//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: Trickster Priest // by Fresnor //------------------------------// “How can you say that!? With how it fills you up and warms you from the inside it is obviously better!” “Nonsense! The warm sticky liquid just oozing down the tall sides, the creamy topping, it is obvious that this is better!” The city of Canterlot was being invaded by changelings yet one part of the city had stalled out as those there paused to watch the argument of the duo. Xellos and Derpy had been arguing with each other for the past twenty minutes over something but none of the surrounding ponies knew what it was exactly. Many of the mares though had reddened faces as some of the things the two described sounded rather lewd without that bit of context context. Even the changelings that arrived into the area stopped to view the odd tableau between the two. “I tell you the pancakes from Flapjack's Emporium of Edible Delights are the best breakfast in Canterlot!” Xellos posed with an arm outstretched towards the eatery on one side of the street that the two were standing on. “Preposterous! That title belongs to the Bakery of Amazing Goodies and their fresh muffins!” Derpy stood on her hind legs and copied his pose as she pointed off in the opposite direction. A convenient gust of wind blew through the area as the surrounding crowd went silent before a collective sound of facehoofing was heard. With the source of their curiosity ending the ponies and changelings started to realize what they were standing next to and the ponies took off with the changelings giving chase. As one pair ran by from down the street Xellos raised an eyebrow before turning to his companion. “Weren't those your children?” With a gasp the pegasus took off after her daughters leaving Xellos to stand there looking amused after the pegasus. He found her to be much like Fluttershy in many ways yet she lacked the extreme sense of fear that the yellow mare gave off which made her bearable to be around. Yet even with all those positive emotions within gray pegasus he felt no discomfort whatsoever by being around her, as if her lack of desire to hurt others somehow blocked the sensation. Looking around Xellos noticed that while he was standing there he had been surrounded by changelings who were watching him warily. Raising an eyebrow at them he looked around until he found what he believed to be the leader which was looking rather agitated. With a hiss the changeling leader sent out a command to its compatriots sending them all charging in at the monster. With a shake of his head Xellos disappeared right before they could hit him before reappearing in front of the commander. “You know the charge in all at once and become bunched up tactic rarely ever works. Especially with an EXPLOSION ARRAY thrown into the mix.” The group that tried to tackle him were engulfed in in an explosion as he chanted the words of power, stunning them all as the commander gaped at them. Before he could react he was also put down as Xellos' staff came down across its head. Looking around he took in the chaos going on in the city and soaked up the negative emotions caused by it. “It took them long enough to show up, though it's odd that I haven't seen any sign of the changelings over the past thousand years. Now what to do with my time until things come to a head.” Flying upwards to survey the city, he scanned the area for anything of interest until he needed to leave. He quickly spotted the wedding area, which only now had the Mane Six escaping from, but his attention was pulled away by a familiar feeling. “Hmm, those shouldn't be here. In fact I was sure that I checked the area for them already.” Flying off in the opposite direction of where the six mares were heading, he soon found an odd disturbance at odds with the rest of the city. While there were ponies running in panic from the area there were also changelings doing the same thing as well as they tried to escape from something. He soon found this something as found a swarm of brass demons surrounding a building marked with a red cross, though the size suggested more a clinic than a hospital. Before he could investigate why they where there one of the creatures came flying out of the door to the building followed by an orange blur. “Well now this is an interesting development.” He quickly identified the blur as Scootaloo while she proceeded to pummel her enemy with her magic encased front hooves before it collapsed from the assault. As she fell to all fours again to recover another one dove in from above but Spike was quickly there to use the filly as a jumping point to parry the attack away with his sword before unleashing his fire-breath to finish it off. As he landed a shout came out from the building drawing their attention. “Get back in here you two, another golem is up and moving and this time I think I got that enchantment right.” The two soon retreated into the building again yet when the brass demons tried to follow they were repelled as a stone stallion, shaped like Big Macintosh, barreled into them. As it fought off the attackers flare arrows rained down on it but were deflected by a light aura around it being emitted from a ruby in its back. On closer observation Xellos noticed pieces of other goleMacs scattered around the area and he assumed that those were