The Scouting party showed that there were no Changelings inside of the city from a long distance viewpoint. So the entire military exited the train, each smaller patrol moving to their positions. While most of the force remained by the train.
Shade walked to the town center. “Darkblaze, Can you see anything?”
“Nope… The clouds are a bit too thick. I can see small traces of emotions…aside from that nothing.”
“Keep me posted on anything you see.”
“Will do.”
Shade walked towards the building he knew was the town hall, a couple Lancers following him with a Unicorn Guard alongside them. They left the rest of the army behind in case of any ambushes. Shade looked up at the building, the domed top had a large hole through it.
“Captain,” The unicorn next to him said. “Are you certain this isn’t some kind of trap?”
“No. I’m not.” Shade replied. “And I don’t care.” Shade looked towards the building with his left eye, there were a few emotional traces inside. “But there are some ponies in there… and we need to get them out.”
“Of course sir.” The Lancers lowered their weapons.
The four of them walked up to the main door. Shade turned his back to it and nodded to the lancers. “3…2…” Shade bucked the door open and the Lancers rushed in, a few slams and crashes later and a few unconscious Changelings were placed in a corner of the room.
“In here.” Shade said, pointing to a reinforced door.
The Unicorn lowered his horn to it, and blasted a large magical beam that blew apart the door. Shade walked in to see the Mayor tied to a chair along with a few other ponies. Upon seeing him, all of them began to struggle.
“Stop struggling,” Shade said. “I’m here to help.” He walked up to where the mayor was held and raised the Hoof blades to cut through the rope, being rewarded with a strike to the side of his face. “Well…Ow… Sergeant, you can handle this right?”
“Of course sir.” The Unicorn replied.
“Wait!” The Mayor said. “This is a trap!”
The two ponies beside her transformed and shot green beams towards the Lancers knocking them against a wall.
Shade quickly rushed forwards and jammed one of the hoof blades into the Changeling’s throat, pulling it out as the Changeling struggled to stem the flow of blood.
“Surrender.” Shade hissed at the other Changeling taking up an aggressive stance.
“Ceymi will crush you!” The Changeling mirrored the stance.
“Tell Queen Chrysalis I said hi.” Shade lowered his horn and shot a green beam right into the Changelings chest, in a flash of green fire; Shade was behind the Changeling, with a bladed foreleg piercing through its back. He pulled the blade out allowing the Changeling to fall to the floor, in a burst of fire, it was gone.
“I warned her.” Shade said as he wiped his foreleg against a wall.
“Who are you?” The Mayor asked.
“Captain Shade, you know me as Sunstreak.” Before the Mayor could react accordingly to this piece of information Shade held up a hoof. “Hold on. Repeat that Squad Five.”
Squad five was sent to the side of Everfree to monitor for any changes and inform him directly. “Sir. There’s some kind of giant cloud of…”
“Giant cloud of what?” Shade asked.
“It’s the Swarm! They’re here!”
Shade ran past the Mayor. “Stay somewhere safe, I’ll be back.”
“Wait!” The Mayor said, making Shade turn. “A lot of Ponies are still inside their homes, the Changelings forced us to.”
Shade sighed. “Alright… Darkblaze, keep those strikes clear of buildings, some ponies are still being held there.” Shade watched the two Lancers get up off the ground and follow him out. “You two alright?”
“Fine. Just took us by surprise.”
“Good.” Shade transformed into Sunstreak and bolted into the air. “Stay here, protect her.” He flew off back towards the train, where most of the main force was. “EVERYONE GET READY!”
The troops, who had been preparing, all stood at attention. “Now then. The force is coming as we speak. Now I’m not one for big fancy speeches and what have you. So instead I’ll say this.”
Shade landed and as he did, he transformed his armor to its normal appearance. The plates covering his body in a similar pattern to that of Dragon Scales, near his wings, the armor reached up and covered the top section of them. The armored forelegs gave was for the Hoofblades to be placed around them. The visor was raised, but was designed to cover his snout without restricting his vision. “For Princess Celestia! For Queen Chrysalis! And all that shit.” Shade lowered his visor. “Now let’s go save Equestria.”
