Legends Of Ponyville

by mechafone

14 - The Chain Of Command

Laser Reflex stared in horror at the sight before him. The five that had employed him for a simple spying job were themselves not so simple. Standing directly before him were terrible creatures he had just previously thought were five pushy ponies. Instead, they had become five terrifying pushy monsters. While they still somehow resembled the ponies he thought they were, they were still vastly different. Their skin had become hard, insect-like, with insectile wings. Even the three unicorns had sprouted wings. They looked like strange, bug alicorns with holes in their bodies.

If he remembered correctly, the one closest to him was Nuzo. He was still a bit shorter than him, but wore some kind of red helm and armor. The rest was black, save for pale red wings and tail. To the right, baring the other side of the door, was must assuredly Bezzle. She was the same height as before, the smallest in the room, yet the only one more frightening than her was Nuzo. Her body was black, save for bright orange highlights along her head, back, wings and tail.

Behind Bezzle was the attractive mare and...somehow still attractive as a monster. Her colors were similar to her pony form, electric blue and a sky blue fin along her head and down her back, sky blue wings and tail. Despite her appearance, she was still very pleasant to look at. Dozix, however...if he hadn't been terrifying as a giant unicorn before, he was absolutely horrifying as one of these monsters.

The giant unicorn was now a giant purple monster, slightly taller than he had been before. Through the silence in the room, Reflex could hear the floor creaking under the weight of the giant creature. Although Nuzo was terrifying in his new form, Dozix's mere size more than doubled the fright factor of the collective creatures frightening looks.

Reflex could feel his joints tightening, his wings starting to twitch and expand, almost against his will. A part of him wanted to reason with these creatures, give them the truth of what had happened to him with that sexy vine creature. Why were all the monsters flocking to him lately? Either they were trying to kill him, rape him, or muscle in on him when he wasn't giving his clients, who just happened to be said monsters, their due time and attention. Reflex had had enough.

"Hey boss, I think he's gonna bolt," Bezzle half whispered to Nuzo, an amused smirk on her face. She was not amused when the white pegasus dove right into her, his knees smacking dead into her face and sending her to crashing into living room across the hall.

Laser Reflex had no time to think. He had to get out of this place. He managed to run into Dozix and kick off of him and head straight for the door, but there was another, previously unseen creature barring the door. It was tall, not nearly as tall as the big purple creature behind him, but taller than the others. It was a docile teal color, and it looked at him with a look that was completely unreadable.

Well, Reflex didn't care if he couldn't read this one's expression. He dashed right towards him and right into the door as the creature ducked, which was really where Reflex was aiming, anyway. He crashed through it shoulder first, knocking the door straight off it's hinges and sending blinding pain along the pegasi's neck and shoulder, but he kept going, straight out into the street and up into the sky, away from those creatures to safety.

"Idiot!" Nuzo shouted, immediately crossing the room to Kecnik and swiping a sharp hoof down at the taller Changelings face. Kecnik, much taller than Nuzo, merely tilted his head away from the blow. His body erupted in teal green fire, and an instant later he appeared as a teal pegasus once again, a dismissive look on his face as he turned from his commander and stepped towards the fallen door.

"Don't you think we should concentrate on keep ourselves hidden..."sir"?" Kecnik said, the last word dripping with insincerity. It was well known within the group that Kecnik used to be their commanding officer until Nuzo nearly took the taller Changeling's ear off in a bout for leadership. Nuzo never let slip an opportunity to remind the former commander who was in charge now, even though the younger Changeling hardly paid him any mind. It was infuriating.

"You let him escape!" Nuzo hissed accusingly as Kecnik eased the door back into it's frame, at least as well as it could. As long as he was there, the taller Changeling glanced around the street. Several ponies were watching, and had probably seen Laser Reflex make his exit. He turned to look back at his commander with a roll of his eyes.

"Think about it. If he'd hit me, we'd both be out there on the street, and we'd have been exposed. There's still time to fix this. Madalah, you and I will go, the others are grounded as ponies." Madalah inclined her head as she approached Kecnik, an old habit. An old habit that severely angered Nuzo. Madalah gasped as she sensed the bloodlust rising in her commander's eyes, it literally poured out of them as a dimly lit red cloud.

Kecnik stepped forth before Madalah, standing tall over his commander. Again with that dismissive look. "We're on a mission, sir, it's imperative that we complete our objective. A new line of action has risen: we must apprehend Laser Reflex before he brings attention to us. Keeping ourselves secret and hidden is paramount."

"Do not presume to tell me how to do my job, soldier! You answer to me-"

"Orders, sir? Before we lose this opportunity?" Kecnik interrupted. Nuzo glared up at his subordinate, rage and bloodlust pouring off of him in droves. He would make the younger Changeling pay, and hard, but later. He gave a single dismissive nod before Madalah's form lit up in bright electric blue and put on her pegasus disguise. She and Kecnik flew out the door and into the sky, giving chase to the panicked Laser Reflex.