failed attempts at giving them protection from the brass demon's spells. While the stone guardian protected the door, Xellos phased through the wall while remaining invisible to others. Inside he found Applebloom working with a pile of gems as she tried to bind a fire-repelling enchantment to them for the gathered guardsponies. In the back Sweetie Belle was working on healing those that had been brought in earlier while being assisted by the few staff members still in the building. There was even another golem watching over her while she worked as well while the building was slowly being fortified. Getting a closer look at the guards and Scootaloo he noticed that, while uninjured, they all were covered in soot from where they had received various burns and were healed. There was something else that caught his eye on the filly but before he could observe it more closely the entire entry was blown apart, sending the three younglings flying into the opposite wall and the guards all over. With a gasp Sweetie Belle ran over to her friends to try and assist them while Spike rose unsteadily to his feet to face the new threat. “I can't believe how incompetent you all are. I guess what they say is true, if you want something done right then do it yourself.” Spike was knocked back into the three fillies as the new threat appeared in front of them. As the smoke cleared the dragon's eyes settled on the shattered blade of his sword, all the way down to the hilt, and the four scythe-like legs behind it. Looking upwards his eyes moved from the bulbous lower body that was connected by a spine-like stem to a hunched upper body and bladed arms. “Now if you are done with this foolishness you are all going to be coming with me to see the master.” Frowning, Xellos brought an arm above his head and started forming a spear-shaped cone before he paused as something unexpected happened. As Spike slowly backed up into the fillies he looked around to see all the guards groaning in pain as they tried to defend themselves from the brass demons that were entering the building. Seeing that there was no help coming from them, and recognizing that his fire-breath would be worthless against the monster, his eyes closed as his grip tightened on the sword. “Please, something, anything. Please help us.” His prayers were granted as the sword in his grip started flickering before a beam of power erupted from where the blade used to be, impaling itself in the monster's head and sending it reeling in pain. “No! That sword! How could you have that?!” Spike stared in awe at the blade of light before him before his expression turned resolute as he turned to the monster. As he started to charge the reeling monster Applebloom recovered enough before pulling an opal from a nearby pouch and hurled it into the the opening of the building behind it. “Fire in the hole!” The gem bounced a couple times before it burst into a vortex of lights that swirled into a hemisphere around it. As the monster backed into it a called out in pain as his backside was pelted by the sparks of energy, while any brass demons that tried to pass through it were torn to shreds. By this time Spike was able to advance on the monster enough to unleash a vertical slash with his sword, destroying it and removing the largest threat to the ponies. Applebloom had been digging through her bags through all this before finally pulling out a stick that had a gem tied to the end of it which unleashed blasts of energy when she pointed at the demons in the building. “So, Gorun Nova. I can't believe I didn't notice that when he found it. And Applebloom storing a Raza Clover in a gem and enchanting another to fire Elmekia Lances? She's really coming along well with that.” Seeing as things were being handled well here he prepared to leave before one final sight caused him to smile. Through all that chaos the three fillies had earned their cutie marks of a shield containing the colors of their friend's coats, though slightly paler, as well as another more vibrant object. Applebloom's was a wand with an apple-shaped ruby to top it crossed with a wrench to represent her abilities at artificing and enchanting. Sweetie Belle's was much simpler being a five pointed star with a small bell in the center representing her affinity for white magic by it's upwards pointing position as well as her musical abilities. Scootaloo's was a bit harder to identify through the soot all over her but the wings around it were easily identifiable and after a moment Xellos realized that encased in them was a dragon head wearing a helmet. The entire design reminded him much of the symbol used by Phil Strongarm's family and it fit well with how Scootaloo took to her the old ruler's daughter's fighting style along with her physical abilities. With a final smirk Xellos flew off, satisfied that the fillies and dragon were fine, looking for something else to entertain himself with. His decision was quickly made for him when he noticed the Bearers of Harmony being escorted back to the wedding hall by a large group of changelings. “Huh, I guess I was watching that for longer than I thought. Time to go see the main show of the evening.” He watched as things played out as he expected but since he was starting to get bored he decided to interrupt as Chrysalis finished singing. “Bravo! Bravo!” The changeling queen's head