To Save a King

by Blackdrag-rose

0: War Game

The sky flashed and the wing blowed as it began to rain on the troops. But these weren't any ordinary troops. No, these were Changeling soldiers, the same Changelings who had invaded Canterlot over two years ago and had nearly brought Equestria down a year before when their old Queen tried to tame the power of one particular unicorn. Their new Queen was married to that same unicorn turned Alicorn and was their King.

Plus he had been invited to join the four other Princesses in what they called a War Game, open combat between Celestia's Solar Guard, Luna's Lunar Guard, Cadence's Crystal Guard, and Twilight's Unicorn Guard. Now there was a fifth faction, King Rocket Sky's Changeling Guard, the same guard that was currently lying in wait for the time to strike. They were somewhere between Canterlot, Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, and the Changeling Empire, somewhere like the Everfree Forest, but at the same time it wasn't like it.

The rules were simple really; it was all out war between the five factions and whichever one was left standing at the end would be declared the victor. The Changelings were only allowed to remain in their true form if they sided with their King and Queen, but if they choose to serve another ruler it was not held against them. Some wanted to experience what it was like following the other rulers around and did so without really worrying. And the other rule was that a faction could ally themselves with another faction, which would end once the other factions were dealt with.

One Changeling, however, decided to fight alongside her brothers and sisters in her alternate form, a white pegasus that resembled Pinkie Pie. Except that her name was Surprise and she enjoyed pulling pranks on ponies, regardless of what type of ponies they happened to be. In her camp there were four other Changelings, one of them was fairly new to the War Game rules and seemed to enjoy the exercise.

"How long do you think we have until they find our location," that particular Changeling asked, his eyes scanning the darkened area around their camp.

"Who knows Sucker Punch," one of the other three replied, hoofing the ground as he looked up at the nervous Changeling, "If they were close to us then they would have crossed Surprise's little surprise she had prepared for them. Though I would like to kick Celestia's flank at this for once, but she's got that stallion who seems to know our movements ahead of time. What was his name?"

"Inner Wisdom?" the fourth offered, itching a spot on her leg that seemed to be bugging her.

"That's right," the third said, "She's got this Wisdom using some sort of Orb and his mind, which is allowing him to best us at every turn. Then there's Cadence, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, whose using a unicorn called Tick Tock to blast our eardrums with his 'music'. And finally we have Luna, using the innocent Peachy Keen to spread nightmares to her enemies while we sleep."

"Yeah, then we got the Magical Princess Twilight blasting us to sleep all the time," the last one yawned, "Which means that we lose no matter what. I wonder why the King and Queen haven't bested the Princesses yet."

"Its a four to one against the King," Surprise said, her ears twitching as she listened for any commands from the Queen, "Usually they knock her out first and tackle our King together, mostly due to the fact their scared of the power that courses through his veins. This time they're hoping to convince our King to surrender, but when he refuses total chaos will break out. Be ready for that time."

"I'm telling you Celestia for the last time," Discord, the God of Chaos, said to the Alicorn mare of the Sun, "He will not bow his knee to you and the rest of the 'Royal Family'. It is within his nature to stand up and fight against you all, despite the fact that the odds are stacked against his faction."

"Oh do be quiet Discord," a voice said as Princess Luna, fully decked out in armor that made her resemble Nightmare Moon, landed beside her golden armored sister, "We already knew that King Rocket Sky would not bow to the combined might of all four factions, even if we aren't even allied against him yet. But what he doesn't know can't harm us."

"Sometimes trickery is a necessary," Celestia sighed, drawing the saber that she had attached to her side, "but at a time were we fight against the Changelings we must be prepared for any trickery of their own."

Attack my Changelings, their Queen sent, take them down.

Surprise smiled as her group got the message and some poor pony walked right into the trap she had set up not even an hour ago. It was an explosive trap that would paralyze whoever had walked into it.

"CHARGE," Surprise shouted, flying forward as she bashed into a member of Cadence's Crystal Guard, "Show no mercy."

