The Lion's Roar

by I Am The Night

Chapter 7: Shattered

"Oww... my head..."

The fact that he was still talking relieved Lyon. He was still alive, thank Celestia. Perhaps it was smashing into those double doors that cushioned the major impact?

The stallion propped himself off the floor, which he quickly realized was no longer the familiar marble of the wedding hall, but instead a denser, rougher form of concrete.

"What the..."

And then he saw the bars.

Jail bars, thick and compacted together, stood as an obstacle in front of Lyon. He touched them, only to retreat his hoof. Not because of how cold they were.

But because of his hoof.

Black, lifeless, and littered with holes. He looked at his other hoof, and it was the same thing. His hind legs, just the same. His body, though hole-less, was still the same equal shade of black. He felt his head, and his hair was gone. He felt the edges of the horn on his head and sucked in a shocked breath of air.

He was a changeling again. And if he was sitting here now...

"The prisoner is awake," he heard a voice say in the distance. Looking through the bars, Lyon saw an open door, and a royal guard talking to somepony out of view.

"Thank you, lieutenant," the voice spoke back, the familiar tone of Shining Armor unmistakable.

They knew. Everyone knew. By now, the word had to have gotten all the way back to Ponyville. "Loveable Lyon, a monster in plain sight!"

Well, he wasn't exactly "loveable," but everyone appreciated him for who he was. But how could they now after... this?!

Shining Armor stepped through the doorway, while the guard that was presumably watching over Lyon took position outside, shutting the door after the captain motioned himself in. He looked down at Lyon, initially expressionless.

The way he eyed Lyon... for the first time in years, he actually felt a bit unnerved by it.

"What do we call you?" was the first thing Shining Armor said to him. Lyon raised an eyebrow faintly.

"Call me?"

"Doesn't your kind give each other names?"

Said that way, it made more sense now. But Lyon couldn't sit well the way he said "your kind." He bit his inner cheek and hesitated to answer for a moment. Shining grew impatient.

"Lyon," Lyon finally said. Shining shook his head.

"No, it isn't," Shining retorted. "Tell me your real name."

"That is my real name."

"You are not—" Shining escalated the situation further, but Lyon held up his hooves to pause him mid-sentence.

"Look," he stated plainly, "whatever you believe right now, my real name is Lyon. It has been for as long as I can remember. Sooner you can understand that, the quicker you can ask me whatever the hell you want."

"Excuse me?" Shining said darkly, glowering at the changeling before him.

But Lyon didn't flinch nor recoil. He kept his cool, but said nothing more. With a frustrated snort, Shining Armor had no other choice but to let it go.

"Fine... Lyon. I'll play your little game."

"I'm not playing a game."

Shining ignored him, moving onto the first question.

"Do you know why you're here?"

Lyon nodded against his will. "I'm a changeling. I'm here because you want to interrogate me."

"That's one of them," Shining said stoically as he paced the floor in front of the cell. "But we'll get to that in a minute. You're here because I want information."

"About?"

"Don't play dumb with me, changeling!" Shining Armor exclaimed with a stomp of his hoof. "Your kind! Your queen! I wanna know what you did to my wife while she was down in those caves! What your queen is planning next! And don't give me any yakshit, because I'll know!"

Lyon didn't shrink away from Shining. He didn't know if it was right, but he pitied him. He was one of the most experienced ponies in Canterlot, if not Equestria—a feat that still made Lyon jealous now that he could think straight—and he was used and toyed with while his wife starved right under his hooves.

He understood his anger. He shared it.

"Well?!"

Lyon hadn't realized he had been sitting there silent for a moment. Shining glared, even as he tried to collect himself. He couldn't interrogate an enemy if he was on the verge of killing them.

"I don't know anything," Lyon said hesitantly, and the captain noticed it.

"You're lying!"

"I'm not."

"And why should I believe you?"

"For starters, I'm sitting in a jail cell. Second, you could easily blast me to dust if you wanted. I don't have any incentive to lie to you."

"Except for when you lied to my sister."

"That's... different," Lyon faltered as Twilight was mentioned. "I didn't lie to her."

