Planescape: Equestria

by Applechaser

9

Your stomach turns over again as you stare up at the cyan pegasus who hovers above you, striking a taunting pose. Worse than the physical trauma you’ve suffered is the sensation of plummeting dread that seizes you at her appearance. If Rainbow really is running a black one for you, and she’s chanced upon this moment to settle it… then that’ll be just about that. You’ve no weapons, you’re already battered halfway senseless, and she’s a whole lot faster than you.

But, wait…

The moment of panic passes as doubts begin to form and solidify quickly in your mind. Rainbow Dash might be a total pain in your ass, but if nothing else, she seems to care about her friends. Would she really go behind their backs to attack a guy that they’re all on good terms with? And would she really be stupid enough to do it in the palace gardens, where any sod who happens to glance out of the window becomes a witness that she was the one who assaulted Princess Celestia’s honoured guest? And not least, would she really be giving you the time to wonder about all this?

Behind your attacker’s cocky attitude is a wariness; she doesn’t want to come in for another pass, which means she must be holding out for backup, or else she just wants to be sure of something before she commits herself again. Either way, that doesn’t seem much like Rainbow’s style to you. So that’d make this winged nuisance just another changeling.

…which, to be fair, is still bad enough, especially considering that the one you were just wrestling with is moving around again already. Eyeing you warily, she squats back on her haunches and begins tugging at one of her back legs with little grunts of pain, trying to pop the joint back into its socket. You don’t want to let that happen, but as soon as you start forwards you see her air support enter a steep dive to head you off.

If you weren’t entirely sure before, you are now; this changeling’s flight is laughably ponderous and sluggish by comparison with the speed and finesse that Dash showed in Sigil, and the signature light trail is nowhere to be seen. She’s still coming right at you, though, and plenty fast enough to knock you flat if you follow through with your intention of heading to finish off her wounded ally. You’re forced to check your advance and fall back, keeping your eye on not-Dash as she swoops toward you.

If she continues on this straightforward trajectory it’ll be an easy enough thing to get a hold on her and clip her wings, as long as you can take the initial impact of her dive. Not much reason for her to let that happen, though; she’s already succeeded at buying her ally some time, and just as you expect, she pulls out of her reckless charge and ends up sweeping wide past you, too far away for you to make anything of it. Meanwhile the other changeling has succeeded in popping her leg back into place and is already getting to her feet and putting some experimental weight on the joint.

Gathering what remains of your strength and trusting that you have a few moments’ grace as your airborne foe wheels around behind you, you dart forwards across the lawn, reaching your target while she’s still off-balance and not quite confident in her leg’s strength. Your fist connects solidly with her skull and she rocks backwards as you follow up with another blow to the side of her head, and another, battering away with all your strength at the stunned horse-thing, knowing that your life might ride on taking her out of the fight before her ally can get to you.

It’s not enough. She throws herself at your legs and you feel yourself begin to topple even as a heavy weight impacts your back and hastens your sprawling progress into the dirt. Face pushed into the lawn, you can’t see anything but blackness. The taste of soil and blood fills your mouth. You fight to get some breath back into your lungs as you thrash and squirm under the weight that pins you to the floor. There’s a thudding impact to the back of your skull, and then another. You can feel consciousness beginning to slip away. And then there’s a sudden wrench, a strange cracking sound, and the weight disappears from your back.

Your first hazy thought is that you must be dead. The pain that still fills your body and the ringing in your ears slowly make their presence felt, though, letting you know that life hasn’t given up its claims on you just yet. After a few moments you manage to roll onto your back and take in the scene around as best you can with your vision spinning and swimming as it is. Beside you lies a changeling, crumpled like a carelessly discarded doll. Above you, the sky is being painted with an ever-expanding tracery of rainbows.

Two hundred feet up or more, at the epicentre of the prismatic pattern, a black figure drops out of the sky. The rainbows harry it all the way to the ground, spiralling round it, flashing through it again and again until, by the time it hits the palace lawns, there’s a slowly-fading helix of light two hundred feet tall to mark its impact. You exhale heavily between gritted teeth, something between a sigh of relief and a laugh.

