The Worst of All Possible Worlds

by TheTimeSword

World 4: Chapter 7

A changeling? I thought they had been kicked out of Equestria, Sunset reflected. The shadows produced by the flame made the changeling darker than ever, aside from the big blue eyes. “Are you working with changelings?” Sunset blurted her question as she started to rise off the floor.

Before she could place all four hooves down, a claw was at her throat, pushing her onto her back. The charred wood from the lifeless campfire pressed into her spine, causing a short gasp of pain to shriek out her lips. She stared upside-down at Sombra who hadn’t awoken from all the commotion, his dark-grey back to her. “You’ll tell me who you are!” Ember shouted, and then ordered the dragons she brought to release their comrades trapped inside the bubbles.

Sunset struggled to move, wrapping her forelegs around the slender arm holding her down. All she could do was watch as the dragons were released one by one. When the red dragon named Garble was released, he stomped to the ground and kicked dirt onto Sombra, waking the stallion. Sunset tried to call the dark stallion’s name but the nails on the cerulean hand clenched tighter. “You should worry less about him and more about you,” said Ember, dragging Sunset to the cavern’s tunnel. “How’d you trap the others?” she snapped, releasing Sunset like a sack of trash into a garbage can. “You don’t have any magic. How’d you do it?”

“Ember, it was Tirek,” Garble told her. He was holding back Sombra at arm’s length. “How’d you not see him when you came in?”

“Tirek’s here? Already!?” Ember turned back to Garble just in time to see the red dragon once again be trapped inside a bubble, along with those she brought and the others who had been imprisoned prior.

A hand extended from the darkness over the length of Sunset’s body, wrapping Ember by the back of the neck with the same tight grip she had held Sunset. “You dare touch my apprentice?” Lifting the cerulean dragon off the ground, Tirek stepped around the unicorn. Ember clawed at the meaty fingers, kicking the air as she struggled, but it was no use. Only when Tirek chose mercy did he decide to toss the dragoness into the center of the room, sending the charred wood splattering in different directions. A snap of his fingers and the dragoness was encased in a translucent prison. “Burning the trees of Appleloosa does make me a wee bit angry. Harming my student on the other hand, now that’s enough to make me lose my temper.”

“T-Tire—” Sunset struggled on her hooves, coughing for air. “Tirek!”

“What?” Tirek turned to look over his shoulder, his yellow eyes glistening in the light of the torch that burned from the cave floor.

“A changeling!”

The centaur twisted his body around just as the changeling skittered down from the ceiling. Passing above Sunset with a haste matching a terrified gazelle escaping its predator, the changeling headed for the entrance. Tirek brushed past his student who followed weakly, both reaching the end of the tunnel and stepping out into the cold, starry night. The changeling was disappearing into the darkness, only the light of the moon allowed him to be seen, reflecting off his luminous wings. “We’ll never catch him now!” Sunset groaned sorely, turning her head to Tirek.

“Stay here.” Tirek, without another word, rushed forward and jumped from the platform they stood on. In mere seconds he reappeared, growing a magnificently gigantic height. His long shadow cast down on the valley of the Badlands, shrouding everything in darkness. With his big, burly hand, he plucked the changeling out of the sky like a grape from a vine. With a rough turn, his backside grazing the side of the mesa and shaking the ground beneath Sunset’s hooves, he tossed the changeling into the mouth of the cave. “Make sure this one doesn’t escape for a moment, will you?” His voice was loud, booming from his size.

Sunset didn’t know what she could do other than dogpile on the mostly unconscious changeling. Wrapping her hooves around the changeling like a snake, she held onto his clammy, coarse body, feeling the strange scales against her fur. “Are you my mommy?” the changeling asked, drool falling from its fangs. Not bothering with the clarification, there’d be no way the changeling would remember it anyway, Sunset kept her grip until Tirek appeared with a more adequate size for the cave.

