(Takes place two days after Piercing the Heavens Chapter 5)
Luna looked down at the three pegasi, two mares and a stallion, that stood in her throne room. They had gathered together after dark and were the only ones in the room, aside from a few bat pony guards lining the halls.
“Another successful night of repelling them?” Luna asked calmly, looking each of them over.
The dark colored stallion nodded, “Yes. It wasn’t a problem.”
“I think they may get antsy soon, who knows how long it will be before they start sending more than just a few low ranking ponies,” one of the mares spoke next, a turquoise color with a two-toned yellow mane.
“We should…” The purple mare trailed off as a loud pop sounded, followed by a thunk. All four of them turned towards the throne to see a strange creature sitting on it. Its back was to them, and at first glance it looked like a changeling, but the flared-out wings and long thick tail said otherwise.
It shook its head and grumbled slightly, before stopping and slowly gazing over its shoulder. Its eyes going wide as it saw the alicorn and three pegasi staring confusedly at it. The throne room remained in eerie silence before Luna finally shouted. “Restrain it!”
Before she even finished, the two closest bat ponies charged at it. The creature quickly glanced between the two, barely a yard from it before it vanished. It reappeared five feet above the throne, facing the alicorn and pegasi as the bat ponies collided with the throne.
The pegasi quickly jumped into the air after it, though the stallion veered off towards the only open window, which the creature spotted and started towards. The stallion arrived first and turned to face the changeling.
“Gonna have to get past me,” he shouted as the changeling smirked and just before colliding, vanished from view. The stallion was prepared, however, already having spun around slightly, he felt his hoof hook with the changeling’s leg and toss him back into the throne room.
The changeling blinked as it regained its flight, gliding along to dodge the other pegasi coming at it. The turquoise pegasus moving fast and quickly catching up to it from above.
“Huh, that’s a nice shell color you have,” she commented, before thrusting her hooves down towards its back, it angled down to dodge the attack, then glanced to its side as it saw Luna powering up her horn.
The changeling quickly stopped in the air, making the other pegasi fly past it and angle back around. It watched as Luna fired a bolt of magic and simply raised a hoof to swat it out of the air, harmlessly hitting the ground.
The pegasi mares and Luna just stared at it. Though as it turned back to the window, it ran directly into the stallion’s chest.
“Nice trick,” is all the changeling heard before getting hit with a pair of hooves on its back; sending it to the ground roughly.
The changeling bounced once when it hit the marble floor and laid there for a moment. It slowly raised his head off the ground with a groan and saw Luna glaring at him, horn powered up and a blast already flying at him.
“Oh scorch me,” it said, just before getting blasted by the magic in the face, making it spin on the ground from the force and lay there, unconscious.
The three pegasi landed around it and looked it over. The turquoise mare spoke up first. “What is it?”
“It appears mostly changeling,” Luna explained calmly as she cantered up to them, “but shows dragon traits. We have never seen one like this before.”
“It appears this is its natural form too,” the stallion said as he poked at a wing. “Still, we should tie it up and toss it in your dungeon. I’ll get some of my Renegades to watch over it.”
“Are you sure that is wise, Descent?” the turquoise mare asked, still looking at the changeling before her.
“Unless Luna here really wants a guard to watch over it. Maybe get it a doctor too, it does look hurt.”
“Yea, I doubt you smashing it to the ground really helped its condition,” the purple mare finally spoke, staring directly at Descent.
“Thanks for your input, Starry.”
“Just saying, normally capture implies not really harming it. Changelings are weak creatures after all.”
Luna just shook her head and looked to one of the guards that was helping untangle the mess of guards on the throne. “Thou, fetch us some rope and a magic null ring.” She looked towards Descent, “Thy have just the doctor in mind to check it out. Though we hope she doesn’t mind the three am wake up call.”
