Several years have past since Eclipse returned to the Hive. Now his daughter must figure out what's happening across Equestria before everything gets out of hoof.
Four years have passed since Princess Northern Sky of the Changeling Hive was reunited with her father, King Eclipse. Strange things have happened across Equestria, buildings collapsing, strange magic lingering where it shouldn't, and rumors of a stallion who walks where he doesn't belong. A stallion who wields a strange form of magic. It's up to Northern Sky, her sisters, and their friend Copper Sprocket to figure out what's happening before somepony seriously gets hurt.
Rain fell from the black clouds in the sky, pouring over the forest of oak trees in sheets and not caring whoever and whatever it happened to hit. Lightning would occasionally flash and thunder would boom, but that was fairly normal for the area that served as the official war grounds for the five armies. The war torn area should have been destroyed to the point of no return, but due to the fact that cannons and war engines weren't used it was in good condition.
The same rain washed over the face of Northern Sky, one of the royal princesses of the Changeling Empire, as she stood face to face with her old enemy, Peachy Keen. The student of Princess Luna was her first, and only, enemy that she had ever fought and they had never decided which was stronger than the other. They had always tied and they always had quite a number of watchers that observed their fighting. This time Northern's sisters, Harvest Moon and Echo, were among the watchers.
Harvest was just a normal earth pony, one who wore a light brown coat with a light orange colored mane and tail. The back part of her mane was tied up at the end, modeled after her personal hero Applejack, and she even wore a straw hat on top of her head. She could have worn a cowboy hat like Applejack, but she was fine with the hat she was wearing already. Her cutie mark was a bright red apple with a crescent moon resting behind it.
Their sister, Echo, was a kind hearted pegasus mare whose coat was midnight blue colored and her mane and tail, styled in a similar style of a feral vampire pony, was violet colored. She enjoyed spending her time hanging with the wild bats that came to the caves and sanctuaries that dotted the area of the Badlands. Her cutie mark was that of a bat, which was great seeing how she had learned some tricks from her batty friends. Her ears were even fluffed like a vampire's ears.
Northern flipped around and planted a hoof kick right into Peachy's face, the shadows reaching up to stop her in her tracks as Peachy went crashing into a tree. The tree cracked and the trunk crumbled to the ground, the shadows breaking out of the dust and reaching for Northern, whose horn sparked with purple magic. The connection between their magic shocked the ground and blew a hole wide open, shards of stone raining down around the two combatants.
"On guard," a stallion behind Harvest shouted, drawing the mare's attention away from the fight, "Prepare to defend yourself."
That was before he received a swift, yet hard, kick to the face that knocked him right into the other ponies that stood behind her and possibly broke a bone in his jaw.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves," Harvest criticized the ponies, lifting her hat up as she spoke in a familiar accent that was almost like Applejack's, "attacking somepony while their back is turned. Somepony needs to teach you all a lesson."
What the ponies didn't know was that Harvest's legs were strong from all the work she put into the orchards that rested outside the Hive's location. One stallion found out the hard way as one of her legs cracked open his chest armor with just a simple kick, causing him to dash back and cough. Some of the other ponies looked at each other, wondering if it was worth fighting one of the three princesses of the Changeling Hive, but one stepped forward and attacked Harvest with a spear. Before the spear even made contact Echo leapt in front of her sister and raised her front left hoof, clad in an iron bracer, and stopped the spear dead in it's tracks.
"You really shouldn't attack an unarmed pony," Echo softly said, the stallion raising an eyebrow, "otherwise you might excite her sister into attacking all of you."
The voice did nothing to lessen the fear in the stallion's eyes, as he thought he was seeing one of those feral vampires that had followed Peachy Keen over four years ago. Some ponies might think that there were still vampire ponies out there in Equestria and they were still scared of what those ponies could do. Technically they were correct, there were still vampires out there thanks to Peachy Keen and those she had turned, but Echo wasn't one of them. She may have looked like a vampire pony, but without the fangs and the blood red eyes she was really nothing more than a pegasus who enjoyed hanging with the bats.
Still, those who didn't know the truth were still scared of Echo and sometimes even ran away from a fight with her.
"Excuse me Echo," Harvest said, fully aware her sister had come to her rescue yet again, "While I am glad you came to my rescue yet again, may I point out that you are scaring away all the competition?"
"Sorry Harvest," Echo smiled, locating another group to their west with her sonar like hearing, "but why don't we go to the west and see what's waiting for us this time?"
Harvest never understood exactly how her sister knew where there were more ponies for them to trash, but she had never been wrong in the past and she wasn't likely going to be wrong this time either. She smiled and the two sisters ran, or flew in Echo's case, in the western direction, leaving Northern alone with Peachy. They knew it was going to be a draw, so there was no point in sticking around to see what would happen next.
"Alone at last," Peachy said, facing Northern as they were rained on, "I'm sorry Northern, but while your sisters are around I find it even harder to concentrate on our fight. You might not mind them in the background, but I don't care for them watching me."
Northern kicked Peachy in the jaw, causing her to back up and spit blood on the ground.
"Oh stop complaining Peachy," Northern growled, her horn sparking with the familiar purple magic, "You fight perfectly well when it's just the simple grunts and guards of the various armies, but when my sisters are around? If your going to complain then I might as well count this as a win and leave you alone."
Darkness surged around Peachy, darkening the area around her and her armor as she stared at Northern.
"You aren't going to do that," Peachy remarked, preparing to lash out with her magic, "If anypony is going to walk away with a win from all of this then its going to be me."
Their magic battered against each other and more holes were blown in the ground around them, raining shards of stone across the entire area. The explosions were normal, which was why none of the five alicorn's ever came to see what was causing the explosions after they had seen what happened the first time. Eclipse knew what his daughter and friend were up to, and while he was busy with his own fight's he kept a small note of what they were going in case something happened. But both mares were still unharmed from the raining stones, facing each other as they prepared to fight even more.
Eclipse smiled, the war games was a great way for his daughters to get to know the other ponies and the princesses he fought against. One day he would retire from the war games and the political world, but until that happened he would make sure his daughters were well prepared to be friends with those around them. At the moment he had to focus on his own problems and was looking forward to the day when he would have less problems then he had now. Retirement sounded good, but being a father and a king were more important at the time being.
And until he retired Princess Celestia had to deal with him, whether she liked it or not.
Northern stretched her legs as she and her sisters deboarded the train that transported changelings, ponies, and a variety of goods from the Hive to Canterlot. The train always came to a stop on what was becoming a village or town of sorts on the surface of the Hive, seeing how some changelings wanted to live like their pony counterparts. They had built the town in the style of Ponyville, as to honor the Elements and all the crazy things that happened in that place, which included the large three acre apple farm that Harvest worked in all the time.
Northern wanted to go to her room, pull off her armor that protected against most spells, maybe take a nice hot shower, and then throw herself on her bed so she could rest. Harvest and Echo, usually going to the east of the Hive at the same time, were fully rested and were planning on working, or rather learning more about her bat friends in Echo's case. Harvest had said something about checking on the apples and maybe taking some of them down to add them to their dinner tonight, if they were ripe enough to eat. Northern hoped she'd see her father that night, mostly because he had been busy for the last few days and he hadn't had the time to really be there.
Her royal guards Shimmer and Ironside, the same two who had allowed her to escape from her room four year ago, saluted her as she reached the entrance to the underground part of the Hive. Most of her fellow changelings had moved to the village, leaving the vast part of the actual Hive empty for Northern, her sisters, her parents, all their guards, and a couple of cooks. Northern wondered what the cooks were going to make for the night, but the main thing was that she didn't get lost going down the wrong turn...in the tunnels.
She turned her head and smacked herself with a hoof, realizing that she had gone down the second right tunnel instead of the first left tunnel and was now wandering in circles. That was the consequence for over thinking something and not paying attention, which meant she was going to retrace her steps and figure out the path back to the surface. Then she could take the correct path back to her chambers and finally get out of her armor. Seriously, she was dying for a shower at this point.
~The Badlands, surface~
Harvest smiled as she trotted down the rows of her apple orchard, seeing half a dozen already ripe apples hanging on a bunch of the trees. She had put a lot of work into the trees and now she could reap the rewards of her labor, giving her family and the vast number of changelings something delicious to munch on. Most of the changeling were developing a taste for apples and all sorts of other foods they were just beginning to discover.
She kicked a tree and it rained apples into the waiting baskets below, giving the changelings around her a look as they followed her movements and bucked their respective trees. She had learned how to farm from Applejack and then she had, in turn, taught a hooffull of changelings how to farm and care for the trees as a whole. It had taken some doing, on the part of her students that is, but after a few weeks of teaching her parents had a fully operational work force of farmers. As such they had farm houses, housing and storage areas, built around their trees, also modeled after Sweet Apple Acres of Ponyville.
Yeah, the changelings were all about copying those around them.
Her sister flew over her head and landed on a branch of a tree ahead of her, grinning like a little filly who was having a blast and didn't care what others were doing. Around her were a couple of bats, who happily landed on the branches and hung upside down as they stared at Harvest. Despite the fact that they were her sister's friends Harvest didn't care much for the winged rascals and they, in complete retaliation, didn't care for her much. The only reason she hadn't chased them away was because her mother told her not to and the only reason they hadn't ruined her trees was because they ate apples all the time.
"Come on down here Echo," Harvest called to her sister, "you can't spend all afternoon up in the trees, not when mom wants us clean and presentable for dinner tonight."
"Then why are you still working Harvest?" Echo asked, tilting her head as she stared at her, "Northern is likely already washing up so she can rest up, but your here working your tail off."
Harvest sighed and turned around, heading back to the tunnel entrance on the outskirts of the orchard. The changelings around her continued to work, ignoring Harvest as her sister landed beside her. They fought all the time, either with their words or with their hooves, but in the end they always gave up and just agreed to disagree. Besides, their mom had mentioned that they needed to be presentable for dinner that night and they weren't going to show up covered in dirt.
~Two hours later~
Northern sighed, she really hated getting dressed up nicely for the dinners that her mother threw every now and then. She wasn't the only one dressed up, seeing how both of her sisters had been forced into high society dresses, no doubt supplied by Rarity, and they stood alone at the moment. Northern was supposed to be dressed in a light blue dress that had a couple of stars on it, Harvest in what might have been an orange colored cross between cowpony and city clothing, and Echo wore a light green dress that always moved whenever she wanted to move her wings.
