Earning Freedom

by Daxisle

Informant Corrupted

Informant Corrupted

Valiar looked at the pocket watch one more time, the contact should have been here by now. He chanced a look around the tavern one more time, nopony fit the description. He growled, growing more and more uncomfortable with each breath he took from the air that stank of cigarettes and booze. He didn't mind the darker atmosphere or the brooding hushed tones of the fellow patrons, though, he felt quite comfortable in that.

"C'mon, where are you?" He asked himself. He waited another half hour before a lunar pegasus mare finally entered the establishment who fit the listed qualities to a T. Smiling, Valiar waited patiently for her to take a seat before approaching.

"Shimmering Gale?" He asked as the took a seat across from her. The mare's attention was drawn to him in shock. "I'm Valiar, I was sent here by Shining Armor to speak with you about a conspiracy against his wedding?"

The mare's eyes went wide as she looked the red pony up and down. "I- Is Shining Armor coming?" She asked hopefully. "I'd really feel more comfortable giving the info to him. Please, it's very important."

He voice was quiet and gentle, but it held a sense of urgency that made Valiar wish the captain was present. Unfortunately he had to tell her that Shining was no where near Los Pegasus, he was still in Cantrlot, protecting the city as was his duty. Shimmering pressed her lips and asked how long it would take to get in contact with him and get the alabaster pony to meet with her. Valiar didn't know if she was just simple or didn't care.

"I was sent here in his place, Shining Armor will not be able to come to Las Pegasus now nor in the near future." He pushed a bit more forcefully, making the mare recoil and fidget nervously.

"Oh, she isn't going to be happy about this." He heard her mumble.

"Who isn't going to be happy about what?" He demanded, feeling the alarms going off in both his mind and body. This wasn't right, the way her hooves were moving, they seemed... automated some how. So did her eyes now that he came to really look at her, but that's when he noticed something else, something that really didn't add up. Her wings, they were feathered pegasus wings, not the bat wings of the lunar pegasi.

"I've gotta go!" Shimmering declared before standing from her chair and bursting out of the pub. Valiar wasn't about to let her get away now that she'd been caught in a lie, and more importantly, a plot that could hurt his mentor. He gave chase and saw that the night pegasus had taken to the air and was headed out of town. Cursing to himself, he called forth his levitation Rune to give chase. Cursing Shining for his lack of Teleportation.

He flew into the air and followed, keeping his mind focused as to not lose the spell and send himself falling to an early death. Unicorns using self levitation flight wasn't unheard of, but it was extremely dangerous, especially with quick movements and at heights. But he had both the concentration and mana reserves to accomplish both safely.

He pursued the informant up and out until they were out of the city limits. Once he was sure nopony else would see him, Valiar called forth Enhance and picked up speed to catch the fiend. Seeing him coming, the night pegasus dive bombed for the ground. "Okay." The unicorn smirked, happy his job was being made easier.

He watched as the ground became closer and closer as the two fell, his breathing becoming more and more difficult. He prepared Shield and felt his muscles begin to tingle delightfully as his potential death grew closer and closer. All of his shame, guilt and responsibility given the possibility of reprieve, but he knew better than to dwell on such hope for too long. Though, he did start to slow his decent, becoming fearful of his stopping abilities at such high speeds so close to the ground.

The mare had no such inhibitions and turned up at the lost possible moment before banking back up and following just a foot above the ground. "Just a little more* He cursed as he grew closer and closer. He saw her bank to the right just a little and dive bombed where she was going to be a few seconds later. That more than put her in his magical range.

"GOT YA!"

He wrapped her in his magic, though that left his own body free of the influence. As he began falling to the ground, he called her body to his own and wrapped all his legs around her to keep her body pinned. Seeing the ground coming up in short order, he cast the bubble shield and softened the barrier for elasticity.

The pegasus and unicorn bounced harmlessly off of the bubble shield a few times before it popped, and the two fell to the ground with a relatively harmless thud.

"Who are you!" He barked down at her. She tried to wiggle and squirm, moving to using kicks and punches to get him off, but Valiar was stronger than she was.

