//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: The Heart Thief 
// by Helrael 
//------------------------------//

The ponies' stay in Baltimare had been a short affair, even more so than Rarity could have hoped. After traveling the streets of the port city for just a little while, she and Fluttershy had had the good fortune of stumbling upon a small shop that sold just about everything their four-pony group would need for their voyage and subsequent journey. Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to track them down just as they left the shop, and together, the three ponies had made their way to the docks, where the two earth ponies presented them with a ship and crew.
 
The vessel was every bit as practical and lacking in luxury as Rarity would have expected of Applejack. The S.S. Sunrise was a moderately sized, wooden steamship, built for trade and not for passengers. Its hull had once been a painted picture of the sky, Rarity believed, but years of harsh winds and salt had worn away those colors until the hull was nothing more than gray splotches and exposed wood. The front half of a rearing alicorn adorned the front of the ship, bearing a fading resemblance to Princess Celestia.
 
Rarity had little trouble imagining how her two friends had persuaded the captain sailing that floating tribute to Celestia. No doubt a signature from the newest princess of Equestria carried quite a bit of weight with a pony like that.
 
If she tried, Rarity could certainly appreciate the rustic charms the exterior of the ship had to offer, but the interior was a different story altogether. The captain had been able to spare only a single cabin for the four ponies. One cramped cabin with only two beds. Worst of all, every cabin and corridor on the ship meant for personnel was absolutely horrid to even look at. Tight, confined spaces, bright lights that hurt her eyes, and every surface painted in a sterile, soul-draining white.
 
It would most certainly not be a luxurious voyage, but it was at the very least relatively clean, and financially, Applejack had certainly made a bargain of the voyage. More importantly, the ship had already been fully loaded by the time they had negotiated passage aboard it, ready to sail south for Zebrica within the hour.
 
It was in a good mood and with high hopes that the quartet of friends had waved Baltimare goodbye, but as the following day progressed, the initial excitement had slowly passed, replaced with a growing trepidation as they steadily approached Gray Bay.
 
Rarity stood brooding by the starboard side of the ship, amid the spray of sea and the many massive wooden crates strapped securely to the deck. Pegasus sailors bustled about her both back and forth, on deck and above head, filling the air with shouted commands, crude jokes, and raucous laughter.
 
She stood on her hind legs, leaning against the stout, wooden gunwale that surrounded the deck on all sides, built just low enough to afford her an unobstructed view of the ocean. Her forehooves beat idly against the top of the gunwale, matching the rhythm of waves breaking against the ship's hull. She gazed out upon waters stained black by the night above, but even in darkness, she could make out the distant mountain ranges in the west, belonging to the dragons.
 
“Whatcha doin'?”
 
Rarity almost jumped at the sudden appearance of Pinkie Pie beside her. The pink pony rose to her hind legs like Rarity and gave the unicorn a smile as she leaned against the gunwale.
 
“Oh, you know. Getting some fresh air, enjoying some open space. Trying not to think of what the salt in the air will do to my mane.” She gave a weak laugh. “What about you? I've barely seen you all day.”
 
“It's Saltbeard's birthday tomorrow,” Pinkie Pie whispered. “I've been making all the arrangements with the crew today!”
 
Rarity nodded. “Saltbeard. That's the captain, isn't it?”
 
“Pepperbeard's the captain,” Pinkie Pie corrected her. “Saltbeard's the cook! I've been cooking and baking for him all day without him noticing, and they're gonna make him captain for a day tomorrow!”
 
“Aha. Well, that sounds just delightful. I'm sure he'll appreciate it, Pinkie Pie.”
 
The earth pony nodded her agreement, beaming all the while. “Where's Fluttershy and Applejack?”
 
“The waters have been rather... unruly today. I'm afraid it hasn’t been agreeing with either of them. I tried convincing them that it's better up here, but Fluttershy ‒ being Fluttershy ‒ is terrified of all the sailors. And Applejack simply didn't believe me.”
 
“I love it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, arching her back in tandem with the ship's rocking. “It's been like a rollercoaster all day!”
 
“Yes, I can't imagine why someone would dislike that,” Rarity remarked. She gave an almost involuntary shudder at the thought.
 