The centaur clasped his cucumber-sized fingers around the deformed horn of the changeling, letting Sunset release herself before dragging the black creature back down the tunnel. Sombra was wide awake, he had used the torch lit by the cerulean dragon to gather and rekindle the lame campfire. His grey eyes flickered as his mouth dropped at the sight of the dark creature. It was clear what he wanted to say; what he wanted to ask. Instead, he chose: “Is this all the ones who burned Appleloosa’s orchards? None escaped?”

“None,” Tirek answered, a sweat drop running down his wrinkled brow. He then turned his thick shoulders back to the entrance, welcoming his apprentice. “It is early morn, the sun has yet to rise. Yet it seems we will be blessed with a teaching on this new day. An experience in mercy.” He lowered an arm, motioning for Sunset to stand in the center of the room before the meager fire.

From the middle, she stood a step away and below Ember’s bubble, the cerulean dragon staring down at her between bent knees. The slight curve of her white horns that protruded from the sides of her head gave her cranium a larger feel from the front. Her bent muzzle fell in line with her dark blue fin that ran the tip of her forehead down the flat of her skull. “What do you mean, Tirek?” Sunset asked as she stared at the cerulean dragon, curiously wondering what might happen if the dragoness refused whatever proposition Tirek might have in store.

“First dragon to tell me why it is that a changeling has teamed up with a group of mediocre renegades gets to go free,” Tirek replied, voicing the words to everyone in the room.

The bubbled dragons chattered for a moment while the dazed changeling lie motionlessly half on the ground and half in Tirek’s grip. Ember tried to speak—tried to command the others not to sacrifice their plan, but Tirek silenced her bubble the moment she issued the order. To Sunset’s surprise, the dragon who spilled the beans was the one who so adamantly attempted to keep them sealed. “We were a distraction!” Garble shouted, his claws clinging to the squeaky sides of his bubble. “Just a distraction! We’re not the real threat! The changelings are!”

“Garble!” the white dragon yelled in shock.

Garble’s bubble suddenly popped, sending the loudmouth plummeting on his rump to the red dirt below. He scrambled to his feet. “I’m free to go?” He was just as surprised that it had worked as Sunset.

“Free to go.” Tirek held his arm extended toward the tunnel, bowing his head like a bellhop. Garble cautiously walked to the opening, stepping aside Tirek with unease before turning into a full sprint once he passed the centaur. “You see Sunset. Many villains make one fatal mistake, my past self included. I would have destroyed that young dragon as soon as he told me what I wanted to know. Now, in my age and wisdom, I know that doing so only yields fear, and fear does nothing but cause mistakes. Instead, I choose mercy because others see that mercy and know that I am sincere in my actions. If any of the rest of you have any more valuable information, you too may go free depending on if it’s worth my time.” His yellow eyes shifted to Ember. “Except for you. You’re the terrible instigator.”

All the dragons relinquished truths now. Some could not even distinguish between valuable and pointless information. “When I was born I had six toes on one foot and four on the other!” one dragon claimed, to which Tirek paid no mind to.

It was the white dragon, Garble’s ally, that both Tirek and Sunset focused in on. “And when she met with that weird queen I knew it was trouble! Garble said she had teeth like needles and ever since we robbed that one pony doctor who had those sharp syringe things, I’ve always known to stay away from things like that! I knew we shouldn’t have joined up with anyone whose teeth are like needles! They say they’ll suck up anything, isn’t that what syringes do? Suck things up?” The dragon was manic, Sunset could see the fear in his eyes. He was afraid of something, but what?

Needle teeth. She squinted, a flash of Nightmare Moon’s sharp mouth brushing her mind’s eye. Why does that sound so familiar?

“Quit your yammering,” Tirek commanded the dragons, popping the white one’s bubble at the same time. “Repeat what you just said.”

“W-we-well, it’s like I said. Garble was with Ember, meeting those changelings out here in the Badlands, and they met with their queen. Some hoity-toity freak show that was apparently bigger than the rest of them. She’s the one that proposed the idea, told us holding up in these pillars would allow us to hide from you, that you’d be busy searching every cave while they were up doing their own thing,” obliged the white dragon.

