24
The Changeling came to in a small, dark room. There was only one light source, a small lamp hanging from the ceiling. It tried to move, only to find itself tied to a chair. It’s horn ignited in a green glow as it tried to magic itself out, but all it received for its effort was a sharp burst of pain surging through its brain.
“Don’t even bother, it won’t work.”
The insectoid eyes darted and focused on the bipedal figure sitting across from it. Its head was hidden behind a metallic mask, the eyes a burning crimson. Not much more could be seen in the gloom. “You punched me,” the Changeling hissed.
“You can talk!” came the slightly muffled reply. Judging from the tone, the emotion-eater gathered that the stranger before it had not expected a reply.
“Of course I can talk,” the shape-shifter growled, a strange noise to hear from something so insect-like.
“This makes getting information out of you so much easier,” the masked figure said. The Changeling could feel the emotion, so minor, in the words and immediately tried to absorb them. The instinct to feed could be overbearingly powerful at times. To its dismay, there was no sustenance to be found.
“So, we can do this the easy way,” the biped stood up and straightened what the Changeling recognized to be clothing, “or the hard way. Your choice.”
“You think I will just give you answers?” it asked, disbelieving at the other’s naivete.
“Oh, I know you will,” it replied. “It’ll only be a question of how long it’ll take before I break you,” the biped said, leaning closer, its voice dripping with malice.
“You really think you can break me?” the Changeling replied confidently. It began to subtly probe the stranger’s mind with its magic, trying to read its emotions. To its dismay and horror, there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Where any other creature would have had a maelstrom of joy, sorrow, rage, anger and love, there was only a void, a vast nothingness that stretched to infinity. Where any other creature would have had emotion, there seemed to be none.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” the biped whispered. “I love a challenge.”
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
“It’s barely been ten minutes, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re stuck waiting here for two hours.”
The two guards guarding the small room, one in golden armour and the other in dusky purple, were not acting very professionally. It was hard to blame them, though. The room wasn’t one somepony would just stumble across, mainly because most areas of the guards’ barracks were off-limits to civilians, especially the areas underneath. It had also been a while since the interrogation room had even been used, close to thirty years, and because of that not many ponies even knew that there was one.
The Solar Guard pegasus glanced at the door. “Do we even need to be here?”
The Night Guard unicorn rolled his eyes. “Probably not, but that Changeling might break free,” he said, brushing his helmet’s white plume from his eyes.
“It was tied to a chair and the room nullifies magic,” the pegasus explained. “We may as well have snapped off its horn and removed its wings!” He shuddered. “It looked like the captain was about to do that, too.”
“Captain?” The purple stallion raised an eyebrow. “Which captain?”
Before the other guard could reply, the door opened. The strange biped they had let in barely ten minutes ago emerged from the room, letting out a yelp as it stumbled backwards and covered its eyes. “Damn low-light optics,” the Courier muttered as one hand rose up and flicked a switch on his helmet.
As Thomas walked away, the Night Guard shuddered. “Damn, he’s scary,” he muttered.
The Solar Guard raised an eyebrow at this remark. “You, Beacon, scared?”
“You didn’t see him in action, Overcast. Took down three Night Guard captains on his own. At the same time,” Beacon replied. “And he apparently has weapons that can put a hole in our armour without any effort.”
“Now you’re making stuff up,” Overcast snorted. “There is no way - uh oh.”
“‘Uh oh’? What ‘uh oh’?” Beacon asked, not liking what he was hearing. Then he saw what the pegasus had.
Thomas had not bothered to close the door to the interrogation room when he had left. It was wide open, creaking slightly on ancient hinges.
“We should probably close that,” the unicorn said uneasily. “Besides, not like the Changeling - ” Beacon cut himself off. “Sweet merciful Faust it’s gone!”
“What!” Overcast exclaimed, rushing into the room. “It was tied up! I saw it! Beacon, gimme a light!”
