As his back foot finally entered the hostile pink environment, Adalricus struggled to maintain his stance. His senses were severely affected as he couldn’t seem to hear nor smell what was around him. His sense of touch was numb externally and only gave the feeling of pain internally. By this point Adalricus was not 100 percent sure if he was even breathing; his vision was going black and his head was aching beyond what he was expecting. However, that did not prevent him from forcing his body to move forward. In truth while the barrier did not “restrain” him in a matter that felt physical, his body refused to move as if it became intimidated. Almost as if he feared what this barrier was doing to him without even realizing it.

“ADALRICUS!!” Raúl screamed from the top of his lungs. Completely horrified, he rushed towards the hostile barrier that was ripping the prince of his race apart.

However, Spike acted quickly and lunged at Raúl in order to restrain him. “You’ll kill yourself!”

“GET OFF!” the changeling shouted angrily. Immediately glaring in Adalricus’ direction, he attempted to pull Adalricus via magic. He cursed loudly as Adalricus was somehow able to reject the spell, causing him to free himself aggressively from Spike.

Spike lifted his weight but refused to release him. “You’ll get shredded!” he yelled as he tried his best to restrain him. “Let me handle this!” With that, Spike released Raúl and quickly rushed to the prince.

However, Adalricus refused to accept any intervention and Spike was no exception as his horn glowed. Without warning, the purple dragon was sent flying against his will.

Pinkie Pie covered her mouth in shock as Spike landed awkwardly on an already angered Raúl. “DAMNIT ADALRICUS!” he shouted, struggling to remove Spike off of him.

Snarling, Spike quickly regained his footing and rushed in for another rescue attempt only to end up with the same results. He cursed as his five attempts did not help change the situation at all. “Adalricus!”

The changeling prince said nothing as Spike was then forced to restrain his most faithful servant. Adalricus knew that Spike nor Pinkie Pie would allow Raúl to endanger himself like him. From his peripheral vision he could see both Twilight and Rarity attempting to send him out of the barrier as their horns glowed. As expected, he refused to accept their interference as his magic was just strong enough to reject them. That being said, he was in so much bucking pain.

I…wont…s……st……stop… he thought. He could see Fluttershy banging against her own containment and attempting to shout something at him. He wouldn’t stop his advancements towards her despite the pain that his body was suffering. Yes, it felt like he was being shredded repeatedly by various blades but the thought of being separated from her was worse. Using magic to protect him from the effects of the barrier had very little effect and wasted his stamina with little award. And the smell was completely foul while also incomparable to anything that he was familiar with. Hell the fact that he was able to smell again because of it was saying something.

“FHGH!” Adalricus clutched his right wrist and ceased his movement. His right hand was engulfed in green fire and revealed itself with changeling characteristics that became quite obvious to everyone else. His eyes widened as black smoke was escaping from his flesh without warning. This…was not something that he could easily comprehend, as he felt no pain whatsoever which struck concern into his mind. Yes, it looked uninjured from any point of view, but the lack of pain horrified the changeling prince. Suddenly, he looked up to see Fluttershy who was just as shocked as him. Believing that he was closer to her than he thought, he reached with his now changeling hand as far as he could.

However, Fluttershy’s reaction was not as he hoped, as she suddenly covered her mouth and showed an expression that caused him to feel cold inside. She was scared of what she was seeing before her very eyes. Thus it became apparent that she was scared of him.

No… He looked at his changeling hand and grew even colder as he turned it into a fist repeatedly. NO!

The changeling prince yelled as he covered it with changeling magic, revealing a hand that lacked changeling characteristics. Yet he struggled to take another step, as the magic usage was weakening him by each passing second. He stopped only for a few more seconds as the symptom occurred with his left foot this time. He cursed as green fire came again to fix the issue that he was having with his appearance. However, it only seemed to worsen as green fire continued to erupt against his will and across his body. Various parts of him exposed his true physical appearance despite his attempts to hide it from Fluttershy’s view. The pain that occurred in his body was now breaking him both physically and mentally as he left foot prints of flames behind each step. He could feel his body losing a piece of himself with each advancement that he made. And the black smoke had grew to the point where he was partially blinded.

