• Published 27th May 2012
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My Little Pony: Morphing is Magic - Tricondon



The Mane 6 team up with another Main 6 to fight a new threat.

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Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Starring: the Amazing Marco!

I have to hand it to these Changelings. Sure, they might be freaky bug ponies with swiss cheese for legs, but they had some great wingpower behind them. We were covering twice the distance than we were in that hulking airship, though admittedly the extra work was taking a toll on our wing muscles. Three times already we had to stop and rest up from nearly over-exerting ourselves, but only had to re-morph once. Not because we’d almost reached the limit, but rather because one of Rachel’s weakened wings was nearly torn off during a sudden updraft. So we all figured to play it safe and renew our morphs. Still, Ax said we reached the end of the badlands in less than an hour, even with all the stops. And I got to say, the sight of actual plants was quite welcoming after nothing but sand and dead earth.

“Prince Jake, at our current speed I estimate we will reach the castle in approximately ten of the current minutes.”

“Hey, look over there,” Rachel said, extending one of her legs for us to follow. “It’s that broken-down castle we were hiding in.”

“Ah prefered seein’ it from th’ ground!” Applejack cried, clinging tightly to Rachel with one leg and keeping the other firmly over her hat.

“Jake, do you think this Changeling morph is really gonna be that useful?” Rachel asked. “Maybe we should find something with a bit more punch to it.”

Jake considered for a moment before turning to Applejack. “You know if there’s anything in there we can use?”

“The Everfree? It’s filled with horrible monsters. Ah wouldn’t recommend spendin’ too much time there m’self.”

“A creepy place filled with nothing but horrible monsters that want to kill and or mutilate us. Sounds like our kind of place,” I added.

“We did not encounter any dangerous wildlife during our stay,” Ax pointed out. “Except Pinkie Pie.”

“We barely went into the forest when we stayed there,” Rachel said. “Besides, you all saw how effective Tobias was as that firebird. This is the opportune moment.”

Jake nodded. “Alright, we’ll do a quick flyby and see what we spot. If we’re lucky we can get some new morphs, but if not we’re going straight to the castle. We can’t afford to waste much more time.”

“I suggest we split up, Prince Jake, to search more of the forest area,” Ax said after a moment’s thought. “We are more likely to spot something if we are spread out.”

“Already on it,” Rachel said with a whoop, swerving off to the left — and apparently forgetting about her passenger. Applejack was caught completely off guard and instantly brought both hooves over her hat. Unfortunately, she forgot that she needed to keep a hold on Rachel and ended up falling. The shock caused her to lose her grip on her hat and flail all four limbs wildly, allowing her hat to go flying in the wind. The moment it left her head two necklaces — one with a diamond on it and the other a lightning bolt — came tumbling out.

With barely a thought I angled down and neatly caught her before she fell too far, though I had barely gotten a grip on her before she cried out “The Elements! Get the Elements!”

“You’re welcome, Applejack,” I said cheerfully. Once she’d gotten a grip on me I flew off after her hat and managed to catch it before any more Elements could fall out. I looked around for the two that I saw fall out and only managed to spy them by the glint of the sun reflecting off. Both of them had landed in the top branches of a tree, easily retrieved. I flew down — slowly, so I wouldn’t drop Applejack as Rachel had done — and grabbed the dropped Elements, returning them to her.

“Ah really prefer walkin’ after that,” Applejack sputtered, still noticeably shaken.

“Try going through Z-Space some time. You’ll want to anchor yourself to the earth after that.”

“Ah think Ah’ll stay on mah farm if that’s alright with you.” She shook her head before placing her hat back on, then looked around. “Where’d that no-good Rachel get off to?”

“Probably off to acquire the first thing that tries to rip her apart,” I replied. I thought for a moment, wondering what else existed on this planet. “So, probably a gryphon or a dragon.”

As if on cue there was a thunderous roar off in the distance. I jerked my head towards the sound and easily spotted a mass of green scales leap into the air, bursting from the trees. Massive wings unfurled, forcing all the trees around them to tremble from the hurricane winds they produced. A wicked head dominated by a savage snarl was darting around angrily; even from this distance I could see the smoke slowly flowing from between its fangs and out its nostrils.

