Alternative Reality

by Crystal Night

Stage Eleven: More Questions

Infinite grunted in pain as he threw the changeling onto the floor and kicked him away. "That hurts you insect."
He looked to his side, expecting a reply from the princess about his brute force, however when he gazed into her eyes, he saw nothing but rage, pure anger. Sure, Infinite has seem her angry before, but this time it was different. She seemed a completely different mare. "Luna, are you alright?"

"Guards to me! Capture these monsters and these traitors as well!" Infinite was taken back by her harsh tone. Whatever happened in the past clearly didn't stay there. True to her words, among the changelings, other ponies were there, grabbing whatever they could to fight back.
"It's probably better if I stay out of this." - he thought to himself.

Luna and her guards pushed forward as did their attackers. The Lunar princess was quickly dealing with them, her magical raw ability was too much for these poor fools to deal with. Unknow to her, a changeling flew behind her ready to strike when a cannon ball hit him on the side, sending it crashing down onto a crate. The move this time didn't go unnoticed as she flashed him a smirk.
Infinite was enjoying seeing her fight like this, it was rather different when she was fighting him the other day. He glanced at the guards who seem a bit troubled by the insects and their own kind. "I guess a little help won't hurt." He quickly summoned a group of phase one eggbots and ordered them to help the guards. The robots used their laser cannons to dispatch any resistence. In all honestly Infinite didn't like these bots that much since their poor design was no match for someone like Sonic or Shadow, but against them it would do nicely.
As the fight went on, more and more fell to the princess and her escort, even the bots managed to support them.
The last of them finally gave up, by then Luna was sweating, but it didn't matter, it was over.
"Cuffed them all and take them to their cells. Watch them closely." - Luna instructed as they nodded and went to work.
"Not bad back there. Amazing work." - he praised her.

Did he just compliment her? First he says sorry and now this? Has he really changing that much?
"Uhm, thanks. Also for covering my back earlier." - Luna blushed a bit.

"Don't sweat it, hardly a challenge." He then let out a smirk. "Besides something tells me you enjoyed it a bit. Have you faced these insects before?"

"Yes, in a very long time, after we rose to power. They recently tried invading Canterlot." - the princess stomped her hoof in annoyence. "That time I wasn't around to help."

"If that's the case, they haven't learn their lesson. You should've ended them when you had the chance." The jackal and princess entered the ship, letting the guards handle the arrests. Luna looked at him, he wasn't wrong about it.
Celestia was the one who oppose against such idea, believing they deserved a second chance. If it wasn't her sister, the changelings wouldn't no longer be on Equestria. "Luna, you there?"
She blinked her eyes, finally noticing Infinite was just a few inches from her muzzle.
"Aah! Too close!" Infinite stepped back as he simply laughed away, as her cheeks went red. "That's not funny..." - she crossed her forelegs.

"I had to," - he wipped a tear away. "You spaced out for a bit. You're going to say what I just said was wrong right?"

"Actually...no, you're right."

"Are you sure you are Princess Luna and not one of those weird bugs?" He didn't expect her to agree with such opinion.
She lightly tapped his arm.
"A-ha, but that is true. At one point in our life we wanted to end them."

"We?"
The blue alicorn looked away.
"This was a little before ou-my banishment."

"Oh, I didn't mean-" Infinite replied quickly, but the princess cut him off.
"It's fine Zero, you didn't know. Anyway we should spread out to find some clues that is, if you want to help me."

He stretched his arms and went towards the lower section of the ship.
"I'll help, can't let you have all the work."
As he left her sight, a tiny smile graced her lips.

---

The jackal inspected several of the crates, most of them had the crystals they found and if he had to guess, this batch was the ones went missing along with more of them. He also found more weapons and armor laying around. What was more odd was the lack of the insignias or the armor colour. The armor was pretty much brand new, suggesting it was made very recently. Years of looting treasures taught him many things, such as the current state of itens and how old they might be.

Someone was making these for them.

Infinite sensed he wasn't alone in the lower deck as he slowly checked behind to find nothing. Maybe his mind was once more playing tricks on him.
"Boo!"

"Aaah!!" - the jackal jumped back, while Luna laughed. "Luna, don't do that! I could've hurt you or something!"

"But well you didn't, found anything interesting?"

"Well I did, but now I don't know if I will tell you."

"Please, pretty please." - she did her best puppy eyes she could manage, still trying to improve on it. "I won't tell what happen."

"Fine! You own me a slice of cake though."

"Done. Tia won't noticed it." The duo shared a smile.

---

"I found some document papers about travels and such, but I'll ask someone to look at them."

"That seems a bit lazy for a princess." - he joked.

"Careful or you might lose that cake." Luna never really liked doing paperwork anyway. "However this is quite serious, someone is supplying them with weapons and armors, not only that, but they are also helping them as well. This is getting more strange by the second."

"I'm sure you can handle it."
A solar guard flew to them with a urgent message, as he landed, the pony bowed to her.
"Princess Luna, Princess Celestia requests your presence at once in her private study."

"Of course she does." - she numbled. "Tell her I'll be arriving soon." The guard saluted and left them alone once more. "Sorry about this."

"It's fine. After all you are in charge of the kingdom. Go on, I'll make my way back." From the corner his eye he noticed something odd worth checking.
"Alright, see you soon Zero." The princess of the Moon took off, as Infinite redirect his attention to the previous thing at hand.

---

The two changelings looked nervously at each other. Bringing more bad news wasn't how they thought the day would go.
"So, not only we lost more members, but also lost the airship containing our next shipment, am I missing anything else?" - inquired a voice hidden in the shadows.

"I-It would seem that the strange creature led them there...your Highness."
A pair of green eyes gazed at her servants, eyes filled with hatred. Everything was going well, no problems, no issues. Until that thing showed up. That creature was ruining everything she worked hard for.
"Ah yes, the newcomer. How could I possibly forget about him?" The once proud Queen Chrysalis got up from the shadows of her hiding spot. "It would seem I will have to take care of this myself, you bunch of useless fools."

The drone stepped closer, glancing at the ground.
"What should we do?"

A wicked grin crawled into her face.
"Lead him to me."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

10582974
Can I please get a link?

[Crystal Night]

10695296
https://youtu.be/eq5YuFAby2I Wow, it's been 3 years since it was released.

[matt s0101745]

Years of lotting treasures taught him many things, such as the current state of itens and how old they might be.

Is this intentional, or is it a typo that happens to make more sense than what you intended?
("lotting" means the act of separating items into "lots" for sale at, eg, an auction, and would imply that not only did Infinite lead his bandits in stealing stuff, he also helped fence it to fund the team's need for supplies, etc)

[Crystal Night]

10698616
Ah, it's supposed to be looting, thanks for pointing that out.

[Scorch234]

Can't wait for the next chapter

[Crystal Night]

10828485
Thanks for the support!

[Scorch234]

10829288
Np

[Alex80]

Update please im so curious now to continue

[Crystal Night]

10950201
I'm still slowly working on the next chapter, due to work.

[Alex80]

Update is coming ??????

[Crystal Night]

10966433
I'm working on the new chapter as we speak, with any luck should be done this week.