“Darkblaze! Everfree!”
“We’re moving.”
“Let’s move boys! They’re coming from Everfree!”
Pinkie hopped up to Shade. “Oo! Oo! Can I help?”
“Pinkie…” Shade looked at the pink pony, “How?”
Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out a small metal box with a big red button on the top that read, “FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY!” In big bold letters.
“Pinkie… What are you-?”
Pinkie pushed the button, and throughout the town, Party cannons popped out of either the ground, roofs, and a bird feeder. Shade raised the visor to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. “What?”
“Silly Billy!” Pinkie said. “I always keep my emergency Town-Party-System ready in case of surprise Celebrations.”
“Does that… Happen often?”
“We have a lot of town celebrations.” Twilight said walking over. “Too many to count for certain. Pinkie is in charge of almost every single one.”
“And they can spread confetti across Ponyville in record time!” Pinkie replied.
“Mortars…” Shade mumbled rubbing his chin while giving a thoughtful hum. “You can aim these right?”
“Of course silly.” Pinkie replied.
“Then point them towards Everfree and start launching them!”
Pinkie saluted before Shade shot off the ground and started flying towards Everfree. He could see clearly what they were talking about, a large black cloud of Changelings flying towards them.
On top of the Clouds, Tornado Dust had organized the rest of the Pegasus in his team around the clearing between Everfree and Ponyville.
He kept his eyes focused on below as to not hit any ponies that might be flying or running beneath him.
“Remember controlled bursts!” Tornado Dust shouted back to the others.
“Now!” Shade said through the Mental link.
“Go for it boys!” Tornado Dust slammed his front hooves onto the cloud he was flying above, causing a large crack of lightning to shoot down from it, followed by more and more of it, mixed with the explosions of party cannons.
Sunstreak flew through the air, either grabbing Changelings and hurtling them towards the ground, or using the hoof blades to accurately sever their wings, or simply going for the neck. Many of the Lancers had joined him in the air and were flying in formation, keeping Changelings from getting past them.
“Not exactly warriors are they?”
“Regardless, we need to keep an eye out for…. BEHIND!”
The Pegasus turned and found a flaming changeling ram him and hurtle towards the ground.
“God Damn it…” Sunstreak said as he flew down and knocked the Changeling off by slamming into it, quickly knocking it unconscious with a punch to the face. He walked over to the Pegasus. “Keep an eye out. I’m not saving your ass aga-” Sunstreak’s ears perked up at a whistling sound, he tackled the guard just as an explosion of confetti hit where they were standing but a second ago. “That makes two.”
“I owe you a drink.”
“Later soldier.” Sunstreak said pushing off the ground to join the rest of the forces. Where he remained until another wave of the Changelings began to show up.
Sunstreak looked around, the Pegasus were being grounded, the Unicorns seemed to be placing all their effort into shielding spells, and the Earth ponies were getting surrounded. “FALL BACK!” Shade said both verbally and through the Hive mind. “We’ll regroup at the town limits!”
“Why are we moving back?” Sunglider flew up next to him.
“Too open,” Sunstreak replied. “We’re getting surrounded by sheer numbers, in the town at least there is the possibility of confining the ground war to choke points…”
A Changeling was dashing towards the two of them, but Shade teleported to the other side of Sunglider and uppercut it with the Hoof blades, making its horn split in half. As it fell spells fired off randomly, blowing holes in the ground.
“I recommend we move.” Shade said, flicking the blood and gray matter off the blades.
Moving back was a smart idea, as many of the Unicorns and Earth ponies couldn’t hold their own in a full surrounded assault, instead, the Unicorns put up shields to stop the Changelings from flooding in and the Earth ponies dealt with them as they came.