“What is it they are doing?” Tirek asked.

“I-I don’t know, s-sir. I wasn’t there, that’s all I heard.”

With a furrowed brow and a curt nudge of his head, Tirek allowed the white dragon to stumble to his feet and rush out of the cave. Tirek kept his arms at his sides, staring at the blank, shadowed wall where the white dragon’s bubble had been. He was like a statue for a while before relaxing, a heavy sigh shifted his biceps. When he turned, he was holding the bridge of his nose between his thumb and middle finger, both eyes closed. “The changelings have returned. I always surmised that they’d be back to enact revenge. I had hoped to be wrong, to be only paranoid.”

“That was before you took control and decided that Equestria could house everyone, right?” Sunset asked, knowing the answer. “Perhaps now is your second chance for the changelings.”

“The changelings cannot be welcome in Equestria.” Tirek shook his head. “Not while their evil queen is in charge. Maybe individuals who distance themselves, but most would choose to keep with their own.” He gestured to the dazed changeling in his grip, drool pooling on the floor. “Now we must figure out where the full hive is and what their plan of attack may be. I’ll need to inform the princesses. The commonhealth of the citizens should be first priority. Equestrian’s should not resist if they come across the changeling army. I shall be the only one needed for the fight against their hive.”

It was then Sombra pointed out the cerulean dragoness. “She’s laughing at you.”

He was right, the daughter of the dragon lord laughed from her silenced bubble, slapping her knee as if the funniest joke in the world was bouncing around her translucent sphere. Tirek snapped a finger and suddenly the shrill laughter filled the room. “Why do you laugh?” the centaur asked.

“Why?” The laugh grew curt. “Because you’re an idiot to think you and only you can stop us. We’ve got Equestria hostage and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Ember, please. You don’t have to do this. Equestria is a fine place to live—especially for dragons,” Sunset pleaded, trying to help in the only way she knew how. “Help us stop whatever the changelings are planning.”

“And why should I do that? Who are you?” the dragoness scoffed, folding her arms.

“I’m from another world, a world where a purple dragon is the assistant to a pony princess,” Sunset told the dragon. “And I’ve seen what the changelings do first hoof. You may not like Tirek’s rule, but you’d hate Chrysalis’s.” She remembered the needle teeth, the saliva dripping down the slender, white chompers. “The changelings feed on love—they’d put you in a cocoon and never let you out, just to drain that love.”

“It’d be better than having our hoards taken!” shouted Ember, slamming both cupped claws on the bubble.

Tirek shook his head and sighed. His age was showing thanks to his frowning, wrinkles covering every inch of his face. “I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. I did not want to take away any existing hoard from any dragon. It was only that you could not continue to steal to add to your hoard. Of course, you, on the other hand, have caused so much trouble that your hoard will be split up amongst the dragons who refused to aid in your little distraction.”

“Ember,” Sunset said, “You have to realize that what you did was the very reason Tirek exists as Equestria’s defense. Adding the changelings into the mix just gives him another in to keep magic out of the world.”

The dragoness threw her hands into the air, hitting the bubble’s ceiling. “Who cares about stupid magic when our hoards are gone!?”

Sunset looked to Tirek, a questioning brow on her face. It was Sombra who answered the unspoken question. “Dragons get their magic from owning things, stealing things, whichever have you. They’re greedy. Much like many ponies who did not want their magic taken away, dragons did not want their hoards, their magic, to be taken away,” the dark stallion explained, circling the cerulean dragon’s bubble as he spoke. “It’s funny. We ponies have been used to it for a while. Now the other races are catching up.”

“Their whole culture is built around owning things. Taking it away would only have them hate me,” Tirek added, a hand on his heart.

“So? You took away pony magic and that was the thing we built our lives around,” Sunset argued. “Why not do the same for the dragons? Why give them an out to keep their hoards but not increase them? Do you have a soft spot for them or something?”

