off with her as well. We’ll investigate this together.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Emerald said and nuzzled Twilight briefly before walking away. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“See you soon, Emerald,” Twilight said back before returning to Cadence.

As Emerald wandered the halls of the palace, she began to think of a specific location she could go to. After some thinking, she decided to see if Luna was up and about. Granted it may be a long shot considering the alicorn’s sleeping schedule tended to vary widely, doubly so thanks to the lessons she gave to Emerald which tended to be during the day.

As she made her way towards Luna’s room, Emerald passed by a group of gossiping maids as they cleaned some windows.

“You hear about the Deinos?” one maid whispered to another, more focused on talking than cleaning as she buffed one spot over and over.

“Heard about the other Thracians. What about the Deinos?” the other maid replied.

“They’ve holed themselves up in a different part of the palace,” the first maid whispered back. “For some reason, something about the wedding is really agitating all of them.”

“Maybe it’s something about all the strange ponies running around?” one maid said with a shrug. “They don’t exactly have calm temperaments. I saw one whack her hoof and broke a table and she started cursing like no tomorrow.”

Emerald shook her head as the two maids giggled and rounded the corner. She continued on her way through a few halls and up a few stairways before arriving at Luna’s bedroom. Emerald knocked softly and waited a moment before opening the princess’s bedroom door a bit. The sight that greeted her was the curtains pulled over all the windows and balcony door and Luna sleeping soundly in her bed with her sleeping mask on.

‘Well, Luna is sleeping,’ Emerald thought as she softly closed the door. ‘Now what to do? Hmm… guess I’ll just go wander around for a bit.’

And so Emerald did. However, the point of her wandering was to calm down, but the agitated feeling just stayed with her, broiling beneath the surface and sometimes growing stronger every now and then, oddly coinciding with passing some maids or wedding guests. Emerald knew her viral instincts just didn’t get randomly riled up for no reason, and was beginning to think there was something to her suspicions when a maid brushed past her.

The maid had appeared suddenly from around the corner and while Emerald saw her quick enough to not bump directly into her it wasn’t fast enough to avoid touching. As soon as the maid touched her, the feeling of agitation suddenly exploded and the virus felt dirty and her personal space utterly violated.

Instantly, Emerald rounded on the maid with a loud snarl, feeling her teeth elongate into sharp canines while the pupils of her eyes became slitted. A normal pony would have screamed and maybe even fainted from the suddenness of Emerald’s animalistic snarl. The maid didn’t react like a pony would have, however.

The maid faced Emerald with a death glare, her own eyes flashing green as she gave a snake like hiss at Emerald, revealing a set of fangs as she did so. A moment later, the maid turned tail and ran away, leaving Emerald to stand and stare.

‘… Okay, I am definitely not imagining things!’ Emerald thought furiously and considered chasing after the maid before dismissing the thought. ‘No, I need to get to Twilight. I’ve been getting these feelings from Cadence as well, and Twilight is with her. I swear if that thing does anything to her, I’ll eat her FACE!’

Emerald sent out a viral pulse and as soon as it came back she bolted in its direction. After a single minute of running, Emerald found herself just outside the room her pulses would come from. She peered through the open doors to find Twilight fine, to her stark relief. Twilight was sitting with “Cadence” and trying to make small talk with her. “Cadence,” however, didn’t appear to be faring well in the small talk department and was appearing to stress out with it, which was another big red flag considering the impression Emerald had gotten of her; Cadence was the sort to socialise easily.

Deciding to test something, Emerald sent out a pulse with the target being Cadance. She had expected the pulse to just pass over the Cadence before her, because she was thinking of her as an imposter, but the pulse did come back from her. That had Emerald reassessing her thoughts and ideas when a second return pulse came back from somewhere below her. That made Emerald go stock still and she sent half a dozen viral pulses. Each time the pulses came back twice, one from “Cadence” in the room in front of her and another from somewhere below her.

In Emerald’s mind, that said all she needed to know of her suspicions and she quickly formulated a plan of action be acting on it.

“Twilight!” Emerald called out from the doorway, catching both mares’ attention. “Can I talk to you for a minute? I had forgotten to pack some hygienic necessities.”

Cadence got a uncomfortable look on her face before looking away from Emerald. Twilight, however, looked briefly confused. Emerald didn’t need anything like that. Excusing herself from a secretly very relieved Cadence, Twilight walked over to see Emerald.

Stepping a bit further into the hallway and making sure no one was around to eavesdrop, Emerald began talking.

“Twilight, I think there is something going on here,” Emerald whispered. “I keep getting these instinctive moments of aggression towards some people I pass and I think Cadance is an imposter.”

“How do you think that?” Twilight asked seriously as she gave her own look around for eavesdroppers.

“As long as I do a sort of mental lock on, on someone I can track them with my viral sonar within a certain distance,” Emerald explained. “But when I did that with Cadence, something happened that’s never happened before. I got a pulse back from her, but I also got another pulse from somewhere below me.”

“Below?” Twilight repeated as she looked down.

“My dogs know the underground areas of Canterlot,” Emerald explained. “They found tons of natural caverns filled with crystals beneath it. Whoever this Cadence is, I believe she is using some sort of magic to pose as her and is keeping the real Cadence hidden away down there.”

Twilight was quiet for a moment as her expression became a mask of severity.

“Emerald, go save her,” Twilight said to the virus.

“I intend to, Twilight.” Emerald nodded.

“Okay, while you are doing that I’ll stay here and keep an eye on this imposter,” Twilight said and stepped in close to Emerald. After a moment’s hesitation, she quickly closed the gap and gave Emerald a full kiss on the lips for a long moment before backing away. “Please stay safe.”

“Me? You’re the one with a soft, fleshy body.” Emerald smiled warmly, feeling like there was a small brightly shining star where her heart was supposed to be. “I’ll be fine. You be careful about watching her. No telling what she might decide to do.”

“I’ll take the same care I do on my usual adventures,” Twilight replied before Emerald teleported away, directly into the caverns and tunnels beneath the city. The unicorn then took a deep breath before quickly returning to the room Cadence was still waiting in, intent to keep the imposter within view as much as possible.

Emerald was currently a long tendril drilling through the rock and crystal that made up the caverns beneath Canterlot.

Thanks to the Diamond Dog digging skills she had learned a while ago, the speed at which she was moving through the dirt was astounding. She was practically rocketing through the solid stone and would likely reach the second target of the viral pulse any minute.

One other thing Emerald was noticing as she was traveling, however, was that there was a magical field that was steadily growing stronger as she went deeper into the caverns. The virus figured this field had something to do with the concentration of crystals and felt a lot like the magical fields the teleportation interdictors projected.

Eventually she neared the origin point of the return pulse and Emerald dropped into a crystal filled tunnel before reforming in her pony form. Straining her senses slightly, Emerald was able to catch the sound of soft breathing and calm heartbeats. Emerald rounded the corner and the sight that met her eyes was that of a Cadence sleeping on the cavern floor, her mane and coat very ragged looking from spending quite a bit of time without bathing and personal care.

Utterly silent, the virus made her approach on Cadance’s sleeping form. After she came to a stop next to her, Emerald quickly shook Cadence awake while magically muting her. Cadance shot up immediately from the shaking and looked around briefly before locking her eyes on Emerald; strangely, the look in her eyes was both suspicious and hopeful.

“Emerald, is that really you?” Cadance asked as soon as Emerald lowered the muting spell.

“Yes it is, Cadence,” Emerald answered softly, curious of the reply and wondering if Cadance knew what sort of person had imprisoned and impersonated her. “Come here. We can talk later. Right now, let’s just get you out of here.”

“I’ve tried to find my way out, but this place is a labyrinth,” Cadence told Emerald. “And the crystals kept me from just teleporting out as well.”

“I figured that would be the case…” Emerald muttered and hummed in thought as she channeled her magic and began testing the anti-teleportation fields that surrounded her. Unlike a field projected by an interdictor, this one wasn’t as refined and was very crude. Emerald could very well just break through the field with sheer brute magical force, though it may put them a bit off course.

“Right, I’m pretty sure I can brute force our way out,” Emerald stated and wrapped a leg around Cadence. “Alright, hold on. We’ll be sent off course a little bit.”

Cadance gave Emerald a questioning look, seemingly wondering if she could actually manage to call up the massive amount of magic required. After a moment, she made herself as close as physically possible to Emerald and prepared herself for a rough arrival.

Emerald’s horn started glowing brightly, the concentrated brightness of her magical aura intensified and eventually looked like a blow torch. Then with a loud crack that echoed throughout the caverns beneath the city, Emerald and Cadence disappeared.

An instant later, the both of them appeared in the sky over Ponyville. Emerald had intended to be in the sky, as it was safer considering their point of arrival would be deviated. Emerald and Cadence barely started to fall when Emerald teleported the both of them to the library back below them. The both of them arrived safely on the floor of the library, but the sudden teleports had been a bit much for Cadance.

“Oof…” Cadance grunted as she landed on her side, but after a quick glance of her surroundings she soon gained a wide, thankful smile. “Oh thank goodness. Out of that cave.”

“I kind of want to get right into finding out everything you know,” Emerald began as she took in Cadance’s unwashed ragged form. “But I think we can spare time for a quick shower for you to get yourself comfortable.”

“Oh thank you, Emerald!” Cadence said gratefully and gave the virus a brief hug. “I promise not to take too long. What I have to tell you is very important.”

“Right, I’ll show you to the shower,” Emerald said and began leading Cadence to the master bedroom’s shower.

“Do you remember when you were trying to figure out how to get Armor to like you?” Twilight asked. “We spent SOO much time making plans and putting together graphs to figure out how to get you and Armor together. Remember that night when you two finally got together? I heard the look on that other stallion’s face was funny.”

“Oh it… certainly was!” Cadance said with a nervous smile. “It’s… just too bad only Armor and I saw it!”

“…” Twilight tilted her head at Cadence strangely and immediately the other mare felt she had made a mistake. “Well… it was a long while ago; I suppose you can’t be expected to remember everything perfectly.”

“Eh heh…” Cadence said with a forced smile, inwardly wishing something would happen to interrupt things before she messed up more.

“Excuse me?” a voice said.

Cadance and Twilight turned to see a butler standing at the doorway with a somewhat worried look on his face.

“Princess Cadenza, there are some issues regarding the wedding I need to inform you about,”  the butler said.

“Oh! Of course!” Cadence said and almost leapt out of her seat at the first opportunity to leave the conversation with Twilight. “I’ll be right back, Twilight. You… you just stay right there.”

Cadence then quickly left for the butler’s side and the two walked out of Twilight’s sight. Cadance gave a relieved sigh as she left the room and followed the butler into a room across from the one she left.

“I take it your highness is finding interaction difficult?” the butler asked respectfully.

“It… this is much harder than I thought it would be, yes.” Cadence sighed in irritation. “I suppose it was too much to believe I could effectively do this sort of work with just some on the spot training.”

“Your highness is very talented… but talent can only go so far,” the butler said. “Your ladyship should also be aware that the wedding guest staying at our expense has decided to leave suddenly. She was gone by the time we noticed and didn’t have a chance to dissuade her. One of the maids may have also had a faux pas with one of the other guests and damaged relations rather badly.

“…” Cadence was quiet for a long moment at hearing that before sighing and getting a steely look in her eyes. “These are very troubling events, but the wedding plans must go on. However, in light of them we must advance the wedding plans.”

“Of course, your highness.”

“Have a maid give Princess Luna the gift we intended for her at a later time,” Cadence stated with a hardened gaze. “I doubt she’ll be awake at this hour, so it’ll be simple enough to have a maid light the special incense for her. Then simply spread the word amongst the others that the wedding plans have been advanced several days.”

“Right away, your highness,” the butler said and quickly left.

Just outside the room in the hall was Twilight, who was frowning in thought as she eavesdropped on the conversation in the room. Nothing terribly suspicious had been said in her opinion, though that point where Cadance had said she was having trouble interacting with people seemed a bit off. Cadence was such a sociable person and rarely had trouble talking to people.

Hearing the sound of approaching hoof steps, Twilight quickly retreated away back into the other room as quietly as possible. She had just managed to sit back down on her seat when Cadence rounded the corner and entered the room.

“So what was the matter?” Twilight asked Cadence as she approached. “It’s not something that would keep the wedding from happening, or delay it, is it?”

Cadence didn’t say a word and kept approaching Twilight until she stood just before the unicorn and stared down at her. Twilight was really beginning to feel disturbed by this and was wondering why Cadence was staring at her like this when said mare’s eyes flashed green and she dived at her.

“Most of the time I was just sitting there alone in the caverns,” Cadence said to Emerald, her mane still slightly moist. “But I managed to catch a few things. The ones who captured me are changelings, and it was their queen who took on my form. They intend to invade Canterlot. Why they needed to infiltrate my wedding to do so, I don’t know why.”

“Maybe they are taking advantage of the sudden surge of ponies coming into the city to see the wedding?” Emerald thought aloud, but she was also confused.

