• Published 3rd Jun 2014
  • 4,029 Views, 66 Comments

The Seventh Element. - masorin



Spike the ever loyal, ever giving baby dragon must finally 'join the team' when a dying Twilight Sparkle from the future speaks to him.

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Chapter 5: An Element of Unity

Spike groaned as he felt the extra weight of a pony leave him. For a bit, he’d questioned whether he was alive or dead, but the dull throbbing in his head after all that bouncing around made him realize that he was, in fact, still alive and breathing. He thought that the crash would surely have been enough to put a stop to that, despite his hardened scales, but by Celestia’s grace, there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage. Or at least he hoped there wasn’t, considering he’d yet to open his eyes and check.

His eyelids felt like they were made of lead, when he tried to open them. For the moment, he was content to resign himself to just laying wherever he was until his body decided it could move again, but his mind seemed to be at odds with his body, constantly reminding him that there was an important task at hand that required completion as quick as possible. After a few moment of just laying there, deciding whether to listen to his mind or body, what finally forced his eyes open was a surprisingly loud buzzing.

He soon realized that he was even feeling weightless, as if being carried by magic. He recognized the feeling from the many times Twilight had carried him like this but when he found the source of the magic carrying him, it wasn’t the pony he was expecting but rather small creature, compared to ponies, with a body that looked like it was made of obsidian with a fine layer of chitinous armor covering it’s entire form, in place of the fur you’d find on a pony. His eyes widened as he realized what was carrying him.

It was a changeling, and in his current state, he was at it’s mercy.

He panicked and began struggling in the creature’s magical grip and yelling, “Stop! Lemme go!” In his frenzy, he’d managed to strike the changeling in it’s ribs, making the creature comply and let go of him. He’d soon realized his mistake as he found himself falling, and for longer than he thought he might.

“Okayokayokay, I changed my mind! Pick me up! Pick me up!” He yelled once again before he found himself wrapped in the changeling’s magic, once more.

"Are you done attacking the lings trying to save you?" The creature asked lightly.

Spike was silent for a while, then he realized that he hadn’t been alone on that train, “Where are my friends?”

The changeling just sighed as he motioned behind of him, which made Spike look in that direction, spotting his friends.
Applejack didn’t seem to be too pleased with being carried while Pinkie seemed rather enthralled by it. Rainbow, Twilight and Fluttershy were flying alongside the other changelings, in what seemed to be a kind of flying formation. Rarity was on the back of one particular changeling, gripping on to it as if she’d fall to her doom should she loosen her grip and there was a bag between two others. It took Spike a moment to realize that the bag was now being used as a hammock on which lay a rather bloody looking Quick Quill.

“Wh-What’s going on?” Spike asked, more to himself rather than actually asking. He turned back to the one carrying him, “Can you take me to my friends, please?”

The changeling silently nodded and slowed his pace to fly alongside the rest of them.

Twilight seemed rather unsteady, still not overly used to her wings and ‘Shy was having slight problems keeping up with Rainbow.
When Twilight saw Spike and the changeling come closer to them, she brightened up a little, “Spike! Glad to see you’re finally awake.” She looked at the changeling, “I’ll take him from here.” She levitated Spike over and set him on her back.

“Um, Twilight? What’s... What’s going on?” He paused for a moment, considering something, “You.. You are actually, well... you, right?”

Twilight giggled and nodded, “Yes, Spike, I’m me. Turns out after the Changelings were kicked out of Canterlot, they’ve been living in the Badlands. This is a hunting swarm, they’d come out here to look for food to take back to the hive.”

Spike’s eyes widened for the second time that day but before he could speak, Twilight cut him off, “And no, Spike, they’re not going to eat us.

“They just saw the train crash after the earthquake hit and came to pull us out to safety. They offered to escort us to their hive and treat whoever’s wounded and even said they’d help us get to the Dragonlands.”

"So... we’re not dinner?"

“Not unless they wanna be eating through straws the rest of their lives.” Rainbow chipped in as she made a show of punching at the air a few times.

