New Moon Rising

by Lighthawk

Chapter 1

The doors to the throne room opening woke Princess Celestia. For a nervous moment she feared she had dozed off while holding court. More than any other of her royal duties, wading through the murky waters of court politics in order to out maneuver greedy and self-serving nobles that hid their true goals behind sweetened speeches and selfless seeming acts bored her. Mostly because after over a thousand years of doing so, the waters weren’t so much murky as they were crystal clear to the point of magnifying each petitioner’s actual intentions, practically before they even opened their mouths.

It really wasn’t a fair contest in any form. If they had started early enough, if perhaps their parents had been dedicated and begun teaching their foal of the nuances and intricacies of court and law at a young age, Celestia might find herself facing somepony with a good six, maybe seven decades of experience to draw upon. A few even managed to see their eighth decade in the court, though by then not too many still had enough of their wits left to make proper use of the years of experience.

Celestia was on her one hundred and seventh decade of holding court. She had ceased needing to use her royal authority at all to maintain an advantage by her twelfth decade. By her seventeenth decade the position of Court Advisor to the Princess had become a dead end ‘promotion’ for ponies too important to dismiss but too incompetent to trust with any real authority. By the time her fiftieth decade had rolled around she had started slipping loopholes into the laws just to give the nobility a bit more ground to stand on in the hopes they might make her work for her victories.

As her eyes snapped open Celestia found that she had in fact, not dozed off in the middle of court. Amazingly enough however, she actually found herself in a situation that ranked as less desirable. She was encased in some emerald hued crystalline material that hung from the ceiling of her own throne room like a trophy. The memories came rushing back; Twilight barging into the great hall just at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, a second Cadence, the changeling imposter revealed, the duel of magic, a duel she’d actually lost to the creature striding into the room at this very moment.

Celestia paused to reconsider that assessment. Striding was perhaps not quite the right term. Limping seemed somewhat more accurate in fact. Chrysalis did indeed seem to be favoring her left side, and as she came closer Celestia could see the changeling queen was breathing somewhat raggedly. A gathering of lesser changelings swarmed about their queen in a worried fashion, buzzing with nervous energy.

“Enough!” Chrysalis spat, and winced. She continued in a rather lower, rougher voice. “Enough. I’m fine.” She sat herself upon Celestia’s throne, letting out a deep sigh of relief as she did. “Report.”

“Your majesty,” one of the changelings hissed. “The avatars of harmony have been secured within the uh, dungeon, such that it is.” Chrysalis raised a questioning eyebrow, and the changeling elaborated. “Well, it would seem the palace does not possess a dungeon so much as it has a few, very few, small rooms on the lower levels with sturdy doors that lock from the outside.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. It’ll do for now. Just keep watch on them.”

“Of course your majesty.”

“Continue…”

Celestia could only stare in amazement as another changeling took up the report. Surely they were not actually going to just let her listen in on such valuable information.

“Our forces have taken control of the city at large. There are a few pockets of resistance, but they persevere only by holding fortified positions; they have no means to influence events outside of the few dwellings they inhabit.”

“Good. Dig them out or starve them out, I don’t care which.”

Apparently they were going to just let her listen. Celestia could hardly believe the arrogance. Then again, considering how she had gotten herself into her current situation, perhaps she was not in a position to throw that particular stone.

“The guard captain has been taken to the royal quarters as you instructed,” a third changeling said with a leering smirk. “He is barely aware of anything at this point my queen.”

“Excellent,” Chrysalis purred. “I’ll see to finishing that meal tonight then. And Cadence?”

“Also within the royal quarters, as instructed,” the changeling continued. “We have begun preliminary efforts to weaken her will.”

“Don’t break her just yet,” the queen commanded. “I want her mind whole enough to watch and comprehend when I come for her beloved.” Chrysalis’s gaze shifted up to where Celestia hung, a malicious glee in her expression. Ah, that was why she was being permitted to listen in; the queen felt the need to gloat.

“All that remains is the nighttime princess,” one of the changelings buzzed smugly.

Chrysalis’s gaze snapped around like a whip upon the speaker, fixing him with a look that should have speared him to the floor. That, Celestia realized, was a tidbit she had not been meant to hear. The changeling wilted under his queen’s glare, and he began to stammer out an apology.

“Silence!” Chrysalis snapped, wincing in pain with the outburst. She ground her teeth in annoyance, but then seemed to shrug the incident off. “Yes, princess Luna remains to be dealt with.” She gave her loud mouthed underling a smile as warm as the heart of winter. “And you shall see to her.”