“…bleeding showboating…”

“Hey, gotta make an example,” comes Dash’s voice as she slowly drifts backwards into your field of vision, reclining casually on an air current, wings flapping desultorily. “Can’t have loser wannabes like that dragging my reputation through the mud, y’know.”

“…by attacking people?”

“By making it look like Equestria’s greatest flier is flapping around the place like some kind of overfed pigeon. You gonna get up or what?”

“Not sure if I can.”

“Huh.”

She lands next to you, looking you over with a frown. “They really did a number on ya, huh Anon? Well, don’t feel tooooo bad about it, I guess. They seemed pretty tough – a lot tougher than the last time we fought any changelings. Just no match for my awesomeness, that’s all. And that one was real dumb to try to fly away when she’s got ME on her tail.”

You just smile weakly at the pony’s bragging – you figure she’s earned some, after all. “You pretty much saved my hide. Thanks, blood.”

“Blood? What’s that s’posed to mean?”

You slowly haul yourself up to a seated position, noting a sympathetic wince on Dash’s face that she tries, but doesn’t quite manage, to hide. “…you sure you should be moving around?” she asks.

“Nope.”

You shake your head and manage to clear it a little; enough so that you can look Dash in the eye and see only one blue pony in front of you instead of two or three swimming around. “A blood,” you say, “is a real hende cutter.”

She looks blankly back at you, and you break into a lopsided grin. "It means… you’re pretty awesome.”

“Oh.” She nonchalantly brushes an imaginary speck of dust from her chest with one hoof, looking away as she does so and not quite managing to hide a pleased smile. “Well geez, everybody knows that,” she scoffs after a beat.

You stagger up onto your feet. Dash grimaces as she looks you up and down. “Rarity is gonna pitch such a fit when she sees your outfit,” she says.

You look down to take in the extent of the damage: rips, tears, missing buttons, grass stains and copious amounts of soil smeared all over everything. “…tell me about it.”

She shrugs. “Don’t sweat it too much, Rarity loves pitching fits, it’s, like, her favourite thing in the world. And once she’s done freaking out she’ll sort it out with a little zap from her horn no problem.”

You smile. “If you say so.”

“So I guess we should get you indoors and find somepony to fix ya up, or else you’re not gonna be in any shape for the party. You’ve got a dance-off to lose, y’know.”

“Right. Speaking of which, we should probably send word to somebody to fetch Octavia, too. She got spiked with sleep poison; at least, I hope it was sleep poison. Up in that corridor where the broken window is.”

You take a step forwards and stumble, nearly falling as pain shoots up through your leg. Rainbow rolls her eyes. “Geez. Here, lean on me.”

She walks impatiently by your side and, leaning heavily on her, you make your tortuous way back to the palace. Things quickly devolve into a blur as your strength fades. There are guard ponies and officials bustling everywhere, asking questions, giving orders; you just lean on Rainbow Dash as she guides you onwards, fending off all these attentions with short, curt answers.

Finally the noise and bustle stops, and you find yourself collapsing into a deep armchair in what must be a private drawing room; it’s small, compared to most of the palace’s chambers, and luxuriously cosy. Rainbow Dash is nearby, looking at you with obvious concern now in those moments when the fog in your head parts enough to let you observe her clearly. Some time later – seconds or minutes or hours, who knows – there’s another presence in the room. Soothing, radiant, suffusing the room with an air of tranquillity and quiet majesty.

“Hello, Princess…” you manage before you slip into unconsciousness.

When you wake again, your head is clear and your body is as fit and hale as it has ever been. Princess Celestia sits before you, regarding you with an eye that is, at once, benevolent and inscrutable. “Hello, Anonymous. I trust you are feeling better?”

“…much. Thank you, Princess.”

You look around for Rainbow, but see no sign of her.