The Party Mortars had begun to fire slower and slower, Shade flew towards the town hall, and found Pinkie sitting on the top balcony she was looking at the streets with a pair of candy cane patterned binoculars and a military jacket on.
“Private Pinkie!” Shade said as he landed on the ground, deciding to humor her. “What’s the problem with the Mortars?”
Pinkie turned and saluted as the binoculars stuck on her face, giving a middle finger to gravity. “I’m just running out of stuff to fire from them.” Pinkie replied.
“Well can’t you get…?” Shade began as Surprise landed next to him.
“Pinkie! I’m running out of… Oh hi Captain.” Surprise said before turning back to Pinkie. “Pinkie! I’m out of Confetti!”
Pinkie flipped the binoculars into her mane. “NOT THE CONFETTI!” Pinkie ran over to a glass box and grabbed a small hammer, rearing it back to smash the glass, before lightly tapping it, causing a web of cracks that broke the glass.
From inside she pulled a large bag of Confetti. “Here!” She shoved it into Surprise’s hooves. “Take the Emergency supply! And if you run out of Confetti, ASSAULT THEM WITH CAKE!”
Surprise saluted and flew up to the top of the town hall, where a party cannon was set up.
Shade flipped up his visor and rubbed his forehead. “I’m so confused…” He quickly got over it. “Private Pinkie I need you and your Party Cannon on the frontlines ASAP!”
“Oooo…. Small problem…”
Shade raised an eyebrow.
“I let the Crusaders borrow it…”
“WHAT!” Shade shouted. “THE FILLIES ARE FIGHTING HERE!”
“No. Don’t be such a Silly Billy!” Pinkie replied. “They’re guarding the most important building of all!” Pinkie pointed towards the Gingerbread building that Shade knew was where she lived and worked. “That’s where all the cakes are.” She whispered.
“Captain!” Sunglider said flying down to them. “We are having trouble holding them off.”
“Damn… How much trouble?”
“The first squad is already neck deep in Changelings.”
Shade sighed. “If only we had something more powerful…”
Pinkie gasped. “Oo! Sunny!”
Both Sunglider and Shade looked at her.
“Oh. Sorry. Our Sunny”
Sunglider rolled his eyes and dashed off.
“What is it Private Pinkie?” Shade asked turning to face her.
“Can you turn into Twilight?” Pinkie asked.
Shade was taken aback by the question. “Yes… Why?”
“Follow me!” Pinkie quickly dashed off the roof and towards the front battle lines. Shade groaned before transforming into Rainbow Dash and bolting after her. When he got there, Pinkie was looking at a butterfly on a flower right behind where a Royal Guard was being mauled by a Changeling.
“Pinkie! What is this about?” Shade asked.
“Transform into Twilight for me!”
“Why?”
“JUST DO IT!” She shouted. “Please…” She gave Shade the biggest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen.
Shade rolled his eyes. “Fine…” Shade transformed into Twilight wearing Royal Guard armor. “I still don’t see wh-WOAH!”
Pinkie had grabbed Shade by his mid-section and pulled ‘her’ to face the oncoming Changelings. Before Shade could say anything, Pinkie raised Shade’s tail, making ‘her’ horn glow.
“TIME TO HIDE CHANGELINGS!” Pinkie shouted before rapidly pulling Shade’s tail up and down, causing ‘her’ horn to fire off magical blasts in quick succession. Shade had no idea what was going on, all ‘she’ knew was that Pinkie was happening and to just roll with it.
When Shade was finally let go, he looked up to see that a good portion of the Changelings were now unconscious against the ground.
“What the Bloody Hell just happened?” Shade asked, rubbing ‘her’ head before transforming to his natural form.
“I did the same thing during the invasion!” Pinkie said. “I wasn’t sure it would work since you aren’t technically a Unicorn, but it did work, and are you okay?” The Quick switch of topics caught Shade off guard as he wobbled to stand up.
“Yeah… I’m just…Who are you again?” His vision was very blurry, and he couldn’t think straight. “Oh good… The colors are back… I’m just gonna… Rest for…A few hours…” Shade fell on the ground.