The three of them had been tricked; their mother had told them that they were having dinner that night and that was it, but what she had really meant was that she was inviting nobles from all over Equestria to a gala of sorts. Ponies from Manehatten, Canterlot, Appleloosa, Las Pegasus, and even Ponyville were gathered together and mingling with each other. Northern noticed that the princesses arrived in pairs, Celestia and Luna arriving with their respective guard captains, Cadence and Shining Armor dressed in their crystal armor, and Twilight with an orange coated pegasus stallion. Northern had never met the stallion before, but tonight was not the time for meeting complete strangers.
Their mother was dressed up in a flowing green gown mixed with swirls of blue, giving her an elegant appearance as she practically floated over to where the princesses were. Northern kept an eye on her mother, knowing that something was bound to happen at some point and was making a mental note of where her mother was, in case of an attack. While she did she noticed that Sunset Shimmer, dressed in what was a dress that combined a bright red with a nice yellow color, just like her mane.
"Princesses, it is good to have you all here," Viscarias smiled, "I was afraid that you were all going to be tied down somewhere and would be unable to make it."
"Nonsense Viscarias," Celestia said, waving a hoof as she looked over the crowds, "When the Queen of the Changelings hosts a party it isn't wise to just not arrive. I was hoping something like this was going to happen, because we have some excellent news for you."
"Really?" Viscarias asked, confused and curious at the same time, "And what would that be?"
"You won the war game," Luna announced loudly, causing the assembled ponies and changelings to look their way and begin to cheer for the Queen, "and there's one more guest that has yet to arrive."
Before Viscarias could respond there was a gust of wind above the assembled ponies, like a mini tempest had suddenly activated and the wind whipped around in rapid succession. Right before any of the ponies could panic the tempest opened up and died down, but what emerged surprised some and others weren't so surprised. King Eclipse, still clad in his royal battle armor, landed in a small clearing next to the princesses, allowing his magic to shimmer and change the armor to his royal aquamarine jewelry. He may not have been in his werepyre form, but his changeling king form could still install some fear into the hearts of his enemies.
"After weeks of hard work we have decided that your husband has earned the right to ignore us for a long time," Luna continued, Eclipse giving her a look before kissing Viscarias on the cheek, "Right now we're here to enjoy this gala and enjoy the company of those around us."
Northern smiled again; she may have been tricked into wearing a dress, but for the first time in eight long years the changelings had finally won a war game. And her father was there to enjoy their victory with his family.
Eclipse looked over the ponies, and changelings, that were currently attending his gala, pleased that he had forbidden the obnoxious Blueblood from attending and equally pleased that so many of those he had invited had actually shown up. Apparently both Celestia and Luna decided against their better judgement and started dating the captains of their respective guards, though both stallions just happened to be strangers to him. Cadence and Shining seemed to be doing well and Twilight, well, it seemed that she finally got over a hold of her feelings and asked Flash Sentry to join her.
He had a feeling that the display of affection between Twilight and Flash would have annoyed Sunset Shimmer, but she was distracted by the fact that Tonto had tapped her on the flank with his hoof. He didn't know if they were ever going to be a couple, but at the rate they were going he suspected it wasn't on their minds.
"What's the matter Eclipse?" Viscarias asked, noticing that he wasn't paying attention to what she had just said.
"What? Oh, nothing," he replied, blushing as he returned to the ponies around him, "I was just wondering where Copper trotted off to this time. I haven't seen her all evening."
"She sent a letter a few hours ago," Viscarias explained, "She said that she was running some tests on Northern's specially commissioned Netherillium Blade, something about how the weapon was reacting to her clashes with Peachy. Apparently every time the two of them clashed she recorded that the sword pulsed and seemed to energize her own mechanics, like some sort of energy source. Copper's got a few shards of Netherillium left and she said she was going to fiddle with the frequencies until she discovered what was causing the abnormal surges...and then she lost me in her mechanical musings."
Sometimes Copper liked to talk in a technical tone, it meant that most would fail to follow her train of thought and would eventually try to grasp what she had said. They would summarize what she had said, to the best of their ability at times, and she would laugh before telling them exactly what she had meant in their terms. It made conversing with her difficult to those who didn't know her very well and somewhat enjoyable for those who actually knew her well. Eclipse knew that if she had some new experiment going on at the moment then she wasn't in the mood to be bugged and would turn his invitation down as much as she liked.
Still, Eclipse had the feeling that a storm was brewing and the first lightning strike would come soon.
~Manehatten, Clockwork Engines~
The shop, located in what was the heart of Manehatten, was closed for the night and the doors were locked tighter than the old storage room for the Elements of Harmony. The doors had special locks, developed, constructed, and installed into her system by her own mechanical hooves. She had developed the extra security in the off chance that a thief would dare stake out her store and try to enter it while it was closed for the night. She was not concerned, she had dealt with the sheer power of a god before and knew she could deal with a thief if they happened to come.
At the moment she was in the workshop section of her shop, looking at a monitor while she attempted to work out what was happening the the metal she had discovered. Netherillium, a magically charged metal created by the union of Peachy's dark magic and Northern's nether magic, as that was what she had taken to calling it. The metal was common, seeing how the two clashed and it rained down shards of it all the time, giving her an endless supply of the strange and powerful metal.
Every time she attempted to breach the magical matrix of the metal she was either forced right out of her search or she might have weakened the barrier enough to get a glimpse of what awaited. She had learned much from the strange metal, enough that allowed her to melt down several shards into a pure light purple colored blade. A part of the blade was white colored, allowing a spark to travel the width of the weapon before disappearing, and even now the weapon sat silently in it's sheath. It would shimmer whenever she breached a small section of the barrier, protecting the secrets it wanted to keep hidden from her.
The shard she was experimenting on shrieked and magic sparked out of it, the area glowing right before the magic was sucked right back into the metallic surface. Copper growled in frustration, this was the third time that day that she had gotten closer to uncovering the secrets of the Netherillium and the powers that it could hold. It was the third time the metal had rejected her and her magic, forcing her back to square one and making her grind her metallic claws. She was getting nowhere fast and had spent four years trying to learn something that might not be able to be acquired.
She was just about to give up for the day, but then the matrix of the shard unraveled before her eyes and magic began to pour out of metal that rested in the center of the workshop.
"What's this now?" Copper mumbled to herself as she stared into the center of the magic, seeing a dark blue coated unicorn stallion staring back at her, "Who in Celestia's name are you supposed to be?"
"No one cared who I was until the bombings occurred," the stallion said in response, referring to the recent explosions that had happened across Equestria, "Even now your Princesses are scouring their country, looking for the one responsible for terrorizing half of their important cities. I AM NEXUS. I am the one who will deliver Equestria into destruction, erasing those who would dare to stand in my way. And you, Copper Sprocket, shall be the first one to see the destruction of what you hold dear. I shall erase your compound from the face of Equestria."
Her emergency light popped on and the siren, made so only she could hear it so she didn't disrupt other ponies, went off as a warning sign appeared on the monitor. The stallion had found one of her safety power generators, one of the items that allowed her to repel Sombra long before she had even met Eclipse. Somehow he had overpowered the power inside the generator and was using the connection between it and her main shop for his own devices. If that generator went critical and exploded, which was what she assumed was the stallion's plan, then the entire shield around Manehatten would fall and she'd lose years of research.
Copper tapped a panel on her front left leg and had a portal to her private storage area, located somewhere where she knew nopony would be able to find it without getting it from her, open before her eyes. Without wasting a second she tossed in every shard of Netherillium, excluding the one the stallion was controlling, and several of her projects she couldn't let be destroyed. She was playing for time, wondering when the generator would go off as she would have a minute at max before her entire shop went up in flames. As the storage portal closed she glanced to Northern's weapon and grabbed it, tightening it to her body as she looked back up at the monitor.
She tapped a part of her front right leg and a small screen appeared, allowing her access to her personal prototype warpdrive software she had been developing for the last four years. She pushed a couple of buttons, inputting the coordinates for Eclipse's Hive and prayed that the software would actually work before she was engulfed in flames. Just as pieces of her shop were engulfed in flames the air shimmered around her, her body moving between spaces as some of the flames torched part of her left side. And, right before the rest of the shop exploded, she was gone in a blink of an eye.
~The Hive, ten minutes earlier~
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna," Eclipse greeted yet again, noting both princesses had been accompanied by the stallions they had brought with them, "Forgive me gentlecolts, but I'm afraid that we have not been properly introduced. I am King Eclipse and this is my wife, Queen Viscarias."
"We were waiting for such an occasion to introduce our coltfriends," Princess Celestia replied, wrapping a leg around the golden armored stallion she had brought with her, "Allow me to introduce Rex Sunrise, Captain of the Solar Guard. He's got the ability to regenerate certain parts of his body by using the sun for a period of time. Not the heart or the brain mind you, but the majority of his body, like a leg or part of his mane, can be recovered without a problem."
"And this is Dax Nightly," Luna nearly proclaimed, giving her already blushing coltfriend a kiss on the cheek, "He may be an earth pony, but his skill at blending into the surroundings during the night, and a similar regeneration ability that matches Rex's, has earned him the rank of Captain of my Lunar Guard. We figured that if every single princess and prince were getting into a serious relationship then it was high time we found our true loves."
"It is a pleasure to meet the two of you," Eclipse said, Rex bowing slightly and Dax just hanging a hoof behind his head, "and it is a pleasure to introduce my daughters Northern Sky, Harvest Moon, and Echo."
"Really Eclipse?" Princess Cadence asked, bowing slightly to Celestia and Luna as she joined them, "I know you love Viscarias and all, but was it really wise of you to have three foals with her? They'll split the Hive apart when you guys decide to retire."
"Nonsense my dear Cadence," Viscarias responded, "We adopted both Harvest and Echo from an orphanage in Ponyville just four years ago, when they were both only three years old. We brought Northern along, so she could meet her new sisters or brothers, as we had yet to decide, and what can we say, she saw them and they got along just fine. Originally we had been looking for a young little colt, but seeing how Northern was around both of them made us change our mind and we brought both of them into our family. When Northern is old enough, and we decide to retire, then I'm sure her sisters will support her and lend her their strength."
Before Eclipse spoke up he heard the wind pick up as a portal opened above the gathered ponies, similar to what he had done, but without the flames coming out after whoever had arrived. The fiery pony landed between him and the princesses, the flames suddenly cooling off as if something was chilling them out from within their fiery grasp. He would have been surprised if he had found somepony else instead of Copper Sprocket standing before him, with part of her side burnt and her dragon claws showing. He could have sworn she had prepared to fight somepony, judging from the weapon she carried on her back.
