Refugee Camp, one day before the battle
It had been one day since Twilight had her dream, since she had finally said goodbye to her mother. In that time she had been actively avoiding Celestia, and the guilt of her harsh words had been eating away at her mind.
It was time to change that.
Twilight took in a deep breath, and then released it with a hoof held to her chest, just as Cadance had taught her many years prior.
“Isn’t that my breathing technique?” a voice asked from behind.
‘Speaking of…’ Twilight thought to herself.
“Cadance!” she exclaimed happily, spinning around to greet the pink alicorn. “Good morning!”
“Good morning Twilight,” Cadance said with a warm smile. “How is my favourite filly this morning?”
“Oh, um… good! Yes very good, brilliant in fact!” Twilight assured, her eye twitching slightly.
Cadance gave her a bemused look. “You can be an awful liar sometimes, I saw you doing the breathing technique I taught you.”
Twilight groaned. “Yes, well… Do you know where Princess Celestia is?”
“Ah,” Cadance nodded in understanding. “She was by the landing area last I saw, speaking to a group about to depart.”
“She was?” Twilight asked questioningly. “What was that about?”
“I didn’t stop to ask,” Cadance stated. “Anyway, in all that has happened we haven’t had time to catch up, so…”
“So... what?”
Cadance raised an eyebrow.
“What are you- oh! I got you!” Twilight lit up in understanding, a smile making its way to her face.
“Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!” the two chanted, giggling furiously moments afterwards.
“We haven’t done that since before the baby was born,” Twilight noted as her giggling calmed. “How is my niece, anyway?”
“Flurry Heart is fine,” Cadance replied. “She’s with Sunburst right now”
“Yeah, this is not place for a child,” Twilight said solemnly. “And there are far too many here already…”
“Hey, come here,” Cadance used her wing to pull Twilight gently into a hug, which Twilight gladly accepted. “You know I’m always here, right?”
“Yes, I know.”
“You should also talk to Shining at some point, we’ve been worried sick about you.”
Twilight looked up at her former foalsitter apologetically. “I’m sorry for worrying you, both of you, and I will talk to him… But first I really need to find Celestia.”
“Well, I told you where you can go to look,” Cadance stated.
“Yes, thanks Cadance,” Twilight said, pulling away from the embrace. “Tell Shiny I’ll meet with him in a little while, OK?”
“I promise I will,” Cadance assured. “Now go on.”
Twilight gave the Princess a grateful smile, before parting ways with her and moving into the crowd.
After a short walk through the various individuals populating the camp, she quickly came up upon the landing site. Here several of the aviation machines used by the EUP sat quietly as they had their magical reserves recharged, without which they wouldn’t be able to fly.
Near one corner of the landing site was where the changeling queen spotted Celestia, seemingly lost deep in thought.
Part of Twilight’s mind screamed at her to turn tail and run in the opposite direction, and she felt a panic attack incoming.
“Come on Twilight,” Twilight muttered to herself. “You’re being overdramatic... again. Nothing will happen, just talk to her…”
While she was muttering to herself, her hooves had gone on autopilot and taken her right up to the alicorn, and Twilight found herself wondering just how she had gotten there when she emerged from her deliberations.
“Twilight?” Celestia emerged from her thoughts and noticed her former student before Twilight could get cold hooves and run off again.
“Oh! Um… hiya… Princess…” Twilight scuffed the ground awkwardly.
Celestia rolled her eyes. “You’re a queen… you technically outrank me and yet you still call me by my title!”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
She was cut off by Celestia tittering behind a hoof, and despite her chitin she found herself very red faced.
“Oh Twilight, please never change,” Celestia said with a bright smile. “You’re too adorable.”
“Adorable?” Twilight deadpanned. “I do believe you can go down in history as the first pony to call a changeling queen ‘adorable’.”
“I can add it to the list, then,” Celestia commented.
Twilight grinned at that, but that grin quickly faltered. “So… you’re not angry at me?”
“Angry? Whatever for?”
