“He told you what?” Silver Shield replied shocked, closing the wooden door to the dungeon. Shining Armor had just told him about the conversation with the Changeling. “You can’t really be trusting him on this.”
Cadence had turned to look at the stallion. “What reason would he have to lie to us?”
“What reason does he have not to?” Silver asked. While he was willing to believe that a Changeling would go against Chrysalis, he wasn’t willing to believe they had openly made friends with a pony that they foalnapped.
“He looked sincere about it.” Cadence replied. “He has nothing to gain by lying to us.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but he has yet to show us any sign that he was being genuine. He tried to attack you for Celestia’s sake!”
“He apologized for it.” Cadence retorted. “We can’t just judge them all by what a few of them did.”
“A few of them!” Silver kicked the wall. “A couple hundred of them is a few! They captured Celestia, they harmed you sir," He pointed to Shining Armor, then to Cadence," and they left you to rot in the Crystal Caverns! How can you-!”
“Sergeant Silver Shield!” Shining Armor shouted getting Silver to stand at attention. “We are going to look into this lead. And you are going to remain at your post! Is that clear?”
Silver was clearly against this idea of following a lead given by a Changeling that openly claims he was a part of the invasion. There was no telling what this could lead to, an ambush, an attack, anything. But it was a direct order from his CO. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Shining Armor said as both him and Cadence walked out of the room, leaving Silver alone.
“I have no idea what has gotten into him lately.” Shining Armor said to Cadence. “He is usually so level headed.”
“He must still be shaken up by the invasion. His brother was almost killed in it after all.”
“I still have no idea how he survived that fall…” Shining Armor mumbled. “If what he told us is true, than he was launched into the ground by a Changeling, the doctors are still trying to figure it out.”
“So do you really trust him?” Cadence asked.
Shining Armor sighed. “Like you said, there is no way to be sure. But he seemed genuine about it. It’s also the only lead we have to try and get some answers from him.”
“It’s not like he is going anywhere. You could probably ask him anything you needed yourself.”
Shining Armor shook his head. “You saw how he reacted, I’m not sure we could ask him anything even if we wanted to.”
Cadence had to agree, the Changeling had completely backed away from Shining Armor upon seeing him, then almost immediately asked, no begged, them for help. It even told them that he didn’t want to hurt either of them. Along with the fact he seemed torn up about it, it was very unlikely he would be able to answer any questions until he calmed down. So maybe finding Candlelight would help him.
“Cadence, I need to get back to the Barracks.” Shining Armor said, stopping as the two of them left the castle. “We think we found a Changeling outpost near Ponyville, we are going to check.”
“You do what you need to,” Cadence replied “I’ll start looking for that Candlelight mare that the changeling told us about.” With that, the two of them split up, Shining Armor walking over to the Barracks, and Cadence walking towards the city.
Unknown to either of them, a pink-eyed Pegasus watched the two of them split up from a cloud. “The Queen will want to hear about this.”
For Darkblaze, the days had only gotten longer since Shade left for Canterlot, and there had been no news of him since then, much to Pinkie Pie’s dismay. She had been checking her mailbox around fifteen times every hour, hoping there would be news. Darkblaze had been less concerned than the others at first, but after the second day, he was getting a bit worried.
Not only for Shade’s sake, but also for his own. If they had found out where Shade had come from, they could easily suspect there was some kind of outpost and send guards to check. While the Element bearers knew about Shade, they didn’t know about him, he had lived among them going on five years now. Surely they wouldn’t be as open to him as with Shade, mostly because he did see them as little more than prey for a majority of that time.
So when he woke up one day and found a rather angry Twilight inside of his room, his first reaction was to flail his limbs for a moment. “Uh…” He said trying not to seem as scared as he was. “Hi Twilight…”
“It’s Blackout.” Twilight replied. Blackout? That changeling from Acari’s Hive?
“What are you doing here?” Darkblaze asked, confused and worried. “And how did you get in here?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Teleportation spell you Nymph.” She replied with a wisp of pink flame, and Blackout was standing were Twilight had been. “The Queen wishes to speak with you.”
“Why?” Darkblaze replied. “She already told me I wasn’t going to be Judged. So what is this-“
“Sunstreak has been captured.” Blackout replied. Immediately shutting Darkblaze up.
“He what?” Darkblaze was surprised, his eyes were wide when he first heard the news. “Is he okay? What happened?”
“I was not told the details.” Blackout replied. “The Queen requested you come as soon as possible. She also permitted me to tell you the Guard are coming.”