Emerald knew of changelings from Nidhogg’s memories. The dragon didn’t really know much of the magical shapeshifters, but he knew enough that Emerald could tell that an all-out invasion did not fit the changeling MO. Changelings used infiltrators to collect a large amount of love, which they sent back to the hive for the other changelings. Using violence was VERY counterproductive to collecting love; it wasn’t like people were going to get affectionate with each other during an invasion of all things. So what was going on?

Emerald’s thoughts were interrupted when people outside the house started shouting in panic. The virus and Cadence quickly ran outside to see what was going on. They were briefly confused as they found nothing, but saw that everyone was pointing towards Canterlot.

What met their gaze was the sight of a shielded Canterlot being swarmed by a horde of black dots. Emerald’s eyes were better than everyone there, and she was able to make out the little black specs in the distance as changelings.

A moment later and the barrier protecting Canterlot collapsed and the massive swarm of changelings descended upon the city.

‘Twilight!’ Emerald thought in alarm and was just about to charge right into the thick of it with a teleport when she stopped herself. ‘No, no! I can’t! I’m just one person; no matter how powerful I am, I can’t be everywhere at once! Who knows what the changelings will get up to while I’m busy running all over the place fighting everyone?! I… I need an army… I have an army… should I take that irrevocable step? Of course I will. For Twilight’s sake, I’ll gladly expose myself.’

“Emerald, wait!” Cadance shouted when she saw Emerald start walking forward. “I know you are worried about everypony but you are just one unicorn. You may have strong magic but they have a whole army! There is precious little one pony can do in this situation. You need to stop and thi-”

“You don’t know me,” Emerald interrupted with deadly seriousness before suddenly teleporting away with a pink flash.

An instant later, Emerald arrived in the main entry area to the Hub. Quickly getting her bearings, Emerald rounded on some Warhounds standing guard at the main entrance tunnel.

“YOU LOT THERE!” Emerald shouted, causing the Warhounds to start at the tone of her voice. “SPREAD THE WORD! I WANT ALL THE WARHOUNDS GATHERED HERE AND PREPARED TO HEAD INTO COMBAT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! GET THE RAPTORS AS WELL!”

“Yes boss!” the Warhounds said with wide eyes at realising that they were going to go into combat before taking off at a sprint.

Emerald proceeded to start pacing and waiting impatiently for Warhounds to get ready for combat and come to her. After several minutes, she started to hear excited talking and shouting coming from the city as more dogs got news of an upcoming fight. After a few long moments, Emerald saw a crowd of Alphas running towards her with Belvedere and Fenrir at its head.

“Emerald, what is going on?” Belvedere said as he got close. “Are we about to be attacked?”

“The changelings are invading,” Emerald answered. “They are attacking Canterlot right now and I need everyone prepped for an actual battle.”

At first the Dogs were ready to leap at Emerald’s word and go out to start organizing their forces.  Then they heard Emerald clarify where the invasion was happening and their enthusiasm declined rapidly. Two thirds of the alphas immediately looked unhappy about Emerald wanting to deploy them to help out the ponies. However, about half of the discontent Alphas shrugged this off and were about to join the Alphas that were already moving when Belvedere spoke up.

“No,” Belvedere stated and stopped an Alpha that had started moving.

“…” Emerald stopped her pacing after a moment and then looked at Belvedere with a frown, actually wondering if she misheard. “Can you repeat that?”

“I said no,” Belvedere stated, crossing his arms and staring down Emerald. “I don’t think our own should be risked just for some ponies. Especially a group that has hurt us seriously twice before, once when they allowed Nidhogg to escape and destroy our nation and again when they betrayed us and locked you away for two months.”

Emerald just stared at Belvedere with an unreadable look in her eye. Outwardly she appeared calm, but inwardly she was furious. There wasn’t time to be wasting on this. The virus forced herself to calm down before she couldn’t hide it. What she needed to do was convince Belvedere that ultimately this was the best course of action for the Enclave to take, especially when it came to how people viewed their nation. The first impression of coming to the aid of a neighbour rather then one day being outed as a highly militarized isolationist power being obviously preferable, it was not lost on Emerald she was at fault for that very fact.

“Look…” Emerald began. “I know the ponies haven’t exactly done much to ingratiate themselves to us but that doesn’t change the fact that one day we will be exposed to the wider world outside this forest. Don’t you think it would be so much better for all of us if they saw us at our best? Coming to the aid of a neighbour rather than them one day seeing us as a bunch of people hiding in the woods with immensely powerful weapons? Just what kind of message would the latter present to everyone? That we would rather prefer the company of the most dangerous forest in the world and aim our guns at everyone beyond it? I know it was my idea to set up a home here, my idea to make all these weapons but we can give them a better idea of what sort of people we can be through our actions than where we live.”

“…” Belvedere stared at his feet for a long moment, deep in thought as he considered Emerald’s words, then he looked back up with a determined expression. “I said no.”

“…I tried.” Emerald sighed with a shake of her head as she shifted into her human form. “I tried to talk things out and be reasonable. Oh well...”

Then the virus suddenly teleported and she was right in front of Belvedere. The greyhound didn’t have time to react to the teleport, let alone Emerald’s hand grabbing him by his throat. He was hoisted above Emerald’s head for a brief moment before she slammed him into the rock floor. Emerald then brought her foot up over his chest and brought it down.

There was a loud thud from Emerald’s foot impacting Belvedere’s chest that caused all the dogs surrounding the two to wince and flinch away. Belvedere himself couldn’t help but let out a pained whine as Emerald’s foot pressed down on his chest. He could tell the only reason his ribs weren’t in shattered pieces was because of the augments he had received, but even then his ribs felt like they were being pushed to the very edge of breaking.

“You all listen to me and you listen good!” Emerald growled out at everyone. “Who was it that crippled an entire pack of Diamond Dogs? It was me! Who was it that killed and ate Nidhogg?! It was me! Who was it that freed you all from slavery and offered to let any who wanted to leave, go? It was ME! Who brought you all up from living in SCRAP HOVELS AND EATING PET FOOD! IT WAS ME! WHO MADE YOU INTO THE STRONGEST AND MOST DEADLIeST FIGHTING FORCE THAT THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN?! IT. WAS. ME!!!”

“I’ve treated you all very nicely,” Emerald stated after breathing heavily for a moment, glaring at all the dogs around her. “I’ve given you all free food, water and homes. I ask nicely for willing cooperation rather than demand them. I’ve allowed you all to question my actions when you felt the need. I’ve kept to my own business when it came to what you all did in your free time, as long as it didn’t get in the way of what I wanted. I allowed it all. But… despite all of that, there is one thing you all should have kept in mind but have forgotten… THIS is a Dictatorship! What I say GOES! AND I SAY WE GO TO WAR! Now… is there anyone here who wishes to voice their critique of my decisions?”

For a long moment there was silence. Then Fenrir stepped forward and bowed at his waist before Emerald.

“I hear your commands, Princeps, and it will be my honour to carry them out,” Fenrir stated respectfully. “At your word I shall lead our soldiers into battle.”

After that, every other Alpha surrounding Emerald copied Fenrir’s actions and bowed to Emerald and softly repeated his words.

“You heard what I wanted,” Emerald stated bluntly. “Now get to work.”

“Of course, my lady. Right away,” Fenrir replied solemnly before he and the other Alphas quickly ran off to fulfil Emerald’s commands.

After everyone had gone a decent distance away from her, Emerald looked down towards Belvedere who was still under her foot, squirming somewhat from the pain the pressure was causing him. Emerald took her foot off of the Alpha and roughly pulled him to his feet before giving him a sharp shove away from her. Before he could say anything, Emerald spoke up.

“We will talk later,” Emerald stated as she stared him down. “Go do your damn job.”

“I… I will… Princeps…” Belvedere stated with a bow of his head and an unreadable expression on his face before quickly moving away with a limp.

Emerald stared after him for a minute before turning away and facing the main tunnel entrance of the Enclave. Did she do the right thing? Should she have tried again to convince Belvedere when her first attempt to talk things out didn’t succeed? She didn’t know and frankly it no longer mattered, what was done was done. As always, she would have to deal with the consequences sooner or later. Right now though, the only thing Emerald’s mind was concerned with was the invasion in Canterlot and the hope that everyone was holding out.

Ponies were running in panic everywhere as the changelings utterly swarmed every street of Canterlot. The Royal Guard, still sore and humiliated from their fights with the Gray Fox, had redoubled on their training and combat readiness. It was thanks to this that there was still pockets of Royal Guard resistance in the city. That and the fact that Canterlot’s more volatile residents had leapt in the fray to help the Royal Guard in the fighting.

“Raaagh!” Roared a Xanthos as he snarled, bit and kicked at any changeling that got too close, ignoring the fact that green ichor dripped down his chin from the horrid bites his razor sharp teeth inflicted on the changelings.

All around him the battle to defend Canterlot’s city centre raged. Royal Guard and Thracians ran from one street to another to either reinforce battle lines or retake ones that had broken. On the streets, Royal Guard coordinated Xanthos and Lampon Thracians ponies to the fullest effect of their power. Xanthos were always on the front where their brute strength and durability would be their most effective. Lampon held back behind the lines to support the front lines with their magic in the best way they could while also providing support to the battle in the air.

Just like the fighting on the ground, the battle in the air was chaotic; possibly even more so than the ground fighting. Royal Guard pegasi did everything in their power to try to form the Podargos Thracians into something resembling a coherent formation that wouldn’t fall apart with just a few prods. Their work was cut out for them, as the Podargos were mostly civilians and even those who had been Royal Guard were having great difficulties keeping their aggressiveness in check. Still, the changelings’ advantage of numbers seemed to melt into uselessness in the face of Thracian power and natural viciousness.

Suddenly a cold chill seemed to settle over the entire battlefield and the changelings seemed to completely stop their assault on one side and retreat. Knowing that something dangerous was coming, the local Guard commander directed most of the reserved and resting squads to the areas suddenly relieved of changeling assault; this was precisely the wrong thing to do.

A pair of changelings walked down one of the streets emptied of changeling attackers. At their approach, a frost seemed to cover everything and just looking in their direction caused a sense of horrible despair. Unlike the other changelings, these ones were black and orange. Their eyes were a solid, inky black, they lacked the “holes” normal changelings had in their bodies and didn’t have gossamer wings. Instead, these two changelings had busy orange manes, bat like wings with faintly orange membranes and possessed skeletal bodies.

When these two changelings neared the lines of Guard ponies and Thracians arrayed against the very line seemed to break and run. Shouts and screams of horror and despair filled the air as normal ponies couldn’t seem to stand even being near these strange changelings. And while the Thracians seemed to be holding out better, they still appeared to be on the verge of running from the way they shook and stared at the strange changelings.

“Hold your ground!” came a desperate shout from a Royal Guard, but it was no good. His shout had been drowned out in the chaos of breaking battle lines and the continuous fighting.

A changeling fell to the ground screaming in pain and grabbing at the horrible gash at its side. Razor Wing just snarled and kicked the wounded Changeling at its retreating fellows.

The very moment the sounds of fighting and panic started to sound throughout the palace, the Deinos immediately leapt into action and started claiming areas of the palace. They had managed to secure a few rooms for the palace stuff to hide away in, protected from the fighting when they started encountering changeling forces. Skirmishes over hallways, battles for ballrooms and dining chambers kept popping up like wild fires all over the palace. The worst part of this was the fact there was only little over three hundred Deinos and who knows how many thousands of changelings. There was literally only so many Deinos that could be spread across the palace before their battle lines thinned too much. There was a silver lining to this, however. Simply the fact that all the Deinos were incredibly powerful by pony standards, and thus just one of them was often enough to handle a large amount of changelings. Still though, the Deinos were forced to constantly shift around their forces to cover gaps and reinforce weak spots when the changelings attempted a push.

Hearing a low, lion like growl, Razor turned to his side and saw Sharp Skies standing over a still Changeling, her many teeth stained green and dripping with ichor. Razor found himself not as troubled with the sight as he thought he should have been and looked over his shoulder.

“Where in the world is Princess Luna!” Razor Wing shouted over his shoulder. “I sent that scout to her ten minutes ago!”

Suddenly there was the sound of shattering glass and another Deinos swooped down to land before Razor Wing.

“I just got back from her room!” the scout said. “Those big bugs are everywhere!”

“Never mind that! Where’s the princess?” Razor stated. “Was she not there when you went to get her?”

“She was there alright, and so were several maids who barricaded the doors and windows.” The Deinos scouted answered. “Luna’s in some deep sleep and nothing done to her even disturbs her slightly.”

Razor let out a growl of frustration as he considered what little he knew of the current situation. The information was a jumble of random bits and pieces from the palace staff they rescued from the changelings, since the Deinos had stayed away from the wedding areas of the palace due to a sense of agitation they had started feeling. They knew the changelings had just suddenly appeared and overran the general area Celestia and Cadence had been in before spreading over the rest of the palace. It was a simple matter to figure out that the wedding had been heavily infiltrated by changelings. What wasn’t a simple matter was figuring out how deeply the infiltration had run before the invasion started.

But that kind of thinking was for later. Right now, Razor Wing and the other Deinos were more concerned about retaking the palace. Then they’d think about regrouping with the Royal Guard and working to retake the rest of the city from the Changeling invasion.

