The World Is Her Oyster

by DraconequusMaximus

Midnight Mission Part 3

Macintosh Apple was currently roaming the halls Canterlot Castle alongside two of his dearest friends. Lyra and a very frantic Bon Bon, despite being calmer Mac and Lyra were far from smiling. Cinnamint, along with Screwball and Pearl were nowhere to be found, and once being briefed on the situation Bon Bon had started freaking out. She was concerned that changelings had somehow taken the children in anticipation of the attack on the factory.

Lyra and Macintosh were beginning to worry as well, having already searched Luna's half of the castle and most of Celestia's.

Luna's ponies had been able to provide them with information, and it was clear that the Mountain Magic soda factory was the changeling's secret base. Luna, Mac, and Spike were to lead the charge on the front of the factory, while the elements of harmony, Trixie, Zecora, and Luna's thestrals surrounded the building entirely. Discord was to lock-down the entire area, ensuring the changelings couldn't escape this time. They were all set to go, but none of them wanted to set out until the kids could be found.

"Has anyone tried sending Pearl a letter? She can get them anywhere right?" Lyra asked as she opened a door to look for the kids.

Macintosh nodded the affirmative, but it was clear Pearl hadn't responded. Macintosh entered a nearby room and began unceremoniously overturning anything in his path. Lyra and Bon Bon watched it happen, like a natural disaster was tearing around in front of them. Though Mac looked calm and collected it was obvious that he was beginning to loose his cool.

Mac couldn't be stopped until a familiar green flash appeared behind him, signifying a message from Spike or Pearl. Mac quickly opened the letter, finding Spike's writing style. Unlike the usual perfect penmanship Spike had practiced over the years, the letter was a rough scrawl, obviously written in haste.

Twi sent Pearl a tracker. The kids are definitely in the factory district. Get to the front gates now. We imagine the changelings know we're coming. Get ready to fight.

Mac dropped the letter and bolted down the hallway without uttering even a single syllable, leaving Lyra and Bon Bon in the dust. Lyra floated the letter over so the couple could read it. Both mare's eyes grew wide as soon as they read the short letter.

Within seconds Lyra found herself thrown onto Bon Bon's back and holding on for dear life. Despite being a candy maker, Bon Bon had always been in good shape. Lyra was incredibly surprised how fast her wife could run, especially when carrying her on her back. They were only a few minutes behind Macintosh, and once they stopped Lyra fell off of Bon Bon's back.

From her new upside-down vantage point Lyra could see everyone was already at the gates, presumably waiting for the call to arms she now found herself a part of.

It was the middle of the night, and only the torches lining the courtyard illuminated the group. Lyra had never seen any of her friends so serious or angry before. Spike was even looking decidedly dragon-ish, his pupils barely more than predatory slits. Spike seemed to pay Lyra and Bon Bon's arrival no heed, continually staring out into the city like he was a common beast sizing up prey.

Macintosh didn't look much nicer at the moment. A thestral guard was currently helping him into a suit of armor from Luna's armory. Somehow it made Macintosh seem much larger than he already was. Lyra didn't envy whoever was going to be on the receiving end of an armored back-hoof from Big Macintosh.

Twilight and Trixie were wearing matching costumes and identical downtrodden expressions. Both were dressed in battle outfits much like Trixie's original performer's outfit but with little tiaras at the brim of the hats. Trixie's was her classic purple with a silver tiara, while Twilight's was a light blue with a gold tiara to match her wife.

They seemed to be muttering something about undoing transformations and detection spells to each other, making certain they were prepared.

Fluttershy was being restrained by Discord, who was looking his incredibly advanced age at the moment. Years of clean living had changed his attitude towards revenge, and now Discord was only concerned with Screwball's safety. Fluttershy uncharacteristically seemed very near lashing out at anything in her direct vicinity violently unless she had her baby returned to her.

Discord was doing his best to keep Fluttershy level headed until she could be set loose on the changelings.

