Chapter 20

The cloud sighed.

To anyone who was not a cloud, it sounded like thunder.

He had heard the call, grown in size, and made his way for Canterlot.

He had obeyed at every step along the way.

Yet here they were, pegasi, coming to stop him.

“Alright, guys!” one of them at the front said. “Just a wild nimbostratus! Nothing we can’t handle!”

The cloud didn’t think so.

A bolt of lightning and the rumble of thunder erupted from the cloud.

“Come on, ponies, move! We need to get this guy back to Everfree now!”

But the cloud was not going to Everfree. It had a mission. It was going to Canterlot.

“I got it!” one of the pegasi yelled.

You have nothing.

A bolt struck the pegasi with fury, and her wings went stiff.

The voice spoke to him.

She won’t die...please, give me some credit.

The pegasi came around. “Someone catch Tigerlily! The rest of you, with me!”

The cloud rumbled at them again.

The pegasi may be masters of the storm, but Faust was Queen of them.

And the cloud would not disobey.

Moonlight had dragged Twilight into the depths, and into her own personal lab. Jar upon jar and beaker upon beaker lined the shelves and small pots of exotic flowers under bright sun lamps stood out against the grey walls.

Meanwhile, Moonlight cackled away.

Twilight watched as the changeling with the erlenmeyer flask on her flank began to finalize the work on her latest potion.

A pair of goggles sat on her face as she chuckled to herself checking and re-checking the last bit of work as her project came to fruition.

Twilight briefly wondered if this was how Spike and Alan felt when she worked on her spells…

“Alright,” Moonlight said, taking one final check. “Once the Sandberry juice mixes with the brushed lichbalm, it’ll make a nice paste. The paste, when then mixed with crushed spearoot, will then thin out the paste as well as nullify the toxic properties of the lichbalm. Then mixing this with both monkthistle and monkeycress, we should have ourselves the single best pick-me-up since coffee!”

Twilight nodded, not entirely sure how any of that was going to happen.

Moonlight smiled as she sat next to Twilight, her goggles up, her magick reaching out to grab a nearby lever. “This is going to be fun!”

It was?

Moonlight magic flipped the switch and the mess of apparti began to glow.

Twilight watched for a second, before speaking. “Should I have some goggles?”

“What?”

And then everything was white.

Alan shook his head. “No, no. She’s not a complete Ultramarine. I wouldn’t be able to stand her if she was. No, Twilight’s a mix of the Ultramarines and...well, and a bit like a chapter that a lot of people don’t care for…”

“Why? What’s wrong with them?” The changeling beside him on the bar asked.

Alan took a drink. “They were created for a game.”

“Isn’t the whole thing a game?”

“Yes, but...it was another game based off of a game, and they were breaking their own lore.”

“So? It’s their game isn’t it? I mean—”

“Look, North, you’re arguing with the wrong guy. I like the Blood Ravens. They’re like the uncorrupted Thousands Sons.”

“So why give them so much flak?” North Wind asked.

“It’s a habit. When you live in a world where your opinions are the determining factor in a relationship, you learn to be quiet in person and as loud and obnoxious as possible on the internet.”

Before North Wind could ask for some clarification on this mythical being known as the ‘internet,’ Twilight walked into the room.

Alan took one look at her, and pulled out another bottle. “Judging by the fact that your mane is now defying gravity, I take it Moonlight’s experiment went well.”

Twilight growled as she grabbed the bottle. “If I never hear the word ‘alchemy’ again, it’ll be too soon.”

North Wind finished his drink. “Sounds like it went very well. Alright, I’m going to turn in, have fun you two.”

“See ya, North.”

“North?” Twilight asked.

“Guy likes flying,” Alan said.

Twilight growled and sat down next to her husband, and he put a foreleg around her. “You’ll be alright.”

She sighed. “I know…”

Alan shook his head. “Tell you what, there’s some more story I want to tell you before we get caught up, interested?”

She gave him a look. “You are not bribing me with information you promised to tell me.”

“It’s not a bribe!” Alan said defensively. “I’m putting it into a different perspective to make you happier.”

She frowned. “It’s not working. Now spill it, buster.”

Alan smirked. “If you say so.”