“What?”
 
“Nothing. Just having some flashbacks to the day before yesterday,” Rarity explained with a half-smile. “Spike didn't fare much better than Applejack or Fluttershy under these circumstances.”
 
“Really?” Pinkie Pie sounded surprised, and she put a hoof to her chin in thought. “I would've thought he had a stronger stomach... Did he really end up..?”
 
Rarity nodded her head stiffly. “Yes. Yes... It certainly made an awful evening worse.” She looked out upon the barely visible mountains in the night, wondering where Twilight and the others were now. “If only I had known how much he agreed with me.”
 
“You have to appreciate the effort, though. Right?” Pinkie Pie remarked with a smile.
 
“I can,” Rarity assured her. “Misguided as it was, nopony can deny the effort he put into that... date.”
 
Pinkie Pie nodded, following Rarity's gaze out across the ocean. For a brief moment, the silhouette of the mountains became surprisingly clear as a flash of lightning erupted from somewhere among the peaks. A massive thunderhead had gathered within the dragon territories, stretching back north as far as either of the ponies could see. Another dull flash from farther inland shone through the dark cloud cover before the rumbling thunder from the first bolt of lightning reached the seabound ponies' ears. Most of the sailors paid it no mind, but Rarity did catch a few of them giving the distant storm a worried glance.
 
“What does 'misguided' mean?” Pinkie Pie asked her after a short period of silence had passed between the two.
 
Rarity’s gaze fell to her hooves, and she gave a quiet chuckle. “I've seen the question on your lips ever since we set off. I'd thought Applejack would have been the one to ask.”
 
“Why's that?”
 
Rarity shook her head. “I don't know. I haven't exactly been straightforward in my dealings with Spike, have I? I thought perhaps the Element of Honesty would be the first to object to that. I've seen it in her eyes often enough. I've seen it in Twilight's eyes as well. Perhaps anypony would object to it.”
 
“Wut's that you've seen in mah eyes?” The two mares looked back to see Applejack approaching, a green tinge to her face and a distinct wobble in her step. She stood up against the gunwale next to Rarity, giving a faint groan before looking at the unicorn.
 
Rarity frowned at the interruption. It was one thing talking to Pinkie about all this. She had figured it would either all go over her head, or she'd be her usual understanding and encouraging self. Applejack was a different matter.
 
Rarity sighed. “You wonder if I care about Spike.” She returned her gaze to the black waves rocking the ship, listening to the repeating ebb and flow of the ocean. A light drizzle had seized the ship, but she welcomed it, feeling the rain wash away the salt gnawing at her skin and hair. She waited for some sort of answer from Applejack or Pinkie Pie, but when it never came, she continued. “I never deny him his affections. I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy them. But they do leave a bad taste in my mouth. He needs something in return; everyone does, but I don't think I can give it to him.”
 
“I don't think it's that hard to give,” Pinkie Pie offered. “Most of the time, it happens all on its own.”
 
“And if it doesn't?”
 
“Then ya own up to it,” Applejack murmured. “Fer pony's sake, Rarity, you sound like a grade school filly. It ain't the end of the world.”
 
Pinkie Pie giggled and nodded. “You shouldn't be so afraid.” She pushed herself off the gunwale with her forehooves and went around Rarity and Applejack toward the back of the ship. “It's just a hop, skip, and a jump!”
 
The pink pony bounced down the deck of the ship, off on whatever business she had with the ship's crew. Rarity remained where she was, wondering what kind of authority Pinkie Pie was on love. A hop, skip, and jump indeed. No one seemed to realize just how intimidating Spike's dedication could be.
 
“We're too different,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “And he's so young. I may be past my school years, but he certainly isn't. I could break his heart.”
 
Applejack gave her a long, hard look. “Ya kinda already did, sugarcube. That's why we're out here sailin' into one of the most dangerous places in the world.”
 
“I have done everything in my power not to break his heart,” Rarity protested weakly, convincing neither herself nor Applejack.
 
“Not everythin'.”
 
Rarity's face flushed with anger and her gaze rose to meet Applejack's. “What, then? Because Spike loves me, I'm obligated to love him back? No matter my own feelings?”
 