“M-m-me, y-our ma-maj…”

“Yes, you!” Chrysalis snarled. “Gather some troops and see to the matter, now!”

The changeling ducked as if expecting the words to be followed by a blow, and quickly backed away, turning to scurry out the door. Chrysalis’s gaze flickered towards Celestia, but she quickly returned it upon the gathering before her.

“You won’t win,” the Solar Princess said calmly.

“Oh please, I already have,” Chrysalis said scornfully. “Your guard is broken, the Elements useless, your city helpless, and your sister…well she may be free, but I did to her horn as I did yours. How much harm can she cause without her magic?”

----------------------

Luna held her breath as the changeling swarm passed, pressing herself flat within the shadows of the overhead archway that was her refuge. It wasn’t much of a hiding spot, but fortunately the abominable little creatures didn’t seem inclined to look up in their search. An odd trait, for a winged race to ignore the existence of the third dimension, but she was happy enough for it at the moment as she had her hooves quite full as it was.

The changeling occupying said hooves thrashed, it’s mouth open as it tried feebly to gasp for breath. Luna’s foreleg strangling its windpipe however cut off any flow of air to or from its lungs as surely as a vise. Its desperate struggles to free itself grew swiftly weaker as the exertions quickly used up what oxygen its blood contained, and it started to droop limply in the princess’s grasp.

The search party passed completely out of sight, and Luna let out a sigh of relief at once again narrowly avoiding discovery. She then swore upon realizing her captive was no longer breathing. Dropping down from the archway, she unceremoniously deposited the creature upon the street to examine.

It lay still and entirely unmoving.

She gave it a soft kick.

Nothing.

“Horseapples…” Luna groused, picking the body up and carrying it over to a cart that had been abandoned along the side of the road during the attack. Opening up a large crate in the back, she dumped body inside, the impact muffled by the four others already hidden within. So far her plan to snatch a changeling and force information out of it had not been going very well.

She needed to know more about the situation in the city. Her initial plan had been simply to gather her sister and the guard, and reclaim Canterlot by force. Unfortunately that strategy had fallen apart before she could even get it started. She had been spotted just moments after her initial escape, and had wasted well over an hour playing tag through the streets and buildings and skies trying to shake off the resulting pursuit. And ever since then it had been all she could do to stay hidden from the roaming swarms scouring the city.

Hoofsteps sounded on the street, and Luna heaved herself into the back of the cart, hunkering down between the crates. Peering through the crack between two of the boxes, she watched as a pair of changelings walked into view, a trio of ponies trudging along between them. A plain brown stallion with a coffee hued mane and a light yellow mare a with carrot orange. Between them shuffled a small white filly with purple tresses. All three ponies stared dully ahead, their gazes unfocused. They moved as if only partially aware, and the changelings herded them along like cattle.

Luna ground her teeth together to keep from growling out loud at the sight. She fought down the temptation to burst from cover and lay righteous wrath upon the bodies of the foul creatures that dared to so wrong her subjects. Starting a fight out in the open streets however would be the height of foolishness. So she waited, impatiently but still, she waited for them to pass on by.

Checking the skies for passing patrols, Luna slipped from the cart and trailed after the group, ducking behind stairways, flitting up under overhangs, darting quickly and quietly as possible from one hiding spot to another. They lead her off the main road, heading down a few side streets rife with shadows to aid her stealth, before coming back onto a major thoroughfare. The changelings prodded the ponies, turning them towards one of the grand residential estates that dominated the area.

One of the changelings swung open the ornate front door of the richly decorated dwelling as the other ushered the ponies inside, the first falling in behind its companion. The door hung open a second, before it started to close under its own weight. Luna shot from her hiding spot, darting through the air in a flurry of wing strokes that took her into a rapid climb and decent. The parabolic arc brought her crashing down upon the rearmost changeling just as it was clearing the threshold, flattening the creature to the floor.

Her momentum carried them both deeper into the building, Luna riding the changeling across the tile floor like some grotesquely misshapen surfboard. The stunned creature never got a chance to recover before the alicorn brought both front hooves crashing down on its skull, slamming its face full into the floor and rendering it utterly senseless. The second changeling was just turning towards the commotion as the slide brought Luna and her unwilling ride alongside the startled creature, and she spun upon her still planted front legs to bring her rear to bear. Her target had a split second to comprehend what was going on, which turned out to be not long enough for its brain to consider evasive action.