“I sent Rainbow Dash to get ready for the party,” Celestia smiles briefly, before assuming a more serious aspect. "Anonymous, I can only offer my most sincere apologies for this outrage. That a guest would come under attack within the bounds of my own palace is a grave failing of my hospitality, and that changelings should once again have succeeded in penetrating the heart of Canterlot shows unacceptable carelessness on my part.”

“Again? These creatures have done something similar before?”

“Nothing on such a small scale as this. Several months ago they infiltrated the royal family itself; their queen, Chrysalis, posed as Princess Cadence and fooled the entire court, feeding off Shining Armor’s love until she was strong enough to defeat me and overrun the capital with her changeling armies. The realm was saved from disaster only by Twilight Sparkle’s quick apprehension of the threat and the power of the love existing between Shining Armor and the true Princess Cadence.”

You ponder that for a bit. You may not have seen much of Celestia yet, but you strongly doubt that anybody – even a shapeshifter queen – could be cunning enough to maintain a false identity in her court, under her very nose.

“In the wake of that defeat,” Celestia continues, “the changelings have been scattered and weak, no longer acknowledging any queen or master. Some of the more capable have been hiring out their services for bits.”

“So you reckon these were just crow feeders? Assassins for hire?”

“That seems likely,” Celestia nods.

“…then the question is who hired them.”

“It is indeed. Do you have any thoughts on that, Anonymous?”

“A few. You won’t like them.”

“I will refrain from any manifestation of my displeasure.”

“…well then. I have a lot of enemies, Princess, as you know. But none on this plane, unless they have managed to obtain passage from yourself or one of the other four entities – or groups of entities – who have access.”

You watch her face for any reaction to that, but she only blinks at you, wearing the same regal smile as ever.

“What seems more likely,” you continue, “is that one or more of those enemies have been in communication with agents or contacts already in place within this demiplane.”

Celestia gives a nod. “That would indeed be feasible,” she says.

“Are you aware of the changelings, or anybody else, having extraplanar contacts?” you ask carefully.

“I have seen no evidence of such a thing,” Celestia replies smoothly. “But that is only an absence of proof, not a proof of absence. I will make enquiries through the channels available to me.”

“All right,” you nod slowly. “In the meantime, I will be on my guard.”

“Do that,” she agrees. “I have something that may be of assistance to you in that regard; I had been saving it until I was more fully assured of your good character, but under the circumstances, I think it would be unreasonable to withhold it further.”

Her horn glows faintly and an unremarkable burlap sack floats towards you from where it had been stowed in a wooden chest against the wall. Your eyes widen.

“My bag. Corder had it…”

“Yes. I managed to retrieve it for you. You will have to forgive me for prying into its contents, but it seemed wise to appraise myself of their precise nature before returning it.”

You’re speechless, your mind spinning wildly as you try to imagine some conceivable way in which the princess could have come into possession of this.

She’s just smiling that enigmatic smile of hers.

“Do feel free to speak your mind, Anonymous. But keep in mind yesterday’s caveats about the truths that I choose to tell you.”

“…right.”

She waits politely for a few moments before nodding with an air of finality. “Then, I will leave you to your preparations for the party. Please pass along my apologies to Rarity for any imperfections in the repairs I made on your clothes; I fear I attacked the problem with brute magical force rather than any of her subtlety or talent, and the results may not meet her standards.”

You look down at yourself; as best you can tell, the outfit looks indistinguishable from when it was newly made.

“…thank you, Princess. Again.”

“You are quite welcome, Anonymous. Farewell for now.”

She makes her exit, and you’re left to bask for a moment in the slowly fading warmth of her presence and collect your brutally scattered thoughts.

Comments

[TheTownCrier]

You are a true wordsmith. Refreshing to see a word like caveat in a story.

[Sixpence]

This is pretty darn good. I don't usually thumb up this 'early' in a story, but you've earned it. Too many gems like this are lost in the pile, so keep up the good work.

[Applechaser]

1842474
1853804

Thanks, really appreciate the kind words.

[ShadowOfOrder]

i48.tinypic.com/vxi1bl.jpg

[Applechaser]

1876053

Your wish is my command. Incoming.