“Because of what I said to you!” Twilight shouted. “I was cruel, you were only trying to help and I verbally attacked you and even threatened you with violence! How are you not angry at all?!”
Celestia sighed, and looked Twilight directly in the eyes, noting how she would soon be at her eye level.
“Twilight, I was upset at what happened, but I can’t blame you,” Celestia stated. “You were angry at what happened, and rightly so. Combine that with some poor choices of words on my part and what happened, happened. I was worried, and I’m just glad you’re alright.”
Twilight stood there for a few moments, before approaching Celestia and gently pulling her into a hug.
“I’m sorry for what I said, Celestia. You’re like a mother to me, and I don’t want that to change.”
Celestia smiled warmly as she hugged back. “And I promise it won’t, because I love you as any mother does her daughter. I don’t tell that to you enough, but I do and always have.”
Twilight stepped away from Celestia, smiling. “After all this is done, I think I might spend time among my family for a bit. Shiny, Cadance and the baby, my pony parents and you. Luna too, and my friends.”
Celestia nodded in agreement. “It’s been too long since we were all in the same place, the crystalling was the last time as I recall.”
“Mother was moaning about the snow and ice for weeks afterwards,” Twilight chuckled. “If our agents hadn’t discovered Sunburst and allowed us to utilise his knowledge, I don’t know what we would have done.”
“And yet it still took two alicorns and two changeling queens to fix it,” Celestia noted.
“On the bright side, the following blast kept us fed for those following weeks. Best meal they ever had apparently,” Twilight stated, before sighing. “It’s hard to believe that was only around seven months ago. It feels like an eternity, and it feels like I had known my mother throughout my entire life rather than a little under three years.”
“When you’re an immortal such as myself, or long lived like yourself, time fragments. You could watch a foal’s birth one day, and the next they are laying on their death bed as old age claims them,” Celestia stated sadly. “You must always strive to enjoy the times you spend with one another, because all too quickly it is gone.”
“I know,” Twilight said softly. “Anyway, enough of that. What are you doing here anyway? Cadance mentioned you were talking to the crew of one of these helicopters or something.”
“I was,” Celestia confirmed. “I was requesting a scouting run around Ponyville.”
“Ponyville?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Why? What happened?”
“A changeling attacked one of your friends, but they’re all fine - do not worry.”
“What? Who was it that got attacked?”
“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia informed her. “Before Rainbow Dash got her hooves on the changeling, that is.”
“Yes, I can see how that didn’t end well for the changeling,” Twilight noted. “Any word yet?”
“Not yet, but soon.”
Skies above Equestria
One of the EUP’s helicopters was on its way back from the area around Ponyville to the camp whence they came. They had been scouting since the early hours of that morning and not spotted a thing.
“But would we see anything though?” one of the crew asked. “They can change after all.”
“A giant assault force would be harder to hide,” the pilot shouted back over the noise of the blades and the magical inner working of the rotor.
“A large congregation that size would be difficult to disguise and not be completely suspicious,” the third and final soldier aboard spoke. “An army of ‘ponies’ or a rocky outcropping that didn’t exist before would be noticeable, the latter especially so with a detailed map like what we have.”
“Wait, rocky outcropping?” the first soldier asked questioningly.
“Yeah, they can disguise as some inanimate objects,” the third explained.
“Seriously? Damn, that’s irritating.”
The pilot was messing with some dials at the front, the two in the back simply rolled their eyes.
“Give it up, we’re way too far from Ponyville now. No more music.”
The pilot grumbled, and let go of the radio. “Having that Vinyl Scratch and Octavia on here was far more entertaining than listening to you two yapping on and on constantly.”
“You mean DJ Pon-3? Isn’t she a mute?” the third asked.
“Yeah, but she still plays good instrumental music,” the pilot stated. “If you want vocals you listen to Octavia, though they often work together.”
“I’m fairly certain we’re not meant to be using it to pick up civilian radio stations anyhow,” the first stated. “It’s against regulations.”
The pilot snorted. “Since when did you care that much?”
