Spreading Out - Part 4
Twilight had a full laboratory setup now, using various magic lenses and potions on the honey and her own samples. It was a laborious task testing each and every effect, but it was her future she was working for.
"Twilight? Darling, you are still at it?" Rarity was first into the room, but turned and raised her voice. "She is in here!"
Finishing her latest experiment, Twilight stepped back from the bench to greet her friends. "Sorry I dragged you all here for no reason…" She was quickly wrapped up in five hugs from her five best friends.
"Pfft, it's not like we haven't been busy." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "Princess Luna has us checking up all over Canterlot, making sure all the new laws are being followed by everypony. I mean, it is kind of exciting, but everypony is just so… so… normal about it."
"What do you mean, 'normal'?" Twilight suddenly regretted spending three days locked in the lab. "I helped write those new laws…"
"The laws are workin' great." Applejack squeezed her friend a little tighter. "Near as Ah can tell, nopony is really having to act differently. The big difference is the—"
"The beauty spa!" Rarity's voice rode over Applejack's, she lifted one hoof to her forehead. "Oh it is simply divine, Twilight, you simply must take the afternoon off so we can visit." Rarity batted her eyelashes.
"I…" Twilight looked back at her lab gear. Memories of what it was that made her who she was pulled her attention back to her friends. "Alright. But what is so special about the spa here?" she reached out with her magic, gently brushing the crest of Sweet Dreams. The little drone gave a chirp and jumped to their hooves. Her attention turned to Spike. "Come on, Spike, let's have a break from this."
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
"Captain Shining!"
"Eye Spy." Shining turned to the infiltrator who was still rushing toward him. He hadn't had a lot of experience seeing changelings flustered, but he was a quick learner when it came to his comrades. "Report in."
"Sir." Eye could tell Shining was less interested in honorifics, and more in details; he decided to leave out the full title he would have used. "We have seen ponies, sir. Nearly twenty."
Enemy. Shining took a deep breath. "What mix are they? How are they deployed?" His mind raced, bringing up memories of his plans. It all depended on the report.
"They were all wearing some kind of mask, like this." Eye changed his form into a pony, but a pony with an odd-looking mask covering its head. Ditching the disguise, he returned to his black, chitinous self. "All working in lock-step, really strange and almost jerky movement… Oh, all earth ponies."
"I need to see them. Those masks worry me. They could be something to give the ponies magic, they could be a trap, exploding if we try to free them…" Thoughts racing, Shining reaching a hoof up to give the drone a pat on the withers. "Good work, can you take me there or will we need to fly?"
"Short flight. Or we could run it." Eye stomped his legs. "We would be back before the next leap forward."
"Hold on, we aren't going alone. Lieutenant Cadance!" Shining's yell earned him an inarticulate reply, but it was enough to work out direction. "Come on." He trotted after his wife, soon finding her with a cluster of drones around her, and a deck of cards shuffling in her magic. "You aren't swindling my army, are you?"
"Sir!" All the drones shot to their hooves, sketching perfect salutes to Shining.
"At ease." Shining leaned down and gave Cadance a kiss. "We have found their scouts, Cady. I am going with Eye Spy to investigate. Wait!" Shining pressed a hoof to Cadance's lips. "No, we aren't going alone."
Cadance used her magic to remove the offending hoof, after giving it a little kiss. "You do that. I would suggest two guards, three underlings, and another infiltrator." She looked up at her husband. I don't know whether to hug him and tell him not to go, or charge off at his side, ready to blast the enemy.
"You have been reading my notes." Shining leaned in and kissed Cadance, landing his lips against hers. A sudden silence fell over the huge camp of changelings, not that either of the ponies noticed. Only when the kiss ended did everyling seem to animate again.
"Of course, I want to learn, I want to be at your side." Cadance spoke the words with her lips still brushing Shining's. "Go on, before I change my mind and come with you." Cadance used her magic to give Shining a good swat on the plot.
