To this day I have next to no memories of my own of what transpired this night. No matter what I’ve tried I have come out unsuccessful in my attempts at recovery but I have learnt to live with it since then.

The windows of the castle rattled loudly as a particularly strong gust of wind made the snow falling outside take on the form of a white blur. Despite being the weather manager of Ponyville and thus having prior knowledge of the heavy snowfall that had been scheduled for the night she couldn’t help but think that this was excessive. Bleh, these things always spin out of control once we set them loose. Not to mention that there’s no easy way of stopping them when they do. She pondered as she watched the wind slow down again, making it possible to see the individual snowflakes once more. Rainbow turned her head from the window to look at the other ponies in the room, well ponies and dragon. Sitting next to the large fireplace in the room were Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike, the latter busy preparing s’mores over the crackling fire. A small smile found itself on her muzzle as she took in the scene. There were definitely worse ways to spend the evening then having a sleepover with some friends just before the holiday, she’d have to remember to thank Twilight for coming up with the idea later.

Getting up from where she had been watching the weather she walked over to the many pillows scattered on the floor and sat down on one next to Spike. “Hey buddy, ya think you could get me a s’more too?” she asked the young dragon.

“Sure thing Dash,” Spike replied without taking his eyes of the marshmallow he was currently roasting.

Having placed her order she instead turned to her oldest friend. “Hey Flutters what are you giving me for Hearth’s warming?”

Fluttershy blinked at suddenly being addressed and turned her head away from the fireplace that she had been staring into. “Um, I’d rather not say Dashie. To not ruin the surprise… and all that,” she murmured before yawning loudly. Well loudly for her at least.

“Oh my, I must be more tired than I thought,” She continued apologetically.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Fine, I won’t pressure you into telling me,” She sighed before turning to Twilight who, unsurprisingly, had her muzzle burrowed in a book. “Hey Twi what’cha reading?”

Twilight carefully put a small strip of silk to mark where she was in the book before turning her head to face her. “It’s a book written by a scribe from the Storm Paragons, it’s full of these amazing things that the pegasi of old used to be able to do. Did you know for example that a team of five could be especially trained to quickly form a storm cluster of around a kilometer in diameter without having to worry about losing any mobility or control? Or did you know that such a group would be called an Eye?”

“Uhuh… Shouldn’t you be telling Cloud this stuff? You know with his spacing outs and all?” She asked.

“Oh this won’t really help him unfortunately, this is more of a collection of texts describing the historical names and how those came to be during The Paragon’s era of greatness,” Twilight explained.

“Uhuh…” She replied again as she turned her gaze back to the dancing flames in the fireplace. Twilight must’ve sensed that she really wasn’t interested in the book she was reading because she didn’t say anything else. Rainbow found herself settling down further onto the pillow and before long she had to fight to keep her eyes open.

Twilight spared the yawning Pegasus a glance before returning to her book. It was truly marvelous just how much information regarding Storm paragon society the texts Cadence and Shining had provided held. She felt like she could lose herself for hours just exploring every aspect she could uncover, and while she knew that all this was primarily to help Cloud she had told herself that indulging her curiosity a bit wasn’t a betrayal towards his plight. Her reading came to a screeching halt though when the sound of somepony hammering on the front door echoed through the castle halls.

“Huh, I wonder who that could be at this hour?” She thought out loud.

Spike turned to look at her from his spot near the fireplace. “Do you want me to go check, or do you want to go take a look yourself?” He asked her.

Using her magic she placed a bookmark in the book before standing up from her pillow. “I’ll go. I need to stretch my legs a bit anyway,” She replied to her assistant before walking out of the room, heading towards her door. The hammering continued without stopping until she started to actually swing said door open, revealing something she really couldn’t have prepared herself for.

The exhausted but clearly distraught visage of Lyra had her on edge even before the mint colored pony spoke. “Please help, changelings, Bonbon hurt, Cloud in Whitetail,” She managed before passing out on the front porch of the castle.

Twilight felt her eyes widen before her instincts kicked in and caught the bundle that Lyra had been holding afloat before it hit the ground. A closer look told her that the bundle was Cloud’s winter coat containing a very weak Bonbon. Gathering her magic she quickly grabbed the unconscious form of Lyra as well before teleporting all three of them to the emergency ward of the Ponyville hospital. A bewildered nurse looked up from the reception due to the sudden flash that signaled their arrival before her professional side kicked in and she rushed over to Twilight.

“What has happened princess?” She asked as she bent down to examine the two charges Twilight had brought with her.