“ADALRICUS STOP!” shouted Applejack as she tried to rush him and get him out of the barrier. As expected she suffered the same results that Spike experienced. Rainbow Dash moved quickly to help her but Applejack quickly got back on her feet. “STOP IT! YOU’LL KILL YERSELF!!!!”

“ADALRICUS WHY?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, as she couldn’t believe the horror she was seeing.

“STOP THIS PLEASE!” Rarity shouted, as she could not stand watching him end his own life.

“SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!” Raúl screamed, as Pinkie Pie was now helping Spike restrain him as well. “SOMEONE PLEASE!” he begged, as he wouldn’t stop shaking. “WHY…WHY AREN’T YOU HELPING HIM…?!” he cried, not holding back the tears that ran down his face. “WHY…WHY IS NO ONE HELPING HIM?!!?!?!?!”

Pinkie was crying as she watched her friend slowly disintegrate piece by piece. How she was able to still keep a hold on Raúl despite unable to muster up her words was unknown to her. Perhaps it was her desire to prevent Raúl from suffering the same faith.

“F…Flutt…Flutt…er…..sh……..shy….!” Adalricus managed to say, as he reached out to her with his right hand again. As it soon reverted into its true form, a quarter of his face was covered in green flame as well. His eye carried the same appearance that his kind was easily recognized, baring the slit pupil that many would find intimidating. Although it was not a recognized slight to see a changeling’s eye releasing a heavy stream of tears. In fact, both eyes, changeling or not, had tears running freely down his face with without even a single blink. All he could do was cry endlessly as Fluttershy seemed unreachable by this point, despite his continued attempts to reach her.

Shining was speechless as he felt as if he was watching his own love one suffering like this. Changeling or not watching a living thing being shredded was not pleasant at all. While he rarely took a life before his very eyes, he at least gave them dignity and made their deaths as swiftly as possible. But this…was simply barbaric. What…THE BUCK AM I DOING?! Shining was sick to the core as this had gone on long enough; he cancelled out the spell and turned to Twilight. “TWILIGHT!”

The alicorn snapped back into reality as she blinked repeatedly. She failed to realize that Shining was the first to come to one’s own sense as well as her own tears. Immediately did she release Fluttershy who was sobbing and still banging against the spell. Once released, she fell to the ground gently but immediately rushed to Adalricus, who had fell to his knees moments before the barrier vanished. In no time at all Adalricus was surrounded.

“ADALRICUS!” Fluttershy cried as she hugged him. She caught him with his weight leaning towards her, and his breathing did not sound promising. The smoke did little to bother her as it already began to disappear from their surroundings. While it did not produce a disturbing scent, Fluttershy did her best to breathe as less as possible. “Adalricus…” Fluttershy’s voice was weak as it was cracking.

“No no no no no no no!” Raúl said as he instantly appeared right behind Adalricus and placed his hands on him. “Adalricus, ADALRICUS!” he said uncontrollability. His shaking would not cease as he just didn’t know what he could do. He was never used to this: losing control of a situation to this extent. Adalricus was still maintaining the same expression and same stance that he had before Fluttershy came to him. It was as if he was frozen like a statue, completely unaware that he was free from the magic that was destroying him and Fluttershy was with him once again. “Ad-Adalricus…”

Adalricus continued to cry as tears flowed down his face despite acknowledging just how much the situation changed for him. Fluttershy’s sweet fragrance immediately masked of what remained from that barrier spell, freeing Adalricus from that unappealing scent entirely. Her body felt so warm and comfortable tending to his own discomfort and possible hypothermia. Yet he did not lower his arm nor did he close his eyes to tend to his stressed mind. He just lacked the mental capacity to hug Fluttershy back and hold her tightly. Oh how dearly did he want to do that right now…

“Adalricus…why?” Shining asked with disgust as he clenched his teeth and hands while shaking his head once. “You…you…” He then paused and relaxed only slightly. “…I am sorry.”

