A Changing Perspective

by Dragrace

Chapter 34 - The Plan

The area would have been quiet, should the buzzing of an entire army worth of changelings had not been flying towards them. There was an intense stare down between Twilight and Trixie, seeing as Twilight knew that Chrysalis was secretly disguised as Trixie. Celestia stood behind her, towering over the small lavender unicorn, while Jack slowly inched his way towards the location of the other collapsed princess. Twilight's horn began to glow a feint violet, while Celestia maintained her poker face while staring towards Aegis and Trixie. After a long stare down, with the changelings getting closer at an alarming rate, Celestia finally spoke.

"Chrysalis, this game is over." She stated. "I may have fallen for your tricks once, but I have learned from the mistakes. This paranoia you've caused... The problems throughout Equestria you've caused... This ends now!"

Engulfed in a sudden bright green flame, the Trixie imposter quickly reverted back into Chrysalis. The changeling queen was just as tall as Celestia, especially compared to the size of the older minister. Slowly stepping forward, Aegis stood in front of the changeling as if to protect her.

"Let me ask you a question, Princess of the Sun, Would you dare fight one of your own to get to me?" Chrysalis asked, smiling menacingly towards the group. "You haven't much time; my children will be here soon."

Quickly glancing behind her, Celestia caught sight of the changelings. She knew that plenty were on their way already, however it appeared more had joined the group. Stretching out far beyond the visible region, a swarm of changelings filled the sky. Celestia turned back to the changeling queen, still maintaining a blank expression. She shook her head slightly, before her horn was illuminated. The minister quickly collapsed onto the floor, giving a loud grunt moments after landing.

"Now, now. That's not part of the rules, dear Celestia." Chrysalis stated. "Since you've taken out my pupil, how about I take out yours?"

Before Chrysalis had a chance to do anything, Celestia fired a couple small bolts towards the changeling queen. With little effort, the bolts were deflected backwards. As a result, Celestia barely managed to counter her own spell seeing as Chrysalis’ deflection was so unexpected. Stumbling backwards a few steps, the alicorn found herself beside Jack. She gave him a quick glance before returning her gaze towards the position of the changeling queen, where she was able to catch her casting some sort of spell. Suddenly, Twilight fell to her knees, burying her face in her hooves. She moaned as if pain, and both Jack and Celestia noticed small green flames beginning to sprout across her lavender fur and mane. Instead of the fire slowly growing, she burst into a complete green flame just a couple seconds later, leaving the princess of the sun in a state of complete shock. Instead of the purple unicorn she had mentored for years, in front of her lay an insectoid body. For the first time, Jack saw Celestia express herself in an upset manner.

“You… You didn’t… You… Monster… You… You…” Celestia growled, gasping heavily for air.

Jack was shocked not because Twilight had been reverted to her changeling form, but the sheer fact that the princess was so emotional. Slightly scared for his own safety, he quickly scurried forward a few feet and dragged Twilight back towards Luna. While Twilight continued moaning, Jack decided that now may be the best time to put his plan in motion, seeing as he may not have another opportunity.

“Look out!” Jack shouted, pointing his hoof at the ground, then began mindlessly rolling around on the ground moaning.

In response, both Celestia and Chrysalis gave confused looks towards one another, as Twilight peered through her hooves. After witnessing her potential last hope suddenly begin rolling across the ground, Twilight passed out from a combination of both stress and pain. Jack, on the other hand, continued absent mindedly rolling across the assortment of dirt, grass, and rocks. As the queen and princess locked gaze once more, Jack slowly began rolling towards Chrysalis.

“It was only fair that I evened out the playing field. You took out my minion, I took out yours. Now we can have an equal battle. One that can prove who truly holds more power!” Chrysalis yelled, as a bolt of green lightning stuck the ground just feet away from Celestia.

“Chrysalis. You always take things too far. There are plenty of other places throughout Equestria that-“

Celestia was cut off by another bolt of green lighting, this time hitting just a couple feet behind her. Chrysalis giggled, before speaking once more.

“Less chatting, princess, more FIGHTING!” The changeling queen cackled.