“All I got out of Lyra before she fainted was that changelings are somehow involved and at first glance I’d say that Bonbon has been fed on while Lyra fainted from exhaustion due to running all the way from Whitetail woods while carrying Bonbon,” She quickly summarized what little information she had.

The nurse looked up at Twilight, alarm written across her face at the mention of changelings and opened her mouth to say something but Twilight cut her off before she could say anything. “Look that’s all I know currently, your job right now is to treat these two while mine lies towards the Whitetail woods,” She said curtly before teleporting back to her castle.

Normally she wouldn’t have been so short with anypony but there was still one fact that was more pressing than being polite with the Ponyville hospital staff, and that was that Cloud supposedly was still there with the changelings. With hurried steps she rushed up the stairs and to the reading room where she had left Rainbow and Spike mere minutes before. Later she would question why she hadn’t simply teleported straight to that room but at that moment her adrenalin was pushing most of her rational thoughts aside.

Instead she burst into the room at full speed, much to the surprise of Spike, Fluttershy and Rainbow. “Cloud’s possibly in trouble with changelings!” She blurted out the moment her mind registered that all three of them were still there.

Rainbow looked confused before the meaning behind her words seemed to sink in at which point she shot up her hooves, ready to take flight. “Which way?” She demanded, all the sleepiness she had been displaying earlier having vanished.

“Whitetail woods we have no time to lose,” Twilight replied quickly starting to turn back towards to the door before she was halted by the voice of the third individual in the room.

“And what about me? Am I just supposed to stay here as usual with another potential changeling invasion going down?” Spike questioned loudly from where he stood.

Had Twilight’s mind not been affected by the previously mentioned surge of adrenalin she might’ve remembered the protective enchantments she’d put around her castle. If she had she probably wouldn’t have come to the conclusion that it would be safer to bring Spike with her rather than leave him all alone in the castle. Instead she pulled him over to her back before hurrying out of the castle with Rainbow hot on her heels. She couldn’t have foreseen it at that time but the decision to bring Spike along that night would both save her life but also bring the young drake a lot of psychological stress.

But since Twilight currently wasn’t thinking clearly she only cried “Hang on!” to her passenger as she and Rainbow took flight in the raging snowstorm, heading as fast as they could towards Whitetail woods as fast as their wings and the weather would allow them.

Left behind and still confused about everything that had just happened was a certain pink maned pegasus. “I-I’ll just stay here and hold down the fort then,” She murmured softly in the now empty reading room.

As the Whitetail wood tree line came into sight through the whirling snow the skies were lit up by a massive flash of light that was quickly followed by the crash of thunder. Having been temporarily blinded by the sudden light Twilight found herself blinking as she fought the howling the winds to stay in the air.

Before she had time to recover though Rainbow cried to her right. “Over there look!”

A quick glance to her right showed her that Rainbow was pointing towards something in the forest. She strained her eyes as she looked in the general direction that rainbow had pointed and could barely observe a flicker of light in the dark forest before them.

“Twilight that is Cloud, right?” She heard Rainbow ask.

“I think so, I mean it has to be,” She replied before Rainbow quickly asked a follow up question.

“Well what are we waiting for? He can’t take on a potential hive by himself, right?”

Twilight turned her head to look at her pegasus friend to find her already looking intently at her. The determined expression she could read on Dash’s face mirrored how she felt inside when she simply responded to her previous question with a nod. Then without further words they both hurried after the light that had seemed to disappear deeper into the storm of snowflakes.

They didn’t have to fly far though as a large hole in the middle of the forest was hard to miss, even in the midst of the swirling snow. Exchanging another look with Rainbow they quickly descended so that they could peer over the edge of the large opening in the ground.

“I think I see a light down there,” Spike suddenly said from her back, startling her slightly. She had almost forgotten that he was there with them for a moment.

Although when she followed where Spike was pointing she could see the aforementioned light. It flickered at the far end of what must be a massive cave formation under them. A light must mean that somepony is or was here. She thought as she strained her ears, trying to hear anything that would indicate that Cloud was down there. However the wailing wind quickly made it clear that such a thing would be impossible. That only left one option open to them if they wanted to check what secrets this cave held within a reasonable time frame and that was to go down there themselves. Okay Twilight best case scenario: You lead everypony down there and find Cloud and in extension get him out of there. Worst case we all get captured, and the middle road would be that this is unrelated and would be a waste of time. She debated with herself, unsure of what would be the best choice in this situation.