“Hey, as long as our superiors don’t find out,” he responded. “I’d rather not have latrine duty again.”
“Agreed,” the third stated. “He didn’t stop bitching for ages afterwards.”
“Your punishment for ratting me out, buddy,” the first bumped the third on the shoulder. “We nearly there yet?”
“An hour, tops,” the pilot responded. “Then we can finally kick back and… and…”
The ponies in the back shared a worried glance
“Pilot?” the first shouted out. “What’s wrong?”
“You may want to look at this…” was the response.
The two in the back made their way of to the cockpit and looked out the front window, their eyes widening as they did.
A giant swarm of distant black dots were coming right for them; and as they rapidly closed in, what they were became apparent as the black chitin was joined by red and blue armour that came into view as they got closer.
“Changelings!” the pilot shouted. “Taking evasive action!”
The helicopter was forced to duck and weave through the horde of incoming changelings, though as the vehicle entered the maelstrom the changeling formed a tunnel around it and bypassed them completely, showing no interest. They came to a hover as they inspected the sight around them.
“They’re ignoring us?” the first asked in shock.
The pilot picked up the radio and immediately began a transmission back to camp.
“Mayday, mayday. We’ve encountered a massive horde of changelings on a direct route to Ponyville, I repeat an invasion force is on its was to-”
All three froze in place as a figure descended down before them, looking directly at them through the window just as the last of the drone passed by. It was a changeling queen with blood red eyes and a mane to match, and she was smirking at them.
Then her horn charged.
“Evade!” one of them shouted at the pilot as the helicopter veered to the side to try and avoid the coming strike.
Magic lanced from Crudelis’ horn and struck the rotor directly, sheering it and the blades off as the magical crystal within burst.
Without the blades and levitation spells to keep it up, the helicopter plummeted from the sky into a fiery demise below, leaving no survivors.
Crudelis smugly inspected her work, before resuming her journey to Ponyville, her next target.
Refugee Camp
The command tent was nearly empty, and would be if it weren’t for the only two inhabitants sitting at the table in mid conversation.
“A day out for family and friends, huh?” Shining asked. “Sounds like a good idea. It will be nice to have a respite from this. Vladimir and Broad Sword are meant to be on shore leave right now.”
“Things rarely go to plan for us, huh?” Twilight noted. “Some big crisis comes up, every time.”
“Raging centaurs, long lost evils, the list goes on,” Shining agreed. “But what can we do? We play the cards we are dealt.”
“I just wish they weren’t always terrible cards,” Twilight smirked. “You always were bad at poker.”
“I am not!” Shining protested.
“I would always beat you when we played any such card games,” Twilight stated. “Whenever we would play games around the fire at Hearth's Warming, I would beat you every single time!”
“That’s because you’re so analytical about things, though your poker face was always terrible. Which is why dad always defeated you.”
Twilight chuckled. “True. Dad is the master of cards for a reason…” Twilight sighed. “I wonder how my father, my changeling father I mean, would have been at cards.”
“Virum, wasn’t it?” Shining asked, getting a nod in return. “You have pictures of him, don’t you?”
“Did,” Twilight’s face fell. “I left everything back at the hive. My books, the trinkets I picked up on the adventures my friends and I went on, and all the pictures I owned.”
“Hey, your room wasn’t in the main residential section, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t caught in the collapse if that’s what you’re asking,” Twilight stated in response.
“Well then, after all is said and done I’ll have everything salvageable picked up from there. Not just for you, but your changelings.”
Twilight offered her brother a grateful smile. “Thanks BBBFF.”
Just then, Celestia burst through the tent’s entrance, followed by Luna, both Royal Guard Captains, Carduus and Cadance.
“Celestia,” Shining greeted as both got up from their seating. “What’s happening?”
“One of our scouts has been taken out,” Celestia stated. “Their last transmission stated that Crudelis and mobilised an invasion force.”
“What?!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “She’s going to attack us, here?”
“No,” Celestia stated, shaking her head. “Not here.”
“Then… where?”
“Ponyville.”