As Jack finally managed to get behind Chrysalis, he quickly jumped off the ground onto all fours once more. By this point, the changelings in the distance had completely closed the gap between them, as they began landing around the hole in the shield surrounding Ponyville.

“FRIENDSHIP GO!” Jack yelled, forcing Chrysalis to turn around.

Jack then proceeded to collapse onto his back, and flail his front and back legs around as if he was a turtle attempting to regain his balance. Chrysalis let out a long sigh, while Celestia finally caught hold of what Jack was attempting to do.

“Thank you… And I’m sorry…” She whispered, which Jack was somehow able to hear.

With a flash of bright light, Chrysalis turned around to find all three of the ponies missing, with the crater Luna had left fully intact. Grinding her teeth, she turned towards Jack.

“I was close… So close… And you!” She yelled, forcing Jack to stumble backwards along the ground. “You were behind this whole thing weren’t you? You knew that they would arrive in hopes of freeing this town from my grasp!”

‘You can’t grasp things very well without fingers… Unless you used your teeth. Which is quite difficult in either case to grasp an entire town, anyways...’ Jack thought.

“…What? Fingers? How am I supposed to grasp and entire town with… Never mind! You ruined the plan! Everything was going swimmingly…”

‘Swimming without water is quite difficult, I find’

“…And then you had to go out of your way, acting as stupid as possible to get my attention…”

‘Hey, at least I WANTED your attention. How many other ponies, even changelings, would want your attention if they weren’t under your control anyways?’

“…But you just HAD to jump up behind me to buy time! And why aren’t you under my control anyways? Changelings always obey their queen, regardless of status, regardless of location…”

‘Maybe because I’m not a changeling at all? Maybe I’m not even from Equestria?’

The queen stopped her rant. Obviously that last thought of his had caught her attention, but what further puzzled her was how he was able to think so rationally and sarcastically even under such a fearful presence. Well, she assumed she would instill fear, she had practiced many times upon other ponies, and it had worked quite well. But now, with the knowledge that he may have been from a world outside of Equestria, she could use that knowledge to her advantage. First things first, however, she would need to figure out what made him so different from the beings that were already in Equestria.

“So…” Jack said, slowly picking himself up off the ground. “Can I just… go?”

“No!” The queen yelled.

The quick and sudden reply forced Jack to fall over once more, and he found himself against the ground once more. His mind began to race, noticing what information he had just given the queen. He had forgotten that she could read minds so long as he was experiencing emotion, which was something that occurred at almost any moment at any time. Shuffling uncomfortably against one of the buildings, he saw the changelings begin to land one after another behind Chrysalis, in perfect set of columns and rows.

‘Well… Ponyville may not be around much longer…’

>---<

Scootaloo awoke with a yelp as she hit the floor beside her bed. Thinking back to the night before, the bed was quite comfortable, maybe even the most comfortable bed she had ever felt before. The filly proceeded to take a long stretch, releasing some of the tension that had built up overnight. Cracking her neck, she rose back onto her hooves and began walking towards the door. Reaching towards the handle, a bright flash of light caught her eye, and she turned around to find herself staring at both princesses and an unconscious changeling.

“I… You… Changeling… Princess?” Scootaloo stumbled, surprised at what had suddenly appeared in her room.

“What is a filly doing in the guest room?” Celestia asked, not taking her eyes off of the changeling.

“I… The guards… Attack on Ponyville…”

“I see, so you had information for me, but I was absent. I apologize, however, it appears that we have some injuries that need to be dealt with.” Celestia said sympathetically, before levitating both unconscious beings onto the bed which Scootaloo had just slept upon.

Without any prompt, Scootaloo opened the door and allowed the princess to exit, before quickly catching up to her. The first thing that Scootaloo noticed was the alicorn had significantly longer strides, and it took a great deal of effort to keep up with her.

“Tell me what you know, and what you think needs to be done.” Celestia stated, keeping her eyes focused on what was ahead.

“Well… A few days ago I met a changeling who helped me get back into Ponyville. It was weird, I mean, I expected the changeling to eat me or something, not to help me. When he sort of explained who he was, it made a little more sense, but I still didn’t understand why a changeling would help me. During the lesson we had in school about insects, they all have to follow a queen, if they don’t the usually die. I think changelings are insects, so wouldn’t that rule apply for Jack as well?”