Due to a certain polychromatic pegasus though she wouldn’t have to make the choice as said pegasus suddenly dove down the hole and into the darkness while crying out: “Hold on Cloud we’re coming!”

As she saw her friend fly in she was left with little choice than to follow her down and soon they found themselves in the large chamber they had been looking down into. A chamber that still had the odd flickering torch here and there but was otherwise seemingly empty.

The bravado Rainbow had shown a mere moment ago seemed to have evaporated. “Woah this place is creepy,” She muttered as her eyes narrowed in an attempt to pierce the overbearing darkness.
Twilight couldn’t help but to silently agree with Rainbow’s statement. “Close your eyes for a second, I’m going to create a light,” She called to Dash and Spike before creating a simple spell matrix for a mage light.

A few seconds later the entire chamber was lit up by a large sphere that produced a sterile white light. Twilight felt her eyes widen as she now could see just how big the cave was. To say that it was large would be a grave misnomer as the thing stretched on much further than she had originally thought. Moreover to call it a cave would also most likely be false as the box like qualities it held were clear signs of it having been artificially created. But despite its impressive size the chamber remained as eerily empty as it first had seemed.

“What do you think?” She asked her two companions, causing her voice to echo down the walls of the chamber.

“I don’t what to think Twi. But we’re wasting time here and should start heading out to search for Cloud,” Rainbow declared.

“I believe that we should at least look for clues in this place,” Spike suggested from her back.

She weighed the options she had been presented with quietly for a few seconds before coming to a decision. “I agree with Spike. We need to figure out what we can from this place and not charge off into the snowstorm blindly again,”

Rainbow opened her mouth to protest but ultimately closed it again. With a sigh she nodded before being able to speak again. “You’re right, I was still high on adrenaline,”

Twilight nodded in understanding, a few moments ago she too had suffered a similar fate although not as severe as Rainbow. “It’s okay, but you’re still right that we’re still somewhat pressed for time. As such we need to split up to cover the area of this chamber faster, do not leave the chamber itself though and call out the moment you find something,” she instructed quickly.

Rainbow threw a quick salute. “Will do Twi,” she said before shooting off towards one end of the chamber.

“Alright Spike, we’ll take this side then,” She told her passenger before turning to face the opposite direction from where Rainbow had flown.

She barely had time to take a few steps though before Rainbow’s voice echoed throughout the cavernous chamber. “Hey Twi! Over here, I found something!”

After throwing Spike a quick glance to make sure he was holding onto her mane she launched herself into the air and proceeded to fly over in the direction where Rainbow had gone. As she barely had had any time to move, reaching Rainbow was a quick affair but the sight that met her left her somewhat confused.

There on the ground next to Rainbow lay a clearly dead changeling drone with crude stone dagger driven through its chest, blue blood pooling around it. What only added to the confusion was the fact that two of its legs had clearly been broken.

“What do you think happened here?” Rainbow asked, bringing her back from her confused thoughts.

She shook her head. “I don’t know Dash, I really don’t know,” She answered as she tore her gaze from the corpse to look at her friend. “Any sign of Cloud?”

Now it was Rainbow’s turn to shake her head. “No, I don’t think he’s still here. Either he pursued the changelings for whatever reason or maybe they’ve taken him hostage,” She said with a frown.

“Possible…” Twilight said as she pondered on the next course of action. Rainbow’s theories certainly hold merit in the current situation but it doesn’t help us help Cloud since we have no idea where he has gone. Something about all this feels off though and I can’t put my hoof on what. Furthermore where in the nine circles of hell am I supposed to find a clue to where Cloud is now? She thought to herself, adding a bit of Cloud’s, at times, colorful vocabulary for good measure.

Her answer came in the form of Spike’s clear voice, cutting through the dark chamber like a knife. “Can’t we just cast a spell or something to track Cloud?”

Oh Spike if I could do that I would’ve done so from the get go. She thought as she opened her mouth to gently rebuke him but froze mid motion. Wait, I may not be able to track the whereabouts of single individuals but if this chamber was full of changelings there must’ve been some kind of magic involved in making them all vanish. And magic capable of transporting even just three individuals leaves enough thaumatic residue for somepony skilled in magic to reconstruct the spell matrix used to a certain degree.

“Spike you’re a genius!” She exclaimed, giving her assistant a quick hug before releasing him just as quickly. “Stand back I’m going to try something,” She told her bewildered assistant and confused friend.