“WHAT?” Darkblaze said, falling off his bed. “They’re coming here?”
Blackout nodded. “Our informant in Canterlot warned us, the Guard took notice of all the Changeling activity here. They are looking for an outpost.”
“No no no no. This is bad…”
“The Queen has permitted you to stay in the Hive if you feel uncomfortable coming back.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” Darkblaze nearly shouted. “I don’t want to be around here when they show up.”
Shade had little to do in his small cell, he barely managed to pace the cell without pain, he couldn’t use magic to entertain himself, and banging his head against the wall was really just a way to punish himself, and the cracks were starting to spread much further than he wanted. So his mind began to turn to strategizing.
While he was never really one to plan out long-term engagements, he was one who enjoyed picking apart patterns and mindsets. While he was a bit rusty with it, he began questioning the reasoning behind Spine’s return. While he thought, he moved his horn along the wall, less to make any markings, more for his own comfort of feeling like he was writing something down.
From his knowledge of the Hive, it seemed like they preferred an Intel gathering strategy, sabotage, and then surprise attack. But Spine’s attack was anything but that. It seemed personal, even if Chrysalis Okayed it, she didn’t seem the type to allow a squad of Changelings to go on a pointless mission to hunt down one traitor. The risk was too great.
Then perhaps Spine was acting on his own; after all, he had the authority to lead a squadron. But why would the other Changelings agree, wouldn’t they need some kind of proof…unless they were the surviving squadron inside Canterlot. Perhaps they got cut off from the Hive-link, so they latched onto the highest-ranking officer.
But that doesn’t add up… How did they avoid capture for this long? How did they avoid any pony disappearances? How did they avoid Acari’s eyes? She said she had scouts in every city, so how did they not notice Spine?
Shade slammed his hoof into the wall in frustration. He regretted not finding out more about their tactics or even their feeding habits. If he at least knew that, he could judge the total distance they had to travel to sustain themselves.
“Ugh… It’s no use.” He said to himself in frustration as he dragged his horn along the wall in a slant, leaving a small green line. “What?” He looked back at the wall, then at his horn, which was sparking slightly. Suddenly the line on the wall exploded with fire.
“Holy!” he shouted in surprise as he scrambled away from the green fire. But the weird thing was, even though it caught him off guard, he didn’t feel any heat coming from them.
Slowly, he raised one of his hooves and inched it towards the green fire. But he felt absolutely no change in temperature as he moved closer. Unlike the other fires he had managed to create, this one wasn’t made to keep something back or out, it didn’t seem to be created for any purpose, other than to relieve his own frustration, so it didn’t do anything.
Well not anything, it did startle the Guard who walked up to the cell at the time. “What are you doing!”
“I uh…” Shade honestly had no answer for what just happened. “I was just…” The flames vanished. “Thinking and then it…”
“How did you summon those flames?” Shade recognized the unicorn as the one who was present when he was looked at by the medic. “Answer me!”
“I got frustrated!” Shade replied, there was no point in lying. “And I just dragged my horn across the wall and then suddenly. FWOOSH!” Shade was trying to piece together what happened, the cell blocked all forms of magic, so why did him getting frustrated cause the seal to break?
“Celestia damned bugs…” The guard said, looking towards the right side of the cell. “Breaking the seal…” He placed his horn on the wall as it glowed a strange red color, which was odd given his eyes were blue…
Even though Shade registered the color difference, he didn’t mention it, he did however have a Pegasus he needed to find out about. “Um…excuse me.”
“What in Tartarus do you want?” The unicorn said to him, he was clearly not happy with Shade.
“Listen this is going to sound weird…” Shade sighed. “Do you know of a Pegasus called Sunglider?”
The instant Shade mentioned the Pegasus, the guard stopped for a moment before looking towards him. Shade could tell he did something wrong. “How do you know about him?” The Guard asked in a low voice almost like he was trying to restrain himself.
Shade was unsure how to go about this… while he couldn’t use his magic, the Unicorn still could, and that could end badly for him if he didn’t watch his words.
“I…heard about what happened to him.” Because I was the one who did it! “I wanted to know if he was alright.”
The guard stopped for a second, Shade couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he was pretty sure that the guard doubted him.
“He’s my brother…” The guard said in the same restrained tone. “He’s still in the Hospital.”
Shade couldn’t hide the look of guilt that spread over his face, “I’m sorry…”
“They aren’t sure whether he will ever walk again.” Shade felt so much worse, he tried to help that guard, but it seems he didn’t do anything but stop him from bleeding to death.