I let out a long sigh and looked skywards. “You know, I was only joking!

“Keep quiet,” Applejack said. “And get low, do ya want it t’ spot us?”

“Impossible,” Ax said, nearly startling me by how quickly and quietly he appeared. “The wing-to-body ratio is too great. Its weight alone would prevent it from reaching flight from a standing position. The square-cube law should crush its own ribcage just from existing. There is no plausible way such a creature could sustain flight.”

“Ax,” I said, calmly gesturing to Applejack. “World of magic talking ponies, shut up.”

“Tell me that ain’t Rachel out there, too,” Applejack whispered, motioning towards the dragon. Following her hoof I made out a small black dot approaching its long neck. The dragon didn’t seem to notice her, or maybe it just didn’t care. It was circling over the trees now, watching the forest with those wicked eyes.

“She’s absolutely crazy!” I half-shouted; then again, this was Rachel we were talking about.

“Do you think she will be able to acquire this creature?” Ax asked, still staring at the dragon with disbelief.

“Maybe, but we’re following after, just in case,” Jake replied.

I nodded and began flying towards the dragon, keeping low to the trees and wishing Changelings had the same incredible eyesight that hawks did. It looked like Rachel had managed to land on one of the massive spines on the dragon’s neck and was demorphing as fast as she could. The dragon continued to pay her no mind; instead, it fixated all its attention around a certain section of the woods, and the corners of its mouth twisted upwards into a vicious grin. Then, without warning, it descended towards the trees, thrusting its arms forward and causing the sun to glint on its vicious claws. The whole thing lasted a second — amazing for something of that size — and when it returned to its previous altitude there was something speared on one claw. It looked like some sort of deer, but was about three times as big and coloured bright green. Not to mention it had feathered wings replacing its front hooves.

“Woah! Turn ‘round, your Highness! I ain’t gonna be on no dragon’s menu!”

“Just watch, Applejack,” Jake said. I nodded to her, noticing that Rachel had finished demorphing as well and was holding onto the spine with both hands. The dragon stopped flapping its wings, though did manage to keep them open in a glide. The rest of it entered the calm, dreamlike state that everything goes into whilst being acquired.

“Man, imagine how much help that thing will be back on Earth,” I said to Jake.

“So long as Rachel can keep it under control. And we don’t get the military hunting her down.”

We watched in silence as Rachel quickly remorphed the Changeling queen and flew over to us. The dragon quickly recovered from the trance and shook its head briskly. It then took notice that it was gliding dangerously close to the treetops and beat its wings furiously in an attempt to gain altitude — which it did. However, the kill it made slid off of its claw from the sudden ascension and fell into the forest. When the dragon caught sight of this it let loose a furious roar, orange fire gushing forth and into the sky. Applejack gave a cry of alarm, huddling close to me.

“Aw yeah, now this will be a fun morph!” Rachel cried exuberantly, pausing only for a moment to grin at me before turning and headed for the glittering walls of the castle in the distance. Jake followed shortly after, which pretty much solidified that our trip to get local morphs was all but over. I gave an unhappy grunt and followed after them.

“I wanted something, too...”


The trip over the forest took considerably less than the trip out of the badlands. It was only a matter of minutes after leaving the dragon that we spotted the glittering walls of the mountain-side castle. Actually, the castle part was the section that actually hung over the cliff. The rest was a walled city. I had to admit that these ponies were marvelous engineers, assuming they actually built the castle. Even the finest human minds would have difficulty supporting a cliffside castle as it was. But I guess when you have magic everything suddenly becomes a lot simpler.

A smile crossed my features and I turned to my side slightly. “Hey, Rachel, do you think people would pay a lot to come here and—” I stopped mid-sentence, since I was speaking to the air. In confusion I slowed down, looking around. Jake and Ax were still ahead of me, but Rachel was missing. Had the dragon somehow found us and managed to take her out without alerting any of us?

“Prince Jake,” Ax said suddenly. “Yeerk ships are approaching from orbit.”

Instantly I looked skywards. Sure enough, several bug fighters were descending near the far side of the mountains and out of sight from the city.

“We gotta get to the city!” Applejack cried. “Twilight’s in trouble!”

