A thing or two about changelings and their habits saga

by Young discord

CHAPTER 31 (AKA: The calm before the storm)

Deep in the Woodland sea, not too far off from where Monty and Pacifica were attacked, a small organised group of changelings, hell bent on bringing down the injustice of ponykind were hiding in their own personal cave, they had managed to successfully bring down the pony summit and stir things up, time for the next plan.

“Sir! The new report has come in”
The leader of the group retreated from the current discussion among his comrades for a report that was much more important than anything right now.

“Well? What is it?”

“I’m afraid that Canterlot had put its army on guard, they also seem to be mobilising, I believe that they may intend on striking us down”

“What? But how do they know where we are located?”

“There are speculations sir, some believe that they do not know where we are and that the army’s purpose is to… cleanse the cities”
This was the last straw, an entire army going from city to city and rooting out every single changeling? This was exactly why this group was set up.

“How much time do we have?”

“A few days at best, the army seems to be mostly ready, what are your orders sir?”

“There’s only one thing left to do at this point, infiltration is out of the question, by now they probably set up barriers”

“So what can we do?”

“We have an army of our own, time to use it, dispatch a few of our members for recruitment, tell them to look for smiths and anypony experienced in battle, the inexperienced ones will come in handy as help in forging our weaponry”

“Yes sir, right away sir”
If they want a war, they’ll get one; it’s time to for the Blood of the Innocent to make their next move.

---

The last and final day of peace dawned upon the golden Canterlot skyline, Monty and Pacifica having finally rested for a good while in the royal suites, of course due to Monty’s little tantrum, they had both been placed in one room.
This was a nice break from the usual adventures they were having, it was something they needed before the infiltration begins.
Pacifica however wasn’t too happy, Both, Uncle Discord and Mark seemed different than usual, Uncle Discord was excused as she was familiar with the uncle from her timeline, not this one but Mark… it was as if she were watching him from a television, no matter how close she got to him he still felt distant… of course she could still feel the connection but it was considerably weaker now.
There was no point in further pondering over any of this if she is just going to stay in bed.
“You Okay Pacifica?” Asked Monty.

“…”

“Come on, you can tell me”

“…”
Pacifica felt that it was too personal to tell Monty, they might be close but they’re not THAT close.
Monty was already used to Pacifica’s quiet times, she’s been having them more and more often these days.

“I’ll go and check up on our gear, all right?”

“…”
Monty was up and ready in no time, he was already getting used to the Palace grounds… perhaps this time he won’t get lost again, he changed into his pony form (everypony agreed that it were better that Pacifica and Monty keep a low profile for now) and trotted across the wide stone hallways.
Left, right, left, left, right, across, third door to the left.
Inside, a plethora of scientific instruments and various bubbly substances.
In the middle of it all, Twilight Sparkle, experimenting on the Pagazooka and Rumble suit which were laid out on a metal table.

“Hi Twilight”
Twilight was much too focused to even notice Mark let alone hear him.
Mark approached the purple pony and tapped on her shoulder, her heart practically jumped out of her throat and unwillingly a magical surge as a defence mechanism teleported her exceptionally high at the peak of the hanging chandelier in the room.
Twilight, not expecting to be on top of the chandelier couldn’t keep up with the sudden necessity to keep balance and fell to the floor.

“Hi Twilight”

“Hi Monty…”

“Are you going to get up?”
Twilight held out her hoof whilst on the floor.

“Just… a moment… what is it Monty?”

“I just came to ask about our stuff”

“Oh, your magical items?”

“Yeah”

“They are most interesting, they seem to characterise with a particular magical field, most unusual”

“Magical field?”

“It means that they’re magic”

“Well duh, I know that, they’re magical items, right?”

“True but usually Magical items don’t contain magic of their own and when they do it’s only a limited amount”

“I don’t get it”

“Think about it this way, magical items are like batteries, most of those items need magic from an external source to activate, like a battery if you want it to work you need to fill it with a charge, and some are like batteries which are already full of this magic but when it’s used up you need to refill them with that magic, however these two items are different”

“How?”

“They not only contain magic but they also seem to produce it, it makes no sense, only living beings can produce magic… there’s also one other thing I need to test out, and you came just in time”

“Test out what?”
Twilight grinned, it was a grin of a mad scientist looking at its prey.

“Wait, wha- no, stop! HEEEL-“

---

Mark revealed his nearly completed machine to Pacifica.

