The Changeling Wars

by Alkonium

Crouching Pony, Hidden Changeling

Canterlot, Prison

Celestia's form vanished in a green flame, and in her place was a male Changeling, rivalling Chrysalis in stature.

"I see my charade is at an end. A pity." He said with a sinister grin on his face. Just as the two guards returned with an active screener, Shining Armour grabbed it and threw it at the Changeling, while Luna freed Twilight from her cell. Unfortunately, the Changeling managed to shoot the device down before its threshold crossed him. It lay smouldering at his hooves.

"I have been feeding on every single pony's love for Celestia. Do you really think a simple screener is enough to stop me?" He taunted them.

"No, but I'm not the one foolish enough to remove my disguise inside a prison." Shining Armour retorted.

"No prison can hold me." The Changeling then lunged at the stallion, with his teeth bared and his horn charged and ready to fire. Shining Armour then raised a shield over himself, Twilight and Luna, while Twilight took the opportunity to shoot out the Changeling's right wing. The Changeling crashed into the wall on his right, but quickly got back on his hooves. He prepared to release an explosive blast from his horn, but additional guards rushed in from both sides of the cell block. Just before he was able to cast the spell, one of the guards behind him speared him in the right hind leg. The Changeling then fell to the floor, no longer able to put up a fight.

Some Time Later

Once Celestia's imposter had been subdued, he had been placed in the most secure cell in the prison, and the guards had been sure to bind his wings, and place a magic-inhibiting sheath over his horn. Twilight, Luna, and Shining Armour, now joined by Cadance and the Doctor, approached the Changeling's cell.

"State your name, rank, and intention." Luna said, her tone suggesting a deeply suppressed anger towards the Changeling.

"Larva, Prince, Sabotage." The Changeling, apparently known as Prince Larva, answered.

"How long have you been posing at the Princess?" Shining Armour then asked.

"I'll never tell." Larva responded with a smug grin on his face.

"Where is Princess Celestia?" Twilight inquired, doing little to conceal her own anger.

"She was such a feast!" Larva taunted them.

"Chrysalis had the perfect opportunity to kill me. Why didn't she?" Twilight demanded.

"She did far worse than kill you. Look at what you've become, Commander. She hurt you, and she's going to keep on hurting you. When all of Equestria is ashes, you will have her permission to die." Larva continued to taunt her.

This was enough to push Twilight over the edge. She charged up her horn, and lunged at the cell, "Are you going to talk, or just make vague threats? Unless you tell us something useful right now-" Twilight threatened, before Cadance pulled her away.

"What in Equestria do you think you're doing?" She asked, horrified by how vicious her sister in law had become.

"We're done here anyway." Luna interjected, and led the group out of the cell block.

Just outside, Luna asked, "Doctor?"

"There was definitely some form of psychic interference affecting Larva, although it's impossible for me to say to what extent or for what purpose." The Doctor explained.

"I want you to compare it with some of our Changeling captives." Luna instructed. "We'll reconvene in the War Room in one hour."

While most of the group left, Cadance remained, after spotting Twilight just sitting at the wall.

"Talk to me, Twilight. You haven't exactly been acting like yourself lately." She inquired.

"It's been a rough three months. Your mother tasked me with holding the Changelings back at Ponyville, and I blew it. Two months of pain and horror for nothing." Twilight explained.

"For a lot of ponies, those two months made all the difference in the world. My mother wasn't mistaken in recruiting you. You never let her sister down either." Cadance tried to reassure her, but Twilight turned away at the mention of Celestia.

"I'm sorry. I miss her too." Cadance added.

"We all do. The hardest part is that we don't even know when they took her. It's like you marrying my brother is the one thing that's gone right since the Battle of Canterlot." Twilight remarked.

At that point, something clicked in Cadance's head, "The Battle of Canterlot? I need a word with my mother." Cadance took Twilight by the hoof, and led her back to the War Room.

War Room

Twilight and Cadance entered the War Room to find the Doctor and Luna discussing the revelation within the prison.

"First my daughter, now my sister. And this time I don't think we'll be getting her back." Luna remarked.

"At least you got your daughter back, and I have to hoof it to the Changelings. It was an excellent ploy." The Doctor commented.

"A ploy?" Twilight inquired.

"Think about it. As long as Larva was posing as Celestia, he was free to sabotage our war effort as he saw fit, and once he was exposed, pony morale went down the drain." The Doctor elaborated.

"You say that like you knew all along." Twilight surmised.

The Doctor said nothing, but he gave Twilight a look which confirmed her suspicions.

"How could you have known?!" Twilight demanded.

"My vehicle, the TARDIS, travels in time as well as space. I've been to the future, I've seen Luna ruling alone from her palace in Ponyville." The Doctor admitted.

"You could have done something!" Twilight shouted.

"Like what? I knew they replaced her, but I never knew when or how. I've travelled in time, and I've been to your future, but that doesn't mean I know everything. I didn't even know they were going to get me when they did." The Doctor retorted.

Before the argument between Twilight and the Doctor could get worse, Cadance piped in and said, "Mother, I think I know when they took Celestia. When they attacked Canterlot, they trapped her in some sort of cocoon thing, and there was a bright flash of energy when it was sealed."

"That would have been the perfect opportunity to conceal a teleport." The Doctor commented. "But why bother? The Changelings had practically won at that point, and everything else about Chrysalis's behaviour suggested she wasn't expecting to be driven out of the city."

