Turning Point
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Turning Point
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“I can’t believe you dragged me away from my new wife for this…” Shining Armor grumbled as he walked with Rainbow Dash in to his office in Canterlot Castle.
“I finished the reports, and I wanted to brief you on the findings I made!” She said, practically jumping up and down as gestured to a spot for her to sit down, “They’re really fascinating!”
Shining scratched his head as he gave the colorful mare a somewhat mystified look.
“What?” She asked, looking down at her nose, “Do I have something on my face?”
“No, it’s not that,” He shook his head, as he levitated the thick stack of papers out of her saddlebag, “You just remind me way too much of my sister.”
“You know, I was just thinking that a couple hours ago,” She said, scratching her cheek, “Nowadays she’s the one running around with the stallions, and slacking off!”
“Stallions?” Shining Armor asked, looking away from the report and raising his eyebrow, “Does she have a lot of boyfriends?”
“Oh, no!” Dash corrected, laughing a bit, “Just the one Changeling.”
“Oh yes. Alpha… or Omega. Whatever you guys call him.” He grumbled, not liking the fact that his sister was infatuated with somepony who once tried to brainwash the Elements of Harmony.
“We can talk about all that after,” She said, tapping her hoof on the document, “Let’s get through this first.”
Sighing, Shining Armor began opening the book, before pausing and looking to her once again, “You know this was busy work, right? I asked you to do this because I seriously didn’t want to, and figured you’d be apologetic enough to agree.”
“Well, duh!” She said, rolling her eyes at the obvious statement, “But I wanted your input on these secret death squads I’ve found in these reports!”
“Death squads?” He asked, frowning at the name she had given them, “You’re talking about the groups of changelings that were killing soldiers?”
“You knew about them!?” She asked, feeling somewhat robbed in getting to tell the secret.
“Well, yeah. Those guys were discussed in our reports. I read all of them.” Shining said, a little surprised that she was upset about this, “We always figured that were a rebel group, or maybe from another political faction.”
“That couldn’t be true though!” Dash said, happy that he was still missing a piece of the puzzle in his head, “Because in all of the changeling reports, not once was this group mentioned.”
This surprised Shining Armor.
“These reports were top priority,” She said, flipping to her marked page and tapping her hoof on a crown emblem, “This was read by the Queen! Why would it say that her people were killed by zebra assassins, when our reports say that it was Changelings doing the killing?”
“I… don’t know.” He said, flipping to the next page, which contained some other report that she hadn’t highlighted, “What’s this symbol here?”
Dash looked at the place he was pointing to and shook her head. The symbol almost looked like an uppercase ‘Y.’ However, the where the two points ended, they instead curled downward.
♈
“I’ve never seen it,” She shook her head, “They don’t have the crown, so I’m guessing they aren’t meant for the queen.”
“Maybe we should grab Alpha,” Shining suggested, seeing no other alternative aside from Chrysalis, “He’ll probably know what all this means. Do you know if he’s still in Canterlot?”
Dash knew exactly where he was! He was with Twilight! She figured that the two of them were… oh.
“I have no idea,” Dash lied, shaking her head a little too hard, “Maybe ask Celestia?”
“If he is gone, we might have to ask Chrysalis,” Shining Armor said, glancing out the window toward the tower where she was being held, “She might be forthcoming if she finds out that she was lied to by her own people.”
“I think it would take a little more than that,” Dash shook her head, knowing how upset she was with Equestrians in general, “But if that’s our only option we might as well give it a try.”
////
Alpha looked at the ceiling of the Ponyville library from Twilight’s bed, where she slept soundly just inches away. Right now, in this moment, he wished more than anything that he didn’t have to go back to the Hive. This was all he wanted. To simply live a normal life, with normal ponies, and start a normal family. Of course that wasn’t possible.
There was no world where he would be able to leave the Hive in the hooves of the council. Their determination to lead his people into an unending war was simply unacceptable, and without him, that would be the future for the hive… There would be nothing but bloodshed.
In this sense, he was his own worst enemy. The only thing keeping him from this perfect life was his own sense of duty. And he hated it.
“Hey…” Twilight said, causing Alpha to jump slightly in surprise, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, you’re awake,” He said, looking to her as she placed her hoof on his chest, “How did you sleep?”
She gave him a dirty giggle as she looked up to meet his gaze, “How do you think I slept?”
Alpha didn’t give her the laugh she expected. He only sighed.
“Okay, so what the heck is up with you?” She asked, sitting herself up and giving him a serious look, “Is this about the hive again? Because I told you! I can come visit!”
“Well, yes and no.” Alpha said, “I’m still just stuck on the fact that I won’t be… this happy.”
“I know that you won’t be able to live here with us any time soon,” Twilight said, frowning as she looked to the foot of the bed, “And that really sucks… But just think about how many lives you’ll save by doing this.”
