Chapter 56: Changelings! Changelings Everywhere!
“Took you long enough. Where have you been?”
“No, they’re still in the dark.”
“Well, enlighten me. Did you find what we needed?”
The three mares were in the underground area where they had fallen, waiting for the inevitable rescue that the research pony had promised would arrive after a while, which gave them a convenient excuse to take a rest, especially for the zebra who was up longer than her companion, but she too decided to take a short break. Something was keeping the earth pony awake though. It was a familiar voice of the unicorn that she could just barely hear nearby echoing. Was she talking to somebody? Has their rescue arrived already? Slightly dazed, she got up and wobbled through the nearby tunnel to check who else was here. Her eyes had by now adjusted to the lack of good lighting and she managed to see the researcher pace up and down, talking to… nobody.
“All the way there? Why?” the unicorn said in the empty air.
She must’ve been seeing things. The country pony rubbed her eyes to clear the mist from her sight, and yet when she did… there was still nothing, even though the mare was clearly still talking to something that wasn’t there.
“Wait, are you serious? You mean this whole time it was-“
“Err, Miss Windsdale?” Applejack interrupted her.
She squealed in shock, jumping in the process. “Please, don’t do that! You’ve given me quite a fright!”
“My apologies, but… who are you talking to?”
There was a moment of awkward silence before the unicorn replied. “It’s… a science thing, miss Applejack. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Odd. Ah don’t ever remember talking to yourself bein' scientific.”
“Well… it’s just that,” she tried to elaborate, “at the institute, after we’ve collected the data and all sorts of other information regarding the scientific discovery, theories are being thrown about and arguments come up. And I…” She went silent for a moment. “Let’s just say I’m not very good at thinking on my hooves. I have to process things in advance and memorize them before I get into a discussion with my colleagues, otherwise, I get overwhelmed by them.”
“Oh…” the workhorse spoke. “Ah think you’ve got a bit of a case that a friend of mine had for a long time… Well, technically she still has, but she got a lot better at dealing with it.”
“Anyway,” the researcher asked, “can you pretty please leave me alone with my thoughts then, miss Applejack? I can’t think normally if I’m being watched all the time.”
“Well, Ah won’t keep ya, not a thing to worry about.” The orange pony began moving back to where she came from. “I’ll let ya know when the rest of your team comes.”
“Thank you very much, miss Applejack,” the dark purple mare let her appreciation be known, before resuming to talk into the air. “Anyway, as I was saying, what do you mean by what you said? Did you hear what really-?”
The workhorse wandered out of the cave, to where she left the zebra, who was still soundly sleeping. She then laid against the wall close to her, where she was previously, and pulled her hat over her eyes. She could still hear Whimsy’s voice in the distance, and the said constant background noise slowly made her snooze off. She fell into sleep much like her companion, and when she finally woke up, the lamp was already off, and she was met with an eerie quiet, the researcher’s voice was strangely missing, and she wasn’t with them even though her gear was.
THUDD!
The sound of a heavy mass landing could be heard nearby, garnering her attention. She saw a great horned winged beast standing in the puddle of glowing green substance, so it was easily assumed it was a dragon. She would’ve been relieved but she noticed something strange was going on. The dragon was holding a boulder in his claws, one that he then dipped into the pool he was standing in, and before long, the geological formation started to change shape. The dragon then flew up and left through the hole that he came in, but not a moment later another dragon came in holding a boulder, dipping it in the substance, having it transform, and then flying away with it. And after him, even more, dragons started to come in doing the same, but the two mares present were left out of sight for them due to the dark.
“What in tarnation are they doin’?” Applejack wondered.
Torch flew high up to the mountain peak where the entrance to his home was. He just wanted to sleep the rest of the day off, so frustrated he was.
“The nerve of that whelp, talking to me as if I’m subservient to her!” he hmphed.
“Is that why you came back? To brood?”
As he had already passed the threshold of his home, he stopped, as that voice caught him off hard, yet it was coming from outside. He stuck his head out the opening to look about and see who it was. It wasn’t until a green tail swung down past his face that he noticed the voice’s owner was hanging out on the top of the mouth’s entry, and she flew down to reveal herself in full splendor. She was a black dragon, covered in green spots all over her limbs, a multitude of horns adorning her head to almost resemble a crown, and her eyes… they were glowing like icy green emeralds, its pupils having a rather sickly color.
“What the… who are you and how dare you get close to my lair?!” The former dragon lord was almost instantly piqued by her appearance, but he held himself back.
She lowered herself in his presence. “My sincerest apologies, my lord. I just wanted to see up close where the reverent and mighty Dragon Lord lived.”
“Well, your humbleness is welcoming, but I don’t know how you assumed that I’m in charge.”
“Assumed?” She grabbed hold of the mouth of the cave’s entry to slowly pull herself inside. “My lord, there isn’t a dragon in the world that doesn’t know the mighty Torch, the Lord of the Dragon Lands! I merely came to shower in the bliss of your greatness that you radiate.”
“As faltered as I am, female, I have to disappoint you: I’m not the Dragon Lord anymore.”
“What?!” She made an expression of shock. “You lost the title?! But you’re one of the strongest if not THE strongest dragon in the world! Who did you lose your title to?!”
Torch raised an eyebrow. “Where have you been living? I didn’t lose it… I had to pass it on, as according to ancient tradition, a dragon cannot be a lord for more than two hundred thousand cycles. He must pass it on to a successor to make sure other dragons do not conspire against him to seize his power, that’s why the Gauntlet of Fire exists to allow only the biggest and strongest to win. You should’ve already known by that.”
