The ground around Tirek's body exploded, the massive hooves struggling to stay firmly planted. In some cruel twist of irony, the ground collapsed and the behemoth's lower half was stuck in the ground, much as it had been while under control of the real Tirek. A maddening buzzing filled the air as a storm approached. No, not a storm, a horde of Changelings, so tightly packed they might as well be one. Chrysalis strode out on a stair case made of her loving servants and onto the crown of Tirek.

"You can't escape this fate, filthy scum" Chrysalis sneered, her changelings clicking in agreement.

"An attack?!" Babs growled, picking up her spears.

"I know that voice" Neos murmured, his ears straining as he heard the snide voice of the changeling queen echo throughout. The alicorn and earth pony rushed off, leaving Sweetie to mope as usual.

"This shell was Tirek's proudest achievement! You vile ponies shouldn't even be touching it!" Chrysalis screamed, the death of the one she cared about still fresh in her mind. A spray of green bolts rained down across the shell of Tirek, leaving scorches and burns, killing a few of the Resistance who had tried to enter the open air. All of the Resistance pulled into the many bunkers built into the shell....save one.

"Cease this, Chrysalis!" Neos ordered, wings flared wide as if using his body as a shield.

"Get away from her!" Babs ordered, trying to line up a good shot on Chrysalis's brain. But the shifting cloud of changelings made it impossible.

"The First Prince Neos, Son of the Solar Queen Celestia, commands you!" Neos yelled out, struggling to be heard over the buzzing. "I will not allow you to hurt them!"

"Grr, it can't be...Why is Neos here?" Chrysalis hissed, knowing full well the consequences for attacking one of Celestia's little brats. Her horn glowed as she tapped into the hive mind, struggling to see what could have caused this. A smirk crossed the insect's face as she realized what had happened.

"Tell me, Chrysalis, are you and the other Generals making these good creatures suffer?" Neos asked, voice quavering in fear of the answer. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding. Chrysalis stepped out of her cloud, bowing mockingly to Neos. She was confident that with Neos in the way, Babs wouldn't risk a shot.

"Very perceptive, my boy" Chrysalis sneered, getting up from the bow. "They are the Solar Queen's orders"

"My mother's?...." Neos murmured, feeling a sharp pain in his chest. The one who had raised him had truly done this then...

"The Solar Queen doesn't like having the populace leave their concentration camps" Chrysalis replied, licking her lips. "As proud servants of the Sun, our mission is to dispose of every scrap of trash that is outside of the camps"

"They are not trash!" Neos responded, indignity taking over betrayal as he faced the elder royal. "I will discuss this with my mother, take me to her at once!" Neos ordered, those pink eyes turning a seemingly deeper shade than usual.

"Hehe, go alone" Chrysalis giggled, bowing mockingly once more. "You fool, you are no longer a prince! The Solar Queen had abandoned you! Cut you off! Thrown out! I don't know what you did, but she doesn't need you anymore" Chrysalis clarified, her smile widening even more as she felt Neos's breath seize up, such a thought foreign to him. Typical palace brat. "And so I shall dispose of you along with the rest of the maggots"

"A-abandoned me?....Mother sent you to...kill me?" Neos stuttered, his brain practically short circuiting at the crushing information.

Within the bowels of the military based built on Tirek, Sweetie trembled, feeling a lance of anger cross her. Every member of the Freedom Friends could hear Chrysalis's vicious words, broadcasted through listening spells placed all through out their home.

"I-i have to..." Sweetie growled, doing her best to ignore the scuffle outside and focus on her latest carving. It was of no use.

"This can not be true! Mother would never do such a thing!" Neos blurted out, trying to justify to himself more so than Chrysalis.

"It doesn't matter, you'll die either way!" Chrysalis cackled, reentering the safety of her horde and sending out orders to form a massive changeling shape out of writhing black bodies with her at the center. In an explosion of black, the changeling horde grabbed Neos in its "mouth" and lifted her up, preparing to crunch the screaming alicorn like a cracker.