“General Spine!” The Changeling ran into the room. “The First attack force is only at 10 percent! We need to send more troops!”
Spine glanced towards the Changeling. “Very well…” Spine walked over to the metallic boxes.
“Sir… What are you doing?” The Changeling asked.
“Sending in reinforcements.” Spine opened one of the boxes, and the Changeling tried to back away but found a long thin stinger jammed through its abdomen. The Stinger pulled the Changeling into the cage as a loud Crunch could be heard.
“Handlers! Move!” Spine ordered. “First Wave of Soldiers! Follow behind”
Shade slowly opened his eyes as he was looking at two Changelings, one seemed to be holding a green vial of some kind of liquid, both of them had the green energy flowing through their armor.
“Welcome back Captain.”
Shade groaned and pushed himself up off the wooden floor. “Where am I?”
“Inside the town Hall… We set it up as a field hospital.” Now that Shade could see, he recognized the Changelings, Thorax and… “Ortho?”
“Yes… I snuck on board. Now hush.” She placed a mask over Shade’s mouth. “Just inhale.”
Shade took a deep breath and felt whatever headache he had vanish and feel reenergized.
“I took the liberty of procuring some of our stockpiles of Love.” Ortho explained. “Now… What exactly were you doing that drained you of that much love?”
“No idea…” Shade replied honestly. “It involved Pinkie.”
“Of course it did…” Ortho replied with a shake of her head. “Listen just don’t…”
She was cut short by a high pitched screech that seemed to cause all of them to shiver. “What in Tartarus was that?” Thorax asked, looking towards Shade, whose eyes were currently wide in fear.
“No! No! No! nonononononononono!!” Shade ran to the door. “They can’t be here! Why are they here? This can’t be good!” Shade pushed the door open and found Pinkie sitting outside.
“Hey there sleepy…”
“No time!” Shade replied holding out his hoof. “Binoculars!”
Pinkie pulled them out of her mane and handed them to Shade, he quickly grabbed them and looked over towards Everfree. As he did, he felt his blood run cold.
Flying in from the forest, were what could only be called a ‘flock’ of large ray like birds, each one with a large stinger on the end, clawed feet, and bird like heads.
Shade took a deep breath. “PHOENIX RAYS!” The look of confusion on most of the ponies evaporated as a scream perforated it, one of the rays had lifted two earth ponies into the air by its claws, and it then flew up and dropped both of them onto the hard earth below.
Shade threw the binoculars back to Pinkie. “Stay inside! Gather as many as you can and tell them the same thing!”
Pinkie saluted before dashing in a pink blur around town.
Shade’s horn glowed as he pulled an orange gem from his leg, he held it up to look at it. “I didn’t want to use it this early…” He muttered through gritted teeth. He sighed. “Desperate times…”
Before he got the chance to do anything with it, one of the rays had swooped down and grabbed it in its beak.
“HEY!” Shade shouted as the ray flew off. “Give that back!” Shade bent down to take off.
“Shade wait!” Ortho said, “Don’t over ex-”
Shade took off and flew quickly after the Phoenix Ray.
Ortho sighed. “Exert yourself… Why do I even try?”
Rainbow Dash had been flying after a few remaining Changelings when she was suddenly covered in a pink flash and found herself inside the town hall. “Twilight,” She said as she hit a wall. “What gives?”
“Sorry Rainbow.” Twilight replied. “But Pinkie just told me to teleport you in here.”
“Well did she say why?”
“Something about giant rays and Shade telling us to.” Twilight replied.
“Hold on… Giant rays? You can’t be serious.” Rainbow asked, flying to a nearby window as a Phoenix Ray slammed into the wall, startling her. “Yeah… Good call…”
“But where’d Bug boy slip off ta?” Applejack asked looking around the room.
“DON’T YOU DARE SWALLOW THAT!”