Alan got up, moving slowly as fatigue slowed his mind.

“We’ve got to do something!” he heard from down the way.

“We will but we won’t do that,” a slightly higher, but otherwise identical voice said.

“Do you have any other suggestions? Cause I’m listening.”

Alan became alert, flattening himself against the wall as instinct took over while he eavesdropped.

“Look, we’re not what we used to be,” the second voice said. “We don’t do that anymore. We’re better than that.”

“And that’s great! Really! I want this new leaf thing to take off, but we can’t keep living like this.”

“So what?” the second one asked, “What are you suggesting then? That we go out, do what changelings do best, take, no, steal other pony’s love and then turn around and say ‘but don’t worry about us, we’re good guys now,’ hm?”

“We cannot sustain ourselves on food alone. If we are going to help the Pendragon, we need magic, and I don’t need to remind you that our magic is powered by love. If we can’t get love, we’re done.”

“We have enough.”

“What? You mean Curtain Call? He has what he has because he was pretending to be the Pendragon at his funeral. He got mourner’s love, and that’s not enough for all of us. He’s up and ready, but we’re next to useless. We need love.”

The other sighed. “I know. I know we need love…”

There was a moment of silence between the two.

“We need love, Chess Piece. If we don’t get it, we won’t be of any help.”

“I know,” Chess said. “But I will not risk who we are, who the Exilarchy are, to do that. We are the Pendragon’s servants, and he does not want us stealing love. And that is final, Mapper.”

Mapper sighed. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Don’t call me that,” Chess added.

Alan was sure he had heard enough, and, standing, gave a massive yawn before walking around the corner. “Morning, ladies,” he mumbled.

“Morning, sir!” Chess greeted, while Mapper made herself scarce. “Everything’s ready and waiting for orders, sir.”

“Progress report,” Alan said.

“Our network is suggesting a rise in crime, sir. Petty crimes, mostly, although we have an incident in Manehatten concerning a beating.”

Alan grimaced. “Chaos is up to something…”

“Sir?”

“Crime’s been on the rise since Chaos arrived. I’ve even talked to Celestia about it.”

Chess nodded. “Interesting. Why would he want crime to go up? Is he trying to destabilize the government? Is it a distraction for the guards?”

“That last one sounds plausible,” Alan said. “Considering he has the police chief in his pocket, it wouldn’t take much to get them to refocus their attention on pointless matters to fill the hooves of the guards.”

Chess nodded. “I’ll let our Canterlot branch focusing on the police and guard movements. Anything else?”

Alan looked up at her from the maps and blinked. “A-are you taller?”

Chess shifted nervously. “I haven’t noticed anything, sir.”

Alan blinked. “I...I could be wrong, I guess.”

Chess nodded. “So, anything, sir?”

Alan frowned. “How are our supplies? Are we missing anything?”

Chess avoided his gaze, going back down to the clipboard in her magical grip. “No, sir. Nothing.”

Chess Piece walked, disguised as a simple brown, unicorn mare with green eyes, down the Canterlot streets, a bag of groceries hovering in her magical grasp.

Her mind was a mess of problems.

What was she going to do about the love situation? They would wither away if they didn’t get the love they need to sustain their magic. There was an issue of food, an issue of assignments, there was even the issue that every changeling in the entire Exilarchy was looking to her for leadership for some bizarre reason.

Her disguise felt tight.

And that was a whole different issue she didn’t even want to touch.

She sighed as she walked. “Why are they making me a Queen? I don’t want to be a Chrysalis. I like who I am! I don’t want to change again.”

She sighed.

Why did things have to be so difficult?

Her ear twitched.

Her head came up.

She heard something.

A strangled cry.

Chess blinked, her head turning to the right, where a darkened alley met her.

“Hel—”

Smack.

Chess Piece blinked, and then a thought struck her.

I need to do something.

She balked at the thought.

“Wait, me?! Why do I have to do it? Can’t someone else? Can’t somepony else do it?”

Do you see anyone else around?

Chess checked the empty street, and mentally cursed.

“I can’t get involved,” she said to herself. “It’s not my problem.”

Isn’t it?

Chess Piece bit her lip.