Twilight looked at him with concern just as a few of her friends did. “…” She then looked to Adalricus who still failed to hug Fluttershy in return. Sadden, she moved closer to him only for Applejack to beat her.

Applejack carefully moved his arm down and adjusted both to wrap around Fluttershy. “…There.” A small smile emerged as Adalricus actually began to react; his hold on Fluttershy tightened and he actually began to blink repeatedly until his eyes closed.

His reaction brought nothing but relief to everyone around the couple that cared for each other deeply. Applejack smiled widely and glanced at Rainbow Dash and Rarity who were just as relieved. Hell while Rarity covered her mouth with joy, Rainbow Dash did her best to wipe away the tears that escaped from her eyes. Pinkie Pie however did not bother to hide hers as her humble smile was more than enough as she held her hands together and against her chest while Spike happily gave her a friendly gesture with a hand on her shoulder. And Raúl continued to cry despite a familiar smile appearing on his face as he placed a hand on Adalricus’ shoulder gently.

Fluttershy opened her eyes when she finally realized that Adalricus was reacting to her touch. She saw Raúl who then acknowledged her. He nodded with a smile much to her relief as Adalricus was going to be ok. “Adalricus…I thought that you were-”

“I love you.”

Fluttershy froze.

“I thought…that I was never going to be able to hug you at least one more time,” he confessed happily. And as expected, tears began to flow out of him once again.

Fluttershy began to experience the same thing as they held each other tightly. “…I love you too…”

Adalricus buried himself in her mane, gently stroking it as he finally began to smile.

“Adalricus…”

Adalricus gently pulled away from Fluttershy and looked at Shining.

“How could you do something like that? You were going to die had I not cancelled the spell; did you assume that I was going to cancel it when it reached a certain point?” Shining asked with confusion.

Adalricus shook his head as Fluttershy and Raúl helped him stand once again. “I actually thought that I could penetrate your spell and get to Fluttershy fast enough before I was unable to move. In fact, I didn’t realize that you cancelled the spell until Fluttershy hugged me,” he confessed with a soft smile.

Shining smiled as he crossed his arms. “And all of this for her.” He looked at Fluttershy who smiled shyly and continued to hold Adalricus’ arm closely. “Now that’s true love right there my changeling friend,” he said with a large grin.

Twilight nodded in agreement as she wiped a few tears from her face. “I am sorry that things became uglier like this Adalricus. I honestly thought that you would have yield with intimidation but you surprised me yet again. You are a unique changeling Adalricus…”

“Thank you,” Adalricus said kindly as he looked at Fluttershy with a warmer smile. He then looked to Raúl and was surprised by his current appearance. “Were you…crying…?”

Raúl shook his head as he rubbed his arm against his face. “What me? No it’s just what’s left of that stupid spell that’s irritating me,” he lied with a smile.

Adalricus started to laugh. “You’re such a-”

Adalricus stopped speaking. His expression softened as if he was pausing after realizing something. However, that did not seem to be the case as his expression remained frozen.

“Adalricus?” Twilight asked with confusion. “Are you-”

Before she could finish her question, Adalricus immediately lost his footing and fell against Raúl who immediately caught him.

“Adalricus!” Applejack shouted.

Adalricus’ expression changed from humbled joy to exhausted pain. He looked as if he just ran 5 miles without rest, as he was pouring sweat at an alarming rate and without the slightest of warnings. He was breathing faster with each passing second with no signs of relief seen. As expected, Raúl immediately acted.

“Adalricus damnit!” He quickly- (yet carefully)- placed Adalricus on his back and began to rip his shirt down the middle, exposing his upper body. Raúl moved his hands around checking for certain sighs that only he could recognize with changeling anatomy. “Buck- His temperature is completely volatile right now… I need ice!” he shouted.

