Conquest

by Blaze Spectrum

Chapter Three: Camp Exposed

It took longer than they expected to come in contact with any hostiles. Mainly due to larger groups travelling about. The chances of running into a group was about the same as before, only each posed a larger threat. But initially, they were still convinced that they'd walk into one of them. But time took its toll. They became less convinced that they would have spears brought to their necks at the next turn of foliage, and their guard dropped. They didn't even bother with a disguise.

And so, once they ran into Royal Guards, they were anything but ready.

This group was larger than eight ponies. Every one of those eight ponies had spears, but there was an extra one. His armor was decorative even by Royal Guard standards. There was more purple than gold for the outer plating. Even though his spear was normal, the armor was enough to mark him out as the leader.

And the three changelings suspected that. And were far from happy that they couldn't do anything to pick him off. They were even less happy to see a head turn around to the noise they made and spot them.

"I've spotted something!" His report made every other head turn towards him, which then tried to see what he did. And it wasn't difficult.

Every single spear was brought up. The three knew that they would be doomed if they tried to engage now. They were not only outnumbered three to one, they also no longer possessed the element of surprise anymore. So there was only one option that offered the lowest chance of being impaled. Escape.

As they bolted around, the group hesitated, as if they were expecting to be attacked. Then, the pony who was probably the leader gave a command that only strengthened that assumption, "What are you waiting for? After them!"

Soon after, the changelings heard nine screams behind them, and the unsynchronized sound of hooves pounding into the soil. They almost visually jumped, and picked up the pace.

They assumed that it would have been easy to lose the pack. The group probably wasn't going to leave anypony behind, and their armor and equipment would hold them down. But they were more than a little determined to not lose the trio.

Once the changelings came near the camp, they looked back, and found that they had put some distance between them and their pursuers. But they were still on their tail, and resembled an angry mudslide ravaging the land.

Thorax decided to use up some of his remaining breath, "You think we should stay here and hold them off?"

"Don't waste your breath!" Chitin scolded, neglecting an answer.

"Do you want to die?!" Tarsus thought that ended the conversation entirely. Unfortunately, Thorax didn't think so.

"But we'll lead them right into the camp!"

The wordless atmosphere was restored temporarily, as the two other changelings weighed the options. They could take a larger risk on their own lives, and postpone the discovery of the camp. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't make a large difference, and the changelings could always get help from their comrades, which spread the risk out more. But the guilt would weigh more heavily if the camp was obliterated.

In the time they took to decide which one was better, which was prolonged by having to shake off pursuers, the camp was already in sight. They knew that they had set themselves up for the latter option, so they barreled onward. A quick glance behind would have shown that the Royal Guards knew that they had found a jackpot. The group of nine seemed to hesitate a little as they realized they would be outnumbered, but that didn't stop them.

The camp had also come to life. Changelings turned around corners, to see what had come. They weren't pleased to see armed ponies charging, and were more than a little annoyed at the fact that they seemed to be led by three changelings. But in general, they knew what had to be done. They were encouraged to fight when they realize that the Royal Guards had hesitated a second time upon seeing a few dozen heads pointed in their direction.

About ten seconds later, the entire camp had been roused, and the first of the changelings came forward to create a fray.

---

Shining Armor shook his head.

Sure, his group had discovered a camp, which reinforced his belief that the Queen had decided to band them together again. However, it was unlikely that the changelings living in it would give them the chance to get the word out. But still, he did have several tricks that he could play.

"I want all-round defense! Form up!" He knew that offensive tactics weren't going to work out as of now.

Their semi-paralyzed state seemed to subside as the team formed a circle, which he joined. He didn't want to give off too much of an impression of how his elimination would impact the Royal Guard. But he was putting himself at reasonable risk, but not much with the plans he had. He hardly had any action during the Siege Of Canterlot and hoped he wasn't too rusty for combat. He especially hoped that he was good enough for defensive spells.

As the nearest group came closer, his breathing became more irregular, and quicker. He felt like he had swallowed a stone and was trying to digest it. This was it. Combat. Everything he'd trained for. It was real now. But the back of his mind reassured him that he would be stupid if he didn't feel nervous. After realizing that he hadn't dared to blink, he allowed himself the luxury of it.

