//------------------------------//
// Battle with Friends 
// Story: A Change of Pace 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
//------------------------------//

	Cicada stomped through the halls, blasting random things as she went. Her mouth was starting to hurt from clenching it. She would have liked to make a portal back to her friends, but she had no idea where they currently were. 
There were Changelings who ran into rooms to hide when they either saw or heard her coming. No one wanted to ask what was wrong. The queen looked as if anyone tried to do anything with her, she would explode with an outburst of anger. Normally someling would have been brave enough to try already, but no one had seen her so mad. A few changelings had to make sure it even was Cicada
Eventually, one younger changeling was too scared to run from the hallway when he saw Cicada. He was especially scared when Cicada noticed him and sped up slightly. 
“You! Find the changeling Nettle or the dragon Spike. Tell them I’m looking for them.”
The changeling gave a quick nod but stayed in place. “What are you waiting for? LEAVE!”
The changeling started to run as fast as he could. Cicada stood angry for a few more seconds before giving a large sigh. She went up to one of the walls on the side and pressed her head against it. Before long, she could feel something on her shoulder.
“What do you want?” She asked whoever it was. The reply that came was a caw.
Cicada turned her head just enough to see Lila perched on her shoulder. Cicada gave a small smile before turning back to the wall. She kept standing there while changelings started to move through the hallways again. The queen was paying so little attention that she didn’t hear a different set of steps coming her way.
“Hey, Cicada, are you feeling okay?”
Without needing to look at the voice’s owner she knew who it was. “Not really Spike. I could feel better.” 
“How about your sister? How is she doing?”
That made Cicada angry again. She started to briskly walk through the halls, making Spike need to jog to keep up with her. Spike asked again and this time Cicada answered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have one, not anymore.”
Spike stopped for a second in shock before running to catch up again. “What do you mean, ‘Not anymore.’ Did something happen?”
Cicada nodded, but didn’t answer. Spike could tell he shouldn’t prod her anymore. They walked for a bit more until the changeling Cicada had shouted at earlier found them, following him was Nettle.
“Ma’am, I found the changeling you were looking for. I’m sorry I didn’t find him sooner. It also looks like you already found the dragon you also wanted me to look for.”
“Thank you for finding him, and I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, I had no real reason to.”
The changeling nodded and left quickly. Nettle was glad he found Cicada again, but was concerned about what happened with Nymph. “How is your sister?”
Cicada growled at him. Spike told him it wasn’t something she wanted to talk about that much. Nettle decided not to ask about it anymore, but made a mental note for later. 
“So,” Nettle started. “Why is it you wanted to see me again?”
Cicada sighed. “You know what your job is, I want to know how much you’ve been doing it recently.”
Nettle turned his head away a bit. “Too much recently. I’ve secretly helped a few ponies get away since I didn’t feel that they deserved to die.
Cicada nodded her head. “That’s good. Still, we need to find some place for the ponies to stay until things are settled around here, I don’t want fights to start just because ponies are living near changelings. Nettle, I want you to take the rest of today off, with pay as long as you keep the ponies in the dungeons from being killed.”
“I will, ma’am.” Nettle responded, before running off to follow orders.
“Aww, I was just starting to like him.” Spike said when the changeling was out of view.
That made Cicada smile a little. “Yes, but he still has other things he needs to do, I’m surprised he even stayed that long. Come on, I want to show you around the place.”
But before they could really start, Lila became very tense, as the alarm went off throughout the castle leaving no time for a tour. Cicada placed Spike on her back and created a portal to elsewhere in the castle.
“What’s going on!” Cicada yelled the second she was out of the portal. She was loud enough that Spike’s ears started to ring a little bit.
“A few of the ponies that got away are attacking, ma’am.” Cicada asked how many. “Four ma’am. It’s the ambassadors, though one hasn’t come.”
Cicada nodded grimly. “Keep the dragon safe, I’m going out there.”
The queen put down Spike next to a changeling who presented himself as Willow. The two of them watched as Cicada and Lila left towards the exit leading them to their battle. A changeling to Spike’s right cast a spell on the wall, allowing them to see what Lila was seeing.


