Chapter eighteen: Trouble ahead
High was clinging to her head and struggled to stay on her hooves. I was sure that everypony in ten blocks had heard her cry.
It didn't take long for the door to crash open, allowing Rosewing to rush out, her eyes glaring green, "What’s wrong?" she asked after a look at High Spirits.
"I don't know, she just cried out and grabbed her head," I answered.
High growled before looking at us, her eyes glowing even brighter than Rosewing's, "One of her high ranking officers is near. She is trying to get control over me with images of you killing Electric," she mumbled, glaring at me.
"We have to bring her in. Lavender, please fill your bathtub with ice cold water. It will help her."
Lavender nodded and rushed inside. I hadn't even noticed that she was outside. I shivered at the thought of High fighting with the queen, knowing how hard it must have been. Me and Rosewing each took a hoof and helped High into the house. With a green pulse of magic, I shut the door, just in time to muffle her next cry of pain.
“AHHHHHHHHH!!!”
“There’s gotta be something we can do for her!” I shouted.
“Get her into the bathwater!” Rosewing shouted as we pushed forward, desperately trying to do something to help her out.
“Can’t we knock her unconscious?” I asked.
“No, she’ll still be in pain, not to mention that it will be much easier for the queen to control her then.”
“Buck,” I mumbled as we took her into the bathroom. Lavender had been quick, emptying the ice cube trays from the fridge directly into the tub. That being said it would still take a while to fully fill up, “The garden hose,” I told her.
Lavender nodded at me and ran out of the room. In truth, I had no idea just how this would help, or if filling the bathtub faster would even make a difference, I just didn’t want her to worry. I wanted to keep her busy, to give her something to do in this crisis. I knew from experience that idle time during something like this only lead to bad thoughts, something neither she or our foal needed.
“Dump her in,” Rosewing stated.
“Sorry,” I said softly as she lifted her up and over the tub. With a small splash, she fell into the water.
“Bucking hell!” she shouted as the cold water sapped her strength, causing her to transform back into her changeling form as well.
She has poison green eyes, I never expected that.
“Try to relax, let the water cool you down and try to bring up the mental barrier we practiced!” Rosewing told her, splashing water over her head with her hoof.
“It burns!!!!” High Spirits shouted into the heavens as she kept arching her back and buzzing her wings, trying to find some position where the pain would lessen.
Me and Rosewing were soaked before either of us realized it. Rosewing held her down, trying to keep her in the water. I was forced to the side, only able to watch, not knowing what to do in this situation, but not wanting to go far just in case I was needed.
High’s struggling continued for a while until it settled down to short spasms of her hooves, her body twitching from time to time. It really seemed like the cold water would help.
“Breath, just concentrate on your breathing,” Rosewing stated over and over, “Remember the good times, remember Electric.”
“AHHH!!!!” She trashed in the tub, worse than ever before. I had no idea if it was my imagination or not, but to this day I swear that I saw the water evaporating around her.
“High, High, calm down!” Rosewing was in tears now, trying desperately to reach her friend, to give her some peace of mind, to try and take away some of her pain. Nothing she did worked. Worse, when she got too close, her hoof received a cut from High Spirit's horn.
“AHh,” Rosewing stated, pulling back in pain.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t know, it normally works, it normally strengthens our defences. She’s…”
“I think I know,“ I cut her off. From what she said, from what I’d learned, they broke away due to falling in love, real love. That was what Rosewing tried to do, she tried to remind High Spirits of the love she felt. However, after Electric’s death, that would only be a thorn in her side, it wouldn’t be something she could use against the queen’s attack.
With a calm demeanor I did not truly possess, I walked to the edge of the tube, taking Rosewing’s place. I looked down at the struggling changeling in the tub, she was thrashing around, grunting and hollering in pain. I placed my hoof upon her chest, forcing her body below the water’s surface.
“You have to fight her, High Spirits. You can’t let her win. You took on responsibility, didn’t you? You have someone you have to be here for, someone you have to be yourself for. You’re a godmother now, High. You’re a godmother to my foal. You promised me, and yourself that. You can’t let her win.”
High’s struggling paused and she looked up at me, “You… Yes, I promised… I promised!”
When a noise came from behind, I turned around to see Lavender shoot me a smile, “I’m sure you wanted to tell me about that at some point, but I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
I didn’t reply, I simply smiled at her and turn back to the tub. High stopped thrashing, she was simply laying in the water, looking up, almost as if she could see something on the ceiling of the bathroom that we could not.
“She is trying to find out what I want to protect… She wants to know what makes Lavender and you so strong,” she turned to me, “I’ll never offer her any information. I’d rather die than put my family on a plate. Electric was my family,” a tear rolled down her muzzle, “And now you are my family.”