“Excuse my ignorance, my lord- I mean, sir.” She bowed to him. “But I’ve been sort of absent-minded in my years, and I tend to be forgetful. But if that is the case and you’re not the Dragon Lord anymore, then surely another dragon as big and strong as you must’ve taken your place.”
He made a grumbling sound. “No… she’s my daughter… and she’s no bigger than the nail on my claw. And she has the nerve to scold me.”
“What?! You’re being lorded over by your own offspring?!”
He rolled his eyes, as he sat down, turning away from her. “Yeah, go on, laugh it up.” Suddenly, he felt her claw on his shoulder.
“No, sir. I wouldn’t think of mocking you… I sympathize with your plight.” He turned to her with a rather surprised expression on his face, as her own looked despondent. “I was in your position as well. I once had a place to call my own, to rule over it… And then my own offspring turned on me, cast me out of my own home. I had nowhere to go but to wander aimlessly without a place to belong. But at the very least you have a place and your mate to keep you grounded.”
“No…” he answered somberly. “My mate… she had departed long ago, in a time that’s now forgotten. The little Ember she had given me is the only thing of her I have to remember her by…”
“And that is why it’s all the more painful when she’s turned on you?”
He simply nodded. She was reading him like a book.
“I know it’s a small consolation but, my lord, if I can help, I would like to alleviate some of that burden from you…”
He was taken aback but didn’t have time to respond, as the female dragon leaned in and came face to face with him, her forehead touching his. Her touch felt cold in contrast to him. This seemed wrong and yet… As he gazed into her emerald eyes, there was a calm that washed over him all of a sudden… he felt nothing anymore, his mind completely lost, trapped in a haze. The dragoness smiled and slowly opened her mouth…
“Broodmother!”
She was startled. That pesky voice trailed her like a shadow and for once she just wanted to be at peace for a moment.
“Doubt, can’t you please leave me alone for at least five minutes?” she complained at the shadowy form that floated near her. “I just wanted to have a decent meal after such a long time.”
“No,” it instantly responded, “time is of the essence and we must act quickly before we’re discovered.”
She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Fine.” She then turned her face to the former Dragon Lord whose orange eyes were now sickly green, looking like he was in a trance. “Darling,” she whispered, as she trailed her claw across his chin, “do be a good boy and do not move from this spot or do anything at all until I say so, okay?”
He simply nodded.
“GARBLE?!” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy yelled in unison.
The three ponies dodged the gaze of the locals on the beach by falling into a fissure, which seemed to have led into a small area designed for a lookout on the sand beach. And they seemed to have landed directly on top of its current occupant, one of the dragons named Garble, however, the shy pegasus was the only one who knew about his more recent development, while the party planner was oblivious to his existence, while the wonderbolt was a really bad experience with their last encounter. The latter almost instantly lept off him, pressed against the wall, and tried to pull some moves.
“Stay back! It’s been a long time since our last encounter, but I tell you now, these hooves are deadly, so you better keep your distance, or I’ll-!”
“Rainbow Dash, stop!” Fluttershy quickly intervened by stepping in front of the dragon, in the blue pegasus’ way.
“You girls seem to know this dragon,” Pinkie Pie jumped in. “Aren’t you gonna introduce me to your friend?”
“His name is Garble and he’s not our friend!” the blue pegasus stated. “He’s a vile, evil dragon!”
“Garble’s not such a bad guy,” the Element of Kindness protested.
“Fluttershy, are you nuts?! This guy-!”
“Isn’t so awful! Yeah, he’s done some mistakes in the past, but-!”
“Trying to get somebody hurt on purpose isn’t something I’d call “a mistake”!”
“I don’t know what happened between you and him, Rainbow Dash, but he’s gotten better. He’s actually a big softie on the inside.”
“Fluttershy, don’t say it like that! It’s embarrassing!” the red dragon quickly deflected.
“Yeah right. I’ll be the judge of that.” The wonderbolt glared.
Tension was high between the two pegasi, but the Element of Laughter knew how to defuse the situation. “Well, now that initial introductions are out of the way,” she said as she jumped at the dragon and shook his hand, “nice to meet you, Garble, I’m Pinkie Pie, a friend of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and a friend of my friends is my friend too! Now you’re probably wondering why we just dropped in uninvited into your home, but-“
“This isn’t my home,” Garble corrected, “it’s my lookout hideout.”
“What do you mean “lookout hideout”? What are you looking out for and hiding at the same time?” The pink mare tilted her head.
“I dug it out a few days ago and I’ve been coming here to keep an eye on them.”
“Them who?” the shy pegasus wondered.
“Them! Those weirdoes out there on the beach!” he pointed at the small opening in the wall through which the light was coming in.
The mares quickly huddled together to try and see through the port hole, failing as they all shoved one another out of the way to try and look at the sight on the other end. The red dragon groaned, then proceeded to stick his finger into the wall to poke several more holes. After realizing what he has done, the ponies quickly lined up to look through their own gaps in the wall, gazing upon the open beach outside where they were this whole time.
“I still don’t get it,” Rainbow Dash wondered, “what’s wrong with them? They look like they’re having a good time. I know we were.” She glanced in the direction of the party planner and animal caretaker. “Well… I know I was anyway.”
“What kind of a dragon can have a fun time at the beach when you’ve got perfectly good lava rivers not far from here?!” Garble burst out.
The wonderbolt rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, we heard it from Ember already: Salt water doesn’t feel nice.”