"You know Copper you could have just told me you planned on showing up in style," Eclipse chuckled, watching the mare stare at him as all the flames, and the portal, disappeared, "I would have told some of the ponies here that you were coming and you would have had a large reception waiting."
"Never mind that for now," Copper replied, turning to face Princess Celestia, "We've got a serious problem. I know who is responsible for the recent explosions and I know part of what he's currently planning."
Eclipse sighed, the storm was just arriving and he could tell that the gala was going to be over soon. Oh well, at least those of his guests that would be leaving soon would have had a wonderful time seeing the flames and Copper's arrival as if it had been planned.
It was just an hour after Copper arrived in the Hive when a train rolled into the station of Manehatten, opening to reveal an armored mare and three companions. Most ponies ignored the fact that Northern, wearing her green armor, her armorless sisters, and Copper had returned to the city that their new enemy was bent on destroying. They could easily slip into the inner workings of the city, seeing how most of the ponies around them were more interested in the flames and the destruction of one of the generators Copper had built. They would be wondering if it was an error in the mechanics, but none of them were ready to say that there was another threat to their fair city.
According to Copper the stallion they were looking for was a unicorn, had a dark blue coat, a silvery colored mane, and seemed to have an attitude that gave him the appearance of being destructive.
To their surprise Sunset Shimmer followed them on the train, not making her presence known to the group of four until the train was at a stop and they were already walking down the street. Northern would have guessed that she was trying to get away from her friend Tonto, who she assumed was trying his hardest to court the unicorn mare in his own way. She felt sorry for the stallion, seeing how Sunset wasn't returning the feelings that he was trying to tell her about, but at the moment they needed to be prepared for anything. Besides, she was fairly sure that Cadence was going to ship them together when she finally got the chance, seeing how she kept missing due to all the dangerous activities going on.
"So, we're looking for a stallion who calls himself Nexus," Harvest said, tipping her hat to a group of ponies as they walked by them, "All we know about him is that he wants to taunt Copper by destroying her stuff and wants to see Equestria burn for almost no apparent reason. Seeing how he managed to find one of her, what do you call them, generators?"
"Yes Harvest, they're called generators," Copper answered, her robotic eyes scanning the ponies around them for a match to the stallion she had seen through the Netherillium shard, "and I have absolutely no idea how he could have found one of them to begin with. They aren't locked inside a building with a sign outside that says there's a generator inside, because that would have beckoned my enemies to mess with them a long time ago. I built the majority of them in the basements of buildings that were given to me, meaning the majority of them are underground."
"Couldn't he have just asked the ponies that run the city where one or two of them are?" Sunset asked, smiling at a stallion who happened to be staring at her, "I mean, if he knew exactly who gave you the buildings then he could have simply asked where the building was without mentioning the generator he figured was in it."
"In order for him to uncover who gave me the buildings he, well, would have had to be present when they gave me the building deed and the key," Copper replied, "Now, when I was given the deed and keys to each of the buildings I met with the pony who was giving it to me and a witness of their choice. This witness recorded the transaction for the purpose of telling where my property was so they didn't accidentally sell it to somepony later on. Those records would be in the main hall, the central building that had once been right in the same area until the decided to build it on the other side of the city, away from the train station.
It is possible that Nexus knew of the transactions between me and several of the ponies throughout the city, knowing that the exchange would be recorded and stored away until it was needed. If we follow this train of thought then that means he would have had to break into the new main hall, bypass all the workers, and somehow access the record vault before being noticed. It is almost impossible for him to have gotten past all the ponies working there and, at the same time, to open the ten digit number vault door I installed as soon as I was told the place was being made. Only the Mayor of Manehatten and I know the exact sequence of numbers necessary to open the door, which means he could not have opened the vault door at all."
"Still," Northern said, feeling that they were still missing a vital piece to their broken puzzle, "if it will help clear things up then we might as well check the main hall and be sure Nexus didn't break in. Maybe we'll find something that will aid us in finding his hideout or where he likes to visit."
~The Manehatten Town Hall, ten minutes later~
"Ah, Miss Copper Sprocket, so good of you to visit us again," a stallion, one with a brown coat and glasses, said as the group arrived outside the tall building, "I was wondering if you were going to come by and make a check on your security system you installed a few months ago, but seeing how one of your buildings went up in flames I knew you'd arrive eventually. Most of the reporters are saying that one of your, shall I say, 'experiments' malfunctioned and simple blew up, taking the entire place with it, but I know you better than that. We can discuss the prices for building a replacement building, but first we must move onto the matter you have brought with you today."
"I need to check the record vault for signs of tampering," Copper replied, hoping that they could get this over with as quickly as possible, "Look Mayor, I don't have time to argue with you or tell you some pathetic sob story to get you on my side, so I'll tell you what I can at the moment; somepony managed to find one of my generators and set it off. We're only here to check if he managed to get past the vault door, which I keep telling them is unlikely, and if he did then what did he take with him."
The Mayor's eyes widened for a second before returning to normal, beckoning them to follow him into the building and passing quite the number of workers along the way. The more they walked the more Copper saw an increase to the amount of ponies that were gathered in the entire building, more than there had been last time she was there. The iron clad vault door stood in the back of the main room, standing still as if nothing had happened to it since she had last entered the incomplete building.
"We've had some problems with thieves for the last couple of weeks," the Mayor said, the group turning around as he hoofed in the ten numbers that were required to open the vault door, "They've broken several of the windows, tossed and wrecked several of the desks, and even tried cutting their way through the vault door itself. As far as we can tell there isn't anything missing, seeing how your systems have kept all them away or locked up as soon as they tampered with something."
The vault door opened before them and Copper immediately entered the records, her eyes scanning all the sections until she found the one with her records. Without wasting a moment she wondered down the aisle, her hoof hovering over every single folder and binder that had her name or a mention of her work. She knew the Mayor would have been keeping tabs on what she was doing, but the amount of research on all her inventions was startling. She knew Nexus must have been watching her from the Netherillium shard, which could very well mean that all of this data in front of her was his own notes.
Though she noticed that there was only one folder that was sticking out of the row it was in, hanging off at an angle and bringing her attention to it.
"Hello here," Copper said, pulling the folder out and reading the circled name, "Hmm, 'Point Maximus'...That area's supposed to be shut down and locked up with my best security measures."
She knew the area well, it was one of the last places given to her and she had, rather quickly, set up a small lab before deciding the place didn't feel right and had promptly locked it up tight. Her equipment that had been left behind was several phases behind what she was currently using, but was it possible that Nexus was hiding there? She had performed one, dark and completely immoral experiment in that area and was regretting it already. She had tampered with the nether in her early experiments and wondered if Nexus was linked to what was down there.
"So," Northern asked, eying the amount of paperwork the area had, "Did Nexus bypass the locks or could it be something else?"
"I have the feeling that he tricked his way into the vault," Copper replied, "A simple magical disguise and a uniform could have allowed him to pass off as a employee of some building that wanted to enter the vault and deposit something. He could have overcome the Mayor, entered the vault, found whatever he was looking for, and leave the vault before anypony knew what was wrong. But if that happened then the Mayor would have known something had happened and would have reported it to me so I could prepare my generators. Something doesn't feel quite right with this anymore."
That something, she decided, had to be involved with Point Maximus. After four long years she was returning to the old lab and what she had done was going to come to light at long last. And she knew that Nexus was going to pay for the destruction he had already caused to her and to the city.
Copper knew the area of Point Maximus better than anypony in all of Manehatten. She knew it better than the builders that had built the great city, better than the ponies that lived within her shield barrier, and even better than those that tried to hide from the law. She had spent weeks in the area of her second lab, searching for the perfect building to create a hidden lab that nopony would ever discover by accident. Though she knew that if Nexus had circled the name of the area in a folder that she may, or may not, have been meant to find then she could potentially be walking right into a trap.
In order to prepare for the possibility that there was a trap waiting for her Copper had sent a brief letter to Wisdom, asking that he and Dynamo join them in Manehatten. As soon as the message was sent she turned her attention to the ponies around her, those being Northern, her sisters, and Sunset Shimmer. By simple opening her storage area she gave each and every one of them special armor, suits of metal designed to react to their magic and abilities. Northern was the only one who didn't receive a suit, seeing how she still wore her green goo-like armor, and her sisters plain out refused to wear the ones she offered them.
Copper could have sworn that the changelings used to be easy to deal with, but Eclipse's daughters, adopted or not, were harder to deal with than anypony she had ever met.
"Come on you two," Copper growled, trying to make them wear the protective armor, "You don't know what Nexus is planning and I'd rather have you wearing protective armor and not need it then to report to Eclipse that one of his daughters got hurt looking for the deranged stallion."
"You don't have to worry about us sugarcube," Harvest said, shaking her head at the armor, "If Nexus has anything planned for us I'm certain that Echo and I are more than prepared for whatever he has waiting."
"We've been training for threats like this," Echo added, munching on an apple as, she too, denied the armor Copper offered her, "So we are more than prepared to fight Nexus and his tricks without the need of armor. We have allies that can handle themselves, a mare that knows where they are so they don't walk into any traps, and a mare whose full abilities haven't developed yet. We will find Nexus and bring justice down upon him."
Copper huffed and stored the two suits of armor away, wondering if Echo was right about her sister having more magic then she had at the moment. If that was true then she would have developed them and she would have known about them, so as far as she knew things were still normal with her. Before she could really say anything Wisdom, wearing a familiar war suit, arrived with his friend Dynamo from thin air, courtesy of his Pinkie abilities. The two looked prepared for anything, which was good seeing how Nexus could have prepared anything for them.
"Wisdom, so glad you could make it," Copper welcomed, beckoning the group to follow her to where Point Maximus was located, "I feel a lot better knowing that we have an even better chance at defeating whatever Nexus throws our way. I don't think he'll be expecting so many of us to be there when we arrive, but that doesn't mean we should take him lightly."
"So where is he hiding anyway?" Sunset asked, her eyes lingering on several of the windows they passed as she considered ditching the armor already, "You found that file in the vaults with some sort of clue hidden inside it, but have not yet shared what it is that you found. Care to share?"
