Gems of Power

by WezzaHD

The 'Ling

The hallway was silent. dark and dank, guards were stationed at every corner, every door. It didn't matter who they were, what they did or when they had gotten there; they all hated their time there. They wanted nothing more than to leave the halls as quickly as possible. The green luminescent lights did nothing to ease their mood with the bleakness of what were most likely the darkest halls in Equestria. It didn't help that those same halls were never clean, always dripping with the same annoying goo. Yes, everyling there wanted to work anywhere else. However, the irritation was only an incredibly small reason why they wanted to move. Their complaints were only prominent to distract themselves from the real reason they were stationed there.

For changelings, the worst type of guard one can be is a prison guard. They were all stationed with some of the worse lawbenders, but they were right outside one particular cell, one that held one of the worst and most insane criminals of changeling kind.

"Why doesn't she just die already?" One of the guards grumbled. "I wish we could just execute her and be done with it."

"You think the queen went soft?" The second guard chuckled.

"Don't even joke about that. After the invasion I'd call her anything but soft." They didn't know why Queen Chrysalis even kept her alive. It was a mystery to everyling, but morso it was a pain. Even now, they could hear her laughing in that cell. Was she laughing at her own situation? Was she mocking them all at the death she knew they wanted to see her go through, but wasn't happening anytime soon? Either way, it still annoyed them. Of course, there were times when she was silent so they knew she at least slept. It didn't make it better, per se. The correct term would probably be 'less unbearable'. They heard banging on the door, which was also not uncommon for her.

"Q- Quiet down!" The first guard yelled, trying not to shake. He looked through a small window in the door, and his eyes widened. The shackles were empty.

"S- She's gone!"

"What did you say?" The others began shaking, frantically looking around for any sign of the deadly assassin that was supposed to be their prisoner. The door was quickly opened and three guards entered, looking for clues on where their prisoner might be. Suddenly, the door slammed shut on them. They quickly shot around, only to see the assassin herself smiling at them through the hatch. Her eyes and hole- filled mane were a dark purple. As she grinned t them, her incredibly pointy fangs shone brighter than the green lights that illuminated the room. There was even a rumour that her mere smile could give you a papercut. Of course, it couldn't do that but it could cause a changeling guard to wet himself.

"It's so easy to pull a fast one on a bunch a scaredy- lings." She gave off a light chuckle. "But I honestly thought that it would be far more difficult to trick you all. Ah well, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth as ponies say. Goodbye." She ran away, the guards shouting as she buzzed through the hallway.

"Stop her!" Several more guards ran at her as she neared the first door and her first step to leaving. She jumped up when one shot a magic blast, spun when another threw a spear at her then ducked once one final guard tried to ram her head- on. Once he was behind her, she bucked him with her hind legs, causing him to fall over, When another ran at her, she ducked and bit his legs. He cried in pain while spitting goo at the others to immobilise them.

"Wow, is this who miss Chryssi has trained while I was locked up? It's be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic." She paused for a moment. "Oh what the hell, I'll laugh anyway." She let loose an echoing chortle before reaching for another key with her magic. "I'll take this, thank you. Having different guards hold on to different keys was a pretty good move. If she had trained her guards more it might've worked better. Oh well." She shrugged and unlocked the second door.

"Get back here!"

"You won't escape!"

"I swear, once I get out of here I'll..."

"Blah blah blah." She rolled her eyes as she unlocked the door. More shouts of protest erupted as she closed it. She trotted up a flight of stairs humming to herself, kicking kicking down any guards that were dumb enough to try and stop her. She didn't mind, contrary to that fact it was more fun for her. She had barely moved in ages, this was her chance to stretch her exoskeleton. She opened the door and ran to the main hall. All eyes were quickly turned to her.

"This is the part where you all try to futilely attack me and try to bring me back to my cell, right?" An uproar broke out, and she gave them all a smirk. She dodged every spear thrown at her, parrying perfectly as some tried to fence horns with her, as if they thought they could beat her in a group, let alone one- on- one combat. Once she had her fill, her wings buzzed as she flew for the door at the top. She was shocked when she suddenly fell.