Gathering magic to her horn she quickly constructed a spell matrix that would allow her to see the thaumatic spectrum. As soon as the matrix completed thin lines of green magic intersecting thicker ones started to appear in the air behind the dead changeling. More and more lines joined the existing ones as complex pattern started to form and soon the after image of a massive spell matrix hung in the air before her enhanced eyes.

It’s huge… Was the first thought that crossed her mind as her eyes drank in the sizable after image of the matrix. When she got over the initial shock of seeing the spell’s actual size she quickly started to scan the matrix itself for some sort of coordinates or anything that could discern what type of spell it had been. The minutes trickled by as her eyes darted back and forth trying to decipher the changeling spell. So if those lines there are to stabilize the tunneling process then those symbols must translate into some sort of triangulation matrix for a previously fixed point. Now if I take those and trace recorded ley lines to find a match I get… She felt her eyes widen as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Cantlerlot,” She whispered as a shiver ran down her spine.

“Quickly gather around me!” She cried out to Spike and Rainbow as she started to prepare a long range teleportation spell.

The matrix for the spell finished constructing mere moments after Rainbow and Spike reached her and the chamber vanished in a flash of white and purple magic

The sound of somepony knocking on the door made Twilight Velvet look up from the silverware she was polishing and throw a glance in the direction of said door. “I wonder who that could be this late and in this weather?” She wondered out loud as she carefully set down the fork and rag she’d been levitating.

“Your guess is as good as mine honey but let’s go have a look shall we?” Her husband Nightlight suggested to her left as he carefully levitated half a dozen plates into a cupboard.

The two of them trotted over to the door and Velvet used her magic to push it open. The sight that met the couple was that of four royal guards.

“Dame Velvet, Mr. Nightlight we are here to evacuate you due to standing orders from princess Celestia,” The guard closest to them reported smartly.

Their confusion must’ve been highly visible as the guard was quick to speak again. “I do not wish to alarm the two of you, but there has been mass sightings of changelings in the city and protocols that were created after the last attack dictates that any family members to the elements of harmony must be secured as soon as possible so that may not be used as hostages,”

Velvet snapped out of the confusion she had momentarily found herself in and was already putting on clothes to shield her from the snowstorm outside before the guard finished speaking. A glance to her right showed her husband doing the same thing. “We’re ready to go…” She began but realized that the guard had never given her his rank or name.

To the credit of the guard he caught on quickly. “I’m lieutenant Wind Bolt ma’am,” He said offering a quick salute to her before motioning for them to move in between the four of them.

She quickly stepped out into the heavy snowfall and harsh wind, her husband staying just to the right of her. In rapid succession the four guards took up positions around them and started to escort them towards the castle. Their progress was slow due to already snow filled streets and it didn’t help that they were moving against the howling wind. Perhaps it was only due to this reason that she heard the telltale signs of struggle up ahead. The guards, seemingly having caught on that something was happening up ahead tightened the formation around her husband and her and a mere moment later a terrible screech was heard up ahead. The sounds of fighting suddenly died down and then one of the light posts flickered and died up ahead and then another one and another one as the seconds slowly trickled by.

“We need to get off the street,” Lieutenant Wind suddenly ordered as he snapped out of the daze he had been in.

The guards quickly followed their new order and quickly ushered Nightlight and her into a close by alley. In the darkness of the alley they waited in silence, watching the still illuminated street from their hiding spot, but no further sounds were heard for a full minute. Then, cutting through the oppressive silence, the sound of a snow muted gallop could be heard and a moment later a panicked and wingless changeling appeared in lamp lit street before them. Its head turned towards the six ponies in the alley and cried one desperate word. “Help!”

Then the streetlights flickered once before dying completely. The sound of something heavy landing echoed through the alley followed by the changeling’s strangled cry of fear. A sharp crack of something breaking rung out and a breathless moment later the clang of metal hitting stone was heard too. Velvet strained her eyes, trying to make out what might have caused the lights to die out. As the seconds trickled by she thought that she saw a huge shape rise up from where the changeling had been standing. A small gasp signaled that one of the guards seemed to have noticed the shape as well, however the gasp caught the shapes attention. The shape whirled around as an impossible bolt of lightning lit up the night, revealing the shapes true nature for a split second. Her mind was quick to note the blue and red splotches of blood that covered the creature and the spear that was still piercing the now lifeless changeling. As darkness once more hid the creature one thing remained though. Through the darkness Velvet found herself staring into a set of cold glowing golden eyes that promised death. Under that maddening gaze Velvet found herself shaking in terror as her body refused to respond to her commands of running away.