"He's hiding in a place I called Point Maximus," Copper sighed, "Four years ago the place was one of the emptiest locations in Manehatten, which meant I could build a second and, more importantly, secret lab. This lab was meant to house experiments that weren't ready to be seen by anypony, but before I really got into anything too dangerous I had to vacate the underground lab. So, I destroyed what little I had created, dismantled what couldn't be destroyed, and sealed the door with a lock that could only be opened with a special seven digit combination.
I seal the lab as tight as possible, but yet if Nexus is in that old underground lab then I am curious as to how he managed to get past my security door and past my own traps. I wanted to make sure that if somepony as smart as me managed to get past my security door than they would be drugged by darts and I would have been alerted as to the fact the door had failed. If Nexus opened the door AND managed to get past the traps then he would have found himself in the fallen lab, which would have absolutely nothing there for him to mess with."
Still, she couldn't bring to tell them what had transpired in her secret underground lab. How could she tell them that she had experimented with the Nether, without anypony else knowing about it, and that there had been some nasty effects of her doing that? If Nexus had gotten past her security and found the abandoned machine then there was no telling what he could have done with what remained of it. Nexus was going to learn what it meant when you messed with the mechanical mastermind that most ponies had come to know as Copper Sprocket.
~Point Maximus, exterior~
Copper wasn't surprised when they reached the location of her old lab, she had expected to find Nexus waiting for them and had, instead, found a force of thirty ponies waiting. The buildings still stood tall, but some of them were beginning to fall apart and she could still tell that the old security door was still in place, locked tight like when she left it. The ponies around them were armed with weapons, meaning swords, spears, hoof-blades, and wingblades, and armor that might be able to block some of their attacks. Nexus wasn't playing around, he had armed his own security force in case somepony came looking after they found his little clue in the town hall.
The area became a war zone as Sunset Shimmer caught an unfortunate pony in her magic and tossed him into one of the buildings, breaking glass. Northern caught a spell before it could hit their group and tossed it back at the stallion that cast it, knocking him right off his hooves and onto his back. Spells flew, holes were torn in the various buildings, and, Copper was sure of this, bones were broken all across their enemies.
Northern wasted no time in jumping onto a pony's back, spinning around in midair, and slamming the back of her leg on the poor pony's back, crushing him right into the ground. Her sisters nodded to her and she tossed another towards Harvest, who spun around and planted a kick square into the unfortunate pony's chest. Echo, on the other hoof, brought her enemies into the air and crashed them into one of the buildings surrounding the area, through the stone walls and the wooden floors behind them.
Wisdom reached out with his staff and knocked a pony over, waiting till they got up to force them back onto their backs and crush them into the ground, knocking the wind out of them. His friend Dynamo uppercut one of the pegasi around them, his hoof gauntlet igniting and blasting the pony right out of thin air before turning to another soul. The assembled ponies that were fighting against them had thought they could handle the ponies that wandered into their territory, but with how the group was fighting they were dead wrong. Copper caught a stallion with her clawed hoof and brought him face to face with her, ignoring the rest of the fighting so she could get some information.
"Nexus," Copper said, growling as the stallion's eyes widened in fear, "Tell me, where is Nexus?"
The stallion lifted his shaking left hoof, raising it to point at the ironclad door that had once served as security for Copper during the time she had been running the lab. Without wasting a second she tossed the stallion aside and moved in on the door, her metallic claws moving fast as she put in the combination that would open the door. After a few seconds she thought the numbers had been changed, but the door creaked open and she almost tore it off the hinges, giving her an opening into the past.
She descended down the stairs without a moment to think her plan over, she just ran down the stairs, purposely hitting every single area that she had booby trapped before she had left the place. Darts flew past her mane, pieces of the stairs crumbled beneath her hooves, and her eyes were unharmed by the blinding lights she had set up. Thanks to the additions she had incorporated into her mechanical body she was well prepared for the old tricks that would have done even her in if she had forgotten about them. Though, if she was Nexus she would have added a couple more traps to catch her when she arrived and found nothing when she reached the bottom of the stairs.
The lab itself was scrapped bare, as in every single piece of metal she had put in four years ago had been ripped out and removed without a trace. Sitting in the dead center of the barren chamber, with his back turned, was none other than a dark blue coated unicorn with a silver colored mane and tail. Copper wasted no time in igniting her horn and grabbing Nexus by his body, pinning him against the bare wall on the right side of the chamber. As he rested against the wall he stared into her eyes and she returned the stare, trying to make sense of the stallion that wasn't even trying to fight back.
It was rather anticlimactic if the villain just suddenly gave up and surrendered.
"So, Nexus," she said, hoping that he would answer something before he was carted off to the Hive, "How does it feel to be defeated by somepony you tried to burn?"
"I was expecting you to return," Nexus smiled, giving him a sinister appearance for a second, "I wanted you to see the ruin I have brought to your old lab. You and every pony else in Equestria will burn, whether or not you have the ability to stop me is up to those around you. So try and stop me from destroying everything. We'll see whose right when everything is said and done."
Yep, Copper thought, definitely anticlimactic.
Nexus may have given up, but at the moment Copper was sure that he had something hidden that she couldn't see. She really hoped that capturing him wasn't part of his plan, otherwise they could very well be in a whole heap of trouble. As she learned from Eclipse, those that came after him tended to use the strangest of plans she had ever seen. Either way, Nexus and his allies were now officially their prisoners and would be brought before the Princesses and Eclipse in the Hive.
Nexus and his allies, the various ponies, and a few rogue changelings, that had attacked Northern and her friends, were bound in cuffs and chained together. They were locked in place in the third car of the train, the chains bolted to the floor as the windows were firmly locked and the unicorns were forced to wear the metallic magic repressing bands. The pegasi had their wings bound to their sides and the changelings had both the magical bands and their wings wrapped to their sides, because Northern wasn't willing to let any of them pull any funny moves on them.
Nexus, on the other hoof, had been brought into the fourth car, brought right into Copper's bigger on the inside car and bound, by means of high level magic, in the central pod. Copper had developed it for when she had the honor of transporting dangerously high leveled criminals, as it was designed to negate the magical ability of those placed in it. As far as she could figure out the only pony the pod didn't work on was Eclipse, but with the stallion she now had inside it she wasn't taking any chances. On each of his hooves was a steel cuff, cut from three sheets of pure steel, each with a lock that could only be opened by a special magical key that she had crafted from sapphires. She had another piece of equipment, a chest piece that would make it difficult for his magic to work properly if he broke everything else, put on him and even added the horn band.
With Nexus she was going way overboard, but she would rather be safe than sorry.
"Quite the assortment of devices that will render my magic useless," Nexus observed, causing Copper to turn to face him as Wisdom's ears perked up, "but it all seems wasted on me. Its as if you were preparing to capture something big and dangerous that needed to be put out of his misery before he endangered Equestria."
"Your absolutely right in that regard," Copper replied, watching Nexus float in midair thanks to the pod he was in, "Once upon a time I designed numerous machines, devices if you will, that could contain and even potentially suppress the abilities of those who posed a threat to the Princesses. The majority of these devices were designed to contain the godly powers of a rampaging alicorn, if the off chance that getting into a fight with him would trigger a breakdown that would destroy everything. But, thanks to the combined efforts of almost everypony on this train, except for you and your friends, we managed to restore order before anything serious happened.
And so these devices seemed to fade into the shadows, but I knew that if I kept working on them I could develop a method that would capture my target's magic and store it someplace safe. I could make them unable to wield magic, giving ponies a breather so they didn't have to keep fighting to their last breath and what not. In four years I am no closer to doing that, so in order to bind your magic I am required to reinforce everything with additional layers and leave nothing to chance."
"No pony can run from fate," Nexus laughed, "Death came for the King once upon a time and he'll come back to him one day."
Copper was sure of it, the stallion was utterly insane.
~The Changeling Hive, an hour later~
Waiting at the Hive's internal train station, watching the train roll in, was Eclipse and his wife, accompanied by all four of the Princesses. All around the station were dozens upon dozens of guards, mixed from the combined roster of Solar, Lunar, Crystal, Unicorn, and Changeling guards. They knew that Nexus was dangerous, but none of them were willing to risk the safety of their respective rulers in case the stallion somehow escaped his bindings. Eclipse smiled when he saw Northern and her sisters leading a long chain of ponies down onto the ramp and up to where they were waiting.
Then he noticed that Copper was bringing out a stallion, one bound in the most peculiar assortment of metallic devices, and knew that it had to be Nexus.
"Come," Eclipse loudly said, using a wing to beckon back towards the chamber his ruined gala had been in, "the Elders wish to speak with, and I quote, 'the troublemaker named Nexus'. It is best not to keep them waiting."
The changeling Elder Council was made up of the seven wisest minds, be they stallion or mare, that currently resided in the Changeling Hive. Since the beginning of the Hive they ruled in the Queen's shadow, making sure that she made the necessary steps to ensure that the Hive didn't starve or expose itself. A few Queens later the Council had evolved into a war mongering tribe, carefully choosing who to attack, when to attack, when to retreat from a losing battle, and when to surrender. It was thanks to the seven Elders that the Hive stayed shrouded in shadows, only leaving vague descriptions of what the changelings actually did behind.
It was Chrysalis, Viscarias' mother, who had broken the tradition and invaded Canterlot without the consent of the Council, resulting in exposing themselves to Equestria for the first time in over a thousand years. Then, one year after her defeat at the hooves of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, she struck out at Equestria again, this time bent on using one of their citizens against them. Again, she had moved against the Council's wishes, and, once she lay battered and defeated, they gave her daughter the right of Queen. After that they became a part of Equestria, never attacking their new allies and always at the ready to defend themselves in case one of the neighboring races decided to eradicate them.
But, like almost everypony, there were none who dared challenge the Hive for fear of their King's wrath coming down upon them if the Council wished it to happen.
The majority of his guests had gone home, leaving the gala chamber empty and giving them all a place to put Nexus on trial, but the only ones to remain were the Princesses and the ponies they brought with them. As Eclipse and his family waited near a large ironclad door Copper and her group brought in the offending ponies that had attacked them, likely on Nexus' orders. The thirty of them would likely be given jail time until Celestia called them to court, where she would ultimately determine their overall fate. The Elders wouldn't do much to them, but it was Nexus who would bare the bulk of their punishment.
Eclipse watched Copper lead in one last stallion, one who was dressed up in various bits of iron, steel, metallic bands to block magic, and even a chest piece. A stallion that he suspected was actually Nexus. Eclipse stared at the stallion as Copper locked the chains to the ground, making it nearly impossible for him to escape.