“Here they come again!” one of the Deinos shouted.

Razor Wing looked down the hallway to see just eight changelings charging towards them. Normally it would be groups of twenty or thirty, but something about how these changelings looked immediately put Razor Wing and the fourteen other Deinos with him on edge.

The eight strange Changelings came to a stop a dozen feet away from the line of agitated battle ready Deinos. There was a moment of silence filled only with the echoes of distant fighting when suddenly a biting chill filled the air. Razor and the other Deinos felt suddenly filled with despair and hopelessness… for a brief moment, and then they shook it off. The Deinos who were civilians looked a little worse for wear, but otherwise they were perfectly able and willing to fight.

This seemed to startle and caused the strange changelings to hesitate for a moment before they silently charged forward.

Razor Wing met the charge of one of the changelings with a roar and swipe of his blade wings. The changeling grunted in pain from the cut, but despite the sharpness of the blades it was only a shallow one that healed shockingly fast before the changeling charged into Razor.

Razor Wing grappled briefly with the changeling and felt like it was rather even when it came to strength, but an instant later and suddenly it was as if the Changeling was twice as strong and Razor was sent hurtling into a wall. Despite hitting the wall hard enough to cause it to crack, Razor Wing landed on his hooves and sent a crude beam of magic that impacted a wall of orange flames the changeling he was fighting put up. An instant later, Sharp Skies tackled the changeling and started to maul it.

Razor quickly took stock of the fighting with the other changelings and Deinos and found that, despite their own numbers advantage, the changelings were able to meet them head on. It seemed that whatever ability it was that allowed the changelings to boost their own physical abilities let them more than match the Deinos in a two on one fight.

A moment later and Sharp Skies was sent flying into the ceiling by the changeling she had been mauling. Said changeling had gushing neck wounds, but they were already sealing up and it was quickly getting back to being fully healed and ready for more fighting.

Razor Wing took this chance to teleport into the air over the changeling and body slam him. The Deinos Royal Guard wrapped one leg around the changeling’s head in a neck lock while his wings stabbed into his sides, trying to inflict crippling injuries on an opponent that was quickly growing stronger than him and healing much faster as well.

‘Darn it all, can’t even call up some more of us from other areas of the palace,’ Razor thought in frustration as he wrestled with his opponent. ‘ Too much fighting, too many changelings trying to sneak past us to ambush us from behind. We need reinforcements!’

Finally, Razor Wing was bucked off and landed on his hooves, allowing him to meet the changeling’s follow up charge head on. Razor Wing gritted his teeth as he saw that Sharp Skies had to go help another Deinos which left him as the sole one with a one on one fight.

‘I won’t lose to you! I won’t, I WON’T!’ Razor thought as the changeling started to overpower him and a burning sensation started rise up in his chest.

An instant later, Razor roared out and a torrent of flames leapt from his open maw and into the face of the changeling he was grappling.

There was a loud screech of pain as the changeling recoiled from Razor, its face now alight with flames. Razor Wing kept up his advantage and sent a blast of magic at the changeling and sent it flying through the air.

The Deinos was about to press his advantage further when a loud shout sounded behind him and Razor turned to see a large group of normal changelings charging at them.

‘Great, now we have to deal with the normal changelings as well as these powerful ones...’ Razor Wing thought angrily. ‘This isn’t going well AT ALL. Could definitely use a little help!’

With that, Razor Wing meet the charge of changelings alone, hoping that the other Deinos would be able to handle all eight of the powerful changelings well enough without him.

Emerald paced with an air of great impatience and a scowl.

Currently the Warhounds gathered in the front of the Hub numbered roughly one thousand and one hundred; almost the entirety of the current field ready Warhounds. All three hundred of the Raptors were here as well, all of them ready and eager to go and fulfil the purpose they were ultimately created for. There was an area filled with open crates holding guns, ammunition and grenades where many dogs were loading up to their maximum. Tavish was there as well and looked rather annoyed to be forced to listen to Missy tell him again how to properly use the Grenade Launcher he was holding. Despite the fact the little dog now had proper training, Missy felt he wasn’t going to use his weapon properly. There was just one more group of just around one hundred Warhounds left to gather for the battle and the entire force would head out to Canterlot’s aid.

Emerald turned as she heard the roar and approach of several buggies. Driving down through the streets of the hub was a small force of ten buggies. Each was modeled after designs of the DPV buggy Emerald had shown them, and was altered to fit a Diamond Dog’s physiology. Unlike the DPVs from earth, the Warhound versions didn’t have any mounted weapons on them currently, as those were still in the testing stage.

“So I’m guessing these vehicles are up to my specifications now?” Emerald asked as she approached one of the drivers.

“Well… sorta, boss,” the driver answered, scratching the back of his head. “The engines can go seventy miles per hour pretty easily; it’s just that… well they can start chugging a big sometimes when they have to maintain that speed. These engines are still in the experimental phase, but under seventy they work perfectly fine, boss!”

“Hmm…” Emerald gave a hard stare at the buggy’s engine block. “Well it’s not like we are going to be facing a force that has any mechanization at all. Load up some Warhounds and a ton of ammo.”

“Right, boss!” the driver said with a salute and started shouting for passengers and ammo.

By the time the buggies were all loaded up, the wait time was about to reach half an hour and Emerald’s temper was about to go critical when the final group of Warhounds finally arrived. The group quickly passed through the other companies and squads to the ammunition area and rapidly loaded themselves up before falling into place as well.

“ALRIGHT!” Emerald shouted and quieted any and all chatter in the room. “It’s time to move out! Everyone prepare yourselves for teleport!”

Emerald then focused on her magic and started to fill the air with it, quickly encapsulating every Warhound, buggy and Raptor in it. After nearly a minute of charging up and calculating to ensure no one would go off course, and their destination was big enough for all of them, Emerald unleashed her magic.

There was a blinding flash of pink light and a moment where Emerald was able to both see the Hub and the cavern under Canterlot she intended to arrive in, then it was gone.

‘Okay… was actually able to perceive the transition between locations there…’ Emerald thought with a shake of her head to get rid of a dizziness she felt. Looking up, Emerald saw that the dogs and raptors felt the same way and were shaking off some brief dizziness. ‘Glad to know I am powerful enough to pull off something like this without feeling excessively drained or anything along those lines.’

“Alright, everyone form up into your units!” Emerald shouted out and watched as everyone quickly got into squads of ten. “We don’t have time to make up any complicated plans, but I feel that nothing complicated is needed here. Above us is the city of Canterlot which is currently being invaded by an army of changelings. Without a single doubt I can say we are outnumbered here. But what we aren’t is outmatched and outgunned. All of you have excellent training and the best weapons in the known world. I have total confidence in each and every one of you to beat the changelings. Remember your training and your war gear. Good luck. I’ll leave this next part in the capable hands of your Alphas.”

With that, the Alphas in command of the entire force briefly got together and organized their initial push into the city. They decided to divide their forces into twelve groups of one hundred with twenty five raptors accompanying each. Once they had established “beachheads” in the city, they would spread out into platoons and squads, clearing out the city street by street, with the buggies being used to scout ahead in unclear areas.

With that, the entire Warhound force rapidly reorganized and started rapidly moving up the tunnels to the surface.

A Xanthos mare stood protectively in front of her young filly as changelings closed in from all around. The sounds of her growling and snarling could now be easily heard over the much faded sounds of fighting. It seems the changelings were now on the path to victory and were now just pacifying a few pockets of resistance that were left.

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling and the ground beneath everyone seemed to shake. The middle of the street abruptly exploded outwards, stunning everyone nearby by the unexpectedness of it all. A shape appeared in the following dust as a low roar could be discerned over the sound of crumbling rock.

The sight that met everyone’s eye confused them into stillness. It was as if someone stripped down a carriage to its skeleton and replaced it’s axles with something wider and replaced the wooden wheels with something made of metal and some rubber. The “carriage” also had no discernable means of moving itself and yet it had, most likely done through magic. There were three heavily armored passengers in the “carriage”. One was holding onto a smaller wheel obviously meant to direct the odd machine, and two others were holding strange looking things that looked a little like crossbows, if only from the way the armored beings held them.

Any more study of the new arrivals was interrupted by a loud bang and flash of light from one of the passenger’s odd looking crossbows and suddenly one of the changelings’ head evaporated in a green mist before he fell over.

There was a long moment of shocked silence from both the changelings in the street and the beings in the carriage. One of them was even staring at their “crossbow” in disbelief. The death of that one changeling was just so… abrupt.

Suddenly there was another sound, a “floomp” and a cylindrical object came flying out of the clearing dust cloud and soared into the crowd of changelings.

There was instant chaos as an explosion range out from within the changelings and ended up killing most of them. Most were lucky, falling to the ground injured with horrible lacerations or simply instantly dead from shrapnel. Some were horribly unlucky and were torn apart by the storm of metal sent out by the explosion, sending limbs and blood flying.

Out of the hole in the street came the little Alpha, Tavish Degroot. Wearing his black dragon scale armor and his grenade launcher leaning against his shoulder, he surveyed the destruction that had been wrought within a few moments.

The changelings were running, morale broken by terrifying weapons used against them. Their numbers were continuing to fall. Changelings fell with chunks of their bodies simply evaporating as massive bullets tore through them to kill yet more changelings in their path or wreck streets and walls. The two gunner dogs continued to fire their rifles until the now vastly diminished force of changelings disappeared around a corner.

Walking from the hole in the road and followed by a hundred of his fellow Warhounds, Tavish walked past the buggy, idly noticing the eyes of the gunners looked glazed over and both clutched at their rifles tightly. He then approached the Thracian mother and raised a paw placatingly when she growled at him, her young child curled up into a ball with her eyes tightly closed and hooves against her ears.

“Now now, lass. I or any of me lads don’t mean any harm,” Tavish said as soothingly as he could.

“Like I’d believe that!” the Xanthos snarled, hackles raised like a wild animal an instant before pouncing.

“Whatever, lass.” Tavish shrugged, to the mare’s surprise. He honestly had better things to do. “Alright you lot, get into your squads!  Start your sweeps of the outlying streets! And remember we’re fighting shape shifters! I don’t wanna hear about you injuring any ponies, got that?! Good! Now get your rears in gear!”

The Thracian mare watched as a hundred dogs formed up into groups of ten and she got really tense when a group of Raptors exited the hole in the road but quickly broke up into groups of five before leaping onto roofs and disappearing from sight.

Before long, Tavish found himself leading a squad of ten through the streets of nearly conquered Canterlot, though it was fairly clear right now considering that Tavish stayed back to make sure the mare didn’t try anything. However, it was most certainly not quiet as the sounds of the Warhounds’ gunfire could be heard along with the squealing roars and crowing of Raptors, not to mention the screams. Soon the need for caution became clear as Tavish’s squad starting moving down a street that had clearly not been secured or explored yet.

However, the increased tension seemed to be the only thing the squad was getting out of this experience, along with catching glimpses of scared ponies through closed curtains of their homes.

‘Well this is a bit of a letdown…’ Tavish thought as he walked up to a corner. ‘But then I ain’t exactly too disappointed I don’t get to use this bloody thing again, nasty piece of wo-’

Just as Tavish began to round the corner, immediately a large group of forty changelings or so appeared from around that very corner. They were close, extremely so. Tavish himself was only a foot or so away from one changeling.

The changelings froze from the sudden appearance of the diamond dogs, but Tavish reacted, although he reacted a bit too strongly in his own honest opinion. The little Alpha swung down his grenade launcher and quickly fired off a grenade.

‘Ohhhh, that wasn’t too smart…’ Tavish thought the instant he pulled the trigger, sending a grenade flying inches past the cheek of the changeling in front of him and hitting the one just behind that one. There was an instant explosion and Tavish fell onto his back as he felt several impacts on his armor and a sudden harsh one in his face.

‘Don’t tell me I lost me eye again!’ Tavish thought as he quickly shook his head clear of dizziness. Unfortunately for Tavish, he found that he had indeed lost his left eye again from the way everything looked a tad flat. ‘Bloody- grrrr, this is going to sting once the adrenaline wears off.’

Quickly sitting up, Tavish drew his side arm revolver and quickly sighted some dazed changelings. Because he was a smaller dog, he didn’t have a large caliber revolver, but his still packed a punch and most changelings he fired at fell from solid torso hits.

The Warhounds with Tavish had been a bit stunned as well by the sudden appearance of enemies as well as the explosion, but their training had kicked in and they all immediately swung up their rifles and fired off short bursts.

What should have been a small skirmish instead turned into a massacre. The forty changelings had instantly lost a quarter of their number from Tavish’s grenade alone. Now with the Warhounds firing their powerful rifles, the rest of their numbers both figuratively and literally evaporated into the air. Massive bullets tore apart unprotected changeling flesh like they were water balloons filled with green food coloring.

A few seconds later and the firing stopped, leaving only the Warhounds and Tavish standing. There was simply no time for either side to show or ask for mercy, or even for cowardice. In just ten seconds, over thirty changelings were dead with the rest moaning and bleeding out on the ground.

