Purpose Served
Seven lie miserably at the hooves of Princess Twilight Sparkle who was now flanked by the deep blue Princess Luna and snow white Princess Celestia. The changeling felt a growing wetness expanding underneath him, and was currently being introduced to pain on levels he had never known before in his life, and personally would have cared to have never become acquainted to. Coughing up a sickly splatter of viscous green blood across the floor, Seven did his best to look up to the alicorn before him, her horn glowing purple and sparking furiously.
"Close, wasn't it? Shame, didn't quite get this job done as I had actually planned. Stupid mare..."
Hacking up another splash of blood, Seven cast a look down to find that a good portion of both hindlegs were gone, and there was a hole straight through him that was pouring his blood and guts onto the floor in a deluge. It was, of course, the aftermath of a mighty and terrible spell that only royalty knew. Even now he could feel the warm wet liquid gathering in a puddle that now expanded past his head and threatened to touch the hooves of the previously targeted alicorns before him.
"You know, I never thought I'd even get this far..." Seven moaned as more blood dribbled out the sides of his mouth, "But to see you now? Worth it, worth all of it."
As the changeling spoke cheerily, despite the fact that he was bleeding out all over the floor at her hooves, Twilight could do nothing but question the whole scene before her. The assassination attempt, the changeling soldiers actions, Chrysalis...It all made so little sense to her.
"But, I don't understand...why?"
Seven let a small chuckle, yet again more blood spurting from his mouth.
"Honestly, to Tartarus if I know... Chrysalis has held a grudge against you since the wedding three years back. I suppose..." trailing off for a moment, Seven made a noise in his throat and hacked up something that looked disturbingly anatomically important, but didn't seem to notice. Or at the least he didn't care anymore. "...the Queen just wanted you erased from existence."
Twilight's eyes widened somewhat.
"I mean, I know she wanted me dead, but why all this?"
Looking past his own ruined body, Seven identified the remains in the room.
"Ah yes...closest to furthest...One-Eleven, Twenty-three, Three-three-oh, Four-kay, Two, and Nine-oh-nine."
Twilight locked eyes on each chitinous corpse as Seven named them off, feeling as if what was being shown to her needed to be recorded.
"Then at the back, splattered across the wall after she tried a cheap shot, Queen Chrysalis. I guess that leaves myself...last of my kind..."
Leaning towards the dying changeling, Twilight gave him a questioning look.
"So, you regret all this? Do you find it folly?"
Perhaps it was the anger that gave Seven the strength to flit his wings fast enough to raise his hindquarters from the ground as he 'stood' before the Princess, or perhaps it was pure luck, but regardless Seven locked eyes with Twilight and gave her the most serious expression to have ever found its way to the changelings features.
"Like Tartarus I do! What I did today will go down in the history books for thousands of years to come. None will forget this day, Twilight Sparkle, the day when somepony effectively ended a race. And at this point, I couldn't care less."
Falling back down to his prostrate form Seven cast another look up at Twilight.
"To think, this all happened not twenty minutes ago..."
~~~Twenty Minutes Prior~~~
"Thank you sir, for enlightening me on the current weather trouble in Appleloosa, I'll be sure to get a team of pegasi on that immediately." beamed Twilight from her seat. She watched as the stallion trotted out. Smiling at her good work, the alicorn lifted herself from her seat just in time for the front doors to the hall to explode open.
As the smoke and debris cleared it revealed Chrysalis and six more Changeling soldiers.
The lavender alicorn shut her eyes in a heartbeat as a magical flash exploded throughout the room effectively blinding the unprepared.
As the Changelings vision began to return, Twilight's horn was aglow and the six Changelings with Chrysalis laid dead on the floor.
Firing a harmless distractionary beam, Chrysalis began to flee, but not before firing a second and far more lethal blast at the alicorn before being smashed into paste against the wall.
As her vision from the near point blank flash spell began to clear, Twilight saw a seventh Changeling soldier collapsed before her.
~~~In the Present~~~
"Celestia...I know you owe me nothing, but...does it hurt? To die?" Seven whimpered, fearful of what would lay on the other side of the veil for him.
The Solar diarch smiled gently down at Seven.
"No, my little pony, dying is but a step towards a greater journey."
Seven nodded, but fears still plagued his mind.
"Will..will I be going to Tartarus. After everything..."
"After everything, you saved my newest and youngest sister's life young one," Luna smiled, "and as it were, my parents believe that one final great act is more than enough recompense for any previous misdeeds. Fear not, young one, for we will see you again in the Summerlands."
Only Twilight remained silent as she watched the life ebb out of Seven. She still didn't understand the why of things! Why save her?! Why turn on the remnants of his kind?! Why die for her?!
"WHY?!"
Smiling a somewhat goofy smile that managed to look both roguish and endearing, despite the copious amounts of blood around him, Seven looked into the eyes of the confused alicorn.
"Well...as a changeling, I...would obviously know this...but...well, love is a powerful thing Twilight Sparkle...and it can make one do stupid and foolish things...like getting ponies killed...but then again, it can do great and wondrous things...things like saving a Princess' life..."
Realisation dawned on Twilight, recognition filling her eyes with tears just as quickly as light faded from Seven's.
Regardless of the gore Twilight bent over and wrapped her forehooves around Seven's corpse, weeping openly over the body of one who suddenly meant so much more to her when it was so far too late for her to do anything.
Celestia and Luna both did their best to held them back, yet even they shed tears as the Royal Guard began to enter the room. Shining Armour made straight for the Diarchs to gain command.
"Celestia, shall we incinerate the remains of these disgu-"
Anything Shining was about to say was cut off as Twilight walked up next to Celestia in a near catatonic state and buried her face in the older alicorns bosom. Celestia wrapped a wing comfortingly around the suddenly emotionally drained mare as Twilight began to speak.
"Dear Princess Celestia...today I learned that time, and love, and family and your friends...today I learned that everything and everypony with a good heart are precious, and no matter how long you know them, or where they're from...and..."
The rest of Twilight's words dissipated into broken sobs as Celestia held her close and escorted her out while Luna filled in Shining before also leaving the room.
Shining watched as his stallions systematically went to each corpse and incinerated every trace of it. It wasn't until they reached the corpse closest to the throne that he made a move.
"Halt!"
Rushing over Shining came to a standstill before his stallions and called everyone of them over.
"Company, Sa-lute!"
The Captain of the Guard snapped a smart salute to Seven's body, and though confused the other's quickly followed their Guard Captain's command.
"Stallions, this changeling, by the name of Seven, is to be handled with the utmost respect. He is to have a hero's burial, and we will erect a monument to him for his actions here today, actions that none of us were present to follow through with in the defense of our newest Princess. Dis-missed!"
Watching the guards run off to gather the proper supplies for handling Seven's body, Shining felt tears build in his eyes before lowering his horn the the chitinous husk. With a powerful surge of magic any and all wounds dissipated and the hindlegs that had been severed by Chrysalis reformed.
"You saved my sister today, and while I don't know exactly why, or who you were...I owe you my thanks, and pray to the days I may spend with you upon our meeting in the Summerlands. Finally..." Shining stopped for a moment and teleported his Medal of Honour he had been awarded into his hoof before laying it at Seven's side, "...you gave me more time with my sister, and while it doesn't mean much to you I'm sure...I'll honour that until my dying day."
Turning, Shining Armour left the room with tears running down his face, not feeling fit to share the space with courageous Changeling that had given so much in his sister's name.