Converted

by Shaded Changeling

Chapter 46: Final Preparations

Walking through the streets was interesting, two Changelings, a Royal Guard, and a Princess tend to draw attention with such a strange combination.

“Five minutes to spare.” Crimson said looking at a pocket watch as the group entered the castle grounds, “Cutting it kind of close there.”

“Sorry to miss weapon training.” Shade replied. “Something came up.”

“I know Captain.” Crimson replied. “And Training begins in ten minutes. So don’t think you're skimping out on me.”

“Never planned on it Ma’am.” Shade replied, turning to Cadence. “I believe you can show our guest to the War room, I’ll have Major Mandible escorted there soon.”

“I would prefer we begin the planning as soon as possible.” Thorax replied.

Crimson glared at him. “We will begin in a few hours, after we get some weapon training out of the way. Come along Captain, we have lost time to make up for.”

“Of course Commander.” Shade said before following after her. “So…” He said as he caught up to her. “Do I actually get to train using the weapons or is it more disarming practice?”

Crimson was looking down at the ground, mumbling under her breath. “I can’t believe she said yes to this.”

“Said yes to what?” Shade asked.

Crimson looked up from the floor. “Cadence! She said yes to allying with Chrysalis’ top commanders!”

“Yes… I understand…” Shade replied. “But it’s our best bet to…”

“I understand the strategic standpoint, but from her view point, she just allowed a known enemy of Equestria into the castle! Who knows what he’s trying to find out about the castle?”

Shade thought about it for a moment. “Probably nothing new… Chrysalis was Cadence for God knows how long, she easily managed to get whatever she needed about it.”

“I still don’t like it…” Crimson mumbled.

“We’re allies here Pupa.” Shade replied. “Even if I don’t like it, I have to admit that they hold a better understanding of strategies we are facing than we do. I may be in charge of the attack, but I don’t know what to expect from them, Thorax can help us get rid of the unknown factor, so it is a risk I’m willing to take.”

“And if they betray us?” Crimson asked.

“Then we slaughter every last one of them.” Shade replied with a smile. “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that… But desperate times…”

“We’ll discuss it more at the planning meeting. Spitfire left to go and coordinate that storm you asked for.”

“Excellent… So when are we-?”

“Tomorrow we mobilize," She said plainly, "we have the troops getting ready and the trains clearing the tracks. We hope to get the plan finalized today, as we were close to finishing it already.”

Tomorrow? “Isn’t that kind of soon?”

“Celestia doesn’t want another Chrysalis incident.” Crimson replied. “She wants to stop Ceymi before she gets a chance to feed off love. And it’s my job to make sure you can hold your own.”

“Aren’t you coming?” Shade asked.

“Nope,” Crimson replied. “Acari is having all Queens remain within the city, she doesn’t want any of us to get involved." She let out an annoyed sigh. "Instead, a squadron of my Lancers will be accompanying you.”

Shade began to think about that. It made sense to keep the high value targets out of range, but he had counted on Crimson being able to lead the Lancers… That only complicated things, how were they going to keep them all connected?

The two walked on in silence until they reached the training room, which had been modified since the last time he was there. The panels in the walls and ceilings had been replaced, and the center of the floor was covered in a training mat, a rack of various weapons was off to the side.

“Take your pick, and we’ll begin.”

---

“So we’ve tried Lances, swords, spears, maces, and flails.” Crimson read off as Shade picked himself up from the ground; he had gotten quite used to his face being pressed against the blue surface. “And you have shown absolutely no ability with any of them.”

“I’m sorry,” Shade said sarcastically, “I’m used to having hands in combat. Pardon me if making a switch from fingers to hooves is a bit of a difficult one.” He waved his hoof for emphasis.

Crimson flipped up her visor. “Well given how skilled you were at unarmed combat, I figured it would be easy for you to grasp the concept.”

Shade managed to steady himself by leaning against a wall. “I was taught hand to hand combat for almost my whole life; I’ve never used a lance before. Even if I did, I was throwing it at something.”

“Well we ran out of standard weapons…” Crimson sighed. “So I guess there is really only one other thing left, aside from magic.”

“What’s that?” Shade asked, managing to stand on his own.

“Remember when I told you about the Lunar Guard’s own special weapons?”

“Yeah…” Shade replied, “Those things that you have never seen before.”