Nuzo whirled around, absolutely furious. Kecnik had always been a thorn in his side, even after the younger Changeling had been bested and demoted to serve under him. He never took his commander's words seriously, he always gave him that disinterested, dismissive stare, and now he was taking to lecturing him! He needed something to torture, and now.

Bezzle shrank on the floor and backed away from her commander. While she herself was second in command, fierce and to be feared, Nuzo's fury and cruelty among the Changelings was legendary. She knew better than to give him a reason to take his frustrations out on her. Nuzo turned to look at Dozix, who did much the same as Bezzle, though he was still taller than Nuzo even at crouching level.

The silence in the room was disrupted by a sniffling sound from the living room. All three Changelings quietly turned to look at the brown unicorn that had been forgotten and abandoned in the action of minutes past. Nuzo grinned to himself; problem solved. This little crybaby would be more than enough to satiate his anger.

Russet Hearts sat on the floor, a hoof on his face as he tried to hold in his emotions. He was scared, he was confused, and he was hurt. Laser Reflex had panicked, that much he could understand. Then, when faced with these terrifying monsters, he bolted, and without a single thought to his friend. His tears were both scared and bitter, and they fell from his eyes freely. As Nuzo approached, the scent of sadness came off the unicorn, and was visible to him as an aura of bluish white, as well as...wait. Love?

Nuzo stared at the unicorn, completely baffled for a moment, until it came to him. He let out a roaring laugh, the sound of which made Russet cringe. "Haha! So that's it! You love Reflex, don't you?" Russet stared at the monster in front of him, smirking like he'd just found a new ant to burn under a magnifying glass. "So pathetic, leaving his lover here to suffer at the hooves of the monsters. Some love he has for you, hm? Such a waste!"

Russet blushed as angry tears fell down his cheeks. As terrified as he was, he wasn't going to let this monster bully him any more. "You're wrong. He didn't mean to abandon me. He was just scared! I-I might've done the same thing!"

Nuzo chuckled with cruelty in his voice as he grabbed Russet's chin and forced him to look in his eyes. "No you wouldn't. You're the brave one, the one willing to do anything for your beloved. You would've stood against us with honor and love, which is why it hurts that much more to know that your lover is just a coward!"

Nuzo was too close to the situation to see that Russet's horn was glowing. He was basking too deep in his own ego and confidence to pay attention to anything else. So when the big, round log connected with his face, he was completely taken off guard, and taken into the guest room where he hit the bed, flipped end-over-end against the wall, and brought the bed crashing with him.

Russet was up on his hooves in an instant. So was Bezzle. She flew at him like an angry wasp, but came to a complete stop when a fire poker was rammed point first into the floor through one of her leg holes. The sudden pause was all that was needed for another log from the fireplace to be brought against her head and knocked her down to the floor, effectively stunning her.

Russet made a run for the door, but a big blur of purple made him change course and smash the last eight-inch thick log into the brute's head. Dozix flinched, but resumed his charge and slammed Russet against the wall and held him there. "Nice moves, tiny, but you're going to need something much big-"

Dozix's eyes widened and he whimpered as the front door, completely ripped from it's hinges, became shelled in Russet's magic and swiftly connected with his chin. The giant went down for the count as he flew backwards, his jagged horn driving deep into the floor. Russet made for the doorway. He had nearly made it when his view was obscured by the same door he had thrown at Dozix. He ran smack into it, stunning him briefly as the door was replaced and then sealed shut, the wood of the door fusing with the door frame.

Bezzle panted heavily from the strain of using ancient wood magic. It was obvious that the downed unicorn before her had strong ties to earth magic, much stronger than she was capable of, but she was more creative. She looked down at her hind hoof that had sustained damage from ripping free of the fire poker's hold. She turned again to Russet as he slowly got to his hooves, still partially stunned from the sudden stop. He turned to the shorter creature, then his vision turned to white and felt nothing but pain as the fire poker came across his face, then all was black.

---

Lemon Pop yawned in the afternoon sunlight. After having spent the last day and a half perched on a cloud and drowning in her thoughts and feelings and what-ifs and why-nots and whys, she just couldn't get enough sleep. Now, with the sun perched at around two o' clock in the sky, she wasn't feeling much more inclined to get out of the cloud she'd been snuggled up in. She pulled the covers of warm, sun-drenched cloud over herself, and started to drift back to sleep. At least she would have, if some inconsiderate pegasus hadn't dropped in on her cloud.