Applejack shrugged. “Can't say nuthin' 'bout yer feelin's on the matter, but Ah reckon ya could at least give it a shot.”
 
“A shot? Try him out, see if he suits me?” Rarity shook her head. “He deserves more than that.”
 
“Then what does the poor guy deserve, Rarity?”
 
“If I knew, we wouldn't be in this mess, would we?” Rarity sighed. “He needs someone else. Someone his own age. Preferably a dragon. Someone who can make him forget all about me.”
 
“Rarity... Spike ain't really a dragon. Not in the ways that really count. He's lived his entire life in Ponyville and Canterlot. There ain't gonna be no dragoness to sweep him off his feet. He ain't just gonna forget about you.”
 
Rarity hated Applejack's honesty sometimes. And her insight.
 
“Ah know it's great havin' someone like Spike around, thinkin' the highest heavens of ya and seein' ya as nothin' less than perfect,” Applejack continued. “Ah know you don't wanna change that, but that's makin' it less about him and more about you. And that just ain't fair.”
 
“He gave away his heart thinking he couldn't be with me,” Rarity whispered, looking in the direction of the mountains, hidden behind thick curtains of rain. “But even then, he still had a little hope. Him and me... it's not impossible, Applejack. Maybe someday when he's older. Maybe if I were younger... But what happens to him if I take away that hope for good?”
 
“What happens if ya don't?” Applejack countered. “Two nights ago, he gave away his heart. Ya think his heartache's gonna be over once we get it back? If ya don't do somethin', this is gonna happen again.”
 
Rarity shook her head. “I can't. Not now.”
 
Applejack scowled. “You'n'me, we ain't gettin' no sleep 'cause o' this darned boat rockin' about.” She pointed a hoof at the mountains furthest north. “But Twilight, she ain't sleepin’ 'cause she's busy watchin' her oldest, best friend in the world dyin'. Don't come tellin' me ya won't do everythin' in yer power to make sure that never happens again!”
 
The words struck her almost like a physical blow, and Rarity quickly decided she had had enough of yielding any further to Applejack's criticisms. “This is not my fault!” A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the heated fires in both ponies' eyes, and a crack of thunder punctuated Rarity's backlash. By now, what had once been a light drizzle had transformed into a torrential downpour. “A changeling did this, not I! If anyone but that changeling is to blame, it is Spike!” She brushed her soaked mane out of her eyes. “I mean, who gives away their heart to a complete stranger!?”
 
“Well, gee, don't ya think it mighta disguised itself?” Applejack shot back. “Ah don't care if ya reject him or accept him, but if ya'd at least done either, he wouldn'ta ended up givin' his heart away to a fake you! At least the darned changeling could decide what ta do with it!”
 
“Oh! You mean drain him dry of emotion and leave him for dead in the Everfree!? I don't know why that didn't occur to me! Maybe I just care about him a little more than ‒”
 
“Ladies! Get the heck down!”
 
Both ponies' attention left each other briefly as they both looked toward the pegasus stallion further updeck bellowing at them. Any words he had beyond his initial warning, however, were lost to a loud roar from offship, quickly growing in volume. Their gazes followed the sound and turned west toward the mountains, only to find a colossal wave rushing toward the ship, its crest reaching just a few feet over the deck.
 
The two mares had just enough time to throw themselves to the deck and brace before the wooden gunwale they'd been standing against shattered under the impact of the massive wave. The sound itself was deafening, and Rarity's head was ringing as she scrabbled for purchase, fighting both the undertow of the wave pulling her backwards and the mighty heave of the ship, recoiling from the powerful blow the sea had struck it.
 
Someone grabbed hold of her and shouted, but she couldn't focus hard enough to tell if it were Applejack or the sailor. Before she knew it, another concussive impact shook the ship, and the frothing ocean sent her careening across the deck and slammed her into a wooden crate.
 



 
“Looks like the storm's headed east now,” Rainbow Dash observed. “Shouldn't bother us tomorrow.”
 