"Yes ma'am!" Shining laughed and turned to an adoring bunch of changeling faces. Realization struck, that he and Cadance had just gave them a good feed. "I need the best two guards, the bravest three underlings, and another scout." He turned his gaze to Eye Spy. "You can find me the latter, I will get the rest. Meet me on the north-edge of camp."
In no time, Shining was on the north edge, his small group arrayed before him. "Eye, who do you have?"
"Extra Sharp, sir!" Extra Sharp gave a salute. "Eye said you wanted a smart bug?" She gave her commander a cocky grin.
"Smart bugs are good, smart bugs who follow orders are better." Shining reached a hoof up, rubbing Buzz's side with a hoof. I trust you to get me in and out. "Okay, listen up. We have found what we think is a scouting force from Sombra's army. Earth ponies with strange helmets on, we are observing only." He stared at the two big guardlings. "But if it comes to a fight, I don't want to lose. Got it?"
"Sir!" The grunting yell was sharp, clear.
"Let's go. Eye, get us close, but don't get us so close that we are seen in the air." Shining looked up to Buzz, the underling easily big enough to carry him. "Come on, buddy, let's start this war."
They won't hear the buzzing, they won't hear the buzzing. It is just because we are close to each other that we can hear it... Shining tried to keep telling himself that they were actually being stealthy, but there was no stopping the kernel of worry. "How much further?"
"Down there!" Eye pointed to some forest ahead, and as one the changelings all lowered down to land on the edge of it.
The moment Buzz let go of him, Shining energized his horn. A pink sphere wrapped around his squad as they settled to the ground. "How far by hoof?"
Eye pointed deeper into the woods. "This way, Sir."
The going was slow, Shining followed Eye closely, stopping when she stopped, dropping to his belly when she did. Then at last they saw their targets. "Using the woods for cover, wait, you said there was only earth ponies?" Shining gestured to one side of the group of helmeted ponies.
"That unicorn wasn't with them before." As Eye replied the unicorn turned, the helmeted head facing directly at the party. The eye-slits of the helmet flashed briefly with green light.
"Buck." Shining was throwing up his shield as the other unicorn's horn energized, meeting their dark magic bolt with a wall of pure force. Decision time, hit them or retreat. Advantages and disadvantages. Shining's thoughts raced, speeding faster and faster as adrenaline hit his system. Nopony to report on us if we get them all, facing an unknown enemy, outnumbered. I don't like it. But letting them go is giving away information, no more element of surprise. "Hit them, use my shield as cover from the unicorn. Heavy Lift," he addressed the bigger of the two guardlings, "that mare is your target."
Eye watched Shining climb to his hooves, and practically face-hoofed. "She will cook me like a lobster if I don't defend him." She smirked and shifted, her body growing larger, fire wrapping her and turning her body pure white. Beside her, Extra was quick enough of thought to see the ruse. She stood up as well, her own Shining Armor disguise in place.
Buzz was scared. Their best friend was shouting to the others, but nopony told them, or the other underlings, what to do. Smiling, they buzzed their big wings and raced to Shining Armor—Buzz had kept track of the real one—and picked him up with their magic.
Shining disliked the ruse Eye and Extra were using, but he wouldn't ruin their ploy by shouting to them. He almost dropped his shield when powerful magic lifted him up, Buzz tucking him solidly under his body. "Don't drop me, Buzz, let's go forward as fast and hard as we can." He pointed with a hoof to where the helmeted earth ponies were advancing.
Circling around, keeping low, Heavy Lift let her Captain's distraction do its job. They had trained for this, and she had to admit that the stallion was almost sneaky enough to be a changeling himself. She had no disguise, she had passable magic, but it was barely enough to get her into trouble, literally. Heavy twitched the glands in her mouth, felt the sacks there, bulging, ready. Every muscle was tight as she crawled on her belly.
