Angels and Demons 3: Winds of Destiny

by lunabrony

The Night that Ends at Last

Sarah couldn't quite remember what had happened, only that she had never gotten to feed. She remembered Star Burst being brought in, drooling, feeling powerfully hungry. She remembered being overcome by emotion and instinct, and then there had only been blackness. Marenaris later explained to her that she had attacked Star Burst, and as a consequence had not been allowed to feed until she'd gotten herself more under control.

Project Penumbra was reaching its deadline, a deadline which had moved closer every time new information poured in about changeling movements. Whatever they were planning to do, confirmed changelings living undercover as ponies were leaving towns and moving an undisclosed location in the Everfree forest. Which meant that soon they would be quitting operations in this part of Equestria, so the timeslot for inserting agent Umbra into their ranks was getting ever more narrow.

Sarah, codename Umbra, was finally getting into the swing of her new abilities. Instinct was another matter. She could climb on walls, and hang from rafters. It was no trouble for her to speak now, though they weren't sure yet whether changelings had a language of their own. A possible way to deal with this, if she couldn't learn it during the mission, would be to have her pretend being a changeling who had been undercover so deeply and for so long that she had forgotten her mother tongue. The training sessions became harder. All the tests required getting a team through some exercises, with her giving the commands. Charging on ahead on her own didn't work, and barking orders left and right didn't work either. The exercises were varying shades of unfairness, and the odds were always stacked against her. Yet Marenaris had the greatest confidence that she would eventually beat it. She had gotten better... but she was still no where near being a competent leader.

Her wings finished growing in during that month. Large wispy silk wings with a few unaesthetic placed holes, like most of her legs. The magic of them wasn't the same as that of pegasi, but it would still allow her to fly. First hovering, and finally she had done manouvers in the underground facility, trying to keep up with Marenaris who's batlike wings gave her a surprising agility. Flight was everything Roll and Quick had gushed and dreamed about, everything her mother had admitted in weak moments, and more. There was nothing to compare it to. No matter how bad your day had been, if you got to fly by the end of it all other cares seemed to melt away. She could be poor, without a dime or any honour to her name, but if she could still fly she wouldn't have cared for anything.

But this mission wasn't about flying. There were darker aspects of her changes. She was a changeling now. And changelings didn't live off bread alone. It was true what had been said, nothing really sprang out of her anymore. She was still bright and creative, but it was hard to think of an original idea that she hadn't already thought of once, or been trained in. If she didn't feed, her ability to be independent dropped. And she was whatever she fed on. When she feed from a unicorn, she would have an unusually sharp mind and magic come so much more easily to her. And the feeding itself... it felt disturbingly good. It was an instinct. A need. When her face got close to the subjects she could sense their emotions, their fears, their loathing of this, and behind that, the good memories... a father reaching down giving his favorite filly a nuzzle, or somepony's first time flying, the excitement of when a new recruit graduated from the academy. She felt them as if they were her own, soaked in their triumphs, their loves, their passions. Her face would part from them, when she stepped back, they'd look drained and tired. Eventually they would recover, a fact that Sarah had to be reassured of several times, and eventually the high she felt afterwards would disappear. They did constant personality tests to see if she had changed noticably, so far nothing had changed permanently.

Sarah enjoyed flying, although most of it was just the thrill of being able to do something that she'd always been told she couldn't. She had been trained in the flight paths of a pegasus for her wings, and trained in the basic usage of her horn for her unicorn powers. She wasn't technically an alicorn, heck, she wasn't even technically a pony. Most of her training had been on camouflage, integration and interrogation techniques. She rarely spoke of her family, of Silver even less.

She did well when she was just on her own. The camouflage magic which the changelings used to disguise themselves was cracked. Eventually she learned just about everything that could possibly be known about the changelings, especially from the invasion of Canterlot during the royal wedding ceremony. Yet she still could not get her team through enough tests to pass. Eventually she recieved a letter from her father. It was short

"Your mother knows. She wasn't happy. I'm trying to get back, so I can monitor the situation and get you out. We might see each other eventually." That was it. That's all the letter Umbra levitated in front of her said. It bore his signature. The door to her room opened. It was Marenaris, looking a bit less formal than she used to, wearing a scowl. Someone had obviously interfered with her plans. Sarah saluted as her instructor entered, immediately taking on a rigid posture.

"They've moved the deadline two weeks back, you're going in tomorrow." A bottle of strong cider was carried on her wings. "I okayed your mission, but you're not ready. I don't think I could have gotten you ready through training even if I had four months." She wrapped her lips around the cider bottle and took a huge swig, putting it back on the table. Oddly enough she didn't look disappointed in Sarah, she looked... as if she was working herself up to something. "Oh... at ease soldier."

Sarah cracked a warm smile. Angel was extremely persuasive, if anyone could get her out, it was her mother. But her smile faded at that thought. Wait, no! She didn't WANT to get out! She instructed several of her guards to be on the lookout for her mother, and to warn her immediately if she was spotted. She loved her dearly, but wasn't about to back out of this. Sarah relaxed, and fell to ease. "I AM ready." She said confidently. "Anything you want me to do, I can do!" Her several failed tests said otherwise, but her confidence was admirable.

"Oh stick a sock in it, you couldn't lead a mule to water… no offence Guff." "None taken." A mule said in the hallway as he pushed a trolley. Marenaris closed the door.. and then locked it. "You don't know how to get your followers to respect you, or care enough about them to know who has trouble with what." She took the bottle again and took another swig. Her breath smelled from it and she didn't look too steady on her hooves. Some light entered this little room from the outside, a vent in the ceiling led outside. Some moonlight fell into the room. Marenaris looked out along it. "You'd mess it up and get yourself..." She held back a burp. "Get yourself and other ponies into a lot of trouble you can't fix afterwards."