"Nuh uh, hold on there, Chrysalis" an imperious voice sneered, causing the changeling to snarl as Trixie entered the fray, smirking as she rode around on a ridiculous advertisement for herself. "Prince Neos's screams will be far more magnificent on a stage, a stage that the Great and Powerful Trixie shall make!" the unicorn boasted, red magic curling out from her horn to make a floating stage where Trixie could stand. "A stage created with gallows in the sky!"

"Even more hostiles" Shining Armor scowled, looking at the reinforcements that the unicorn had brought. "And then there's that one" he grumbled, looking behind them to see that behind Tirek approached a batallion of ground troops as compared to Trixie's SpecOps.

"Here" Chrysalis scowled, tossing the prince to Trixie none too respectfully.

"Hehe, she shall serve as a lesson to those who defy the Solar Queen!" Trixie giggled, her eyes rolling wildly in their sockets as she conjured up to massive saws around the paralyzed alicorn.

"Yeah, you guys have gotten way too happy just because you took down one general" Diamond Tiara giggled from her position on the ground troops, crystal armor amplifying the former earth pony's words. "In fact, let's show all those losers at the camps what happens to those who resist" the pink general snickered, pointing at screens flashing over every camp. Her servants had set up screens to show the battle, purely to fuel the egos of Diamond and Trixie.

"These bastards think they can say whatever they want, treat their own son like scum!" Spitfire snarled, forming her avatar and taking to the sky along with a few other pegasi avatars, letting avatar capable unicorns and earth ponies hold the fort. They avatars were set upon by a swarm of Changelings and Loyalist Pegasi, ensuing a battle in the air and preventing them from getting to Trixie.

"I won't let you kill her" Babs swore, throwing spear after spear, only to see them bounce off of a bubble around the stage.

"That won't work on Trixie" Trixie gloated as the saws began spinning. Chrysalis, for her part, used the combined magic of the changeling hive to levitate the Tirek shell upward, right into Trixie's forcefield. The shield held before bouncing the resistance across the desert ground and into another pit. Exactly as had been planned. Needless to say, those still on Tirek were either dead or injured by the rough travel. But their torment wasn't over yet, as Diamond Tiara flung out a small, glittering set of crystal knives. They shouldn't have even penetrated. But the magic powering them was strong and so when the crystals hit, they not only penetrated, they exploded, killing even more of the Freedom Friends. A yellow energy pulse finally finished the attack, sending the shell of Tirek flying into their first pit.

"Hahaha, I always did love golf, but it was always too quiet too" Discord laughed, having shown up with his own army.

"Damn it, we can't move!" Shining Armor swore from within his avatar, looking down at their nearly helpless home. "Everyone! Mobilize at once! Go to defense protocol!" he ordered, years of training paying off. But Discord wasn't going to let them.

"Fly my pretties, fly!" Discord ordered, sending forth a swarm of chocolate clouds that would explode on contact. From the ground, Diamond Tiara's manticores and ursas charged onto Tirek's back, slamming into the line trying to defend themselves from an assault on all sides. A few were repelled by Iron Will, the Flim Flam(and Silver Spoon) crew, and other assorted allies, but there were many.

"Of all the times-" Applebloom started, her Element powered avatar having significantly better luck before she was cut off by a barely missed slash of giant sawgrass. Discord!

"What's wrong?! You're terrible now, Scoots!" Discord taunted, not knowing that Scootaloo was dead and it was Applebloom wearing the Element of Loyalty. Applebloom tried a head butt, only to get smashed across the head by a King of Clubs card.

"Fire Slash!" Spitfire hissed, trying to dive bomb Diamond Tiara in her avatar. What would have vaporized any normal pony was merely laughed at by the general as her armor stood firm.

"You really don't know who you're dealing with!" Diamond cackled, moving with shocking speed to circle Spitfire and slam one of the diamond knives into the neck of the avatar. One inch deeper and Spitfire's brain would have been gone. Before she could finish the job, she was blindsided by Fleetfoot's avatar, knocking her away and letting Soarin' rescue a swearing Spitfire from the pink general.

"Trixie would like some flames in the background" Trixie sang, making her brigade of dragon strafe Tirek, blasting it with flames and melting the horns, rendering the potential power in them useless along side crippling one arm.