“Oh my, I hope that doesn’t have to happen.” Fluttershy spoke, not wanting to have to fight. She hadn’t fared so well in their last encounter and she’d rather not have a repeat performance.

“Ah think they’d have tried somethin’ by now if they were goin’ to. Ah mean... This is pretty high up.” Applejack said, slowly peering over to the depth below them, subconsciously tightening her grip on the changeling. She was an Earth Pony and Earth Ponies weren’t meant to be this high up. Add to the fact that she didn’t have wings and that just feuled her anxiety.

“Get my off this thing!” Rarity yelled at the top of her lungs while tightening her grip even more, causing the changeling to falter slightly and drop a few inches in the air before regaining altitude.

“Miss Rarity, choking me isn’t helping me fly any better. Please, stop.”

No one else spoke as they slowly began descending toward the ground, getting ready to finally land. Their hive was nothing like any of them had imagined it to be. In fact, if they didn’t know any better, they’d have thought it was just any old pony town. It had all the regular structures one would find in a town in a frontier zone. It even seemed to have ponies in it. Dozens of them, walking around and minding their own business when they noticed the oddity of the undisguised changelings.

As they landed, the constant buzzing finally ceased and the seven friends all jumped on to the solid ground. Rarity even came close to actually kissing the ground before realizing what she was going to do and quickly raised her head away from the dust. Spike tried, but couldn’t suppress his chuckle at the sight, earning him a slight glare from Rarity.

“What is the meaning of this?” A rather elegant unicorn mare stepped up to them. Her fur was light blue and her cutiemark depicted a heart with an arrow going through it’s center. She was taller than all of them, even Twilight, which they all noticed as soon as she stepped close enough to them. “I send you all to find food for us under a disguise for a reason. Yet to come back here, undisguised and with outsiders, no less. I need an explanation from one of you, now!”

None of the changelings stepped forward, instead parting to the sides to leave the ponies -and dragon- in full view. One of them finally spoke, “We were searching for food as usual when an earthquake hit, we saw their train crash and went to save them.”

The mare stared at the group and stepped back, her eyes widening slightly when she noticed the wings on Twilight.

Twilight’s demeanor changed, it didn’t take her long to realize who the mare was. Still, she was in no position to refuse any help that she might possibly get out of the Changelings. “Please, this is the only town for miles that can help us. We’re all injured and some of us, more than the others,” She pointed back to Quick Quill, who was now laying on the ground, shivering and barely awake from all the blood loss, “I don’t think he could make the trip all the way back to get help.”

Chrysalis winced slightly at the sight of the stallion, seeing the source of all his blood was his wing that was almost torn clean off. Her expression quickly turned to a scowl as she turned back to Twilight, “We don’t help outsiders! We have enough trouble trying to fend for ourselves, we don’t need more.”

One more changeling spoke, “I told her the same thing but...” The rest of the changelings turned to look at Twilight.

Twilight knew she might end up regretting her decision, but she was willing to go with it for the sake of getting help. She stepped forward and bowed her head to Chrysalis, “We don’t expect something for nothing. Please, help my friends and I would be in your debt.”

~~~
Cadence was worried sick. She could feel her husband was in some sort of trouble and not knowing exactly what was paining her. There was no way for her to know what was happening but she was certain that something had gone very, very wrong. The bonds she shared with those closest to her allowed her to tell when they were doing well or not. Right now, she could tell that Shining was far from okay and while she would have normally ignored it and trusted Shining to do what he did best, this time it was nagging at her too much to ignore.

Getting to her hooves, she called for her assistant and asked him to take a letter. She let out a tired sigh and began to request aid. If this all turned out okay, she wasn’t going to hear the end of it from Shining, but she’d rather have that than something much worse. She needed more than just Pegasi for this, in fact, she didn’t think the Wonderbolts would even get to her in time which made her trash the idea of sending for them, instead she decided to go for something that might make her even worse off.
Walking along the hallways, she explained to her assistant to send for their neighbor’s fastest and strongest flyers they could. The Gryphons weren’t a hostile country, but they weren’t entirely happy with having found out they’d settled next to a pony kingdom that re-appeared out of nowhere from a thousand year banishment. They were friendly... more or less, but she was still nervous about it.
“Flash Sentry!” The guard quickly walked up and saluted. “Please, get this to the town of Eyrie as fast as you can, this is of utmost importance.”

“Yes, your majesty.” He took the letter, bowed and dashed off as fast as his wings could carry him.

Cadence couldn’t help but feel caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. This had been a course of action she’d vowed not to fall back on unless she was in dire need of it, but her husband was in danger and she refused to lay back and not do anything about it.