Both of Luna’s hooves struck the changeling square in its hideous face, and the luckless abomination of ponykind when flying from the impact. It didn’t touch ground again for several yards, and when it did it bounced twice before halting only with the aid of a wall. A vase rocked from the impact, and fell with a crash. Luna meanwhile dismounted from her changeling surfboard with a giddy little flip of self-impressed joy at the flawless double take down.

“Ah ha! Fear us fiends, for we are thy…” Luna’s gloat died in her throat.

The door finished swinging close behind her with an unusually loud click in the silence that followed.

Luna stared into the main foyer of the building stretching before her, a high ceilinged room with elegant spiraling staircases, flanking a short hall leading deeper into the estate.

A swarm of changelings stared back at her.

“…doom,” she finished in a small voice.

The creatures glanced at each other, then back at her, and as one their mouths dropped open in a chorus of snarls as a hideous droning filled the air from their insect like wings.

Luna ducked as the first changeling came barreling towards her, its body blossoming into a comet of sickly green fire. It slammed into the wall behind her with force enough to crater the stone work, and yet the impact seemed to barely stun it. Before it could recover though Luna had bucked it right back into the wall, and without its protective aura of magic the creature wasn’t able to just shrug that hit off.

Even as it crumpled to the floor Luna was forced to roll to her side as another two changelings came leaping down, nearly snaring her with their flailing hooves. A fourth changeling leapt the pair, wings buzzing and fanged mouth snarling.

“FEAST UPON OUR MIGHT!”

The creature flinched at the sudden outburst, and the Princess of the Night stuffed her metal clad hoof right in the beast’s open muzzle. Several long, yellow teeth clattered to the floor. She shoved hard, and the changeling’s momentum was reversed, sending it crashing into the two it had jumped over in its eager rush to meet her.

The fifth changeling slammed into Luna’s side, knocking the air from her lungs as it smashed her against the wall. She snarled in painful anger, and brought the heavy wrist joint of her wing crashing down on the back of its neck. It dropped bonelessly to the floor, but changelings two and three had untangled themselves from number four, even as six, seven, and eight came winging in, continuing to press her back towards the corner of the room.

Recognizing that as being the end game for her, Luna responded to the changeling charge with one of her own. The unexpected tactic worked in her favor for a precious second as it caught the swarm off guard, and by the time they recovered the princess was already among them. Luna bulled into changeling number three, using her larger size and weight to knock it aside and into number six. Seven was sent crashing to the floor as she swept her own wing up into the beating blur of its own, the thin membrane of the structure proving completely unable to compete with the sturdy build of the princess’s.

Eight managed to land a glancing hit with its wicked little horn, opening a thin gash along Luna’s shoulder. And then she was through the swarm and out the other side, already turning for a second charge. She caught a flash of light to her side as she did however, and quickly swept her wing down as an emerald beam came crashing into her. Pain shot up through the limb as she was thrown to the floor, but she managed to roll with it and come up facing her ninth attacker.

For an instant Luna thought she was facing the same creature that had impersonated her sister, but though the changeling shared some of the features, she was smaller than the queen, even if she was slightly larger than the drones. Her mane however was the same tattered, tangled mess, though in a darker violet hue. Her horn was also smaller than her matriarch’s, with only a single curving hook to its shape. It did however glow with the same sickly green magic as the creature prepared a second blast.

Luna smartly sidestepped the attack, and was rewarded with a screech of alarm that turned quickly to pain as the shot took down one of the changelings behind her.

“Thy aim is as lacking as thy hygiene.”

The queen in miniature let out an annoyed snarl and stamped a hoof in frustration as she prepared another magical strike. Luna could feel the breeze behind her as the swarm scattered to clear the firing zone.

The Princess of the Night lowered her head, eyes locked on her adversary. She sent a gentle pulse of magic through her own horn, and had to suppress a wince of pain as the energy fizzled. She gave her wounded wing a slight twitch, and again had to mask her feelings as agony filled her. Better her wing then her ribs granted, but it still meant she wasn’t going to be doing much flying any time soon.

No magic, no flight, just her hooves and what strength her legs could provide.

Luna ducked the first shot, kicking off hard as she streaked under the attack. She cut right, then quickly back left, dodging the second and faking out the third. The fourth grazed her shoulder, right over the fresh wound left the drone’s horn. It was a novel new agony to have the still tender injury filled with the green witch fire. Her leg buckled from the pain, but she managed to turn the fall into a roll that let her avoid strike number five.