"You took the place of her best friend. Someone she valued. You took advantage of her trust just so you could feed yourself," Shining judged. "You definitely lied to her, changeling."

"I didn't... I..."

Lyon didn't know how to respond to that. Deep down, a part of him was right. But it wasn't intentionally! He would never take advantage of a close one!

Especially not Twilight. Never Twilight.

"I still don't know anything of my m... the queen's plans," Lyon repeated.

"You're all connected," Shining insisted. "You all have one single connection with one another. From what I've heard, your kind can communicate with each other towns away. Cities, even."

"They cut me out of that a long time ago."

"I doubt that."

"Doubt it all you want," Lyon said solemnly. "But it's the truth."

Shining bit his inner cheek, looking at the changeling oddly for a moment before returning to his usual posture.

"Sorry if I don't believe you," Shining said almost sarcastically. To a bit of his surprise, Lyon shook his head.

"I don't blame you."

Lyon adjusted his posture, leaning against the brick wall and observing the floor beneath him.

"Up until today, I thought I was all that was left." He snorted a laugh, ignoring the captain's stares. "What a wake-up call, right?"

Shining said nothing, as did Lyon, and it was quiet for a few moments. Eventually, Shining let out a brief frustrated sigh and clicked his tongue.

"Let's move on, then," he said.

Lyon sighed. "Which is?"

"You are also being held in contempt with the suspected abduction of Lyon, an earth pony from Ponyville, and a dear friend of my sister."

So they didn't know. They really thought he was missing.

At first, Lyon felt some excitement building up within him. An opportunity sprung into motion! If he could convince them that he was actually captured by the changelings, and he broke free from this jail cell, he could run off, find a place to hide, and turn up back in his original form. They'd find him, defeat Chrysalis, and everything would be back to... normal.

And yet, already, Lyon saw the flaws. The hives knows him. His friends have the ability to undo a changeling's disguise, if that love spell at the wedding was any indication. And who was to say Chrysalis wouldn't just undo any of that progress before he could make any? Before he could...?

And that was just a few of the problems already stemming. What if Twilight "uncovered" him years from now? They wouldn't believe it a second time, would they? What if—

"Changeling," Shining boomed, breaking Lyon's brief train of thought.

"What?"

"Where is Lyon?"

"I..."

Words formed in his head, ready to shoot out anything he could think of. But he stopped himself.

This wasn't him. He didn't deceive intentionally. He didn't lie to ponies or creatures that trusted him. It just wasn't in his nature. His spirit denied him that.

And Twilight...

He could never lie to her. Even if it meant her life.

"I am Lyon."

"We're not playing this game anymore, changeling," Shining Armor demanded, planting a hoof firmly against one of the cell door bars. "Where is the real Lyon?"

"Right in front of you."

"No," Shining repeated on the verge of yelling. "Stop lying, if you know what's good for you."

"I'm not—"

Shining Armor reared himself, his horn lighting up. Lyon stood defensively, ready to jump if need be. But before the captain could do anything, the door opened, and the head of the guard from before peered in.

"Captain," he began, "the doctor from the Medical Wing is here. Princess Cadance is awake."

Shining Armor's horn stopped sparking, and his eyes opened further for only a moment before they returned to their usual stance. He gave a firm nod to the guard.

"Thank you, lieutenant. Tell her I'll be out shortly."

"Yes, sir." The guard shut the door behind him, leaving Lyon and Shining alone once more. The latter squinted at Lyon.

"We're not done here, changeling. I can do this all day, for however long you want to go."

"Then go ahead," Lyon stated. "I'm just gonna keep repeating the same answers."

"Then you'll rot until you tell the truth."

Lyon could only stare at Shining frustratedly.

"Then why bother telling you anything if you don't believe a damn thing I say? Why should I even bother talking to you if you don't listen?"

Shining paused for a moment. The changeling did bring up a decent point... as did any other prisoner that mirrored his claims. But right now, he was tired, and his wife was finally awake. He sighed.

"We'll continue this later," was all he could say to the changeling before exiting through the door. Lyon said nothing as he left.