Once he opened his eyes, he saw a changeling flying through the air at him. He instinctively raised his spear to wait for the changeling to come down and impale itself. The creature realized what was coming, and tried to use his wings to make a few course corrections. But his speed was too great to avoid danger entirely, and a gash had cut open his exoskeleton on his side.

Shining Armor flinched at the presence of pale yellowish green blood staining his hoof, but drew in a deep breath, and brought his spear down on the incapacitated changeling.

However, by then, changelings had began to attack in masses, and nopony had time to give much more than one quick thrust with only enough force to penetrate exoskeletons slightly. They drew a decent amount of blood, but it didn't have much of an effect. The circle barely held up against the onslaught, and they knew that they weren't going to be able to inflict much killing blows in the chaos.

He took a second to pause, and raised up a shield. He strained slightly, as it had been a while since he had maintained a shield by himself. But he was able to raise it up quickly and maintaining it wasn't as hard as putting it up. The changelings that had tried to come in up close and personal were rebounded backwards. He looked around at his team. Minimal injuries. A scratch on a pegasus' foreleg, and a unicorn with a spot that probably would be bruised. Nothing that would slow them down much.

The dull thunks of the changelings trying to break through almost made him want to laugh. There were over ten times less of them, and he made sure that this shield was extra strong. It wasn't going to deplete his stamina much due to the fact that his shield wasn't enveloping a city. While the shield would break in at most half a minute if it was left alone, a little bit of magic expended to repair it would reset their progress.

He feigned a yawn while watching several changelings collapse from exhaustion. It agitated those who were still bashing, which made them hit harder. That proved to be a mistake. It wasn't long before a dozen or so changelings were laid on the ground. The ones who were too late to be able to attack decided to not attack, after realizing that they would only waste energy.

He decided to stop feeding energy to the shield. Holding off the onslaught had slightly winded him, and keeping it up wouldn't help. And the hesitating changelings would make sure that he would have time to get energy back. The shield could stand on its own for a while, but that wasn't what he wanted. The dome-shaped magenta bubble dissipated from the top to bottom, fading away to a few flickers which disappeared as soon as they came.

The changelings around the group tried to get up to fight, but their fatigue weighed them down. The full consequences of their brashness came down on them as spears were brought down on them.

The changelings which hadn't yet gotten involved became angry, and forgetting about the shield, lunged forward. Shining Armor summoned a shield momentarily to bounce them away. A few changelings were killed before they had exited the range of the spears.

After that, the changelings began to fear. They began to back off. But they seemed to be gravitating towards a small, shabby structure. And that was where the Queen lay.

It confirmed his earlier suspicions, and he ordered his unit to head towards the structure.

---

Queen Chrysalis had watched the battle before it began. And she wasn't exactly enjoying herself. It had been a while since she watched her swarm decimate her enemies, and she was being denied the opportunity of seeing such. She had to bottle up her anger so that she didn't join the fray herself. No, she wasn't strong enough for that. She had tried sending scouts out to collect love and send some to her, but only half of them came back, and most of them were for the camp, not her.

When the team led by the pony which she once deceived marched forward, she began to feel some fear. She watched how easily he fended off a dozen of her children, and that made sure that she wasn't a target out of the question. While her changelings would fight for her to the very end, they might not be good enough. And their abilities to transform would be useless. They were sure to notice if one of their comrades fell, and was replaced by an impostor. The chances that one of them could already be one was remote.

Somewhere higher up in the foliage, there was a twang, and an arrow embedded itself in a unicorn's crest. He wasn't able to yell, but the sound of his corpse thumping the grass alerted the others. Shining Armor turned around, saw an arrow's fletching poking out of one of his unicorns, and instinctively looked for an archer. When another twang sounded, he raised a shield just in time to stop the arrow.

Cracks spread out like a cobweb out of the point of impact, and the angle convinced him that it was aimed towards him. He quickly repaired the shield in time for another arrow to hit it, in roughly the same spot. Whoever was up there, they wanted to kill him.

