Footsteps echoed throughout the castle as the inhabitants raced to their battle positions. Twilight glanced behind her as she ran towards the front gate of the castle. She saw her friends behind her, and Discord alongside her. His expression exuded utter determination, and she felt a twinge of regret for all the times that she'd doubted whether or not he had truly come over to their side.
Now, she could see, he truly had. Otherwise, he wouldn't be this set on protecting the castle and those within it.
She skidded to a halt about halfway down the long, narrow corridor, and the others slammed on the brakes shortly thereafter. Standing in front of them was a large group of Changelings, all with the same expressions that they had seen on their faces while Chrysalis was leading them against the Elements after the Royal Wedding. Cold, calculating... but oddly this time, also with a tinge of glee.
She waited for them to begin shifting their forms, as they did the first time, but not a single shimmer was seen among them.
“Why aren't they changing?” Twilight whispered.
“I believe it's because they think they don't have to,” Discord returned. “They have been convinced that whatever their mission is here, they don't even need to disguise to do it. Victory has already been guaranteed, in their eyes.”
Twilight's eyes narrowed. “Well, let's give them a reality check, shall we?” Discord smiled, and slipped into invisibility.
She returned her attention to the Changelings, who hadn't moved at all during her brief exchange. “Why haven't they come after us? Surely my momentary lapse of attention would have been enough for them to make a first move...”
“Why are you here?” Twilight asked. “Why have you come here?”
Shining Armor's telepathic voice echoed in her mind. “Are you all ok? Have they attacked you yet?”
Twilight sent back a message. “No, not yet. I'm trying to find out why now.”
“Alright, just keep me informed.”
No response came from the Changelings, nor did they make a move towards them. Twilight was about to speak again, when she saw the back of the group began to slightly ripple outwards, parting ways for somepony. This continued all the way to the front of the group, until the figure they had been showing such reverent respect for came to the forefront of the group. This new Changeling was slightly taller than the rest, and Twilight assumed this indicted either advanced age or advanced stature in the Nation- maybe both.
This new Changeling spoke, and though the voice was not as rich in timbre as the other Changeling lord that, Twilight could still sense a stately bearing in their speech, along with something else that almost surprised her: the voice was female.
“Our second welcome into this castle went much smoother than the first, do you not think?” Twilight hadn't stopped to think that there were any females in the Changeling Nation, other than Chrysalis herself. All of her research had pointed towards the entire brood coming from Chrysalis herself, so she had assumed that the rest of the brood had been male.
Somewhat shortsighted, she was now seeing.
“You caught us off-guard this time,” Twilight responded, “but don't think that your arrival this time is any more well-heralded than the first. You are still not welcome here- not you, not your Queen, and certainly not your warriors.”
“Warriors? This is merely my envoy. Notice they have not come after you yet? That is because these have not been trained to fight. They are the royal escorts of my Queen and her trusted Ones- myself included in that, obviously, as is Adriu, the other whom you have already spoken with.”
“So then speak. No one is attacking you, and no one will, save on my command.” Twilight dipped her head, as the others' jaws collectively dropped. “Why are you here?”
“To negotiate a trade. Your friend... for your queen.”
Twilight's mind swam. “You're telling me you... you want Celestia? For Rainbow Dash?” She shook her head. “First off, Celestia is not a queen. She's a princess, just like Luna, just like Cadance. And second of all, why would we deprive an entire nation of a ruler just for one pony?”
“So your friend means nothing to you,” the Changeling retorted. She chuckled. “Oh, how easily the bonds of this so-called 'all-important love' fall apart when situations change but a little...”
“That's not the reason why,” Twilight growled. “Rainbow is more than capable of taking care of herself, and Celestia is way too important to Equestria for me to just give her up like that.” And besides, we're not even sure that Celestia is who she says she is... Especially Luna. She thinks Celestia is nothing but a Changeling in disguise.
“Do you really think that? Your 'friend' won't last much longer. Tonight at midnight, our ritual will be completed, and the truest ruler this world has ever seen will reclaim her rightful seat, on the throne of this whole nation!”