But the guardling knew she wasn't going to reach the pony before they noticed her. Turning toward the closer threat, the unicorn's eyes flashed briefly, giving Heavy the chance to throw what magic she had into a shield. Her body had been ready for this, very ready; Heavy Lift broke into a gallop, rushing forward as her emerald shield flared with dark magic. She was at least a length from the pony, when her magic gave way.
Shining watched as a bolt of black magic lanced out and caught Heavy in the side. "There!" He pointed so that Buzz could see where he wanted them to go. Moving closer, Shining watched as the big guardling crashed against the unicorn, knocking their head up as she closed her mouth around the helmeted mare's throat. "Next targets! Drip, start working on the earth ponies. Don't let them hit you!" With the unicorn down, Shining focused his shield around Heavy Lift.
Heavy gave the unicorn an extra dose of her venom, the pony paralyzed and limp in her jaws. She could feel a lot of pain down one side, and released her grip to check on herself. The thump of a body slamming into a shield startled her before she could really look, and she lifted her head to see a bright pink earth pony, with a pink helmet, looking at her. "Thanks, Sir!"
Shining Armor waited until Heavy had her hooves under her and a good stance before he dropped the shield. Not for the first time he saw what seemed like the most savage of killing blows fell a pony nearly instantly. Not for the last time—he knew—he thanked Celestia for guardling venom being so fast.
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
Drip wasn't as big as his fellow guardlings, but what he lacked in size he made up for in staying power. Leaping to the back of a helmeted pony, he sank his fangs into their shoulder and gave them a dose.
He flashed a shield up as an earth pony was about to slam into him, but with the force they used it still rocked him, knocking him off the paralyzed pony and to the side. Two more earth ponies joined the first, but Drip noticed something that made him smile. The moment the original rusher focused on him, Eye and Extra dropped their disguises and tripped the earth pony.
"Nice work!" Drip practically pounced onto the pony, sinking fangs into soft flesh and taking them from the fight. "Care to do that again? Worked well!" He climbed up from the downed pony.
Eye grinned at how effective their ruse had been. "Absolutely, I wonder what these helmet things are?"
"Captain said not to touch them." Extra poked Eye in the side. "I see two more of them over there, sneaking around behind the Captain." She buzzed her wings, but instead of flying she pulled up a disguise, mimicking the pony Drip had just put down. A glance revealed Eye copied the other. Galloping as fast as they could, they joined the two flankers.
Drip waited for his two sisters to join the ponies now harassing Shining Armor's shield. He moved up on one, pouncing to their back as Eye and Extra tripped the other up. He watched, his mouth clamping to the pony's shoulder, as Heavy Lift grabbed the tripped pony in her jaws and held on.
"She is out of venom!" Shining yelled the warning to Drip. It made him tremble in excitement and panic both, at just how effective the changelings were at taking out the ponies. "Is that all of them?"
"Yeah, this was only half that scouting party, even if the unicorn was new." Eye helped hold down the last of the earth ponies while Drip put them out. "Should we take their helmets off now?"
"I don't know." Shining armor looked first to the unicorn. "Let's start with them. I have never seen magic like that before…" He walked over to the unicorn mare and crouched down beside them. "Stand back."
He didn't give them a chance to protest, but as he wrapped his magic around the helmet, Shining felt another force, definitely magical in nature, clamping it down onto the pony. "Buzz, help me." The presence of the big underling at his side never failed to surprise Shining, among ponies he was considered big, but Buzz was something else. Green magic flowed down his own, wrapped around it. He felt when the changeling latched on to the helmet with him and, working together, they pulled.
Eye recoiled a little from the look of terror on the unicorn's face. Her eyes flicked around wildly, then her mouth opened. "Wait—"
The wailing cry startled Short Burst. She heard the screaming, feeling her heart racing. Her brain tried to process that it was her making the noise, but all she could do was focus on the big unicorn stallion and the monster huddled over her. Her mouth snapped closed, green magic pushing her jaw up.
"You're safe, we got it off you. You are safe." Shining could see the terror in the mare's eyes, the hope. He reached down and picked her up into a hug. "Shh, calm down please. Can you tell us what happened?"