“Well… I managed to talk Darkstar into letting me borrow a pair of them for training exercises.” Crimson walked over to the rack of weapons and began shifting through them. “They might just be the weapons you find the most use from… Now where did I put them?”

“I still don’t see the point in this.” Shade said. “I mean… I can transform my forelegs into whatever weapon I need. So why do I need to have another set of weapons?”

“In case you can’t use magic Love Bug.” Crimson replied. “Your magic is tied to not only your energy, but your body as well. In a combat situation, it would be a bad idea to use all of it, so it might be a good idea to limit your use of it.”

Shade thought about it. It made sense; if he used too much energy he would be open to an attack or wouldn’t have enough to defend himself, and when he is planning on fighting a General, that would be a very bad thing to have happen.

“Now where in Tartarus did I put it?” Crimson said to herself before lifting the weapons off the rack with her magic. “Ah…there they are.”

Shade looked over towards Crimson to see her levitating what looked like two metallic bracers, but the interesting thing was what was on them. From each of the bracers, there was a single curved blade, which looked like it stopped where the foreleg’s knee was supposed to be. The blade itself was a sleek black and seemed designed for either stabbing or slicing through something.

“Whoa…” was all Shade could say when he saw them. “What are they?”

“Hoof Blades,” Crimson replied. “Personally I see them as a waste of good metal, but the Lunar Guards are proficient with them. Maybe you could use these?”

Crimson levitated them over to Shade. When they were near him, he took a good look at them. From up close, Shade could tell the blades were made with quick attacking in mind. The blades were made to slice and stab, only really long enough to allow for bending the knee to prevent self injuries while using them.

He had seen weapons like this in the Fiords; they were normally reserved for assassins, a way to fight if they were ever disarmed. However these were less mechanically inclined, the blade didn’t swivel like the Fiord version, making it much more a close range weapon, but it would work. Shade had enough practice with them before to know the basic way to use them.

“I think this will work…” Shade replied.

“They are supposed to keep your hooves free, in case you want to pound the hell out of whatever you’re attacking.” Crimson replied. “You want to try your luck with them?”

Shade transformed into Sunstreak before putting on the bracers. He made sure they covered the entire section in between his ankle and knee, to make sure the blade was correctly spaced. “Alright, let’s try this out…”

---

Sunstreak had more than made up for his last mistakes with the other weapons, the hoof blades were just what he needed, quick, easily controllable, and didn’t impede his movement. By the end of the training, Sunstreak managed to stop all but one of Crimson’s assaults, and the only one he couldn’t stop was magic.

“You’re a natural with those things.” Crimson said as they left the training room. “Most of the Lunar Guard can’t even use those things that well. Hell… I don’t even think Darkstar can use them that well.”

“I guess I’m a Changeling of many talents.” Shade said. “Plus… fifty years of practice.”

“They had Hoof Blades out in the Fiords?” Crimson asked.

“No… but they had something similar. They were used in case of disarming, a magical spell placed on them so that they wouldn’t activate until it was needed. Aside from that, they act the same.”

Crimson looked up at the clock. “Well… It’s almost time for us to meet up with the others for final plans, so we have just enough…” Crimson stopped for a second.

“Crimson?” Shade watched her suddenly stop for seemingly no reason.

“Change of plans.” She said a smile working its way across her face. “Anvil finished.” Crimson’s horn began to glow bright red and in a flash, both of them were in the blacksmith’s domain. Only Shade had a pounding headache.

“The hell?” Shade said as he felt the headache vanish quickly.

“First time riding along in a teleport?” Crimson asked. “That happens the first time, it gets easier.”

Shade shook his head and looked around the room, Anvil was hammering something or other on his namesake. He didn’t so much as flinch when Crimson teleported them in.

“How many times have I told you Pupa?” Anvil asked. “Don’t teleport directly into my Forge, it disrupts the air flow.”

“Anvil.” Crimson said. “The Armor.”

Anvil grunted, and hammered the rest of the metal into place before placing it in the water trough, cooling the metal. “It’s over here.”

Anvil led them to the back room, where the previously incomplete armor was now finished, and Shade was surprised by it. It did indeed take heavily from Drak-ill’s armor design, but seemed to be lighter, and the design gave a spot for Shade’s wings as well as his horn. The underbelly was armored, and on the chest was an engraving where the orange crystal would fit. “Where’s the gem?”