Applejack was holding a heavy duty rope in her teeth, ready for a fight. Rainbow Dash was in her Wonderbolt's uniform, looking combat ready. Pinkie Pie was in full pink-camo gear, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Rarity to her credit, was wearing a more stylish version of the day-guard's armor emblazoned with her own cutie mark. She seemed more uncertain than battle ready, but still willing to contribute.

Luna was in full armor, a look of cold fire in her eyes. Her mane's flow was fast and bright, like an turbulent river of stars in a purple sky. It was evident that Luna intended to strike the changelings hard and without mercy. Lyra almost pitied the changeling queen, but thoughts of Cinnamint soon erased any pity that could be given.

Celestia hadn't bothered with armor, and she was without her regalia. Instead of her formal attire she wore a black T-shirt with the words Bad Grandma printed in bold red letters and her normally flowing mane had been bound up into a ponytail. Instead of her normal crown, a smaller, sharper golden tiara set with a diamond shaped ruby lay atop her head.

Lyra could only think that she had never seen Celestia's mane and tail so dim before. It was known that Celestia was old, but she had never looked it so much as she did now.

Despite the varied looks, it was clear the goal in every one of their minds was the same. Lyra quickly got to her hooves, getting ready herself. A thestral guard passed her and Bon Bon Hoofball helmets, the best they had in mare size on such short notice.

Once Lyra had hers on, she looked at Bon Bon to see a fire in her eyes she had never seen before. Lyra was worried and excited by that look in her wife's eyes, but there was important business at hoof.

Luna took point in front of the group, her expression like a general in front of their troops. It occurred to Lyra that that was exactly the role Luna was playing now, and it appeared to be far from the first time.

"Today, the changelings have committed great crimes against our country and almost all here personally. They have stolen away the dreams of the ponies, and even more seriously they have captured three of our own. Children even, and these actions are tantamount to war. We will not let this go that far however. It ends today, and it ends with us." Luna barked with authority and weight.

With that, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Rarity, Lyra, Discord, and Trixie all readied there magic to move everyone to the factory. Luna had laid down an array allowing for lessened time and energy, and with everyone cooperating it took little magic from each of them, allowing for optimum spell-casting opportunity in the future. The whole group vanished in a flash of teleportation, leaving the castle courtyard empty.

That night was the coldest night ever recorded in the month of August.

Two hours ago, Mountain Magic soda factory, BF1

Pearl awoke with a start, coughing up a fireball. She instinctively held out her claws, catching whatever was being sent to her via the flame channel. Once it had reconstructed itself from flame and ash, Pearl held it up to her eyes to inspect it.

It appeared to be a silver orb, emblazoned with the familiar cutie mark of a six pointed magenta star. Pearl had no idea what it was, but realized it must be important and pocketed it.

Suddenly Pearl was hit with the realization that the last thing she could remember was being captured by a strangely polite changeling. Looking at her surroundings, Pearl found herself in a small room not much larger than a closet.

All that the room contained was the bed Pearl was laying on, a small television on a stand, and a trashcan. The only way in or out of the room was a normal looking door that locked from the inside. It was both obvious and confusing that the changelings didn't care if she stayed in the little room or not.

Pearl quietly got off the bed but tripped over something on her way down. The impact on the floor was annoying, but not painful for her. Upon closer inspection she saw that what had tripped her was her bottomless bag that had been propped up against the side of the bed by whoever had placed Pearl in the room.

Pearl happily slung the bag back over her shoulder and resumed her trek out of the room.

Upon exiting the room she found that she was in some kind of underground building or level of the factory. The vaguely musty smell of the place tipped her off. That, and there were absolutely no windows or sources of natural light Pearl could find.

Behind her, Pearl saw that there were a number of small rooms nearly identical to the ones she had awoken in. Two of which had doors left wide open, and beds left unmade.

"So, I guess Cinnamint and Screws are up already." Pearl thought out loud.

Pearl took on a threatening stance however when someone unseen answered her.