Well, she didn’t make herself a coward.

She just didn’t know she made herself a hero.

The four burly stallions surrounded the small mare, the unicorn holding a knife blade in his magick grasp.

The mare whimpered as the leader, a large earth pony grinned. “Alright, now, let’s do this nice and easy.”

The pony beside him smirked.

“We’ll start with your money and go from there.”

The mare threw her coin purse at them, and cowered with her back to the wall.

“Good,” the stallion said. “Now let’s see what else we can get.”

Tears began to stream from the mare’s eyes. “Please...I gave you the money, just go.”

“Oh, no. Not yet dear. Not yet.”

Glass shattered to their left, and the four stallions all turned to see the spinning remains of the top of a glass bottle.

And then the unicorn felt a hoof slam into his cheek from the right.

A black blur slammed into them, turning the muggers into a mess of fur and hooves.

The mare blinked, watching in shock as a completely black pony-like shape punch, kicked, and bucked through her attackers.

One of the stallions went flying, out of the fight and flat out on the ground.

The unicorn grasped the knife once more, and brought it down on the black blur.

The knife deflected to the side, almost as if the blur had been armored.

The blur answered with a kick to the face.

The mare watched on, staring wide eyed until one by one, her attackers fell.

And then it was her and the blur.

The blur had no defining features. No face, no mane, no horn, no wings, only a simple black coat that encased its entire being. The only thing that seemed to truly be definitive about it was the blur’s definately female figure.

The mare blinked.

The blur turned to her.

They stared at each other for a second or two.

And then the blur ran.

“Wait!” The mare called as the blur disappeared down the alley. “Wait! Come back!”

The blur did not wait.

“Thank you!” the mare yelled as the blur disappeared from sight.

“So,” Whittler said, holding up a bottle of cider. “What do you think?”

“It’s a good bar, Whittler,” the other changeling, Thimble, said. “I like it.”

The other changelings that had gathered in the room gave some mumbles in agreement.

“It’s a bar,” one of them said, sounding unimpressed.

The others turned to her.

Mapper stood, took a deep breath and said. “Look, it’s nice and all, but it’s pointless in the grand scheme of things.”

“Well be a Debbie Downer, why don’t cha, babe?”

“We have no love!” Mapper said. “We’re just going to wither away at this point! We need love or we’re going to die!”

The door to the Cistern slammed open and Chess Piece stood in the door, heaving as she wore the biggest smile on her face. “Mapper, I have your answer!”

“What now?” Alan asked.

“We’re going to become heros!” Chess said, smiling.

Alan blinked.

“Look, I know it sounds nuts,” Chess said, “but it solves all our problems!”

“All our problems?”

“Well, okay, two of them. Still! Look, we can get love from the populace, we can earn it.”

“Hero worship is love?”

“Bread and butter,” Chess said, “but it’s enough. We can sustain our magic with it, and we’ll be taking down the criminal element at the same time! It’s perfect!”

Alan sighed, and took a long look at beaming changeling.

He sighed again. “Okay, but if you’re going to be a hero, then you’re going to do it right.”

“So was it your idea to steal the Mare Do Well costume?” Twilight asked.

Alan took a second to examine his ceiling. “Steal is a harsh word…”

“Uh-huh…” Twilight said, utterly unconvinced.

“Anyway, I got to training them,” Alan said. “Guerilla tactics, ambushes, fighting with advantage, the whole nine yards. Meanwhile, Thimble was making a ton of Mare Do Well costumes, and before the week was out, we had a team of ten Mare Do Wells, waiting to get out into the field.”

“And I suppose they did well, considering the fuss she made in the paper.”

“Oh she did better than well,” Alan said with a smile, “Stronger than the average pony, impervious to blades, and able to produce their own smoke at a moment’s notice. They were amazing ninjas.”

“Actually, how did they do the smoke thing?” Twilight asked.

“It’s their goo,” Alan said simply. “They have a spell where they can cause a spark, and the goo just smokes as it burns.”

“So that’s it,” she said. “I was wondering.”

“Oh, it gets better than that, Twi. It get’s better than that.”

Three thugs haunted the streets of Canterlot, sneaking in the dark silence of the night.

