A thing or two about changelings and their habits saga

by Young discord

CHAPTER 15 (AKA: Toil and trouble)

The mob stood petrified outside as everything settled down, the silence was broken by the sound of the weak bonds that were just formed between the changelings and already stretching to their limits, any more tension and bad things were going to happen.
As the mane 6 came to terms with what was happening the horrific consequences had still yet to sink in, luckily for them ignorance is bliss as they were unaware of the full significance of what had occurred.

“Liars!” some rogue voice shouted at the screen

“Yeah! They should just disappear and die!”
The crowd grew more and more rowdy and enraged at how they got fooled by the changelings once again, the mob threw itself at the towers attempting to bring down their mistake.
A dozen or so of royal guards and medical staff stampeded into the conference hall.

“Majesty! What should we do with him?” jotted in a royal guard who was keeping an unconscious mark and spear range.
Celestia looked at Mark, then looked outside the barred window at the crowd that was still paying a little attention to the magical screen that was now displaying the passed out mark, this was not good, he was found out, and getting away with this is going to be tough.

“Should we take him to the Canterlot dungeons and interrogate him your higness??”
The Princess looked back to the source of the attention.

“No, we don’t know for sure if Canterlot is safe, they might have infiltrated already”

“What should we do then?”

“I’ll interrogate him personally”
Celestia gave a furiously judgemental look at Mark in order to fool the guards.
The rest of the pony representatives were helped up and brought back to trotting condition by the guards and medical staff.

“In the meantime, close down Canterlot and thoroughly check everypony for any signs of changeling infiltrators, should you find any, treat them gently and keep them in check”

“But Majesty shouldn’t we just deal wi-“

“NO! if we harm them we will risk a full scale equestrian war”

“But they just assaulted you, your highness!”

“This may be true but we still do not know of the circumstances behind this heinous act, we must act with caution, being reckless now might cost all of us too much, I am not going down as a ruler who murdered an entire species, this is an order”

“Yes your highness!”

“And disable that damned machine outside!”
Celestia was close to her limit right now and the crowd of her enraged subjects outside misbehaving was not helping.
A few guards exited to pass on the order, moments later the machine shut down and the ponies in the angry crowd dispersed to pass on the news to everypony else, now was the time to act thought Celestia, what they need to do right now is sort out the who and the why but this is going to be difficult, Celestia may the official ruler of this land but her power limits at the commonfoalk, if she were to do anything the foalk didn’t want they would rebel and she would lose control of any influence she might have ever had and if that ever happens, nothing she will say or do after that point will be able to stop the oncoming onslaught.
Celestia ordered some of the guards to keep watch of the building in case the attackers came back, using a personal mode of transport is too dangerous right now; they need to become inconspicuous as hard as that may be which means that they will have to take the train.

“Dear sister, Go to Canterlot and rule in my name during my absence”

“But sister, where art thou destination?”

“Our old castle in the Everfree forest, It is old and forgotten if anypony will come looking for us, we’ll be safe. I shall take Twilight and her friends with her; I will need their help”
Once everypony exited and only Celestia, Twilight and her friends and a panting Mark were the only ones within the four walls Celestia unveiled her plan

“What do we do now then Princess?” asked Twilight

“Rarity?”

“Yes your highness?”

“Do you think you could make us some disguise from what’s left of those curtains?”
Rarity conjured a needle and thread out of nowhere

“I hope that was a rhetorical question your Highness, the robes will be ready in a few minutes”

“We are also going to have to keep Mark hidden until we reach the forest”

“Um…”

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Perhaps I could look after Mark while we’ll be going, he doesn’t look too good… just a thought maybe…”
The ponies got to work, Fluttershy dragging Mark out of his critical state so that he will be able to pull through, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie helping Rarity out (emphasis on the “help”) in no time at all the shabby wooden carriage was assembled from the rubble and a stylish mini-collection of regularly looking robes were sewn together
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash lay Mark on their backs and covered him with whatever was left of the fancy curtains.
Everypony was disguised well enough to be unidentifiable outside.
The group got together and slipped out the back door
The city was too quiet, things are going to get restless once the news spreads about all of this, they had to hurry.
Somehow the group managed to drag themselves onto a train and with the aid of Celestia’s Masking spell they managed to reach their destination, Coltown, just on the outskirts of the forest.
It was getting dark, the azure sky was being replaced by the evening wine with pink marshmallow clouds.
Within no time at all the team (with an unconscious Mark) was well within the bounds of the forest, keeping a vigilant eye on any dangers that may intend on pouncing.
Some colt-made sounds grabbed AJ’s attention

“Hay, y’all hear that?”
A bad feeling shuddered Celestia’s mane

“Something’s wrong”
The ponies quietly on their tip-hooves searched through the bushes,
SNAP

“AHH!” Fluttershy gave out a cute yelp as something dragged her instantaneously into the leaves.