For a moment, the Diamond Dogs were left just staring at the results of their training and weapons, some openly gaping in horror. Tavish was an old dog, however, and had seen a few terrible things in his time. Sometimes he would hit someone a bit too hard during one of his adventures or see the results of an unlucky adventurer not spotting a tomb’s trap in time. Either way, the little dog took the scene better than the others did.

“… Alright lads, let’s keep moving,” Tavish said as he reached up to gingerly prod his damaged eye through his visor. “Fight ain’t over yet.”

If nothing else, the dogs fell back on their training and did as they were told, moving forward down the street, eyesight firmly locked straight ahead to avoid the gruesome sight they were walking through. Tavish’s prodding by now had confirmed that the dog didn’t have anything large enough to actually grab hold of to pull out this time, clearly some small bits of metal had torn into his eye, which was now beginning to ache horribly.

‘Well this is going to be a right bloody pain until I get boss lady to fix this,’ Tavish groused silently and did his best to ignore his now aching, ruined eye, when a series of despairing howls pierced the sounds of gunfire and roaring raptors.

“Came from that way! Come on, double time it!” Tavish pointed and started sprinting, his Warhounds a few steps behind him.

Tavish and his dogs made quick time sprinting down a street towards the location of the howling, which picked up every now and then. He was joined by three other squads as he made his way down the streets.

Finally, Tavish and about thirty worried and somewhat shell shocked looking Warhounds arrived on the scene where they heard the howling coming from. Warhounds lay unmoving on the street before the group of newly arrived diamond dogs.

Tavish quickly darted over to one fallen Warhound and breathed a soft sigh of relief when he found the dog to be still alive, just unconscious. Assuming that this was hopefully the case for the other dogs on the ground, Tavish stood back up and surveyed the street to look for threats. There was nothing to be seen, however; just an empty street full of unconscious dogs with barely any spent shells on the ground. This only made Tavish feel far more tense than if a threat could be seen.

Suddenly a feeling of despair and emptiness washed over Tavish and he fell over onto his hands and knees with a gasp. He wasn’t the only one either, as the other dogs began falling over as well. Looking up, Tavish could see several changeling like creatures standing on the rooftops. Through sheer strength of will, Tavish began to force himself to stand back up when several shots rang out and suddenly the feeling of despair was gone.

Up above, the changelings stumbled as massive wounds opened up in their sides. One even had most of their face destroyed in an instant and tumbled off the roof and onto the street, though clearly still alive and quickly beginning to get back onto its feet.

Tavish looked to see Fenrir standing down the street with his powerful rifle held up against his shoulder and sighting the changelings. With the feeling of despair gone, the dogs with Tavish slowly got back onto their feet and even the dogs lying still on the ground started to stir.

Without the oppressing feeling, Tavish quickly got back onto his own feet and quickly brought up his grenade launcher. With a strangely satisfying ‘floomp’, the grenade left the barrel of his gun and went flying in an expertly aimed arc just behind the changeling on the roof. The changeling went flying along with a few blown off small chunks of its own body, landing a short distance from its fellow on the ground who was nearly completely healed up from previous horrid injuries.

The other changeling’s injuries weren’t as bad as its fellow and its wounds healed and closed rapidly. Tavish and Fenrir were about fire again in an attempt to put down the Changeling when suddenly a storm of long spines went flying through the air towards the Changelings.

Just behind the Warhounds on the roofs were a group of five raptors. After sending a storm of tail spines at the changelings, the raptors made a powerful leap off the roofs and towards the changelings. The changelings on the ground were in no way prepared for the sudden leap from the raptors thanks to the many spines piercing their bodies deeply and impaling them fully in some areas.

One raptor landed in the street while the four others double teamed each changeling, smashing into them from the momentum of their leaps. There were high pitched shouts of pain as the raptors started to bite and tear into the changelings with their teeth and claws. Suddenly there were two bursts of orange flames from under the raptors and the changelings were gone.

The four raptors were confused for a moment while the idle fifth stuck it’s nose high into the air and started sniffing. After a moment, it loudly crowed and leapt up onto the rooftops were it was soon followed by the others before slinking out of sight.

“Right… come on lad, breath,” Tavish said as he quickly focused his attention on the dogs under his command.

“Up you go, pup,” Fenrir stated as he hoisted another dog onto his feet. “The lady pushed you through much worse in training. You’re tougher than this and you know it.”

The two Alphas’ work at helping the Warhounds recover from the horrible effects of the strange changelings were halted when suddenly a loud explosion filled the air. Everyone turned to see the palace in the far distance with a thick column of smoke coming from a newly made hole in it.

A changeling panted as it sprinted through several alleyways, terrified tears streaming down its cheeks.

It had been part of a large group of about fifty or so Changelings. Their group was just patrolling down a street, making sure there was no resistance or to go assist any of their own that was caught up in any fighting, when suddenly everything and everyone was thrown into chaos once more when strange explosion like sounds and the horrible roars of predators filled the air. The group was wondering what in the world was happening when ten monsters leapt into their number from above. One changeling had been knocked clear due to one of the raptors ramming into him, but the rest of the group was not so lucky. Their combat skills and magic were as nothing before the ten reptile like monsters amongst them. With tooth, claw and even fire, the monsters utterly and mercilessly slaughtered the changelings; but that wasn’t the worst part. No, the worst part came afterwards.

The sole surviving changeling had watched on in horrified silence from the safety of a dark alley as the monsters continued to rip and tear at the dead changelings on the ground. Then they had started eating, using their fires to char and heat up some of the fresh meat they were eating. The changeling had been on the verge of retching and vomiting at this, but was glad he hadn’t, for he had been certain the slightest noises would have alerted the monsters. It was only after fear for his own life broke through the horrified shock that the changeling had slinked away into the shadows as quietly as possible.

Currently he had managed to put several blocks between him and the scene of the gut churning carnage, but now he had gotten a sudden feeling of dread, like someone was following him, someone dangerous.  It was the presence of this feeling that caused the changeling to quickly abandon whatever subtlety he had and move at a full out sprint. However, even now with his side feeling like it was about to rip open and his heart pounding in his ears the feeling persisted.

Feeling like he had no choice, the changeling quickly shifted into an earth pony stallion and ran for the nearest home.

“Hello!? Is anypony in there!” The Changeling shouted desperately. “Please I need help! They’re going to get me!”

For a heart stopping moment it seemed like he would have to try at another house as there seemed to be no one in this one or they were staying quiet. But then the almost silent sounds of hoof steps reached his ears and after a moment the door opened.

“Quickly, get in here!” an older looking stallion whispered urgently.

The changeling in disguise did just that and quickly ducked into the house, the stallion quickly closing the door behind him. He followed the stallion into the next room, which was the living room; it was dark from all the windows being covered up and several ponies hiding in the middle. There were too many ponies here for them all to be a member of the family here, clearly the family living here were more than willing to help their fellow ponies.

The changeling took up a spot amongst the many ponies and tried to make himself as small as possible as the father of the house carefully peaked through the blinds completely covering the windows.

For a moment everything seemed fine until the father suddenly got a wide eyed look on his face and quickly backed away from the window and joined the group of silent and scared ponies. The Changeling felt like his worst fear were coming true in that moment as he believed that the monsters had followed him. He began to pray silently that the closed door would be enough of a deterrent to the creatures.

After what seemed like an eternally long moment of silence, there was a sound at the door. The father of the family suddenly cursed under his breath and the reason he did so was revealed in a moment. The sound of the door opening not with a crash and snapping of wood but with the sound of the door handle turning echoed down ominously to the hiding ponies and sole changeling.

Everyone was frozen into terrified silence as they heard soft growls and the clicking of claws on wooden floors approach them. In a timeless moment, the monster revealed itself as it stepped from around the corner. The children in the group could no longer keep their silence and began to cry openly, some loudly. The adults were possibly just as terrified as their children and were in no state to try to quiet them. The changeling for his part tried to make himself as small and nondescript as possible to avoid discovery, his heart thundering in his ears as liquid terror seemed to fill his veins.

The large reptilian monster approached the group of ponies slowly, it’s movements cautious as it narrowed it’s terrible slitted eyes at the group, its head moving this way and that as it sniffed the air loudly. For the longest moment it appeared to come closer, when it seemed to snort and turned around on the spot to leave. The changeling breathed a sigh of relief when the monster suddenly whipped around and leapt at the group of ponies with a roar.

The ponies screamed at this sudden action, the changeling even more so when the monster’s jaws closed down around his midsection and lifted him into the air. With the wounds being inflicted upon him the changeling wasn’t capable of keeping up his form and his true form revealed itself in a flash of green flames. The surroundings blurred in the changeling’s vision and suddenly he was sent flying through the air and out the door.

Sides bleeding heavily from deep puncture wounds, the changeling tried to quickly get back up onto his feet to run away when he heard a squeal. Turning his head, he was met with the sight of four of the monsters bearing down at him.

His scream of terror was cut short into a gurgle as a pair of jaws closed around his throat.

The “monster” also known as Stripe the Raptor walked out of the pony home, making sure to close the door behind him politely. A loud snap met his ears, signaling the death of their prey. It would not do for it to be still alive when they fed on it after all.

Already his brothers and sisters were dressing it and cutting out portions for each of them. One had already sliced the belly open and taken out most of the organs, mostly the digestive system and the urinary tract along with the spleen. They knew they were capable of eating those organs without issue thanks to their own powerful digestive system but they just didn’t taste all that well. So one raptor went about taking these organs and burning them to ash while the others finished cutting up the body.

Within a few moments, one sister was gnawing on the four legs and one small chunk of muscle given to her while the others preferred the meatier portions, namely the thighs and shoulders. Stripe himself had managed to grab the tongue for himself and enjoyed eating that part quite a lot. But other than Stripe taking the tongue and the others stripping the flesh off the skull, said part was being saved for last, where they would pop the skull and enjoy slices of the brain for themselves.

‘I wonder how mom is doing?’ Stripe thought to himself as the sounds of bones breaking filled the air, his sister already done with gnawing off the strips of leg muscles and flesh and now going after the marrow. ‘I hope she is doing alright. She is strong. Much stronger then I will ever be. But I still hope she is well. Hmm…’

Stripe took in his surroundings a bit as he swallowed down a chunk of thigh muscle. Down the street a bit was a large building with many stone columns and steps leading up to several doors. Straining his eyes a bit Stripe was able to identify the building from the sign.

‘Library?’ Stripe thought curiously as he absently ate the last of his meat. ‘Big building. Must be a lot of books inside… Could I go inside and read some later?’

The rest of the raptors were now just finishing up the main course of their impromptu picnic and were now moving onto the “dessert”. One raptor Stripe identified as a little brother with yellow and red scales had the skull in one claw and was holding it out to him with an eager look on his face. Stripe had developed a trick to popping skulls that left the brain almost intact every time and few other raptors had learned the trick themselves.

Giving an amused purr, Stripe was about to take the skull to pop it when an enraged roar filled the air. Immediately the other raptors turned to see two strange looking Changelings standing some distance away from them down the street and glaring at them. Stripe and the other raptors were briefly confused by these changelings, as while they did smell like changelings, there was also something about the scent that was deeply familiar to them.

Suddenly the air temperature dropped incredibly fast, fast enough that frost started appearing on the stone buildings in the area. Inside their homes, the pony residents cried out as an oppressing sense of despair and hopelessness set in. For the raptors, however, all they noticed was that it suddenly got cold and that there was tingling at the edge of their senses.

Stripe crowed and quickly got his fellow raptors’ attention. With several subtle body movements and gestures of his clawed hands, Stripe conveyed a body plan the other four agreed to with a nod of their heads. Two raptors immediately left the group and ran to opposite sides of the street before leaping up onto the roofs and slinking out of sight. The other two raptors charged ahead with Stripe not two steps behind them. Seeing that the raptors weren’t being troubled by whatever magical effect they were casting on the area, the two changelings braced for their charge when the two raptors came to a sudden stop. Suddenly a massive storm of flames erupted from the mouths of the two raptors and swept over the changelings.

Stripe narrowed his eyes as he took in the Changelings within the cloud of flames. While they were obviously being hurt by the flames from the sounds of things, the flames weren’t causing as much damage as you’d expect. Stripe also noticed something strange, that some of the flames looked like they were being absorbed into the bodies of the strange looking Changelings.

Up from above came two raptors leaping from the roofs. They let loose loud roars as they dropped rapidly towards the flaming forms, all their claws stretched out to cut and tear. The stream of flames stopped as the raptors impacted the two Changelings and sent them rolling from the force of their weight and velocity.

One of the raptors who had been breathing flames charged ahead, bashing into the front of one changeling while it was focused on the fact it had a viral dinosaur on its back trying to rip open its stomach. The other raptor, however, hesitated a second too long, and by the time it charged into the changeling it had managed to deliver a solid buck into the raptor on its back. After sending the raptor on its back flying off, it had enough time to prepare for the charge of the other raptor to give it a well-timed punch into the side of its head. The hit made the raptor stumble onto its side beside the changeling, which took the opportunity to give it a solid buck as well. The hits did next to nothing thanks to both the raptors’ powerful physiology and natural armor, but it did give the changeling breathing room.