"Crap." She thought. "I guess I'm rustier than I thought." She paused for a a moment. "Ah well, no matter. I can still beat these idiots with my eyes closed and I need to go now anyway." She trotted happily along, ignoring the pleas and cries for help of the other prisoners.

"We're like you Wasp, please help us!"

"Like me?" She laughed. "Don't even try to flatter yourselves. If you're really like me, then you should have no problem getting out yourselves." The door creaked as it opened, but she was kicked in the face right before she could even make a step.

"Ah, I see." Wasp glared at her assailant.

"You're not going anywhere." Another changeling wearing a yellow armour stood in her way.

"Aw come on Switcheroo." She smiled her former colleague. "Don't be like that. You could save yourself a lot of pain and trouble if you just moved out of the way." When her former colleague showed no signs of budging, she shut her eyes and let out a sigh. "I guess my mercy means nothing do you, doesn't it?" Her eyes snapped open as she pounced at him, fangs pointed. He simply blocked with his armoured forehoof and smacked her away.

"You're insane Wasp, don't pretend your mercy means anything to you either." They both exchanged blows, locking horns before breaking away. She shot a blast of magic at him, but he simply stepped to the side.

"That was weak." He scoffed. Switcheroo then ran at her and she was prepared to bite his horn off had he not ducked when she snapped and flipped her over. She quickly rolled back on to her hooves and spat her goo at him, all of which he promptly dodged but didn't see the kick to his face coming. He fell to the ground and she ran for the door as he tried to get up.

"I'd truly love to continue this fight, but I have higher priorities right now. Goodbye," She waved her hoof at him and ran away, avoiding more goo shots. "I'm rusty." She thought. "And I've worked myself more than I thought. I could barely handle Switcheroo, bastard's actually gotten better. Now, onwards to Equestria. I will succeed where Miss Chrysalis failed. I will kill Princess Cadence."

---

Another patrol for the gems, though they didn't stick to the streets, rather they mostly flew in the skies and ran jumped on the walls. They didn't really feel like getting stares of fear and disdain from the crystal ponies at the moment. They had kept it up for a few hours, with nothing out of the ordinary so far. It didn't bother them, well, most of them anyway.

"Uuuugh, this is so boring." Amethyst groaned. "Why can't we be at home?"

"I agree. If it's been as uneventful as this all day I'd much rather be working on my robonoids. I've been neglecting them."

"You can just do that any other time Peri. Gems don't need to sleep, remember?"

"But I like to sleep." She whined.

"Yeah, but you, Lapis and I did take those hundred- year naps. You've slept for that long even though it should've been more than enough." Jasper grinned.

"I hate you both." She pouted.

"Aaw come on, you know you love us." The water gem flew next to her and brought the two closer. "Besides, our break should be coming up soon anyway so you can complain and build stuff all you want." Both she and Peridot sighed, before they went back down to the ground and headed for the castle. The six walked through the hallways passing the throne room when they heard the prince and princess discussing something. They sounded unsure. After a while, the two looked up with mild airtime to see the gems just outside the room. The two both stared at each other before Cadence finally said something.

"O- oh, come in, please."

"I feel like we're interrupting something." Peridot awkwardly rubbed the back of her back.

"Not at all, it's actually good that you're both here." She continued.

"Well what is it?" Lapis frowned. Shining levitated a note to them.

"This note is from a changeling hive; the hive of Queen Chrysalis."

"Chrysalis? You mean the same Queen Chrysalis who invaded Canterlot?" Jasper frowned.

"Yes." He was not getting any happier.

"And kidnapped your wife?"

"And mind controlled you?" Amethyst added.

"No, the other Queen Chrysalis that delivers pizza." Peridot rolled her eyes. "Honestly, it's like you do this on purpose."

"We're just processing this is all." Amethyst grinned and shrugged. "But now that that's out of the way, I gotta ask why?"

"Apparently, a criminal from their hive has escaped, an incredibly dangerous one according to the note. Read it for yourself to understand what I mean." At that, Pearl took the note and read it aloud.