"So, you are the one they call Eclipse," Nexus remarked, twisting his head around to get a better idea of where they were, "The stories about you were true, you really have a wellspring of monstrous magic surging through your veins. You must strike terror into the hearts of your enemies with such power."
"Its not me you have to worry about Nexus," Eclipse said, the ironclad door opening a few inches, "but the Elders who advise all of us in our actions. You had best be prepared for them, because they're ready for you."
Seven streaks of darkness flew out of the gaping hole between the two pieces of the ironclad door, each swirling around the air that surrounded Nexus. He could hear voices whispering to him, or amongst themselves, as they swirled around him and descended on the air between him and the assembled ponies. Once the streaks hit the ground seven alicorn sized changelings, each of them wearing a silver robe, materialized before him and the shadows vanished into thin air.
The seven Changeling Elders were gathered to cast judgement.
"So, you are the one named Nexus," one of the Elders said, "Allow me to introduce the seven of us. To my right are Elders Aleu, Sequoia, and Jarrah, while on my left are Elders Sorrel, Spruce, and Drunix. I am Zircon, Head Elder of the Council."
"So, that means your the one whose going to surrender to me?" Nexus asked, causing the seven to raise an eyebrow, "It may not seem like much at the moment, but someday soon Equestria will be engulfed in flames. You'll soon ask me if I'm plotting to destroy the reign of the Royal Princesses and burn everything they built and kill everypony they rule. My answer would be yes, that I will decimate everything they strived to create."
"Do you honestly believe you can achieve that?" Zircon asked, one of his wings beckoning to Eclipse and the Princesses, "You will utterly fail and that's because the Princesses will always be there to defend their ponies whenever something threatens to shatter their reality. And standing between you and them is Eclipse, whose power makes others think twice about messing with him and his allies."
"Does it look like I care?" Nexus shouted, "Of course he would die to defend what he thinks is right. He has the power to level mountains, shack the ground, torment the sky, and rival the gods themselves, but all he does is sit around and let it go to waste. He should have used his power to obliterate those who stood against him and claimed Equestria as his domain."
"He does this for all of ponykind," Sequoia remarked, "Think about this Nexus; if he had decided that everything had be erased, say before you got this bright idea of yours, then you would have thought that he needed to be stopped. You wouldn't be sitting here, saying he should have destroyed everything in his path. You would be out there, fighting in a rebellion against the stallion who would have trapped the Princesses in their own prisons, and not wasting ponies time. What will destroying Equestria solve?"
"Everything," Nexus said after a pause, "With Eclipse's powers I could erase the old, corrupt world that Equestria has become and create a new world for the ponies that deserve it, Of course I would need to somehow steal his powers, but no such ability exists at the moment. I do know, however, that the first place that will be destroyed will be this once glorious warmongering changeling Hive. The only way to destroy a corrupt changeling Hive is to deliver an explosive that is capable of blowing the entire place sky directly to the center of my enemy's nest.
Now tell me, how could I deliver an explosive into the heart of your precious Hive? Why don't you ask young Copper how to do something like that."
"And what does that mean?" Sequoia asked, looking at Nexus before turning to the mechanical mare, "Any clues?"
"Yes, but none of them are pleasant," Copper sighed, "The only one that could potentially deliver such a devastating blow was once my train, the Flying Vengeance. Once upon a time, when I was fueled by a burning desire for revenge against the Changeling Queen that had crushed my original leg, I devised a plan that involved jumping from one area to another. It was the simple idea that lead to my development of both the riftgates and the warpstones, giving me the power to go where I pleased in a matter of hours. The train, outfitted with both tools, was designed for the purpose of delivering an explosive charge that would destroy Chrysalis and the Hive.
When I was told that Chrysalis had been replaced by her daughter the flames that fueled my anger burned out, leaving me to regret even considering the destruction of the Hive. Once I returned to Manehatten I set to work, erasing the Hive and any other key locations from the stone's internal powersource, effectively making sure no one could use it against my friends. It is impossible for somepony to bypass the defenses without me hearing about it."
"What if I told you that your train is on it's way here right now?" Nexus chuckled, making the majority of the assembled ponies gasp, "You never got the rest of my followers. Long before I surrendered to you and your friends I broke into your security chamber and cut down the protection you placed on the stone. The remaining few who were left behind have recalibrated the stones controlling the train, as per my instructions, and are bringing the destruction of the Hive to all of you. By my estimates you have about five minutes to escape the Hive before it and everything around it are destroyed."
"Everypony, get out of here immediately," Eclipse shouted, causing his daughters and wife to respond immediately by ushering the others towards the exit, "I hope your willing to die Nexus. You do realize that I'm not about to let you escape so you can terrorize the rest of Equestria. It almost seems like you wasted your time recruiting these innocent ponies into doing your dirty work if you were planning on killing them all to begin with."
"There's no need to bother yourself," Nexus said, shaking his head, "They all knew that my ultimate goal was to bring the ruin of the Alicorn Princesses and they were willing to start the revolution by sacrificing themselves. They are the first flares of my anger, the first few of the necessary deaths that will topple everything they stood to create. You are my grand prize, for when I have done all I can to ignite the inner monster once more I will crush you into the ground and destroy those that would dare stand against me."
Yeah? Well your still not escaping," Eclipse replied, turning his back on the stallion and heading for the door everypony else had used to exit the chambers, "Have fun visiting Tartarus with your pals."
Then he felt a sudden pulse of high level magical power, causing him to turn his head back and found a swirling vortex suspended in the air above Nexus. The stallion, however, had somehow broken through every single binding that had been placed on him and took one stop forward, the shards of metal hitting the ground in his wake. It stood to reason that if he had broken Copper's codes and had hijacked the train then he might have disabled the armor ahead of schedule so he could escape.
"You and I will see each other again," Nexus promised, his body shimmering like it was about to vanish, "So be prepared to lose everything when I come knocking again."
Eclipse growled and flared his wings, choosing to leave the vanishing stallion and exit the chamber by flight. He was already running out of time, but with his wings and determination he managed to catch up to the rest of the flying group in time to turn back. His changelings, some carrying those who could not fly on their own, and the rest of his group watched the ground violently shake in response to the train arriving. The dirt buckled, giving way as it crumbled and took the entire apple acres that Harvest had spent so long working on under. Smoke rose from the ruins as flames consumed what little remained.
The area that once held the grand changeling Hive was now a large gaping crater, filled with huge rocks, parts of the village the changelings had built, and large amounts of sand. In a single instant Nexus had destroyed what thousands of changelings gave their lives to protect and earned him the anger of an entire race.
"Shimmer, don't let the wall fall down," Ironside grunted, pulling on a rope with his teeth as he struggled to pull up a wall, "Come on you lazy bookworm."
The changeling in question was staring at a blueprint that had been supplied to her by her superior, who was trying to make sure they built the house correctly. A few years ago she and her partner Ironside had done the same thing they were doing now, building a bunch of houses for those who wanted to live above ground. At the moment they were fixing the buildings that had suffered due to the aftershock of the destruction of the Hive not three hours ago. The blow had been devastating to them all and if it was mentioned every single changeling around quieted down and hung their heads down, silently mourning their ancient home.
She turned to Ironside, her horn surrounded by green magic, and added some bolts to the wood, securing the wall to the floor of the room and allowing her partner to let the rope fall out of his mouth.
"You could have helped me," Ironside angrily told her, pulling out a water container and taking a swing to hydrate himself, "instead of just laying back and doing nothing."
"You could have just used magic and we wouldn't be arguing right now," Shimmer stated, eying the next step as her horn pieced together the wall that connected to the first one, "If you bothered to use your magic we might actually finish a couple of these houses before the night is upon us."
They, like the majority of the vast amount of homeless changelings, had been tasked with building their own residence while the rest started work on the new Hive. The house they were currently building was supposed to house seven changelings in all, as that was all the room the blueprints called for in the area they had been given. Once the house was built they would be given the rest of the afternoon to either relax, start helping others build their house, or begin digging the underground tunnels of their new Hive. Ironside was going to try to relax, but Shimmer wanted to start rewriting the ancient tomes that they had lost as soon as possible.
The building supplies that went into building the new houses, and the new tunnels, came from Manehatten, delivered by train thanks to Copper. According to what she had said she apparently had a hidden storage bunker beneath the train tracks, which was packed full of house building materials. The Flying Vengeance was gone, but she had a second train that she had restored and outfitted with the stone that had allowed Nexus to destroy the Hive in the first place. Right now she was trying to set things right with them all and while Eclipse and his family knew she wasn't at fault for what had happened there were others who believed she was secretly plotting to collapse the new Hive on top of them.
"Whatever." Ironside groaned, whipping his magic out to put the second story floor in place above them, "The sooner we get this done the sooner I can relax."
Sometimes Shimmer believed that Ironside was just pure lazy and didn't put enough effort into his job, which was usually guarding one of the three royal princesses.
~Edge of the Old Hive~
Northern sighed as she stared at the rocks and the cliff walls, tears running freely as she remembered running down the tunnels and escaping from her guards so many times. She remembered the day her parents came to her and told her that they were all going out to an orphanage or two in search of a new family member. That was when she had met Harvest and Echo in the Ponyville orphanage, the same day they had gone home as sisters. The three of them had so much fun together in the library, breaking open the ground for Harvest's apple orchard, and even listening to the stories their parents told them.
All of those tunnels, gone in the blink of an eye. She had personally spent months building a map in her head, memorizing every twist and turn and where every door was supposed to be, but now that didn't matter anymore. She noticed a couple of changelings flying over the ruins, moving boulders and other large pieces as they searched for anything that might have survived the destruction. Her only items that survived were the small royal jewelry pieces and the armor that Copper had crafted for her once upon a time.
On the far side of the crater she noticed a shimmer of what could have been a part of a silver colored mane and there was only one pony she knew that had such a mane. Nexus was going to cause ever more trouble for them.
Northern growled and flared her wings, taking off and soaring right over the gaping crater as she kept an eye on the silver mane and the stallion it belonged to. When she got closer the speck moved, leading her deeper into the Badlands and she was more than happy to follow the blasted stallion. If she stayed silent she could catch him by surprise and hopefully knock him out so her parents could do something with him.
"What do you think she's chasing?" one of the changelings asked his partner, watching Princess Northern following nothing deeper into the Badlands.
"No idea," another answered, shifting a boulder to the side and opening a small hole in the ground, "but let her do what she wants. I might have found something."