Rainbow looked out the window to see a Phoenix Ray flying in a circle around Shade, an orange object in its beak. With a flick of its head, the orange object fell down its throat.
“THAT’S IT!” Shade rammed into the Phoenix ray, heading right for…
“INCOMING!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew away from the window right as it shattered with the force of a Dive-bombing Changeling and a giant Phoenix Ray. The ray whipped its tail into one of Shade’s holed legs, and flicked him away.
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Shade said as he steadied himself in the air, The Phoenix ray screeched and flew through the roof, followed by Shade.
“I’ll go check on him…” Rainbow Dash said. Before either of her friends could argue, she dashed through the hole in the roof, chasing after Shade.
When she finally caught up, Shade didn’t realize she was there until she spoke up. “Hey! What are you doing?”
“I’m Chasing a Phoenix Ray!” Shade snapped back. “A rather temperamental one at that.”
“Yeah… But Why?”
Shade didn’t even turn to look at her. “She stole the only…”
“Wait how can you tell?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’ve hunted them my whole life, this one’s a female. She stole my one trump card! The only thing that could help me if I get into a battle with Spine. She ate it!”
“That orange thingy?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes… and now I need to catch up to…”
“I’m on it.” Rainbow Dash said before zooming off leaving a rainbow contrail behind her. She flew ahead of the large ray and started flying in a circle, soon there was a small tornado formed in the air. The Phoenix Ray slowed itself as to not get sucked in, but Shade didn’t.
He slammed into the ray, “Now then… My turn…” Shade transformed his forelegs into hooked blades, which he jammed into the ray’s wings. After he was secured, he transformed his wings so that they were much larger than he would have normally needed and opened them fully, causing him to slow down more than the ray, and for his hooked legs to drag against the Ray’s wings.
The Ray let out a screech before plummeting to the ground, before the two of them hit the ground, Shade transformed his legs back and pushed off the ray. Letting it slam mercilessly into the ground. Somehow it was still conscious, and that suited Shade just fine. It began trying to hobble away before Shade landed next to it.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Shade asked the Ray as he slammed a hoof onto its wing. “We aren’t done yet.”
The Ray seemed to gulp while Shade transformed his foreleg into a blade again. “Now do try to scream at least a bit, makes this so much more pleasant for me.” He jammed the blade into the stomach, making sure that the Ray felt everything as he made the opening. It let out a loud screech as he stopped and reached into the incision with a clawed hand and rummaged around in it for a few seconds.
He pulled out a few bones, which he didn’t consider strange, some rocks, a couple pieces of fresh meat and he found what he was looking for. He pulled out the small gem coated in the sickly yellow acid.
Shade let out a relived sigh, the stomach acid hadn’t begun to destroy it yet.
“Is that what you were looking for?” Rainbow asked keeping her distance from the ray.
“Yes…” Shade replied walking around to the ray’s head and giving it a quick twist. “Damn that felt good. I haven’t done an old fashioned Ray stomach search for a long time.”
“Well… what is it?” Rainbow asked. “I mean… it just looks like a gem?”
Shade was going to explain, but one of the Changeling Soldiers landed next to him. “Sir! These creatures are pushing us back.”
Shade twirled the gem in the air, suspended by his magic. “How many?”
“Ten at the most from what we have seen.”
Shade sighed. “Fine… I’m going to have to use this much sooner than I thought I would…”
“Sir?” Shade dismissed him with a wave.
Shade looked towards Rainbow Dash. “Ever seen what happens when a Changeling has their magic boosted?”
Rainbow shook her head.
“Well let’s find out.” Shade floated the crystal into the compartment on his chest piece, as he did, the crystal glowed bright orange before Shade’s eyes reflected the same bright orange of the crystal. “This is going to be fun…”
Near the front line, the Phoenix Rays were flying around, grabbing the Changelings from the air, biting at them or slashing them and then letting the dead bodies fall or burn up in their claws. Major Mandible was in charge of the Changelings of this particular squadron.