“You mean Nightmare Moon?” Twilight sneered at the merest mention of her name. “Nightmare Moon won't do any better for Equestrian rulership than Chrysalis would. Actually, I'm pretty sure Chrysalis would make a better ruler than Nightmare Moon would. At least Chrysalis wants us alive to feed her subjects our love. Nightmare Moon just wants us all under her tyrannical rule. And we will not let this happen!”
“You keep thinking that.” She grinned. “And we, in the meantime, will continue our glorious march towards unity, under one common banner! We ride!” With that, the Changeling army rose up en masse, and started to fly away.
“Don't let them get away!” Twilight yelled. Her horn glowed, and she cast a levitation spell on those in the group who could not fly naturally. They launched themselves up at the Changelings, intent on starting the battle that they thought the Changelings were there to begin at first.
“Oh, the ponies are getting feisty...” the Changeling leader crooned. “You want to dance? Let's dance.” She motioned a hoof, and the Changelings with her started to move into formation. With a wave of her hoof, the Changelings flew downward at their foes.
“So much for not attacking us, I guess...” Twilight murmured as she fired a bolt of magical energy up at the oncoming horde. To her surprise, the oncoming force halted suddenly, smashing into an invisible barrier before they could even get halfway to the Elements. So that's where Discord went off to...
The Changelings recovered quickly though, and once again flew downward, this time in a more erratic fashion, dodging and zig-zagging every which way. Twilight and Rarity sent more bolts of magic their way, while the others flew around and engaged in hoof-to-hoof combat. Discord popped in and out of the air, grabbing Changelings at random and then disappearing with them, only to reappear empty-clawed a moment later.
The Changelings, however, were not impressed with their grandeur tactics. They began to shapeshift into various members of the group; a few even managed to passably change into faux Discords. They kept up their erratic movement patterns, inserting themselves amongst the group.
Twilight swallowed hard. She'd dealt with this kind of behavior before, but not in the air. She wasn't sure which of her friends were real and which were Changelings, and she didn't want to accidentally end up hitting one of them.
“What do you plan to do now?” the Changeling envoy asked with a malicious tone. “Are your friends worth the potential of-” Her sentence was cut off by a blinding streak of magical light, which tore from the buttress of the castle below them. It struck her square in the chest, and she squealed in pain, wheeling off from the spot where she had been hovering.
“You wanted me?” Twilight heard from below them, immediately recognizing the voice. “Well now you have me!”
Celestia streaked upward like a bolt of lightning, with Luna not too far behind. Twilight was close to warning Luna that this may have been like before, with the fake Celestia, but she kept her words to herself for the time being. There would be time after the battle to quickly sort things out.
Luna's horn flashed, and the air around her shimmered as she became invisible. Discord appeared below them, and with a wave of his claw, the Changelings began to lose their disguises one by one. A distinct slam was heard, and the revealing of the Changelings stopped, as their leader had somehow managed to get around the whole group and hurled herself at Discord, tackling him and interrupting his chaos magic. Those that had been revealed, were quickly dispatched by the unicorns and the newly-arrived Celestia and Luna.
“Where's Shining Armor and Cadance?” Twilight yelled out over the din.
“They are safe inside the castle,” Celestia replied. “in the Royal Archives, where they are doing some last-minute research on how we are to get there and what to do after-” She stopped suddenly, staring at a perfect duplicate of herself. Twilight fired up a magical bolt, but the impostor raised a magical shield and the bolt deflected harmlessly, sailing off into the skyline. Twilight snarled and shot again, but the results were no different this time. The fake Celestia smirked, and Twilight felt her rage growing.
She was about to fire off another magic bolt when a black tear appeared in the air beside her. A familiar claw reached out and snagged the Changeling by the hoof, and jerked it into the tear, which closed diretly thereafter. A moment later, Discord appeared in front of Twilight and Celestia, and tipped an imaginary hat to them before vanishing again.