“I think everyone’s going to be in trouble at this rate,” I said, urging myself forward faster, but not for very long as I ended up stopping again when a mass of smoke billowed from the corner of my eye. Turning to look, I saw a massive pile of wood and metal burning in the center of a rather large valley. Even among the flames I spotted the large, torn balloon draped over a crumpled hull. “Oh...that’s bad news.”

I felt Applejack shift around as she spotted what I did. Moments later she gave a horrified shriek. “Oh no! No no no! We’ve gotta get down there!”

“No time, Applejack,” Jake said. “We need to warn everyone.”

Applejack looked at him disbelievingly. “Y-yah can’t just go. We’ve got t’ help them!”

“Precedence,” Jake replied, hurrying towards the castle. “What’s more important? Twilight, or the entire city?”

“We need Twilight to save the city!” Applejack protested.

“If the Yeerks have her then she can’t save anyone, regardless,” I added. “Besides, there’s a good chance they escaped before the ship crashed.” Something nagged at me for a moment before I remembered. “Oh, right. Guys? Anyone seen Rachel?”

“Was she not following behind you?” Ax asked.

As if on cue a thunderous roar split the air; I barely had time to react before a gust of wind sent me whirling through the air. Somehow I managed to hold on to Applejack, who in turn held onto her hat. Moments later a giant green dragon flew past us, heading for the castle with single-minded determination.

“What in tarnation’s going through that dragon’s head?”

“Knowing Rachel? ‘This is gonna be fun!’” I sarcastically replied.

Applejack turned to me, a bemused look quickly forming on her face. “Seriously?”

“That’s our warrior princess for ya,” I said with a smile. Ax and Jake were already flying ahead, so I beat my wings and flew after them.

By the time we reached the city the sky above it was alive with fire and Dracon Beams. Rachel was twisting through the air, roaring and belching flames as the less-nimble Bug Fighters tried to get a clear shot. One managed to clip her above the wing, but this only served to make Rachel mad. And a mad Rachel equaled two Bug Fighters getting smashed together. Violently.

“Ok, new plan,” Jake commented. “We go back, get a dragon morph ourselves, and join in. I’m pretty sure Rachel can hold up on her own without us.” At that point in time Rachel decided to land next to the castle — and proceeded to punch through a very expensive-looking stained glass window.

“Counter-offer,” I said, flying towards Rachel. “You get a dragon morph while Ax-man and I try to stop Rachel from destroying what we’re trying to protect!”

“Then can ya set me down first?” Applejack asked.

<Does Applejack want down?> Rachel asked. <You can set her down here. Rarity needs to talk to her.>

“Rarity?” I asked, slightly surprised as I came up next to her eye. “Are the others with her?”

<Yeah, just saved them from a bunch of human controllers.>

“Oh, those were absolute brutes!” Rarity cried. I quickly spotted her through the remains of the window, though my attention was quickly drawn to Twilight, held aloft in the air in some strange glowing cage. I guess that confirmed those suspicions. Next to her was Cassie, who looked up at the two of us.

“Rachel, is that you? Seriously?”

“No, I’m Marco. The big green scaly one is Rachel.”

<Yeah, I’ll talk to you later Cassie,> Rachel said before turning skywards again and flying up to greet a second squadron of Bug Fighters.

“You continue to surprise me,” Rarity commented, watching Rachel fly off.

“It comes with the job,” I said, landing in front of them. I then turned my attention to the Visser. “So, mind telling me just how much trouble we’re in?”

“Remember when we got sent to that Leeran planet?” Cassie said. “We’re about there, but without Andalite help.”

“So somewhere between meeting Crayak and the Permalites being discovered. Wonderful.”

I would have said more, but it was as if a light switch went off in my mind. I swung around in a defensive posture, felt the peculiar buzz through my skull that came with casting a spell — with another microsecond spent wondering if Changelings even have skulls — and saw a sickly-green shield pop into view around myself and the others moments before Dracon Beams collided with it in a shower of sparks.

You know how on shows like Star Trek whenever the Enterprise is hit by enemy fire the entire bridge explodes? That pretty well describes what it’s like to have your magic shield get hit by Dracon Beams, only instead of a computer console blowing up I got the world’s worst migraine.