Short shook, but the hug was something real, very real—and more importantly it was nothing like the helmet. "Get me away, please… I don't want that thing on me again, I will do anything you want!" She meant every word. She tucked her snout down into the stallion's neck, tears pouring from her eyes. "They put it on me, they made me…"
"Shh, shh now." Shining kept soothing the pony as best he could. "Gather them all up, we aren't leaving a single one behind." He used his magic to pick the mare up, setting her on his back since she didn't want to give up hugging him. "Something is very wrong with these helmets."
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chapter update yea,
cant wait for more,
I can also see twilight and the queen have magic chess board that mirror each other and they play chess against each other....
They should really invest in developing a spell keyed to unlock those helmets.
Oh goodie, here we go. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
So the masks work on more than just crystal [Earth] ponies. What would happen if this army of puppets manages to capture some changelings? Would the masks even work when changelings are naturally handy with mind altering/controlling magic? Would their hive-mind come into play, overpowering the mask's control?
When it's determined these are powered by Dark magic, will Celestia give Twilight a quick crash course in using Dark magic? (As what happened before Twilight was sent off to the Crystal Empire in the show)
Liking the story so far, though you could stand to add a few more contractions to your dialog.
Example:
reads better as
Creepy, mind-controlling helmets. Where have we seen that before?
…Oh, crap.
7894385 Rarity tends toward haughty speech, contractions are definitely for less fabulous ponies.
Well, the plot thickens.
I love how well Shining works together with the changelings. And how versatile they are.
Why does this remind me of certain helmets from a certain season finale..
oh, i saw something like that in a different story...
7894450
True enough under most circumstances, though you do the same thing with most other characters. Just saying it's something to keep an eye out for.
7894688 Good point, though. I will keep an eye out, particularly for characters who would shorten things as a matter of course, in future.
"The
Not sure but is the best choice there.
he
Yay, I found things to correct! My function isn't obsolete!
7894910 Thank you! Every mistake squished makes the story better!
7894685 Shining has been studying the Dorkalis Method, he wants to be the best commander ever.
7894494 Almost like... friendship.
Oooh boy. Looks like Sombra's already been busy. Which means he's probably got the Crystal Heart and is pumping it full of fear. Though... aren't the Crystal Ponies all earth-pony-like? I can't recall ever seeing a Unicorn Crystal Pony.
Ok, so at least it doesn't seem like the helmets are permanently (intentionally) damaging the ponies they're stuck on. How very fortunate, it could be worse than just PTSD.
And the removal itself didn't cause damage either! Typically forceful removal of devices capable of that level of control don't remove so cleanly, but we'll see soon enough.
To Twilight: what do you think Applejack was talking about before Rarity rudely restrained her?
Keep going! ;)
least ?
7895773 Pesky bee! Fixed it!
I'll be honest, while this was fun, it feels like a lot of the characters were a bit... off.
For example, I don't ever remember Spike force feeding Twilight pancakes in the show or booping ponies.
Otherwise, yeah, it was kind of fun to read.
7900968
... Um are you saying that's something he wouldn't do? or Something he didn't do? Because last I checked there's a lot going that didn't happen. And while this is an extreme, I can totally see him going to other measures to make sure twilight eats.
EYE
SPY
*croaks from funny*
Huh, looks like the Crystal Empire stuff got delayed just enough for Sombra to take over the Empire...
7895796
I'd say you just gave me flashbacks to DHMIS, but considering that channel just posted a teaser for a new batch of episodes... it's more like a flash-FORWARD at this point.
9172039 That was exactly what I quoted.
9172036 Yeah. Chrysalis' cautious planning backfired in this instance. If she'd just sent Shining and Cadance in advance, and then Twilight and her friends to support them a little later, it would have been fine!
Eye spy
With my little eyes
Something that is green
Colorful full and ready to rumble
(Kudos to whoever bothers to try and guess this)