“That, and the fact that it’s littered with sea monsters,” he added.
“Oh…”
“Girls, back to what I was gonna say earlier, something IS wrong with this party”, Pinkie Pie reiterated.
“See?! Even the puffy-haired one agrees with me!”
“Hold on, Garble,” the blue pegasus stopped him, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let’s hear what she’s actually talking about.”
“Well, look out there,” the Element of Harmony said, “and pay close attention to the dragons.” They focused on the scenery, watching them chasing one another, sunbathing, while others played with a beachball, or were swimming in the sea. “See the one that’s chasing the other?” she asked, and they looked at a pair of dragons that were playing catch. “Now pay close attention.” Pinkie Pie pulled out her party wristwatch, counting down the time. “The one that’s being chased will hop into the water in about… three… two… one…” And just as she predicted, the said dragon lept into the sea and disappeared out of sight, making them all a bit confused. “And now, the same dragon’s about to pop out of the corner and start to chase the one that’s been chasing him, right about… now!” And on cue, the dragon they just saw jump into the sea, appeared off their sight and started running after the other dragon.
“What the…” Rainbow Dash was perplexed. “Pinkie. how did you-?”
“Wait,” she halted her, “we’re not done yet. Now watch the ones that are playing with the ball.” The blue pegasus looked back on the beach and watched the group of dragons, with whom she was playing earlier and lost. “One of the teams will go for a dip… now!” And on the said mark, one of the teams of dragons ran for the ocean and disappeared with a splash. “And then they reenter… stage left.” And the same team of dragons appeared from the side.
“Wait, what’s going on…?” Garble inquired. “How do you even know that was gonna happen?”
“Because my Combos have been going off,” she answered.
“Your… what?”
“Pinkie’s got a sense for danger,” the wonderbolt explained. “She can feel when something’s gonna go wrong.”
“Exactly!” she immediately jumped in. “I’ve been having this constant feeling something bad was gonna happen, so I kept an eye on the surroundings while I was having fun. That’s when I started to notice them acting the way they are in a predictable way, like a clock.”
“But why would they do that, Pinkie?”
“No idea, but whatever’s happening they all seem to be going in the water and then somehow appearing off the party site and then just stepping in… almost as if they’re making it seem that the beach party’s not ending. Funny enough though, even though they all seem to be going into the sea for a swim, the crown that’s splashing about doesn’t seem to be growing.”
“Emmm, girls, can I say something?” the shy pegasus finally spoke up and others took notice. “Mister Crabs told me something interesting.”
“A crab told you?” The dragon raised his eyebrow. “It’s a crab, it doesn’t talk.”
“No. But Fluttershy can talk to animals,” Discord pointed out.
“Wait, what?” He looked at the blue pegasus in surprise, before turning back to the yellow one. “You never said you could do that?”
“I never had a reason to talk about it with you, Garble,” she explained. “Anyway, I found him further down the beach, away from all the noise, and I asked him if he knows anything about the dragons on the beach.”
“And?” they waited impatiently.
“Well, he had quite a bit to say. He told me that something strange is happening in the water. He’s seen dragons enter the water and soon after that become completely different creatures that then swam into a trench that’s a little away from the beach, and after that those same creatures swim out of the trench, crawl out of the water and become dragons again.”
“Wait, what? I’m not following. What do you mean dragons become different creatures?” Garble questioned in a confused tone.
“It’s what he said,” she stated.
“And it still makes no sense,” Rainbow Dash reiterated. “But whatever seems to be going on with dragons on the beach, seems to be happening UNDER them. We’re going to check it out.”
“You wanna go in the water? How? You’re not equipped to breathe underwater,” the red dragon pointed out.
The pink mare lifted her hoof. “Hold that thought.” She stretched out her puffy mane, turning it into a drill, and then burrowed into the ground where she stood, disappearing out of sight.
“What the…” Garble was confused. “How... Did she just…”
“Take my advice, Garble, when it comes to Pinkie Pie, it’s best not to ask questions,” the wonderbolt suggested.
“She’s right you know,” another voice appeared, as the former Lord of Chaos popped his head out of Fluttershy’s fanny pack.
“What the… Who’s that now?” the dragon spotted him,
“That’s Discord. Another one that's best not to ask questions about,” she repeated.
Suddenly, a lot of underwater goggles and oxygen tanks were tossed at their feet, out of the drilled hole, and the party planner reemerged, blowing her mane back into her normal state. “Okay everyponny, we got the gear we need from the airship, now we just need to dive in.”
“Wow Pinkie, that was fast,” Fluttershy said as she picked up one of the goggles.
“WHOA HOLD ON!” Garble protested. “There’s no way I’m getting in the water, you can’t make me!”
“Yeeeeeeeeeeeah, about that…” Pinkie awkwardly stretched the word, when all of a sudden, from under her, a water spout shot out, launching her in the air, and then she dropped to the other side of the small room, while the water was beginning to overflow the room. “I may have preemptively drilled our entry into the sea to save up on time. You best dress up before this place gets full.”
The mares quickly started to put in the diving gear to be prepared, but the draconequus was not happy. “Hold on, what about me?” And in response, the party mare offered him an empty fishbowl. “Seriously?”
“Sorry, Discord, but they don’t make doll-sized diving gear,” she explained.
He groaned and soon after crawled inside it before it was sealed. Everybody had already geared up and prepared for the water to wash over them completely… save for one – the dragon who was pressing against the wall on the far end.
“Garble, what are you waiting for? You need to dress up, quick!” Fluttershy urged him.