“Come on! Fall back! Orders from-Whoa!” A Ray saw him and picked him up holding his back in its claws. “Oh…Chrysalis…”
The Ray looked down at him, opening its beak to show a row of sharp teeth, it lowered it down to bite at him, Mandible closed his eyes.
When the killing blow never came, Mandible looked up to find the Ray’s beak being held back by clawed hands. The beak was ripped apart by the hands, causing the ray to drop Mandible.
Mandible regained control of his flight to watch the ray fall to the ground.
“Major! Watch your ass.”
Mandible looked at his savior, it was a Dragon, but… “Captain Shade?”
“S’up.” Shade replied, his scales only a slightly lighter color than his carapace before, the armor he was wearing covering over the entire body. The Hoofblades looked rather out of place on the Draconic figure however the armor seemed more natural looking, mimicking the scales of his body. His wings were larger and with the armor spreading over the main structure of the wing, staying off of the thin fleshy portion that aided in flight.
“How are you…?”
Shade tapped an orange crystal in the center of his armor. “Magical Amplification gem, boosts magical powers. Since our bodies are practically magical, I’m not feeling any drain on my energy like this.”
“Impressive.” Mandible replied. “Mind lending a hoof?”
“That’s what I came here for.” Shade extended his claws and rushed towards the Phoenix Rays nearby. None of them noticed the Changeling watching from above, showing everything to the Hive.
Inside Acari’s Hive, Spine watched the battle through his scout’s eyes. Watching the Dragon kill the beasts they had captive from the Fiord raids with increasing hatred and disgust.
“That bastard…” Spine said watching. “Thinking he is superior to all of us. Worthless Conversion.”
“Sir!” A different Changeling officer came up to him.
“This better be important.” Spine hissed.
“The Creatures tore through their defenses. We have a straight line to the bulk of their forces. Those above the clouds are being dealt with now, and the stealth forces are preparing to attack from behind.”
Spine watched the images of Shade. “We must deal with him first.” Spine said. “That gem is required for him to remain that way. I want it destroyed.”
“Anything else sir?”
“Yes.” Spine replied. “Send in everything we have.”
“Sir?”
“Once the Conversion is dealt with, there will be nothing to stop us from taking this village.” Spine smirked. “I will deal with him personally.”
“Sir… What if we fail?”
Spine turned to look at the officer. “Then I suppose the Queen will simply eradicate the town. Now tell her what we are doing.”
Shade was dealing with the last few of the Phoenix rays, easy enough given his years of training which he found dull and repetitive, funny how now that training was actually proving to be useful for something. However one thing he failed to take into account was the scheming nature of Changelings.
When he thought that he was simply attacking another of the rays, a Changeling popped out of it and rammed directly into his chest with a flaming head-butt. He heard the crack of the crystal, and he swore under his breath.
When he steadied himself, he looked down at the crystal, it had a large crack straight through it, where orange lightning was beginning to spark, keeping the two pieces together as best it could.
He looked back at the Rays, only a couple of them remained, so he had to work fast on it. Or risk them staying alive…
When he was finished with them, he was breathing heavy, not from how he handled the rays, it had been an easy rush in, slice the neck, tear wing, done. Instead he was panting from lack of energy.
His vision was beginning to blur as he fell to his knees and looked down at the crystal. The lightning arcs between it were increasing in both frequency and brightness, and the crack had spread across the surface leaving a spider web of cracks.
The crystal glowed bright before shattering, or rather disintegrating. The crystal broke out of the compartment and fell to the ground as a slightly sparkling orange powder. Shade looked at his clawed hand, and noticed a hole was beginning to form in the palm. The hole was surrounded by green fire that began to spread across the rest of it. Before it got a chance to reach any further, Shade transformed back to a Changeling.
He was taking deep heavy breaths in an attempt to calm himself down, he tried blinking away his blurry vision, and he could no longer avoid the feelings of pain that shot through his legs or the twisting feeling he got when he drew breath.
“What did I tell you?”
