Harmonics

by ezra09

Return to the Hives

The buzzing of changelings grew louder in the distance. Apple Bloom shifted uncomfortably as she watched the indistinct shapes darken the horizon.

“We’ll be okay,” Spike said, his voice several octaves higher than usual. “I mean, Twilight and everypony fought like, an army of changelings at her brother’s wedding, and there were six of them. There’s a hundred of us.”

Twenty points of color had become visible against the dark backdrop. The second team, flying as quickly as possible towards them, their job of provoking a counter attack completed.

“Are ya sure they’ll follow all the way out here?” Apple Bloom asked.

Shining Armor nodded, “As sure as we can be. Our plan to lure them outside of their protection is obvious, but if they don’t respond, we’ll just keep hitting them with our fastest pegasi until they do. There’s no point in sitting back when they have enough changelings to take us in a straight fight.”

“The problem being ‘can take us in a fight’,” another pony said shakily.

The pegasi reached the first group and touched down ten yards away, gasping for breath. They moved, some running, others half dragging themselves to join the lines. Shining Armor’s horn flared to life and a dome of red magic sprung up over the group.

Apple Bloom could make out individual changelings now. It would only be a few seconds before they crashed into the shield. She took a deep breath. Beside her, Sweetie Belle did the same.

The first of the changelings struck, engulfed in flames as they hit Shining Armor’s shield with echoing cracks of thunder. The ponies around Apple Bloom moved and gasped, some cowering, others bumping into each other, and some standing straighter or hurling challenges at the changelings, each individual voice lost in a roar of noise.

Another voice called out, this one magically amplified to rise over the crashing of changelings against the barrier and calls of the ponies, “Well, well, I wasn’t sure if you ponies would truly be foolish enough to attack.”

The changelings separated, revealing Queen Rosalia flying at the center, looking down at the ponies. Apple Bloom felt a shiver run down her body at the sight of the changeling queen.

Shining Armor’s horn flared brighter, and a ripple of magic started at the base of the shield, traveling up. Where it passed, the shield glowed brighter, steadier. The strengthening wave met at the top of the sphere and exploded out in a shockwave of light. Changelings fell away from it, shielding their eyes. When the light faded, Shining Armor’s horn went out, but the shield remained.

“There,” Apple Bloom heard him mutter under his breath in the relative quiet that followed. “Tire yourselves out on that for a few minutes.”

“A pointless effort,” Rosalia called down. “It will be shattered as easily as it was ten years ago.”

“Your sister had been draining my magic for weeks back then,” Shining Armor called out.

Rosalia tilted her head. “True, but I wonder how the strength of your shields will fare against me?”

“Oh, I think that’s my cue!” A voice called out from behind Rosalia. Her eyes widened and she turned, eyes scanning the space behind her. Part of the sky rolled up like a window shade, revealing Discord standing behind it.

“Discord!” Roslia snarled. “I should have known you’d come as well.”

“Hmph, nice to see you too,” Discord said, raising his talons and snapping. With a flash, he became a copy of Rosalia. “Or, nice to see you two? Eh?”

There was a long pause in which Apple Bloom could hear some groans from both the ponies and the changelings. Rosalia raised a hoof toward Discord. “Kill him!”

The changelings around her all screamed in answer, launching themselves at Discord in a wave of green fire.

“Why is that always the reaction I get from that joke?” Discord asked before disappearing in a flash and reappearing in his usual form behind Rosalia. “Are we really going to do this? Yes? Fine.” He snapped again and a giant water balloon appeared above Rosalia before bursting on her horn, drenching her. “Tag, you’re it.”

*****

“There it is,” Wind Rider said.

They’d watched the stream of changelings leave the hive only a few minutes ago. Even with the changelings split between the hives, Night’s End, and those currently running free in Equestria, there must have still been hundreds of changelings in the hives. Enough to create a black cloud on the horizon.

Not long after the changelings met the ponies, Shining Armor’s barrier had pulsed with an intense light. It was the signal. Rosalia had shown herself. It was time to move.

“Alright, everypony, remember. We’re not going in to fight a war. Keep moving, and if we’re separated, you all remember the password?”

“For Canterlot and the princesses,” Scootaloo chimed in with the rest of the group.

“Good. Everypony, move,” Biggs ordered. “Come on, Thistleroot.” Without waiting for a reply, the stout pegasus ducked under Thistleroot and effortlessly picked him up. Thistleroot quickly adjusted so that he wouldn’t be in the way of Biggs’s wings, and they took off.

They’d found a hiding spot only about half a mile from the hives, but it was half a mile more than Thistleroot cared to fly. He fought to not scream as they left the ground far below, and the bottom of his stomach with it.

The spire of earth and rock loomed ahead of them. The changeling hive. There was an expanse to land on just outside a cave near the top, just as Scootaloo said there would be. Biggs angled for it, and the rest of the third team followed suit.

Thistleroot hopped off of the older pony’s back as soon as Biggs's hooves hit the dirt.

“Okay, that’s over, it’s all smooth sailing from here,” Thistleroot said, voice threatening to crack.

“You wish,” Wind Rider said.

“Just let a stallion dream, okay?”

Wind Rider rolled his eyes. “So, now that you’re here, can you figure out where the field generator is, or was bringing you here as big a waste as I said it would be?”

“Uh, just a second on that,” Thistleroot said. He focused on his magic, calling up a simple levitation spell. He felt the magic build up as usual, but when he released it into the world, it was whipped away by an outside force.