The centaur scowled and shrugged. “I let the princesses have their magic,” he mumbled. When Sunset opened her mouth to argue, Tirek held his hand up. “We will continue this conversation at a later point, do not worry. For now—” Tirek stepped forward, raising the changeling up by the horn “—we have to find out where his queen is at.”

“So this is a changeling,” Sombra remarked, glancing over the black creature. “Not quite what I expected from the stories. It drains love? Interesting.” He turned back to Sunset. “Any ideas where the rest could be?”

“Canterlot,” Sunset replied, suddenly getting lost in the cold memory of a grey night and heavy, sluggish armor. “Why not try to get revenge? Stop the only ponies with magic from alerting you, hide all the citizens, and then wait to spring a trap to ensnare you and take your love, your magic.”

“That’s a good plan,” concurred Sombra. “Lull Tirek into a false sense of security, a sense of trust, and then turn on him at the last minute when the moment is right.” Sombra nodded. “Of course, being so in love with ponies, they’d have a lot of love to drain.” He glanced up at Tirek. “You had none the last time they attacked. Their revenge might be more for you than us ponies. Perhaps asking this one about his queen is the wrong question. Of course, it all depends on how you plan on getting him to talk.”

Tirek stared at Sombra, then the changeling. He jangled the limp body like a set of keys, stroking his beard with his other hand. “I’m not one for cruelty, but these changelings are stubborn.”

It was an odd sentence to Sunset, but the whole idea was odd. Three reformed villains trying to stop a potential crisis from happening. They must go through trials that lead them back to their roots. Sounds like a pretty good story for the school paper. I just wonder how it’ll end. Her eyes drifted to the limp changeling, the musky smell of sweat swam through her thoughts. Settlers! rang in her head. Feels almost like I’m helping defend Nightmare Moon again.

She examined the changeling. Nothing was out of the ordinary for what she remembered of the species. She turned to the dragons. Most looked exhausted, while Ember was the only one with any adrenaline pumping through her veins. “What are we going to do with them all? With no dungeons…”

“We should return to Canterlot. I’ve gone long enough without word to the princesses, and your suggestion of revenge is making me paranoid and anxious. I need a level head,” Tirek explained as he snapped his fingers. The bubbles pressed against each other, forming a line behind Tirek. Another wave of his hand and a black tear opened in the cave, snuffing out the flame of the torch. He motioned for Sunset and Sombra to cross through, which they obliged.

“And here I thought I was going to get to avoid Canterlot,” Sombra said once they stood on the other side.

“Come on, Sombra. I don’t think we have time to complain. I don’t want to be here either but we’ve got to stop whatever the changelings have planned. Teaming up with dragons—I can only imagine what betrayal Chrysalis has in mind for them.”

“I think you’re the only one who can imagine the changelings’ plans with the most accuracy,” Sombra replied as he glanced back at the black gash in reality. “I know almost nothing of the creatures.”

For Sunset, the memories of the Resistance timeline were hastily flooding back. The goo stung and choked. The strange smell of Rarity and her bed. The blinding fight between Twilight and Chrysalis. She remembered the anger she felt when the awful queen mocked Zecora. That anger is okay. To see something bad and not feel angry, that’d make me just as awful as Chrysalis. As soon as the thought popped into her head, she realized that she had made another grievous mistake. All these villains have been reformed—why not Chrysalis too?

When Tirek came through the tear with the bubbles of dragons following behind him, Sunset started to ask if Chrysalis could be reformed, but the centaur spoke first. “Sunset, we should part ways for the day.”

“What? Why!?” she whinnied.

“With the introduction of the changelings to this tangled mess, it is too dangerous for you to accompany me. I cannot focus on the task at hand if I am worried about protecting you.” The centaur knelt on one side, brushing Sunset’s back with the top of his knuckles. “Look what happened with Ember. Had the fire been burning, your back would be a lot less dirty and a lot more scorched.”

“But Tirek! I’m supposed to be learning from you! How can I do that if I’m not by your side?”

He grinned. “I’ve got an important task for you, actually. Come.”