~~~
Shining Armor was alone. He had stood by and watched as all the ponies he brought with him met their demise, first by falling rocks and then the sludge took the rest. He’d stood by and not done a thing, having to hear his men’s screams of agony as their skin and muscles were ripped from their bones, bit by bit, being granted an end to that pain only after they’d had vital organs attacked, or lost enough blood. He’d had to shut his eyes and cover his ears as best he could, but that didn’t block out all of the screams.

Once the sludge was done with them, it tried to come for him, pressing up against his shield and trying to break through. Through the shield’s walls, he could feel the sludge. He thought it might be like having other ponies pressing up against it, but it was far from that, it didn’t have as much weight but it was cold. Cold that one might feel from spending a long time out in the snow without protection from it’s numbing cold.

The longer he kept his shield up, the more magic it took from him, and the fact that he had something constantly fighting against it made it a little harder. It was a slow process. So low, in fact, that it took him a while to even notice it. There was always a cost to spells of this magnitude. While shield spells came more easily for him than others, that only meant he was able to cast it for longer and on bigger scales.

This, however, wasn’t his magic just being used up by the shield. All magic he was putting into the shield, was slowly being taken by the ooze. An ooze that he honestly didn’t even understand. He gulped and slowly walked over to the edge of the shield. He hadn’t been able to save a single one of them and now this thing was feeding off him.

That wasn’t the source of his worry, however, he knew he could sustain the shield for an extended period of time even in his state and the ooze wasn’t taking much of his energy. What caused him to actually worry was the fact that he’d noticed that this ooze seemed to be everywhere in the caves and was now covering his shield entirely. Normally, the barrier would allow the passage of air but with the creature blocking every possible entrance for that air, he’d realized that it was just waiting for him to suffocate. As the fear started to overtake him, there was a shift in the slime, almost as if his shield had been smacked by something.

He was knocked off his hooves, his face slamming into the shield, seeing the one pony he honestly wished he’d never have to look at again.

His own emotionally broken, disheveled reflection stared back at him. His mane was a mess, he had dirt smeared all over his uniform and his eyes were devoid of any discernable emotion. He was tired. Not from sustaining the shield, but emotionally, he was completely drained. The men he’d brought down here with him all had families to go home to, now those ponies wouldn’t get to see them again. If he got out of this alive, he was starting to wonder if Cadence would even still want to be with him after this, after all, he wasn’t sure he would want to be with him anymore.

“She’d warned you not to come here.”

He jumped at the sound of his own voice, surprised at his involuntary speech. He thought for a moment that his mind was just playing tricks on him. “You let your stupid pride get in the way and now look where that’s gotten you. Good ponies died because of you and this stupid little adventure you wanted to go on because you thought it was fun.”

He grit his teeth but he couldn’t argue. He knew that was true, after all, it came from his own head. The fight with Cadence replayed in his mind. “Adventure is calling to me”. He almost spat at the ground at that.

“Some adventure this turned out to be...” He spoke in a low, hateful tone. He was finally broken. After all the dangers he’d been through and all the challenges he faced, it was this that finally broke him. And there was nothing anypony could do about it.
“Oh, but you did answer a call.” This time, the voice wasn’t his own and he almost screamed when he saw two large eyes staring at him. They lacked any noticeable feature other than the full black irises that had settled upon him.

“What... What are you?!”

The eyes didn’t respond immediately, instead it just rolled off the shield. The next time it spoke, it was with a different voice, one that Shining instantly recognized. It was the voice of Right Hook, his second in command, “I don’t get it. If we came all the way out here just to investigate some earthquakes, couldn’t we just send some pegasi here with seismic equipment?”