Both changelings ignored Northern as they dipped into the hole they found, hoping to find something from the old Hive still intact.
~Copper's Tent~
It wasn't easy building a whole new workshop from scratch, but with what Copper had brought with her from Manehatten she had several small pieces already in working order. She wanted to find Nexus, so she could hoof him over to Eclipse and let the stallion suffer for the damage he had caused to the Hive and to Manehatten. In front of her floated three shards of Netherillium, each one of them made so she could figure out the exact location of whoever she was searching for. It wouldn't be easy with the limited power she had around her, which meant she needed to figure out how to sustain the core before the entire workshop went dead.
"How's it coming Copper?" Eclipse asked, stopping right at the opening of her tent.
"Not so good," Copper called out, shaking her head as she tried to figure out the power problem, "Nexus has been outsmarting me since day one, starting with blowing my generator in Manehatten up. He's been planning this for years, likely taking into consideration what we would do once he threatened to destroy your home or Equestria itself. Sure, he can outsmart me now, but I will figure out where he is and we will deal with him."
"Nexus didn't seem like the type to have a vast amount of power," Eclipse mentioned, staring at the changelings and ponies working hoof in hoof, "It seemed like he was either hiding his magic from all of us or he is bluffing and doesn't have a dangerous amount. But the way he spoke made it seem like he had a way to increase his power by some means."
Copper emerged from the tent, quickly crossed over to the train, found the warpstone, and, with only a second to wonder if she really needed to do it, tore the stone from the train. She crossed back to her tent and opened the core of the machine, patching the stone into the power and closing it quickly. She was well aware that Eclipse was watching her work, but she got up and began typing in a command sequence, her claws working the keys as the machine powered up again. This time she noticed that the shards were reacting in a positive tone, the green lights shining as they began to search for Nexus.
"I can't believe that worked," Copper breathed in awe, "I had no idea that the warpstones could be used as a power source for other machine and not whatever I plugged them into."
"It seems your getting better results now," Eclipse said, the shards changing to a bright red color for a second before returning to a normal green color, "What was up with the color change?"
"Nexus must have come close to the camp and was immediately discovered," Copper said in thought, "which means he left before he could do whatever deed he came to do. We won't have to worry about him for some time it seems."
"My King, we have news," a guard said, coming to a stop in front of the tent, "Nexus was spotted near your new residence, harassing the Queen and the Princesses, Unfortunately, before we could intervene he turned to smoke and the Queen vanished with him. Queen Viscarias has been ponynapped."
Nexus had blown up one of Copper's generators and had created an army of followers to make them blinded to the truth, but Eclipse dealt with the nuisance Nexus presented. Then Nexus blew up his Hive, but he could deal with the stress of building a completely new one from scratch. Nexus had harassed his children and his workers, and he could deal with making sure he had done nothing to them all.
But Nexus had crossed the line when he had ponynapped his wife, snatching her from the middle of her elite guards well designed patterns and right in front of their daughters.
The Princesses and their quests had long since gone home, choosing to stay in their respective regions and make sure they were safe from Nexus before returning. They had no idea that Queen Viscarias had been taken, snatched away in broad daylight, by the newly declared 'Enemy of Equestria'. They were scouring their own cities, searching for remnants of Nexus' small army in the off chance they'll find somepony that's willing to talk instead of taking their own life. They knew that they needed to find Nexus before he destroyed another major city, but they had no leads on his whereabouts.
Eclipse was annoyed beyond reason, his anger building the more he thought about the stallion that was quickly ruining his life and the lives of his children. At the moment he sat in the center of the crater where his Hive used to reside, where if he felt the need to let off some of his anger he could direct it further into the Badlands. He could break some ground or tear gaping holes if he wanted, but he wouldn't let his anger blind him to the fact that his ponies needed a home. And, more importantly, they needed their Queen back.
There was a hoof that touched his left shoulder, but before he even let whoever it was speak he spun around, grabbed the hoof, and brought the pony right over his head and into the ground in front of where he had been sitting.
"What in the name of the Elders was that for?" the alicorn sized pony coughed, Eclipse realizing who it was and easing up on her, "Seriously though, I come here to talk and you pounce on me?"
"Look Chrysalis, do not even begin to lecture me right now," Eclipse growled, secretly pleased that he had hurt his stepmother somewhat, "I've been having a bad week and I do not need somepony bad mouthing me."
"Geez, what decided to bite you this morning?" Chrysalis asked, her eyes scanning the wreckage around them, "My husband had told me that my precious Hive had been blown to smithereens by a stallion named Nexus, but I can tell he didn't want me to freak out. This isn't to smithereens, this is to oblivion."
"Please get to the point so I don't blast you into next week," Eclipse moaned.
"Look Eclipse, I wanted to stay in Las Pegasus and have some fun with the locals for a few more weeks before I returned," Chrysalis said, making him turn to look at her, "Trust me, I truly wanted my daughter and her husband, despite the royal pain in the flank you've become, to rule the Changeling Hive in my stead. I wanted to stay as far away as I could possibly get, to ignore the years of warmongering that had been installed into me by my own mother. I wanted the two of you to get through this ordeal by yourselves, so much that I nearly told my husband to get over the Hive and quit being an Elder."
"What changed then?" Eclipse asked, wishing she had just forgotten about him and stayed in Las Pegasus, "What made you change your mind and return to the Hive?"
"Nexus took my daughter," Chrysalis nearly cried, actually showing emotion for the daughter she had once regretted having, "My time away from the Hive has allowed me to finally see that family is important and that its worth fighting for. You may not care for me after all the nasty things I did to get rid of you years ago, but my granddaughters need me and my husband now more than ever. You, on the other hoof, are going to be too busy with finding Nexus, kicking his blasted flank to the moon, and bringing my daughter back to the ponies that miss her.
Please Eclipse, let me help you for once. Let me help you, not as an old Queen that wants her power back, but as a concerned family member who wants the best for her grandchildren."
Eclipse stared at her, a thousand thoughts running through his head and a thousand possible responses to her proposal ready to be fired at her. He could lash out at her and chase her away, but what would that say to the other princesses and his ponies? They'd see him as a tyrant and likely try to put him down, but that wouldn't ease his daughter's anymore than make them ashamed of him. He sighed and, for possibly the first time in his life, he actually looked his stepmother in the eyes and embraced her, shocking the old Queen in the process.
"I guess I can take that as a yes then?" Chrysalis asked, wrapping her front legs around Eclipse in what she believed was called a hug by most ponies.
"Yes, its a yes," Eclipse answered, looking up at the sky, "Now come, we have one other pony to talk to while we search for Nexus."
~Copper's Tent~
"Come on Northern, control your emotions," Copper said, reading an emotional spike yet again, "If we want to find Nexus, and more importantly your mother, then I suggest you not think about him and concentrate solely on your connection to the Nether. I'm increasing the search field by another three miles and I'm moving it to the Crystal Empire, so stay focused."
Copper had been working nonstop after hearing that Nexus had taken Queen Viscarias from right under their very noses. She had tinkered with her various machines, summoning dozens of different instruments that were connected to a central machine and contained the unique magic Northern had. She was using all of her genius, creating a machine that would allow her to use the Nether to scan an area anywhere in Equestria and search for Nexus. With just one warpstone the machine wouldn't even start, so she had brought out her reserves and connect half a dozen into the machine before it started working.
Unfortunately they were finding nothing at the moment and it was slowly taxing Northern, seeing how it was her energy signature that allowed the machine to track their enemy.
"Any news Copper?" Eclipse asked, opening the tent to find the mare in front of a huge machine with Echo and Harvest watching everything happening while Northern was helping out with her magic.
"No good news I'm afraid," Copper replied, not taking her eyes off the screen, "I have scanned every area in the southern and western regions of Equestria, but there is no trace of Nexus in either areas. At the moment I'm starting in the Crystal Empire and the surrounding area, but if I can't find him or the Queen anywhere then I'll be all out of ideas."
"You try the Frigid North yet?" said a second voice, causing Copper to look around and find Chrysalis standing behind Eclipse, "Oh, um, I believe this is where most ponies would say 'hi'?"
"I'm surprised that you even want to talk to me after what happened so many years ago," Copper said, shaking her head as she turned back towards the screen as she considered what the old Queen had said, "Wait a second...why do you ask if I checked that area?"
"It was where we all fought him four years ago after all," Chrysalis replied, stepping between Eclipse and Copper, "I came back to the Hive because my granddaughters need me now that their mother has been taken from them. You and I both know that once you locate Nexus, and I know you'll find him eventually, Eclipse is going to go flying off so he can rescue my daughter. They need somepony other then my husband to watch over them and I just want to help them.
It may not mean anything so many years after it happened, but...but I'm sorry for how I acted that day when I threatened you and crushed your leg. I know there is likely no chance that you'll forgive me, but I figured that I might as well try while I was here and not just run off to forget about it."
Copper sighed, resting her metallic claws on the keys as she quickly input the coordinates that consisted of the area that was known as the Frigid North. It was where Eclipse had built a fortress that he and everypony else had fought at, tearing it and the surrounding area to pieces. Last she had heard the barrier that heated up part of the area, the fortress and the couple of miles around it, was still operational despite having no magic supplying it. The screen shimmered and focused in on where the barrier used to be, showing a bright red mass surrounded by a deep blue mass.
She zoomed in, piercing the bright red veil that was surrounding the ruined fortress and finding a couple of stone pillars sticking out of the ground. Six different colored pillars that formed a complete circle with an even larger stone pillar sticking out of the ground in the center of the circle. Strapped to the larger stone pillar was an alicorn sized pony, but when she got even closer she could feel the gears in her body stall for a second before moving again.
"I didn't think I'd find anything in the Frigid North," Copper said, seeing and not believing, "but Nexus is in the ruined fortress with Queen Viscarias strapped to some sort of huge stone pillar. What do you make of that Eclipse? Eclipse?"
Copper turned around, finding only Chrysalis behind her this time.
"I told you," the changeling innocently said, "You find Nexus and he'll be gone as soon as the location is known to him."
~The Frigid North~
Nexus smiled, knowing that Eclipse was on his way to save his beloved wife. Years of planning, of spying, of stealing notes and various tapes, and even building, were finally coming together so perfectly that he could taste his prize already. The Queen was out cold, put to sleep for the moment so she wouldn't annoy him to death before her husband even arrived. Soon he would have the power to destroy the old corrupt Equestria and in its place build a better, cleansed Equestria that everypony would grow to like. Soon there would be nopony that would be able to stand up against him and his iron rule.