She headed back into the small cavern she and Twilight had chosen as their shelter for the night, not much larger than the reading room of the library. The cavern was situated almost half a hundred feet above Tangled Pass, overlooking both the pathway and the vast mountain range in the distance, separating the trio from the sea to the east. Twilight could still hear the pitter patter of rain against rock all around her, but the veritable waterfall running past the entrance to the cavern had slowed to a gentler dripping, so she supposed Rainbow Dash was right.
 
The alicorn, seated at the fire she had built near the back of the cave, nodded her head. “Good. It's slowed us down enough as it is.”
 
Rainbow Dash shook her head and smiled at Twilight as she headed back inside. “First off, we're inside The Dragon Territories already. You teleporting us through the badlands put us way ahead of schedule. Second, this storm's gonna slow that changeling down as much as us. Trust me, we'll find her tomorrow.”
 
Twilight nodded again as Rainbow Dash sat down next to her by the fire. Without really thinking about it, both their gazes fell on Spike, sleeping beside Twilight. “It's not necessarily a she, you know,” Twilight pointed out. “It could have been any kind of changeling that did this.”
 
“I guess...” Rainbow Dash frowned and shook her head. “Just figured anything acting like Rarity would have to be a girl.” She hesitated for a moment before raising an eyebrow at Twilight. “But... any changeling? Really? You make it sound so easy, yet this almost never happens, right?”
 
Twilight's eyes remained fixed on Spike. He had grown paler.
 
“Spike's a bit of a special case. His draconic heritage yet complete lack of a dragon's psychology... It gives him all the outward appearances of a child. And in many ways, he is a child. He can be naive at times, his interests might seem a bit immature, and he possesses a sincerity you never see in adults. Most adults, anyway.”
 
“Pinkie Pie doesn't count,” Rainbow Dash told her, and they both grinned.
 
“It's easy to forget he's only a few years younger than you or me,” Twilight continued, her smile faltering. His breathing was so slow. “He may be a child by dragon standards, but he's something else entirely by pony standards, standards he's been raised with. He's more experienced than any foal, not at all shallow like so many children can be. Someone who can love truly and selflessly, and is trusting enough to give away his most important possession. He's the perfect kind of prey for a changeling.”
 
“Not exactly perfect,” Rainbow Dash argued, giving Twilight a nod. “Any thief who's got a princess of Equestria chasing after them messed up bad.”
 
“Yeah. I guess.” Twilight brushed a hoof lightly against the side of Spike's head. His usual hot temperature had fallen drastically since the theft, to the point where he now felt colder than her own hoof.
 
Noticing him shivering beneath her touch, she gently nudged him closer to the fire and herself. A partial silence settled between the two ponies while Twilight fussed over Spike, the only sounds the spatter, splash, and trickle of the ceaseless rain outside the cave and the occasional crackle of firewood from within. Rainbow Dash seemed content to simply watch as Twilight slowly rearranged the fire to almost encircle the dragon, giving him a bed of embers to rest on and warm his chilled scales. He'd be covered in soot in the morning, and so would she once she set off with him on her back, but at this point it was barely a concern.
 
“Twilight.” She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was giving her a tired smile. “I'm sure he'll be fine. Maybe you should get some rest yourself. You've pushed yourself pretty far today. Gonna need your strength for tomorrow, right?”
 
Twilight couldn't help but yawn in response and gave a grudging nod. “Let's hope so.”
 
Using her magic, she retrieved her and Rainbow Dash's sleeping bags from the saddlebags in the back of the cave, dumping the latter in front of the pegasus while wrapping herself up in her own. She scooted back from the fire and rolled over so that she was facing the back of the cave rather than the bright flames.
 
“You sure he's good like that?”
 
Twilight rolled back over to look at both the pegasus and the slumbering dragon. “The fire? We used to have a fireplace back in Canterlot. He'd do this all the time during winters. And we've both seen him bellyflop straight onto molten lava.”
 
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Oh yeah. Good point. Well, guess I'll see you both tomorrow. G'night.”
 
“Sweet dreams.”
 
Rainbow Dash rolled over like Twilight had done just moments earlier, and the alicorn was about to do the same when she noticed Spike stirring. She watched him toss and turn, wondering if she'd overdone it with the fire. After a minute or so, the dragon seemed to calm down, curling up on top of the embers with his back to Twilight.
 