"There's too many" Babs growled, having just barely avoided death by hiding behind a fallen Ursa. Her keen eyes turned to something new on the haunch of Tirek. Chryalis without her swarm!

"Do not damage Tirek anymore than necessary, but kill them all" Chryalis ordered of the 5 Praetorians following her. Almost casually, the queen blocked a spear with her horn, making Babs curse in anger from her failed shot. The changeling was better than expected.

"Oh, you look so sad" Trixie sneered as she turned to look at Neos, who seemed more concerned over the ones fighting below than himself.

"Why, why is mother doing this?" Neos asked, wincing as part of the defensive line below nearly broke.

"She's not crazy, I can tell you that much. She's lived for thousands of years" Diamond Tiara interjected, speaking and appearing through a pendant Trixie kept on her neck. Neos didn't know it, but it was the Alicorn Amulet. "Making kids and taking care of them helps make her look crazy" Diamond explained. "But when she's bored with them, she just throws them away. Makes sense, you might as well be a doll" Diamond smirked, knowing just what buttons to press.

"D-doll?" Neos murmured, his hopes crushed for the second time in 5 minutes.

"I hear you asked your mother about where you came from. No duh you were trashed, no one wants a toy with an ego" Diamond giggled, relishing in seeing Neos's pain. Trixie took full joy in it as well, providing a chorus of laughter.

"Right, just a doll that Trixie will finish! Behold, come one, come all! To see the most fantastic execution in millenia!" Trixie cackled, projecting screens of Neos's imminent death everywhere. Yet, one of the screens showed something wrong.

"Sweetie!" Neos cried out, seeing that the pale unicorn had managed to somehow hitch a ride on a dragon so she could enter the field and was now struggling to climb up by using her horn to dig into the sides of the stage.

"I won't hand him over to you" Sweetie grunted, sweat beading on her face as she tried to climb up further.

"No!" Trixie shrieked, looking over the edge to see that it was true, the little unicorn was climbing up.

"Ponies may be small, but they have huge hearts. See? They are not dolls!" Neos told Trixie, getting another shock of paralyzing magic for his trouble.

"HOW DARE YOU DEFILE TRIXIE'S STAGE WITH YOUR FILTHY HORN!?" Trixie screamed, eyes bulging out and red as she wildly slashed with a magic blade at the spot where Sweetie Belle was located.

Babs looked on and finally realized the truth behind the story that Scootaloo had told her long ago. While Sweetie remembered the time that she got lost as Scootaloo's finest moment, the pegasus had had a different tale.

I was just acting tough, ya know? But Sweetie, she was the real brave one. She just kept drilling but wasn't screaming or anything. She was calm. That's what inspired me to keep going, to not give up

Trixie's blade finally caught something and the piece of wood Sweetie was holding onto was cut loose, dislodging the unicorn and sending her flying.

"Neos!" Sweetie cried out, trying to reach out in some vain way to grab him, but it was impossible. And so she fell.

"Hahahaha! See Neos?! That's what happens to those who resist!" Trixie cackled, getting back to preparing to saw the former prince in half.

"No! Just like how Sweetie believed in Scootaloo, I'll believe in her! She will come!" Neos promised, not sure if her was talking to himself or to Trixie.

"Neos...Neos is waiting for me! I can't let him down!" Sweetie cried out, in some vain attempt to change fate. But fate did change. The crown that was lying in Sweetie's barracks glowed once more and shot forward at super sonic speeds. The Element of Magic had chose once more. "Magic...MAGIC!" Sweetie laughed, tears flowing from her eyes as the familiar purple bubble covered her once more.

"TIME TO DIE!" Trixie announced, the saw just about to begin its deadly path...when a purple drill slammed right through her stage and only narrowly missed hitting Trixie. "WHAT!?" Trixie howled as the purple bubble absorbed her would be victim and jetted off even further up into the sky.

"You saved me!" Neos sobbed, tears of joy coming loose as he hugged his savior.

"Sorry I was late, but I finally understand" Sweetie nodded, referring to their conversation earlier. She had finally digested Neos's advice and regained her will to live.

"Me too" Neos smiled Next Chapter: Changing the Tide Estimated time remaining: 53 Minutes