Tirek’s portal put them in a corridor with a set of stairs, which he trailed up with the bubbles following him. When they reached the top, he pushed open a set of doors. “Tirek! You’re back!” Sunset heard the familiar voice call.

Standing in the doorway, Sunset saw the glass panes trail light onto the princesses’ faces, unique and various colors pressing down on their flowing manes. Tirek strode in first, the bubbles at his back, and the changeling in his grip. “You want to look at the windows?” asked Sombra, sidling up next to Sunset. She nodded silently. Better than seeing that look of Celestia’s again.

Trotting along the carpet, Sunset stared up at the framed illustrations, listening to the talk between the set of leaders and Tirek. Her mind couldn’t concentrate on the glass, too intent on the dialogue. When Sombra asked a question, she wasn’t even sure what he asked, responding with an unconscious shrug. “I’ll need to return to the Crystal Empire immediately. Shining Armor will lose his senses if I’m not by his side for this, he’s often talked about what he’d do if the changeling queen returned,” Cadance said, and Sunset mentally agreed.

Coming to a set of glass where Tirek was displayed in his full glory, Sunset stopped and stared. “Go home, let me know if you find anything suspicious. I’ll be checking in on you and the empire tonight,” Tirek replied, and the window seemed to shake when he spoke. “Take care.”

Sunset looked over her shoulder just in time to watch Cadance disappear through a tear. As she watched, she felt the eyes of her old teacher, but when she looked, the eldest alicorn stared straight ahead at Tirek. Turning back to Sombra, she found the stallion staring too. Not at any pony, but up at his own past. “You okay?”

“Do you know how Tirek managed to defeat me?” he asked her.

“No. Tell me.”

“Sunset,” the old centaur called, breaking the conversation.

She looked at Tirek, then back at Sombra. His sad look now grouchy, a perturbed frown pulling his sideburns tight. “Sorry, just a sec,” she whispered, pouting a smile at him before turning back to Tirek. She trotted past her old teacher, refusing to give the older mare a glance. “Yes, Tirek?”

“I’m going to leave for a bit, I’m taking Princess Luna with me to investigate a few places I know the changelings have previously visited. You and Sombra will remain here to watch over the dragons, and of course the changeling.” He snapped his meaty fingers and the changeling was added to the collection of transparent spheres. “I will be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, you should stick close to Princess Celestia. She’ll send word to me should anything happen.”

“With Celestia!?” Sunset said loudly. Her eyes darted to her old mentor who shared the unhappiness.

“That won’t be a problem, will it Celestia?” Tirek asked, and Sunset saw the laugh lines springing up Luna’s face. It’s a huge problem, Tirek.

“No, Tirek,” Celestia said, a complacent smile crossing her proud face. “That is perfectly fine.” The voice sounded sincere, but Sunset knew it as a façade. Luna must have recognized it as well as she put a hoof to her mouth, preventing the laughter from escaping. “I will watch over these criminals until you get back.” I’m assuming that includes me, Sunset guessed, choosing to keep her sass to herself.

With a snap of his fingers, the bubbles trailed in behind Sunset. “Then all is set. Come, Luna.” A tear opened and he extended a hand for the younger sister. Princess Luna shot a sly grin back at her sister before disappearing through the portal, Tirek at her back.

When the tear closed, Sunset looked up at the bubbles. The changeling remained unconscious, his tongue pressing through his fangs. Ember stood with her arms crossed, staring intently at each of the ponies. The other dragons looked rather helpless, their eyes big and dejected. I could talk with the dragons and changeling, I might find out more information about their pact. Chrysalis plans to attack somewhere, but can I convince her to stop?

She remained staring at the dragons but shifted her focus to her peripherals, the white alicorn standing silently alone. The flowing mane of pastel fell down her back, brushing the floor with little licks. Sunset had seen four different Celestia’s from four different worlds, but this looked as normal as her own. The last three, they were tired, broken, and unkempt. They had bigger things to worry about than how they looked. What does this one worry about? Me?