The Hork Bajir who had fired at me grimaced at my defence. Two human controllers then came up beside him and aimed their Dracon Beams at me as well. I smiled at them and instinctively focused on the shield despite the vibrations ringing through my head. Then, mere milliseconds before they could fire, I forced the shield to expand outwards. Again their lasers pounded the shield — and to the same extent, me — before the explosions sent all three of them straight into the walls.

“Where’d you learn to do that, Marco?” Cassie asked. “You certainly weren’t that good with magic yesterday.”

“I have no idea!”

“This is mighty nice and all, but we’ve got bigger things t’ worry about.” Applejack said. She reached a hoof under her hat and pulled out a few of the necklaces. She then tossed Rarity the one with the diamond on it and put the rest under her hat. “I reckon’ ya’ll lost these?”

Rarity’s eyes light up as she stared at the necklace. “The Elements? But, how did you get them?”

“Ah’ve no idea, but that’s not important. Where’d the rest of the girls get to?”

“Well, Twilight’s right here, though rather indisposed at the moment. I’m not sure where the others are. Oh, I do hope they’re safe.”

Another Hork-Bajir rounded the corner, but I quickly disposed of him with a simple beam of energy, sending him careening into the wall. Cassie was using the time to demorph, but she didn’t stay human for long. Already I saw her teeth extend to fangs, and her skin was rapidly being covered with grey fur. Pretty soon she walked up next to me, fully a wolf. Meanwhile, I was taking potshots at any bipedal creature that dared to turn the corner — and getting quite good at my aim, too. I was turning it into a game; hit this one in his knee, that one in her chest. Managed to hit what I aimed for most of the time, too.

<Marco, we should find the others, make sure they’re safe.>

“And leave one pony behind to watch the Visser? A little foolish, don’t you think?”

Another human came from around the corner. Or rather, he fell down in a crumpled heap from around the corner.

I smiled. “What took you guys so long?”

<Prince Jake and I remained behind to assist Rachel,> Ax said, stepping into view as an Andalite. Next to him was Jake, still morphed as the Changeling Queen. <Our help was not required, seeing as she forced the Bug Fighters to make an emergency landing before we could arrive in time.>

“I see the Visser has been contained,” Jake said dryly, looking at Rarity. “That’s one less thing for us to worry about for the moment.”

“Not really, we still need the others t’ use the Elements,” Applejack said. “And Twilight, too.”

“Then let’s stop wasting time and go find them,” I said, shooting another controller that rounded the corner.

“Um, I hate to be a bother, but I’m finding it difficult to keep on the move while maintaining this shield,” Rarity cut in.

Jake nodded. “Alright. Applejack, Marco, Cassie, you three and myself will split up and search for the others. Ax, stay with Rarity and run interference while she gets somewhere safer.”

“Where should I go?” Rarity asked. “The castle’s overrun.”

“I don’t know. You know this place better than I do,” Jake harshly shot back. “C’mon, let’s go.” He nodded at me and quickly spun around, running back the way he came.

<C’mon, Applejack, let’s get going.>

“Ah’m coming, girls!” The two took off together, cheering and hollering for the missing ponies. I rolled my eyes and leapt into the air, flying down a different corridor.

The castle was a mess. Pony guards were fighting human controllers, with the rare guard fighting alongside fellow controllers. I quickly and efficiently neutralized any that I came across before they had much time to react. In other sections, however, the amount of controllers compared to guards was too much, even for me. As I flew over the fighting I saw humans firing Dracon Beams at pegasus guards while Hork Bajir were engaged in close combat with unicorns. There were even Taxxons skittering among them, eagerly ripping into the dead or wounded on either side. One unicorn managed to knock a Hork bajir into a couple of Taxxons, which instantly punctured from the blades and coated the room in vile green goo. The smell drove the others into an all-out frenzy. With a manic screech they began gorging without thought or reason, ripping apart themselves and their neighbors in the mad drive for food.

I shuddered at the horror of it and sped on. Where were these Yeerks coming from? I didn’t see any fighting in the streets on our way in, though perhaps by this point there was.

“Shoot her, you fools!”

