//------------------------------//
// 12. Sacrifice 
// Story: Love Hungry 
// by helmet of salvation 
//------------------------------//

	With a fearful, ringing cry for help, Rarity bounded in front of the changeling-tatzlwurm, pirouetted 180 degrees and slammed her rear legs squarely into the creature's body.

"Take that!  And tha—oh."

Conceptually, the only limit to the forms a changeling could assume was its own imagination.  However, it could not simply transmogrify into, say, a skyscraper-sized, armour-plated, flame-shooting colossus and expect to demolish everything in its path.  Merely moving such a corpus would take a tremendous reservoir of power, as would generating the fire, not to mention the magical energy required to effect such a transformation in the first place.  Changelings could be strong, but not infinitely so.  There had to be compromises.

This changeling, in its youthful inexperience and haste, had directed too much of its remaining strength to its tentacles, leaving the bulk of its body relatively unprotected.  So it was that Rarity was able to smite the unwieldy monster to the floor in a single blow, the impact loosing Rainbow Dash from its coils.

As Rainbow lay coughing, heaving and gulping for precious air, Rarity overcame her surprise to press home her advantage, stunning the changeling with a flurry of kicks and stamps to the base of its skull.  Seeing her enemy was no longer moving, Rarity emitted a snooty harrumph, then turned her attention to her panting friend, who was staggering to her hooves.  "Rainbow, treasure, are you all right?"

If anything, Rainbow was even more surprised than Rarity.  The flighty, finicky fashionista had single-hoofedly saved the tough, fearless, athletic tomcolt from the constricting clutches of a changeling-tatzlwurm.  How to convey the gratitude and humility due such an act?

The pegasus lifted her pastern melodramatically to her forelock and adopted a fair approximation of Rarity's prim accent.  "Oh doctor, you simply must release Rainbow Dash first.  She's far more accustomed to the ways of the brute than little me."  She cracked a wry grin and elbowed the white unicorn mare in the shoulder.

Rarity sheepishly poked at the long, curled, purple tresses of her mane.  "Ahem, yes, well, I never said I was completely helpless now did I?"

"Well ah reckon that about settles the question of whether yew tew are the real deal."

At the sound of Applejack's unmistakable twang, Rarity and Rainbow Dash whipped around in surprise to see not just Shining Armor and their friends, but a sizeable detachment of Ponyville's residents gathered behind them.  Even more astounding was the sight of Princess Luna and four of her guards.  "Your highness," they blurted in unison, dropping to their knees.

Luna extended her foreleg.  "Arise.  The time for action is at hoof.  Shining Armor?"

The unicorn stallion drew his narrowing eyes across the twitching changelings strewn along the hallway.  The two ponies most special to him had wound up in hospital beds thanks to these vermin.  Time to put them out of action once and for all.

"We hit them with all we've got.  Fliers, start at the far end, the rest of us go from here.  We meet in the middle.  Smash every last one of them to a pulp.  Any questions?"

"Sir, yes, sir."

Shining Armor turned with slight surprise to Rainbow Dash, facing straight ahead with a rigid expression.  He had not expected such formality from the pegasus, who came across to him as something of a smug wisecracker.  Then he remembered Twilight telling him about Rainbow's training with the Wonderbolts — Equestria's venerable elite paramilitary flying squadron.  Princess Luna had tacitly granted him leadership over this operation, meaning the assembled ponies were under his command, and Rainbow Dash was showing that she acknowledged his authority.  Clearly, the Wonderbolts had instilled a sense of discipline and subordination into her.  "Go on."

"Sir, the changelings are no ordinary adversaries.  Their ability to change shape at will makes it hard for us to know our allies from our enemies, which has the potential to create a lot of confusion.  It won't be possible to watch each other's tails all the time."  Rainbow ascended several feet of the ground and hovered.  "This position provides a perfect vantage of the entire——." She suddenly ceased talking and shot forwards into the changelings, stunning one with her forehoof then reversing to kick another unconscious, before returning to her position.  "... battlefield.   If you were to post a sentinel here, they could keep track of any shape-shifts and shout them out to the ponies."  She paused almost imperceptibly before continuing.  "And I'd like to volunteer for that detail, sir."