	
Cicada was racing as fast as she could, and eventually decided to start flying. That was a mistake. The second she was in the air, a rainbow blur crashed into her taking both of them down. Rainbow Dash was able to recover before the two of them hit the ground. Lila zoomed after her owner, taking a peck at the pegasus on her way down.
Cicada got back up and took back to the air, zooming towards the pegasus. She created a portal mid air to take her next to Rainbow. The sky blue pegasus sped up and Cicada followed close behind. The two raced for a time before Cicada looked below. Three ponies were following down below, and from their colors, she could tell who they were.
Cicada noticed a blue light heading towards her from the group below.  She swerved away at the last second as a bolt of magic whizzed past her. A few more came towards her and the changeling barely dodged the bulk of them while a few nicked her in a few places. One even made it through one of the holes in her legs, making it sting badly. Paying more attention to Rarity’s spells than the pegasus she was tailing, the queen didn’t notice Rainbow’s attack until it had already hit her. Cicada started plummeting back towards the ground, this time with more to worry about.
The queen’s vision was blurry from pain, but she could see the light of more magic bolts heading towards her. Without proper vision, she couldn’t tell where to go to dodge them. Instead, they seemed to suddenly disappear, hitting something else instead. Cicada’s eyes widened as she saw blue flames appear a few feet down.



“What happened?” Spike asked when the image changed to static.
“Lila was killed.” Willow told him. “She was hit by at least ten bolts of magic. Until she regenerates herself from her ashes, we can’t see anything.”
“Well, how long until that happens?”
“It usually doesn’t take long, but she died in the air. Her ashes, while they have magic to help keep close together, will have separated at least a little. Until it’s all back together, she won’t be able to come back.”
“Is there any other way to see what’s going on?” The dragon asked.
“No,” A changeling nearby replied. “We can only hope she can get back here alive. She may be powerful, but it’s still four on one, and she’s not the best at anything she’s doing out there.”
Spike looked at the blank wall, wondering what was going on. How long would the battle take, Who would win it? Cicada was out there risking her life for everyone inside and nopony would help. Finally, he decided enough was enough. Spike had been asked by Twilight to stay home for too long. Sure he was a baby dragon, but he was still older that the Crusaders, and they had done some dangerous things to get their marks. With no time for any of the changelings to stop him, Spike ran to the exit to help his friend.
It didn’t take long before Spike could guess where Cicada was. He could see the magic this world’s Rarity was firing into the air, one disappeared in the air before reappearing, most likely from it passing behind Cicada. Spike ran as fast as he could manage towards the fighting group, but his short legs made him slower than he’d like. Before too long, Spike saw that after his running, he was still closer to where he started than where Cicada was.
The dragon was about to give up when he decided to try something he barely ever did. Spike went on to all fours and ran slightly faster than before. His hands hurt from not being used to it, and his body felt somewhat odd in the position, but it was better than before in speed. It wasn’t long before Spike could tell he was almost there. Just a bit more and then he could start to help.
Spike was mainly focused on running, but finally he noticed there was a magic bolt heading towards him. He stopped and stood up, hoping he could jump out of the way before it hit him. He didn’t.
The bolt went straight past Spike below his feet as he was lifted into the air. Cicada lifted him up and onto her back before soaring back high in the sky. “Spike, why did you come up here?”
“You needed help so I decided to come.” Spike answered. “Besides, they won’t expect a dragon. to help, right?”
“No, they won’t,” Cicada answered back before swerving out of the way of an attack. “But at least one of them must have seen you right before I picked you up. Look, I’m going to have to put you back down soon. If you’re on my back when I get hit, I can’t save you.”
Cicada cast a quick spell on Spike. “There, when you want, you can levitate about an inch off the ground, but you can go about twice as fast as you normally would running.”
Cicada dropped Spike and he started to fall from the sky. He panicked for a few seconds before trying to get his levitating spell to work. He couldn’t tell if it was working until he got closer to the ground. Instead of crashing into the stone paths below him, Spike slowed down to the point he stopped right above the ground. 