I could feel tears in my eyes, and a quick glance at Lavender told me she felt the same. Wrapping her in one wing, we looked at High, “And we would love to call you a member of this family,” I said with a smile.
High was crying again, although this time I knew it was not from pain, but from joy. Lavender nuzzled into my coat, her muzzle reached the tip of my ear before she asked a question meant just for me. I looked at her and nodded my agreement.
She truly has the best ideas.
“High, with your blessing, we’d both like to name our foal Electric,” I said.
High Spirits shot out of the water, her pony form back on like it was just another day. She didn’t say anything, she simply wrapped us both in a very wet hug and cried, her unspoken words all the blessing we ever needed.
Rosewing’s jaw hit the ground, “It worked! How the hay did you know that this would work?!”
High Spirits looked up and her expression darkened, “It did, but there is no time to cheer. There are scouts on their way and… and,” she stopped and sobbed.
“What?” Rosewing asked.
“Silver Speed is dead,” was the only answer she got before High Spirits broke into tears again.
My wing tightened around Lavender. I knew the risks, I knew that we wouldn’t all make it, but having it actually happen, having someone I knew die, even if it was for such a short amount of time, it was very different.
“No… It can’t be,” Rosewing said, dumbstruck.
“We need to end this, and quickly,” I said, “No more deaths, no more…”
A loud knocking on the door startled us.
Three heads snapped in the direction of the door, only High didn’t bother to look, she was the only one not surprised, “I guess it's them.”
“Who?” I asked.
“I don’t know who she sent, I just know someone was on their way, they’ll want to speak to you.”
“I’ll kill them,” I said, surprising myself with my own boldness.
The knocking got louder and I growled before leaping out of the bathroom and to the front door. I casted a small protection spell before opening the door and rushing forwards, just to find myself muzzle to muzzle with Purple Star.
“Hey, Dew. I heard about the thing with the shop. Can I come in?” she asked.
Oh damn, bad timing. Really bad timing. But it explains why I didn’t feel any changelings around.
“Purple Star, this is a really bad time, you mind if we talk about it another day? We kinda got something big going on...“
“I also came here to warn you. The guards found a trail from the ponies that lit the shop to fire. There… there was nothing left of them, simply burned to ashes. The unicorns from the guard say it was powerful magic. Seems like somepony wanted to erase all his trails.”
If you only knew.
Before I could answer, High appeared behind me, panic on her face, “Get down! They’re here!” she shouted.
I didn’t even give Purple Star time to react, I simply pulled her in with my magic and closed the door shut. At that moment, I really didn’t care about revealing myself to her, because in the next moment, the door glowed and shook under the impact of something hitting it.
“I’m glad I reinforced it with those spells,” Lavender mumbled before she caught sight of Purple Star, “We’re doomed…”
“What in the name of Luna is going on here?” Purple asking before slowly retreating back while keeping us in her view.
“Please, Purple. There will be time to explain, but trust me now. We’re all in danger, you too, now that they’ve seen you.”
“I don’t think the door will hold that much longer,” Lavender commented, and she was right as the angles of the door slowly but steady started to warp under the pressure of the hits.
“My armor is magic resistant, it can protect me for a while if they dare to attack me,” Purple stated.
“Oh really?” High asked, “Can it protect you from pure changeling magic?”
Purple Star’s face lost its colour at that, “WHAT?!”
“Look, we can talk later, but we have to go NOW!” I exclaimed and she shook her head as to clear her thoughts before nodding.
Before any of us could take another step, a huge magical wave hit the door, breaking through the protection spells and blasting the door to smithereens. The fragments of which flew in our direction.
I didn’t even think about it, I simply acted. Forcing Lavender down to the ground, I shielded her with my own body. My reward for doing so was several splinters of wood embedded in my back, but to me they were well worth the pain.
Purple Star reacted with the grace one would expect from a Lunar Guard. She quickly shielded herself by turning sideways, so most of the shards would hit her armor before glaring at the two intruders.
Two changelings were standing in front of the former door, grinning wickedly, “Look who we got here. The traitors and their little pets. We even got a new pegasus to play with! This will be so much fun!” one of them exclaimed.
“If you don’t want to end up burnt like your former companions, you should leave, now!” I growled, desperately trying to stay in my disguise. A task that was becoming harder with every smug grin they sent our way.
“Attacking a citizen of Equestria is an act of war!” Purple Star hissed the words, her stance that of a trained combat pegasus.
“Shut up, we’re not interested in you, weak pony. This is an internal matter, we want the traitors,” the other changeling scowled.
Purple looked at me, and I could see that her mind worked for a few moments before her eyes widened and she backed away from me.