The cloud was big enough for the two of them, heck it was big enough to hold half the library floor. It was the only cloud in the sky, though, so hoping for some privacy over Ponyville was a bit of a stretch. Still, Lemon was not in the mood to be disturbed. She was about to pop her head out from her cloud cover not ten feet away when she heard the pegasi's nervous muttering.

"Monsters...they're monsters..." he said inbetween heavy breaths, like he'd flown here as fast as he could. He started to pace the cloud back and forth, and Lemon continued to listen, completely transfixed. "Monsters...in my house..." the figure paused. "No. No no no...Oh Celestia, I left him! How could I just leave him?!" he wailed, his voice rising with panic. "Ok, ok it's ok...think...I-I need help. Who knows about monsters?...Oh Celestia, they're coming!"

And without further warning, the pegasus dove off the cloud. An instant later, two other pegasi landed on the cloud, right where the first pegasus had been. Intrigued, Lemon very carefully lifted the cloud cover until it was transparent enough to take a glance. The first pegasus she saw was very tall, a teal colored stallion. The other was an electric blue mare, quite pretty.

"He was here a moment ago. You can smell the panic in the air." the stallion said, lifting his head and...was he sniffing the air? He took a long, deep breath, his wings trembling with what could've been excitement, or anticipation. He continued to sniff the air, his head slowly turning towards Lemon Pop's location. Lemon didn't know what was going on, but she suddenly felt her heart skip a beat as her and the stallion's eyes locked. But he couldn't see her through the cloud cover...right?

Lemon could almost feel his piercing gaze look right into her soul, and she felt a chill running down her chest when the hard gaze was suddenly broken by a sniffling sound from the mare. Lemon let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. The tall stallion brought his gaze down to the mare before him, who looked like she could cry. In a stark contrast to the hard, intense gaze he had before, he suddenly looked very gentle as he clutched the mare's chin in the crook of a knee to bring her face up towards his.

"Why is he so cruel to you?" she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Things were so much easier before he came and ruined everything!"

"Hush. Don't talk of our commander that way, Madalah," came the response. His voice was cold and neutral, but the look on his face was warm and sympathetic.

"But it's true! He is cruel, egotistical! He may represent what we all should be, but I'm not like that! You're not like that..." she said, her voice trailing down to a whisper again as she lowered her head and pressed her forehead to his chest.

Lemon Pop's heartstrings were pulled. The beautiful mare, so upset and shaken, was upsetting to Lemon Pop. There was something pure about the mare, and anything that made such a pure heart upset deserved to get pummeled. Again, the stallion's attention seemed to be drawn to Lemon Pop's location, eliciting a slight cringe from the red mare. She was almost sure he couldn't actually see her, she could barely see out of the cloud. How could he see her? Why did he keep looking in her direction?

After a moment, the stallion eased his companion away from him, a slightly sterner look on his face. "It's time. We need to find him. I don't think he's crazy enough to think that crying "monster" will get the proper attention. Then again, if he is desperate, he may go right to the source, and that might be a problem. Now, let's go."

"Yes, sir."

The stallion had turned away to jump off the cloud, but the mare's response made him pause. He looked back at his companion, a mix of amusement and resignation on his face. The mare joined him at the edge of the cloud and gave him a warm smile. "I'll never think of you as anything else, Kecnik. Might as well get used to it, I'll never stop calling you that."

Kecnik sighed, his body drooping ever so slightly in a definite show of resignation. He shook his head again and leapt from the cloud, followed by his mare companion. Lemon Pop finally emerged from her cloud cover and stepped to the edge to see the two weaving back and forth in the air. There was something very disturbing about this whole situation, and she was going to get to the bottom of it. She'd been depressed and listless these last three days, but if solving this mystery would help get her back on her hooves, then so be it!

---

Spark Storm paced back and forth across the library, occasionally snorting with anger. Just moments before, he had found out that the very stallion that nearly raped Sapphire Snow was none other than Dinky's father, and he'd let the bastard walk away the next day. If only he'd been paying more attention, he would've seen the resemblance to Dinky.

As he made one more turn to cross the floor, he nearly ran into Ditzy, now barring his path. He frowned down at her, a look that was more sad than angry. She returned his look with a patient smile. "Sparky, stop freaking out. You're gonna make an indent."

Spark sighed, her voice having a calming effect. There were so many new things in his life to tend to, the forefront being his feelings for Ditzy. Just being around her confused him, and she knew it. The two of them stood in the center of the library, staring at each other. What was he going to do about this? He couldn't just forget about Sapphire. He couldn't forget about Ditzy, either. They both dominated his thoughts, each fighting and pushing to gain that last bit of leverage that would allow one to outweigh the other.