Shade was still looking down towards the ground, his neck refusing to move from its current position, so the speaker went unanswered.
“Maybe next time you’ll listen to me when I tell you to do something!”
Shade felt himself get pulled up by a magical field, and felt something over his mouth.
“Just breathe.”
Shade felt his energy return to him, along with his vision. When he looked down at the Changeling who was lifting him, he saw Ortho.
“You’re very lucky,” Ortho said, “If I didn’t come and follow you after that Ray crashed through the building. You would probably be dead now.” Ortho placed him on the ground. “Why is it that everypony I tell to rest doesn’t listen to me until they are nearly unconscious? I didn’t go to medical school for nothing you know.”
Shade pushed himself up and tried to keep himself steady. “Sorry Ortho… I…”
“Shut up!” Ortho shouted. “You are coming with me, and you are resting until I am one hundred percent sure about your condition.”
“Ortho… I’m thankful for you helping me but…” Ortho used her magic to grab Shade’s ear and drag him. “Ow Ow Ow Ow!”
“No!” Ortho said, pulling him back towards the Town Hall. “You are going to wait until you are recovered, no more of this one pony army nonsense.”
“Well pulling my ear off is not going to help!” Shade replied. “Ortho let go of my ear! I feel fine. I’m fine!”
“Oh no!” Ortho replied. “You are not getting off that easily.”
“Then at least let go of my ear so I can walk there.”
“Snake Eye!”
“Darkblaze?”
“Help! They’re attacking up on the clouds!”
Shade’s horn glowed green. “Fine, you want to get to the Town hall, then let’s go.” Shade closed his eyes as both of them teleported to the town hall. Ortho’s eyes were spinning and she let go of Shade’s ear.
After Shade shook away the disorientation from his first dual-target Teleport, he looked around at the soldiers. “Pegasi! Get up to the clouds! Our teams are in danger!” All at once, the pegasi saluted and ran out of the town hall, going to gather others or fly right into the air.
I don’t like this… Shade thought. Using an attack like this could either mean they are being boxed in, or they are preparing for a full on frontal assault. He looked back to make sure Ortho was still disoriented before turning to Pinkie.
“Listen Pinkie… I have a very important job for you.”
“Uh huh?” Pinkie asked leaning in.
“Go to the other side of Ponyville and tell me if you see any Changelings or ponies that aren’t supposed to be there. And take Surprise with you.”
Both of them saluted and hopped out of the room, each one alternating which was on the ground and which one was in the air. Please let me be wrong…
Up on the clouds, the Changelings were swarming over the sky, Tornado Dust himself was flying away from the small swarm alongside a few other Pegasus. “Where in Tartarus are they?” The Pegasi teams had all split up once the Changelings pierced through the cloud layer, those that tried to fight them were quickly overwhelmed and sent hurling towards the ground.
“Tornado Dust, are you sure that transmission even got to them?”
“No I’m not! Keep flying!”
“Hey DUSTY!”
Tornado Dust looked to his right as he saw Rainbow Dash flying backwards. “Rainbow?”
“And some friends.” Rainbow pointed up towards the sky where the Blue and yellow suits of the Wonderbolts came hurtling in formation, their smoking contrails sparking behind them. “Oh and below us as well.”
From the cloud layer, a group of twenty-five Lancers flew through staring at the oncoming Changelings.
“Alright boys!” The lead Lancer called. “Let’s show these Love suckers what real Changelings can do!” Each of the lancers were covered in a red flame before being replaced with red eyed Changelings.
“Whoa…” Rainbow Dash said surprised. “That… That I didn’t expect…” Tornado Dust nodded in agreement as he looked on wide eyed
“Lancers! Engage!”
The two Pegasus turned to look at the ensuing chaos, Lances colliding with Chitin, snarling, biting and spells firing through the sky. The Wonderbolts doing what they could without getting caught in any of the attacks from either side, they rammed into the Changelings, created a small tornado behind them, anything they could think of. Rainbow and Tornado watched for a few seconds before heading below the cloud layer and towards the Town hall.