"They're in the game room." A vaguely familiar voice replied calmly.

Pearl's eyes darted around in a panic until she remembered changelings could walk on walls, and more importantly, ceilings.

Sure enough, when she looked up Pearl saw a changeling standing upside down. It sounded male, but Pearl couldn't be certain. She was vaguely sure that it was the same changeling that had knocked her, Cinnamint, and Screwball unconscious though.

"Why are they in the game room? Shouldn't we be in goo-pods or something?" Pearl asked skeptically.

The changeling unstuck himself from the ceiling and buzzed his little hole-filled wings until he was safely on the ground. Pearl was strangely at ease despite having someone she had previously thought of as an enemy not even three feet away.

"We don't do that anymore. After the love-wave thing hit us, us drones got brains of our own and Queen Mom got nicer slowly. Now we sneak dream-stuff out of the soda drinkers and refine it into love. We don't wanna hurt anypony anymore, but we used to be mean so we still need to hide." The changeling explained.

Pearl was cautious of the changeling's tale, but upon closer examination there was something she had failed to notice until now. A familiar brown blob sat on the changeling's back, looking at her with white eyes.

"Hey! Why do you have Cob?!" Pearl shouted accusingly.

The changeling looked back at Cob, grabbing the imitation cat off his back and passing him over to Pearl.

"He fell out of your bag. The little guy tried to squeeze through the holes in my legs but gave up eventually. Queen Mom figured he was important so she had me watch him. I admittedly forgot he was on my back before I went on the ceiling. Good thing he's sticky." The changeling apologized.

Pearl graciously accepted Cob back from the changeling and let the little blob climb onto her shoulder. Pearl was beginning to think that the changeling was telling the truth, or at least didn't want to hurt her. Besides, Cob was always a spectacular judge of character.

"Can you take me to Cinnamint and Screwball now, Mr. ...?" Pearl started, unaware if changelings even had names.

"My name is Steve. Changeling second in command. I got hit by the love-thing first out of all my brothers and sisters so I got smart first... I guess. Not totally sure that's how it happened. Anyway, I delivered a pizza to you guys once. Took me awhile to remember though." Steve informed Pearl with no small amount pride.

Steve let the green fire of his magic swirl about him, turning him into a perfect facsimile of a pony Pearl recognized. Steve, the pizza delivery pony from the night she and her friends had babysat Dusk and Dawn. Red coat like pizza sauce, and a mane like cheese, complete with a cutie mark of a pizza missing a few slices.

"Oh wow. I didn't know changeling magic was fire based. Can you teach me how to do that?" Pearl asked excitedly, momentarily forgetting everything else.

Steve shrugged, as he just automatically knew how to shape-shift. Pearl looked disappointed, but got over it pretty quickly. She decided to follow Steve to the game room, reasoning she could probably outsmart Steve if the situation called for it.

Steve gave Pearl an abridged tour of the basement, explaining that all the oldest changelings worked here in the factory and that the basement floor was their living quarters. The rest were in schools as foals to receive proper educations that had been unavailable until recent years, or acting as parents and working jobs to keep up the illusion of being average ponies to care for the foal-lings.

Steve hinted that a few of Pearl's classmates may even be changelings in disguise, though only 'Queen Mom' could tell her for certain. Pearl was a little unsettled by that, but Steve assured her that they very rarely switched places with a pony for longer than a day, and only to cover their tracks here and there.

Eventually they passed a staggering number of refrigerated shelves like you'd see in a supermarket. In every single one of them was plastic single serving cups of what seemed to be green gelatin. The seemingly innocent desserts would have looked perfectly at home on a cafeteria lunch tray. Steve said that it was refined love, their primary food source.

Pearl found it funny that many of the over-sized refrigerators had crayon pictures of changelings and ponies on them. Instead of pink and red hearts there were poorly drawn black and green hearts full of holes. Many of them depicted a much taller black figure, some labeled Mom, Mommy, #1 Queen, or a combination of them. It was obvious that changeling were a lot different than the last time they had been spotted in Equestria.