On the way out, he walked up to the guard and ordered him back into the room.

"Make sure the prisoner is well fed and hydrated," Shining instructed. "We don't know how long this might last for."

"What should I feed it?"

"... I don't know. Whatever it can stomach, I guess. And send someone if there are any changes."

The lieutenant saluted the captain and went back into the chamber where Lyon stayed. Sighing, Shining Armor proceeded down the hall until he came across Nurse Luckhorn, who greeted him warmly.

"How've you been, sugar?" she asked with a smile.

"I've been a mixed bag, I'm afraid," Shining responded with a weak chuckle.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'll live," he laughed almost heartily, following behind the nurse.

Already, he found himself putting the day behind him, if even just for a single minute. Even if it didn't last long, it was still a welcome change of pace.

"Why should I even bother talking to you if you don't listen?"

Very welcome. That worried him.

---

Lyon paced slowly around the small cell, letting faint breaths escape him. Occasionally, he would tap a hoof against a cracked concrete tile, and every lap back to it, he would chip it more, but was careful not to tear it off.

Beyond that, the cell was rather... quaint, as Rarity would likely put it. It felt more like a private school dorm than a jail cell. There was a small window near the ceiling, and if Lyon looked through it, he could see down into Canterlot, with the courtyard nearby, indicating he was likely still in the castle, or a more private sector that was off to most ponies like him.

Well... creatures like him.

A few minutes after Shining Armor had gone, a knock came at the door. The guard turned towards the door and opened it, so shortly that Lyon couldn't see who it was. Even the brief conversation they had was so quiet.

But the accent was indistinguishable.

"Do you have permission to be in here, ma'am?"

"Captain Armor said I was allowed to come in."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"I'm willing to do whatever I can to git anything out of that thing."

Applejack?

"Very well. You've got five minutes."

A moment later, the guard pushed the door open and stood aside. As he guessed, Lyon's eyes fell upon Applejack's all too familiar figure. But already Lyon noticed something different about her.

Her mane and tail were no longer smoothened out, and without her hair ties, they fell freely, yet they were also frazzled in places. Bags rested under her eyes, indicating she hadn't been sleeping right... and confirming that Lyon had been locked up as least a day. At most... who knows? He had never been hit by a "love bomb" before.

The tension was thick; Lyon never expected the phrase of cutting it with a knife to ever be applied to any situation.

But when Applejack stared him down in that moment, he knew it would probably be one of many times he would use that.

She approached the cell with a cautious eye. Lyon said nothing, for his tongue was caught in his throat. Applejack said nothing, for she didn't know what to say.

"Applejack—" Lyon started, only to be cut short with a shot of spit to the face. The mare's glare was bitter now.

"Don't ya dare call me that, you... freak," she answered in an equally bitter tone. "You don't git to call me that, you hear?"

Lyon didn't respond immediately, instead starting to walk a few feet.

"Don't walk away from—" Applejack flared, only to pause when Lyon walked his way over to the sink, flipped it on, and started to wash off his face.

"I'm sorry," Lyon apologized, "I just need to—"

"DON'T do that!" Applejack roared again, stomping her hooves, and Lyon reeled back in confusion. "DON'T use his voice! Don't talk like him! Don't you dare try that on me!"

He realized what she meant by it.

"This is how I normally talk."

"You're lying," she insisted.

"I'm not. I've always talked like this."

"He always talked like that. He."

"So have I."

Applejack was far from convinced, her glare worsening, and her eyes on the verge of tears. She was frustrated, more than Shining Armor could've been. No matter how honest he was, she was too clouded to believe it. So he cooked up a new voice on the spot to make her feel "comfortable," in a sense.

"Fine. Better?" he asked in a dark, grovelly tone that an old sibling of his shared from his early days. He changed his expression to sound more ignorant, more aggressive, even if she didn't criticize his reactions.

"Not even close." Applejack stayed still, as if her body tensed up for a second. "Not even close."

"I'm sorry."

"Shut up," she demanded.

Lyon said nothing more. Instead, he waited for her to ask another question. It took her a few grits of the teeth to get anything going.