Sombra came closer, shifting Sunset’s gaze from the bubbles and the princess. He looked emotionless to Sunset, nothing to his grey eyes, no lift to his cheeks, and a mouth closed flat. He stood in front of her, his eyes dragging over the bubbles. It was clear he wanted something, Sunset could tell, but she did not know what question to ask. About his defeat? He beckoned to say something about it, but I wouldn’t mind talking about him getting his magic back. Tirek’s tale was polite, but I want to hear both sides. I could try to mend things with them.

“Feel free to have full range of the castle other than the bedrooms,” Princess Celestia said as she walked past. “It is open to the public, after all.” She did not turn an eye back to the two.

“Shouldn’t we stick together?” Sunset started to argue, though she didn’t know why—she certainly didn’t want to be around her old teacher.

The elder princess made her way to the door. “If you’d like. Following your teacher’s orders would certainly be a first, of course.” She continued down the steps, leaving the two unicorns in the hall.

“That sounded rather passive-aggressive, didn’t it?” Sombra asked once the elder alicorn disappeared. “I’ve been invited to more than a few dinners hosted by Cadance and Shining Armor where they hold a contest to see who can be the most passive-aggressive. Cadance always wins.”

“Y’ah think?” Sunset replied with a jut of her teeth.

“Hey, there it is again. Must be contagious.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure what Tirek was thinking. He must know that Celestia hasn’t forgiven me. There’s no way we’ll stick together, at least, not without tearing each other’s head off.”

“Perhaps he wasn’t thinking. The return of the changelings has got him anxious. He might even be debating on trying to bring in their species to Equestria. I wouldn’t mind studying them before that happens, if it happens.” His eyes dragged up to the bubble with the changeling. “Changelings have a peculiar talent. They take love and use their own bodies to turn it into magic, not unlike the Crystal Heart.”

“You don’t know the half of what they can do,” Ember belittled. She sat on her back, her tail tucked between her legs, her arms firmly crossed. The dragoness didn’t even look at the unicorns, her eyeballs straining at the creamy stone of the ceiling.

“He doesn’t, but I do,” Sunset declared with a stomp of her hoof. “I’ve seen it. The changelings rounded up everyone in Equestria and put them into pods to drain their love.”

“Who cares what happens to you ponies? Your kind has never gotten along with us dragons. Without Tirek, your kind wouldn’t have gotten along with any other race.”

“The changelings wouldn’t have stopped at just ponies. They planned to filter their kind into the land, taking the place of the ponies who had lived there. They would have enticed other races just to steal their love as well. I’ll bet the changelings told you they’d let you keep your hoard, didn’t they? Because it’s the only thing you love. They’d dangle your hoard in front of your pod, forever out of reach,” Sunset argued.

“Yeah, whatever.” Ember did not say anymore after that.

Sombra shrugged. “Sunset, why don’t you leave the changeling with me? I’ll stay here, away from the rest of Canterlot, and study him. Maybe I can learn some useful information that might help us with the changeling threat.” He then turned his head toward her, staring deep into her eyes. “Or it might help with the spell.”

“Hey, I trust you. If you think it’ll help, go ahead.” It’ll give me time to talk to Celestia alone. Sunset smiled at him before taking her leave. Each of the bubbles trailed behind her like Tirek had magically inferred them to do. She then stopped, turned back to the stallion, and lifted a hoof. “But, uh, I don’t actually know how to keep the bubble from following me.”

Comments

[Thebaconpiggybank]

Have I said how much I love this story? Because I do.

[Caffeinated Pinkie]

This is the part of the story where I wish Sunset could or would use the changeling transformation spell. If she could sneak into the hive and spy a bit... It's one of my favorite things about The Sweetie Chronicles, where she learns stuff in one universe that can help immensely in another.

[Twilight_Shimmer]

I say agian, I am REALLY liking Tirek here, and I genuinely HOPE he is a good guy

[Csquared08]

Lots of moving parts here. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they all come together.

[Csquared08]

Equestrian’s should not resist if they come across the changeling army

You did the sinful thing were you used an apostrophe for a plural word that isn't possessive