My thoughts were interrupted by an angry yell. I looked around in confusion, annoyed with myself that I had gotten lost in thought and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, though the number of unconscious people around me suggested I was doing just fine despite my lack of concentration.

“What’s wrong? Can’t hit a wounded pegasus?”

I rounded the corner in pursuit of the voices. In the middle of a cramp hallway were three human controllers surrounding Rainbow Dash. She had her back hooves on the stomach of a fourth and was staring defiantly at the others while holding her front hooves up as if they were fists. The humans were less than intimidated, however, and all took aim with their Dracon Beams. They were quick on the draw, but Rainbow leapt out of the way just as they fired. Two of the controllers managed to hit each other while Rainbow leapt at the third, smashing her front hooves against his skull. He went down like a stone.

“Wow, remind me never to make you mad,” I chuckled. Rainbow turned to me and her eyes widened with surprise before instantly leaping at me and pinning me to the ground.

“You!” Rainbow practically snarled.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down,” I pleaded. “It’s me, Marco.”

“Yeah, sure! Like I’m gonna trust you!”

“Rainbow, it’s really me. Marco, the guy who came from space with Prince Jake. Rarity spent well over an hour styling and combing my mane when I morphed her. She fainted when Rachel told a scary story.”

Rainbow eyed me suspiciously. “Then change back to normal.”

“Are you kidding? There’s controllers all around. I’m not doing something that stupid.”

Rainbow gave me a triumphant grin. “More like you can’t.”

I was going to say more when something caught in the corner of my eye. Without thinking I grabbed Rainbow in my hooves and rolled over, pinning her under me just as a Dracon Beam fired. I heard myself cry in pain as the all too familiar pain shot through my left sides, but pushed the sensation aside and quickly shot off a blast of magic at the source. A similar grunt of pain made me smile as I knew I’d hit my mark.

Rainbow Dash looked at me in a mixture of confusion and doubt. “Ok, I might believe you now.”

“Glad to hear it,” I grunted as I climbed off her and stood, wobbling slightly. “Ugh, at least I’ve already got plenty of holes. What’s a few more among friends?”

“Right, speaking of friends, where are the others?” she asked.

“Probably off getting killed and waiting for us to save them.” I smiled at her. “C’mon, let’s go be heroes.”

Rainbow gave a sly nod and raced off down the adjacent hallway with me hot on her hooves. We rounded the corner and found a number of controllers standing in our way: humans, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, even a few Changelings, which momentarily stunned me. Rainbow, however, didn’t even hesitate, leaping into the fray before any of them had time to raise their weapons at us. I silently cursed myself for hesitating and began blasting them as well; I’m not sure how I knew, but I simply knew when I was in danger. Something went off deep in my Changeling mind, an alert to danger, and I reacted without thinking.

Targets fell one after the other — human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon. I blasted them away with little more than a thought before the next one was in my sights, but something bothered me while I was fighting. It wasn’t until a Changeling controller was in front of me that I realized what it was. He didn’t try to blast me with magic, block my way, or even move from his spot. Instead, he was twitching and spazzing in short but sudden bursts. A weird buzzing sound came from his throat, much like the one I remembered Illusion giving off when we all morphed his queen in front of him.

“Whoa, what did you do to him?” Rainbow said, walking over and staring at the Changeling with me.

“I don’t know,” I said, looking closer at the Changeling. “He’s just... frozen.”

Rainbow waved a hoof in front of the Changeling’s face, who gave no response. She tried again, this time waving it rapidly and so close to his face that the slightest move would hit him. Again, he didn’t move. Rainbow turned back to me and gave a quick shrug of her shoulders before smashing her hoof into the Changeling’s face. He gave off a strange mixture of gurgles and buzzes before collapsing on the ground.

“Pity you can’t do that to the rest of these guys,” Rainbow said to me, motioning to the fallen humans.

“As Rachel would probably say, ‘Then all the fun would be taken out of it’,” I replied.

Rainbow grinned at me. “I like the way she thinks.”

A piercing scream broke the air and I whirled around, looking for the source.