“So Jack is the rogue changeling…” The princess whispered to herself.

“But I mean, he was all like… Nice and stuff! He wanted to help get the changelings out of Ponyville so everypony would calm down, and he wanted to prevent the queen from getting involved, but it was too late for that. Then the queen took Twilight and I ran and escaped and ended up here. I don’t know what else happened after that, but the guards at the castle here are really nice!”

“My little pony, you answered my first question perfectly, however, you have not quite answered my second question yet.” Celestia replied, still refusing to make eye contact with the filly.

Before Scootaloo had a chance to speak, the two entered an opulent throne room, with a long red carpet leading up to a set of two thrones. Celestia paused in the middle of the room, with Scootaloo standing in awe at the doorway.

“I’m sorry for asking again, however, you still have not answered the second question.” Celestia said, turning her head slightly towards Scootaloo’s direction.

“Oh yeah… Right… Well, couldn’t you do that thing that Cadence and Shining Armor did at the wedding? That worked well. Of course, I wouldn’t use them again, because there may not be enough time. Maybe you should try Twilight and Jack or something…”

Celestia instantly tensed up, turning her head and looking Scootaloo directly in the eyes. Scootloo, surprised by the sudden change in the princess’s appearance, backed up slightly, nervous of what was to come.

“I uhh… I’m sorry?” Scootaloo said, continuing to back up slowly.

“Love feeds changelings…” Celestia whispered. “We were lucky that the love of Shining Armor and Cadence was strong enough to defeat the changelings… Should for whatever reason, Twilight and Jack truly love each other, there is a chance that the changelings could be defeated… If not… It could make them stronger than ever before… Perhaps even doom all of Equestria…”

“Wh…What?!” Scootaloo screeched. “But… How? Why? What else can we do?”

Celestia let out a sigh before continuing her trek towards her throne. She paused again in front of an image upon the stained glass, carefully scanning it, as if whatever was on it could jump out at any moment. Scootaloo, curious of what she was looking at, quickly scurried over to see the image. Upon the glass was the image of a large creature, with an assortment of different parts from different animals.

“If worse comes to worse…” The princess mumbled, “We may have to resort to something far more serious. When Twilight recovers, I shall send her back in hopes of saving Ponyville. Otherwise… I may have to release Discord once more.”

“Why would you release Discord again? Didn’t he cause a huge problem last time he was released?”

“Yes. However every time we are able to imprison him again with the elements of harmony. The consequence of that being that the barrier holding him grows weaker with every use. I do not wish to free this being of chaos again; however I may be left with no other choice.”

The two stood in silence staring at the stained glass. The room was completely silent, and Scootaloo looked over to see the princess looking down towards the ground.

“Don’t worry. I believe in Twilight and Jack. I know that they’ll fix everything.” Scootaloo said, grinning towards the princess. “Everything is going to be alright… I hope…”

Comments

[Cold Spike]

Enemy of my enemy... that would be an epic battle, Discord vs Changelings also keep going and MOAR

[CountDerpy]

this is too freaking epic! i want this battle!

LETS GET READY TO RUMMMMMMBBBBLLLLEEEEEE!

[SkankMaster]

Free Discord? :D

[Ranakastrasz]

Uh oh, Looks like Celestia realized they are approaching the Godzilla Threshold

[LuckyBlitz]

curse you cliffhangers
any ways this story is getting awesome

[Dragrace]

1783234
I love you... I mean I love discord... I mean I love the idea of freeing discord... I mean... Ugh, never mind.
1783530
Well, I think I may need to throw in another twist to surpass that threshold! Or maybe not...
1784437
On a scale of one to cliffhanger, how many cliffhangers have there been?

Oh, and holidays are coming up soon. Expect plenty MOAR!!!!1!!11!!1one! updates.

[SkankMaster]

1785916 Settle down there ;D you Haven't even taken me out to dinner yet :3
But yea, I like the idea too

[LuckyBlitz]

1785916 one, the recent one

[ssokolow]

I do not wish to free this being of chaos again; however I may be left with no other choice.

Ahh, the old scorched checkerboarded earth policy.