Alpha nodded slightly.
“Your sacrifice, will allow millions of changelings to live the life you want so badly,” she said sadly, “No conscription, parents won’t lose their children every day… it’s just something that you need to do, until you can guarantee that they won’t be forced back in to war by somepony else.”
“But how could I ever make sure of that?” Alpha asked, “What would stop somepony from just walking in, and starting another fight?”
Twilight finally looked back to his face, and placed her hoof on his cheek.
“By making them realize just how good this is.” She said, giving him a smile and stroking his face slightly, “All they’ve known for the last hundred years is war. Make them fall in love with peace, and once they do, they’ll never be pushed back to where they are now.”
“It might take years.” Alpha said, a twinge of hope in his voice.
“It might take more.” Twilight added, “But I’ll be right next to you for the entire way. You’ll never be alone in this.”
Finally, he gave her the smile she had been dying to see, “Thank you, Twilight.”
Leaning forward, she gave him a brief kiss, before leaning back and giggling at his somewhat bashful response, as he coughed and somewhat tried to avoid her gaze.
It only made her think he was… adorable? That was a weird thing to associate with Alpha.
“Why are you so shy about this stuff?” She laughed, “You’re name is literally Alpha! What happened to the man who kissed me on our first date, way back at Haven Station?”
“I’m not shy!” Alpha said back to her, puffing his chest out, “It’s just- I don’t know. I’ve never felt this way about somepony before. It makes me feel odd… Especially with you being so forward about it!”
“Well, I’ve got news for you,” she said faux-sternly, instantly lifting herself up, and straddling his waist, “I’m a very forward pony.”
“Again?” Alpha laughed, as she leaned down and kissed his chest a couple of times, “You’re incorrigible!”
“I’m filling up our quota for the next week, until I can come visit you,” She giggled, “Then, when I get there, you can introduce me to all your friends! You must be pretty popular, being an Omega and everything.”
“If only they knew that Chrysalis stripped me of my rank,” Alpha said slowly, “I mean- I’m not even an Alpha anymore.”
Twilight paused her assault on his body, as she looked up and made a confused eye contact with him.
“So… If you’re not an Alpha anymore, what does that make you?” She asked, blinking a few times.
Alpha smiled, he had almost forgotten about sharing this with her.
“Well, if I had no rank in the army, I guess you’d just call me… Marick.” He said, blinking rapidly as she tilted her head in response.
“Is that the name ponies get that don’t join the army?” Twilight asked, not understanding what he was saying.
“No,” he shook his head with a smile, “That’s my name. Marick.”
Twilight paused for another moment, before speaking up again.
“So, you’re telling me… That your rank is Alpha, your name is Marick, and you still prefer to have the mare take charge in the bedroom?” Twilight laughed, earning a chuckle back from him, “You’re a strange case.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” He smiled, “Now, why don’t we knock a few more rounds out of the ballpark before I head back to the hive in a few hours for the debate?”
“Debate?” Twilight asked, having heard nothing about this previously.
“Well, some public officials are having a debate between myself and the Council, in an effort to make our goals clearer to the public,” He explained, “It isn’t until tonight, but I can’t just ignore it. It would be terrible for my cause if I weren’t there. It’d make me look… flakey.”
“Well, I guess we’d better get to work then.” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
“But, for a little change, why don’t I take charge this time?” He asked, wrapping his arms around her back, as he rolled her over on to her back, and took position over her.
“You read my mind, Marick.”
////
A few hours later
////
“There they are,” Dash said, pointing to the two ponies that were traveling side to side, both wearing euphoric smiles as they traveled through the front doors to the castle.
Shining Armor fought back his anger at seeing his sister so close with the Changeling, knowing that this was an important question he needed an answer to.
“Alpha!” He called, as the changeling looked to him, “We need your help with some of these war reports you sent us.”
Frowning, Alpha didn’t want to sound rude by saying no, but he really had no choice at this point.
“I need to catch a train,” Alpha said, pointing over his shoulder in the direction of the train station, “I’m just here to grab my stuff.”
“It would mean a lot if you could just run over them with us for a couple minutes,” Dash spoke up, hoping to calm Shining down slightly, “There are some discrepancies—“
“I’m sure there are a few,” He said, still on the move toward the wing of the castle he had been set up in, “But I really, really don’t have time. I need to be back for a meeting I have scheduled for tonight, and I need to leave in the next ten minutes.”
“But-“
“I’m sorry!” He said, opening the door, and rushing down the hall, leaving Twilight in the lobby with Rainbow Dash and her brother.
Shining only growled in response to everything that just happened.
“It’s really important that he be back there tonight,” Twilight said, seeing the frustration the two were showing, “If he’s not, he’d lose a lot of support toward ending the war.”