"The slow blade penetrates the shield." Shining Armour said as he entered the War Room. "Chrysalis knew just as well as we did, that no matter who won the Battle of Canterlot, it was only the beginning. She's far smarter than we've been giving her credit for."

"How exactly does knowing when they took Celestia help us? Nothing changes the fact that we have no leads on where she is now." Derpy pointed out.

"Actually, Derpy, it does explain how Chrysalis was able to launch us so far." Twilight reminded her. "The fact that the Changelings have Celestia in their hooves tells us the kind of power they wield."

"There's something else you need to see, Twily." Shining Armour then pulled up an image on the main screen. It appeared to be a massive green sphere, just outside the Everfree Forest. A quick examination suggested it was a shield like the one Shining Armour put up over Canterlot, except it was completely opaque.

"What is that?" Twilight asked, not identifying the surrounding landscape.

"Ponyville. That appeared a month ago, just after we lost contact with you." Shining explained. "The fact that they haven't done this anywhere else suggests a considerable strategic value for it."

"Have you tried breaching it?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, and nothing so far has worked. I suspect it would take the combined strength of my sister and I, or the Elements of Harmony to do it." Luna added.

"Celestia's gone, and we'd have to either get the rest of the bearers out of there first for the Elements of Harmony to work. or get Fluttershy and I in there with the Elements themselves and take it down from the inside." Twilight pointed out. "Which will it be?"

"If Chrysalis has been feeding on Celestia, then we don't have the firepower to take her on after destroying that barrier. There's nothing we can do for now." Luna stated. "We also need time to undo Larva's sabotage."

"I don't like it, but I guess we have no real choice." Twilight said in response.

Six Months Later

Over the next six months, Twilight worked extensively to prepare for the return to Ponyville, coordinating with Luna on the planning the attack, as well as fine tuning her skills in both ranged and melee combat. At the first opportunity, she had tracked down Cheerilee in the city, and made her feelings known, only to have them rebuffed, as Cheerilee had no interest in other mares. However, Twilight soon found herself in a relationship with a journalist, an Earth stallion by the name of Keen Eye, with whom Luna assigned her to work on softening the blow of losing Celestia for the general population. When she could, she spent time in the Canterlot Archives, researching magical countermeasures against the Changelings, along with spells that had the potential to effectively restore her sight.

Canterlot Archives

"Twily, you wanted to see me?" Shining Armour asked as he entered the room, noting the dim lighting and the presence of a spellbook, and Twilight's eyepatch on a table.

"Yes. I'm glad you're here." Twilight answered, stepping out of the shadows. For a moment, Shining was taken aback; it was the first time he had seen his sister without her eyepatch since her return to Canterlot.

"Are you having trouble with your research?" Shining inquired. He was used to her coming to him for help in her military work, but not with work like this. This was her area of expertise.

"No, well, yes. I've finally found a spell that should restore my eyesight, but because of how it works, it's impossible for me to cast it on myself." Twilight explained.

"You're found a way to grow your eye back?" Shining was cautiously optimistic.

"Not exactly. It's called Arcane Sight. It allows a pony to see through an inanimate object. If it were cast on my eyepatch, it would be like I had two working eyes again." Twilight elaborated. Shining then examined the spell in the book.

"This looks like one of the most exhausting spells I've ever seen. I think you'd have a better chance of it working if you asked Captain Lulamoon-" Shining Armour was about to say.

"Captain Lulamoon was killed in Trottingham two weeks ago, along with the rest of Great and Powerful Company." Twilight pointed out.

"Alright, let's do this." Shining then charged up his horn with great difficulty, and fired the first half of the spell at his sister's eyepatch. He had to stop a moment to catch his breath, but he started on the second half as soon as he could. after he cast it, he felt like passing out, but he noticed how confused and disoriented his sister looked, so he grabbed her eyepatch with his horn, and placed it back on her.

"It worked!" Twilight shouted, hugging her brother in thanks.

"We should be getting to the War Room. It's almost time." Shining said, still breathing heavily.

"Let me say goodbye to Mom and Dad, and Keen, and I'll be right there." Twilight replied, and the two left the archives together.

War Room

The two siblings entered the War Room to find the TARDIS parked under the main screen, and the meeting was in full swing.

"The Doctor's TARDIS will bypass the Changelings' barrier, and get the four of you in there. After that, it's just a matter of finding the other Element bearers, and then using the Elements to take down the barrier." Luna explained.

"It almost sounds easy when you put it like that." Twilight commented.

"We'll begin our attack as soon as the barrier is down." Shining Armour added, but he noticed how uneasy Fluttershy was, and asked her, "Fluttershy? Is something wrong?"

"I'm a killer. How can I be the Element of Kindness anymore?" Fluttershy asked, not directing the question at anypony in particular.

"You're still kind. You did something that went against everything you were, but you didn't let it change you." Cadance said to reassure the timid Pegasus. Fluttershy nodded in response.

"If everypony is ready..." She then tried to ask. The Doctor and Derpy nodded, and entered the TARDIS, with Fluttershy quickly following suit.

Before joining them, Twilight hugged her brother one last time, and said, "I'll see you on the other side, BBBFF." She then entered the TARDIS herself, and the strange blue box vanished from the War Room.

Comments

[DiscordDraconequus]

Should I be worried that I read Larva's lines in Megabyte's voice?