He waited for another arrow to come, but none came. The archer probably realized that he would deplete his supply of arrows before Shining Armor would deplete his magical supply.

But it put the two sides at a stalemate. If he wanted to attack, then he'd have to stop powering the shield, and put it down. But that would leave the archer open to put an arrow in him, and judging by the accuracy of the three shots that the archer took, the next one wouldn't miss. It confused him that the changelings could have such a proficient archer, but it was interesting news. The chance of it being a rogue Royal Guard was next to nothing. Escape was an option that was open, though. Grunting loudly, he decided that running would be the best option. He knew what he needed to, after all.

He yelled, "Retreat!" When his unit hesitated, he glared, and they began to fall back. Two dozen changelings went after them upon the Queen's command. But they were stopped cold by another voice.

"Leave them."

Author's Note:

I wanted to include more of a running commentary from when I originally wrote these chapters. As you can see from some of the comments below, this chapter was rewritten from what it was originally, where the changeling camp survives a direct incursion from Shining Armor and a team of guardsponies thanks to a stalemate between the infiltrator and Shining Armor (that is also only really improved by imperfect information and also Shining Armor's unwillingness to take an unnecessary risk, after all, they've exposed the camp now). I originally wrote a chapter where Shining Armor's unit takes serious losses from both the changelings and Hexapod, and the commenters rightfully claimed that this was excessive.

Later on in the plot, the infiltrator and Shining Armor will serve as foils to each other in terms of combat prowess, the unstoppable force versus the immovable object, so to speak. This chapter doesn't fully explore the true extent of either side's power and is just their first brush.

Comments

[lordofmyth]

stares blandly. so exactly how could they possibly kill off trained soldiers so easily when six untrained combatants easily defeat DOZENS of them?

also shining armor, could easily defend his unite without effort in the slightest. he is a master of protective magicks. he can create a barrier large enough to defend a small city. and he once held sombra at bay, if only for a short time.

[Blaze Spectrum]

4259955

Yeah, I'll need to fix that... I had a feeling that that chapter wasn't ready, I guess that was it. Should I rewrite that chapter to make sure that the Royal Guards are more effective? Sure, they did eventually lose in Canterlot because of numbers, but the changelings should have more casualites.

I think I'll just rewrite the fight... Nothing short of that will save it.

[lordofmyth]

4259959 think you need to remove shining armor. he is too powerful for a sneak attack to be effective against. he could simply block any attackers and make a run for it while shielding his men. perhaps even capturing a changeling while he does so.

best advice I can give is some philosophy I guess. something my English professor once said. narrative is the servant of the characters. basically you need to take into consideration the abiltiies and potential beahviors of characters you are writing.
put simply when you have a guy who spcializes in shields so powerful it is pretty sensible it could block a regal sister's magic blast, then you have an enemy that is immune to sneak attack.

don't have as much trouble with the sneak attack thing but it should be noted that the ponies have often shown to have the advantage if they are on guard to changelings. considering six untrained combatants ragdolled several dozen of them.......... then again they were all exceptional individuals and such.

story I am not entirely sure about. what does chrysalis expect to do if the regal sisters get involved? she could not possibly dsteal shining's love, meaning she would be a lesser force. and as they feed on love, that means that there is no way for her to logically retain enough power to be a threat to the sisters; she would 'digest' the energy.

[Lazy_]

4259998
For the first time, I agree with you. Shining Armor is too over powered.

[lordofmyth]

4268090 at the very least he is too powerful for lesser foes to handle even in numbers. if I were to guess he was trained to fend off more powerful beings and to prevent them from causing considerable damage till the regal ones came onto the scene to fight them. he was able to hold back sombra for a time after all, long enough for the mane six to escape harm.
would also think he would have more combative techniques too but his specialty is what is on his ass; protecting.

[Blaze Spectrum]

4268332

Yep. He's probably not the best at overrunning his foes, but he has to be one of the best at protection.

[lordofmyth]

quite a bit better i think. shining would not have been made the captain of the guard if he was incompetent after all.