"Dear Princesses of Equestria

I am sure you are surprised to hear from me after the Canterlot Wedding, but this is a letter of the utmost importance. A criminal of ours has escaped from our hive and is on the loose. I am sure you're wondering what it is you have to do with this, but we have reason to believe that this criminal is loose in Equestria. One changeling may not seem like much but she was trained by me personally, she is an assassin who knows how to find her way.

Good luck,

Queen Chrysalis"

Pearl handed Shining back the letter and frowned.

"Wait, so we just have to look out for a changeling that's on the loose?" Jasper tilted her head.

"Don't underestimate them." Shining warned. "Changelings are incredibly dangerous and deceptive. That being said, getting a letter from one isn't truly enough to make us trust her, but I'll have to keep an eye out just in case." He glared at the letter, and Cadence put her hoof on his back.

"Just be careful, okay?" After all of the gems nodded, he dismissed them.

---

"So, what do we even do now?" Amethyst asked, her hands behind her head. "Do we find this changeling and bring 'em in?" It had been a few days, and they had found no sign of the changeling they were talking about. Instead, they were in thought as a few guards, some maids and a stallion with a food cart passed by them.

"Well we don't even know if it's here, so we don't really have much chance outside of the Crystal Empire, it's be an awful long way to go, especially when she could be anywhere." Pearl replied.

"So you're saying it's best if we just hold down the fort and see what happens?" Jasper asked, frowning. She groaned after getting a nod from the spear- wielder. "So we finally get something exciting to do and we have to just wait and see what happens? And it might not even happen?"

"You mean exciting like with Medreth? Need I remind you that that was only a few weeks ago as well? Besides, we've waited over 1,000 years, I'm sure what will probably just be another few weeks is nothing. Right Garnet?" After getting no response, Lapis turned to see the perma- fusion was silent. It didn't seem like regular silence either, she appeared to be in thought.

"Follow me." She suddenly said as she took a left in the castle.

"Wait, what?" Amethyst looked at her waiting for them.

"Why?" Jasper folded her arms.

"I have a hunch." The orange gem sigh as she followed Garnet.

---

"What are we doing here?" Peridot asked, looking around the cookery room. All the ponies staring at them, some shaking slightly.

"I told you; a hunch and it's not one I can shake until I get this out of the way." She whispered before turning to the head chef. "Excuse me?"

"Um, y- yes?" He looked up at them, his eyes clearly showing fear.

"Has any food been taken to the prince or the princess recently? At all?" The urgent tone in her voice was evident.

"Yes m- miss. We've served them their breakfast and we just sent lunch off to them right now."

"Who's serving them?"

"Umm... I believe it was Apricot. Apricot Planter, wh-"

"Come on!" She ran outside quickly, and the gems followed suit. All that was left was the head chef standing there still frozen, his workers still staring at him.

"O- Okay then, back to work everyone."

---

"Your lunch, your highnesses." A peach- coloured crystal pony bowed before the princesses before presenting a tray of the most delicious- looking food in the empire, specially prepared by the best chefs in the empire. They did not make mere carnival food. No, only the best was made for the new prince and princess. They made their best assortment of crystal crepes, along with some specially brewed- shard soup to start.

"Thank you Apricot." Cadence smiled. "We'll certainly enjoy it."

"I'm glad to hear that, my liege." Apricot continued to bow. The couple levitated the plates closer. Their cutlery floated up, taking a piece of the crepes out.

"Wait!" Everyone froze as the gems ran into the throne room.

"What is the meaning of this?." One of the guards stated firmly.

"This is an emergency idiot, do you'd do yourself and the entire empire kind to shut up." Jasper growled at him, causing the guard to clamp his mouth shut and nod. Once that was done with, she turned to Shining and Cadence. "Now whatever you do, don't eat!"

"What?" Shining frowned.

"You heard me. Do not eat anything on that plate!"

"What are you babbling on about?" Rock Solid demanded.

"Check the food."

"What?"

"We think the food might be poisoned." Pearl exclaimed.

"Poisoned?" Apricot frowned. "Why would I poison my food?"