Without question Spike and Twilight began to assist Raúl with what he needed while Applejack and Rainbow Dash got some pillows to better comfort Adalricus. “Be care; we should move his body as least as possible,” Raúl warned them.

“W-What’s w-wrong with h-h-him-??” Fluttershy asked. Now she was growing increasingly concerned at a dangerous rate. What was happening to Adalricus?

“He’s become unstable Fluttershy,” Raúl quickly explained as he was now working his hands. He cursed loudly as Adalricus’ frequent attempts to change his appearance left him disfigured. While this would fix itself naturally, Shining’s spell did caused severe damage to his system internally. “He’s taken too much damage. Now his system can’t naturally recover or even relax to the point where he can sleep,” he explained quickly.

“Well what can we do?” Spike asked as he arrived with ice.

“W-Wait, what about my love?” Fluttershy asked. “Changelings need that energy to survive r-right? C-Can’t it a-also help him heal?” she asked hopefully.

“That’s the issue Fluttershy.” Shining stood over them.

“W-What?” she asked with confusion.

“Changelings who are damaged magically for a certain period of time tend to lose their ability to naturally absorb said energy. I’ve seen this happen to changelings. Particularly when we scouted the kingdom after Chrysalis attacked; we found many of them who were severely affected to the point beyond recovery.” His expression seemed to darken as he knew that this was not a good thing for Adalricus.

“B-B-But there is a way to help him right?!” Pinkie Pie asked. She had difficulty controlling her voice as even she knew that this could mean possible death. “RIGHT?!” she then screamed.

Shining Armor did not sugarcoat it at all as he answered with, “I honestly don’t know; even to the best of our own knowledge we had no idea on how to at least save their lives had we wanted them alive. And pony medicine isn’t something that is guarantee to work on changelings…” He looked at the two changelings. “…be it full or half.”

Raúl gave no regard to what he said as he cursed again. “Shit I am losing him!” He did his best to adjust the position of Adalricus in order to properly stabilize his system. He was getting proper blood flow and his massages against certain points did help but only slightly. Realizing that he was running out of options, he closed his eyes and began to conjure a spell. Please work...

Almost instantly, Adalricus gasped and his heavily breathing ceased entirely. Regular breathing patterns seemed to be occurring as he did not appear as tense as he did before. The room remained silent as they were expecting him to open his eyes or give some form of acknowledgement to them. After what seemed like a minute, Shining stepped forward.

“What did you do?” he asked.

Raúl said nothing as he instantly dropped to the side of Adalricus thus causing even more drama.

“Raúl-!” said Twilight.

“I am okay!” he quickly said, raising a hand up. Yet he seemingly had difficulty holding said hand up; his arm was trembling. Eventually he gave up and allowed it to drop onto his chest. “I just need like a few minutes after that experience,” he explained.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked with concern.

Raúl took his time adjusting to a position where his legs were crossed. “Well…” He then sighed loudly out of exhaustion. “…I basically sent some of my life energy into him.”

“Your ‘life energy’??” Twilight asked. “What do you mean you ‘gave’ him your life energy??” To be honest, she was finding this very difficult to believe. “You can’t just do that! There’s no such thing!” she added.

“Well you’re not completely wrong,” Raúl explained as he rubbed his face repeatedly. The most annoying thing that he was experiencing was having his vision fading black. “Yes you can’t just give energy that would take away ‘life’ itself, but you can transfer your own body’s nutrition and blood to induce healthy body productivity.” With that, he closed his eyes and took in deep breaths.

“Wait, so you basically forced his body to take in a portion of your body’s essential in order to ‘force’ its natural recovery process?” Twilight asked.

Raúl nodded only slightly. “Yup. Since I couldn’t force his body to start a recovery process, I figure that I could simply ‘present’ it with a surplus of resources it needed to stabilize. With that, I could simply ‘nudge’ it in the right direction to do what was needed once it acknowledged what it had available… “

“Wait isn’t that dangerous?” Spike asked, as this still made little sense to him. “I mean, isn’t there a limitation to how much a living being can maintain? How do you know that he won’t suffer from over nutrition for that matter? Can he even keep as much blood as you gave him?”