The unicorn tried to make his horn glow before bellowing in pain and collapsing to his knees. “Stupid magic nullifying - I’ll grab a torch!”
The unicorn left the small room and ran upstairs to the mess hall. As Overcast waited, he inspected the room. The small lantern didn’t reveal much, but he could see that the ropes had been untied, not cut or magically forced. He was about to leave with this information when he heard something. “What was that?” he asked. It had come from one of the corners of the room, where the light couldn’t reach. The sound came again, something that sounded eerily like... crying?
“Hah’m back!” Beacon exclaimed as he barrelled into the room, the small torch in his mouth. He blinked as silence returned. “Wha’s za oise?”
“Come over here,” Overcast whispered, gesturing with a hoof. Beacon walked slowly over, allowing the torch to shine on the corner the pegasus was looking at. What they saw was so strange that the torch nearly fell from the unicorn’s mouth.
The Changeling was curled up into a fetal position, and sobbing uncontrollably. Overcast hadn’t even known that Changelings had tears. It was also shaking like a leaf, and muttering something under its breath. “R-red-eyed... red-eyed demon... r-red-eyed demon...” Despite the guards’ prodding, it didn’t say anything else or move from its corner.
“So how was it that a Changeling managed to get through? Again?” Luna asked as she paced about her room.
“We suspect the influx of new recruits to make up for the losses incurred in the attack during the wedding, along with setting up the actual security measures, gave it the opportunity it needed,” Captain Cloud Nine answered, keeping her head bowed. “We have begun sweeping the castle, as well as casting the detection spell on staff. So far, we haven’t had any luck.”
“Very well. Return to your duties, captain.” The mare bowed again and backed out of the room, bumping into the still-helmeted Courier. She turned around and almost let out a squeak when she saw who she had bumped into. Thomas watched in bemusement as the guardsmare disappeared from view as fast as politely possible.
“I think your guards are scared of me,” he said as he entered the dark room.
“Can you really blame them?” the princess asked back. “You gave them a display of martial prowess unlike one seen in decades. Doesn’t help that you fractured her skull, punctured her lung and broke two of her legs in the fight,” she added.
“That was her?” he asked, looking back outside the door. He shrugged. “There was a reason I came up here. I finished the interrogation.”
Luna span around, a little shocked. “Already? Impressive. Do I want to know how?” she asked skeptically.
“My methods aren’t exactly... right. Ethics would just get in the way,” Thomas answered. “Besides, I got the impression from Shining Armor that he wanted results fast.”
“Really? That...” Luna trailed off as she thought about that, a troubled expression muddying her features. “That’s not important. What did you discover?”
“Changelings think they took a weapon. Apparently, their queen has it.” Thomas shrugged. “Dunno what they’re planning, but they think they’ve got some superweapon.”
“That alone is reason for concern,” the alicorn said worriedly as she resumed her pacing. “If Chrysalis believes she has such a thing, there’s no telling what she might do.”
“Only one thing to do, then. Go in and take it from her. By force,” the human said, cracking his knuckles.
“Calm yourself, Courier. We are not going to declare war on them for this. Though the fact that we caught a Changeling is enough of a reason,” she conceded. “And we have been needing to put the new armour through a field test...” the princess muttered. “Did you find out anything else?”
“Your highness, we cannot allow this to stand!”
“Captain, calm yourself. This is not the time for rash decisions.”
“Princess, they had the gall to infiltrate the staff! There’s no telling what they were planning!”
Thomas and Luna looked at each other with raised eyebrows. There weren’t many who had the guts to argue with Princess Celestia. This was made even stranger because the other pony had just been addressed by rank.
They entered the throne room to see a fully-armoured Captain Shining Armor staring down the Princess Celestia. Both were wearing fierce scowls as Princess Cadance and Twilight Sparkle watched from the sidelines.
“Ah,” Shining said as he turned around to see Thomas. “What did you learn from the Changeling?” All the stallion got in response was a blank stare.