whipped around at his voice to stare at the figure leaning against the pod Celestia was in, clapping at her performance. As she realized just what she was looking at her eyes shrank to pinpricks as she began to internally panic. She was brought out of her state of shock when two of her subjects sped past her at the monster causing her to yell out in panic. “Not you, no! If you value your lives don't fight him!” Her words arrived too late as the figure blurred and she felt a breeze pass by her. Turning around she found Xellos crouched over her subjects with their heads in his hands at the center of a crater where they impacted the ground. She backed away towards the cocooned princess as he stood and slowly turned towards her while brushing at his shoulder. “I really have to applaud you on all your luck during this little incursion of yours up until now. I mean Princess Sunbutt there had so many hints that something was wrong yet she kept turning a blind eye.” vvvvvvvvvv “So Celly, anything interesting happening in the last few weeks since I've visited?” Xellos hung down from the chandelier in one of the various sitting rooms that were scattered around the castle. The princess had to sigh at being interrupted during a quiet tea time she was holding with her niece by the monster though didn't let anything else show. “Good evening, Xellos. Other than the preparations for my niece's wedding coming up everything has been fine. If anything changes that needs your assistance then I will let you know.” Xellos could tell that he wasn't wanted there as he flips down and lands next to the younger princess who flinches away as he lands. “Huh, I would have thought that there was something going on considering the shield around the city. But if you say there is nothing then there must not by anything, so I guess I can take this time to visit Luna then.” He patted Princess Cadance on the head, causing her to growl at him, before leaving the two annoyed mares to their tea. ^^^^^^^^^^ “I mean you would think that she would have realized that something was wrong when I stayed in that room for longer than a few seconds and even touched you. By the way, good job on toning down Princess Pink's overwhelming positive energy, she's actually bearable now that she isn't just radiating love all over the place.” Princess Celestia's eyes widened as she remembered that moment before wincing at being so blind to all the clues that were thrust into her face. Chrysalis kept backing away from him until her rear bumped up into the sun princess' prison. “Just why are you here monster? There shouldn't be anything here for you.” The changeling queen's voice shook slightly as her fear showed through, much to the shock of many of the observers. Xellos just chuckled before he gestured with his hand to the chaos outside of the building. “That is where you are wrong, and is in fact your biggest mistake from all of this. Your kind is supposed to feed off of love, yet what love is there during a war? Oh, you may have been able to defeat Sunbutt over there with your power stolen from a few ponies but any monster would easily defeat you after all this. It's ironic that a race that feeds off of love instead spreads fear, anger, and hatred which is exactly what the monster race feeds off of.” Chrysalis' eyes widen in realization of what she had done and just how much further out of her league she was against the monster. Instead of facing up to him she whirled to glare at the princess behind her. “You! What were you thinking allowing something like that thing in your kingdom!? Don't you know what they are capable of and what they will do!? What they've done to me and my people!?” The princess would have flinched back at the anger directed at her though something tickled at her mind at that moment. The same thing was happening with Xellos as something in the queen's voice had changed and a soon realized that it was very familiar to him. After gesturing at Twilight and pointing towards the pink princess, he vanished before reappearing right behind Chrysalis before leaning down to her ear and whispering causing her to freeze. “Well now, isn't this an interesting development. I had thought that he had killed you all those years ago, but to find you like this? Luckily for you I now have a good reason for staying out of this but I do have a message for you before I go. It shall be returning soon along with him. So you might want to rethink your priorities, Empress Amore.” The eyes of both royals widened at the information and Celestia even gasped at the name as her eyes darted to the changeling. Xellos took the time given by their shock to disappear on them though the changeling still turned to try and stop him. “Wait! What do you mean!? Is it really-!?” Queen Chrysalis' eyes widened as she noticed a wall of pink energy building up around the royal couple before it exploded away from them. Before she had time to react, her and her kind were sent hurtling out of the city, ending the invasion. While the others celebrated and started to clean up the damage caused by the attack, Celestia was staring off after the queen. “Could it really be her? And did he really say what I think he said?” Blinking a few tears away the princess turned to a nearby guard and gave him some orders to pass along to another. No matter what was going on, she had things to prepare.