None of the ponies seemed to notice him, so the dragon raced towards them. Getting close, he spouted fire, catching the ones on the ground with him by surprise. That gave Cicada a chance to go after Rainbow without being impeded. 
The pegasus was surprised when she saw Cicada had caught up. The queen tried using magic bolts of her own, but Rainbow swerved out of the way of each attack. Cicada tried to get closer, but she had already strained herself enough. She slowed down to try and make it easier to think, but it helped in a different way. Rainbow Dash noticed her stop and flew towards her instead of away. 
Cicada started to charge up her horn, using as much energy she thought wouldn’t hurt her. As soon as Rainbow was close enough that it was impossible to dodge, the queen fired her attack. The pegasus started plummeting toward the ground. Cicada, who had been close enough that she had been hit by some of the spell herself, sped towards the falling mare. She stopped Rainbow before both of them could hit the ground. 
Realizing that her opponent was going to be knocked out for awhile, Cicada turned to where Spike was. Her eyes widened when she saw that even though Spike seemed to have doing well at first, Spike now seemed to be losing against these versions of his friends. Not wanting to see him hurt, Cicada created a portal taking her right next to Spike. The second she was through, the queen put up a shield covering both of them before expanding it to push the ponies away.
The three ponies focused on Cicada. She stood ready to fight before her fatigue got the best of her. The changeling crumpled to the ground causing Spike to run and check on her. “No! Get up! You can’t stop now!”
“Aww, lookie there. Your friend can’t help anymore.” Pinkamena laughed. “Too bad, it looked like she would have almost beaten us. But we would get our Empress in the end anyway.”
Spike glared at the pink pony. “No! She would have won! I can do it for her! She’s like how you all are back home! She helps others, like you throw your parties, and she helps the town, and she makes time for others when she can.” Spike yelled as he pointed to Pinkamena, Applejack and Rarity respectively.
When Spike finished, the ponies stepped back cautiously. He was surprised he had done so well at stopping them, but he hadn’t been trying to scare them. He couldn’t figure out what had spooked them until a dark grey hoof appear next to him. Spike looked up to see Cicada was up again.
“You are endangering all of Equestria. I should put you in the dungeon with your Empress. Still, from what I have seen, I believe you should get your pegasus friend over there and leave. You have seen what I can do alone, but I have more powers than you have seen me use today. Nymph was able to win back control of this country and I am more powerful than that. How could you compete!”
The ponies looked in fear at the queen. Her voice was deeper, most likely to seem more threatening, but the changeling was starting to smoke, and her eyes had the faintest glow. The ponies quickly ran to grab Rainbow and left.
Cicada looked at Spike and asked him to run back to the castle and get someling to come and find her. Spike asked why he needed to do that and was answered by Cicada falling again to the ground.



The first thing Cicada felt as she woke up was how sore she was. The queen was in her room. A few pillows were propping her up enough to see various changelings walking around nearby. One seemed to be carrying something on a tray and was heading across the room when he tripped and the tray started to fall.
Cicada tried to use her own magic to save it, but it only lasted a second before the queen had to stop from pain shooting up her horn. A few changelings noticed Cicada’s attempt at saving the tray and went over to her.
“Your highness… your highness!  Please respond!” One exclaimed.
Cicada looked at the changeling for a second before saying something. It hurt a little to speak, but mainly because she was sore just about everywhere.
“Please rest my queen.  Do not overexert yourself.”  Another one of the changelings in the group said.
Cicada glanced upon the concerned frowns of all the changelings surrounding her.  She let out a weak smile. 
“What, are you talking about? I feel fine.” Cicada lied. Still, she couldn’t let them get worried. Her sis- Nymph wasn’t in a good position to be ruling at the time, and with the ponies left out in Equestria most likely planning to get Sparkle out or at least attack to claim the castle again, she couldn’t afford to just be lying around.
One of the changelings scowled and looked upon Cicada with eyes filled with a mixture and worry.
“You are not alright! You collapsed on the ground and can barely breathe!  Please, let us handle the situation from here.  I don’t want to see you perish after you have returned to us!”  The changeling pleaded with a choked voice.