“Nu-huh!” he refused. “There’s no way I’m going in, even if I wanna see what’s the deal with those weirdoes on the beach.”
“Oh come on, Garble, are you really afraid of a little water?” Rainbow Dash addressed him in a smug taunting tone. “What are you? Chicken?”
And in an instant, his demeanor changed. “I don’t know what chickens are, but that sounded like a challenge! Fine! I’ll show you chicken!”
The wonderbolt just gave them a smug expression as the reluctant dragon finally put his diving gear on.
“Okay, everypony… and dragon, get ready!” Pinkie Pie announced as the rushing water finally reached their heads.
Despite wearing diving gear, the dragon took in a deep breath just in case, as water filled the room and they all dived into the drilled passageway. It was dark in the tunnel, and the only way for them to pass through was to move along the wall. After a short period passed, they finally began seeing the light at the end of it and finally swam out into the open sea. The wide expanse of the underwater world opened before them, looking completely alien to barren waste above as it looked quite likely with all the underwater fauna and flora that surrounded them. The shy pegasus let the little hermit crab on the sea floor; it clanked with its pincers and then scurried off, after which the said pony waved everybody else to follow. They swam quite a distance along the same altitude, and the calm was quite pleasing, even though the red dragon was clearly showing signs of displeasure from being out of his element. Just as they came around the corner of the reef, however, the said dragon grabbed the ponies by the tail and dragged them back. They were confused as to why he did that until he pointed in a direction. In the distance, they saw a giant, orange, razor-sharp-toothed seaworm approaching their direction. It wouldn’t have a hard time spotting them, not just because of the pair of giant bulging purple eyes, but because there was an extra one that was sticking out of a tendril in the middle of its face, and it was glowing like a flashlight. Garble seemed to have spotted it and was trying to keep them out of view, but it seemed that the worm’s interest was already piqued. It kept advancing where they hid, and it was clear that there were no places for them to hide around them. Any moment now it was going to spot them! Just as they huddled together in fear, they suddenly heard a roaring sound in the direction the sea monster was coming. They peeked around the reef and saw something odd happening: There was another sea worm, looking just like the one that was approaching them, and it stood in its way. They kept roaring at one another, and out of nowhere, another sea worm appeared, clearly on the side of the one that appeared. Clearly outnumbered, the approaching worm turned and swam away. It made them curious why the other two creatures were too hostile toward one of their own kind, so they followed them, but they wouldn’t have to swim far before they realized why that was.
The said two creatures were swimming in a circular formation over a specific area, and it became clear that they were guarding it. As to what this place was, it looked like an underwater quarry: Other strange underwater creatures were swimming about; giant fish whose heads were shaped like hammers were ramming against the sea floor walls, causing them to break up large pieces of white jagged stone, which was then snatched by several big crustacean-like beings and dragged off to where nets were set up with huge piles of rock resting on them, and soon after, the nets were picked up by what looked like cragdiles and were dragged away. The observers were confused how was it possible that they noticed this happening just now, as they could feel the vibrations even from the distance where they were hiding, and the tremors would’ve left clear marks up on the surface level, so how come none of the dragons had noticed it already? And when they looked up they were beginning to understand why that was.
They could see the splashing on the water surface above the quarry. And they saw that one of the cragdiles left his workplace and swam upwards. There was a figure that just took a dive up above, swimming downwards, going in the direction of the creature that was coming directing at it. And just before they collided, there was a flash of green light, and the cragdile was now swimming downwards, while the much smaller figure was ascending back to the surface. All of a sudden, the hermit crab’s words were making sense. These creatures were shapeshifters, and there was only one type of shapeshifter they knew was dangerous right now! The dragon’s odd behavior on the beach was now explained – they were keeping up the cover, to obscure what they were making below to make sure nobody would get suspicious about it. The mystery has been solved, but there was still something that was left unanswered: Why were they mining all that rock underwater, and where were they taking it? They had to find the answer. The blue pegasus motioned them all to follow the transporters and they all nodded. Fluttershy looked at the little hermit crab that was standing on the floor beneath them, and she waved him goodbye, and he waved back in turn before he scurried away.
They swam further down, closer to the seafloor, hiding in the reef. All of them were completely out of their element in the ocean depths, but their enemy wasn’t – if they were found out, they wouldn’t stand a chance against them. So they snuck past the guards, trying to make sure that they wouldn’t be spotted, and closely watched where the cragdiles were taking the piles of white rock. They followed the trail into an underwater cave further down the coast where the beachside had disappeared already and was replaced by a vertical wall. That’s where they had to go, but it would take the right timing for them to get out of the open and into the blackness of the tunnel so they wouldn’t be spotted. Just as one of the cragdiles carrying the cargo came to the mouth of the entrance, another came out of it. As they crossed paths, this was their opportunity, and they quickly swam into the opening, disappearing into the blackness. Now they once again found themselves blind, just like in the tunnel earlier, only with more room to maneuver together. Eventually, the light could be seen coming from a surface above and they swam upwards.
They slowly poked their heads out of the water to make sure nobody was in sight. The light was coming from one of the crystals that were used to illuminate the hidden underwater cave, the entire place was littered with piles upon piles of the strange white rock that was mined in the ocean depth. Then they saw the cragdile from earlier dragging its cargo further onto land, and that’s when the unloaders appeared. These were the shapeshifters in their true forms - the changelings, an entire swarm of them. And they began separating the cargo apart, rearranging the rocks into separate piles. As they busied themselves, the infiltrators decided to take advantage of their obliviousness to sneak back onto the dry land and hide behind one of the boulders, where they removed their diving gear.