"That remains to be seen." Garnet went eye- to- eye with him, before standing back up and turning to the tray. She looked at it very closely. She looked at the dish, a hint of green catching her eye. "I may not understand crystal pony culture as much an an actual crystal pony, but..." She placed her hand on the pony's back. "I don't think changeling poison is part of the recipe." Apricot stood there, his expression blank.

"I suppose all that time in prison has made me rusty, to get caught by whatever it is you are. This is what happens when I rush, I suppose." He teleported to the other side of the room, despite his lack of horn, where a green fire began to cover his body revealing a violet- maned changeling, with eyes of the same colour and white sharp fangs. "I'm Wasp. It's a pleasure to meet you all." She took a bow before them. "So you managed to get past my poisoned food, I see. Shame the rest of the guards weren't so lucky."

"What?" Pearl glared at her.

"Well I'm just saying, if that same poison was served to the guards in the barracks, then it wouldn't end well for them." She grinned, as Rock Solid began to get weak in the knees. "Rusty, but not too rusty it seems. Goodbye." She teleported once again.

"Crap." Jasper growled. "I'll find her." She ran off into the castle hall.

"We should probably follow her." Peridot sighed.

"You guys check on the barracks. We'll help Jasper." Lapis said as she and the green gem flew off.

---

"Are they all here?" A cream unicorn asked, trotting hastily down the stairs as Pearl rushed the all three of them down.

"Yes, they are." Garnet nodded, keeping more of a cool head.

"All of them got poisoned?" A pink earth pony asked.

"All if not most." Amethyst said.

"Hm. I see." Another unicorn, bright green and wearing glasses, nodded. They entered the barracks to see almost all the guards sprawled on the ground, struggling to breathe and move. "Think you can do anything?"

"Well we'll certainly try." The cream unicorn, Bright smiled.

"Wow... There are a lot of them, Aren't there?" Tender's voice as filled with uncertainty.

"Ugh, don't be so worried Tender." Mercury, the green unicorn rolled her eyes before turning to the gems. "You have the changeling queen's note, do you not?" After receiving a nod from Garnet she adjusted her glasses. "We'll see what we can do."

---

"That was... more than I expected." Wasp sighed, thinking to herself as she walked through the alleyway. "Those things... I've never seen anything like them. They're certainly not minotaurs or dragons; they don't have scales or snouts."

"What are they?" She asked aloud.

"We're gems. I thought we got through that." Her eyes widened as she jumped away from Lapis.

"You're not getting away from us this time." Peridot hovered above her.

"You think so?" She grinned as she jumped up and flew in for a kick.

"Yeah, we do." Jasper stepped in and grabbed her hoof before it could touch anything. She threw the changeling down. Wasp rolled to the side as Jasper punched the ground where she was lying just a second ago. She was about to fly away but suddenly froze as she her wings began to flap. A green energy surrounded her. Lapis walked up to her and grabbed her with her wings. She didn't struggle and just stood there, glaring at the two.

"That was pretty easy." Peridot tilted her head. "Let's take her to Cadence and Shining." They stepped out of the alley onto the street, the convict in their grasp. The castle wasn't far by any means, since Wasp hadn't gotten too far.

"H- Help!" They stopped. The voice they heard wasn't one that belonged to a trained assassin, but a crystal filly. "Help me!"

"What's going on?" A pony walking the street noticed a scared filly in the hands of the gems. Soon a few more followed suit.

"It's a filly!"

"She looks scared."

"Those gems, it must be them." Lapis, Jasper and Peridot froze.

"A- Are they going back to their old ways?" None of them moved while the crystal ponies worried and feared. While they were still in shock, Wasp, still in her filly form, grinned and slipped away. After a moment, they all snapped out of it.

"Why that little..!" Jasper clenched her teeth, her fist closing. She immediately ran after the changeling, with the others following suit.

---

She flew through a window into a room back at the castle. Wasp stopped for a moment to gain her bearings. That had worked even better than she thought, and she was just thinking on her hooves. They didn't just get uncertain and defensive; they just... stopped. She had lost the element of surprise, but she just needed time.

Unfortunately, she didn't have it as Jasper burst through the wall, her face filled with rage. She lunged at Wasp, her fists swinging and slamming.