Stripe decided it was time to engage the Changeling himself and charged. The shape shifter was prepared to give Stripe the same response it had given the last raptor that had charged it when Stripe leapt into the air and did a front flip. Using the momentum of the flip Stripe sent a small storm of spines flying at the changeling, causing it to become impaled in several areas but still very much alive. Stripe then angled his descent so that he stomped down onto the changeling with both of his clawed feet, driving the pained shape shifter into the ground with a loud thud.

A loud snap echoed from where the other two raptors were still fighting the second changeling, seemingly signaling its death with the breaking of its neck. However the moment the two raptors relaxed a bit and pulled away from the seemingly dead changeling, there was a sudden burst of orange flame and the body was gone from the ground. With Stripe, he had the changeling’s head in his mouth and was practising his skull popping technique on it when the changeling vanished in a flash of orange flames as well.

Looking down at the ground where only the blood stained spines he had sent at the changeling lay, Stripe tilted his head and shared a look with his fellow raptors. They then raised their noses to the air to track down the scent of their new prey when suddenly a loud explosion echoed through the air.

All five raptors turned to see smoke rising from a hole in the palace.

Razor Wing could feel his body begin to tire.

Razor and the other Deinos has been fighting near constantly since the eight strange changelings arrived. One of the Deinos always had to leave the fighting with the powerful changelings to beat back a swarm of more weak changelings coming to reinforce the other stronger ones, leaving the others vulnerable to the incredibly strong changelings. The Deinos were very strong and fast, and didn’t tire easily at all, but this was definitely beginning to push them to their limits.

At one point the sounds of distant explosions and bestial roars began to sound in the distance outside, but frankly Razor didn’t have the time to pay it any attention. Those sounds did happen to coincide with the sudden slowing of changeling reinforcements, though.

As if by fate, a large group of changelings appeared around the corner and charged down the hall to help in the fighting. Razor Wing was about to call out for Sharp Skies to go fight them herself when suddenly the group of newly arrived changelings were sent flying by a powerful gust of wind coming from behind them.

“Weddings are times of celebration and happiness,” said a heron that was walking down the hallway the changelings had been running from, a light blue pegasus mare with a silver mane beside him. He was wearing a white haori with a conical hat that had some kanji on the front. “Normally guests such as yourself are thrown out for their rudeness to the host, but since the guard are otherwise engaged, might I trouble you all to walk yourselves out?”

“I don’t think they are going to do that, Master Gyatso,” said the young pegasus beside him before drawing the katana that was strapped to her back.

“It’s always good to try, Swift Gale,” the heron stated before going into a stance as the various changelings started getting back up and looking angrily at the two of them. “It actually worked a few times.”

With that, the horde of normal changelings charged the two. Despite being outnumbered greatly, it quickly became clear that the two were in no danger of losing to the changelings. Gyatso’s movements flowed smoothly and fluidly. No matter where the attack came from, the heron always managed to move around the attack and his counters were powerful as well. Changelings were sent flying by the simplest gestures and flaps of his wings. Swift’s form clearly wasn’t nearly as refined as Gyatso’s, but she still held her own in this fight, having a sharp blade at the ready also made her a much more intimidating target compared to Gyatso and her skill with said blade was nothing to laugh at. Despite having a bladed weapon, Swift proved very capable of takedowns that didn’t require her to mortally wound her opponents. Not to say there weren’t changelings that didn’t get cut, but the mare was more than capable of diverting attackers into a spot where she would send powerful gusts of wind from her wings at them.

Meanwhile, the battle between the Deinos and the strong changelings continued to rage with the Deinos definitely worse for wear. The strong changelings just seemed tireless while the Deinos were eventually tiring out, and while the Deinos had powerful healing abilities, they weren’t nearly as powerful as the one the changelings seemingly had. This resulted in slowly wearing down Deinos with ever increasing number of wounds and injuries that took time and energy to heal. However the strong changelings were taking note that their reinforcements were being rapidly incapacitated. Wordlessly, three of the strong changelings pulled back from the fight with the Deinos and moved to engage the two attacking the normal changelings.

The three changelings stopped a short distance away from the two fighters as they finished off the normal changelings, leaving them incapacitated on the ground. Suddenly the air seemed to drop in temperature rapidly, causing breath to fog and frost to cover the stone surfaces and unbroken windows. The changelings on the ground moaned and whimpered in discomfit but the effect was different for Gyatso and Swift Gale. Gyatso didn’t seem fazed at all and just gave the three changelings a steely look. Swift Gale, however, was looking worse for wear. An anxious sweat quickly started to form on her brow and she began breathing heavily.

“Remember your meditation training, Swift,” Gyatso advised.

“I’m trying…” Swift muttered as she forced herself to take calming breaths and after a moment she was looking better, but she still was sweating anxiously.

Seeing that their opening move wasn’t very effective, the three changelings charged, one at Swift and two at Gyatso. Gyatso for an opening move sent an experimental blast of wind at one of the two changelings that was now charging at him, only for said changeling to simply power through the gust of wind that would have sent a normal changeling flying. In face of their obvious strength, Gyatso resolved to make sure they never landed a hit. With that, the heron leaped over the charge of the first changeling before smoothly ducking under the hoof strike of the second one.

Swift Gale was clearly not having as easy a time handling her singular changeling as her master was at handling two of them. A cold sweat continued to drip down her face as she used quick flaps of her wings to suddenly dart to the side and avoid the powerful strikes of the changeling, opening himself up to an attack in the process. Swift’s blade slashes were blindingly quick, though a tad jerky, and cut into the changeling. Said creature seemed to ignore the shallow gashes in its side and attempted to retaliate. Swift proved just as capable as her Master at dodging though, and managed to easily flip over the back of the changeling, even delivering a few more slashes as she did so. Yet again, however, the changeling ignored the wounds that seemed to rapidly heal over. Swift narrowed her eyes and glanced back at her rear leg where her smaller sword was strapped before tightening her mouth’s grip on her sword.

Razor Wing and the Deinos were definitely appreciating the lack of three of the powerful Changelings and the tide was slowly but surely turning to their favour. However, Razor was very much aware that things could rapidly go back to the slow battle of attrition it was before if the two new fighters were defeated. It was also clear that two said fighters were holding back, likely believing their opponents were not too physically greater than the normal Changelings. With that, Razor set about proving that wasn’t so.

Opening himself up to a blow, Razor Wing gritted his teeth as he endured a brutal blow to his side from the Changeling he was fighting. He then closed on the changeling and grappled with it briefly before bringing up both of his razor sharp wings and driving them as deep into the Changeling as possible.

Gyatso and Swift Gale were clearly stunned by the brutal action Razor had just done, though not enough to open themselves up to an attack as well. The areas Razor had driven his wings into held the lungs along with the heart and major arteries. A normal person would be dead in seconds if not instantly. The changeling, however, proved it wasn’t normal in the least and pushed Razor off of it with enough strength to send him stumbling back. Its massive mortal wounds closed rapidly, though it was also choking and coughing loudly as the horrid injuries to its lungs were fixed.

“Ahhh… you all are quite stronger than your kin, aren’t you?” Gyatso stated aloud in sudden comprehension to his two enemies. “That means I can stop holding back without worrying about hurting you… too badly, that is.”

In response, the two changelings hissed and quickly moved into position to charge at Gyatso in a pincer movement. They charged at the same time, but Gyatso was ready for the both of them.  The heron rapidly snapped into a stance, making a pulling motion with one wing while doing a pushing motion with his other wing. The result was that the Changeling coming at him from the front suddenly picked up an immense amount of speed and drifted off course as swirling winds became visible around him. Charging past Gyatso, he ran into the wall so hard and fast his head bashed through it with a deafening crack before his body went limp. Gyatso hadn’t forgotten about the other changeling. and the instant he had handled the first he leaped into the air with a backflip as the other changeling ran past under him. As he approached the ground, Gyatso formed a large sphere of twirling winds between his wings, sending it flying at the changeling as soon as he landed. Said changeling quickly skidded to a halt to turn around and face Gyatso again only to be face to face with a sphere of spiraling winds.

The sphere of swirling winds impacted the changeling like a massive cannonball and sent him flying through the wall and out into the open air. The force of the momentum carried the changeling over the city for quite the distance before it finally dipped down and hit the roof of a house, echoing with a crack so loud it was even audible from the palace before it slid off and fell onto the street, unmoving.

Swift Gale for her part was working to handle her own changeling, and seemed to be mostly dodging in order to maneuver him into a favourable position. Finally, she leapt into the air and a storm of gale-force winds formed into being around her wings and she started flying in a circle. A small tornado rapidly formed as Swift went faster and faster until she became a light blue blur. The changeling on the ground wasn’t sure how to counter this or what to expect from this sudden development and merely held its position firmly.

Suddenly, Swift Gale flew into the heart of the cyclone she created and flew to the top before suddenly diving bombing towards the very point at the bottom. Before she hit the floor, she made an incredibly sharp ninety degree turn towards the changeling, the winds of the cyclone now wrapped around and dragging the rest of the small tornado after her. The changeling didn’t have any time at all to react to this and Swift impacted him like a light blue missile. An instant later, the changeling crashed into the wall and started sinking in as Swift Gale pressed against him, the cyclone wrapped around her acting like a drill. The instant the winds faded away, Swift flipped away from her foe back onto the ground where she glared dangerously at it for a moment.

The only response to this was said changeling very slowly dropping out of the crater in the wall it had been embedded into and dropping onto the ground, very unconscious.

With three of the eight changelings downed, the fight with the Deinos was ultimately decided. Gyatso and his apprentice briefly caught their breath before going to assist the fighting Deinos, but the infected ponies were already finishing up. The loss of three changelings freed up five of the Deinos and those five quickly ganged up on one of the changelings as the others kept the other changelings stuck in the fighting so they couldn’t try to run or reorganise. Within a minute, two changelings had been completely overwhelmed and knocked out cold, leaving only three of the original eight changelings still standing.

Seeing that they had completely lost the momentum of the battle, the changelings still standing teleported away. One of the ones lying on the ground managed to follow suit before the Deinos quickly started casting spells to keep the others from escaping.

Taking stock of his surroundings to make sure the long fight truly had ended, Razor Wing turned towards the two fighters who had come to their assistance. He was about to voice his appreciation for their help when a loud explosion echoed throughout the halls and seemed to shake the walls of the palace to their foundations.

Despite her own feelings on the matter, Emerald hadn’t charged into the palace the moment she left her dogs. No, she had teleported to one of the many balconies and taken stock of the situation from her vantage point as best as she could. With her incredibly powerful senses, this was much more successful than it had any right to be.

Observing the changelings and their response to the unexpected, namely her own forces coming to reinforce Canterlot, confirmed Emerald’s earlier thoughts on open conflict not being the changeling’s strong suit. She expected confusion and panic as an enemy force suddenly appeared to turn the tide against them. Only an extremely well trained force who have been tempered in many battles would have stayed totally calm and organized during something like this. But the Changelings had pretty much nearly fallen apart like a quickly cobbled together militia. The ponies had been bad as well, though that could be attributed to a millennia of peace; they still were better than the changelings had been.

This only made Emerald to doubly wonder why in the world the changelings were doing something like this. They clearly had even less experience in major conflicts than the ponies did. Their main strength here was the surprise and overwhelming numbers. Emerald was sure that had it not been for the increased training the Royal Guard had and  the help they were getting from the Thracians, the changelings would have overwhelmed and taken Canterlot by now.

‘So what is the driving reason for this?’ Emerald frowned in thought. ‘Greed? Desperation? Bah, it doesn’t matter; I’ll investigate the reasons later. They’ve made their decisions and dug their hole. Now I’m going to bury them in it.’

With that, Emerald made her decision. Using her viral sense, she was able to locate every one of her friends in one of the larger rooms. Upon further study, she found that Shining Armor and Celestia were in this room as well. Hoping this meant they had holed themselves up somewhere instead of being captured, Emerald didn’t teleport directly to them. Instead she teleported to a lobby some rooms away from them.

Her arrival was signaled with a bright flash of crimson and a deafening crack. There was a large group of changelings in this room, several of which were carrying stretchers bearing their wounded. Everyone in the room had frozen and stared at her. There was one changeling that had been right next to her upon her arrival. He was staring up at her stupidly with wide eyes.

Emerald answered his stares with a backhand, snapping his neck instantly. This instantly caused a reaction as changelings shouted in shock and charged at her while the ones bearing the wounded immediately took off, running for safety.

Hoping to keep the collateral damage to the palace low, Emerald shifted her hands into claws instead of hammerfists. This action caused a good number of changelings to stop short and stare at her horribly sharp claws. Too bad they were a bit too close now to even consider running away.

Emerald burst forward and was amongst them in an instant, quickly becoming a swirling dervish of green ichor and gore. Before when she had fought and been outnumbered, her opponents had at least been able to land some blows on her, such as they were. But now, after absorbing so many new strains of DNA and experimenting with the body enhancing nature of Earth Pony magic, Emerald was just too fast for normal people to keep up. It didn’t matter how many of them charged her at once. To the changelings, it seemed like she just moved and more of them fell to the ground either dead or screaming and missing limbs.