A grey unicorn mare with a two-toned blue mane yawned widely as she trotted along down the stairs, being led by a guard who held a pot of black tea with his magic. The guard filled up the cup as the mare just looked at it. She shook her head, and promptly took the pot of tea and downed a third of it before walking along ahead of the guard.
“It’s too early for cups. And couldn’t this have waited till morning?” she asked, suppressing a yawn as the caffeine slowly started to kick in.
“Afraid not, ma’am,” the guard replied. “It did kind of drop in unannounced.”
“It..?” She paused, looking at the guard as he passed by. “Did Diet Chaos get himself hurt again? If so, I’m not helping him.”
The pair rounded a corner and passed into the jail cells, where a large white pegasus mare sat with her back to a barred prison room. She nodded slightly to the guard, then looked to the mare.
“It has been unconscious for the past hour or so,” the pegasus spoke, pointing inside. The mare peered in and her eyes went wide as she saw the changeling lying on a pile of hay. It looked content, even if it was asleep. She took a step back and looked at the guard.
“You didn’t tell me it was a changeling! How am I supposed to treat that when they could drain my very emotions before I get close?!” She gasped, pointing a hoof at it.
“That requires contact,” the three heard groaned out from inside the cell. All three of them turned to face the changeling, who had an eye open and was trying to sit up, only to fail as its legs were tied up. “And I would never do that anyway.” It wiggled in place as it tried fruitlessly to stand, or at least sit.
“You… Talk?” the unicorn mare asked, surprised, looking over the changeling.
“I just did, didn’t I? Ugh, what hit me…?” it groaned again as it looked himself over.
“That would have been Descent, or maybe Luna.”
The changeling’s eyes went wide at the mention of Luna. “You mean… the mare on the moon? Nightmare moon?! When did she return?!” It tried to scoot back, staring at the pegasus that spoke.
“About three years ago,” the pegasus answered calmly, watching the changeling with a slightly confused expression. “Why do you ask?”
“Because last night, she was still an image on the moon!” It let out a groan and laid its head on the hay. “Ugh, can’t think straight.”
“I think Descent may have hit you too hard.” The unicorn mare looked over the changeling, “Where did you get those injuries? And those bandages for that matter, those look like Wonderbolt bandages!”
The changeling glanced to them, “Uh, the injuries are from a drake, a timber wolf, and possibly the hard floor. The bandages are indeed from Wonderbolts, I met some two days ago, on the way to patrol the border between the drake and griffon lands.”
The pegasus raised an eyebrow, “We haven’t done that for almost two decades.” She tilted her head, then looked to the guard. “Go get Luna, and Descent. Let them know the prisoner is awake.”
The unicorn looked at the guard. “Before you do, open the door.”
“Why?”
“So I can do my job.” She turned to the changeling. “You’re not going to bite me, are you? Especially if I untie you? You won’t run or fly away?”
The changeling just let out a soft groan, “I have no clue where I am, no reason to harm you, and no urge to get smacked.” It looked to the pegasus. “One way in, one way out. And a guard is currently blocking it.”
“Witching Hour, are you sure that’s wise?” the pegasus asked, as she held the door open.
“I’ll be fine, Valkyrie. It seems trustworthy.” She trotted in and up to it, looking it over again. “So, what’s your name?”
“Talon,” he sighed, “and I do have a preferred gender; male.”
“Okay. I’m going to untie you now. Just to be sure; you’re not going to hurt me, are you?” Talon just shook his head. “I’ve never seen a changeling quite like you before. Where are you from?” she asked as she magically undid the rope around his legs. Once they were free, he let out a sigh of relief and slowly sat up.
“From the drake empire. There is… was a hive there.” He looked down, and she certainly detected the change in his voice, from confidence to sorrow.
Witching looked over the bandages, and using her magic slowly untied them. “Care to tell me more? Like why the wings and tail? The changelings that we have seen here are more insect like.”
He winced slightly as he went to move a wing, noticing it was also tied down. “Different traits of different changelings. We were around dragons, so after a while we took on their traits. Gaining their wings, tails, and an excellent taste in gemstones.”