"Wow, I really touched a nerve with that trick, didn't I?" Wasp grinned. "How sad, such distrust."

"You're not going anywhere anymore!" Jasper charged at the changeling, but stopped when she saw what was in front of her. Princess Cadence, a look of fear in her eyes. With that hesitation in a split second, she kicked Jasper in the face and sunk her teeth into the gem's arm.

"Argh!" Jasper stumbled slightly before ripping Wasp off and throwing her into a wall. She went in for another punch, but Wasp became a filly again, causing the striped gem to stop before she could do any damage. She immediately changed back and shot a large amount of goo at Jasper's feet. "Hey, what is this?"

"That's changeling goo; incredibly sticky. You'll be hard pressed to get out of there, especially under all that." It went up to Jasper's knees, and using that much had cost Wasp a large amount of energy.

"And if you'd saved some, you might've had a chance at getting away." She turned around to see Lapis and Peridot, she latter shooting her electron blaster at the assassin. She jumped up, running on the walls while Lapis's wings extended into monster heads, snapping their teeth at her. Once she saw an opening, Wasp, shot a blast of magic at Lazuli, causing Peridot to lose focus and the changeling to clamp her teeth onto Peridot's forearm. Giving off a yelp of pain, she fell down onto Lapis.

"Don't worry, we'll meet again." Wasp brushed herself off, trotting out of the room. However, she didn't get far once she felt her body surrounded by a green energy once again. Peridot stood tall and walked towards the changeling.

"Hey Peri, your limb enhancers broken?" Lapis asked, frowning right next to Peridot.

"Nah, she just dented them. It's fine." She waved her dented hand dismissively. "As for you, we're sending you back to Queen Chrysalis. She'll decide what to do with you." At that, Wasp growled. "Oh, and you can forget about poisoning the guards. We've got ponies on that as well. It's over Wasp."

"It's not... over until Cadence is... dead, ugh!" She tried to muster up some more magic to teleport, but she was far too tired to do anything.

"Why do you even care? What do you have to gain from it?" Lapis frowned.

"I will succeed where my 'Queen' failed. She couldn't beat that mare! She couldn't take over Canterlot!"

"So that's what this is about? Proving that you're better than Chrysalis?"

"Ugh, it doesn't matter anyway. Just... Just take me away."

---

Wasp was captured. She made eye contact with no one and was silent throughout the whole ordeal, as were, for the most part, the gems. A changeling came to escort her, named Switcheroo. He walked past Wasp, glancing at her for a split second before turning to Shining and Cadence, the former trying not to glare at both of the changelings.

"I thank you for your help." He bowed before them. They were uneasy, but nodded back. Once he left with Wasp, the prince and princess let out a sigh.

"That was... very awkward." Jasper remarked.

"We're just supposed to talk to them like nothing happens." Shining rubbed his forehead. "Even after what they did, we're just not going to acknowledge the elephant in the room?" He sighed. "But I digress. We owe you gems our thanks once again. You very well saved our lives. But it's not just you that we're thankful for. Tender, Mercury and Bright. We owe our thanks to all of you." The three unicorns nodded, Tender and Bright smiling while Mercury let out a 'hm' and nodded.

"It was quite easy, actually. Given that we had instructions." Mercury stated.

"Regardless." Bright smiled. "We were still able to help, and we're glad we did so."

"Quite." Mercury adjusted her glasses, eyeing the gems.

"Who knows? Maybe this'll get changelings and ponies talking again. Not instantly, but it could start turning the gears." Pearl smiled.

"It's far too soon for anything like that Pearl. It really wasn't that long ago."

"Well... maybe."

---

Garnet sat in the dark room, staring at the bubble before her. There on the opposite side of the room inside the pink bubble, was a black skull floating in mid- air. She might've said she saw lights in the skull flicker at her, but she shook her head. Honestly, she had no idea what to do with the gem. He was made by Springtrap, and if her experiences with him as Sardonyx were anything to go by, then it was clear that wasn't a good thing. That being said...

The fusion stood up, staring at the gem before sighing and walking out of the room, another pair of eyes lighting up as she did.