The Last Changeling War

by Coyote de La Mancha

Chapter Fourteen: Crimson Rain. (The Second Front)

As soon as her scouts had seen the encroaching army, Rainbow Dash had thrown thoughts at the Queen of Night that it was time, with more and more desperation, until finally she’d received an amused, **Yes, I hear you, Rainbow Dash. Thank you for making certain.**

“Okay, that was weird,” she’d muttered. “Dunno how Sunny deals with it.” Then she had soared down to the ground below, to share the information with Applejack.

Meanwhile, Luna had sent word to Celestia to ready the unicorns for the ritual, that it was nearly time.

Celestia, of course, had not been idle. She and her fellows had arranged themselves around the great monolith that Twilight had given them and begun the preliminaries of the rite. Within a few minutes, all was ready.

The unicorns on the outermost circle, trained magicians all, maintained the focus for the enchantment. Those in the center, closest to the great stone, were the alicorns themselves. And surrounding them, the most powerful and skilled magicians of Equestria. Between the two concentric rings of unicorn magicians were all the rest, bolstered by the strength and concentration of their fellows even as they prepared to give all their energy to the task at hand.

Then came Luna’s unmistakable sending.

**Now.**

Celestia closed her eyes. Her horn, like those of her students, was already aglow. Likewise, those of the magicians, blended rainbow hues of light forming twin rings around the central stone.

Now there was a collective gasp as massive energies coursed through the ponies in the wide ring between, pulling them into the rite. The riptide of the ritual’s power, having before merely tugging at their consciousnesses, suddenly rose and engulfed them. It surged through them, a psychic wind in a silent storm, forcibly drawing their magical power from them in a never-ending cascade. Their living energy flowed out through their horns to blend with the rest of the rite, guided inward in an iridescent spiral towards its ultimate goal.

The great stone pillar also glowed, amethyst-like, shifting from violet to emerald and back again as it drank in the combined magic of Equestria. Pulsing evenly, blending and focusing that power, even as it harmonized with the living magic of Chrysalis and her children.

There was a momentary feeling of building, of drawing in, and then a sudden pulse as from the heart of a goddess, sending the spell’s power outward in a perfect circle, even as the ponies within maintained it, their very heartbeats in unison with one another, with the stone, with the rhythm of what remained of the creature’s heart that had first created it aeons ago.

The spell burst outward, a colorless, almost invisible force.

Twilight’s original spell, combined with the power of so many unicorns, would have covered most of Equestria, even from the edge of the Badlands where they were.

But now, with the obelisk as its focus, the ritual she had devised was many times more powerful than before. And within the space of a heartbeat, its power had blanketed the world.

In Yakyakistan, one of the smaller Yaks suddenly lost her coat and horns in a burst of purple-green fire, her true nature revealed. Surrounding her, the Yaks’ features were already hardening, filling with anger.

In Saddle-Arabia, a street vendor collapsed in a burst of mystic flame, only to pull himself unsteadily to his hooves and fly desperately away on his insect-like wings before the ponies realized what had happened.

In the Crystal Empire, several visiting ponies collapsed in multicolored fire. Each was leapt upon and arrested by nearby guards before they could recover.

---

Back at the Galloping Gorge, a great wave of translucent force washed over everything.

Several of the Equestrians staggered from the effect, though they regained their stance quickly.

But on the ground before the Equestrian army, suddenly there were numerous Changelings, eyes wide, quickly pulling themselves back to their feet, staring around themselves in shock.

It was one thing to imagine a force of such creatures. Quite another to see them materialize right before you. Many ponies looked at one another uncertainly.

Rarity brightened immediately. “Ah! That’s much better!”

Applejack blinked.

“Well. Roll me in peanut butter an' feed me to the squirrels,” she said.

She glanced back, and saw that the unity she and her fellows had forged among their troops was fading fast. It wasn’t as though Changelings were soothing to look at in their native form, much less when they were hissing and already starting to rally themselves. And without firm direction, it was only going to get worse.