Cicada shook her head. Yes, she may not be able to use magic right now, and she may be sore, but there was too much she needed to do. She was just one changeling and it wouldn’t kill her if she left. But if she stayed, other changelings might perish instead.
Another changeling approached Cicada with a slow and patient step.  He ducked down towards his queen’s level with a gravity of uncertainty pulling him towards her.  His eyes began cracking with tears.
“Why?  Why do you wish to put yourself through further abuse?  It pains us to see you suffering.” Clasping his front hooves around Cicada’s left hoof, he asked with a soft voice.
“Look, we are in a dangerous time, others have died protecting us and if needed, I’ll do the same. Still, I won’t do that much, I just need to take care of a few loose ends.” Cicada started to get out of her bed. She shakily took a few steps before she felt dizzy and weak.
The changelings around her jolted upwards and shrieked in panic.  Two changelings brought their front hooves around Cicada’s shoulders, supporting her weight and preventing her from falling.
“Easy my queen.”  One of the changelings said with a hushed voice.
“You have been in bed for a while.  You need time to readjust your muscles.”  Another of the changelings warned.
“I-I’m fine.” Cicada tried to tell them. “I-I just need something to eat, that’s all. And maybe a little to drink.”
“We would be glad to provide you with what you need my queen.  However, be aware that you are walking in a weakened state.”  A changeling stated.
“I get that!” Cicada shouted, before she stormed out of the room. The queen walked quickly at first. She tried flying, but her wings felt stiff. She wanted to make a portal away, but she knew magic would be hard to use right then. As Cicada brisked through the hallway her mind started to wander. What had happened? How had she gotten in this condition? Yes, straining one’s magic could be dangerous, but parts of this didn’t fall under the line of effects from using too much magic.
Last thing she could remember before passing out was creating a quick forcefield around Spike to- Spike! She had forgotten about him. The queen wanted to race back to the bedroom and ask the changelings there where he was, but she didn’t want to be near them again. Yeah, they were her subjects, but she wasn’t a fan of the ones who treated royals like gods and goddesses. 
That last thought made her give a small laugh, like there was something that was funny and her brain wasn’t telling itself why. Shaking her head, Cicada started running again to find someling who knew where Spike was. A few times she tried to use her magic in a panic, only to be met with a headache. 
The queen felt like crying. Because of everything that had happened to her, Spike felt like the only true friend she had left. And now there was a chance she had lost him as well. She didn’t even get him back to his own home. What kind of friend let that happen? All she had left was Lila and currently she was still regenerating.
“I suck at being a ruler…” Cicada blamed herself under her breath. “I did barely anything and when I did, it went wrong.” 
The changeling would have said more when something hit her like a brick. She had woken up in a bedroom. Not her own since Nymph was locked up in there, but a bedroom nonetheless. She had been injured and not in the infirmary. If Spike was alive, he could be there.
Briefly she cursed, wishing there were a map for this castle, but wishing for one would do nothing. It took her half an hour, but eventually Cicada found the way to the infirmary.
“Ah, hello Queen Cicada. May I ask what you are here?” Asked a changeling.
The queen told him something she never thought she would say. “Shut it! Tell me if the dragon is here and if I ever hear another changeling fawn over me being the queen again, I may end up making it a rule for that not to happen!”
The changeling was surprised. He wanted to say something and ask if everything was okay, but he knew better. “S-second room on the right.”
Cicada gave him a quick nod and ran straight for the room. She looked inside and there on a bed, being cared by for a few changelings, was a purple and green dragon. The queen gave such a large sigh of relief that everyone in the room turned to look at her. 
“You’re out of bed?” one changeling asked.
“Yeah…” The queen answered back, suddenly letting all the pain and exhaustion catch up to her. The room spun for a few seconds, obvious enough to the doctors that a few of them pulled her over to an empty bed. They quickly moved away from Spike’s, making it clear that they were afraid he might end up setting something on fire.
Cicada just laid back in the bed she was given. She hadn’t let him get killed. Her shield worked and saved them both. But wait… that wouldn’t have been enough to scare the ambassadors. So how did it happen? The changeling turned her head to look at Spike. Only he knew the answer, so they were going to need to talk as soon as possible.