“Actually Spike, we changelings go into a state of hibernation that quickly consumes all of our body’s resources to fasten our naturally healing capabilities. In this case, he suffered so much damage that he can’t afford to awaken until an appropriate amount of time has passed. And because of how dangerously volatile our bodies can become, this process normally takes quite some time similar to that of being in a coma.” Raúl gently rubbed his face again. “Thus it’s safer to have another changeling or two donating an appropriate amount to assist with a recovery…”

“An ‘appropriate’ amount…?” Spike looked at his friends before asking, “And just how much did you give him?” He looked at Raúl uneasily.

Raúl said nothing for a few seconds. As if he did not wish to speak anymore for the next few minutes and wished to be left alone. However, he did open his eyes before answering with, “Enough.”

“Oh yeah like that’s a reassuring answer,” Rainbow Dash said with her eyes rolling. “But he will be ok, right?” she then asked, glancing at Adalricus. As expected, he still carried deformities with his physical appearance despite his calm sleeping face. And yet, she smiled at the thought that he was going to be ok regardless. “Well what now-”

Rainbow Dash was interrupted by the sudden darkness that occurred inside of Twilight’s home. Light had abandoned them all the moment the door was forcibly opened from the outside. All had turned to acknowledged the dark force that was slowly, but surely, approaching Twilight’s home. From their view, all that could be seen was a fog that was close to pitch black, and a faint brightness at the very end. It took some time before they were able to grasp the shape of King Somba appearing not 5 feet from where Adalricus lay in silent.

His presence was beyond intimidating, as no one was able to muster up even the slightest of reactions. His cape gently flowed by the unseen wind that came into Twilight’s home, not even leaving so much as a chilling feeling. Those eyes of his represented hatred beyond the imagination, as he looked far from pleased. Had they not known better, they could swear that he came with the intent to kill every single one of them. But of course, they were not the reason why he was here to begin with.

The dark unicorn slowly walked up towards them, creating the sound of metal clanking gently by his movement. Again did his cape flow by an unseen wind, creating the familiar sound it could produce. His steps were not heavy, yet not gentle. He did not growl, yet he did not smile. It was as if all sound had muted by a spell, allowing only him to produce it.

As he stood in front of Adalricus’ unconscious body, Fluttershy held him closer. It was not difficult for her to know why he was here, and what he was likely about to do. “N-No!” she said.

However, King Sombra lowered himself to one knee, gently touching the floor with his protected knee cap. He reached slowly for his son despite the protests from his son’s supposed lover. She trembled and shook her head repeatedly as he moved his hands under Adalricus’ body. She started to cry as he effortlessly lifted him up, regardless of her hold on him thus forcing her to release him. He held his son as all stared at them both, curious if he was going to say something to them. Perhaps voice his strong displeasure and blame them for what had happened to his son.

Surprisingly however, his expression remained the same as he continued to look at his son’s sleeping face. And without even showing them any acknowledgement whatsoever, he turned away from them and started to walk towards the doorway, paying no mind to the weeping Fluttershy who was held closely by Pinkie Pie and Spike. Even Raúl seemed extremely displeased, as his expression was saddening by the results of everything that had just occurred. And Princess Celestia’s arrival had little effect on the situation, as King Sombra paid no mind to her as he continued to look at his son and walk past her.

The Sun Goddess covered her mouth in horror, as she saw the condition that the prince was in. He looked disfigured and yet, so peaceful. She knew that he was alive; she could sense it inside of him. And King Sombra obviously did not give the expression of sorrowfulness, as she watched him walk his son out of the tree house, leaving them entirely.

“What…” Princess Celestia looked to face everyone inside Twilight’s home. “…have you done…?”

Author's Notes:

Just one or two chapters to go. Have a feeling that they're shorter~