“VARASH KAL JOT!” Shade shouted slapping his hoof over his mouth. While there was very little chance that the guard understood the curse, it wasn’t a thing he said lightly.
“Have something you want to say?” the Guard asked, looking at him questioningly.
Shade sighed, moving the hoof from his face. “I…” He said very lightly, he didn’t want to make the unicorn angry. “May have…been…involved…”
“You were what?”
“I…was…involved” Shade mumbled
“How involved?”
Shade could tell that the Guard was angry; he didn’t need to rely on his emotional senses, the tone and glare the guard was showing him was all he needed. “I was…” Shade sighed. “The…only one…involved…”
Shade had no idea what would happen, but the explosion that erupted from the next cell over told him that the Guard was angry. When he looked up he saw the guard’s horn was glowing bright red, and there was the light of a fire coming from the cell next to his. “You!” The Guard practically growled at him. “You almost killed him!”
Shade ducked back into the farthest corner. “I-I….”
“YOU NEARLY KILLED HIM!” the guard’s horn began to spark wildly. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH YOU DID TO HIM?”
Shade was shaking from fear, he was trapped in a box, he couldn’t escape, and all that this unicorn had to do was think about it, and Shade would burn to a crisp.
“I-I-I tried to help…”
“HELP!” the Guard was getting louder. “HOW DOES NEARLY KILLING HIM HELP!”
“I…” Shade couldn’t answer, his carapace was chattering loudly, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the unicorn. “I…
“ANSWER ME!” there was another explosion, and Shade nearly jumped out of his carapace.
“I tried to stop the bleeding!” Shade screamed. “I didn’t want him to die!”
The two of them stared at each other, before the unicorn turned away and walk back towards the entrance, followed by another explosion.
Shade stayed in the corner, continuing to shake until his heightened ears heard another door slam shut. Even then, his muscles stayed tensed for a few minutes until he walked up to the cell’s bars and looked towards the cells next to him, both currently had a red glow coming from them. Shade released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“How much more can I screw up in this cell?” Shade said to himself. “I’ve attempted to stab a princess, got startled by Shining Armor, and now I pissed off the pony in charge of letting others in here.” He hit his head against the wall. “And I can’t get anything right.”
“Snake Eye!”
“Darkblaze?” He had gotten so much better at the Hive-link, that didn’t make it comfortable. “Where are you?”
“I’m in Queen Acari’s hive, the Royal Guard are being sent to look through Ponyville for any possible Changelings.”
“I had no idea…”
“Don’t beat yourself up…What happened?”
“Spine was in Canterlot.”
“WHAT? Sorry Blackout…”
“He was waiting for me….”
“Listen Snake Eye I’ve got to go.”
“No! WAIT!” Shade clutched his head, while he was getting used to that link, the pain that came after was still annoying. Not to mention the fact that he can’t get it to work with anyone but Darkblaze. Not that he was complaining.
“Meadow is missing…” he whispered to himself.
Outside the dungeon, Silver Shield had just slammed the wooden door closed, his horn still alight with anger. He walked over to the wooden chair and desk he had before sitting down in them and placing his face in his hooves.
“Rough day?” Came from above him.
He looked up to his other brother Night Glider, wearing his Lunar Guard armor, he landed in front of Silver. “You could say that.”
“Well it must have been pretty bad,” Night replied. “I heard those explosions from outside. I came to check and make sure you didn’t blow up our guest.”
“I nearly did…” Silver said, looking up at his horn, it had died down, but was still sparking slightly. “He just told me what he did during the invasion.”
“Is that what’s got you all wound up?” Night Glider asked, removing his helmet, causing his pupils to return to their normal rounded shape and his two small fangs recede. “Well don’t keep me in the dark. That’s my job after all.”
Silver had managed to calm his magic down. “You’re not going to like it…”
“I could tell given how your horn there was sparking like a thundercloud.” He looked expectantly at Silver. “So go on… What did he tell you?”
Silver sighed. “He was the one who nearly killed Sunglider.”
He had expected anger, shock, and not at all what he was given.
“Him?” Night said surprised. “Not to sound rude towards Sunny but from what I saw, that changeling didn’t look to be the physical type. So how did he beat Sunny?”
“You never saw what those bugs could do. He could have done any number of things to Sunglider.”
“Come on Silver.” Night Glider said. “How could he, by himself, take out Sunny when they were in the air. He had the best air combat scores in the academy for Celestia’s sake!”