Nexus sat near the towering stone pillar that he had chained Queen Viscarias to, levitating a couple of stones up to his face and tossing them off into the distance one at a time. He knew that by now Copper would have found where he was hiding and that she would have, in turn, told Eclipse so he could deal with the threat. The Princesses would have delivered a wanted poster to their subjects by now, likely telling ponies to offer information of his whereabouts or to stay away from him. He cared not for the ponies he would soon rule, but instead looked forward to seeing Eclipse.
That was if Eclipse was ever going to arrive to rescue his wife.
He had spent years planning his every move, making sure he had a variety of plans in case his enemies made a different move than the one he would have planned on. He had painstakingly mastered his own magical abilities, learning the various techniques of the machines that Copper used, and even the guard patterns of the Changelings. If Eclipse could master the deadly arts of the cursed shapeshifting breed of ponies then Nexus could learn how to mimic the dangerous monster. And now it almost seemed like all of his hard work was being wasted, making him consider if he should have ponynapped one of his daughters instead of his wife.
As soon as he tossed the last stone he felt it, the shimmer in the air as a powerful source of uncontrollable anger raced towards his exact location. And it wasn't just anger he felt, but also all the magic that was contained within the body of one stallion that was feared by his friends and enemies. Just as he thought that Eclipse had forgotten about him had he appeared on his radar, without concern that he was giving himself away to his enemy. Nexus smiled, everything was finally coming together now that his foe was finally within his grasp and not surrounded by his guards.
"NEXUS."
That was what Eclipse had shouted the moment he landed in front of the ruins of the old fortress that he had built during the years of his chosen exile, cracking the ground as his hooves touched the ground. The stone pillar his wife was chained to happened to be sticking out of the center of the fortress, but her head was hung down and he knew she was out for the moment. Nexus, on the other hoof, was sitting next to the pillar, hanging dangerously close to his wife and seriously preventing him from unleashing a vast number of his spells on the vile stallion.
"Ah, Eclipse," Nexus said, trotting up to a fallen stone wall and staring down at the Changeling King, "So good of you to finally arrive. I was beginning to think that I might have had to go back to your camp and ponynap one of your daughters if your precious wife proved too little incentive to come after me. I mean, I threatened the safety of Equestria itself, blew your precious Hive into a thousand little pieces, and even took the Changelings' Queen right under their noses. You..."
Before the next bit left his mouth Eclipse appeared right in front of him and slammed his right hoof into the side of his body, sending him flying off the fortress and into the ground around it. The pain in his side was bearable, but it was much less then what he was actually expecting from the dreaded stallion. Sure, the ground around him was broken, but the fact that Eclipse wasn't using everything at the moment only made him angry.
"Come on," Nexus shouted, getting up and tossing the dirt off of him, "I know you can do better than that Eclipse. Don't just come at me with some weak spirited attack like that and fire one of those cero's that all the princesses and Discord are scared of. You should be unleashing every ounce of your magic on me, running me into the ground and obliterating everything I am. Not just standing there, using weak spells that are designed to wear me down to the point where I might surrender and throw myself at your mercy. Come and hit me like you mean it you coward."
Eclipse appeared right in front of Nexus, slamming his head into his enemy's head and crushing him right into the ground that they stood on. The ground split below them, cracking and falling under the mighty power that coursed through Eclipse's veins. Nexus disappeared into the abyss, only to reappear behind Eclipse and aim a kick to the back of his head. Unfortunately Eclipse's wings must have sensed him coming, as he ducked before Nexus could touch him and tossed him right into the ground again.
"You want me to cero you?" Eclipse shouted, pointing his horn towards the stallion as a red energy ball began to form, "Fine then. Face the power you have begged me for."
Eclipse released the dreaded magic, blasting open the ground once and then deciding that he had better do it a few more times to be sure Nexus was dealt with. Four more blasts later and he had five holes around him, smoking craters that made him worry that he might have missed several times. He felt that he had dealt with his enemy, so as soon as he turned around he felt a sudden shift in the wind that came from behind.
"Almighty Push," Nexus shouted, holding his front right hoof out towards Eclipse.
Before Eclipse could move the force of wind and magic caught him, tossing him right into the ruins and breaking several of the broken walls even further. He corrected his course as he remembered the power that had caught him, growling that he had such an enemy to fight at this point in time. Energy seeped around him, connecting together as he formed his twin sided sword he had used so many times before, spinning it around as he got up. Then he burst out of the ruins and flew right to Nexus, swinging his sword as Nexus blocked with his own blade.
He sent Nexus flying, but instead of letting him regain his balance and come after him he chased his flying enemy, spinning the sword and smashing him right into the ground. As Nexus got up the base of the sword came back up, bashing into his chin and lifting him into the air before being caught by Eclipse's magic and dragged right into a wall of the fortress. Instead of letting him fall to the ground and cough up blood Eclipse held him against the wall, drawing closer to the stallion who was ruining everything in his life.
"A coward am I?" Eclipse asked, placing the tip of the sword against Nexus' heart, "Tell me Nexus, is it cowardly that I beat you into the ground without using all my power? That I didn't let you rest between attacks and continued an onslaught that made you whimper in pain as I draw near? I'm not going to spare you Nexus. For everything you've done to me, harassing my friends, blowing my Hive up, and ponynapping my wife, I'm just going to kill you."
Then he was pushed backwards, right into another wall that fell on top of him as his magic released Nexus. Somehow Nexus had used his magic, breaking through his iron willed magic and releasing another 'almighty push' on him. Apparently neither of them were really going to let the other get away with winning, but at the moment Eclipse still didn't doubt his chances. There were quite a number of stones on top of him, so it might take him a bit to get rid of them all.
"You have no idea how much time and energy I put into this plan," Nexus coughed, standing at full height as he looked at Eclipse, "Ever since you arrived in Equestria I lurked in your shadow, watching you master a level of magic that has frightened the very goddesses of this world. You learned how to fight like a Changeling, earned the respect of both friend and enemy alike, and even managed to outwit death itself. You evolved into a being of terror and destruction, but instead of embracing your gifts and destroying everything you turned them down and embraced these ponies pathetic 'friendship'."
I knew that once you settled down, had a family to care for, and finally started acting like a King, that the time had come for me to strike and ruin everything. I studied your habits, who your friends were, and even went as far as to lurk around the halls of your precious Hive before I blew it up. As the Changeling's teach, you need to study your enemy before making your move and every piece of information helps when it comes time to deal with whoever your up against.
I am, however, disappointed that you aren't even using the full percentage of your great and terrible power. I saw you unleash a greater form of the cero against the princesses, one that you named the 'cero oscuras', and you even took on the form that others feared. Now you are holding back and it is making me angry. If ponynapping your beloved wife after destroying your Hive isn't enough to make you completely hate me and make you use everything against me then I will resort to my last move.
You may not have killed anypony before Eclipse, but I assure you that if it is necessary for somepony to die to upset and break your will then I will gladly end one life. Universal Pull.
Eclipse was expecting Nexus to pull such a cowardly card at this stage of the game, so when he noticed that Rose was starting to move he flared his wings and burst into the air. Before Nexus had a chance to do anything terrible to her Eclipse caught her, flipped around in a one hundred and eighty degree turn, and, while kicking Nexus, burst into the clouds. As the clouds covered their tracks he felt the energy of one of Copper's riftgates open nearby, so he corrected his course and silently flew towards the gate. He needed to get Rose to a safe distance before he allowed his more powerful side out to play with Nexus.
-
"Are you sure this is where they're supposed to be fighting?" Northern asked, just as the train emerged from the riftgate, "Because I don't see anypony fighting around here."
"This is as close as I can get without endangering us," Copper replied, pulling the train to a stop with a pull of the lever, "I've seen your father up close in battle before and I would seriously recommend staying as far away as possible to avoid getting hurt. The train as several safety features that will protect us from the majority of Eclipse's spells, but if a cero is fired in our direction we wont stand a chance against it."
"We know how our father fights," Echo calmly said, staring out the window towards the ruins of the forgotten fortress, "We know when to get into a fight and when to back away."
"Relax sugarcube," Harvest said, tightening the straps on the iron she wore on her hooves, "Ah'm sure that we'll be safe from Nexus. Its not like our father is going to let any harm come to us."
As Northern opened the door to the train they were greeted by the sight of their father, still in his alicorn form, carrying the sleeping body of their mother. Eclipse turned to his side so they could help him gently move their mother onto the train without disturbing her, just in case Nexus had somehow placed a deadly spell on her. Copper ran a check on her body, looking for any signs of tampering, but as far as all her devices could tell Rose was still live, healthy, and had no signs of any dangerous life threatening spells.
"Eclipse," Copper said, just as the king turned to leave, "are you going to kill Nexus?"
"I don't have much choice in the matter," Eclipse replied, sighing as he turned back to look at them, "Nexus is just going to keep coming after me and my family until he somehow obtains my powers. He's willing to destroy Equestria and everypony in it, not to mention ensuring the wrath of the other princesses, just to gain my abilities. No, he needs to be dealt with here and now before he can harm somepony else.
Get this train as far away as you can, I don't want any harm to come to my wife and my daughters."
"Don't worry Eclipse," came Rose's voice, as she stirred and looked up at him, "we'll be fine. Just kick Nexus' flank for everypony that he's already harmed."
Eclipse smiled and took off, adjusting his course so he would head right back to the ruins and deal with Nexus before he decided to leave the area. He knew that if Nexus decided to leave the ruins it would take him so time to figure out where he had traveled to and track him down all over again. The ruins were the best place for them to fight without the risk of seriously hurting somepony on accident or destroying an entire city with one of their spells.
"That should have worked," Nexus fumed, wondering how Eclipse had snatched his wife before he could kill her, "Leave it up to the monster himself to pull another trick out of his hat and save one of the most important ponies in his life. I wonder if he'll be coming back to finish our fight..."
"Don't worry too much Nexus," a voice said as Eclipse landed near him, cracking the ground without even trying, "I know you'll chase me until one of us dies, but I'd rather end our fight right here and now. No running away and waiting for you to find me like I did with the Princesses and my friends. You get my full and undivided attention Nexus, which you'll soon be regretting."
"Regret having you fight me at your full power?" Nexus shouted, smiling wildly as he stared at Eclipse, "I've waited countless years for you to obtain the power that courses through your veins, so I could crush you and claim the power to remold Equestria as I see fit. None of the Princesses would be able to stop me without destroying every single place they care about. Mark my words Eclipse, the moment I have your powers I will erase this world and create a world anew in the image that I desire. I will rule over the ponies of my new world until the end of time itself."