The creature’s eyes stared at them for a few more moments in the darkness before it turned its head towards the stormy skies with something sounding almost like a snarl. The sound of a pair of huge wings unfolding was heard before the creature's shape could be seen shooting off into the sky. A few seconds after the creature had left the street lights flickered back on, revealing the corpse of the changeling and the ever growing mass of blue bloodied snow that surrounded it.

Chrysalis circled the apathetic form of a mind controlled Celestia, the feeling of how easy it had been was still slightly overwhelming to her. All she had needed to do was stroll up to the throne room while wearing the human’s guise and the foolish sun princess had more or less given herself to her.

“Oh how the mighty have fallen,” Chrysalis chuckled as she came to a halt in front of the frozen princess.

She let one hoof caress the princess’ cheek. “This is the second time that I have you under my control princess and seeing how my children are keeping your precious sister and the guards in check there won’t be a third,” She purred.

“I will bleed your precious ponies dry of all their love and then I’ll-” Fear, pain, a glint of metal in the dark. Chrysalis legs almost gave out as her mind was overloaded by an emotional backlash from the hive mind.

When last parts washed away from her mind she found herself wide eyed and hyperventilating as an image of two cold golden eyes cloaked in darkness were burned into her mind.

“For Luna!” Longshot cried as he dove towards the changeling pack below, the rest of his squad diving alongside him. They slammed into the changelings with righteous fury, making short work of the pack but despite their skill advantage they were gaining no ground. This had been the 5th pack that they had decimated in the past hour and every time it seemed like they might have a shot at retaking the palace they’d be pushed back by the swarm.
What was worse was the simple fact that they were fighting an enemy that easily took the shape of the comrades you were used to fight side by side with. This simple fact had more than once resulted in reinforcements arriving to help them only for them to turn into more damnable bugs when they got within striking distance.

Because of this Longshot was already on edge when a group of solar guards came hurrying down the street as the last changeling in the pack fell to Star Spark’s wing blades.

“Stop right there!” He barked before the group of guards got to close to his squad.

The solar guards came to a quick halt in the snow covered street their commanding officer stepping in front of the others. “Your suspicion is wise but completely unwarranted in this case lieutenant,” He called to Longshot.

Longshot however would have none of it. “State your name, rank and where you’d normally would be stationed,” He ordered in a no nonsense voice that he had picked up in officer class and had started to perfect after becoming a father.

“Corporal Slingshot normally stationed at the Canterlot customs along with the rest of the guards stationed there,” The previously unnamed officer replied quickly. “Can we stop this now and go after the real enemy lieutenant?” He asked taking a step forward.

“You will stand still until I’m done with my questions corporal!” Longshot replied sharply.

“Now listen here you’re wasting time sir. We aren’t anpony su-” Slingshot began but stopped mid-sentence as every streetlight in the immediate area seemed to go out at the same time, shrouding the area in darkness.

Longshot’s sharp ears picked up the sound of something heavy landing in the snow moments before his eyes adapted to the now dark street. The large shape of Cloud wielding his strange spear was unmistakable as he rose to his full height just behind the group of solar guards who were frantically looking left and right in the sudden darkness. His first sensation was a feeling of relief as he doubted that the changelings would be dumb enough to attempt to mimic Cloud then he started to notice the little things and his relief started to morph into something else. First were the obvious and easy to spot phenomena his friend was displaying, namely the scarf that flapped furiously in the wind but not in the direction of the wind caused by the ongoing storm. Next were the sparks of electricity that were coming of his body and further arced out among the swirling snowflakes, creating a display that looked equal amounts impressive as it looked deadly. Then there were the more subtle hints that could be seen in the human’s body language, how his body tensed as if preparing to pounce onto unsuspecting prey and how his golden eyes shone with something far more primal than he’d thought the human capable of. One time Cloud had told them that his kind were the apex predators of his home world, that time Longshot hadn’t believed him. Now he did.