“Purple Star, I will tell you everything once this is over, but please believe me that I’m not your enemy! I just want to live in peace with my family!” I practically cried the last sentence out.
“I’m sure the pony you killed said the same thing, what was his name again?“
“The queen used me!” I shouted, hurt that Purple Star continued to back away.
“Ahh, we’ve made her upset,” The smaller one chuckled.
“You,” I couldn’t hold myself in anymore, and with a scream, my disguise dropped, “I’ll kill you both!” I shouted as I charged the very same beam that I had used to burn the last changelings.
My attack was aimed at the larger of the two. I had no idea which one was actually the real threat, but I knew that size tended to matter. It was clear that either the queen never told them what had happened to the last changelings, or they simply didn’t believe it. The larger changeling moved too slow to avoid it completely, and his right hind leg burned completely under my attack.
What was the most off putting, he was still smiling even through the pain, “Hehe, you pack quite a punch, for a half breed freak of nature.”
“What are you doing here?!” I growled the words. My demeanor that of a cold blooded killer.
“I bet High Spirits here told you that we wanted to talk. That’s not the whole truth,” he smiled.
“What’s the whole truth?”
“Aurora…”
The voice froze me dead in my tracks, I turned wide eyed at a sight that caused my blood to run cold. The big one was just to get my attention, so the smaller one could sneak around to Lavender. He was holding her up as a hostage, using her against me.
“Like we said, we’re here to talk, for the most part,” the smaller one smiled at me in a wicked grin that told me he was more than willing to take her life.
“Okay, one question. Are you insane?” I asked him, “We’re four, maybe five.” I added with a look to Purple Star, who stared at me in disbelief, “You know that we could simply kill you, so why are you risking your life for the queen?”
“Because you mares are nothing. The only true mare of the hive is the queen, and it will stay like that. She said that you are just a distraction, a poison in our hive that tries to weaken and kill her and the whole hive! We won’t let that happen!” the smaller changeling shouted, his eyes glowing in hate.
“Besides,” the big one added, “We’re a hive, the hive is only strong when everyone follows orders. You remember those right? Orders? If it wasn’t us, she’d send someone else.”
“She used those orders to throw us into a war that we were destined to lose! She forced us to end our own lives!” High Spirits cut in, “Without her dumb orders, we would be a hive! Now, we are nothing but a few seperated groups of survivors fighting for their lives under ponies!”
“You mares really are dumb, we only EXIST because of her! We are the hive, and we are only weak because of links like you.”
“Aurora is the best example of why we DON’T NEED the queen!” Rosewing growled.
“That sick bastard? She only lived this long because the queen allowed her to,” the bigger one laughed.
A laugh that was cut off as the smaller changeling cried out in pain. We all looked up to him to see a deep cut in his chest, Lavender not in his grip anymore. Next to him stood Purple Star, with an expression of pure hatred on her face, a long, purple blade held in her wing, “I won’t allow your war to go on right here between ponies. Retreat or die, in the name of the Lunar Guard!”
The smaller changeling made his last mistake. Hissing in pain, he lurched towards Purple with his teeth, just to receive her sword right through his face and falling to ground, not moving anymore.
As one, we all turned to the bigger changeling. What took me aback the most, was that he looked amused by the fate of his comrade. Almost smiling about it.
“Understand something, we came here to deliver a message, not to kill. Next time it will be to kill, and you’ll never see us coming.”
“What’s your message?!” I asked with a growl.
“The queen wants to meet,” he said, and I scoffed at that, “Just to talk, and just with you. She gives you her word that nothing will happen to Lavender during that time.”
“You can give her an answer,” suddenly Lavender walked past me in her changeling form, “From my own experience, I know that she is not trustworthy, so this is my answer.”
With that, she blasted the changeling right into his chest and out of our house, right through the door he came in through. We could see him slumping down onto the floor in front of our house, spitting blood, “You dumb mares, now you’ll all die!” he shouted.
High Spirits walked out and stopped in front of him, smirking, “Tell the queen that she can kiss my flank,” she said before ending his life.
Lavender walked back to my side, her form back into a pegasus. She rubbed her coat along my chitin. I put my disguise back on and wrapped a wing around her, holding her tightly after what we went through. She nuzzled me softly and I hummed, glad that she was alright.
“I don’t want to disturb your lovely little moment, but we’ve got another problem,” High Spirits stated with a look at Purple Star, who still held her blade high, this time directed at us.
I turned to face her, my head held high, “So… I guess we need to talk.”
“Explain everything, now,” she grunted out each word though her clenched teeth.
"High, please pull the body in and clean the blood," I said before turning to Purple Star, "You might want to sit down, the story is rather long."