“Well… That was interesting.” Rainbow Dash replied. “Hey, do you think there are Changelings in the Wonderbolts?”
Tornado Dust rolled his eyes. “Always with the Wonderbolts.”
Back in town hall, Shade was being looked at by Ortho, who slapped him whenever he tried to move. She had removed his Hoofblades which were currently hanging from a hook on a wall that Ortho was keeping a very close eye on.
When Tornado Dust and Rainbow Dash flew through the shattered window, he looked up at them to find his head being magically turned to look at a pair of light blue eyes.
“Hey Snake Eye.” Tornado Dust said. “We kind of lost the thunder clouds…”
“I could see that…” Shade replied, only moving his eyes to look over at them. “So you two happen to see Pinkie?”
“Right Heeeeereee~!” Pinkie said in a Singsong voice popping out of a barrel. She reached down into the barrel and pulled Surprise, who looked very confused, out of the barrel.
“How did we get here?” He asked.
“Shhh….” Pinkie said to Surprise. “I’ll teach you later.” She winked at him.
“So Private Pinkie?” Shade said keeping his head forward. “Any news?”
“Yes!” Pinkie said. “There’s a bunch of Mean Changelings surrounding the town from the train station. At first I thought they were just here for a party then I-!”
Ortho turned to look at the pink pony. “I’m busy with a patient. Contain yourself.” Ortho looked back at Shade. She lifted a small flashlight up to Shade’s eyes. Ortho sighed. “Luckily you don’t have a concussion…”
Shade rolled his eyes.
“Now tell me if this hurts.” She placed her hoof on Shade’s chest and pushed lightly on it.
“OW!” Shade said after she applied a small amount of pressure.
Ortho shook her head. “You have a cracked rib.”
“Meaning?” Shade asked.
“Meaning I’m not letting you go back out there.” Ortho replied. “This can only get worse. I’m not letting you go anywhere until…”
A green burst of fire appeared in front of Twilight. “Spike?”
Twilight unrolled the letter and read it. Her eyes widened as she read. “They have Spike!”
Twilight turned the letter so Shade could read it.
Nymph,
We have hostages of a small purple dragon and three young fillies. If you don’t want to see them bleeding out on the ground, meet me in front of the library. Bring this Twilight Sparkle with you. We are going to end this once and for all.
General Spine.
Shade’s wings buzzed angrily as he read it. “Fine by me…” He growled.
Ortho stopped him from moving by pushing on his hoof. “Oh No! I’m not letting you go off and do whatever it is you think you’re doing! You need to rest, you’re drained, and injured. You wouldn’t be able to stand your own against this General pony.”
“Excuse me Ortho.” Shade looked directly at her, his eyes radiating pure hatred. “I don’t give a fuck!” His horn charged up and he teleported behind Ortho, raising his foreleg he brought it down on the back of her head, knocking her out.
“Shade!” Twilight said in surprise her voice leaking disapproval. “You…You just…”
“I’m saving Spike.” Shade said. “I don’t care anymore. This is personal. Don’t stand in my way!” Shade growled, even if Twilight wasn’t a Changeling, she could feel his determination.
Twilight sighed. “Fine… But I am coming with you to keep those four safe.”
“Fine by me.” Shade hissed. “But Spine is mine.” He turned to the others. “All of you! Make sure this city stays safe. I’m going to go deal with an insignificant, Scum sucking, Urpalosh!”
He turned and walked out of the town hall, followed by Twilight.
Tornado Dust looked at the others. “So what do we do now?”
Lyra teleported into the room. “We use anything at our disposal.” She looked at Pinkie. “Get that Cake cannon of yours ready.”
Pinkie smiled. “Let’s go! I’ve got cakes to launch from a cannon!” She jumped into the air and dove head-first into a nearby barrel. She then reached out of it and grabbed Surprise, pulling him into it with her. The top of the Barrel spun in the air before landing perfectly on top.