“Fluttershy?” mildly called out Twilight

“Let me fly up, I’ll see what’s going on”

“Rainbow dash, no!” Celestia exclaimed in hopes that it’s not too late
It was too late, Rainbow dash was already high up in the sky patrolling the area.

“Uuhh… guys? We have a problem”

“What in the hay is goin’ on here Rainbow Dash?”
Rarity gasped, uncovering the bush that was hiding the castle ruins that were swarming with a few dozen of changelings, all wearing the same emblem as those who crashed the summit.
Fluttershy was being surrounded by some of the changelings.

“We have to do something!” Rarity exclaimed

“Well at least we have the element of surprise” shouted Rainbow Dash from above

“Not anymore!” replied Pinkie pointing at a scouting unit behind them.
Rainbow Dash hid behind a cloud.

“I see we won’t be hungry tonight guys!” replied one of the changeling scouts.
The newfound prisoners were escorted into the palace grounds and reunited with their yellow friend.
Luckily for the heroines, Rainbow dash hid well.

“Anypony hungry?”
The changeling crowd cheered in response as they circled their food.

“First Ponyville and now this? It must be our lucky day!”
The mane 6 gasped

“What did you do to our town you brutes!”

“Y’all better not have touched mah family!”
Twilight’s attention was directed to something horrible, something terrifying… books… they were BURNING THEM.

“Are these books? What are you doing with them!”

“Well, we have to keep warm and cutting wood is so much work these days

“Are those books from MY library?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter, you’ll never know anyway”
Twilight snapped.

“THAT’S IT! Time to whip out the big guns!”
Twilight looked around for a source of water nearby and noticed a small pool… it will have to do.

“GIRLS! RAINBOW DASH! ITS TIME FOR SPECTRUM TANGO!”
Rainbow dash knew perfectly well what that meant… it meant a sonic rainboom is about to happen and a lot of flank kicking, she jumped out of the cloud and dove straight towards the pool, her entire body stretching to the limits of aerodynamics… going faster and faster and ever so closer to the body of water.

“STOP THAT PONY!”
But it was too late, she was way too fast for anypony to catch up to her.
Twilight focused all of her attention into casting a thin protective shield on each of her friends and the princess as Rainbow dash cut through the air like a projectile shot from a staple gun
100 feet
50 feet
10 feet
3 feet
Rainbow dash timed it perfectly, the sonic rainboom went off just before she smashed into the pool at full speed creating an incredible explosion of water that quickly turned to steam saturated with the entire spectrum of colours from the sonic rainboom, the steam like an avalanche cascaded into the grounds in less than a second blinding everypony.
This was it, Twilight having perfectly memorized the position of every enemy on the grounds, started going berserk with her teleporting, reallocating each of her friends next to an enemy, the mares ready to strike the flabbergasted changelings, knocking them down instantly only to be teleported to the next target.
The entire operation was done in 10 seconds flat.
Moments later the rainbow steam subsided revealing a mass of black bodies all over the place squirming in pain whilst being tied up in a bundle by Applejack’s lasso (one should always have a spare lasso with them)
The All that commotion and the steam explosion was enough to rejoin Mark’s consciousness with his body
Celestia stood motionless her mouth ajar in surprise, never in a thousand years she would have imagined that Twilight and her friends would be able to do something like that

“H-how did you?”

“There’s no time to explain Princess, we have to get to Ponyville quickly and help”

“W-whats going on?” mumbled Mark

“We need to get to Ponyville, quick!” alerted Applejack only to be interrupted by Celestia herself

“No, you go, I will keep an eye on the changelings and Mark”

“Come on Y’all! We have no time!”
The mares galloped to Ponyville.
Far ahead of the heroines lay a dark smudged streak that was soon to come and imprint itself on their destinies, forever changing the palette of their lives, after all, one does not simply trot into Ponyville and come back unchanged.

Author's Note:

Just a little reminder to let people know that I am still working on this

Comments

[Super-Brony12]

You know, funny thing is, I forgot what the previous chapters were about.

I'll have to go back and reread the rest of the story, so until next time!

~ Super-Brony12