"Where is he?" she eventually asked. "Where is Lyon?"

He wanted to tell her the truth, like he did Shining Armor—even if he didn't believe him. But he didn't want to scare or anger her even further.

"I don't know."

Lying didn't make any difference, as Applejack punched one of the cell bars hard enough to bend where she struck.

"Where is he?" she repeated.

"I don't know." Lyon grew sad. He knew the outcome would be the same whether he lied or told the truth.

Applejack pulled her hoof back, ready to punch the bar a second time, but she stopped herself. She realized it would be a fruitless matter. Plus, she would only be hurting herself even more... in this case, literally.

With a frustrated sigh, she pulled away and paced the outside of the cell for a moment, before setting her haunches down onto the floor. She growled feverishly, but ultimately her breathing slowed.

"I'm sorry," she said silently.

"It's okay—"

"Not you," she barked. He wanted to know who she was apologizing to, but he dared not ask.

Applejack fidgeted against the floor for a few seconds, and her eyes were clamped shut. A tear ran down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away, as if keeping up appearances.

It wasn't easy for everyone.

"If I were anyone else," she started bitterly, "I would bust down this door and beat the tar out of ya. But that'd make me no better than any of... you. You're not fooling anypony, do you understand? Drop that stupid act of yours, you... freak."

Applejack turned towards the changeling, her expression almost a deadpan.

"Lyon is the the sweetest, most dedicated, and most loyal pony I have ever damn well met. I love him more than anything in the world. I would go to tartarus and back for him... and I'm willing to risk spending eternity in tartarus if it means finding him.

"So let me be clear," Applejack stated, her voice growing deeper and darker, something he had never heard from her before. "If anything... ANYTHING happens to him, it will be on you, and I will not rest until you pay more than a price for it. I will make you wish you were blasted away like the rest of your kind. You hear?"

Lyon swallowed the spit in his throat. He was scared of Applejack for the first time in his life. And he couldn't blame her for acting this way.

He nodded slowly, careful not to do anything out of place.

"I should've figured something was off the moment we got here. I should've listened to Twilight. I can't believe I let a changeling git in my head."

Applejack contemplated spitting in his face again. Instead, she bit her lip, enough to make a mark, but not bleed.

"You ain't worth it. Ain't worth hurting. It wouldn't even make a difference," Applejack said, stumbling over her words. In a haste, she turned around and started for the door.

Lyon wanted to call out to her, tell her to come back. He wanted to find a way to explain himself somehow, some way. But he knew it likely make things worse.

Against his better judgement, against his own wishes, Lyon let Applejack leave in silence.

"Ma'am?" the guard called out as she passed him, but she paid him no mind.

Even from here, Lyon could hear her cry.

"Dammit... God... dammit..."

---

The room was quiet for a while. Nothing but short breaths and the ticking of a clock on the wall were all Lyon heard. From here even, he could hear the chatter of ponies down in the city streets, but they felt more like whispers, and whatever they talked about conflicted with everything else, so he couldn't understand anything they discussed.

No doubt, they were all talking about the wedding. Some were probably even talking about Twilight. Maybe even him. Did they mention him in passing sometimes? None of it was likely good, he figured.

Of course. Duh.

A little under half an hour after Applejack left the room, a second guard entered, carrying what appeared to be a tray of food on his back. Once he was close enough, he opened a small compartment within the cell door and slid the tray through. On the tray was a side of mashed potatoes, with a main course of salad and a daisy sandwich. A simple meal.

"The captain wants you fed," the guard instructed to Lyon as he shut the compartment, "but we are merely guessing what your kind eats."

Picking up the fork, Lyon picked at his food for a second, not because he was hesitant to eat it, but just out of habit.

"It varies, I guess," Lyon replied, "depending on the changeling. Most of them feed off love alone. Not all of them. Takes time, though."

"Do you eat food?"

"Yeah... yeah."

Lyon scooped up a chunk of the mashed potatoes and stuffed it into his mouth. The flavor was savory, but nothing too special.

"... Thank you."