This was more than enough for changelings to handle, and those still alive turned tail to run. Immediately, a crimson magical aura surrounded the doors in the room and slammed them closed, literally sealing their fates.

Standing in the center of the room surrounded by floor, stained green by ichor and gore, Emerald concentrated on the changelings surrounding her before lifting them up into the air via her magic. She then brought them around to line them up before her. The virus them shifted her left claw into a long blade and simply held it out before bringing the long line of changelings flying forward.

Screams of horror immediately rang out and were cut short. A moment later, Emerald was making her way out of the room and towards her friends, a pile of freshly bisected Changelings behind her in the center of the room.

The rooms she had traveled through soon replicated the one she had arrived in as they always had more than a few changelings in them. This actually got Emerald quite worried about her friends if there were so many Changelings near the place they were holed up in. Hoping that Celestia was doing well in protecting the others and keeping the changelings away, the virus picked up the pace.

Emerald soon arrived to the room that had her friends, Shining Armor and Celestia within. Immediately she knew something was wrong because two changelings were standing guard outside the doors. Sparing enough time to crush the two guards against the walls with her magic, Emerald leapt forwards and crashed through the doors.

Rolling to a quick stop Emerald took stock of her surroundings. This room, the place the main event of the wedding was going to be held, over by the altar was Shining Armor, looking utterly out of it with his walleyed green eyes. Beside him was what she knew to be the Changeling Queen Chrysalis from some glancing over of some consumed changelings memories, staring at her in surprise. On the floor before them was Celestia and some changelings who were in the middle of using their magic to from some kind of cocoon around her. Over to the side were her friends, tied up and their mouths taped over… except for Twilight.

Emerald narrowed her eyes as she stared at Twilight, said unicorn swaying side to side slowly, her expression dull and her eyes glazed over and green. A simple glance over at Shining Armor told her all she needed to know about what had happened to Twilight. Rage broiling in her chest, she locked her gaze on Chrysalis.

“I am going to eat your face,” Emerald stated with a growl before waving her hand at the changelings around Celestia and sent them spinning out the windows.

Chrysalis gave a startled scream as Emerald leapt at her, turning into her Draconequis form mid-leap. She still had her wits about her though, and managed to teleport away in a burst of green flames as Emerald crashed head first into the walls behind her; not that it slowed her down in any way.

Smashing apart the walls her head had sunken into, Emerald whipped around to face Chrysalis again who looking rather worried as she pondered her potential course of action regarding the massive shapeshifting monster before her.

Emerald leapt again, and this time Chrysalis actually managed to catch her midair with magic of her own. The virus stayed in the air, held aloft by green flames, when she whipped her hand forward, an incredibly bright ball of magic held in it.

Once again Chrysalis managed to teleport away at the last moment as a beam of magic drilled through the air her head had been a moment ago and easily pierced through the thick stone walls of the palace. Chrysalis managing to dodge and avoid her attacks seemed to drive Emerald even more over the edge then seeing Twilight in the condition she was in did. It didn’t help that for whatever reason, changelings seemed to agitate her really badly, sending her into a death spiral of fury and rage.

Chrysalis for her part was managing to stay calm, though the quick dodging teleports were a drain on her. She did another teleport to the point furthest away from Emerald in the room and quickly blasted the same beam of magic that had beaten Celestia.

The beam hit Emerald squarely in the head as she charged at her. The result, however, was the beam sparking furiously against the virus’ now scaly hide and the force of it making Emerald slow slightly. In response to the beam hitting her, Emerald reared up and breathed in deeply to unleash a blast of fire. Seeing this Chrysalis dodged with a teleport again. However Emerald expected this and kept the flames in her chest before turning towards Chrysalis’ new position. However when she noticed where Chrysalis was now standing, she stopped herself from letting the flames loose and instead let it flow out harmlessly of her mouth and nostrils.

Chrysalis was both relieved and confused at this until she noticed who was behind her; the tied up or otherwise incapacitated Mane Six. Seeing the monster facing her refuse to attack out of fear for the others presented the changeling queen with a possible way to potentially win here. However, what idea she had was immediately ruined when the Mane Six, Celestia and Armor disappeared in a flash of crimson.

Eyes wide in panic, Chrysalis turned towards Emerald to see her surrounded by a bright crimson aura. Chrysalis could have teleported again to dodge the oncoming attack but she was honestly drained by the rapid successive teleports. Instead, she resolved to form a green barrier around herself, drawing upon the immense well of energy that was the love Shining armor felt for his wife to enhance it further. An instant later, there was a massive explosion and Chrysalis felt herself go spinning through the air. When she managed to get her bearings, she realised she was in the air above Canterlot and was rapidly approaching the streets. The Queen flapped her wings desperately and created another barrier to protect her against the impact when she hit the ground.

The world went spinning again and Chrysalis felt intense pain suddenly shoot up one of her legs. After what felt like an eternity, the world stopped spinning long enough for her to get back onto her hooves. Any attempt to put any weight on her back left leg caused her intense pain however, and she limped onto three of her still good but aching legs.

She found herself in a four way street and could hear sounds of battle and the roars of monsters filling the air. Suddenly a group of changelings ran down the street in front of her when one of them tripped and fell. Chrysalis recognised him as one of the officers commanding her army from the armor he was wearing.

“M-my Queen?” the changeling officer said before looking down the street he was running down when a low roaring noise grew louder and louder.

A moment later and one of the War buggies came speeding down the street chasing after changelings. It did not slow down or even attempt to avoid the changeling down on the ground. There was a crunch and tearing of flesh as the buggy ran over the changeling and its head was taken off by one of the wheels hitting it in the neck.

Chrysalis stared down in horrified silence at the head that had rolled to a stop at her hooves when a loud crash sounded behind her. Turning around, she saw Emerald had landed behind her and was now glaring down at her. Chrysalis panicked and tried to get away when she found she couldn’t. Her back leg was broken so she couldn’t run. Shielding herself from damage of the virus’ attack and protection against the fall had drained her magical reserves and the love she harvested. She was helpless. Chrysalis shook and closed her eyes as Emerald suddenly dived at her, maw of gleaming teeth open to rip and tear.

Emerald’s jaws closed around Chrysalis’s head and tore it off with a gush of green ichor. She then balled her claws into fists before smashing them into the body several times with angry snarling, ending with a stomp that shook every building on the entire street before lifting her head up to the sky and releasing a deafening roar.

Celestia’s dreams were of magic and swirling greens before she finally awoke with a groan. She yawned and stretched out some aching limbs, absently wondering why she had fallen asleep on a couch instead of her bed when the events following her sudden entry into her sister’s realm caught up with her.

Cobwebs instantly shaken from her mind at the memory of the changeling invasion, Celestia looked around herself and frowned in some confusion. She was in one of the living rooms in the palace. Twilight and her friends were there as well, though Twilight looked out of it as she rubbed her temples and kept her eyes tightly closed.

“Princess Celestia, you’re awake!” Rarity exclaimed and rushed to her side, followed by the others save for Twilight who seemed to be stuck in her own little world as she slowly recovered from the changeling magic.

“What happened? What is going on?” Celestia asked with a worried frown at her student. “Are we being held hostage by the changelings?”

“No, the changelings are… no longer capable of such actionsc” Rarity stated diplomatically as the others collectively winced.

“Please explain that,” Celestia stated seriously.

“Emerald arrived with an army of diamond dogs bearing powerful weapons and armor and accompanied by fearsome lizards as well,” Rarity answered while looking a bit uncomfortable. “They are… taking after Emerald in how to handle a foe.”

“You can tell by how green the streets are…” Dash muttered snidely.

“I have to go find her immediately!” Celestia said with wide eyes. “This horrible violence must stop!”

“It’s already over, I’m afraid,” Rarity replied softly. “Emerald and her forces have taken the surviving changelings prisoner and are currently holding them in the city center.”

“I have to go see her right now,” Celestia said as she got off her couch. “But first, my dear Twilight, are you well?”

“…Your Highness?” Twilight stated after a long moment and cracked open an eye at her. “I’m… I’m okay. I just need time to recover is all…”

“I’ll be back to check up on you later, Twilight. First, I must see to Emerald,” Celestia said and began walking away. Twilight didn’t say anything and went back to rubbing her temples.

Celestia could have teleported to the city center directly, but felt she needed to see to the condition of the city and her ponies first and chose to walk there. She managed to come to the horrid sights of Emerald’s deadly path through the palace which was being cleaned up by Thracians, as they were able to stomach the gory sights with disturbing ease. It wasn’t that much better once she had reached the city streets. Green blood stains seemed to cover every street she walked on along with strange, long black marks. There were rather large holes as well in the streets and walls of the buildings, though Celestia couldn’t tell what could have made them like the long black marks that appeared occasionally. The worst part, however, was that sometimes she’d come across Thracians and some Royal guards collecting green stained bones in piles before putting them in garbage bags. Wondering just what sort of horrific weapons or magic that Emerald possessed that let her forces strip flesh from bone with such nauseating ease, the princess doubled her pace to the city center.

Once she started to close on the city center, Celestia started to see the diamond dogs Rarity mentioned. They were all wearing black armor that seemed to be made up of black scales and carrying large, boxy weapons that matched the descriptions of guns. Seeing them gave the princess pause and made her wonder if she should ask to pass through the area they were guarding to see Emerald when she dismissed the thought. They were in her kingdom and in her city. Though they helped, they likely traumatised a good many of her people with the help they gave. The last thing Celestia was going to do was to ask them if she could go somewhere within her own city. So she continued walking forward and none of the dogs even gave her much attention let alone tried to stop her.

As Celestia walked deeper into the city center, she began to notice some things about the diamond dogs here. Most were standing on guard and at attention, but even then they looked like their thoughts were elsewhere. Other dogs were huddled against walls, clutching tightly at the rifles in their paws with haunted looks in their eyes.

The princess continued on her way through the streets, practically ignored by all the diamond dogs standings about. Eventually she reached the city center where Emerald, the “lizards” she had and the changelings were located. The lizards were tall; easily taller than her, let alone a normal pony, but they were also all up on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, giving Celestia the impression of roosting birds instead of large, carnivorous lizards. The changelings were in the very center of the area, guarded by diamond dogs, those lizards and most of all, Emerald.

The alicorn was given some pause as she spotted the bipedal being standing before the changelings, but was quick to recognise who it was. Celestia had never seen Emerald in her female human form before, but it had some resemblance to her male human form thanks to the clothes she was wearing. Her somewhat curly pink hair, green eyes and pale skin were more than enough to call up mental pictures of the famed unicorn model that secretly did questionable poses in fashion magazines. It was then that the princess noticed the number of changelings being held here.

Celestia looked utterly aghast at the fact that out of all the many thousands of Changelings that had assaulted Canterlot, there were only several hundred huddled together in the middle of the street. There were also twelve other changelings that looked distinctly different from their fellows who were huddled together somewhat apart from the other Changelings and throwing looks at Emerald.

Speaking of the powerful shape shifter, she was looking rather… tense. She was pacing back forth before the group of captured changelings and giving them a death glare and basically looking completely unpleasant and unapproachable. This obviously wasn’t doing wonders for the captured changelings’ mood as they knew she held their fate in her hands and had quite clearly proven she was more than willing to kill them. Though, oddly, Celestia also noticed that Emerald’s expression would soften somewhat when she looked at the odd changelings.

“Emerald Gleaner,” Celestia began as she closed on the virus. “This cannot be all that is left of the many changelings that attacked Canterlot, can it?”

“It is,” Emerald said with an approving nod that had Celestia gaping at her. “My dogs did good work; they were outnumbered at least ten to one and still managed to get almost all of them.”

“Good work?” Celestia repeated incredulously. “Emerald, there were thousands of changelings at the start this invasion and now there are only a few hundred left.”

“And your point is?” Emerald said and looked at Celestia with an arched brow.

“I thought the point was very clear, Emerald,” Celestia said with a disappointed frown. “How could you have done this, Emerald?”

“Very easily,” Emerald replied and crossed her arms as she faced the princess. “I’m getting the feeling you aren’t very happy for me coming to your kingdom’s aid when it was being invaded by an army.”

“I… Emerald, I wish you to know I am so very glad that you decided to help us when we needed it,” Celestia said with a sigh. “But you still killed so many to do it.”

“I don’t get the point you are trying to make. They were the enemy.” Emerald shrugged and went back to staring at the changelings, though this time she looked like her mind was elsewhere.

Celestia stared at Emerald, wondering how she could think this way while before showing so much regret and pain for killing people. The alicorn began to ponder this mystery a bit more deeply; perhaps it had something to do with the circumstances? Emerald felt horrible for all those deaths before because they were just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and she had only herself to blame for them. But here the “victims” were a people who had chosen to invade Canterlot; to be an enemy. It was no longer a conflict of someone who should know better and some random innocent. It was a conflict of two people who knew full well what they were getting into. Though Celestia herself knew there should have been much more to it than “These people choose to be an enemy, therefore I feel nothing for them” but for Emerald that was apparently all she needed.

“We are going to have to go deal with the rest of the changelings in their homes.” Emerald stated absently as she continued to look thoughtful about something. “I’ll leave some dogs here to watch this lot and organise the rest into an assault force.”