Even surrounded by fire and burning coals, however, she could see him shivering badly. Twilight frowned. She couldn't even treat his symptoms, it seemed. Of course, Spike's chill was caused by powers beyond her control, so she supposed it only made sense that she lacked the means to heat him up again. At least until they found the changeling.
 
Minutes ticked by slowly as she watched her friend shaking, his occasional twitches kicking up small gouts of smoke and sparks around him. Rainbow Dash was already snoring like thunder, but for every moment Twilight watched Spike suffer, sleep seemed further and further out of reach.
 
Vexing what-ifs and troubling could-have-beens cycled through her mind in an endless drone, chasing away any hope of restful slumber. She wondered what Celestia knew about heart thefts. She wondered what she would have done had Twilight simply gone to her from the very start. She wondered what her reaction would be... should she fail. Why hadn't she sent another citizen of Ponyville up to The Crystal Empire in her place? What else had she forgotten? What if the thief had taken another route into The Changeling Kingdom?
 
Her aimless train of thought was broken when she noticed Spike lifting his head suddenly. Twilight wondered whether she'd been dozing off or if she'd been too engrossed with her own nagging thoughts, for it seemed quite a while had gone by without her realizing it. The fire had been reduced to smoldering embers, and the rain outside had lessened noticeably.
 
Her curiosity only grew when Spike rose to his feet, stumbling out of the embers and turning to face the cavern entrance. When Spike started shuffling toward the entrance, Twilight found herself compelled to intervene. Rather than simply grabbing him with her magic, however, she got up out of her sleeping bag and trotted after him.
 
“Spike?”
 
The dragon stopped just a few feet from the entrance, just as Twilight caught up to him, but he offered no reaction to his name being called. His eyes were half open, she noted, so it seemed unlikely that he was sleepwalking. In fact, he seemed more awake than he'd been all day. Rather than his usual trance-like state, he appeared somewhat lucid, staring at something dead ahead of him.
 
Twilight followed his gaze. Although the rain had waned since they had arrived, it still formed a thick blanket, veiling most everything beyond the cave from sight. Coupled with the darkness of the dead of night, Twilight found it difficult to make out anything but rain.
 
Spike, however, continued looking, and so Twilight did the same, letting her eyes adjust. Eventually, she could faintly make out the ridge of the steep cliffside opposite the path they'd been following all day. Spike's gaze seemed fixed on a particular protrusion in the cliffside; one that arched out over the pathway and jutted up far enough for it to almost be on the same level as the cavern.

Twilight gave a faint gasp when she noticed an equine figure standing atop the jutting cliff, and the figure seemed to shift in response to the noise. Wings ‒ much too large to belong to a changeling, but definitely not the feathered wings of a pegasus ‒ unfurled menacingly, and the creature fell into a defensive crouch, as if ready to pounce.
 
Unwilling to take any chances, Twilight's horn lit up as she threw a defensive barrier across the cavern entrance. Simultaneously, the creature's forehead became wreathed in an all too familiar green glow, revealing a pair of green, slitted eyes and a fanged snarl. The creature's coat was black and shiny, and the wings ‒ draconic in nature, Twilight realized as they caught the light ‒ had the same translucent cerulean hue as a changeling's.
 
The changeling's horn dimmed for a second, gathering energy before launching a bright bolt of energy straight at the pair. Twilight ducked instinctively, and she felt the back of her mane get singed as the changeling's spell shattered her barrier, flying straight over her head and exploding against the roof of the cave behind her. The shockwave put out the fire in the middle of the cavern and scattered its embers everywhere, causing Rainbow Dash to cry out in panic.
 
The changeling followed up with another three bolts, but Twilight was better prepared this time. She amped up the magic feeding into her horn and swiftly deflected the three blasts, countering with a bolt of lightning thrice the power of the changeling's. The resulting explosion threw up a thick cloud of debris around the changeling, but Twilight saw the green bubble pop up around it moments before impact.
 
When the faint green light within the cloud grew brighter suddenly, Twilight grabbed Spike and leapt back into the cave, avoiding a beam of energy that cut several inches into the rock it passed across.
 