Their eyes were glued on a jewelry shop, Emerald’s Diamonds, that sat on the corner of Gold and Silver.

They had planned everything. Getting in, getting past the alarms, opening the cases, which jewels to take, getting out, the whole thing.

What they did not know, was that they were being watched.

Four changelings all stood on the roof of the building opposite them, Whittler at the head. “Alright, guys. This is it, Mare Do Well’s debut. Everyone got the voice?”

A mumble of identical voices agreed.

“Wonderful, we’re going to skip the intro this time, and go straight for taking them out.”

“Aw…” one of the Mare Do Wells moaned. “I like the intro.”

“Next time, I promise,” Whittler said. “There’s a window that open in the back of the store, that’s our way in, got it? Now, on my mark, we move, ready?”

More agreement, even as one started breathing deeply. “Alright, man, this is going to be tight…”

Whittler nodded. “Alright, on three. One, two, three.”

All four Mare Do Wells dropped to the street, landing with a green flash as they all transformed into rats.

“Hey!” One of the thugs said. “Didja see that?”

“What?”

“Something flashed behind us!”

“Hush!” the mare picking the lock said. “No noise. I almost got the door open.”

The rats went past them, heading to the back of the store and squeezing through a cracked open window.

Once all four had squeezed through, they all burst from their transformation.

“Ow...okay...that hurt,” of them said.

“Get used to it,” Whittler said, “we need those forms for the plan to work. Meantime, everyone move out, let’s get the smoke ready.”

The changelings nodded, and re-transformed. The rats quickly moved, heading to the storefront and spreading out, spitting up goo as they went.

The door clicked, and the rats froze.

“Alright,” the lockpicking mare said. “Let’s go, Hot Wire, get the alarm down, Brass, wait for the alarm before bagging the gems.”

Both stallions went to work as the mare closed the door behind them.

The rats moved slowly, sneaking around ponies, desperately trying to stay quiet and unnoticed.

“Alright,” one of the stallions said, Hot Wire, if Whittler had to guess, “let’s get rich!”

Whittler held his breath, and the three ponies went to work.

Then he took a deep breath, and mentally set off his goo.

Thick, green smoke began to fill the room and the other changelings took the cue, setting off their own good.

“The buck is happening?!” the mare yelled, as the entire room was filled to the brim.

And the Whittler moved first.

With a flash of green, he transformed, dressed in hat, cape, and cowl. He roared, his voice disguised, as he slammed his hoof into the mare’s jaw.

And then he transformed again, back into a rat, disappearing into the smoke.

Another changeling took that as his cue, performing his own hit-and run on Hot Wire.

They kept this up, transforming and retransforming with each strike, until all three of the thieves were beaten into unconsciousness.

And then they all transformed into their Mare Do Well forms, taking grateful breaths of air as they emerged from their tight forms.

Whittler immediately took charge. “Alright, get the rope, tie em up. We did good, guys.”

“Cool, can we use the intro next time.”

Whittler rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes we can.”

“And that’s how the Mare Do Well Corps was born,” Alan said with a smirk.

“So, what happened next?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Alan said with a sigh. “Apparently Chaos was putting a lot of stock into this crime plan, because once we started pushing, he pushed back.”

“With what?”

“Supervillains,” Alan grumbled. “You’ve heard about them if not of them.”

“You mean Bad Joke?”

“Bad Joke, Mr. Domino, and Big Red. You probably haven’t heard of Big Red though, the second we found the guy, we did our best to get him as far away from civilization as possible.”

“That bad?”

“You know...oh...what’s she called? Saddle Rager, of the Power Ponies?”

“That comic Spike reads?”

“Yeah that’s the one, imagine her, but with no good side. Just pure muscle, pure rage, and a need to kill practically everything.”

“Oh.”

“Right.”

“So...that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to down here.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, I mean, yeah, it took months though for everything to get to this point, though.”

Twilight blinked. “So...what do we do now?”

“That, my dear, is a question with a long, convoluted answer.”

“I’m listening.”

Alan took a breath. “We’re...we’re going to launch an attack on Canterlot.”

Twilight blinked.