He was expecting something like the dampening fields used by ponies, a big magical wet blanket that smothered energy, but this was different. This felt like a magnet, or a sponge, sucking the magic away. On the bright side, in the moment before the spell failed, his horn sparked, and those sparks were pulled along in a straight line.

“Down. It’s below us.”

“We’re at the top of the hive. Everything is below us,” Wind Rider said.

“Well then, pretty good chance I’m right. I think I’ll be able to find its general direction, but I can’t account for walls and doors.”

“Then we make our way toward it as best we can,” Biggs said. “At least until we catch a hint of our primary objective.” Biggs turned and started toward the entrance to the hive, moving quickly, but not reaching a full, blind sprint. The rest of the group followed at the same pace.

*****

Scootaloo shivered as she passed the cave entrance, leaving sunlight behind for the dim, green glow of the twisting tunnels. The sudden cool, dank smell of the changeling hives brought an unpleasant wave of memories over her. She kept running, forcing herself to focus on the task at hoof.

The cave was the same one Lirian had dragged her through several weeks earlier, and she’d explained the layout just inside to the rest of the group. Biggs had pulled ahead of the group, his hooves falling heavily with each stride, his breathing growing louder the longer he ran. He passed the mouth of the cave, entering into a four way intersection, and ran headlong into a changeling ambush. Four of them fell from above the cave opening, each engulfed in green fire.

Just as Major Biggs had predicted. Of course the main entrances to the hive would be guarded. Biggs had put on a sudden burst of speed just before passing into the intersection, and the changelings fell just short.

The changelings recovered quickly, rising from the newly cracked stone floor and lining up, horns glowing with changeling fire, ready to blast Biggs. They didn’t hear the rest of the group behind them until it was too late.

Scootaloo rushed the changeling on the far right, wings giving her one last push before she hit it in a full body tackle. It wasn’t the first changeling she’d fought, of course. In Night’s End she’d ambushed another changeling in almost the same way.

Apparently, that changeling had been an amature.

Scootaloo managed to lock her front legs around the changeling’s neck and shoulder, trying to pull it back and unbalance it, but a wave of green light rippled across its body, and suddenly she found herself trying to keep a hold on something much smaller.

The changeling, now an earth pony colt, slipped out from under her hold and shifted to her left, rippling again and becoming a changeling. Its horn flared and she hunched behind her wing and leg.

A bolt of green energy tore her off the changeling. Pain surged through her as she was dashed against the stone floor and rolled. She managed to land right side up and turn, vision swimming into focus in time to see the changeling ready another blast.

Biggs hit it from behind, forcing it down into the ground. It tried to slip away from him as well, but he was ready for the change, using his entire body to bear down on the smaller body.

The three other Royal Guards were doing well against their own changelings, and it seemed like the group would be able to subdue them without much more trouble.

No sooner had Scootaloo thought it than the changeling Biggs was grappling threw its head back, horn reappearing. A bolt of energy surged forward, missing his face by inches as he flinched out of the way. The other changelings tried to do the same, but each of them missed their mark, their spells uselessly smashing into the ceiling. Cracks in the stone above them began spreading, and the changelings sent more bursts of magic upward, missing the Royal Guards and...

Ah, Ponyfeathers, Scootaloo thought as the sound of stone grinding against stone reached her ears.

“Get out of the way!” Wind Rider called. He reared onto his front legs and bucked an unexpecting Thistleroot, sending the unicorn sprawling into the left passage. The Royal Guards caught on a moment later, releasing the changelings and moving as well. The changelings darted toward the hive entrance, away from the ponies the moment they were released.

Dust began falling first, along with a few smaller chunks of stone as the cracks in the ceiling spread. The guards reached Scootaloo and the right passage, and Biggs pushed against her back further. She tried to call to Thistleroot, but she couldn’t hear herself over the sound of grinding, crumbling rock echoing in the tiny space.

Wind Rider had started moving for the Royal Guards, but changed direction once they’d realized the danger, reaching the safety of the passage across from the entrance.

Scootaloo watched as the ceiling gave way. The streams of dirt became a torrential downpour of broken rock. A shockwave of dust and displaced air hit her, sending her sprawling once again, forcing her to cover her snout and eyes. The sound of the cave in shook the floor beneath her, reverberating through her bones.

And then it was over. The dust settled. Scootaloo picked herself up. The ringing in her ears was already beginning to fade.

The intersection had been entirely filled with rocks and dirt.

Scootaloo’s stomach twisted as she staggered forward, thoughts still trying to catch up. “Thistleroot!”

“He’s okay,” one of the Royal Guards said. “I saw Wind Rider kick him out of the way.”

“He’s alone,” Scootaloo said. She dug at the caved in intersection with a hoof twice, but it was clearly hopeless. There was no way they could dig through the cave in. She shook her head and stepped back. “We have to find a way around. We have to find him before more changelings do.”

The Royal Guards looked to Biggs, waiting for his orders. Scootaloo felt heat rise in her chest. “Come on! We need to go.” The Royal Guards waited.

After a moment, Biggs nodded. “We’ve only got one way to go. We’ll see if it loops around. Let’s go.” The Royal Guards nodded and started moving.

“That’s what I said,” Scootaloo mumbled under her breath as she followed.

Comments

[the other sans]

I think i’ll be able to find its 
It’s horn flared and she hunched behind her
threw it’s head back, horn reappearing

1. I'll.
2. Its.
3. Its.

[redsopine]

am i the only one to be a lil annoyed scoots has all the changeling blame when she didn't even talk to Luna at all when chrysalis was banished