The next shot missed with no effort from Luna herself as the changeling started to panic. The princess was closing the distance between them far too quickly, and she started to back pedal away. The retreat came too late and too slow however, and then Luna was right in her face.

“We bestow upon thee, pain!”

The Princess of the Night raised a hoof to knock the royal changeling’s face out the back of her skull, only to get slammed to the ground as the swarm rejoined the fight. Two of the creatures tackled her, sharp little hooves flailing her side even as they latched on with wickedly curved fangs. The world went white as Luna landed on her injured wing, pinning it painfully under the combined weight of herself and her two attackers. Her good wing struck out, swatting one of the creatures away, though at the cost of some of her hide as the thing’s teeth ripped free.

The other changeling jumped back, causing her backswing to miss. Luna saw its gaze flick up behind her, and she shoved hard against the floor with all four legs, ignoring the fresh new pain that came with scooting her injured side across the ground. Her instincts proved good however, as an emerald bolt gouged out the section of floor she had just been occupying.

Rolling across her back, Luna turned to find the royal changeling having failed to take advantage of the opening her minions had provided to gain some breathing room. The princess thanked her for the idiocy by sweeping her legs into the changeling’s, bringing the creature crashing to the floor. Her wings buzzed as she tried to pull away, but Luna got a pair of legs around one of the changeling’s.

Another of the drones landed on the princess, another set of teeth marking her as it tried to pry her off the larger changeling, who thrashed and brought her wicked horn around towards Luna’s face. The princess ducked her head and threw her shoulder forward, and there was an agonized screech followed immediately by a spray of hot liquid. The royal changeling let out a chagrinned cry at once again inadvertently aiding her opponent.

Luna fell back, still grappling her opponent’s limb until the joint locked tight. She pulled a bit harder, and there was a rather satisfactory ‘pop’ followed by a painfully high scream. The buzzing of wings over the cry gave warning, and the princess seized the changeling fully around the barrel, rolled on her back, and kicked hard.

Her aim wasn’t perfect, but she still managed to clip two of the drones that had been charging in, once again using the bigger changeling as a weapon against her own swarm. The two went spiraling off course, leaving the third member of the charge solo. The creature seemed aware of the sudden shift in favor against it, but there wasn’t time for it to change course enough to avoid taking a kick right to the ribs as it streaked on by. It crumpled around the blow, plowing headfirst into the floor in a shower of shattering tile.

Luna lunged for one of the creatures she had knocked down with the changeling fastball, both front hooves landing on the back of its head as it tried to rise, reintroducing its face with the floor. The second managed to get its hooves under it, but ended up getting one of Luna’s to the side of its head for the effort.

She turned to the final changeling, only to find it streaking for the door.

“Ha…flee…coward!” Luna taunted, gasping for the air as she watched the creature zoom towards the door…the door that lead outside…where it would surely find reinforcements… “Nay! Return to…the battlefield vermin…so that we might…smite thee!”

The changeling rightly ignored her, yanking open the door and buzzing outside in a black and green blur. The door slowly swung shut again, and Luna felt her legs wobble under her as the exertion of the fight started to catch up with her. Her shoulder and wing burned with angry pain, and her vision was starting to blur even as she became aware of the sense of warm liquid oozing through her coat in various spots.

Luna blinked groggily around at the scene surrounding her, noting with no small annoyance that none of the changelings were in any state to be interrogated. Even the mini queen was out cold, the pain of her injured leg putting her into shock. All that effort, and still she had nopony to drag info out of, and she was in no condition to try bringing one along with her if she intended to escape before reinforcements arrived.

“Worst…invasion…ever…” Luna muttered as she sank to her knees, her eyes fluttering as she tried to keep them open. She drooped, the battle against her own body quickly getting the better of her as her injuries pulled her deeper and deeper under. Darkness took her, the last thing to cross her awareness the gentle clop of hoofsteps upon the tile.

Comments

[BradtheBrony]

Woah! Wasn't expecting an update to this. But it's a pleasant surprise! That was a finely written fight sequence.

[Lighthawk]

2329034
Thank you. Yeah, I wasn't really expecting to update this myself, but the scene wrote itself in my head, so here it is.

[zero588]

I hope you plan on continuing this story!

[Lighthawk]

2568365
I do plan. Just know that this is on my B list of stories to focus on. It'll get done, just somewhat slower than the other stuff I'm writing.

[zero588]

2572777
It's just that this is the best Luna vs. Changlings/ Saves the wedding story I have read.
There is another story much in the same vein as yours, but with Luna not as well thought out.