Sarah had been trained to take in everything, and question anything that seemed out of the ordinary. She paused and watched the mule for a moment. She'd never seen him before, and he seemed suspiciously close to the top-secret training facility. She made a note and whispered to a guard, asking if he had clearance. As for Marenaris, Sarah frowned, and shook her head in disapproval. "Why are you drinking? Do I disappoint you THAT much that you have to indulge in trivial addictions?"

Marenaris closed and locked the door, and threw the bottle into the corner. Drunk as she was she could still formidable, and she stared down the former pony. "You don't disappoint me, you're exactly what I picked out: Smart, fast, a little bit ruthless though you're not half as much as you think you are. What you don't have is any practical sense." She prodded Sarah's chest with her hoof. "And that's no surprise, it takes months and months of training to develop the basics, and then a year of field work to hone it. Your father was crazy, he couldn't have had terribly high hopes that this project would work, whoever he sent was likely to be discovered soon." She gritted her teeth. "But I won't let that happen. I can think of some original tricks as well. You don't have combat experience, and you don't have an intuitive sense of which actions are tactically dangerous... I do. And you can take them from me now... changeling." So that's why she had been drinking, working up a nerve to let Sarah feed off her talents, but it didn't answer why.

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "I will, but you're going to stop drinking at once. If I see you drunk again, I'm going to find Rain Cloud and Blitz and tell them all about the program they applied for." She threatened. It was a mostly empty threat, but Marenaris needed to know that her little Changeling had the guts to fight back. "You can threaten to wipe my memory, but we both know you won't. I'm all you have. Without me, this program is dead." She cracked a wry smile. And with that, she began to feed.

There was no need for cliche feeding techniques such as biting Marenareis' neck or drinking her blood. It was far cleaner than that. Instead she simply focused her energy on Marenaris, and the effect was similar to that of a dementor. Thoughts and energies began to spiral outward from her instructors forehead, funneling into Sarah's horn. Feeding was instinctual and easy, more so than using magic was. The problem wasn't starting. It was stopping.

Each pony was a smorgasbord of little victories, passions and loves. On top of Marenaris cider addled mind lay a canvas of disgust and fear, and defiant anger. Diving beneath this glazing was the mind of her. Sarah bit into the proud feeling Marenaris had felt seeing her well groomed unit of lunar guards move as one. Her little pride an happiness in each of their accomplishments. How far she would go to get everyone of them through to the end, no matter the task at hand.. and then... Luna. Marenaris had been new to command when the queen of the night had returned. With a fast beating heart and throbbing passion she had pledged herself to the Nightmare, taking part in ousting and overthrowing Celestia. But that was not the bitter mistake she had made. And Sarah saw it all.

Marenaris was leading her strike team through the Everfree forest. They hadn't been given any orders, except to make sure that Celestia wouldn't escape and they had failed. Time to strike first and independently, before the damage would be total. Velvet, and Swift were scouting ahead, and the rest of her ponies were lying scattered in shadow, watching the skies hidden. It took hours, but she was the first to spot them. An indigo blue hue and bright white light. Lifting magnifying goggles to her she saw her queen barely recognisable, weakened, flying ahead of the princess of the sun. She blew a whistle.

"Lunar guards to me, protect the queen!"

As one they lifted from the ground and attacked. She went directly for Celestia, hitting hard and hitting fast. Taking the formidable alicorn by surprise. It would give the others time to extract the queen and take her to safety. Ramming her head into Celestia's side, she bit the princess in the wing and forced her downward in a spiral.

"What is the meaning of this?" Celestia had yelled in defiance when they had tumbled to the ground. A witty retort was in her throat but it was silenced when she was hit from behind. Dizzy and barely conscious she fell down on her side, watching the now reformed Luna lift up the princess.

There was no trial for them. Effectively Equestria had been in a state of war. Luna had summoned Marenaris; fellow guards who had partaken in the action. "Obeying the orders I gave thee as Nightmare Moon, I can forgive you of, even if you gave of yourselves willingly. But battling Celestia under thine own command, I can't. I wish Equestria to see me not as Nightmare Moon forgiven, but as Luna returneth. Marenaris, I hereby strip you of the rank of captain." With telekineses she ripped the emblems off Marenaris uniform. "You're no longer a lunar guard." The helmet was sent flying. "You and your ponies are hereby dishonorably discharged from Equestria's army. Take leave, and find something better to do."

And with that the alicorn turned their back on them. She looked around seeing the men and mares under her command looking defeated and hopeless. The pony whose likeness they bore and whom their forefather had served had rejected. And Marenaris swore she would find a way to prove her worth to Luna again. She would give her ponies something to fight for, one way or another.

Marenaris lay a shivering wreck at the holey hooves of Sarah, there wasn't much recognition in the eyes of the lunar guard and it would be a while before there would be again.

Changeling Sarah was overjoyed to discover this story. Marenaris was weak and brittle, and she could take advantage of that. She continued feeding off energy, far past the point of her own sustainability. She didn't know when she'd get a chance to feed again, and would take every bit she could get even if it left Marenaris a hollow, broken shell. Pony Sarah fought desperately, but it was hard to break away from the host, especially a host who had given herself so willingly. Sarah had only just begun to wrap Marenaris' hind leg in a glowing green plasma when the guards caught sight of her and dragged her away from her instructor. Feeding time was over.