“Oh? A taste in gemstones, as in eating them?” Witching looked over the leg, which had mostly healed by now.
“Eh, no. Crafting them to shine.”
“Huh,” Valkyrie spoke up. “Wouldn’t have figured that part out.”
Talon looked up to her. “We had to please them, make them happy. We couldn’t get love out of them so we adapted and found happiness to be better.”
“So,” Witching began, “you don’t feed on love? At all?” Talon shook his head, “Huh, weird. Thought after Chrysalis invaded, that’s all you changelings fed on.”
“Who?”
“Queen Chrysalis? Invaded during a major wedding almost a year ago?” Witching looked up at the confused expression of the changeling. “Uh.”
“We get the feeling he needs a history lesson.” The new voice made each of them jump, as they all turned to see Luna standing there. Talon started to cower a little and lower himself down, out of Witching Hour’s grasp. Luna sighed softly, “Fear not, we won’t hurt thou.”
“I remember reading the stories about you, and it took Celestia to stop you. How can you be here and not on the moon… Unless I am somehow on the moon now.” Talon continued to shrink at the alicorn’s presence.
“Thou art not on the moon, little changeling. We are in Equestria, and we were saved by the Elements of Harmony.” She paused, as Talon continued to look both confused and scared. “Perhaps that history lesson would be more relevant, if we knew when thou came from.”
“The griffon-drake war.” Talon started, looking down. “Met with some pony, I think his name was Blizzard, another was Silver Lining.” He looked up, seeing a shocked face on the pegasus, he tilted his head slightly. “Problem?”
“You were that red unicorn?!” She asked, looking the changeling over. “I never would have guessed. How did he figure it out? No wait, don’t tell me. Some kind of minor details right?”
“I was too solid on my hooves, didn’t use magic in combat despite being a unicorn.” Talon shrugged slightly, as Witching Hour moved onto some of the other wounds.
“Well, that was almost two decades ago. How didst thou miss that much time?” Luna asked, sitting and watching the changeling, her horn glowing slightly as the rope around the changelings’ waist and wings loosened and floated away.
“Some… thing named Discord.” Talon immediately winced as a roll of bandages hit his side, “Urf…” He looked to see Witching looking somewhat pale, then looked to see Luna growling slightly. “Uh… did I say something wrong?”
“That insufferable, intolerable…” Luna trailed off, then shook her head and tried to grin. “We did not know he was free during our banishment, as we and our sister sealed him away with the Elements.”
“Well, he was free for a short time, yes, but Blizzard saw that put to an end rather quickly,” Valkyrie spoke up, after the shock passed. “Might have happened the one day he didn’t bother us.” She shrugged.
“Right, anyway. Got into a fight with him, and suddenly I found myself on a throne. And then I was being chased by pegasi and… weird bat pony things.”
“Thestrals, though we do have a question for thee. How didst thou deflect our magic?”
“With a hoof? Rather simple when you’ve practiced it during times of war.”
“Well, his injuries have recently been treated, and look to be healing rather well. Course, I am no expert on changelings so I assume they are,” Witching sighed as she stepped back, “Closest I’ve been to a changeling that didn’t want to eat me.” She grinned slightly towards the changeling, who nodded back to her.
“Thanks.” He looked to Luna. “So, am I a prisoner?”
Luna’s eyes went wide for a moment, then back to normal. “For now, yes. Until we can decide what to do about thou.”
“Well, we could put him with the Renegades, for now at least?” Valkyrie looked over Talon, “Once he fully heals anyway.”
“We suppose, but what is to stop him from teleporting away?” Luna pointed to the changeling as she asked. Talon merely chuckled.
“Sure, if I could go farther than a yard or so.” Talon shook his head. “I have nowhere to go, no home or hive to go to. Why would I leave what is potentially free food? If I have to work for it, sure. Assign me a guard or something, if it’ll make you feel better.”