“FINALLY!” Discord gasped for fresh air when his jar was opened again. “I thought I was gonna-!”
Just as quickly, the dragon grabbed the draconequus by his tiny head to silence him. “Quiet, you idiot! You’re gonna blow our cover!” A moment later, even he got a hoof shoved into his mouth by the yellow pegasus, who shushed him.
“What is all this?” Rainbow Dash wondered. “What’s so special about all these rocks?”
“Oh oh oh! Maybe they have some sort of magical power?” Pinkie Pie suggested.
It didn’t take long before Garble reached out and quickly picked a rock that was the size of his arm. He took a sniff of it before taking a bite, and a lot of crunching sound followed.
“What does it taste like?” the pink pony inquired. “Sherbet? Cotton candy? Wedding cake?”
“Tastes like pumice,” he answered, before spitting out the contents that he was just chewing. “This whole place is just full of worthless brittle rock.”
“But why would changelings hoard piles of useless rocks from under the sea?” wonderbolt wondered.
“Rainbow Dash, didn’t Twilight say something about a pumice before we left?” the shy pegasus pointed out.
“Oh yeah I remember something about that,” Pinkie Pie spoke
“My memory’s a bit fuzzy on that front. I was just sleeping through the whole thing.” The blue mare rolled he eyes.
“She said that she, Starlight, and Star Swirl were doing experiments on rocks,” she elaborated. “Seems like we’re on the right track though. I mean look around us: Rocks everywhere, even the lighting is made of rocks. Although I’m not sure what to make about that dim green one on the ceiling.”
Their attention shifted to where she pointed. Hanging up above there was a strange green object, it stood out from the rest of the surroundings. The draconequus quickly took flight.
“Discord, wait!” Fluttershy whispered in panic.
He didn’t listen. He simply flew up to the green formation and then stopped in front of it. This wasn’t a geological formation at all. It was all slimy and organic, and upon closer inspection, he spotted a figure inside it!
He quickly flew back to the group. “It’s a changeling pod! And there’s somepony inside!”
“No problem.” Rainbow Dash’s nostrils bristled. “We just need timing.” They waited a moment before all the changelings disappeared out of sight. “Okay, one zap over and she’s down!“ She ran for it to fling up in the air, but couldn’t make it more than halfway before she finally dropped on her back and scurried back to the group. “Okay, I take that back, my wings are not fully healed yet. Fluttershy, you’re gonna have to go and get it.”
“Me?! No! There’s no way I can get to it down in time on my own! What if they come back when I’m still struggling?”
As the two pegasus went into an argument, the dragon next to them rolled his eyes and flew up to the pod and let out a bellow, after which he breath out the flame on the root of it, causing it to snap, and then grabbed it before flying off back to the hiding place.
“Garble, what were you thinking?!” Rainbow Dash snapped at him.
“Hey, you were just going to sit here and wait for somebody to do something, so I did it instead,” he justified his actions. “And it went perfectly fine.”
“Yeah, Dashy,” the party planner stepped it, “I mean sure they probably heard that yell, but at least we managed to get the prisoner, right?”
The awkward silence followed the realization what had just happened, and the aftermath soon followed as they would hear the shrieks all around them, accompanied by the skittering sound and buzzing of wings. The swarm quickly filled up the room, inspecting what just made that noise. The group huddled close together, as they could feel the presence of the shapeshifting bug creatures so close, they were undoubtedly gonna get discovered.
SHKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
A shrieking cry echoed all around them, and they suddenly heard the swarm grind to a halt, going silent. It was quiet for a while, giving discord a moment a slither over the top of the rock where they were hiding and take a peek. The changelings were standing still, all of the looking in the direction of one of the tunnels. And then there was a buzzing sound that kept growing louder by the second, and that’s when the Queen of Changelings emerged out of it.
“Changelings!” Chrysalis beckoned her brood. “Here are your orders!” She turned to one that was transformed into a cragdile. “You! Go to the quarry and all who are there to grab what they can and move for the Everfree Forest! Half of you here, take as much cargo as you can hold and do the same! The rest of you grab the biggest boulders you can carry and take them to the Maw of Anger for a dip in the lifeblood, then bring them to the place where the Dragon Lord is and surround it with them!”
With those words, the changelings went about and started to grab hold of the pumice to transport it. As they went about their business, Chrysalis decided to have a snack. She may have been denied the first proper meal she’s had in so long, but she would have to be satisfied with a tiny morsel. She made a few steps in a direction and then froze when she realized that the prisoner that was stuck in the ceiling had disappeared.
“WHERE IS SHE?!” she roared. “Where’s the unicorn I locked in here?!” And the changelings looked at one another, hesitant. “You didn’t even notice she was gone?! USELESS, ALL OF YOU!”
She couldn’t have believed how incompetent her offsprings were, but then she realized something: The pod was gone, but there was no indication that she had broken out of it, meaning somebody must’ve gotten in here and snatched her away, which would’ve explained why they didn’t notice anything. However, that meant that the situation was far more urgent than she had anticipated because if there was somebody else who knew about this place, it meant that they were running out of time before the entire land of dragons’ fury was brought down upon her.
“All of you!” she commanded. “The time for subtlety is over! Take shape of whatever will get the job done fast and go! NOOOOOOOW!”
And with that, the changelings quickly shifted into all manner of bipedal creatures and started to haul things away at a quick pace, while their brood mother flew off in another direction.
“You all heard that, right?” Discord asked as he slinked down to the rest of the group.