Finally, Steve led Pearl to the game room. The door had been painted black with green spots, reminiscent of the holes in a changeling's limbs. Pearl had to admit the changelings had a distinct style, and that it vaguely reminded her of her Aunty Lulu's darker style.

Steve pushed the door open, and as soon as he did the familiar sound of video games could be heard. Pearl and Steve entered, and Pearl marveled at the sights laid before her. Tons of arcade machines, some manned by changelings with open token holding slots, bowls laying under the machines to catch them as they fell.

Most of the changelings in the room didn't even notice Pearl or Steve enter, but an excited changeling buzzed his way over to Steve half a second later. It was a little hard for Pearl to tell, but the unfamiliar changeling looked smug to her.

"Guess what Steve~! I beat your high score on Dig Dug just now~!" The seemingly male changeling taunted.

Steve frowned, but looked to Pearl and decided it best to keep his cool.

"That's... great, Carl. But The princess is awake and she wants to see her friends. Then I've gotta take them to see Queen Mom. Official business and all that."

Pearl almost felt bad for Steve just then. It was pretty clear that the high score had been important to him. Carl though seemed immediately jealous when Steve flaunted his mission. Pearl's common sense told her it was best to stay out of the surprisingly normal sibling rivalry in the changeling factory.

Steve began walking past Carl, and Pearl hastily followed to the back of the game room. Cinnamint was on a cart racing game machine, while Screwball was playing air-hockey against a changeling who seemed to be losing badly. As soon as Pearl came into view, both of her friends flocked to her side, leaving the games forgotten.

The changeling Screwball had been playing with scored on the defenseless goal before joining the group at Steve's side.

Pearl had no allusions of getting away from the incoming preteens, and was quite swiftly assaulted by a fierce group hug. Cinnamint made the hug awkward for Pearl, but it was Screwball's magically enhanced earth pony strength that really made the hug memorable. Other than her naturally powerful fathers and Aunty Lulu, Screwball was the hardest hugger around when she was worried.

"Pearl! We tried to wake you up, but your scaly butt was too stubborn." Screwball practically shouted.

"She means we were worried about you, but we thought it'd be creepy to watch you sleep. Steve said we could wait here and he'd bring you here when you woke up." Cinnamint reassured her.

Pearl eventually broke out of her friends' heartfelt, but overpowering embrace and caught her breath.

"So, this is way different than what I expected. You two too?" Pearl asked almost rhetorically.

"Yeah, they're actually really cool. And they recycle tokens endlessly. We can learn much from our buggy brothers and sisters." Screwball replied, mimicking an old pony giving out sage wisdom.

Pearl and Cinnamint giggled, but were silenced a moment later.

"I'll take that as a compliment daughter of Discord." An especially echoed feminine voice said from behind them.

As the children looked around, they saw Steve and all the other changelings in the game room bowing. Turning their heads, they saw a changeling that was without a doubt the Queen.

She was as tall as Celestia, but as lithe as Luna or Cadence. She was more pony-like than her children, but at the same time more foreign. Her horn was long and jagged, much more intimidating than a unicorn or alicorn horn. She had fangs like her children, but her eyes looked similar to Luna's when she masqueraded as Nightmare Moon. Her wings were insectoid in nature, and instead of fur she was covered in chitin riddled with holes at her extremities.

She was beautiful and alien, seemingly as much an alicorn as a changeling. Pearl had seen an artist's rendering of her from many years ago, but there was now a softness to her eyes. Instead of the eyes of a monster they were the eyes of a normal motherly mare, albeit oddly shaped.

"Hello there children. I am Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings. I do apologize for Steve knocking you out, but we weren't expecting guests so soon."

Pearl was the first of them able to talk again, all three having been momentarily surprised.

"Are you the same Chrysalis that body-snatched Aunt Cadence and Mind controlled Uncle Shining?" Pearl asked sternly, not ready to forgive the guilty mother of the changelings.