It was also around this time that he came to realize that the electric effect was spreading further and further away from the human, creating a slowly expanding barrier of charged snow particles. But more of interest was the fact that wherever the electrified snowflakes would land on the squad of solar guards tiny puffs of green flames would erupt. Before he could even react to the information his eyes were providing him with Cloud lashed out with his spear catching the false guard closest to him in the neck. With a gurgling sound he fell to the ground as burst of green flames illuminated the dark street, revealing the changelings’ true form as it died. For a moment everything stopped as darkness once more fell upon the street. Well, everything except the howling wind and the faint pops and crackles caused by the multitude of electrical discharges. Then as if given some silent signal the group of false solar guards started to scatter in panic as they tried to get away from Cloud. But turning away only proved to be worse as the human descended upon the eight remaining changelings with a ferocity that not even a griffin warrior could hope to match. Longshot found himself unable to move as his friend all but butchered his prey and when the last changeling fell Cloud finally turned his gaze towards him. A shiver ran down Longshot’s spine as he took an involuntary step back, he had been wrong before when he described Cloud’s eyes as if they held a primal quality. Those were not the eyes of his friend, those were the eyes of a something, a monster on the hunt.

The thing in in Cloud’s shape looked over him and his squad for a few seconds as if it was waiting for something. Then it suddenly just turned and took a running leap up into the swirling masses of snow overhead. A loud exhale was heard to his left made him turn his head and found Star Spark still looking up at the retreating form of the Storm paragon.

“What the hay was that? What’s going on with Cloud?” He heard her mutter to herself.

Additionally he quickly started to become aware of the similar mutterings from the rest of his squad. Thinking quickly he turned to address them.

“Listen up! That was our local Storm paragon, friend of our liege and consort to the sun, and right now he’s leading the charge! Are you going to let him do it alone?” He questioned his subordinates while expertly masking his own worries from his subordinates. Well masking it from most of them, Star would most likely see through his bravado.

His words certainly had the desired effect though as he could see the confusion and frightened faces slowly start shine with determination once again. Hang on Cloud, you’re not alone in this fight. He thought as he inhaled to start giving his next set of orders.

The world flashed back into existence and Twilight found herself standing on one of the snow covered piers of the Canterlot docks. She blinked a few times in an attempt to make her eyes get used to significantly more well-lit docks compared to the stone chamber in the White tail woods. A long range teleport like this would’ve been impossible for me to cast before I turned into an alicorn. She thought to herself as she turned her head to see if Spike and Rainbow had come through unscathed. What she found was Spike in the middle of the process of helping Rainbow to her hooves, the former having gotten used to teleporting from the years of living with her.

Rainbow swayed slightly on her hooves before shaking her head, seemingly managing to clear the lingering disorientation. “Where… Where are we Twi?” She asked as she looked around the snowy docks.

Twilight opened her mouth to answer but stopped as a strange coincidence occurred to her. Isn’t this the same pier we arrived at with the Rustfeather family? She thought as she looked at the tied down airships still present in the docks.

In her failure to answer Rainbow Spike took the moment of silence to answer for her. “I’d say we’re in the Canterlot docks if I’m not mistaken,”

“You’re right Spike. The spell in the cave was set to open a gate to this spot which means that Cloud most likely is somewhere here in Canterlot,” Twilight added to her assistant’s observation.

Rainbow raised a hoof. “Okay so what do we do now?” She asked.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why we find Cloud of course,”

“Yes but I meant how do we do that? It’s not like we know where in the city he is hi-” Rainbow continued but was cut off as a large bolt of lightning cut through the storming skies.
“I stand corrected,” She muttered before quickly opening her wings, getting ready to take flight.

Twilight, remembering that Spike was with them called out to her friend. “Hold on Rainbow Spike needs to get onto my back before we rush off anywhere,”

Rainbow shot her a sheepish smile that pretty much said that she had, like Twilight earlier, forgotten that the young dragon was accompanying them. Whether Spike noticed this or not she wouldn’t as he wasted no time climbing onto her back.

“I’m ready Twilight,” He announced almost as soon as she felt his weight settle down.

Shooting Rainbow a quick nod, she extended her own wings and launched into the skies, heading towards where the lightning bolt had manifested.

While fighting the snow filled and howling wind was challenging the slowly made their way towards the bolts general area of appearance. But the closer they got Twilight couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of dread. It wasn’t until she spotted a familiar street crossing that she realized why. This is where my parents live! Shot through her mind and before she could stop herself she had started to align herself to where she knew her childhood home to be. She did however stop as her passenger suddenly cried out.

“Hey what’s that down there?!”

Turning her head to look at Spike she found him pointing at pony formed shape close to the entrance of an alley, a shape already half covered in snow. “Rainbow!” She called out, getting the attention of her friend. A quick motion with her hoof directed the pegasus’ attention towards the alley.

The two shared a quick look before descending down into the sparsely lit alley as fast as the wind allow them to. The moment they touched down Twilight turned her head towards Spike. “Hop down while I check it out,” She told him, the severity in her tone made him comply without a single word of protest.