Anvil reached into his blacksmith apron, and tossed the orange gem towards Shade. “That gem was a pain to deal with. I couldn’t get my hoof to stop shaking.”

“Well… Go on Captain. “ Crimson said. “Put it on, and we’ll get going.”

---

In the War Room, Shining Armor was looking over the two Changelings in front of him. The two of them seemed to be glaring directly at Shining Armor, it made him uncomfortable to look into their solid blue eyes as they glared at him.

“I’m sorry for making you wait to begin…” Shining Armor said to them. “But we need to wait for the other two to arrive.”

“It is not a problem Captain.” Thorax replied. “We understand how… New Shade is to this position. I only hope that he is not as new to planning.”

“General Thorax, I have faith in his abilities, he did not prove to be a Nymph in combat.”

“I understand he took out all three of you,” Thorax replied. “He even took out Lt. Colonel Crush from what I heard.”

“Really?” Mandible replied. “Impressive given his size.”

“Oh from what Infiltrator 75 told me-”

“You’re kidding!” Mandible said. “Darkblaze actually came back?”

“Yes… Though it was because I forced my hoof.”

“Damn… Remember when we were in his class with Gamma?”

Thorax chuckled. “How could I not? Best years of my schooling right there.”

“Remember what they did to Private Endo?”

“Do I!” Thorax replied. “We were laughing about that for weeks! His wing is still stained from that stuff.”

Mandible laughed. “Even Chrysalis laughed at it! Remember what she said to the two of them?”

“Next time you two pull something like this, Warn me first. I want to watch.”

“That’s it!” Mandible replied. “Man… I need to catch up with him… I wonder how life in Ponyville has been treating him…”

“Oh. Sorry Captain.” Thorax said looking at Shining Armor’s confused face. “We’re just talking about the good old days.”

“Oh it’s… No problem…”

“He’s uncomfortable being in a room alone with us.” Mandible said. “It’s obvious.”

“Captain Armor,” Thorax said. “We have no intention of repeating Canterlot’s incident. We only wish to stop Ceymi from attacking you again. We want to repair the gap.”

“Sure… Just help us stop your Queen and then I’ll think about trusting you.” Shining Armor replied.

At that moment the door opened to the war room opened, and Crimson stepped into the room, followed by Sunstreak, wearing a set of Royal Guard Armor, strangely it was the same color as his carapace would be normally.

“Damn Shade… Nice armor.” Shining Armor replied. “But I think you messed up the colors a bit.”

Crimson walked up and sat next to Shining Armor. “Remember during the Invasion when we found a few of those Changeling bodies against the outer walls?”

Mandible and Thorax shivered.

“Yeah.”

“Well… I had Anvil use some of the chitin from their bodies and put it into the armor.”

The two Changelings shivered again.

“What’s the point of that?” Shining Armor asked.

“Let’s us transform the armor as well.” Thorax replied, taking off his helmet and placing it on the table, he touched it and in a wisp of flame, the black helmet was replaced by a royal guard helmet. “Granted, normally we don’t wear armor during an infiltration, and we can just transform armor onto us as well.”

“Well… Not that this isn’t fascinating, but we have an invasion to plan.” Shade said. Flying above the table to move the map and emerald into place.

“This is… fascinating…” Thorax said, looking at the map. “How do you do this?”

“It would take too long to explain, and I don’t feel like talking about it. Focus on the task at hand.”

“Of course.”

The next few hours were spent with the commanders looking over every possible route, using Thorax and Mandible’s knowledge of Chrysalis’ tactics, they managed to work around every possible issue, and with the addition of an estimated two hundred and fifty seven soldiers, courtesy of Thorax, they only had one obstacle left.

“Communication.” Shade said. “We need it for coordination of lightning strikes and in case of any penetration to defenses.”

“None of our soldiers were made for working processes.” Thorax replied. “The last ones we had were forcibly converted to Ceymi’s side during a raid.”

“A raid by who?” Crimson asked.

“Some Sergeant or something in Ceymi’s army.”

Shade rubbed his face. “That only narrows it down to two hundred…”

“When we tried to deal with it, they threatened a group of Nymphs…”

Crimson smiled. “Well… I think we’re both in luck then.”