So, Applejack did the only thing she could think of in the few seconds she had.

Raising her arm, she shouted, “Alright, ponies, there they are! Let's take 'em down!”

Suddenly galvanized, the ponies roared forth against their revealed foes, pegasi soaring down from the blackened sky even as the ground shook with the thunder of earth pony hooves. Lightning flashed on both sides and behind the ponies, blinding the Changelings and hemming them in further. Barely audible over it all were the voices of their officers and the Elements who led them.

Surrender, they shouted. Surrender, now, and you won’t be harmed.

The Changelings, unexpectedly bereft of their shape-changing powers, suddenly found themselves outnumbered by something over ten to one. Facing such odds, most of the ponies had frankly expected a mass surrender, despite everything that had been said. Perhaps with a few holdouts here and there, but the surrender of Equestria’s foes had seemed inevitable. It was the only rational move.

But while the Changelings might have been rational creatures themselves, their queen and mother was not. No one in the Hive knew the Equestrian tradition of treating prisoners kindly, nor understood their eagerness to accept surrenders. That simply wasn't something they'd been exposed to.

What they had been taught, from the moment of hatching, was that compassion was for fools. That trust, outside the Hive, was suicide. And that ponies were the most implacable enemy that they could ever have.

So it was that, in the face of both overwhelming numbers and a unanimous call for surrender that the Changeling army, almost in unison, narrowed their eyes, hissed... and attacked.

The earth ponies were stronger than the insectoids they faced, but they were no fliers. And the pegasi, while often better and faster fliers than their foes, were usually nowhere near as strong.

Further, while the Equestrians had enchanted armor covering much of their bodies; the Changelings had chitin, covering everything but their eyes. And the Changelings not only had claws and fangs, but they fought with a ferocity and cruelty that the pony army was simply unprepared for.

Rage, the ponies had expected. Some of them had even anticipated hate.

But none of them had been ready for their foes to immediately attack with a blind fury born from sheer panic. The unspoken assumption that the Equestrians, if they had such power that they could block transformation, simply had no need to show mercy. That if they could use the very storm itself as a weapon, retreat was impossible.

And from that, the absolute terror-driven certainty that the only possible path to survival was for the Changelings to claw their way through the Equestrian forces or die trying.

Some of the ponies, shocked and then horrified by what they were facing, did their best to respond in kind. Others froze and were struck down. But the majority, despite everything, simply fought, determined that the invaders must not carry the day.

Blood spattered on the ground and fell from the sky. Unevenly, uncertainly at first, the line of conflict on the ground and in the sky wavered, flexed, and then fell back as the Equestrians began to give way. The horns of their formation folded in, surrounding the insectoids almost by accident.

And then, as Equestrians and Changelings found themselves moving past one another as they fought, suddenly there was no line. Only a mass of desperate confusion, pain, blood, and fear.

---

The wave of Changelings hit the lead ponies like a tsunami. Fleur tried to keep her position, but it was like trying to fight the ocean. There was no direction, no sense of where anypony else was. There was only a desperate fight against everything and everyone as she struggled to keep upright and keep her defenses up.

Rarity and Applejack were gone, doubtless in the same terrifying position that she was. Fleur struck out in all directions as she spun and slid again and again in the mud, frantically doing everything she could to keep from being born down and killed by the crowded swarm of assailants.

She didn’t know how long she had been fighting thus, how far she might have travelled or where she was on the battlefield. Who else, if anyone, was even still alive. All she knew, with sudden terror, was that she finally did fall, rolling, sliding, desperately trying to regain her footing even as others piled around her did the same.

Then, the battle – or at least her part of it – seemed to spread out, allowing her and her foes to see one another, as well as their allies. There were many ponies around her in the chaos, and many Changelings as well, all apparently still alive. And for that much she was grateful. But the fighting was directionless now, clumps of fighters forming, breaking up, crashing together at random, all order and restraint forgotten.