“Emerald, I feel like retribution shouldn’t be our first course of action,”Celestia stated. “We should open a dialogue with their leadership at the very least.”

“I doubt any of the remaining Changeling leadership would want anything like that,” Emerald replied. “Besides, if nothing directly is done to handle the changeling situation, they’ll all be scattered or dead within the year. Likely most of them will be the latter.”

“What?”

Beneath the wastes of the Badlands lay the home of the changelings; massive caverns filled with softly glowing massive mushrooms and homes carved into the walls. Changelings were going about their business, but looked quite different from the ones who had left for Canterlot.

The changelings who had been sent to Canterlot for the invasion looked healthy and strong. These changelings looked thin and sickly, and some even had their ribcages visible through their skin. Another difference was that these Changelings had “hair” like Chrysalis with a wide array of styling; it wasn’t that the soldiers were born of some sort of hairless warrior cast. It was simply that the soldier changelings had to shave themselves bald as part of tradition and initiation.

Currently the mood in the hive was rather strained and worried. No word had been heard from the changelings sent to Canterlot yet. Along with that, the spiritual connection that all changelings felt to their queen that they called ‘The Feed’ had suddenly been cut at one point. This only happened during the transition period between queens or if the current queen were to suddenly die. Naturally, their connection to The Feed suddenly being cut had nearly sent the hive into chaos over worry of what had happened at Canterlot. It took all the crowd speaking skills the changeling Elders possessed to calm everyone, and even then the entire hive was walking on the knife edge of a panic induced riot.

The Elders were all convening in Chrysalis’s personal hive spire over whether some of the still strong youths should be sent out to see what was going on when it happened. The entire cavern the changelings called their home since time immemorial started to shake, and a low rumble echoed throughout the air.

Changelings paused in their places as they looked up and wondered what was going on when several sections of cavern walls suddenly collapsed. For a moment there was some panic as dust began to billow out from the areas of the collapse when hundreds of diamond dogs clad in black dragonscale armor stomped out of the dust cloud, followed by tall, vicious looking lizards.

Immediately, changelings panicked and ran for cover and safety, but the dogs clad in black went about their work in silent professionalism, collecting up changelings and forcing them into a central area where a ring of the tall lizards stood guard. Of course, changelings tried to fight back, but their sickly and weak looking appearances spoke novels of their ability to fight back effectively against a highly trained force. What little resistance that was present was practically ignored as dogs continued their work.

Amongst many more diamond dogs and raptors entering the Changeling Caverns was Emerald and Princess Celestia, the latter of whom looked guilty to be a part of this, and shocked at what she saw being guarded by the raptors.

“So few… why are there so few?” Celestia muttered.

“There had been a draft prior to the invasion,” Emerald replied. “All the young changelings had been gathered up, given a large ration of love to feed off of and prepared themselves physically for the invasion. Those too young or too old or simply too weakened by hunger and illness were left home.”

Celestia got a pained expression on her face as she neared the area the changelings were being held in. Now being close enough to see the condition of the many changelings, she was instantly able to understand and even sympathise with the departed Queen of the Changelings. If it was her own ponies that had been suffering and starving, she knew that she would have gone to any length to save them.

“Hmm… it will take a bit before the dogs are done gathering up the changelings,” Emerald stated as she watched the guarded group of changelings grow steadily larger. “There are several thousand of them, after all.”

“I thought they numbered so much more…” Celestia said softly. “But they are so few… how close have we come to pushing them to extinction?”

“It was me who killed a majority of their population if you recall,” Emerald replied bluntly. “And you don’t have to worry about the species. The Hive of Equestria may be in danger, but the hives of other nations are quietly thriving.”

“I refuse to not take responsibility for something that happened upon my lands, Emerald,” Celestia told the virus firmly. “I became a part of this the moment I decided to not only sanction, but attend your expedition… I, however, will state that I do not like in the least how you are going about this.”

“They could have chosen to reveal themselves,” Emerald replied apathetically. “They could have appealed to you for help, to help save them from starvation. But they didn’t. Instead, they chose for the route that promised conflict. They dug their own hole; I just kicked them in it.”

“Emerald, we most certainly are going to have a very serious discussion once we are alone,” Celestia stated with an expression that almost looked angry.

“Fine,” Emerald huffed before stepped forward towards the changelings. Currently the stream of changelings being herded into the holding area was slowing greatly and the virus considered now to be a good time to speak to them. What few that won’t hear her can be told by the others.

“Greetings!” Emerald shouted to the large crowd before her. “I believe that you all know of the invasion of Canterlot. You can all safely assume that it has failed in its purpose. And though you’ve probably all already figured this out from the sudden loss of The Feed, Queen Chrysalis is also dead.”

The reaction to this was instantaneous. Shouts of horror and grief mixed with roars of anger and disbelief. Emerald could tell from the mood of the people in front of her that had they collectively been healthier they would have attempted to lynch her despite the many highly trained people and dangerous creatures surrounding them.

“Emerald, just what is it you intend to do with them?” Celestia asked quietly as she quickly stepped beside the virus.

“Me? I don’t really intend to do anything with them,” Emerald replied. “They invaded your lands and threatened your people. I came to your aid, but in the end I know it’s up to you how we handle this.”

“I… we shall help them,” Celestia answered. “Enemy people or not, I refuse to stand by and let thousands starve to death.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Emerald stated and refocused her attention on the crowd of changelings. “We are going to relocate you to a different location, one outside the very city you tried to invade! Now I’d rather just take off as quickly as possible but I get the feeling that action wouldn’t be appreciated so what I’m going to do is to allow you to collect some of your things before we leave. Remember, this is for your own good!” Understandably a vast majority of the Changelings just gave hateful looks at Emerald for this and angry low muttering soon filled the cavern. “Of course if you wish to stay and slowly starve to death, then I’m all for leaving people behind to their most pleasant fates!”

That got people moving as, while they most certainly hated Emerald for what she was doing, they also didn’t believe for a second she wouldn’t do what she just said. As they moved in long lines to their various homes, Emerald watched carefully for attempts to assault diamond dogs or raptors that stood guard at various positions to herd changelings back into position.

“Emerald, we really need to talk about your horrid behaviour at a later point,” Celestia stated seriously. “I am honestly appalled at seeing this side of you.”

“There is nothing that needs to be talked about,” Emerald stated dismissively. “I did the right thing; I saw an enemy attacking so I went and destroyed that enemy.”

“You and your forces were far the superior of those of the changelings and you know it!” Celestia snapped. “You could have advocated non-lethal methods to the conflict, but you didn’t! What you did was little better than murder!”

“Fine,” Emerald drawled. “I murdered those changelings. War is basically government sanctioned mass murder anyway, and it doesn’t change the fact they were the enemy.”

Celestia actually growled in frustration at Emerald’s behavior. It was quickly proving to be a futile effort to try and convince Emerald that what she did was wrong. But the Princess of the Sun wasn’t giving up just yet. This just proved she needed some time to prepare for this discussion instead of trying to do it on the spot.

With that in mind, Celestia walked off to see if any of the changelings would like her help. She wasn’t a doctor by any means, but she knew more than her fair share of medical magic and the clearly sickly changelings needed any medical aid they could get. She just hoped they would let her help.

Sometime later found Emerald and Celestia back at Canterlot, sitting in a conference room with a still rather sleepy looking Princess Luna. Both Emerald and Celestia were informing Luna of what had happened while she had been out, though Celestia more than often interjected angrily on Emerald’s words with her own opinion on the matter.

The matter of the changelings had been somewhat handled once Emerald and Celestia had returned to the capital. They were all now housed in a large camp outside the city. Considering they were members of a hostile race, the camp they were staying at could easily be called an internment camp. But honestly, the only reason the camp resembled an internment camp in anyway was because of the guards Emerald had insisted be posted around the camp.

‘I wonder how my dogs are doing?’ Emerald thought as she decided to let Celestia handle informing Luna of current events. ‘I noticed quite a few of them being reclusive and not doing their jobs. This place is just too innocent sometimes… I’m going to need to get something going here. Maybe-’

Suddenly Emerald find herself being shook roughly, a yellow magical aura now around her. Releasing a small burst of magic to disrupt the magical hold on her Emerald looked up to see Celestia glaring at her.

“Emerald!” Celestia said angrily. “Pay attention this instant!”

“What!” Emerald shouted. Luna, for her part, fought down a yawn as she stared in surprise at Celestia.

“You pay attention to me when I am speaking to you!” Celestia said firmly. “Especially for something this serious!”

“You’ve already told me this several times already,” Emerald pointed out with a huff. “It’s pretty much impossible for me to forget anything. Telling me the same thing over and over again isn’t going to make me more informed than I already am.”

“I wouldn’t be repeating myself this much if it weren’t for the fact that for some reason the fact that what you did was wrong isn’t sinking into your head,” Celestia replied with a small, angry frown. “You not only killed most of the changelings that were part of the invasion, but brought an army along with you to do it faster.”

“That’s because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Emerald insisted. “I saw an enemy attacking my home, attacking the people I care about. Would you have preferred I have done nothing?”

At hearing Emerald’s reasons for why she did what she did, Luna gave a small smile at the virus. Even Celestia’s expression softened a little. There was a long moment of silence following that, though some of the tension had drained in light of Emerald’s personal reasons the air was still very tense.

“Emerald…” Celestia finally began with a sigh. “I am very happy that you and your people helped us when we needed it. What I am questioning is the sheer lengths you went to do so, namely killing most of the changelings and unleashing reptilian beasts upon them to not only kill them but eat the bodies of the dead as well.”

“Alright, fine…” Emerald said as she leaned back into her seat and palmed her face. “I’m sorry. This is the first time my forces have been in a fight with another flesh and blood foe. I don’t doubt they ended up going a bit far due to panic during combat. As for the Raptors… well honestly I should have seen that coming and made sure they knew the difference between hunting and fighting.”

Celestia frowned. She was a veteran when it came to politics and negotiation. She could easily see that while Emerald had apologised, she didn’t mean it. It was troubling to see how unapologetic the virus was about the people she killed, but considering her background it was understandable.

“Perhaps we should return to the topic of the changelings?” Luna suggested. “While we have the short term planned out, we have yet to cover what to do with them in the long term.”

“I wish for peaceful coexistence,” Celestia replied, secretly happy to be talking about something else for now. “The changelings are in danger of succumbing to starvation and we need to figure a way to ensure they may remain properly fed.”

“Yes, but I wonder why that is so?” Luna said curiously. “In all my years, the changelings have never had a problem with gathering love to feed off of. Granted I only know a little from the precious few changelings I was able to meet and speak with. But I do know that while there were food shortages once or twice, they were never pushed so far as to come into the open and attack someone.”

“I can answer that,” Emerald replied. “In the last few decades, love collection had reached record highs for several years straight. Even when collection was at its lowest, changelings were able to enjoy their equivalent of lavish meals. The previous changeling queen decided that this was a sign of future trends and spawned a large number of new changelings. Had the changelings remained at their previous average of spawning, then what happened next could have possibly have been not as devastating.”

“About four years ago, the previous changeling queen had decided her time had come,” Emerald continued. “And passed on the position of Queen to a promising young changeling in her cabinet of advisors; a changeling named Chrysalis. Now, the event that ultimately set in motion the plans for the invasion had to do with this system called The Feed, a spiritual connection primarily with the queen that all changelings have and is what is used to distribute love amongst the populace. Infiltrator changelings are able to store up a large amount of excess love and send it to the queen via The Feed which is then distributed to the rest. Now about two years or so ago, something happened to the infiltrators in Equestria that damaged their connection to The Feed and made it impossible for them to send love in any great amount. Love stores were great, but would only last so long and training enough new Infiltrators to replace all the crippled ones AND feed the many thousands of changelings back in the Hive would take far too long.”

“What in the world could have crippled the infiltrators?” Luna wondered before turning to her sisters. “Have there been any experimental uses of magical rituals or the like in the last few years, sister?”

“There have, but nothing that I can imagine would affect changelings hidden all over Equestria like this,” Celestia answered.

“The changelings had no idea what happened, either,” Emerald stated. “But I’ve been comparing dates in my memories and I’ve noticed something rather interesting.”

“What?”

“The day the infiltrators were suddenly crippled was the same day the Elements of Harmony were used for the first time in a thousand years,” Emerald replied.

At that surprising answer, a heavy silence hung over the room. Luna looked troubled while Celestia frowned down at the table. Conflicting thoughts filled her head about the Elements of Harmony, known as the most powerful force for good in the entire world.

Emerald, back in her pony form, was walking down a street in Ponyville.

Several hours had been spent talking and hashing out the fine details of having the changelings under Equestrian authority. It would take more than just a few hours of planning to solve the problems and issues with the situation hammered out, but the main things were being handled now. Namely, the changelings were being provided the same rights and protection as any other citizen of Equestria. They would also be allowed to travel the streets of Canterlot freely to gather the love they needed to survive. Of course, this was what was supposed to happen in theory. Chances were the grudges of ponies and even those of the changelings would make trying to implement this plan successfully, difficult. Another aspect was making the changelings’ presence clear even in other forms. It basically became law that the changelings had to wear a special armband to announce their status as a changeling. Initially the idea was to have the armband be bearing a symbol of a yellow star, but Emerald immediately shot that idea down in favour of a pink heart. The last thing Emerald wanted was to be reminded of the Nazis every time she saw a changeling with a yellow star.