The guard didn't respond, but he did nod. A moment later, he saluted the other guard and left the room, leaving Lyon alone with his personal guardian. For a few minutes, the stallion changeling ate his food in silence, with nothing but chewing and swallowing being the only noise apart from breathing.

Occasionally, Lyon glanced at the guard, who eyed him for a second before returning to his normal posture. He continued eating for another moment before his curiosity returned.

"Does your captain always doubt everyone he locks up?" Lyon immediately shook his head. "Poor phrasing. I mean... does he ever trust anyone? Even after a while?"

Regardless of his correction, the guard didn't answer him. Lyon found his eyes wandering the room for a second as he tried to think of something else to say, but he struggled to break the ice with anything new.

Not like the guard would gossip with him about anything, anyway.

"Look... I know you and your captain are not gonna listen to me right because I'm... this... but I had nothing to do with what happened today... or yesterday, or however long I've been out." Lyon shifted against the wall and pushed the tray away. "The queen... my mother... I had no idea she was even alive."

The guard stayed still, but his eyes wandered to Lyon.

"I thought she died. Her and everyone else I knew, loved or hated. I thought I was the only one left. I thought my race was gone but me. And honestly, I wanted it to stay that way." Lyon chuckled somberly. "What a coincidence that I would suddenly bump into my mother again... who was disguised as the bride of my best friend's brother?"

He laughed for another few moments, covering his mouth with a hoof—only for the sound to reverberate outward as he realized his hooves sported holes. He had already forgotten.

That didn't take long.

The laughter faded from his throat, but Lyon still found himself snorting a chuckle every now and again.

"Yeah." The guard said silently. "What a coincidence."

He wasn't laughing like Lyon was, so the laughter stopped entirely. Lyon pulled the tray back to him and he continued eating. It didn't take long for him to empty the tray and leave nothing but crumbs. Nearby stood a wooden bench attached to the wall. Lyon grabbed the tray and placed it down onto it. Opposite of where Lyon stood, there was a sink and toilet sitting side by side. He hoped he wouldn't be in here long enough to need it.

The changeling walked over to the sink and let it run until the water went cold, then started to pool it into his hooves, making sure it was clean before he started gulping it down. The refreshing taste soothed Lyon's taste buds, and he found himself digging down for more and more until he was satisfied.

But as he washed off his hooves and rinsed out his mouth, something caught his eye: a bar of soap. To most folks, it was any usual bar. To those living in Canterlot, it was a bar built for those who earned it.

To Lyon, it was pure amethyst alkaline. Harmless in normal concentrations—such as washing your hooves—but under the right pressures, unbeknownst to most common creatures... it was exactly what Lyon was looking for.

Behind his back, Lyon sparked his horn for a moment, just to gather up a quick fit of magic. Most of it had been repelled by an apparent force field that surrounded the cell—no surprise there—but a minuscule amount was able to burst out. It wasn't as much as Lyon wanted, but even a microscopic amount of magic was enough with the right level of focus.

However, Lyon knew he wouldn't be able to do anything in time before the guard caught on and stopped him. He had a good five seconds between the door being opened and tackled to the ground. He needed thirty seconds... at least. And with the force field holding back most of his magic, he wouldn't be able to shield himself well for that long, either.

He knew there was no way to sneak his way around this.

Unless... ugh, was he really going to do that?

Was he really going to...?

"S-Sir? I don't feel so good..."

Judging from the amount of vomit that immediately spewed out of his mouth almost on command... yes.

Yes, he most definitely going to fake dying.

Lyon dropped to the floor like a bell, shaking and coughing up a storm, hacking his spit... and on the inside, tickling the tartarus out of his uvula until his stomach started turning inside out.

It was the most uncomfortable thing he ever felt. ... Okay, maybe the second most uncomfortable thing.

"What's going on?!" the guard immediately exclaimed, standing just outside the cell.

"I... I don't—" Lyon vomited again, just barely missing the guard's forelegs. "Did... did y-you poison me...?!"

"I... I—"

To add further emphasis, Lyon began convulsing against the cold concrete. At a cost, some of the vomit dripped onto his chest, but he let it be. He vomited into his hoof, sputtering it outward.