Then, to her horror, she saw Harvest on the ground, unmoving. His eyes empty, his breath still.

Suddenly she was surrounded by a ring of her enemies, some hovering, some on the ground, all of them focused on her and her alone.

“Traitor!” one buzzed at her, eyes glowing with hate.

“Turncoat bitch!” another spat.

Fleur forced herself upright again despite her injuries. Her eyes were hard and her breathing was labored, green blood seeping from a dozen small wounds on her throat, face, and legs.

Her horn and armor glowed an angry rose. It seemed she would probably die this day. And if she did, it seemed she would die alone, surrounded only by her killers.

But she would not go gently.

Instantly, there was another pony there, standing to her side, armor and horn shining sapphire blue in the storm.

“If you want her,” Rarity snarled, “come and claim her!”

Lightning flashed. The Changelings hesitated only a moment, then leapt to the attack, claws flashing, even as the unicorns launched themselves in unison at their foes.

---

Twilight Sparkle continued to lay in a corner of the meeting hall, reading, her brows furrowed with impatience.

For her part, Luna sat in the center of the room, eyes closed, mind serene, listening.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open.

Princess, we got us – ow! – got us an emergency here...!

Images assailed her mind, unfocused but intense, of Applejack's ground forces and the chaos that surrounded her. Above, pegasi fought desperately against their frantic foes, their blood raining down upon a battlefield that had lost all sense of reason, restraint, or even direction.

Almost at the same time, Rarity was also hurling her thoughts to the princess. Images of herself and her noble friend fighting for their very lives, surrounded by chitinous warriors, glowing eyes, flashing claws and bloody fangs.

Immediately, Luna sent her thoughts to every Element and officer there:

**Pull back! Pull back and let them flee!**

For a moment, there was a confused chorus of thoughts.

**TO THE SOUTH!** her thoughts thundered. **GIVE THEM AN OPENING TO THE NORTH, CONSOLIDATE YOUR FORCES TO THE SOUTH, AND LET THEM GO!**

It took several moments for those of rank to be heard and understood over the din. But as soon as they were able the Equestrians went on the defensive, those who could still tell directions guiding those who had become lost in the confusion. They moved quickly to the south, even as the Changelings moved flawlessly backwards on their insect wings, watching the ponies with identical expressions of distrust. Some carried their injured, others carried their dead. Those unburdened moved to cover the rear of their formation, ready to rend and tear again should the occasion demand it.

Finally, the swarm turned in a single motion shared between every Changeling there. None of them spoke, nor even glanced at one another. They just left, their only sound the fading buzzing of their wings as they faded into the woods and were gone.

“Dang, that’s creepy,” Applejack muttered.

At that, Fleur’s strength seemed to fail at last. Rarity caught her as her legs buckled, helping her settle to the ground.

Rarity was mildly injured, as were many others, but Fleur de Lis was far worse off; even when Rarity had rejoined her, the Changelings had done all they could to target her. Green blood seeped from multiple cuts and tears along her forelimbs and along her sides, making it difficult to walk or even stand unaided. Plus, there was a trio of claw marks along the right side of her neck that, had it been just a little deeper, likely would have been fatal.

Rarity levitated a nearby canteen over and began gently cleaning her friend’s wounds as best she could.

“Forgive me, dear,” she said, “but… is this what…?”

Fleur gave a mournful sigh.

“Yes,” she said miserably. “Celestia found me out, back when you and I were having our illegal meetings. I was given a choice: I could take a magical oath of loyalty, or I could be exiled from Equestria forever. I took the oath. There was always that chance, however small, that I might see you again.”

“If you’d told Celestia that you’d made a friend…” Rarity started.

“She’d certainly have let us see one another,” Fleur de Lis agreed. “I know that now. But you don’t know what it was like in the Hive. I just couldn’t see that really being her response, not until I’d lived as a pony for years. And so, I didn’t dare take the chance with your safety.