“That’s Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted, leaping to her hooves and taking off down the hallways. I was left there dumbstruck for a moment before following her. The hallways we went down were littered with fallen Hork Bajir and humans, but there were a fair amount of ponies scattered here and there. They had some pretty nasty wounds, ranging from Dracon burns to deep gorges from the Hork bajir blades. One poor soul was missing half of his face.

I saw a burning anger begin to form in Rainbow’s eyes. She tried to mask it by continuing on towards Fluttershy, but it didn’t fool me. This was something I knew all too well; the desire for revenge. The burning, clawing need to kill every Yeerk you can find until they know the pain you’ve been through. Seeing the carnage along the way, I have to admit I was similarly enraged.

With new determination Rainbow charged through the carnage and into a large circular room at the end. I ran in right after her and stopped in my tracks. Fluttershy was standing in the center, surrounded by Changelings. Others were busy hovering next to a phoenix that had gotten itself smashed halfway through the wall. In total there were around twenty, all of whom turned towards me and Rainbow.

I wasted no time and immediately fired off three blasts of magic, knocking the closest Changelings back and acquainting them with the wall. Rainbow rushed towards another and spun around at the last second. There was a sick cracking sound as back hooves connected with his lower jaw and he dropped like a stone. I felt the semi-familiar buzz of magic as I prepared another blast but stopped short. None of the remaining Changelings were attacking, instead acting like the first one we ran into.

“Um, what’s up with them?” Rainbow asked seconds before one of the Changelings gave a sharp yell, shooting a blast of magic into the ceiling. I snarled and felt the rush of my own magic as I prepared to retaliate, but then something quite unexpected happened.

“M... my Qu.. een! Y... you are free!”

For a moment I was stunned. It took incredible strength to overpower a Yeerk, even if it were only temporary, yet each Changeling seemed to be fighting back. Still, as impressive as it was, each of them was going to lose the battle. So I did what I had to and went to each of them, knocking them out. Rainbow was even kind enough to help with a few. I tried to ignore the terrified look Fluttershy was giving me as I went about my task.

Once the Changelings had all been incapacitated Fluttershy rushed over to Rainbow, giving a wary glance at me as they passed. My reply was a quick wave back before walking over to the phoenix in the wall.

“Wow, how did you manage to do this to yourself?” I asked.

<Phoenix may be faster than my hawk form, but they don’t turn all that fast,> came the curt reply. I barked out a laugh and gently pulled Tobias from the wall with my magic. He ruffled his fire-feathers and perched on my horn. <Where have you been?>

“The usual; evading death and performing the dumbest things imaginable,” I joked. “You think you can still fly?”

<I think so,> Tobias said, spreading his wings and testing their efficiency. <Phoenix are pretty durable, it would seem.>

“Good, I need you to go out and find Jake, Cassie, and Applejack. They’re looking for the others.” I glanced around. “Which I did all by myself.”

<Oh, jeez! I lost Applebloom!>

“Um, actually, she’s with Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy said. “I saw them run off when we were surrounded.”

<I’d better find her before she gets captured again,> Tobias said grimly. <I’ll let Jake know we’re all ok, too.> He flew away — which, considering how rarely he needed to flap his wings, looked more like he simply floated away — and I turned to the ponies.

“Come on, we should regroup with Ax and Rarity, then think of what to do with Twilight.” I turned, hoping I was choosing the fastest way back to the others, when I sensed impending danger and threw up a shield, gritting my teeth against the pain that soon followed as the Dracon Beams collided.

“Marco!” Fluttershy cried.

“I’m fine, just go!” I called back. Despite the constant bombardments from the Dracon Beams I managed to gather enough concentration to make an opening in the back of the shield for her and Rainbow Dash to use. I heard their hoof-steps vanish into the distance and turned my attention back to whomever was shooting at me. Three more blasts collided with my shield as human and Hork-Bajir came into view, each brandishing a Dracon Beam.

Now I really didn’t have time to deal with these guys, or their friends who were surely coming. Dropping the shield and running also seemed like a bad idea, so I decided to go with door number three. And by that, I mean quickly dropping the shield and leaping out the adjacent window as Dracon Beams whizzed through the air over my head. I only stumbled for a second as I hit the grass and took off running, headed to what I hoped was where Rarity and Ax were waiting.

Author's Note:

Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.