Spark sighed once again, his thoughts heavy and clouded. The slight inclination of his head was met with Ditzy's. The dark pegasus tensed slightly as he felt the mare's forehead pressed to his, and their eyes met. Both sets of golden eyes stared into each other's gaze, one trying to make it's decision, the other's decision had been made long ago. This time, Ditzy didn't leave him time to decide. She closed the gap between them, her warm mouth pressing to his. Spark gasped quietly, but it was too late to react accordingly now. He kissed her back, and they eased into a deeper kiss, lips parting, tongues teasing.

For a room full of two nymphs, a harpy, and another pegasus in the back, it was awfully quiet. Sohl, Ampelus and Orea stood in the kitchen doorway, all three peeping at the two pegasi locked in a deep, passionate kiss in the center of the library. Ampelus laid on the floor, an amused grin on her face. "You know, this is kinda hot," she remarked quietly.

"I know, right?" Sohl said, the slightest hint of a perverted grin on her mouth and in her eyes. Orea, poking her head out of a blanket of feathers at Sohl's side, made a face. She looked worried, sensing the conflicting emotions in Spark's mind. He loved Ditzy, this she could tell. But he still had severely strong feelings for Sapphire, and even now, even though he was enjoying the affection, his mind was a mess.

Emerald just frowned at the three of them from his place at the table in the kitchen. Personally, he felt that Spark was forgetting where he came from, what he'd done, all that he'd gone through for the life and love of Sapphire Snow. But hey, if he wanted the quiet life here in Ponyville with Ditzy, well, what did he know? He was just the librarian.

The silence in the library was suddenly broken as the front door swung open. Spark and Ditzy parted in surprise, both turning to face the powder blue pegasus standing in the doorway. Spark narrowed his eyes as he approached Laser Reflex, whose eyes were wide with panic. He quickly moved forward after closing the door and put his front hooves on Spark's shoulders. "You have to help Russet he's been kidnapped by monsters!"

Spark stared at the frantic pegasus in confusion. "Uh, what?"

"Monsters!" Laser shouted, shaking Spark roughly. Spark's mane shook this way and that, giving Laser a better view of the library. He immediately began to regret this decision, as the viney nymph hanging out in the kitchen came into his view. "Oh gods..." he muttered, and backed away from the bigger pegasus in horror. "Why is she here?!"

Spark sighed heavily and glanced back at Ampelus, who merely shrugged while Orea and Sohl slipped out of sight. "Oh, uh..." he trailed off, then turned back to Laser and shrugged. "What were you saying?"

Laser shook his head in disbelief. This was crazy, so damn crazy! He'd been contacted by monsters to trail Spark Storm. He'd been ambushed and nearly raped by that vine creature, then accosted by said monsters, terrorized, chased, and ended up back here. Since when was Ponyville overrun with monsters?! He fell down on his rump and held his head in his hooves, completely overwhelmed. "Why is this happening, nothing makes sense!"

Ditzy, feeling more sympathetic for the pegasus than Spark, approached him and put a hoof on his shoulder. "What monsters, what are you talking about?" she asked gently. Laser looked up at her with gratitude.

"I...I don't even know how to describe them. One minute they were unicorns and pegasi, and then...they changed!" Spark's ears perked when he heard this. "They looked like giant bugs, and...I don't know, they looked like ponies, but they changed and then they had holes in their bodies, and-"

"Changelings." Spark said, quieting Laser and garnering attention from the back room. Ampelus emerged finally. She approached Spark Storm until she was nearly touching him. Laser backed away until his back was against the door, eyes wide and frightened.

Spark glanced back at the taller nymph. He didn't need her to tell him that she was highly interested in hearing more. That, or going and sucking the life out of the creatures that ruined everything for her. He wasn't surprised to find Sohl on his other side, cracking her knuckles. He had to hide his amusement; if there were Changelings in town, they were in for a rude awakening. Two of the most powerful beings he'd ever run into held very harsh grudges against them. He wouldn't want to be them if Ampelus or Sohl got their hooves/hands on them.

Laser stared at the four of them standing together. Ditzy didn't seem surprised by this at all. Spark Storm, the vine creature and the bird lady all seemed familiar with these "changelings'. Of course. The "changelings" had hired him to look for Spark Storm. Monsters looking for other monsters. All that mattered now was which monsters would help him?

"You said they took Russet?" Spark said, holding a hoof out to Laser to help him up, which he took and nodded quietly. "Then it seems we've got a bug problem."

---

Huzzah! Writer's block has been conquered! Stay tuned for more!

Comments

[Jacensolo43]

Sounds like a fight will be coming soon, and i'd love to see how these changlings fight. They're descriptions alone make them sound like a fairly dangerous group. It shall be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Melody Brush]

Soul Of Songs, I feel sorry for Russet. And that lightning blue changeling, (to many weird names to remember) she seems more like one I will like.