“Plus, by then, I’d also met Fancy Pants. And though we weren’t yet close, I already knew that I loved him. So yes, I swore in hopes of seeing you again, but I was also thinking of him.

“Yet at the same time, I was so afraid he would leave me that I never told him what I was. Even when I quit the guard, even when we were married. I… I never told him.

“It was pure cowardice on my part,” Fleur said, looking anywhere but at her friend. “I admit that. I tried so many times. But I just… I couldn’t do it. And the more pony-like I became, the less I wanted to even think about it. Especially after I somehow started developing something akin to pony magic. Telekinesis, some energy projection.”

“But your magic wouldn’t really work in the ritual,” Rarity nodded, understanding. “Because it wasn’t real unicorn magic. You’d have been stationed here anyway, marriage problems or no.”

“Maybe,” Fleur sighed. “I like to think that if I’d just told him, if I’d just been honest with him, the princesses would have put me someplace nearby. Maybe protecting the circle from without, while he contributed from within.

“But I never did. And then, war came. And with so much at stake, he needed to know. I needed him to know. And now…”

She hung her head, eyes squeezed shut, unable to speak further.

Rarity grabbed the other mare, forced her head up.

“No! No, you look at me! Look at me!” she insisted.

“If Fancy Pants is truly a stallion who cannot understand how you were afraid to lose him over this, if he’s really determined to abandon what you have together, then he is a damned fool!

“Of course he’s angry!” she went on. “Of course he’s hurt! Of course he’s questioning everything, feeling betrayed! My dear, much as I love you, you lied to him!”

Fleur winced, looking away, and Rarity took her by the chin and brought her gaze, gently this time, to meet her own once more.

“But he also knows why.” She pointed out softly. “And he knows – he must know – how much you love him.”

And, her own expression softening as she smoothed her friend’s mane away from her eyes, she finished, “And I know that you love him. Seeing the two of you together, I’d have to be blind not to. Which means that furthermore, I have an idea just how much he loves you.

“Just… just give him some time. If he does walk away, and I don’t think he will, then he’s less than half the stallion I take him for.”

Then, becoming angry again, she added, “But he’d be a damned fool to do so, and don’t you think for an instant that I shan’t tell him so myself!”

Fleur de Lis stared at her for a moment, then grabbed her in a grateful embrace.

“You’re a good friend, Rarity,” she whispered.

Carefully, mindful of her friend’s injuries, Rarity hugged her back.

“Thank you, my dear.” Then, pulling away, she smiled. “Now then, let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?”

But Fleur shook her head, no. Silently, ignoring her own wounds as the ponies around her stared, she limped over to where the body of Harvest Moon lay. While Rarity gave a whispered, Oh, oh no, Fleur de Lis reached out a hoof, and, sadly, closed her former comrade’s eyes.

---

Even as Fleur’s own nature was being exposed, similar revelations were being made throughout the army. It seemed that there were some other oath-bound changelings here and there. A few were exposed through injury. A few others, seeing this, revealed themselves deliberately, standing by their fellows as they did. And several of the dead among the ponies, upon inspection, had the telltale green blood of the Hive. In response to all this, a confused, dangerous murmur had begun among the earth ponies and pegasi both.

While above, Rainbow Dash showed her own bewilderment as she strove to keep the winged ponies in order, she could plainly hear Applejack’s voice filled with nothing but certainty:

“Alright, y’all, that’s enough! These here folks have been our friends fer a while now, an’ today they were fightin’ along with us through spit’n’hellfire! We’ve been together through thick an’ thin, they sure don’t need us givin’ ‘em a rough time now!”

At that, everypony paused. The murmurs of confusion had not had time to build into anger yet, and now doubt began to truly settle in. Who were these creatures, really? How did they keep their pony shapes before, and why would they keep them now? Just what was going on, here?

Are you even who you look like?

Was everything between us a lie?