Chrysalis's smile fell, but she nodded her head.

"I am. I won't deny what happened twenty something years ago. I used my babies to try and take over, but I don't regret it. The love wave broke my hive-mind and gave Steve and all the others individuality and eventually they changed me. Now I have no army, but I have a great many lovely children." Chrysalis admitted with conviction.

Pearl looked over to Cinnamint and Screwball. All three of them shared a silent conversation consisting over various hoof gestures and looks that only the trio could understand. Steve and the others looked to Chrysalis who shrugged in return, signifying she didn't know what wasn't being said either.

After a time, the tweens broke their silence. Apparently Cinnamint, being the responsible member of the group was elected their speaker.

"Queen Chrysalis. In the spirit of harmony, inter-species brotherhood, and unlimited game tokens, we have agreed to send word to our parents in order to ask them to hear you out. We have no actual authority but our parents aren't normally gun-ho about this stuff." Cinnamint informed Chrysalis in his most authoritative voice.

Chrysalis giggled at the display of pretend political power, but bowed nonetheless.

"I thank the three of you for asking your parents to hear us out. We were going to stop stealing dream-stuff once we had a stockpile of Love refined, but we've began to see the adverse effect it has on ponies. We have no choice but to submit ourselves to the law, and we might even get to integrate into society eventually.

"I'm quite relieved that you three showed up on your own before anyone else caught onto us. I feared that things were going to end violently after last time. Many of my children suffered cracked shells and fractured legs." Chrysalis said with no small amount of gratitude.

Unfortunately, as soon as Chrysalis mentioned being the first to catch the changeling plot the children paled. Pearl in particular looked like she had seen a ghost as she removed the previously forgotten sphere from her hoodie pocket. Chrysalis's eyes dilated to pinpricks out of fear as she saw the glowing crest of Twilight Sparkle.

Not a second passed before the entire factory shook with a tremendous roar that Pearl had heard on only a few occasions in her life. It was worth noting that none of those occasions had been happy days. The most recent was several years previous when Pearl had gotten to big for her scaly britches and thought herself old enough to explore Froggy Bottom Bog.

Pearl silently wondered if the changelings were as afraid of her Daddy as the hydra had been. One of the most fundamental laws of nature was that you didn't mess with a dragon's hoard. Unfortunately, it was now clear that Pearl, the crown jewel of that hoard had just unintentionally put her new friends in quite a pickle.

Author's Note:

Shit just got like, 120% more real.

Just a few more chapters left.

Then I'm gonna get into the last act of My Shining Love, and then release my magnum opus that I've been dropping some vague hints about here and there. It's gonna be a long one, so I'm writing quite a few chapters in advance so I can release them once a week to satiate my followers as I work.

And for those of you that it still means something to, Happy Holidays. Or Hearth's Warming, or whatever you choose to celebrate. No matter who or what you are, I thank you for your continued patronage and wish you all nothing but the best.

I really don't care for the holidays because of all the stress, but it does other people some good so I can't complain much. In the comments lemme know if any of you got any sweet pony swag, and if so what it was.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Nice chapter. It was nice seeing that the changelings have reformed, but now they are in trouble. Good touch with Celestia's Bad Grandma T shirt. That was funny. Thanks for the update.

[Bad_Seed_72]

Huh, wasn't what I expected but I'm not disappointed. Loved the descriptions of everyone getting ready for battle and seeing Cob again. Happy Holidays!

[Aerin Silverfeather]

That bag grandma shirt better be f**king mithril!

I'm not threatening I just think it's not protective enough

[MutlicolouredMarshmellow]

This story just keeps getting better and better, It's gonna be a shame when this trilogy comes to an end,

[DraconequusMaximus]

5444472 Celestia can handle herself. I just imagine that she isn't very fond of armor. After ruling peacefully for a thousand years it wouldn't suit her anymore.

Luna on the other hoof is always looking for an excuse to show off. Or at least in my head-canon anyway.