“I know that sounds bad!” he quickly said, coming to his own defense. “It’s not like that, though! If we’re going to stop Chaos then we need Judgement. Harmony, the real Harmony told me so, and Chaos took it somewhere, I don’t know where, and so I need to distract him long enough to get it back.”

“So what’s the plan?” Twilight said, interrupting his panicked speech.

“...so we—wait, what?”

“What’s the plan?” Twilight asked again.

“Y-you’re alright with this?” Alan asked, bewildered.

“Attacking Canterlot? Not especially, but if it’ll help us stop Chaos, I’m with you every step of the way.”

Alan gave her a small smile and a small sigh. “I’m glad to hear it.”

Twilight nodded. “Now, at the risk of repeating myself…”

“Right! The plan!” He said, before hunching his back and pulling her close for his conspiratorial whispers. “So, Chaos thinks you’re dead, and he thinks I’m dead. As far as he knows, that means both the Elements of Harmony, and Judgement cannot rise against him, as far as he knows. So, my plan is to bring both of those against him the second he makes a move.”

“Why not now?” Twilight asked.

“For the same reason I couldn’t convince everypony else that Chaos was not our friend,” Alan said. “We need to move when he has proven himself to be against us, and now that he thinks he can’t be touched he’s more likely to move, and far more likely to make stupid mistakes. With that on our side, you, me, and the Mare Do Well Corps are gonna strike hard and gonna strike fast. You are going to grab the girls, and get the Elements, and I’ll get the sword.”

“Are the girls in town?”

“Yup, I’ve had Mapper go around and keep them in after they got here for your funeral.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, so I get the girls, you get the sword, and together we tag team Chaos into oblivion?”

“While the Mare Do Wells keep any other threats busy,” Alan said.

"Is that everything?"

"Well, with Shining and Cadence watching Orion, he should be safe...um...I don't think I missed anything."

Twilight smiled. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Night had fallen, and Pipsqueak lay asleep in bed.

So much had weighed upon the boy as of late, the death of his surrogate aunt and uncle, his adoptive sister Scootaloo’s recent behavior, and, most recently, nightmares.

His sleeping form squirmed as it lay there under the covers, his face twisting in anguish.

And then he woke with a start.

His chest was heaving as sat in bed, surrounded only by the darkness that filled his room.

That...that dream…

It was crazy.

It was stupid.

His eyes wandered to his window, one of the few that overlooked the town. There, in the center, stood the Golden Oaks Library and next to it, the floating shape of a sky yacht.

He’d be in so much trouble.

There was no way…

No way he could pilot it alone...

Cadence woke.

She took a moment to look around, her husband practically wrapped around her.

Something was going to happen.

Unwrapping herself from her husband's embrace, she stood up in the bedroom of the apartment.

Something was happening.

She knew it, in her heart of hearts, that something, something incredibly important was going to happen.

It was going to happen very soon.

"So..." she whispered to herself, still not entirely sure how she knew. "It will return in my day..."

Chaos smirked.

Things were almost ready.

The next night. That’s when his master wanted the plan to move forward.

So it should be.

“Isn’t it marvelous, Harmony?” Luna asked beside him.

Chaos smiled. “Of course, you stupid puppet. It is my plan!”

“Such a charmer you are,” Luna said, deaf to the insults so that only flattery would reach her ears.

“Quite,” Chaos said, looking up at the sky. “Now, my dear, let me ask you a question.”

“Of course, My Love, anything.”

“How do you feel about the ponies that scoff at your night?”

“Scoff?” Luna said, alarmed. “Who dares scoff at me?”

Chaos grinned an evil smile. “Who does not, my dear?”

Luna looked heartbroken at the thought.

Chaos chuckled as he planted a seed, and watched with delight as it grew.

Tomorrow night.

It would be the world’s last night of freedom.

The beginning of the End.

Alright, guys. The time has come!

“The end is nigh!”

Alan and Twilight are coming back into the world and back onto the stage.

“The dead will rise!”

Chaos will begin to make his moves and reveal his true colors.

“The sea will turn to blood!”

Stop paraphrasing Revelations!

“But it fits.”

Barely. Just...just stop, let the people read it.

“Then I guess we’ll see you guys next time then!”

Sounds like it to me.

“Bye!”