---

Shifter had been stuck in the dungeon cell, with almost no ability to move either his wing or his leg, as both were now crystal. He had been left there shortly after his ‘torture’ by Shade, and had been staying as far from any Royal Guards as he could.

He had been put the farthest away from the entrance, for the pure purpose of staying as far from Shade as possible. Though he was going to have trouble with that…

As he was stuck in the back of the dungeon, not much reached his ears, but he definitely managed to catch what sounded like stomping, and shouting. He just laid his head back down and tried to sleep, until he heard one of the voices.

“If that son of a bitch thinks I’m done with him…”

Shifter began to panic, he knew that voice, he couldn’t forget it after his torture.

“Sergeant Shifter” Shade said walking up to the cell. “We have much to discuss.”

Shifter backed away as fast as he could from the Changeling. “No! I Told you everything!”

“Silver. If you would.” Shade said, and the Royal Guard opened the cell. Allowing for Shade to walk in.

“Stay away!” Shifter shouted. “Don’t Come Near Me!”

“Listen to me you sack of shit!” Shade grabbed Shifter. “Tell me where they are!”

“Who?”

“You know who!”

“I…I…I”

Shade’s eyes began to glow bright red. “I will eat you, you pathetic Nymph!”

Shifter closed his eyes in fear. “No! No! No!”

---

“What in Tartarus is wrong with him?” Silver asked as both of them looked at Shifter, who was now cowering in the corner.

“Um… Maybe he relapsed?” Shade suggested.

“Relapsed on what?”

“I don’t know…” Shade said. “Maybe he normally acts like this.”

“No! No! No!”

“Snap him out of it.” Silver said. “Just slap him.”

Shade walked over and picked up Shifter, whose eyes were widened in fear, and the scent of black liquorish was very strong here. Shade lifted his hoof and slapped Shifter across the face with a resounding crack.

“No! Don’t hurt me!” Shifter said raising his hooves.

“Shifter,” Shade said. “I just want to talk.”

“T-Talk…?” Shifter repeated.

“Yes… Talk.” Shade said calmly. “I see that Celestia hasn’t fixed everything yet.”

“No…No…” Shifter replied. “I…Can’t walk…”

“Mmm… Sad…” Shade replied with more than a little apathy. “Listen, this is about the other Changelings in your command.”

“Wha-What about them?”

“How many of them are workers?” Shade asked.

“Thirty-five…”

“General! Is that enough?”

Thorax walked up to the cell. “Yes… I believe that will be plenty.”

“Gen-Gen-Gen…”

“Surprised?” Thorax replied. “You are in a lot of trouble when this is all over Sergeant.”

“Ye-Yes Sir…”

“How many of them were communication drones?” Thorax asked.

“Any of them could be,” Shifter replied not taking his eyes off Shade. “The Queen wanted more soldiers. So we made due…”

Shade stepped closer to Shifter. “How many of them did you threaten?”

“Most of them…” Shifter said quietly. “It was a direct order from the Queen, I couldn’t disobey.”

“Ceymi is not the true Queen.” Thorax replied. “She is too young to lead, too inexperienced. She could not hope to lead us effectively. Look at her plan, she would destroy our Swarm!”

“Spine was… He… It was from both of them!”

“Let me guess,” Shade replied. “You were just following orders?”

Shifter nodded nervously. “They killed those that didn’t obey! We had no choice!”

Shade shook his head. “We’re done here.” He walked out of the cell. “Thank you for cooperating, when we have defeated Ceymi, then perhaps I will heal you.”

Shifter remained with his back against the wall. “Queen Chrysalis… Forgive me…” Shifter whispered.

“She won’t protect you.” Shade said as Silver locked the door. The three of them walked away from the cell before Shade turned around. “Silver, I want you to gather the Changeling prisoners, make sure that they are restrained, and bring them to the main courtyard, I’ll gather the leaders of each battle group.”

“I will see to it that they do not attack.” Thorax said. “They will listen to my orders.”

Shade nodded. “See to it General.” Shade saluted before walking towards the exit to the dungeon.

Crimson Lance was leaning against the wall, waiting for Shade to finish. “So,” She asked in a singsong voice, “How’d it go?”

“We need to inform all of the Team leaders of their newest addition.” Shade said. “Mind helping me gather them?”