As convincing as it was, it genuinely started to hurt. Luckily for Lyon, the guard began inching his way back to the door.

"W-Wait," Lyon mumbled, but the guard didn't stop. "H... Help... Help me...!"

Lyon knew a fair share of frightened folks that would run with their tail in between their legs in any given situation. This guard was one of them. He honestly felt bad for tricking him.

Nearly stumbling over his own hooves, the guard turned to the door and flipped it open with a rushing hoof. Without another hesitant moment, he fled the room, leaving Lyon all alone. As soon as he was sure he was out of earshot, the stallion changeling picked himself off the floor, ran over to the sink, and hastily washed his face and hooves off.

"Okay," he muttered, "never doing that again."

As soon as they were clean enough, Lyon grabbed the bar of alkaline soap and ran over to the wall nearest to the outside, dodging the small puddles of vomit as he went. He placed the soap down onto the bench as close as he could get it.

"Alright... here we go... Come on..."

With as much concentration as he could muster, Lyon channeled any and all available magic into the tip of his horn. Already, he felt weakened, but he couldn't stop now. Who knows when that guard would come back?

"Come on, come on, come on...!"

In one focused burst, Lyon created a beam of green energy that coursed through the soap bar. At first, there was no visible change.

But in a matter of seconds, the bar started to glow as the alkaline substance began to react to the sudden pressure change Lyon was enacting upon it. The bar began to shrink and grow slightly, and even started to glow a faint amethyst light that only brightened the more magic he directed into it.

Lyon felt his head begin to ache after a few moments, and with each passing second the pain escalated. He wanted to pace himself or he risked passing out. But if he did, he wasn't getting out.

But in a welcome change of pace, the bar of soap began to contract and distort widly, spiking outward and sending bits and pieces flying like shrapnel. It emitted a whirring sound that grew in intensity and outward force. A calm wind formed inside the cell, which also increased in speed. The bar shook wildly, and the light became blinding to look at.

Just... a little... bit... more... and...!

---

It was quiet in the meeting room. Silent, yet nopony could bother to keep it down from all the thinking.

Typically, the meeting room was where delegates and ambassadors of different nations would meet with the princesses of Equestria to discuss any and all diplomatic quarrels—however big or small they may be.

But for now, only Princesses Celestia and Luna, Captain Shining Armor, and the Elements of Harmony were its only occupants. In the early hours of the morning when everyone could be assembled, Queen Chrysalis was the talk. They knew nothing of her current whereabouts; as beneficial as the love bomb had been, their only regret is that it sent the changelings—most of them, at least—scattering, flinging outward however the bubble allowed them. Their only course of action for now was to deploy battalions of royal guards to major areas and weed out whatever they could find.

But for the last hour, they had been discussing another potential option: the changeling sitting in a jail cell not too far away.

"Are thou sure we can trust this creature's words?" Princess Luna asked Celestia. "We know nothing about it... other than what had supposedly transpired."

She felt ashamed at the notion that she had been sleeping while her home was attacked, but Celestia didn't bother to dwell on it. Why would she?

"I am not entirely confident," Celestia admitted, "but if we can successfully gather any kind of information from... it... it just might prepare us in case of another attack."

Shining Armor sighed, placing a pocket watch upon the delegation table.

"Well, good luck. I was in there earlier and couldn't get one scrap from it. At least, nothing that could help us."

"Sooo, it's not gonna tell us anything?" Rainbow Dash claimed. "So we can blast it into mush then, right?"

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity chided with a high tone. "We're all frustrated, but we can't simply just destroy someone because they aren't cooperating with us!"

"Tell that to Discord," Rainbow brought up. "And Nightmare Moon... and, you know, Chrysalis?"

Rarity rolled her eyes and snorted, only to pipe up her ears when Twilight agreed with her.

"Rarity's right, Rainbow. No matter what happened, violence isn't going to solve this issue. We need to get information, but we can't punch an answer out of someone. That's not how we do things."

Rainbow Dash scrunched her lips, but ultimately sighed and rested her chin against her hooves.