“It would answer a bunch of questions though…” Dash said, grabbing her massive book out from her saddlebag, “There are symbols we don’t understand, some events aren’t being told by both sides... It might be significant!”
“Really though?” Twilight asked, tilting her head, “I mean, it doesn’t exactly sound like vital information…”
“Twilight, three years ago, when I was trying to save Alex, you told me to not let anything small get by me!” Dash said back, as the mare blinked rapidly, “It was the rumor about healing spells in buffalo culture that led to me finding the esuna spell! There are reports of soldiers being slaughtered by other changelings. If there is some force out there we don’t know about, we need Alpha to fill us in!”
Twilight was once again shocked by her realization that she was essentially the new Rainbow Dash. How could she try to play that information off as nothing?
“I-I’m sorry!” She said, looking to her and Shining, “How could I say that? J-just let me go talk to Alpha.”
“Thank you.” Dash said with a smile.
Twilight ran down the hall after Alpha, and, after about five minutes, the two came back in to the lobby, with a couple of suitcases in tow behind them.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Alpha said immediately to them, as he dropped the bags, “Twilight told me that this information is potentially vital… So, I should take a few minutes to look it over. The debate can wait a few minutes.”
“Thank Celestia!” Dash laughed, “This has been eating at me for months!”
“You haven’t even had the reports for a week,” Alpha laughed, as he walked over to the two captains and leaned over to see her work, “So, what have you found?”
“Well, we were wondering about these symbols,” Shining Armor spoke up again, pointing to the crown on one page, and then to the foreign symbol on another, “What’s the significance to these?”
“Those represent the destination of the reports…” Alpha said slowly, comparing the contents of the two different pages, “This one with the crown is meant for the queen. It’s a summary of events for a set amount of time. The ♈ means that the report was destined for the Council, they’re more specialized in contents for topics important to them.”
“Okay,” Dash nodded, “That’s the kind of thing we figured.”
“Was that all…?” He asked, having slightly hoped that they found something more interesting.
“Of course not!” Dash said, flipping to one of the few pages she had stuck with a tab, “I wanted to know about the sect of Changelings that have been popping up in the Equestrian reports, and killing entire platoons of your people.”
The look on his face could only be described as a mixture of confusion and shock.
“W-what do you mean?” Alpha asked, utterly lost at what she had just said.
“Well, according to a few Equestrian reports, every now and then, a group of Changelings bearing a slightly different uniform show up, and slaughter an entire platoon.” Dash explained again, “But according to the Changeling reports, these platoons are being ambushed by the residents of wherever they’re stationed, whether it be from zebra, or ponies.”
“Could you please show me all of the entries?” Alpha asked quietly, this information still not completely computing in his mind, “I… need to see this for myself.”
Dash wasted no time fishing out every report she found to have this kind of content within it, and swiftly handed it over to Alpha.
A few moments passed as he read over the pages that he held in front of him with a spell, before he reached the final one in the pile, and promptly dropped them all on the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, rushing to his side, as Dash and Shining followed suit.
Alpha breathed for a few minutes without responding, before he looked over his shoulder to the others.
“Tell the train I won’t be going back to the hive tonight,” He said, looking to Twilight’s brother, “I need to talk to Chrysalis.”
“I don’t know if we could arrange that—“ Shining began, before being cut off.
“Please.” He said, the mystifying expression in his eyes telling Shining just how important this was.
“Okay.” He nodded, “I’ll take you there myself. It sounds pretty important.”
“Nothing is more important to me, than talking with her right now.”
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Duh duh duuuuh. Seriously i never saw the changling assassins as a possible outcome.... Well done good sir/madam well done.
I hope this helps. It's a rather common mistake I see on the internet.
Lead (long "e"): Verb
Lead (short "e"): Common noun, metal, 82nd element on the periodic table
Led (short "e"): Past tense of lead (long "e")
I can't wait to see Chrysalis' reaction to this development.
Someone really, really wanted the war to go on and on and grant them Executive power of gods given rights to have total power over the slime that is the populance.
Just in the best, now we need to wait...
As he gestured to a spot for her to sit down?
I'm not sure how to feel about Twilight becoming less of an egghead. It feels wrong somehow.
"I guess you’d just call me… Marick.”
I don't know why, but I'm thinking he could have an old friend named Bakura. ...I'm rather silly like that.
Great chapter. This was fun to read. Good luck with the next chapter. I wonder if this will cause the queen to support Alpha?
Oooooooooooooooh, something that might get Chrysalis to at least consider ending the war efforts?
Who would've thought?
Oh dear. Could this mean that it was a renegade group of changelings that killed Chrysalis' fiancee?
Am I the only one confused that RD can apparently levitate stuff?
Just kidding, I know what you mean, but still, it confused me a bit.
Also: Dammit Twilight! Stop being RD! and visa versa!
Plan C beta 2 now initiating! Get ready for the shell shock, Chrysalis!