It was all out war as Surprise beat down her foe and the full force of the Changelings, all four thousand of them, emerged from the trees and began blasting into the enemy forces. That was her strategy until a red coated pegasus wearing what looked like a monks robe appeared before her with a wooden staff hanging on his back. She knew who it was, it was that Inner Wisdom that the rest of her squad had been talking about earlier.

"You will come peacefully," the stallion said, staring into her eyes, "and the rest of the army shall fall soon after."

"Go buck yourself," Surprise shouted, flexing her wings and exposing her wing blades, "If you think you are so tough then fight me right here."

"Gladly then," Wisdom said, rushing right at her before she had time to even move herself.

Surprise swung her wings and barely missed the stallion as he leapt into the air and then slammed his staff into the back on her head. She stumbled and faced the stallion, flipping over and slamming her back hooves into his chest, hitting his staff instead. He flipped and hit her again, this time forcing her to the ground and forcing her to get back up. As much as she wanted to best the stallion she knew that she was no match for the master tactician that Wisdom was.

"Dubstep Cannon," a voice shouted as a light brown unicorn stallion appeared, holding what looked like an improved version of Pinkie Pie's party cannon, and unleashed a type of music that hurt the ears of his foes. He grinned as Changelings cowered before him and his cannon, but he continued on and kept his cannon ready as he blasted those who opposed Princess Cadence.

"Ah, there's my friend Tick," Wisdom commented, watching his friend go by without noticing him, "Now, where did Peachy run off to this time?"

"Your surrounded mare," a Changeling happily said as ten Changelings surrounded a sherbert coated earth pony wearing what looked like a miniature set of Nightmare Moon's armor, "You might as well surrender if you know what's good for you."

Peachy Keen gave them a small smile and darkness surrounded her, covering her as she vanished into the surrounding area. Before the Changelings could move her darkness swept through their ranks, forcing those it hit to succumb to the nightmares that plagued their minds. Many of them screamed in terror while others knocked themselves out just so they could get away from the thoughts that plagued their minds. Once the immediate area had been cleared the darkness reformed and Peachy stepped out, smiling to herself as she searched for more ponies to terrorize.

"Give up Rocket Sky," Twilight Sparkle, dressed up like a battlemage, said as she landed behind the silver armored stallion who led the Changelings, "Your army is falling to pieces around you. It is only a matter of time before the rest of the Royal Family arrives to finish you and your army off."

"Take out the commander and the faction loses," Rocket recited from the rules he had been told before the first war game, "I'm sorry Twilight, but I won't be standing down today."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Twilight said, a beam of moon energy blowing past her and headed straight for the stallion, who noticed and leapt out of the way.

"He's gotten better," Luna commented, quickly landing for a second, "but not good enough."

Luna flew after the stallion, swinging what looked like one of Wisdom's staff with a curved blade on the end right for the stallion's unprotected wing. Rocket maneuvered out of the way and blasted Luna's side with a spell designed to stun her, but her armor made her immune to such spells. She grinned and began a barrage of spells that would eventually wear down her foe to the point where she could force him to surrender.

Rocket spun around and flew around the sky, letting the rain drops hit his face as he attempted to dodge all the spells that Luna had sent his way. Unfortunately as he attempted to dodge the gigantic barrage of spells several of them hit his armor, exploding on impact and blasting him out of the sky. The collective spells blew his armor to pieces and bruised his body, but as he fell he could tell that Luna was smirking to herself.

He landed hard and Luna appeared above him, holding her weapon against his neck, making it hard for him to move without her cutting into his neck.

"You might as well surrender," Luna said, "because you have lost this round my friend."

"How about you surrender?" Rocket asked, a sword appearing right in front of Luna's exposed neck and a couple more appearing around her, "I'm not going to surrender this time."

"You might as well do that anyway," said a voice as Celestia and Cadence appeared, though he noticed that all the Alicorn's horns were primed to blast him, "You take my sister down and we take you down. Either we do this the easy way or the hard way."

Rocket growled and tossed the weapons into the ground, his annoyance showing. It was always the same, he'd get ganged up on and be forced to lose the game anyway.

"Fine," he said, "You win. The Changelings will withdraw...again."