“Yeah, this thing’s big,” Rainbow Dash whispered. “We have to warn Twilight about this.”
“How are we gonna do that?” Garble asked. “Those things are going about like crazy and we’re gonna get spotted if we try to get out underwater.”
“Maybe we don’t have to go underwater again…”
“Fluttershy, what makes you say that?” the other pegasus asked her.
“Chrysalis just came from a completely different place,” she explained, “so maybe there’s a passage somewhere that comes out on the surface?”
“Yeah, but again, same problem – if try to make a run for it we’ll stick out like sore thumbs, especially with if we have to haul this thing around,” he pointed out as he held up the pod.
Pinkie Pie thought for a moment, as she looked around the corner, watching all the changelings shapeshift into all manner of creatures to try and get the job done, her eyes wandering all around the room until she finally stopped at the pile of seat weed that the cragdiles were bringing up as they we removing through the water flora – and she got an idea. “I got it! I know how we can get through. But first…” She grabbed hold of the pod and tried to break it open.
“Pinkie, what are you doing?” the blue pegasus inquired.
“We’re gonna play Nightmare Night a little early this year. But we’re gonna need one more pony. Not to mention she’s not gonna look out of place outside of it.” She broke it open and green fluid spilled out, while the dark purple teal-maned unicorn mare with glasses fell out of it, groaning. “Hello, miss,” she questioned her while holding her up to try and get her to wake, “do you have a name?”
“Name…” she answered in a groggy tone, “W… W… Whimsy W… Windsdale…”
“Whimsy, I’m gonna need your help so we can get out of the changeling hideout. Do you comprende?” She waited a bit for the answer, but the mare was still giving her a confused groggy expression. “Do you understande?”
She finally nodded, before being handed of to garble, as the party planner bade a dash for the shallows where they came out, and started to gather up all the seaweed she could get, stacking it up and tying it together to create some form of a suit, big enough to cover up all four mares.
“Pinkie… what the hay is that?” the Element of Loyalty questioned.
“Well, since they’re all in a panic mode to get things done, I’m pretty sure the changelings won’t find us sticking out of place if we disguise ourselves as an algae monster. We just have to play the part.” The pink earth pony started to move the mares about, positioning them in a way, so that when she pulled the seaweed suit over them, their features seemed completely obscured, except for the pair of eyeholes for her to see in front of her.
“Hey, what about me?” the dragon complained.
“You’re already wearing your costume, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “You’ll fit right in, posing as a changeling pretending to be a dragon.”
“How do I know what changelings disguised as dragons act like?”
“Just be yourself,” the wonderbolt made a snide remark.
“Rainbow Dash, be nice!” Fluttershy warned her.
“E… excuse me... what’s going on?” the released prisoner asked, still feeling disoriented.
“No time for practice before the show, girls. We’re winging it. Let’s go!” Pinkie Pie commanded and the makeshift suit moved out in the open, with Garble following them.
Surprisingly, it worked. They moved in haste among the gaggle of creatures that were going all over the place, and nobody seemed to be batting an eye at the sight of them. They quickly picked up a pair of pumice boulders and carried them off, following the living stream as it funneled into a tunnel.
“Left! Right! Now left again! To the right!” the pink pony directed as she was the only one who could see where they were going.
Eventually, the light could finally be seen at the end of the tunnel and they finally came out in the open air again. While the rest of the disguised changelings took flight, half of them flying off west, while the rest of them went east and transformed into dragons, the only real dragon and the algae monster stood still to take in their surroundings. They were standing at the base of a long cliffside, and they could actually see Torch’s mountain close by.
“We did it everypony!” the director squealed. “We’re almost there! Let’s get going! We’re only a hop, a skip, and a juuuuuuuu-!” The four ponies keeled over instantly, as they didn’t see the ledge just before them and they landed with a thud, their disguise falling off. “Whoopsie…”
The jig was up, and at the most inconvenient place, since they were still at the mouth of the entrance to the hideout and the ones inhabiting it quickly noticed them. The changelings quickly dashed for them and the mares had no choice but to run, but not before picking one of them who wasn’t quite there just yet and carrying her off. Altogether they were completely at a disadvantage and the creatures that trailed them were much faster and they were quickly closing in on them, one of the pursuers eventually zapped after them and picked them up by their tails, lifting them off the ground. They all screamed in fear.
“Way to go, guys,” Discord spoke. “You’re really selling it.”
“Discord, how can you think we’re making it up?! Our lives are in danger!” the blue pegasus yelled at him.
The draconequus raised an eyebrow and then pointed downwards, or rather, upwards, since they were hanging upside down. The one that was holding them by their tails was definitely a dragon, but he wasn’t a changeling – it was Garble!
“Quiet! Before they spot they’ve been had!” he said out loud, realizing too late he just outed himself.
For a moment a distance was created between them, however, when the changelings discovered that the dragon wasn’t one of them, they quickly continued to pursue them. The red dragon was able to fly fast enough, but with the cargo, he was holding he wasn’t gonna last much longer, he needed to find shelter. He turned around the corner of a ridge, and that’s when he spotted a pair of large stone slabs propped against one another to form a tent, most of it covered up by rubble from the passage of time. He swooped down, straight into the opening that was just big enough for all of them to instantly slip in, and then they crashed against the other blocked-off end. They reeled for a moment, their heads spinning.
“Ugh, I swear one of these days I’ll-!“ the blue one moaned but before she could finish, a claw covered her mouth, silencing her.