“Well, what do you think?”

“…”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s an emotional compressor, it takes a few emotions and compresses them, lets them grow inside for later use, it’ll solve the entire food crisis for our kind!

“…”

“I know that it’s a long shot but it’s either that or war, you saw what happened in Maretropolis…”
Pacifica stepped back a little, avoiding eye contact with Mark.

“I really wish you’d tell me what happened back there, I know something did, you can’t hide it from me, you know…”
Talk about hypocrisy, Mark was also hiding something away from her, for the first time in her life, she felt that she couldn’t trust him, not until he explains to her what happened to him.

“…”

“I told you already, I’m fine”

“…”
Pacifica had this conversation with him at least a dozen times already and it always ended the same way, she wasn’t going to bang her head against a wall.
Pacifica walked away; she might as well spend some time with Uncle Discord or Aunt Rose instead.
The secret portal closed itself with Pacifica on the other side.
The emptiness in Mark’s chest was getting greater by the minute.
Not long until it happens, Mark just hoped that Pacifica will be fine.
He needed a break; perhaps he will give Rose a visit.

---

In one of the countless rooms, Rose lay resting, she was feeling much better with all that top of the shelf medical attention she’s been getting all thanks to the benevolent Alicorn Princess and the frequent visits from Mark were the cherry on top.
Speak of the devil.

“Hey” greeted Mark

“Hi Mark!” replied Rose from her bed

“How are you doing?”

“Oh, you know me, it takes more than a few timberwolves to-“

“Bring down Wild Rose, I know… you seem much better, did they tell you when they can let you go?”
Rose giggled seductively, may the games begin.

“Oh? Could you be wanting by any chance to ask me out?”

“Mmmmaybe”

“Well I don’t know if I’d accept”

“Is that so?”
Rose nodded, getting closer to Mark.

“There’s only one way to find out”

“I suppose I have some spare time after all of this blows over…”

“And?”

“And… I was thinking if you’d want to do something together sometime”

“I don’t know… Working in my store, taking care of the kids, I’ve been busy lately”

“You mean my kids”

“Oh, suddenly they’re your kids, you’re cute if you think they’re yours, I’m not giving them up easily without a fight”

“I’m not afraid to get rough”
Rose came within breath’s reach to Mark.

“I’m sure you don’t… well I suppose you could come join us sometime, I promised the kids I’d go with them to a Trisport game when all of this is done”
Could Mark have misread? He thought that she wanted to go out with him on a date, not a friendly outing with the kids.

“I’m sorry, but… I sort of thought that you wanted to…”

“Yeah?”
Here goes.

“…Go on a date”

“I never said I didn’t want to”

“But you just said that-“

“If you want to get to me you have to prove yourself to the kids first”

“Oh, I see how it is”

“A mare like me likes being chased after”

“I’ll have you know I was the fastest colt in school”

“We’ll see about that”

---

“Have you found anything, Luna?”
Celestia looked at her little sister who was intensely scanning the land with her telescope in her observatory.

“It is as we had predicted Dear sister, the changelings are making an army of their own”

“Where?”

“At the woodland sea not an hour’s trot from where Discord found the children”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, they have made a valiant effort to make themselves known to us”
Celestia squinted her eyes at a small black dot far off in the distance beyond the mountains.

“I see… I shall inform Pacifica and Monty at once, we have no time to waste.
This was it, no more games.

Author's Note:

Had one heck of a translation to do last week which is why I didn't manage to make a chapter for Thursday, I'm truly sorry for that, job comes a a priority I'm afraid.
This doesn't mean that I have been just sitting idly by, I was also working on the first chapter of this fanfic, it was something that has been bothering me for a long time, I am dissatisfied with it and so I'm doing a remake.
Don't worry though, it's the same thing but in a different form so you're not missing out on anything the only thing I did was have the explanation at the beginning in the form of a conversation between Queen Chrysalis and another character, if you come back and read it carefully you might notice something familiar about what Chrysalis says, I will post it today as soon as I'm done with it, in the meantime enjoy this new chapter!
Speaking of which, I just finished and uploaded it, go check it out!

One last thing:
Yes, I try to post the chapters every monday and thursday but keep in mind the timezones, I live in poland, that's GMT+1 so if you're living on the other end of the world that might be a bit of a difference in time for you.

See you this thursday!