“Not at all,” Crimson replied.

---

An hour later, the courtyard held the team leaders in charge of everything from Shield Unicorns, to the Pegasi teams in charge of the lightning attacks. Facing the castle, all of them looked at the team of Captains.

“I hope this doesn’t cause any problems.” Shining Armor said to Shade.

“You and me both Captain.” Shade replied.

Crimson walked up to them. “That’s all of them.”

“Shining Armor if you would like to begin,” Shade said. “They probably trust you more than me.”

Shining Armor walked up in front of them. “Royal Guard, I know that you have a lot of planning and preparations to do before tomorrow, so we’ll be brief.” Shining Armor walked up and down the line of Guards. “You all know the mission, and you all know what is at stake here. This mission requires communication; we need to be in contact at nearly all times for this to work. Scrolls won’t work, and we don’t have the time to send runners. Now I know that some of you will be against this plan, but it is the best option we have.”

Shining Armor motioned at Shade, “We have learned of an inner connection between all Changelings within a Hive, this connection is quick, nearly impossible to intercept, and is silent. Now if you remember, we have a group of Changelings as prisoners, we would like to attempt an integrated effort in the attack.” Shining Armor turned to Shade. “You’re up.”

Shade stepped forward. “Okay… I understand some of you are probably not thrilled with this idea, but I believe that this is the best course of action. We have created a separate Mental Connection, one that I have been informed, is completely separate from our enemies. Now on the topic of the Changelings in question,”

“You have no doubt been informed of the Queen we are after. She controls a majority of the Swarm’s soldiers through fear and oppression. We have a General of our own; he owes allegiance to the previous Queen, who wishes to stop the new Queen from killing off their race. I know many of you still hate Changelings, but all I ask is for two days. After that, make your decision. These Changelings were forced to work for Ceymi, their families threatened, and they did not wish to fight. Keep in mind, they are not soldiers, they are workers, the backbone of the Hive, they are here to assist us in liberating their families.”

A low murmur swept through the crowd. “And I know what you are thinking, ‘How can we trust them?’ I am not asking you to trust them, I am asking you to tolerate them, and they only wish to help. Many of them have families being used by Ceymi, but don’t take my word for it. General, if you would?”

There were two wisps of green flame, and Major Mandible and General Thorax walked onto the stage, followed by a group of Changelings.

“Greetings Royal Guard,” Thorax said. “I am General Thorax, commander of Chrysalis’ army. We have a common enemy.” Thorax paced along the line of soldiers. “It is true that I was there at the attack on Canterlot, and I obey the orders of my Queen. However, Ceymi is not my Queen; I follow Chrysalis, even in death. I have spoken with your Princesses; they have allowed us the power to assist you in the attack. We will follow the Captains to our death. Any who dare betray the chance they have been given, will not make it out of the Village.”

“Thank you General.” Shade said. “Now then, here is the plan; every one of you will be assigned a Changeling Communication Officer. They are to remain alive; they will broadcast your position to the Striker teams, in order to keep you safe from the storm we have brought in. They will obey your orders, but I want them to remain safe unless it can no longer be allowed. Remember, they are a member of your team, do not waver either of our trusts! Any direct attack on them will be treated as subordination, and from what I’ve heard, Changelings don’t take that very well.” Shade turned back to Shining Armor. “That is all. Captain Armor, final words.”

Shining Armor stepped forward. “Now do not worry about being told what to do by a Changeling, only Captain Shade will lead a strike team of ponies, the Changelings will lead their own forces. Now we have knowledge of a second hive being controlled by Ceymi, if you see any Pink eyed Changelings, they are to be captured alive. They are not the enemy. Now, these Changelings were told who their Commanding officer is, and I expect them to be shown the same respect you would a Pony officer. Is that understood?”

“Yes Sr.”

“Good. Dismissed.” The Changelings walked up to the Team Leaders they had been assigned, while Shade and Thorax moved to the side to speak.

“I hope you know how far we can trust them.” Thorax said. “I doubt they will be pleased with this.”

“Give them a chance.” Shade replied. “They don’t hold too much of a grudge, except Silver… But I’m sure that steam blew off a while ago.”

“Hey! Captain Shade!” Crimson called. “I need to speak with you.”

Shade turned back to Thorax. “Just get your men ready, we’re moving out tomorrow morning.”