“Be qui-!” Garble was about to yell but bit his tongue at the last moment. “Be quiet.”
The loud beating of giant wings approached, followed by loud roaring. It lingered around them for a while, and after some time, the noise became increasingly distant, until it disappeared. They finally let out a sigh of relief, the dragon included. Not a moment later, the shy pegasus rushed in and gave him a hug, and he shifted somewhat uncomfortably.
“Are you finally convinced, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said.
“Of what?”
“That Garble isn’t such a bad guy after all? If he was, as you said you remember him, then he would’ve just left us to the changelings, wouldn’t he?”
The sports mare sighed. “Fine.”
The former Lord of Chaos popped out of his hiding place. “Now what do we say?” he said in a taunting tone.
She groaned and rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry… for doubting you.”
And through his shark pointed teeth, a smile appeared.
There was another groan nearby, belonging to the rescued mare that had not yet completely recovered, with the earth pony being next to me. “Are you okay, Whimsy?” she asked.
“Yes, I just…” She wobbled. “I just need a moment to sit down and- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
The moment she did, she let out a scream of pain and almost instantly lept out of the hideout, landing face-first on the ground, but the pain in her rear end was of far greater concern to her.
“You okay, Whimsy?” Pinkie Pie popped her head out of the pile of rocks.
“Yeah… I think I’m fully awake now…” she whined, rubbing her behind.
“Wow. Something must’ve stung her really bad if she ended up going like that, don’t you think?” Her train of thought was derailed though, as a purple glow suddenly illuminated the dim light in the makeshift shelter.
The glow was coming from where the unicorn was about to sit down, and out of it was a large dark purple crystal. The dragon present, taking a single look at it, couldn’t help but immediately pick it up to take a bit out of it, but…
“GARBLE, STOP!” the yellow pegasus intervened, and his jaw froze. “Don’t eat that!”
“Why?”
She picked up the crystal and brought it over to the rest of the mares. “Girls, does this look sort of familiar to you?”
Now that they thought about it, this crystal had a very distinct shape. A shape that they saw not long ago, in great quantity, but a multitude of colors.
“It has been a day now since my new friend went off on his own into the cataclysm that’s reigning outside,” the Dragon Lord Obsidian said as he sat at the fireplace, his memory crystal lying on the ground nearby. “I told him that it was a fool’s errand to go out there to come up to the malevolent force face to face when dozens of my kin have already succumbed to its influence.” He let the silence linger for a moment. “Mother… What would you have done in my place? How would you deal with-?”
“Obsidian?” a voice came from the side.
The dragon shifted quickly. He was surprised by it. And that’s when the griffin from the earlier recording came into view, his tail ablaze.
“Grover?! You came back! You… You’re on fire!”
The griffin finally noticed his predicament and he started to run about, trying desperately to put it out until he finally started stomping on it. The flames finally died down, but what followed was a bellow of pain as he was just jumping on his own tail with all his might.
“Grover, I had expected you weren’t coming back from your ordeal. What happened out there?”
“I came face to face with it, Obsidion,” he explained. “I looked into the eyes of fiery anger… and then made a run for it.”
“Wait, you were actually there?” the dragon questioned further. “But how is that possible? Any other of my kin who dared to get closer to the mountain succumbed to mouth-frothing rage. How did you prevail when they could not?”
“I don’t know,” was all he could give, “I simply walked into the heart of fire and saw its manifestation. And I became aware too quickly that I was in over my head on this one. That being said, however, I think I may know a way to suppress it. It’s a SLIGHT chance, but nonetheless…”
“YOU DO?!” The dragon grabbed the griffin by the shoulders, lifted him up, and started shaking him. “Tell me! How do we stop the cataclysm?!”
“S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-!“ Grover struggled to speak in his condition, “Sand!”
The Dragon Lord censed his actions, giving him a confused look. “Sand…? How does that make sense?”
“I can explain, but we’re gonna need a lot of it. A whole lot of it.”
“To the beach then,” he answered and carried the hybrid off-screen, yet even though they were no longer visible their voices could still be heard.
“Obsidian, please put me down.”
“My friend, after what you’ve just gone through, the last thing you deserve is to walk on your own.”
And with those words, the imagery disappeared.
Twilight, Spike, and Dragon Lord Ember stood by, the latter picking up the trigger of the recording they had just watched.
“Well, I suppose it was something more than just doomsaying brooding in these last few we’ve just seen, but we’re not closer to finding an answer,” the blue dragon stated. “I’m not being very optimistic about this, Twilight.” She waited for a response, but the silence lasted too long. “Twilight?”
The look on her face showed surprise. “Do you know who that was…?”
The two dragons looked at one another. “Errr… no?” the smaller one was the first to answer.
“That’s King Grover, Spike! The First King of Griffinstone! The one who united the griffinkind!” she erupted spilling all the knowledge over them.
“Why was a griffin in the Dragon Lands to begin with?” the Dragon Lord asked the obvious question.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “Even the griffins know very little about their first king, except that he appeared one day and presented to them the Idol of Boreas, which united them into one people, so they wouldn’t squabble over riches between themselves.”
“Well he certainly didn’t look like a king with this one,” Spike pointed out. “I guess this was him before he became a king.”
“And again, this brings up the question - why was he here to begin with,” Ember repeated. “But also, what connection does he and Dragon Lord Obsidian have? Or how did he survive the corruption that dragons seemingly weren’t able to overcome?”
“I don’t know…” the alicorn simply answered, then lifted up another dark purple crystal. “But if there are answers, this last one should have them… hopefully.”