“It sounds nice, but I have no idea what you just said.” Shining Armor growled unhappily and repeated his question. “Ah. It was here for surveillance, it had no intention of harming anyone, and they think they’ve got a superweapon.”
“A what!?” the guard exclaimed.
“Do they have such a thing, Courier?” Celestia asked the moment she recovered from the shock of that statement.
“If they do, it’s nothing to do with me,” the human replied, throwing his arms up in a display of innocence. Or perhaps frustration, it was difficult to tell which.
“Your highness, this is all the more reason to attack now!” Shining Armor said, rounding towards the white alicorn again. “A show of force will surely make them think twice!”
Just my luck, really. I wind up in a magical land free of major conflict and indirectly start one. It wasn’t actually that bad, over before it really started, but it was still frustrating.
Anyway, it was a whole three hours before things got really settled. And by that I mean that everyone had stopped yelling non-stop to make themselves heard. Had to put a bullet in the ceiling to get that to happen. They weren’t happy with that. I didn’t care, I’m surprised those princesses yelling didn’t send me deaf.
Author’s Notes:
Now, I could be an evil bastard and just leave this hanging for a few weeks while I work on my other fics. Or I could just work on this for a while longer. What to do...
And damn, Courier is scary.
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HOLLA HOLLA GET UPDATES.
WHERE ALL DA WHITE UNICORNS AT?
i.imgur.com/0hFtL.gif
I don't even fucking know anymore.
1028821 Lol
WORK ON IT!
Also you better fuckin' work on this for one more chapter, just so you can have a huge-ass cliff hanger at the end of it.
then move to another story.
Well its truly your choice what you will work on, but ... i really like this fic sooo please continue this one.
SEND THE COURIER IN! HE IS THE ANTI-CHANGELING!!!
He'll suck the energy right out of them!
Oooh yeeeaaahhh. This gonna be great!
Thomas at war with the Changelings.
And yes the Courier can be scary; however, depends on the way a person play him or her of course.
I say you keep working on this one, its my favorite!
But seriously, this is your most popular fic.
Keep on going with it until you start to dry up on it, then move to another one. Then move back.
1028824 Darklight bro! better run no telling what crazy shit he will do to a changling like you!
1028891 SHIT SHIT SHIT!!! 25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lywydxuNoK1rny74oo1_500.png 1028891 You should run to Silver Shadow for being friend with a Changeling. SHIT RUN!
1028913 ..... meh im right *sits back with popcorn watching guards chase you*
I laughed at the mental image of the Courier going, 'For god's sake...' then putting a bullet in the ceiling.
hmmm this is getting awesome
This story is brilliant! If it were up to me, I would say focus on this one for a bit, but it's your choice. I can wait for a bit.
1028919 You son of a bitch.
1028951 jesus aproves this message
i144.photobucket.com/albums/r190/androidequation/Tapdance.gif
''procceds to laugh as darklight gets kicked in the groin by a guard''
1028951>>1028971
Okay, don't make me start deleting shit. My notifications are going crazy, and I'd rather they go crazy for something other than your silly games.
1028978 sorry ..... and to make this related i must say im looking forward to this new armour you mentioned.... its going to be glorius!
1028978
Lol. I got threatened by white strake for that same reason a few days ago.
Awww poor guy, had to get interrogated by the Courrier. HAHA
Another great chapter, I wouldn't mind reading a different story from you. You good. "don't let that go to your head." But all in all please to stop this one.
Lol
Yep, that's something the Courier would do. It probably helped that everyone remembers how that gun was able to penetrate both sides of the Royal Guard's armor with enough energy left to go through a wall.
I say that Celestia should send a message to the changelings...via Courier.
google.com/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://static.fjcdn.com/comments/Its+the+same+thing+as+the+quot+petitions+quot+to+cancel+MLP+_1d9bf8a9858bafb872b472684b20d558.jpg&sa=X&ei=Ek4dUIyjGYao8gSwwoGQDg&ved=0CAkQ8wc4aA&usg=AFQjCNGf1BUWpbpsq282AFum3OTQIUc1-Q
I haven't left comments on any of the other chapters, but that was because I read them all today and was saving them up. So, here goes...