“I’m not sure… I didn’t really get a chance to ask before I…”
“Blew up the cells again?” Night Glider asked. It was common for Silver to accidently blow up a cell when he was under stress. But usually it was controllable, a little bit of fire that usually died down on its own when the beds eventually burned out, but it was still a pain to have to deal with the paperwork.
“Yes… That.”
“I keep telling you to use that nullifying spell on the entire dungeon.”
“Then I couldn’t use magic in case I needed it.” He never expected his brothers to understand magic, which was his problem for being born into a nearly all Pegasus family. The only one he could honestly talk to about magic was his grandfather, and even then it was usually about ‘old magic’. “Just leave the magic to me. You stick to flying.”
“Alright Wingless.” Night replied placing his helmet back on. “Shining Armor just wanted to know what caused the whole city to rumble. I’ll just tell him you had a little outburst.”
“What was he doing outside?” Silver figured he would be planning for the scouting mission to Ponyville, given that his sister was living there.
“He said something about looking for a unicorn named Candlelight.” He waved his hoof in a dismissive manor.
“He isn’t…” Silver replied. “He is actually looking into the changeling’s request.”
“The Changeling actually wanted something?” Night Glider asked. “What did he want?”
“He wanted to meet a mare called Candlelight. I don’t remember why. Maybe she was just another spy.”
“I doubt it. He wouldn’t just call them out.” Night looked at the clock placed behind Silver. “Whoa! Look at the time. I’ve gotta go. Nightwing is expecting a full scan of Everfree tonight. See you around Silver.”
Night Glider took off and flew towards the door, pushing it open with his front hooves, while Silver closed it with his magic. “Typical…” is all he said in response.
A few days ago, if you told Candlelight that she would be asked by Princess Cadence to come to the castle, she would have called you crazy. Which is why it came as a shock to her when she got off the train from Manehatten to see the young princess waiting for her.
“Are you Candlelight?” Cadence asked as she walked up her.
“Yes Princess.” Candlelight replied with a bow.
“If it isn’t too much to ask.” Cadence said, “Could you accompany me to the castle.”
Candlelight looked up at the pink alicorn “You want me to come to the castle?” Candlelight was surprised by the offer, she had never really been anyone important, and so the offer was strange to her.
“So long as you don’t mind.”
“No it’s nothing like that.” Candlelight replied. “I just… Why do you need me?”
Cadence didn’t know how much she could get away with saying in such a heavily crowded area, so she looked at Candlelight and replied, “We have a…very special guest at the castle that wants to speak with you.”
“Alright… I’ll follow.” She was hoping to check and see if there was any news on Meadow. She had to leave to go to Manehatten the day after the invasion. So she had quickly gotten the word out that Meadow was missing. She never heard anything from the ponies she asked to help, so she wanted to look around. But the Princess did say it was important.
“What does he want to talk to me about?” Candlelight asked as the two of them began to walk down the street.
“Well… He didn’t really tell us.” Cadence said still not sure how to explain it fully. “I believe he said something about your daughter.”
Candlelight perked up, ears focused. “He knows where Meadow is?”
“I’m not sure.” Cadence replied. “He did mention Meadow Song and you by name.”
Candlelight’s eyes widened. “Did he say anything about her? Is she all right? Is she in the city?” She stopped after seeing Cadence’s unsure face.
“He couldn’t tell us anymore, he said he really needed to talk to you, it was urgent.”
Candlelight had to repress the urge to question any further while they walked towards the castle; she was busily trying to figure out what to ask whoever it was that knew about Meadow. The next time she actually focused on the walk, she noticed they were heading towards the dungeon.
“Princess?” Candlelight said confused. “Why are we heading to the dungeon?”
She looked up at Cadence and could tell she was trying to come up with a reason. “He says it’s a personal matter.” Candlelight could tell she was lying but didn’t push it any further.
The Guard placed in front of the dungeon looked up when the two mares drew close. “Evening Cadence,” He said to the two of them. “Should I assume you are here to see our ‘esteemed guest’.” He said it with a slight bit of venom in his voice.
“Yes we are.” She said as the guard hopped down from his chair and walked around the wooden desk. “This is Candlelight.”
The guard looked at Candlelight almost like trying to figure out whether there was something she was hiding. “You sure this is a good idea your Majesty.” He said looking away from Candlelight. “Have you even checked her to be sure that she isn’t…”
“She is a guest Silver.” Cadence replied. “And she will be treated as such.”