She carefully approached the pony shape. Here in the alley she was relatively shielded from the wind so she could clearly hear the snow crunching beneath her hooves until one of her fore-hooves caused a sloshing sound as she stepped close to the shape. Confused she looked down to see what she had stepped on to make such a different sound. What she saw made her jump back as her instincts kicked in. Blooming out from where her hoof had stepped was a blue sizeable, slightly circular pattern. She felt her eyes widen as she looked up on the still unmoving shape. Using her magic she reached out to grab it and as she slowly lifted it the corpse of changeling was slowly uncovered from its icy grave.

“This one has been stabbed too,” Rainbow spoke to her right, making her jump in surprise as she had not been paying attention to what her friend had been doing.

She laid the dead changeling back as she turned to Rainbow, finding her wearing an unreadable expression. “Yes, but was it Cloud who did it?”

Rainbow simply shook her head. “Impossible to know for sure. What is our next move? Wait for Cloud to make his current position known again or what?”

We came here for Cloud, but… She thought as images of her parents flashed through her mind. “Actually, I’d like to check on my parents. They live quite close to here and-”

“Say no more, I understand completely Twi,” Rainbow interrupted her before she could start rambling.

She shot Rainbow a thankful smile before turning to Spike. “Come on, hop on Spike,” Spike who had adopted a determined look quickly scrambled onto her back once again.

Once Spike was securely seated she spoke once more. “Ok, we’ll continue on hoof. My parent’s house is less than five minutes from here,”

With that said she proceeded to lead the trio out of the alley and into the much more well-lit street. Taking a left she let her body run on auto-pilot as she headed down the familiar although snow covered street. Perhaps it was due to this fact that she didn’t notice the slight buzzing in the air or perhaps it was due to the fact that the wind was more pronounced again after leaving the alley. The only warning she got was Spike jumping of her back with a shout.

“Twilight watch out!” She heard her adopted brother cry and had just enough time to whirl around to see Spike get hit by a beam of green magic that he had thrown himself in front of.

It was around this point where everything took a turn for the worse. In the distance another massive bolt of lightning split the skies and at the same time a wave of electricity washed over Spike who seemed to be unaffected by the changeling spell. The young drake let out an uncharacteristic growl before spewing a blast of green fire into the face of a surprised changeling, the very same that had hit him with a spell. As the now very dead changeling fell, Spike stumbled once before collapsing in the snow where he remained unmoving. For a few heartbeats her mind refused to acknowledge what had just transpired before her eyes but then everything came crashing down all at once.

“Spike!” She cried out as she dove straight for her dragon brother, ignoring the other two changelings that were still up.

Fortunately she wasn’t alone and as such when the changelings in turn dove for her they were met with cyan hooves that hit with near lethal accuracy. The pair was quickly reduced to a mess of cracked chitin and blood being soaked up by the snow before Rainbow was back by Twilight’s side.

“How is he? Is he okay?” The pegasus immediately asked her, concern lacing her voice.

Twilight looked up from checking on Spike. “He’s unconscious but he’s breathing steadily,” She told her friend, the concerned tone Rainbow had used being mirrored by her own.

“We need to get him to my parent’s home. While it might not be the safest choice it’s by far the closest at this point,” She thought out loud as she tried to lift Spike with her aura. However when it failed to gain purchase on his body she hurriedly lifted Spike with her hooves, gently placing him on her back again.

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out from the air,” Rainbow announced before hopping into the sky, before Twilight could stop her.

“Hang on Spike,” Twilight murmured before taking off running down the street, her unconscious assistant/brother being kept in place with the help of her wings. Had she not been filled with fear for Spike’s well being she might’ve taken a moment to consider the implications of what had just transpired, but such rationality is neigh impossible to achieve when fighting both adrenalin and fear at the same time.

Streetlights and dark buildings rushed past in a blur as she galloped through the cobblestone streets, only blind luck keeping her from slipping on the ice and snow covered stones. Not that any of that really registered for her at the moment though. In her head images of a similar night flashed, a night close to three years ago were Spike had been barely saved by Cloud’s intervention. I will not let things get that far out of hoof again! She swore to herself as she came to a sliding outside the Sparkle family residency. Hurrying up to the door she registered Rainbow landing to her left as she raised a hoof to knock on the door. What she hadn’t expected though was for the door to be flung open and in extension find herself staring at two spear tips leveled at her face.