I love this story. Your grammar is damn near perfect, the characters are all what they should be like (even when Applejack was crazy, I could see it),
they react to the Courier as we would expect them too, and there is now violence in the MLPverse.
I personally love the Luna x Courier thing. It isn't just out of the ball park, and makes sense. Far too few fics have any, or at least,
any good Luna romance fics. I also thought it was cool how you're having the Courier tell this story to the Lone Wanderer.
I guess the only other things I could say would be to one- stay awesome and please keep writing. This is definitely one of my favorite stories here or on
fanfiction.net. And two- from the sounds of things, its a shame that the Courier had to leave. Luna needs love, too.
1029341
Courier: I'll only tell you one time. Don't fuck me Chrysalis. Don't you ever try to fuck me.
And later on Chrys tries to fuck him over. She gets a new hole as a reward for her bravery.
Might I suggest using an actual super weapon on them, Gauss Rifle or Alien Blaster.
1029940 Im not sure he brought those.
The new armor that the princess mention is because of the Courier's weapons?
They better make him an anti magic armor.
1030024
Compared to the tech they have, I'm pretty sure any form of firearm qualifies as a superweapon.
FUCK YESSS
I can just imagine what the new armor looks like. *In my mind it looks like Ceaser's Legion redesigning power armor.
1030093 True, very very true.
a super weapon? could it be the "fatman" and if they do go to war will Equestria end up a wasteland just like.... well, the wasteland?
SOOOOOOO AWESOME!
I would very much like it if you continued to work on this story but as it's been stated it's your choice my friend
Love the story, but I sincerely hope that the Courier doesn't, you know, kill or irreparably injure Chrysalis. Yes, I ship Chryssy Sparkle. What's it to you?
Um...technically...they're not exactly wrong about the superweapon thing. Sure it's an indirect one, but, well, imagine changelings with access to the Big MT tech...or worse, the Think Tank with access to Equestria...
1030434 The TransPortalPonder! Would probably send them to the Mojave Drive-in. And if the changelings got to Big MT, neither the Think Tank nor the chandelier would be able to get back to Equestria.
1030163 It's the Big MT TransPortalPonder! They think it's a super weapon, but it really isn't.
Am I the only one who had a video through my head of:
Chrysalis: -tries to kill Celestia with Big MT TransPortalPonder!-
-Gets TransPortalPonded to Big MT-
-assuming the Courier did the "moral" thing, Think Tank is still alive-
EXPERIMENTS!!!
Beyond that, all I can say is that I hope you pick this to work on. I would greatly appreciate reading the end of this.
Work on this!
1030071
I also mentioned losses incurred during the Changeling attack on the wedding.
As I believe Dozy Dreamer or you were arguing about before, the reason the guards' armour was so horrendously outdated was that there was no need to update it. Well, they have a reason.
Courier goes to changling hive. Fights the Changlings. The trans. gun breaks in the process. Courier: DAMNIT
1031328
Where ED-E when you need him/she/it.
1031344
Floating around in a corner.
1029920 you should have put "with" before the word "fuck"...made it seem like thomas was stuck in a rape situation
1030784
Maybe, but remember, at the beginning the Courier was using it to try and go BACK to the Mojave. ...Which means that, assuming someone gets it working again, the next use would most likely take the user TO Big MT. And considering Think Tank built it, they could probably figure out a way to make it go back to Equestia again...
1031815
I was quoting Mr. Sosa from "Scarface". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugTwbS24ZAQ
1031929 oh...well, sadly, im a disgrace to the human race and have never seen scarface
1031908 No, they probably would be too busy experimenting with the chaneligs. Remember, ethics impede progress!