"Sorry. I just hate sitting around here and talking. Who knows what they could be doing to Lyon right now?"

Twilight felt a sting in her chest at the mention of his name. Ever since her eyes fell on that changeling lying on the floor, Twilight found herself conflicting with her thoughts, even trying to wind back the clock to any suspected moment something felt off, but nothing of much value beyond glances.

And the kiss. But... it felt so real. Genuine. That had to be him.

"He's okay," Twilight stated silently. "He has to be. He just... has to be."

Most eyes in the room fell on the lavender unicorn, whose eyes drifted to the table in front of her. She refused to look up at anyone. She tried breathing normally, but an occasional labored sigh would come out.

Shining Armor crossed along the table and held his sister's chin.

"Hey," he said simply, prompting her to look up. "We'll find him, Twily. We all will."

Hesitantly, she nodded to her brother, who held her close in his arms. Twilight wanted to cry already, but crying would do nothing but cause further heartache.

He'd want her to be strong, she believed.

After a moment, Shining Armor pulled away from Twilight, but stayed by her side and continued the discussion.

"The problem with dealing with changelings is that we don't know whether they're telling the truth or lying through their teeth. On another note, they seem to be more... I guess ignorant is the best word, at the moment."

"How so?" Princess Luna asked.

Shining Armor clicked his cheek. "Well... despite the circumstances... the changeling insisted to me that he is the real Lyon."

"Really...?" Applejack asked in surprise. Shining Armor nodded.

"He claims it'd been his name for "as long as he can remember.""

Applejack furrowed her eyebrows. "He didn't say that to me before. He told me he didn't know where Lyon was."

"Is that so?" Shining asked, receiving a nod from the tattered earth pony. "So he's... it's already lying to us. Trying to deceive us, keep us off any right tracks."

"Um... are we sure it's not just scared?" Fluttershy suggested.

This time, everyone stared her down in confusion, a couple ponies even doing a double take. The mare shrunk down, yet still stood her ground as best as she could.

"I mean... it is being being held against its will. Maybe it doesn't know what to say?"

"That would've been a likely story if a whole mess of identical changelings hadn't tried to take us over yesterday," Shining Armor said. "From the information we have from Chrysalis... through Cadance... changelings are practically compulsive liars whenever their intentions aren't truly set."

"So," Luna began, "we can't exactly trust a single thing the changeling tells us?"

"I'm afraid not. Unless we hooked it up to some kind of lie detecting machine." Before Celestia could protest, Shining held up his hoof. "I know what you're thinking. And no, I'd never do that. I run the guard, not a prison camp."

"Then what do we do?" Celestia asked.

Shining Armor looked down at the table, then glanced at all the ponies waiting for an answer.

"We—"

The door of the delegation room suddenly pushed upon, revealing a frantic and distraught royal guard rapidly sucking in air.

"Captain! The changeling! I think it's dy—"

Without warning, a muffled boom rippled through everypony's ears, and the resulting shockwave knocked over a few of the standing water bottles upon the table. Some of the ponies gripped the table and covered their heads as tiny bits of the ceiling came falling down. One bonked Rainbow Dash in the skull.

"... Ow."

"What in Equestria was that?!" Luna exclaimed.

Shining Armor looked up to the ceiling as soon as the ripples stopped. "That came from upstairs."

He gasped.

"The changeling!"

Everyone pushed away from the table and ran out the door, the guard following behind them. It didn't take them long to make it up to the next floor.

When they arrived in the prisoners' ward where the changeling had been locked up, they were greeted to an entirely missing room, its walls blown out and the door bashed to pieces. A purplish fire raged, but didn't seem to spread very far.

"It's gone!" Shining yelled, marching over to the guard. "What happened?!"

But the guard stammered at first. "I-I... He was vomiting! He claimed he was poisoned! I didn't know what to do! I'm n-not a doctor!"

Shining sighed in frustration. He noticed two higher-ups who were also investigating the explosion.

"You two!" he yelled to them, grabbing their attention. "Go fetch the second-in-command! I want Canterlot under immediate lockdown until further notice!"

"Yes, sir!" the two soldiers shouted simultaneously before retreating down the hall.