A flash of green fire engulfed the mare suddenly, and disappeared just as quickly. What lay in her place wasn't the night pegasus at all, but a grotesque monster covered in black chitinous with big blue eyes. The ordeal shocked Valiar enough for him to lose his grip and the pest shoved its legs into his chest, sending him flying into the dirt and sand behind.

The shocked stallion pushed his confidence and immediately drew to his hooves to give chase.

'Changelings! Mother bucking changelings!'

And that it was, he'd researched up on them in detail in the temple. They were shapeshifters, able to scan ponies bodies with their eyes and imitate their likeness. The only other thing known about them was that they fed on sapient emotion, the most prominent being love.

What they were doing playing informant, Valiar couldn't say. Nor understand what they wanted with his Captain, but he was going to find out. A small smile took his face as he galloped, calling again on Levitate and Amplify to boost his speed, though keeping himself on the ground this time. He must have damaged one of its wings, because it too was bound to running, but much slower than himself.

The chase didn't last near as long this time, a few banks and fake outs sent Valiar's magic ahead of his intended actions. One of the draw backs to the Amplify/Levitate combo was the lack of reaction time, but he'd still caught the insect again, this time using Blaze to subdue the fiend. "Who sent you!" He barked, looking down into the blank blue eyes of the changeling. "Why did you want Shining Armor?!"

No response, it just stared at him in either defiance or blank neutrality. That was alright, Valiar had ways of getting answers. He'd never use such methods on the innocent and pure, of course, but the thing below him was arguably less than a monster, so there was no reason to call upon such empathy.

He called upon Protector and used the stone to push into the creatures foreleg, applying more and more pressure until the leg would finally snap. "I suggest you tell me what I want to know." He demanded, smirking as he saw the first traces of pain started to twitch on the thing's face. He applied more pressure, his smirk deepening as the thing began to grunt from the pain.

SNAP*

HISSS it groaned and writhed as the chitin cracked under his power, small bits of green ooze pushing out past. It was making mouth sounds now, it wouldn't belong until those mouth sounds turned into coherent sentences telling everything he wanted to know. Though, one thing he didn't count on was a sudden burst of pain slamming into his side and sending him sprawling off of his prey.

Rolling onto his hooves Valiar prepared for yet another fight, but as he turned to face whatever it was that had made the grave mistake of assaulting him, a green spell of light was cast directly at him. He created another red shield and set forth Analyze above. There were no less than three changelings hissing and glaring at him, one of which was now helping the fallen drone.

Wait, that didn't add up. Besides morphing, changelings couldn't use magic. That's when another green blast hit his shield, shattering it and sending Valiar flying for the umpteenth time that day. "Son of a mule." He cursed, lifting his head and finding yet another of the insectoids, this one however, wasn't like the rest. Far taller, lengthy, with green eyes and a much longer horn.

"Hmmm. What have we here?" She cooed in a seductive voice. "You weren't supposed to be here."

Eyes widening, Valiar realized what exactly he was dealing with. A Changeling Queen.

Losing no more time to petty words, the stallion leapt up and shot a spell at her.

While the smoke was clearing for a precise hit, he called on all his runes to form a protective, floating wall around himself. He'd never fought a changeling queen before and slowly grew excited at the prospect.

As expected, the Queen stood unphased from his attack, he smile the first thing to appear as the dust cleard. "Oh my, you are a feisty one." She chuckled, charging her horn. "I do love a stallion who can keep my one my hooves!" She threw her head down and launched another spell, it slammed into the red force-field.

Valiar smirked, between the power of the runes and Amplify, Shield was more than enough to stave off the attack. Though, his confidence quickly waned as the beam began to grow in intensity, and saw his shield slowly bending inward.

'That's impossible! No Unicorn could have that kind of power!'

But the Queen of changlings was no mere unicorn either. Valiar pushed more magic from Reserve into both Amplify and Shield, but not matter how much manna he exerted, the spell intensified to match it and then some. As he saw the first rips of the shield begin to tear under the pressure, Valiar cursed Shining Armor one last time.

He really could have used that teleportation rune right about now.

That was the last thought he had before pain and green overtook him.

Author's Note:

Comments are always appreciated.

RIP Valiar.

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

Oh... jeez.

I didn't hate Valiar (okay, the moral slaughter was off-putting)... and now he's dead.

And now Valiar is going to be a changeling right next to Shining Armor. Awesome.