A collective gasp of incredulity arose from Rainbow's friends.

"It makes sense," she explained.  "I'm the best pony for the job.  I set new Wonderbolt Academy records for aerial endurance and visual acuity."

"Yeah, she did," affirmed Bulk Biceps, who had been one of her academy classmates.

"But Dashie, you wouldn't be able to do any fighting," protested Pinkie Pie, care in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash, of course, was all too keenly aware of this.  After another slight pause, she replied, "There's enough of you here to have it covered".

"Yew'd ... sit out a whole monster fight?" cried an incredulous Applejack.

"For us?" added Fluttershy.

Through sheer force of will, Rainbow Dash kept her voice from trembling.  "I'd never leave Equestria hanging."

Shining Armor's thoughts turned inexorably to the siege of the Crystal Empire.  To how he was champing at the bit to leave his post and join his charges at the front line — out of sheer conceit that he could make a significant, positive impact on the front line and that he would be less of a stallion doing otherwise — leaving his beloved bride to shoulder the burden of maintaining the forcefield on her own.  Now here was this proud, pugnacious, hot-headed young mare asking to withdraw from a battle, for the greater good, apparently not giving a flying fetlock if anypony thought less of her because of it.  He had rarely felt so humble.

"If it weren't against Royal Guard protocol to salute civilians.  Permission granted, Rainbow Dash.  If there are no other questions, everypony take your positions."

Rainbow Dash ascended to the vantage point she had indicated.  Luna and her guards soared to the other end of the hallway, along with Thunderlane, Bulk Biceps,  Fluttershy and a few more of Ponyville's pegasus population.  Standing at the forefront of a squad of Earth ponies and unicorns, Shining Armor quickly cast his eyes around the assembled ponies, then down to the changelings.  "Attack at will."

The air was soon filled with the sickening crunch of keratin against chitin, hissing shrieks of pain and fear, and Rainbow Dash yelling out reports of changeling movements:

"Fluttershy, behind you.

"AJ, enemy at your left flank.

"Thunderlane, fake guard at four o'clock.  No, your four o'clock."

The ponies battered the changelings with vigorous tramples and kicks, Shining Armor and Luna additionally using precision magic energy blasts against any exposed invaders.  The new arrivals to the battle were fresh, and many of them were larger and stronger than Twilight's five female friends.  Big Macintosh alone was worth over half a dozen ordinary pony stallions in power, and had an impressive turn of speed as well.  He brutally dashed the changelings in all directions.

The changelings who were able to rouse themselves tried to fight back but the surprise and ferocity of the pony onslaught, coupled with the lingering effects of Knockout's anaesthetic and Rainbow Dash's diving hoof-strikes, took their toll.  Their bodies were weakened, their minds groggy, their silk-shooting misdirected.  Within a few minutes, the parasites lay scattered and dormant, their bodies twisted into unnatural positions, and all ponies were present and accounted for thanks to Rainbow Dash's watchful eye.

As the ponies congratulated one another on the result, Shining Armor turned to the town's leader, who had been observing the battle from the foyer along with some of Ponyville's less bellicose residents.  "Madam Mayor, we can't disperse the changelings until Cadance recovers from her injuries.  Does Ponyville have enough room in her holding cells to fit them all?"

"Possibly, but what's to stop them from turning into snakes or worms and escaping through the bars?"

"The dressings, ma'am," replied Rainbow Dash, pointing to the trussed-up changelings near the lobby.  "I saw a couple of these guys try but they couldn't."  Changelings could disguise themselves to look like they were wearing clothes, but their transmogrifications could not remove physical restraints.  "Trouble is, it takes a while to tie 'em up right."