Princess Luna inspected the debris that launched scattered everywhere, and noticed distinct traces of magical residue.

"I thought this cell suppressed a prisoner's magic?"

"It was supposed to!" Shining explained confusedly. "Apparently not very well, if that thing was able to blow it all up."

But Shining Armor stopped and watched with a raised eyebrow as his sister scavenged the ruins of the room. Before he could ask, he noticed she was picking up small pieces of a purplish color similar to the fire.

Twilight sniffed the pieces and recoiled.

"It's soap," she said.

"Well, there was a bathroom in there too, wasn't there?" Rainbow Dash questioned.

"No, this isn't just any soap. It's amethyst alkaline."

"What about it?" Spike asked.

The embarrassed look Twilight noticed on Celestia's face said more than enough.

"Amethyst alkaline, under enough pressure, acts as an explosive substance," she explained. "It's how we were able to clear out portions of the crystal caves under Canterlot. Apparently, this changeling had enough knowledge of it to... well... blast its way out."

As soon as Celestia finished her explanation, Shining Armor turned to the guard still standing by. "You, lieutenant!"

"Yes, sir?" he asked, his tone far more calm now.

"Go through all the cell blocks containing unicorns and get rid of any soap that might contain amethyst alkaline," Shining commanded. "We can't let any copycats try the same thing right now."

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant saluted before trotting off in the same direction as the other two guards.

"What should we do?" Twilight asked Shining, but the stallion could only furrow his brows and sigh again.

"I don't know, Twily. With that changeling out there, I can't risk sending you into town. It's too risky."

"I'm willing to do whatever we can to find it."

Spike and the other Elements huddled close to her.

"Yeah!" Rainbow exclaimed. "We're not gonna let a thing happen to Twilight or any of us! You can count on it!"

Shining Armor examined his sister's group of friends, and let out a calm snort of air.

"Alright." Shining pulled Twilight into a firm hug. "Just be careful, okay?"

"We will. I promise."

With an easy nod, the two siblings parted from each other. Twilight and her friends ran down the hall until they turned the corner, leaving Shining Armor's sight. It was then he realized by a passing glance that Luna had disappeared too, presumably to calm the frantic public down below, yet Celestia remained, observing the rubble almost in a trance.

"Celestia?" Shining asked, breaking the alicorn's concentration. "Are you okay?"

"Yes... I'm fine." With a snort of her own, Celestia turned around and started slowly down the hall. "Let us check on Cadance, see if she's improved."

"Shouldn't you go with Luna?"

"In a moment. First, I need to see if my niece is okay."

"Right... right."

Taking him under her wing, Celestia and Shining Armor paced themselves to the medical hall. On the way, several firefighters passed them by, and Celestia would point them in the right direction.

Celestia had no need to worry about amethyst fire. It was as harmless as a typical fire, but useless if anyone tried to use it against someone else.

It wasn't necessarily the fire, though, that disturbed her. Mostly, it was the fact that the changeling knew what it was. Very few ponies have a distinct knowledge of the stuff.

But that creature figured it out within two hours of waking up. Who knew what else it knew? What it was hiding?

"Celestia?" a faint voice rang, knocking her out of her mind. She looked down to Shining, the source. "Are you sure you're alright?"

This time, she nodded. "Just thinking. That's all."

"I'd love to know what of," Shining said sympathetically.

Celestia smiled warmly, but her face soon turned to one of curiosity.

"Before I told you, did you know how to ignite amethyst alkaline?"

Shining Armor tilted his head. "Uh... not really, no."

Celestia's smile faded.

"That's what I was afraid of."

Author's Note:

Next chapter will most likely be a really long chapter, since it incorporates a lot of explanation and scenes. Mainly because it wouldn't be right to have an explanation go on for like 3 chapters, right?

Comments

[JazzTheFox53rd]

This is really interesting and suspenseful!

[Muramasa]

Interesting choice by Lyon to tell Shining and AJ two different stories. Not sure that’s going to help him in the long run...

Can’t wait to see what his plan is, especially since everyone he knows is inside the castle. Keep it up!