Thorax saluted before transforming into a Pegasus and flying off towards the Crystal Caverns. Shade walked over to where Crimson was waiting. “What’s up?”

Crimson began walking back towards the castle. “I’m teaching you to use short Range Teleportation, might just save your life.”

“Do we have enough time?” Shade asked.

“We have plenty; you should learn it pretty quickly.” Crimson replied. “As long as you pay attention, I’m teaching you this so that you can save yourself if you do something stupid.”

“How’d you know?” Shade asked, knowing he was probably going to do multiple stupid things during the attack. “So how do you want me to do this?”

“We’ll start small, a few feet, and then we’ll try combining it with your attacks.”

“Oo… Fancy.”

---

Sapphire was working at her desk, looking over the injuries that the newest Changeling patients had accrued, as well as the ones that had healed.

In the past week, the Royal Guards and Civilians had all been taken care of, some of them merely waiting for bones to mend or shock to wear off. However they were not in critical condition any more, making her job much easier as she could focus on the Changeling patients now.

Carrie had been healed, her wounds were mostly fixed, but her consciousness kept waning in and out. Sporadic is the only term for it, no pattern of consciousness, and for random times, sometimes she was conscious the whole day, other times only a few seconds.

While she wasn’t thrilled about it, Ovi had returned to care for her Hive, however she still returned every day to check on Carrie.

The other two Changelings that were brought to her healed rather quickly, however the burnt wings was much more difficult to heal without his own Queen’s power, but she could handle it.

Finally the one she kept under the most surveillance, Bloodpool. He had woken up a few days ago, but the amount of threats he made to the other Changelings required they place a tranquilization spell on him. Just to be sure he wouldn’t do anything rash. His backplate refused to regrow, and his Chitin still had plenty of cracks through it, but overall, he could move without anything bad happening, so long as he didn’t get hit in any of the cracks he would be fine.

Sapphire sighed. She hated to hear about the fate of Acari’s Hive, but she could do nothing about it, her Changelings were not soldiers, they were healers. In fact, she was one of the only Changelings in her Hive to have actual offensive capabilities; most of their spells were healing or calming spells. In a fight they would be as useful as trying to pick up dust with your hands.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the intercom system beeping into life. “Yes?”

“Dr. Sapphire,” Callsign said, “Nurse Redheart wishes to speak with you.”

“Redheart?” Sapphire repeated. “Shouldn’t she be in Ponyville?”

“She says she came by a few days ago, but you were busy.” Callsign replied.

Sapphire sighed. “Alright, send her in.”

The door opposite her desk opened as the white unicorn mare walked in, her red mane lying flat. “I’m sorry to disturb you Sapphire,” She said as she walked into room, closing the door behind her. “I know you must be very busy, but I couldn’t wait any longer to speak with you.”

“Of course Redheart,” Sapphire said, placing the documents she was looking over in a drawer. “What’s the problem?”

Redheart sighed. “It’s very personal to me… I don’t exactly know how to…” She was cut off by the intercom beeping again.

“Hold on, let me take this.” Sapphire pushed down on the answer button. “Yes Callsign?”

“My Queen!” She sounded panicked. “Don’t speak with her, she-” The Intercom was torn off the desk, surrounded in a venomous green aura.

Sapphire looked up at Redheart, her horn glowing with the same green color. “Cytes,” She said. “We need to talk.”

Author's Note:

Okay... First off... Sorry for the wait... My life has gotten really Hectic as of late, and I may have some trouble with posting stuff... So that's never good.
Also as I wrote these next few Chapters in about... 48 hours, they are ripe with errors and such that I need to run through a fine toothed comb. So it should take me a while to get the next few Chapters up... So I do feel bad about that... Hopefully life won't be such a cruel mistress and throw all of this work at me next time We'll just see what happens

Comments

[Dravkwn]

Atm, I have nothing particular to say. So I will say this. Life happens in various increments of shit. Hopefully, it won't pile so high you get buried.

[Razzy]

Green aura, knows her by name, could it be...?

[Cursed Quill]

made due

do

[Black--Soul]

In the speech the soldiers anser " yes sr " you missing a 'i'

[Black--Soul]

That battle will be epic... Not mutch time to torture Spine to death He really deservs a slow and painfull one But as long Shade get his chance it should be satesfying