Shining Armor swallowed a bitter pill as he started to realize what this all was, "You caused the earthquakes?"

The next voice that Shining heard was feminine and not one he recognized. “The mines here go so much deeper than I’d originally thought, I’m starting to wonder why they were even abandoned in the first place. Many of the halls I’ve found have been sealed up with an odd purple ice, and all seemingly resistant to my heating spells. I... I think I’m going to die down here.”

Shining backpedaled. Whatever this creature was, it didn’t seem intelligent -or capable - enough to speak for itself, instead, it was using the memories of dead ponies to communicate. He felt even more nauseated by that thought and just when he figured it couldn’t get much worse, it spoke again. But this time, it wasn’t using a mere memory, it had managed to mimic his own voice as it spoke to him.

“I must thank you for answering the call of duty, Shining. You’ve given me more than enough food to regain my strength and soon, nothing will be able to stop the Smooze.”

Author's Note:

Well this chapter was a long time coming, the move definitely put some strain on my body, and it wasn't helped by the fact that I had to put up with family for a good week. In short updates were slow and that was my fault.

As some people guessed yes the purple stuff is the Smooze with a few changes, and yes I did just add both griffons and changelings into the story. They are going to play bit parts in this story, but when it's over they will likely become major parts of a sequel if and when I decide to write it. So I figgured I would add them in here, and once again i must fire ze head cannon:

Why would a changeling hive be visible? With their countless numbers and their ability to be anyone and everyone, as well as the over all reliance on deceit the hive would likely be hidden under a remote isolated location right? So why not just build a regular pony town over it, and have the day\night shift guard of how many of your countless swarm assume regular pony forms.

I see it all the time in fan fictions the hive is some kind of insect like nest just put inside some remote mountain, or worse on full display from the sky. The changelings are at least remotely intelligent to use lies to their advantage so i think they can come up with a better disguise then a mountain range.

I'm not saying there probably isn't some insect like nest under the town, but having a face above ground allows you the benefit of trade, and an easy location to name when interrogated about where your from. "Oh you wouldn't know it, it's this remote little desert town so far south of dodge junction you have to fly to get to it, but our money is still good so could we get some food?"

It just makes more sense to me that every ling would have a public face including their hive.

Comments ( 14 )

4650782
I think Dr. Wolf said in one of his reviews, that Spike could be the element of 'Sacrifice'.:rainbowderp::moustache:

The Smooze? Really?

4789346
Thank you! I've been dying trying to remember were i heard it from.

4792667
You're very welcome.:twilightsmile:

4792675
Which reminds me, what are your thoughts on what spike could represent.

4792730
Hmmm....that's kinda hard to say at 2:48 AM. I'll get back to you, ok?

its the flood from halo for pony

4806676

No actually it's much older then Halo, it's an old enemy from the original mlp called the Smooze.
watch if you dare.

>>masorin. the flood from halo is older then the forruners if you read the books

4816523

While I have read the books in regards to halo actually, I would like to remind you that Halo first came out in 2005 for the xbox.

My little pony came out in the 80's for television.

also how do we know that Equestria isn't older then the forerunners or even older then the flood? for all we know ponies could have built the reapers as a solution to the problems of the organics, and gave the engineers the genetic coding to make the black goo.

Then while the ponies were vanguard of all technological advancement in the universe billions upon billions of eons ago they encountered two races, one with purity of essence that they twisted to try and make the perfect minds out of, but when that failed they flew away to come across the second born. Creating the Overmind to keep things in check while they ran off.

Then they happened upon the empire which was currently embarking upon it's great crusade, and she was all like no way are they gonna bully my galaxy, so she grabbed the prime arks (then infants) and scattered them across the galaxy allowing discord to take one (Horus) and raise it as his own.

Damn. Didn't see that coming, but that's one dangerous enemy!

Managed to finally read the two remaining chapters that I put off from reading since I discovered this fic in 2019(I think).
Man, such memories of reading this fic back then>

Wished this continued since I LOVE the idea of Spike being the 7th Element there.

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