As she walked down a street, Emerald started hearing hushed panicked sounding whispering. She was able to identify the voices as belonging to Bon Bon and Lyra. Wondering what was wrong that they sounded so apprehensive, Emerald rounded the corner to see the two sitting at a table together in front of an open air bistro. Bon Bon looked like she was on the verge of having a panic attack and Lyra was attempting to calm her down. However, after a moment’s study of Bon Bon, Emerald narrowed her eyes. Thanks to consuming various changelings, she now knew how to spot them. And just by looking at her, Emerald was able to tell that Bon Bon was a changeling.

Teleporting next to the changeling that was disguised as her friend, Emerald wrapped her up in a magical field and flung her against the wall with an audible and painful sounding thud.

“Drop your disguise!” Emerald snarled as she brought her face close to Bon Bon’s.

“E-E-Emerald?” Bon Bon said with wide scared eyes. “Wh-what are yo-”

“And tell me where the real Bon Bon is!” the virus demanded.

“Emerald, what the hay do you think you’re doing!?” Lyra exclaimed in anger and quickly ran over to the virus’ side as a crowd of ponies started to form. Noticing this, Lyra lowered her voice and tried to whisper her objections to Emerald.  “Emerald quiet down a bit and let her-”

“I said drop your disguise and tell me where the real Bon Bon is,” Emerald growled as she ignored Lyra.

“B-but I am Bon B-ACK!” Bon Bon began but choked when the pressure around her throat and chest increased greatly.

“I will NOT take no for an answer!” Emerald shouted as the crowd behind grew ever larger in size. “DROP YOUR DISGUISE NOW!”

Bon Bon’s terrified eyes stared at Emerald for a moment and then at the crowd behind her before she closed them and let out a sob. With a flash of green flames the magical disguise was dropped and revealed the true form beneath. Surprisingly, other than for the gossamer wings, the black skin, the holes in the body and other characteristics common to changelings, Bon Bon looked a lot like her pony disguise; her hair was even styled in the same fashion. Strangely, Emerald couldn’t help but feel like she just forced a young woman to strip naked in public after watching Bon Bon drop her disguise.

“EMERALD!” Lyra screamed in fury and struck the virus on her head only to recoil and let out a short scream of pain, feeling very much like she had punched a solid steel wall with all her might. “S-she r-really is Bon Bon, you idiot!”

As Emerald turned and stared at Lyra in surprise, Bon Bon began to hyperventilate as she looked all around her. The air filled with whispers and muttering as ponies stared at Bon Bon with shocked and hateful eyes, knowing very well what her race was and what they had tried to do so very recently. Seeing that her friend was beginning to have a breakdown, Lyra darted to her side immediately and whispered soothingly to her and gave her a tight hug as she continued to glare at Emerald.

“I knew she was a Changeling practically from the start, Emerald,” Lyra muttered furiously. “Bon Bon didn’t need or deserve being outed like this you insensitive-”

“Then you must know that Bon Bon’s people just tried to invade Canterlot, don’t you?” Emerald interrupted, having had to deal with Celestia’s anger concerning her actions. She wasn’t in the mood to tolerate anything more like it from those she considered friends. But upon seeing Lyra’s guilty look, Emerald pushed on with anger. “You knew, didn’t you? Before it even started, I mean. You knew that another race was going to invade Canterlot, the capital of your Home Country and you said nothing.”

Lyra just looked away from Emerald and continued to rub Bon Bon’s back soothingly as the revealed changeling stared up at Emerald.

“What… what happened to the queen and the others?” Bon Bon asked quietly. “I’ve heard things and The Feed, I can’t…”

“The Changeling Queen Chrysalis and a vast majority of her invasion force were killed during the invasion,” Emerald said bluntly.

There were shocked gasps coming from the crowd behind Emerald as they heard this confirmation of what they had thought was wild rumors. Bon Bon for her part just gaped with a disbelieving expression on her face as tears started to well up in her eyes.

“N-no it… it can’t be… it can’t… no, no, no...” Bon Bon began in short lived denial as she started to cry. “It’s not fair! It’s not fair! W-we were just hungry! We just wanted to not starve! IT’S NOT FAIR!”

Ponies in the crowd stared awkwardly as Bon Bon started to bawl her eyes out in horrified grief before they started to go on their way. Emerald for her part felt her heart lurch as she realised some implications of the fact all changelings are spawned from one person. Namely that she just told Bon Bon her mother and many of her brothers and sisters were killed horribly.

“I… I suppose this doesn’t mean much, but…” Emerald began as Bon Bon continued to cry. “Princess Celestia has realised your people’s plight and is doing everything in her power to help them.”

“R-really?” Bon Bon asked, her voice tinged with hope.

“Yes. Look, I know this probably doesn’t mean much, Bon Bon, but… I do understand what you are going through right now.” Silence. “I’ll… I’ll see you later, Bon Bon.”

With that, Emerald turned away and made her way home. For the longest time she couldn’t help but think about Bon Bon’s situation as she walked.

‘Maybe… maybe I really was wrong about the way I went about this?’ Emerald thought for a moment before shaking her head. ‘Then what the hell else I was supposed to do?! Wag my finger disapprovingly at them and ask them to leave? Hmph, whatever…’

Putting that out of her mind, Emerald thought about the other thing she and Celestia had talked about back in Canterlot, namely introducing her to the League of Nations. She really no longer had any choice about it; she had gone out with her own personal army and walked into Canterlot openly in her human form. The time for hiding was over. Now it was time to face the world openly. Celestia would do the preparations for her introduction, while she would have a month to herself to plan and prepare herself for facing the known nations of the entire world. No pressure, and besides, Emerald had been expecting to do this eventually. Also, another issue that had been covered was the fact that Emerald would be openly known as a leader of another nation. This meant she had to cut ties to the Equestrian business world. The Evolved had considered this fine as well. She was frankly rich enough and knew someone she could pass on her holdings to and would use and grow it wisely just as she had done.

Finally, the Evolved arrived at her home, the library. Entering the front door, she was quickly greeted by Spike.

“Emerald!” Spike said as he ran to her. “You’re back! Uh, Twilight isn’t going to be home today. She decided to stay at Canterlot to rest and recover from her ordeal.”

“No problem. I hope she’s doing well,” Emerald replied. “I wish I could have spent a bit more time at her side than I had, but I was busy with the princesses.”

“She understands…” Spike said and scratched the back of his head as he glanced over his shoulder. “Also, you got visitors here to see you.”

“I do?” Emerald frowned. “Who?”

“I don’t know.” Spike shrugged. “There is this heron guy and this pegasus with him. They’ve been waiting a few hours to see you. They’re in the living room.”

“All right, I’ll go see them,” Emerald said.

Emerald walked over to the room’s doorway and looked inside. Sitting at the couch was the heron Spike had mentioned, and the pegasus. The heron was peacefully sipping from a cup of tea held aloft by a tiny sphere of swirling air while the pegasus was leaning on one of the couch arms in obvious boredom as she stared out a window.

“Hello?” Emerald said as she walked into the room. “You wanted to see me?”

“Ah, Emerald Gleaner. I am Gyatso, a Master of the Order of Elemental Channelers, and this is my apprentice, Swift Gale,” the heron said with a friendly smile while said apprentice seemed to blush and get shy after looking at her. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you! Please sit with us. There are things of great importance I wish to speak with you about.”

“Okay,” Emerald said as she took seat at an armchair. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“You see, young miss, I was sent here by the Grand Masters of my order to do an investigation,” Gyatso explained. “What was I investigating? Well you see, earlier this year the Grand Masters detected a massive burst of spiritual energies in Equestria.”

“Oh…” Emerald said simply. She also noticed that Swift was now staring at her out of the corner of her eye and her flushed cheeks hadn’t faded in intensity. “I take it you know full well who had caused the blast of energy, don’t you?”

“I do indeed!” Gyatso smiled. “Initially the Grand Masters had been worried about the return of a mythical Spirit of Disorder that had once plagued our lands ages ago. Imagine my surprise when the traces of energies that had remained in the air could be traced back to you.”

“This isn’t going to be a problem I hope?” Emerald asked. Outwardly she was still calm, but inwardly she was tense as a tightly coiled spring.

“Oh no, not a problem at all my dear,” Gyatso reassured. “I’ve gotten in contact with the Grand Masters and they want to see you.”

That gave Emerald pause. She had just revealed herself to the world at large and already people wanted to meet with her. Frankly though, she already had a lot on her plate with having to deal with what the future would throw at her now that she was known.

“Can this wait?” Emerald asked. “I’ve really got a lot of other things to do. I can’t just up and go right now.”

“Of course, young miss,” Gyatso nodded. “The Grand Masters are patient; they are willing to wait until an appropriate time to meet with you. In fact, they may get in touch with you again when you go present yourself to the League of Nations.”

“I take it Celestia told you about that, huh?” Emerald stated.

“Yes she did. I would offer my advice, but I feel that you have the situation in hand,” Gyatso said. “Also I can’t help but voice my desire to face you in a friendly spar to see but a glimpse of what you are capable of. Now, I realise that now is not the time, as you’ve no doubt had a busy day, but should you decide to humor me, my apprentice and I shall be staying at the Royal Palace in Canterlot.”

“REALLY!?” Swift Gale suddenly broke in excitedly. “We get to stay somewhere nice and luxurious for once!? YES, OH MY GOSH YES!”

“Ah, my young Swift,” Gyatso said with a shake of his head as he got up. “One day you may find the raw nature far more ideal than the cities and towns.”

“Sure I will, Master,” Swift said with a smirk.

“Now my apprentice and I shall take our leave, Emerald Gleaner,” Gyatso said. “I look forward to your response to my request.”

“Y-yeah I’m looking forward to having a go at you too, ya know…” Swift Gale said to Emerald when she suddenly got shy again. “Uhh… anyway, see ya later!”

Emerald stared at the two as they left the room curiously. She supposed this would be the Heron Republic’s official response to her, unless the Channelers were acting independently here. It was possible, all things considered. Speaking of the Channelers, she didn’t really know much about them, only that they were capable of manipulating the elements and were considered highly spiritual. That, and they basically accepted anyone into their order. Emerald was fairly certain she had heard of one or two dragons even becoming masters in their order.

Shaking her head clear, Emerald decided to head up into her room to rest her mind and take in the day’s events. It would also do to calmly plan out the future because presenting herself to the League was a big step concerning her place in this world.

As she arrived in her and Twilight’s room, she noticed that Navi was sleeping in her little bed on the bedside table. Emerald had quite honestly forgotten all about the little bug since this morning when she kept going back to bed despite her trying to rouse her. Seeing that she was still sleeping despite having a whole night’s rest on top of sleeping the whole day, got Emerald rather worried for the pet she had grown to love and adore.

“Navi, you really ought to get up now. You’ve probably spent all day in bed, haven’t you?” Emerald said as she walked over to her pet. “Navi? Navi, wake up. Navi?!”

Emerald gritted her teeth in worry as she couldn’t get Navi to wake up. But just as she was about to reach down and shake Navi as hard as she dared, the little bug released a tiny trill and slightly cracked open both her eyes at Emerald.

“Navi, what’s wrong? Why are you sleeping so much?” Emerald said as she began to recall all the many times Navi spent sleeping or napping over the past few months.

The only answer she got from the little bug was a tired yawn as she began to slowly drift back into sleep. This caused Emerald’s worry to explode into high gear and she reached down to gently touch her pet’s side. Small tendrils extended out of her hoof and into Navi, releasing pain killers as they also took samples of the little bug for Emerald to analyse. It only took a moment for Emerald to realise what was bothering Navi. She was dying of old age.

A parasprite lived a short life doing nothing but eating and spawning more of its kind. Hell, they were considered lucky if they lived long enough to make more parasprites before they got eaten, due to their only natural defense being out populating the predators. With that, it was lucky Navi lived as long as she did and didn’t have a horrendously short life span like some bugs had. With that fact in mind, Emerald wondered if she should let nature take its course and let Navi live out her natural life span.

Almost instantly, Emerald tossed the thought aside and began her work. Stressed out from having to deal with the changeling  threat to her home, Celestia’s behaviour afterwards and exposing one of her friend’s deepest secrets, Emerald didn’t think about how she had reversed Fenrir’s old age by slowly replacing the cells bit by bit. Instead, she thought of the moments following her own awakening after being infected with Blacklight, how strong, healthy and tireless she felt.

Navi’s eyes shot wide open as she gasped in pain briefly before a storm of black tendrils exploded out of her skin and surrounded her form for an instant, then they disappeared and she was left lying in her bed, looking exactly like the day she had been born, breathing softly and slowly.

Emerald let loose a long tired sigh as she dropped her forehead onto the table top next to Navi.

‘When is this day going to be over?’ Emerald moaned in frustration before dragging herself onto the bed with a sigh. ‘Things are only going to get busier from here on…’