And then, a familiar voice echoed throughout the army, silent yet inescapably real.

**Yes, my friends, there are some among you who are not as they once seemed,** Princess Luna’s mind speech said. **And yes, my sister and I knew. We have always known. Their silence was kept by our decree, not theirs. And if any error was made in that matter, it is our responsibility alone. If any of you already knew, then take that as a sign of the depth of your friendship that they would risk so much to reveal themselves to you.**

Looking back to Fleur, Rarity saw that her friend was just staring miserably at the ground.

Meanwhile, Applejack continued to watch over her earth ponies, her stern expression unchanged. Rainbow Dash still listened to the princess’ sending with a puzzled expression almost identical to her fellow pegasi, even as she also had started to move to protect the disguised changelings among her own troops.

As the clouds cleared, Rainbow shot Applejack an accusing look, and the earth pony responded with a helpless shrug. Apparently, there had been a variety of secrets this day. Which, Rainbow had to admit to herself, only made sense. After all, they’d been dealing with an enemy that specialized in espionage.

But Luna’s communications had only paused for a moment, and now they continued.

**These Equestrians have earned my trust,** she sent, **and the trust of the other princesses. And if you think on it, I believe you will find they have earned yours, as well. For while they may not have been born among you, the shapes they wear are uniquely their own. And they have risked everything this day, just as you have. They have fought beside you, and their blood has intermingled with your own. Some have even died, fighting for the land that you and they hold dear.**

The murmuring slowly died away as the ponies looked around themselves anew. At the bodies around them, and at the living who stood or lay, injured by their efforts to protect their country. Almost all of them were obviously ponies by birth. But not quite all; with the rest looking at the ponies surrounding them with an uncertainty devoid of anger or hate.

Red or green, it seemed, blood was still blood.

**I therefore say to you all this day that they are Changelings no longer. They have not been, not for a long time. They are the Oathbound. Equestrians not by birth, but by deed. By honour and spirit, and by love.

**I make no demands of any of you this day. You have, all of you, given far too much already. Yet… I will dare ask you all to accept each other now as you have before. For it seems there is less difference between changeling and pony than any of us ever realized. And if there is ultimately to be peace, it must begin among you now.**

Then her mind speech faded, leaving the ponies to gather themselves together and assess their own losses. To tend to the living, and to bury the dead.

Fluttershy found her way to them then, reporting that apparently the Changelings had given the makeshift animal shelter a wide berth; at least, she certainly hadn’t seen any. Discord had excused himself shortly after their retreat, explaining that the near future only promised more organization.

But Fluttershy herself immediately started pitching in – along with several of her animal friends – to help with triage, first aid, and preparations to move everyone back to Ponyville for proper medical treatment.

There was a great deal of awkwardness when Rarity helped Fleur into the triage tent, her wounds still uncovered. After all, everypony knew her, at least by reputation. But as she said to Rarity on her way in, I’m done playing the coward.

And as the next few hours went by, word spread quickly: Fleur de Lis, one of the most admired mares in Canterlot, the lady who had fought alongside Applejack and Rarity themselves… was herself an Oathbound.

And as the exhausted army prepared for their trek back home, and the red and green blood of battle dried where it stained the ground, some of them had to wonder whether this had really been a victory at all.

But most of them, looking around at the lives saved and the bonds formed between pony and Oathbound alike, could only think to themselves,

Yes. It cost us dear, far more than it should have. But for now, at least, life and love have won.

Author's Note:

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The Secret Life of Fleur de Lis

Comments

[Spamotron]

While the spell was necessary I hope the Princesses have some kind of plan for the harmless changeling exiles who likely just had their lives destroyed across the world.

[Coyote de La Mancha]

11757223
I don't think anyone really anticipated just how much oomph the stone was going to add to the spell. And with the addition of the monolith having been such a last-minute thing, it's probably not so much a plan of protection as it is a repair or reparation kind of thing.