Silver sighed. “Of course Princess. But I’m still not letting you go down there alone again, especially after the first time.” He said this while taking a set of keys from the wall and placing them on the side of his armor.
“That’s understandable,” Cadence replied, “Your job as a royal Guard does demand it.”
As they stepped into the dark dungeon, Candlelight started to look around the cells, there was nothing of any real note with them; they were stone, a single cot, and nothing else. What kind of guest would want to live down here?
The next time they stopped, Candlelight was looking into a cell that was charred black, the mattress was burned, and it didn’t seem like the second cell further down fared much better. However the Princess had stopped at the cell between the two charred ones and was talking to the occupant.
“Shade…I have somepony I would like for you meet.” She motioned for Candlelight to come near, as she approached, she slowly got a look at the occupant. “This, is Candlelight.”
Candlelight saw the prisoner, and stopped where she stood. It was a Changeling. Lying with its front hooves crossed in front of it, looking towards Candlelight. She could see the two fangs that jutted out of its mouth, easily able to pierce through a pony’s flesh, and the curved horn placed on its forehead, sharpened to a point. Candlelight had to fight the urge to run.
Then she looked closely, it was just as shocked to see her. Its right wing was crumpled, looking the closest to broken it probably could. His hind legs didn’t look much better either, his right leg had a rather large hole in it, which seemed to be…bleeding. While its left had a rather large crack running across the carapace, along with the small angle the leg was placed at. But its eye was the biggest difference; its right eye wasn’t like the other Changelings. It was orange, and had a lizard-like slit running through it.
“What did you do with her?” Candlelight asked, all fear gone, there was nothing the changeling could do. “What did you do with little Meadow?”
It looked at Candlelight. “I saved her.”
Candlelight was shocked by the answer. “Saved her?”
The Changeling nodded.
“How did you save her?” Candlelight asked looking at the changeling hopefully. “Shade… What happened?”
Shade began to tell her his story from the time after he had met Meadow, he told about getting launched into Everfree, how he and Meadow entered Ponyville, The time he and Meadow spent together, but he left out any details that would lead them to believe Tornado Dust was a Changeling or any details about Queen Acari’s hive. Didn’t want them to attack his friends after all. However he didn’t leave out the details about Spine.
“-When we entered the house, I got hit by a magic blast while they grabbed Meadow. Then Spine held me down and did this to me.” Shade pointed at his wing and legs. “Then for good measure, he knocked me out. And now…” Shade placed his head on his crossed hooves. “I have no idea where she is.”
Candlelight looked into the cell. “What would you do if you knew?”
Shade looked towards her. “I wouldn’t stop until I was sure she was safe. Then I would pay Spine back for everything he did to her.” He looked back towards the ground. “But that would mean I need to find them first…and who knows what they’re doing to her.”
Candlelight looked at the Changeling, the one who had risked his own life to protect a foal he didn’t even know, one who did everything he could to protect her, and was now sadly lying on the ground at not being able to protect her.
“I promised her I would protect her.” Shade mumbled. “And I failed…” Candlelight could see a small tear on his black carapace.
She turned to look at the guard who led them down here. “Can you open the door.”
Silver looked at her and whispered to her. “Open the door? Are you kidding me?”
Cadence looked at him. “Silver. Please open it.”
Silver wanted to argue, but a Princess gave him a command. So he had to follow it, he opened the gate using the key ring, and Candlelight walked inside.
Candlelight lay down beside the Changeling and placed her hoof around him. Bringing him into a small hug. “It’s alright… You tried.”
“But I failed… You must hate me.” He said, looking away from Candlelight.
“Why would I hate you?” Candlelight whispered. “You saved my daughter, protected her, and tried to bring her back to me. I can’t hate you for trying.”
“You mean you aren’t mad?” Shade asked, looking up towards her.
“If anything I’m grateful. You risked your life to save Meadow. I can’t be angry.”
Shade’s right eye was tearing up; he raised his hoof and leaned in to hug Candlelight.
“Give me a break…” Silver mumbled, getting an angry glance from Cadence.
“Thank you…” Shade said to Candlelight. “That helps. So much.”
“So long as you answer me one thing.” Candlelight replied. “If you were given the choice to save Meadow, or save yourself. Which would you choose?”
“Meadow… I’ve already died once.”
“Then I forgive you…” Candlelight replied. “I know you will help her.”
Shade could feel the small flame of trust coming from Candlelight, and seeing that again, caused Shade to tear up again. “I’ll find her.” Shade said. “No matter what I takes…”