Misfits

by MattTOB

Chapter 3: Infiltration

Queen Chrysalis strolls down the hallways of Canterlot Castle, her bodyguards at her sides. She arrives in a grand hall usually restricted to the public, where several Changelings are trying to break through a magically sealed door.

"Stand aside, drones," she commands, and the drones immediately obey. Chrysalis lights her horn and fires into the small hole, blasting the magic seal apart. With a creak, the door opens, revealing an ornate box on a pedestal.

Chrysalis levitates the box out, opening it to reveal five necklaces and a big crown thingy. "The Elements of Harmony..."

She takes the items out of the box, placing the necklaces on her overly long neck.

However, the moment she tries to place the crown onto her head, a magical shock shoots through her body, and she drops the crown. She doubles over, being winded but not knocked out by the feedback.

She groans. "Of course... Even with all this power, the Elements will not bend to my will..."

With a flick of her magic, she tosses the items back in their box, which she roughly tosses back into its hiding place. Not even caring to check if they landed on their pillar, she turns to leave as the door closes and re-seals itself. "Drones, make sure nopony gets near them without my say-so. I need to go have a chat with a certain somepony."

Two drones salute her, moving to stand on either side of the door as their Queen exits the room.

---

The group blinks in on the outskirts of Canterlot. The six friends, unused to teleporting, have to regain their bearings for a moment; Luna does not.

Once they do so, they join Luna in overlooking the city. The siege has calmed down for the moment, but Changelings are still patrolling the streets.

Icarus takes a step back reflexively. "Ch-changelings!?"

Luna turns, raising an eyebrow. "You know of them?"

He blinks. "Y-yeah, my parents were entomologists."

"Then what can you tell us of them?"

"Well, they use magic to shape-shift, they feed on love, and they have a hive-mind. Once one of them knows we're here, the whole swarm will be after us."

Luna thinks on this. "Then we'll have to be more cautious than I'd thought. Does anypony have any ideas?"

The group takes a moment to scan what is nearby. They are currently just outside of the warehouse district, where several materials are manufactured and distributed. Things like copper, steel, gunpowder, timber....

Icarus hatches an idea. He points to the gunpowder warehouse, "If we use some of the gunpowder in this warehouse, we can create an explosion that'll distract some of them for a while."

Luna thinks this over. "This could work... Does anypony have anything to use as a fuse?"

The group goes over the stuff they have on them. Luna has her present for Cadance and Shining Armor, Ollie has his skateboard, Cupcake Foil has a flask of vodka, Morning Dream has a box of about twenty imported teabags and a teacup, Tepid Waters has her swimming goggles, Lavender Burst has her glasses and a pocketbook of about 100 pieces of trivia, and Icarus... has his pet Lite.

Morning Dream soon has an idea. Taking her teabags, she removes the strings from each of them and brings them to her daughter. With a quick spell, the ends of each string are fused together, leaving one long line.

"Clever!" Ollie commends.

Luna nods in agreement. "Indeed. Know that your sacrifice will be covered by the Crown."

To her surprise, however, Morning Dream shakes her head. "No need, your Majesty. I'm simply doing my part to help."

Luna nods in understanding, then smirks as the earth pony walks away.

---

After some quick sneaking, Icarus returns with enough gunpowder for their plan. Laying everything out, the group rushes into an alleyway. Icarus tells Lite to stay hidden, then, with a spark of his green magic, the fuse is lit, and they brace themselves.

BOOM!

Several changelings turn their heads at the sound of the explosion. Many of them move to investigate, leaving enough of an opening for the group to stealthily rush their way into a side entrance of the Castle.

"Commendable work, all three of you,"Luna congratulates.

"Aw, it was nothing," Lavender blushes. "Just a quick fiber-fusing spell. I have to do those any time a plant gets accidentally cut."

"Still, we're far from the end," Ollie points out. "We may have gotten in, but we still need to find... What's our end destination, exactly?"

"The northern wing, past the Stained Glass Hall," Luna explains. "There, we will find what we need."

The group nods, before they continue their way down the halls.

---

After some walking, they come into a hall with a storage closet, and a bend nearby.

As they walk, Icarus seems to notice something.

Then his eyes widen. "Shh..." he hushes them quickly.

The group looks at him, confused, but they quiet down.

Hoofsteps are approaching from around the bend.

Icarus spots the storage closet. "Hide in there," he whispers.

The group quickly and quietly files into the closet, but they discover a problem. The closet is too small to fit all of them; one of them will have to find a different means of hiding, or get caught trying.

Icarus glances at the closet, then at the bend and the slowly approaching hoofsteps.

Then he shuts them in, leaving himself outside.

The group holds their breath, hoping that Icarus will be able to find a hiding spot in time.

But judging from the shadow peeking through the crack at the bottom of the door, he isn't moving from his spot in front of the door.

Then a green flash bleeds through, causing their breaths to hitch.

Icarus, now in his undisguised form, stands in front of the door at attention. When the two approaching Changelings round the bend, he salutes, "No activity to report, sirs." One of the Changelings nods, and they continue down the hall.

As soon as they're out of sight, Icarus releases the breath he was holding, then transforms back into his unicorn guise. He opens the door—

Only to find Luna glaring at him, his other friends staring on in shock. "So, your 'parents were entomologists', eh?"

Uh-oh.

Author's Note:

Can you tell that I took a lot longer writing the first two chapters than I did for this one?

Comments

[TrainDude90S]

That's not the real Luna at the door is it?

[TwilightSparkleRocks]

10926705
Maybe so, but the mane 5 and Spike promised to take Twilight's concerns seriously in the lesson they dubbed as Lesson Zero. And at the rehearsal, they broke that promise.