Twilight turned to Celestia. “We don't have enough time to deal with these Changelings! The ritual to resurrect Nightmare Moon is less than twelve hours away!”
Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “Then we may have to split everyone up in order to be able to fight on both fronts.”
Pinkie's loud voice echoed from across the battlefield: “What are you doing?! You never split the party!”
Celestia ignored Pinkie's objection. “If we want everything to work out, we're going to have to make sacrifices. I'll stay here with the other Elements to take care of the Changelings. You take Luna, Shining Armor, and Cadance, and start making your way to the Changeling lands. We shall meet you there as soon as this threat is dealt with. Take Zecora as well,” she added, almost as an after-thought.
Twilight swallowed hard. “Are you sure this is going to work? Are you going to be alright here?”
Celestia laid a comforting hoof on Twilight's back. “If ever you put your trust in me, my student, make it so now. We shall see each other again- of that, I am sure.” Twilight steeled her resolve, and teleported away.
She reappered a moment later beside Luna, who was fighting off a group of Changelings. Twilight forked a magical bolt and blasted them all away. She took the opportunity to grab Luna by the hoof and teleport away, leading them over to where Shining Armor and Cadance had just finished dispatching another group of Changelings.
“Okay so this is the plan,” Twilight yelled over all the din. “The four of us and Zecora are going to head there early as an advance party. As soon as Celestia and the other Elements are done with the Changelings here, they'll head out that way as well and regroup with us.”
“But that puts everyone in a more precarious position...” Cadance objected.
“That normally would be true,” Twilight admitted, “but she does have a point. They are more than capable of taking care of the Changelings here. We need to start heading out that way to make sure that our position is secure for us to stop the ritual before it's complete.” She started scanning the battlefield. “Where's Zecora?”
A Changeling flew backwards past them with a pained expression, and Zecora came charging after it, lunging at it and headbutting it over the battlement. She caught herself before she went over the edge herself, then dusted herself off. “Well, that answers that question.”
“I am hardly a fighter on any day,” Zecora said, visibly trying to regain her composure, “but I will if it is the only way.”
“You're not the only one,” Twilight said with a reassuring smile. “Now let's go, before things get too out of hand.” They took off in the direction of the Changeling lands, leaving their friends and family behind in uncertain hooves.
---
Rainbow Dash awoke suddenly, hearing footsteps coming down the corridor leading to Chrysalis' personal chambers, where she was still being held. She almost didn't want to care who it was, but instinct prevailed, and she rose up on all fours, alert. Her joints groaned and her head pounded, but she fought through the pain, even when her vision started to swim in front of her.
A few moments later, the door opened, and Adriu stepped inside. He glanced around before shutting the door.
“What does she want this time?” Dash asked. “More torture... more empty platitudes... more reassurances that my friends w-won't come and save me...?”
Adriu shook his head. “None of that this time. In fact, if my Queen were to know that I was even in here, about to have this conversation with you, she would have my head as well as yours.”
This befuddled Rainbow. “S-so wait... What?”
“What I am about to tell you is going to surprise you, but I need you to put off any doubts of my veracity that you might have.” He took another look around him, then continued. “You know already that were I in charge of your condition while here, you would not be in such a... predicament. Do you not?”
Dash nodded. “Th-that's one thing you did make clear to me...” She sank back down onto the floor, letting the cool polished marble press up against her matted coat. “I know you don't want this for me. You're just following orders.”
Adriu approached Dash tentatively. When she did not shrink away or flinch, he went down on his stomach, meeting Dash at eye level.
“I have been planning something for quite a while now, ever since how I saw my Queen treating you with such blatant disrespect. I wanted to tell you, so that you know just how dire this situation is. Were things different, I would have hoped that we would be good friends. You and I are a lot alike, you know.”
“W...what makes you think we aren't friends?” Dash smiled feebly. “You protected me... a few times. I'd probably be dead already if it weren't for you.”
“Then listen to me closely,” Adriu said, as he began to lay out his plan to the Queen's captive. And as a hush fell over the room, save for Adriu's pained voice as he spoke to Dash...
Everything became clear.