“What the hay!?” Twilight looked over to see Rainbow Dash finish fighting her way out of her sleeping bag, looking around the cavern in bewilderment. “What's attacking us!?”
 
“You thought I wouldn't see two ponies flying around in broad daylight?” the changeling outside jeered, answering Rainbow Dash's question before Twilight could. “Think you can sneak up on a changeling?” His voice ‒ for the changeling was definitely male, Twilight decided ‒ had the distinct layered, unnatural tone to it as Queen Chrysalis'. She could swear she heard a little of Spike's voice mingled with the changeling's taunts.
 
“Is that the thief?”
 
Twilight motioned for Rainbow Dash to stay back, then crept back toward the front of the cave until she had the changeling in sight. The dust had settled around him, and without the glare of the fire behind her, Twilight found it easier to make out her adversary.
 
Chrysalis resembled an alicorn most of all, likely due to the hearts she had stolen from various pony races throughout her lifetime. That much seemed obvious just from looking at what Spike's heart thief had transformed into. Although it was hard to tell due to the distance and darkness cloaking him, it seemed the changeling had grown to almost double his regular size, and instead of the usual imitated equine tail, he sported a black, tapered tail, with a dark cerulean tuft along its tip. His hooves were misshapen, sprouting ferocious-looking claws, and his snout had grown into a half equine, half reptilian monstrosity.

An elongated and curved cerulean crystal protruded from the top of the changeling's skull like a second horn. Twilight had a feeling just by looking at it that this was what had become of the stolen heart. Like Chrysalis, the changeling before her lacked the solid blue eyes of his brethren. His eyes were bright emerald instead, much too similar to Spike's. And they were looking directly at her.
 
Twilight stood up and took a step toward the changeling. “You took something that belongs to us,” she declared, lighting up her horn again. “You're going to give it back!”
 
“Give it back to the husk? Oh, but that would be such a waste.” The thief beat his wings and set into the air, bringing himself level with Twilight. “Let me show you what I can do with it!”
 
The crystal atop the changeling's head flashed green momentarily before the glow transferred to his horn. Fire gathered at its tip, condensing into a steadily growing sphere that hummed with power.

Twilight threw a bolt of lightning at the hovering changeling in an effort to break his focus, but a simple force field appeared about him just in time, deflecting the spell.

The changeling became lost in a blinding blaze of his own magic, lighting up almost everything within and beyond the cavern. The light collapsed in on itself, and a white hot ball of fire whistled through the air straight at the cave.
 
Twilight teleported backwards into the cavern, grabbed both Spike and Rainbow Dash, and teleported all three of them back behind the changeling, on top of the cliff overlooking the Tangled Pass pathway. Behind them, the cavern was annihilated by a massive explosion, visible for several miles and audible for many more. A thunderous boom echoed out across the mountains, and even the changeling, cackling madly all the while, flinched at the magnitude of destruction, enough to leave a giant crater in the mountainside.
 
“Keep Spike safe!” Twilight could barely hear herself shout over the ringing in her ears, but she was off before she could make sure Rainbow Dash had heard. With a few swift beats of her wings, she closed in on the changeling from behind. A piece of debris from the explosion ‒ a rock the size of herself ‒ flew straight at her, and she used her magic to slingshot it around herself and into the changeling's side with bone-crushing force.
 
The thief gave a roar of pain as he tumbled down toward the pathway far below, wrapped around the large rock that carried him downwards. He didn't seem especially wounded, however, as he soon blew the boulder apart with a blast of magic, catching just enough air with his wings to hit the ground smoothly.
 
A volley of magical projectiles whistled forth from his horn, arcing up through the air and exploding against the sturdy force field conjured about the airborne alicorn. Twilight dispelled her shield and whisked away the smoke thrown up by the explosions so that she could retaliate, but the thief had already closed in on her.
 
His left claw-hoof amalgamation backhanded her across her face, breaking her focus, and his right seized her throat, its claws tightening around her neck.
 
“So small... for an alicorn,” the thief chuckled, and his entire body inexplicably grew a little larger as Twilight watched.
 