The mayor smiled.  "I for one would be happy to help."

"So would I," said Amethyst Star.  "Provided we have some ponies keeping guard," she added hastily.  Several other mares added their assent.

Thunderlane pointed to the inert changeling that was still disguised as a worm.  "What about flower-face here?"

"I could watch him."  Knockout had emerged from the emergency room, along with the rest of Twilight's operating team.  "Keep him in the quarantine area, blast him with sleepy gas if he gets too restless."

"Not by yourself," warned Rarity.  "That one's tricky.  He needs an extra pair of eyes."

"I got it," volunteered Thunderlane.

So it was agreed.  A contingent of stronger ponies carried the changelings into the hospital's spacious physiotherapy room.  There, they kept watch as a dozen of Ponyville's mares, under Rarity's tutelage, bound up the captives.  Once that job was done, the changelings were ferried to the local holding cells and unceremoniously crammed inside, allowing the hospital to be cleaned and re-populated with patients and staff.


* * *


"Princess Twilight?"

"Mm."  Through her half-open eyes, Twilight saw the figure of Nurse Redheart verifying that she was awake.

"You have visitors."

"Tell them to go away," Twilight muttered in a defeated monotone.  "I don't want anypony seeing me like this."

"I'm sure we can do something about that."

Twilight knew that voice anywhere.  "Cadance!"  She looked up excitedly — sending a desultorily-read book sliding to the floor — to see the elegant pink alicorn wearing that unmistakable, affectionate smile, her beauty marred only by a bandage around her head.  Behind her stood Shining Armor, Spike and Twilight's five best pony friends.  Incredulous, Twilight turned to the bed beside her, saw that it was now unoccupied and neatly made, then looked delightedly back to her former foalsitter.  "But when ... how?"

Cadance chuckled, "You were sound asleep".

"Thank goodness you're all right.  Now you can restore my love."

"Yes.  I have to keep the bandage on for a while yet but——."

"But you can still restore my love," interrupted Twilight.

Only slightly fazed, Cadance continued to fill Twilight in.  "You'll be happy to know that Shining Armor and I have cast out all the changelings——."

"I'm sure I will be as soon as you restore my love."

"Many citizens of Ponyville came to help your friends——."

"Stop it."

Cadance blinked at the unexpected reproof.  "Twilight?"

"You think I don't hear my own words?  That I can't perceive how self-centred and callous I'm coming across as right now?  I might not have been Miss Congeniality this past week but I hardly think I deserve to be an exhibit in a freak show.  Now for pity's sake, restore my love."

"Of course.  I'm sorry, Twilight."  Chastened, Cadance angled her horn towards Twilight's.  A charge of energy crossed over to the younger alicorn and coursed through her psyche, ready to mingle and react with the love within her, magnifying it until it crowded out the pallid chaff of negativity and apathy infesting her.

"Well?" barked Twilight.  "What are you waiting for?"

"I'll, I'll give you an extra dosage," stammered a flustered Cadance, before imparting even more magic into Twilight.

Twilight could sense the magic energy flowing through her but felt no increase in her love towards those around her.  "Why isn't this working?" she demanded.

"I don't know.  It should——." Cadance began to tense with grave concern.  "Oh no."

"What do you mean, 'oh no'?"

"I've never heard of this happening before but, it might be that the changelings have ... taken all of your love."

"So put it all back then!"  Twilight's impatience began to incorporate a touch of panic.

"You don't understand.  I can't just make a pony love another pony.  No unicorn magic can or should have that power.  My spell awakens and amplifies love that's already there.  It clears away all the negativity — worries, resentments, jealousy, silly little disagreements — and brings forth the love that lies dormant underneath.  But if there's no love there to begin with then——." As she watched Twilight's indignant expression turn to sad bewilderment, Cadance began sobbing with sympathy and despair.  "I'm so sorry, Twilight.  My magic can't restore you."