Compare to the crystal recording of the Dragon Lords they had seen so far, the ones were very small in comparison, as they had gone through them in a matter of minutes, most of them being repeats of doomsaying. This was their last chance…
She offered the crystal to Ember and she touched it with the tip of the bloodstone scepter, causing the memory to play out.
The Dragon Lord held up the crystal. He looked like he activated it with great urgency.
“Something has happened! In dread and anticipation after my new friend had left to face his destiny, it seemed that my tiredness from worry had gotten the better of me and I fell asleep,” he explained himself. “But when I woke up, I could hear nothing but deafening silence all around me. For days I could hear nothing but booming and raging, and now it’s gone! How is it possible?! Could it be? I dare not give myself false hope but-“
He went silent as he heard footsteps coming in the direction in which he turned. Griffin came into view again, this time slightly more burned than before, but clearly exhausted.
“Grover, my friend, what has transpired…? Is it done?”
He said nothing and instead lifted his left hand. He was holding something in it – the item’s shape resembled a flame surrounding a small rock-like object that sat in the middle of it.
“Obsidian… Hold it,” the griffin said, yet he raised his hand and shook his head, refusing. “That was not a request,” he responded and tossed it at him.
In a panic, the Dragon Lord dropped his memory crystal and tried to make distance from the incoming object, but failed, letting it land right in his grip. He screamed for a moment, and then went silent, confused.
“I… I don’t feel anything,” he said.
“No,” Grover spoke. “Try again. What do you feel?”
The dragon went quiet for a moment, closing his eyes, and then opened the again with a look of surprise. “I feel… peace.”
“I was right!” the griffin finally showed more energy. “I had suspected that the magic of the pool from which the beast had spawned could be turned against it, it happened last time when I had some of it on my clothes by chance, but it’s clear now that minerals and rocks nature can change if magic is used on it!”
“So… it worked then? The calamity had been completely suppressed?” the dragon inquired.
And the visitor nodded. “Well, seeing that things have calmed down, I see you won’t need me anymore, and I have places to be, so I’ll show myself out.”
Obsidian gave him a look of shock. “You’re leaving?”
“I had once wished upon a star that peace would come to my people. But that star only turned out to be the very source of your realm’s destruction. Seeing as how you’ve suffered the most, I think the idol’s power will serve you better than me. If we ever see each other again… Well, it’s been nice meeting you. Farewell.”
The griffin was about to walk off-screen in a prideful stride, only for the dragon to reach out and lifted him by the scruff of his clothing and pulled him back. “After what you’ve just done how can you just walk off and pretend none of this matters to you?!” he exploded. “Look at you! You’re a stranger from a foreign land! You had no reason to help us, to put yourself in harm's way when even some of the strongest of my kin were unable to do anything! And now you’re just going to walk off as if nothing big happened?!”
The griffin couldn’t put words together. “I-I-I just-!“
“I cannot take from you what you truly desire for the sake of your people, and having it stay here would remind us of bad events that have happened in the past.” He slowly put him back on the ground and then shoved the item into his grip. “Grover, I want you to keep it… as a sign of our friendship.”
Quiet followed, but it wouldn’t last, as the griffin lept at the Dragon Lord, wrapping his arms around his neck, hugging him, and he did the same.
“Thank you, Obsidian…” Tears were visible for all to see. “I promise… I’ll never forget your generosity…”
And with that, the image abruptly ended. Everybody present was left dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed. But it was clear that Twilight was about to burst.
“Twilight… What’s just happened?” Spike inquired.
“I know now what’s happened…” she answered. “I know where-“
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
They were all jump-sacred by that shriek that followed, a shriek that the younger dragon immediately recognized. “Rarity?!”
It came from the direction of the entrance, and they didn’t waste time checking up on it as they dashed off. Something was off, as they noticed the entrance was completely blocked off, and lying in front of it, there was the trunk that the fashionista used to carry her equipment, and something was banging and screaming for help inside of it. They opened it, and the aforementioned mare popped out, clearly distressed.
“Rarity, what’s happened?” the alicorn asked.
“I… I’m not sure, Twilight,” she replied. “I was putting on the finishing touches on our airship, when all of a sudden, somecreature tossed my trunk at me and locked me inside!”
“Rarity, why didn’t you just use your magic to get out?” the smaller dragon inquired.
“I tried, Spike! But for some reason, my magic wouldn’t activate! I couldn’t even light up my horn!”
Twilight suddenly felt a sense of dread creeping up on her. She looked at the pile of boulders blocking the way and she immediately tried to test her magic on them… and nothing happened. She quickly ran back to the crystal repository and tried using magic as well, and again… nothing happened.
“Oh no… nononononononononono!” she began to panic.
The rest of the group finally caught up to her. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Ember wondered.
“We’re trapped! They must’ve found out we’ve caught on it, so they locked us all in here with changeling magic negation to slow us down, to make sure we won’t get to it before they do!”
“Get to what? What do they know that we know, Twilight?” Rarity looked at her confusingly.
“The missing fragment of Turmoil, Rarity! It’s in the-!”
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Dragon Scepter! A evil two for one special if there ever was one. Looks like Cozy Glow won't have to do anything at all!
Nice twist by the way. I don't know how I forgot about the other Changelings.
I thought it was just a hipster Dragons beach party, but it turned out to be a front for a rock factory.
suddenly I start to like this ship :)
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Oh, you thought I was joking when I said this?
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Torch X Chrysalis? That's something I did not expect. XD
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Made sense, given the context.
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Didn't expect it to be a changeling front