"Shut up," Eclipse said, lightning sparking up all around his body, "I'm tired of listening to you talk."
Nexus' amusement decreased as he felt several powerful entities enter their area, several of which happened to belong to the Princesses themselves. The barrier that kept the ruins at a different temperature than the rest of the Frozen North was still up, but none of the new arrivals passed through it. They were all content to staying behind and watching the fight from afar, despite the fact that they were spread out around the entire area. From the magic he was feeling they had the pleasure of entertaining Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, Princess Twilight, Discord, the ex-queen Chrysalis, and the ex-king Sombra.
He would have commented on the fact that they had some unwelcome guests, but he noticed that the energy building around Eclipse was reaching the levels he expected the stallion to use. Then claws erupted from Eclipse' hooves, while his wings changed into large bat-like wings and his coat changed into the fur of a werewolf. His face changed little, but his ears shifted into the batpony ears and he kept the long jagged horn of the changelings. Just when Nexus thought the transformation was complete Eclipse got onto his hind legs, walking like the monster that he was known for, and revealed the eerie darkness that came off his eyes, just like when somepony used dark magic.
"Do you feel fear Nexus?" Eclipse asked, flexing his claws as he spoke, "The Princesses and their rivals have felt the power of this form countless times before and I know that they fear it being used against them. However, they knew that I will never turn this type of power against them, for I have chosen to protect Equestria from ponies like you."
"Do I fear you?" Nexus shouted, shaking his head, "No, I do not fear the power you posses. Nor would I fear to use that power to conquer those that would oppose me. I would..."
Before he could finish Eclipse appeared right in front of him, grabbed him by his neck, and tossed him forwards like he was a simple ball that you would play around with. He crashed into one of the few remaining walls of the fortress, crushing the piece of stone into rubble with the sheer force of his impact, and pulled himself out of the mess. As the first stone fell away several bolts of magic crossed the threshold of the fortress and collided with where he was, exploding into a large pillar of fire. A moment later he pulled himself out of the flames, coughing as he swatted the bits of fire that were still eating at his coat.
Those magical bolts were another of Eclipse's vast amount of spells that he had access to, but he had never seen him use it in all the years that he had been lurking in his shadows. They were almost as powerful as his original cero spell, but the force behind them was much stronger than what he had been expecting. Had he not have his body augmented to resist vast amounts of pain and prevent his bones from snapping like twigs he suspected that those bolts would have damaged him a lot more than they had.
Nexus ran forward, his horn blazing with magic as he zeroed in on where Eclipse was standing, but when the smoke left his field of vision the stallion was nowhere to be seen. Before he could react he felt something crash into his side, causing him to leave the ground for an instant before crashing into the side of a mountain. This time when he got up Eclipse was right in front of him, crushing a magically charged clawed hoof into his chest. The magic caused the ground to shake before splitting into pieces, almost like the punch had somehow triggered an earthquake in their area.
"Get off me," Nexus shouted, placing a well charged blast in Eclipse's chest, only to make him release him, "I don't understand; what makes you so much stronger than what you've been in the past?"
"Well placed hatred towards you," Eclipse replied, his horn sparking up with magic, "You threatened my friends and allies, destroyed the hive that I spent years ruling over, and ponyknapped my wife. You threaten to destroy Equestria, just to gain my powers, and if you did get them you'd still destroy everything. The Princesses cannot afford to have somepony like you running around, treating their beloved ponies like they're nothing more than trash for you to crush under your hooves."
"So what are you going to do to me?" Nexus spat, coughing blood as he spoke, "I'll have you know that I will not allow myself to be taken into custody like some common war criminal."
Before Eclipse replied he touched his horn to the tip of Nexus' horn, letting the spell he had been build course through every single nerve in the stallion's body. As Eclipse pulled away Nexus could feel his horn harden, almost like it was being turned to stone and cutting off his connection to magic.
"Allow me to show you your own fate," Eclipse said, summoning a giant mirror that showed Nexus' entire body to him, "I'm going to turn you into a stone statue and display you for the entire hive to see. I started the reaction in your horn first, to make it impossible for you to attempt to reverse the spell as it changes your entire body. Soon your hooves will harden into stone, followed by all four of your legs, then your body, before it consumes your head and seals you in stone. One day you'll be released from this stone tomb that your turning into, but I'll leave that decision up to Princess Celestia."
Nexus tried to move, but when he looked down his eyes widened as he noticed that his hind legs had already been consumed by the stone that he was becoming. He could feel his body tightening, moving on their own violation as if Eclipse had an ideal pose for him to assume for an untold amount of years. For the first time in his life Nexus could actually feel fear, he just never expected it to come when he was trying to take on Eclipse of all ponies.
"I see that you finally feel fear," Eclipse said, just as the stone reached up for Nexus' neck, "It is an important lesson for somepony like you to learn, despite the fact that your turning to stone. You will have a few years to think over this lesson before Celestia releases you, if she decides to do so that is."
"I'll get you when I come back Eclipse," Nexus promised, feeling the stone start to harden his head, "I'll find you when Princess Celestia finally releases..."
The rest of his sentence was cut off as the stone consumed the rest of him, leaving a statue of a scared version of Nexus behind for ponies to enjoy. Eclipse sighed as the dark magic around his eyes faded away and his body returned to the shape of the alicorn prince he had been just a short time ago. As much as he enjoyed having all that power course through his body like that it tended to put a strain on one's mind, but it served its purpose. Nexus had been defeated and Equestria was safe for the time being.
Three weeks had passed since Eclipse's battle with Nexus and life seemed to be settling back into what it had been for both his changelings and himself. The hive was still under construction, but that was because they were building it to resemble Canterlot, with all the shops, streets, the castle, and even Princess Celestia's stone garden. The changelings enjoyed the work, finding that it allowed them to forget what had happened to their last hive despite the fact that the giant hole where the hive had been was close by. While the changelings would never be able to forget that dreadful day they planned on making a better home for themselves above ground, with some caverns like the old hive had.
"So, what will you be doing with Nexus' statue?" Princess Celestia asked, walking side by side with Eclipse and Viscarias, "I hate to think you turned him into one without a good reason for it."
"I told him that Equestria couldn't afford to have somepony like him running around," Eclipse replied, sighing as he looked around him, "Given some time we might consider turning him back into his normal self, maybe even attempt to turn him away from the path he set himself on and learn how to protect the kingdoms. For now he'll remain in the center of the new hive, to show everypony that you can't just threaten a royal pony without having something bad happening to you. Maybe, after a few months, we'll lend him to your own garden for the ponies of Canterlot to enjoy, just as they had with Discord's statue a few years ago."
"Speaking of Canterlot, but why does the hive look like an exact replica of my city?" Celestia asked, beckoning with a wing towards where her garden was being built and again to a corner where Joe's Donut Shack sat.
"Two weeks ago our changelings came to us and requested that we ask you if we can build a replica of Canterlot to live in," Eclipse answered, shrugging slightly, "so we drafted a letter and sent it to you. A day or two later we received a letter, by magic, bearing the seals of both you and Luna, telling us what we could do as we wished. Truth be told if you had declined we planned on asking Cadence if we could copy the Crystal Empire instead, but our changelings wanted their own Canterlot. Well, they got their wish.
Truth be told Celestia barely remembered seeing that letter two weeks ago, though the only reason she had bothered adding her seal was because her sister had spotted it and wanted her seal added. Made it more official if both the solar seal and the lunar seal were placed on the return letter. Now she knew exactly what the letter had really been about and secretly enjoyed watching the changelings build a new home for themselves.
"I can see that they did," Celestia commented, "and I can tell that they appear to be building their new home in the exact same manner that Canterlot was built in. All these streets are built the same..."
Celestia stopped the moment that she was the still stone statue of Nexus, the stallion who had destroyed the previous hive, and slightly winced at the fact that he showed fear in his face. The only being she had ever frozen like that was Discord, but it had been the power of the Elements that had done him in and not her own magic. Still, the stallion got what he deserved for facing off against Eclipse and begging him to unleash his full power against him. Celestia had never seen Eclipse take on so much magic like that before, save for the moment when he had first taken on the monster form that he used so often these days.
"So, what will Chrysalis and Zircon be doing after the new hive is finished?" Celestia asked, beckoning her head to the replica of her castle, where the previous monarchs of the hive were busy at work, "I assume that they'll be leaving the hive the moment you finish laying all the stonework and finish construction of all the buildings."
"My parents are actually going to be staying with their beloved changelings for the rest of their lives," Viscarias replied, brushing a piece of her mane out of her eyes, "Originally my parents were going to move to Las Pegasus and live as far away from us as possible, but when they heard the news about the old hive they came flying back. They promised that they would help watch over the changelings that they raised and would offer some wisdom in case we ever needed it. At least this way Northern and her sisters will be able to spend some time with their grandparents without having to travel halfway across Equestria to visit them."
"Speaking of which, where are your daughters anyway?" Celestia asked, having looked around countless times without seeing so much of a hair from any of them.
"Near the old hive," Viscarias replied, "They wanted a moment alone before they rejoined the rest of the hive, but we've got two of our best guards watching from afar in case something happens."
- The Crater -
"I'm going to miss our old home," Echo said, staring out at the open hole where their old hive had peacefully rested for so many years before they had even been born.
"Ah'm going to miss it too," Harvest agreed, pulling her hat off her head, "but let the three of us vow that we'll never, as long as we life, let this kind of disaster ruin the lives of the changelings ever again. Let us vow that we will defend our new home from all threats, be they within our borders or outside our borders. Let us vow that we will defend our allies and rush to their aid should they ever require assistance from our parents. Ah swear this upon the ruins of the old hive, so that Ah may defend the new hive."
"So shall I swear," Echo said, placing her hoof on Harvest's hat, "that upon the ruins of the old hive I shall defend the new hive with all my might and protect our citizens from harm. Northern?"
"You guys act just like normal changelings do," Northern laughed, turning around and placing her hoof on the hat, "that being said I agree with you two. I swear upon the ruins of the old hive that, as the crown princess of the changeling hive, I will do everything within my power to defend our citizens and protect our allies should they ever need assistance. Never again will I allow the events that happened here be repeated anywhere else in Equestria. Let the three of us usher in a peaceful age between ponies and changelings, for our parents and the Princesses."