She was aiming a desperate kick at the changeling when a rainbow blur bowled into him, knocking Twilight out of his grip and throwing him off balance. Before he could recover and strike back at Rainbow Dash, a magenta blast caught him in the chest, sending him flying backwards half a hundred feet.
 
Twilight teleported into the air just above the thief, hammering him downwards with another blast of magic. Rainbow Dash flew in a wide arc around the changeling as he fell, nimbly dodging his volley of hastily fired energy bolts before closing in and delivering a devastating kick to the area below his left wing. Before the pegasus could get away, however, the changeling twisted around to counter with a powerful burst of magic, sending Rainbow Dash hurtling toward the scarred mountain while the recoil carried the thief back onto the cliff Twilight had first spotted him on.
 
The thief's left wing hung at a slightly crooked angle, Twilight noted, meaning that Rainbow Dash's strike had either broken or paralyzed it somehow. It would give her the height advantage for now, but it wasn't an advantage she was confident in holding. The heavy rain ‒ beating down on her and drenching her fur ‒ was weighing her down more than she would have expected. She could already feel herself slowing down as a result.
 
The changeling's twisted horn and the cerulean crystal just behind it both lit up, acquiring an almost blinding luminescence within seconds. Twilight recognized the spell that had destroyed the cave before it was even fired, and she began charging her own spells. Between her flight and teleportation, the changeling had no chance of hitting her.
 
Without warning, however, the thief turned and fired his spell at Spike, who stood unprotected further back on the cliff. Seeing the pulsing green sphere hurtling toward her friend, Twilight instantly forgot all about her spells. The moment the changeling launched the fireball, she teleported past him to stand in front of Spike. She summoned the sturdiest force field she could muster between herself and the changeling, then another, and another, casting as many as she could in the few seconds she had.
 
The fireball punched through the first three of her shields before exploding and shattering the rest, launching both Twilight and Spike across the craggy surface of the cliff. They slid to a halt by a steep precipice on the opposite side of the cliff, overlooking a vast, forested valley several hundred feet below.
 
Twilight groaned in pain and shook her head, making sure Spike was okay before trying to stand. The dragon was lying almost motionlessly on his side a few feet from her, but he was at least breathing, and in one piece. He wasn't bleeding, which was more than she could say about herself. Her forelegs buckled underneath her own weight, and she gritted her teeth, holding back another groan.
 
A large hoof bore down on the back of her neck, smashing her face into the rocks before claws curled around her throat again and hoisted her up, bringing her face to face with the smiling thief.
 
“You put up a good fight, I'll give you that.” A few puffs of smoke escaped his nostrils as he chuckled.
 
Twilight saw a brief flash of color from the other side of the cliff, but she kept her eyes on the changeling. Her hooves scrabbled uselessly against the iron claws gripping her throat, and she gave the thief a caustic glare. “Give me back his heart!”
 
A rainbow blur appeared from the other side of the cliff, racing across its surface and heading straight for the back of the changeling's head. He must have seen it reflected in Twilight's eyes, however, for he sidestepped the attempted sneak attack a split second before it connected. His tail whipped upwards and caught Rainbow Dash in the midriff, knocking the wind out of her and robbing her of her momentum.
 
The changeling gave Twilight a long sniff. He chuckled again, blowing a cloud of smoke at the alicorn's face. Once more, his entire body grew just a little larger. “You really want it?”
 
His tail found the downed pegasus lying at his side and wrapped around her, picking her up like a sack of potatoes before throwing her aside. She sailed limply through the air and struck Spike, who had just gotten to his feet, and both went tumbling over the edge of the cliff and out of sight. The grip around Twilight's throat tightened just as she cried out to her friends, making her choke and gasp instead.
 
“Once that empty husk is gone,” the changeling whispered to her, his horn coming to life with a sinister green glow, “come find me.”
 
Twilight felt a numbness spreading throughout her body in response to the changeling's spell, and the edges of her vision grew darker. She tried and failed to call upon her own magic, and although she wrestled against the vice grip on her throat with renewed vigor, her struggles were ultimately futile in the face of the thief's power.
 
With a sigh of satisfaction, the changeling lowered her gently to the ground, releasing her just as her consciousness slipped away.