“Twilight honey, is that you?” A familiar voice called out from behind the two guards who still hadn’t moved their spears.

Out of the dark home the shape of her mother materialized and once she saw her daughter she pushed past the two guards who to their credit were fast to voice their objections. “Dame Velvet we need to made sure that they aren’t disguised changelings!”

Their cry caused the older mare to stop in place before quickly lighting her horn. A moment later Twilight felt a familiar tingle run through her coat as a familiar detection spell worked its way over her, Rainbow and Spike.

As the spell finished and Twilight did remain herself her mother resumed her rush as if nothing had happened. She soon found herself in her mother’s crushing hug. “Oh honey it’s so wonderful to see that you’re safe!” She exclaimed.

Twilight returned the hug as best she could as she replied. “Hi mom, I’m afraid I can’t stay long,”

Her mother made a dissatisfied noise and continued to hug her. It wasn’t until a new voice spoke up that she finally released her. “Come now Velvet, you and I both know that she is more than capable to make her own decisions at this point,” The voice of her father said.

“But Night this is different, that thing is out there somewhere,” Her mother protested.

“And were you still a knight of Equestria you’d say that duty conquers fear, am I right?” Her father replied calmly, making her mother frown slightly.

“But-” Velvet tried again but was interrupted by her Night Light.

“No buts Velvet,” He said before turning his attention to Twilight. “Hello honey, it’s wonderful to see that you’re safe. But if I know anything from all the adventures you’ve regaled us with during family gatherings I’m willing to guess that you’re somehow connected to what’s happening tonight,”

“Yes however before I give you the short version I need you to take care of Spike. He was hit by some kind of changeling spell and now he’s unconscious,” She quickly replied as she lowered a wing to reveal Spikes form.

Velvet hurried up to the still form of Spike. “Oh the poor dear! Of course we’ll take care of him,” She exclaimed as she carefully levitated Spike off Twilight’s back before carefully placing him on her own.

“Now tell me about this thing you seem to have seen,” Twilight asked her parents, the fact that magic again seemed to have an effect on Spike failing to register for the moment.

“Well…” Velvet began. “It was large, walked on two legs, had wings and had a pair of terrifying, cold golden eyes,” She elaborated.

Twilight and found herself looking over at Rainbow as one of the guards chimed in. “It also had this spear like object that it used to kill a changeling in front of us,”

Twilight and Rainbow spoke a single name at the same time as there was no longer any doubt what her parents and the guards had witnessed. “Cloud,”

Turning back to her parents she spoke hurriedly. “Sorry mom, dad but we need to fly. Cloud needs our help badly,”

And with that the two of them launched into the swirling snow again, leaving Twilight Velvet to call after them. “What do you mean Cloud needs your help!”

A call that fell on deaf ears.

Queen Chrysalis gazed out of one of the throne room windows and at the battle her children fought against the paltry forces trying to reach Celestia. All that remained now were scattered pockets of guards that couldn’t hope to break through the swarm that protected the newly captured castle. Even the group of bat ponies led by Princess Luna were not enough to warrant a threat, they were after all greatly outnumbered and could not sacrifice their numbers on an all-out attack should such a tactic fail. Today was the day everything would change, the day were changelings finally took over as the true rulers of the cattle filled Equestria.

Sure there had been some changelings that had perished but that was nothing she couldn’t replace with time. She found herself smirking as she turned and started to walk away from the window, heading for the throne. I need to change the colors to match mine and I need to parade Celestia around the city tomorrow. She idly thought to herself as the sound of her hooves echoed through the large throne room. The sound of shattering glass accompanied by the now much more pronounced sound of fighting caused her to snap out of her daydreaming though as she whirled around on the spot.

For a moment her world froze as she found herself staring into a pair of golden eyes. No the same golden eyes I saw through the backlash. She realized as she started to take in more of the entity that had appeared. She felt her eyes widen as her mind finally connected the dots and she realized what she was staring at.

There in front of her stood the human she had left as a broken wreck in their staging site, but as much as her eyes told her that this was the human she couldn’t believe that this was the same creature. This thing was covered in in small lacerations, blue splotches of changeling blood and clothes torn from struggle. Around his neck was the scarf it had worn earlier, except now it flicked violently in a nonexistent wind. Furthermore occasional sparks of electricity crackled and arced around his form. Despite all this she found her gaze wandering back to his eyes though. Those eyes were not the same that had been so worried about the illusion she had imparted on him hours earlier. No these eyes were cold, uncaring, deadly and currently locked on her. But worst of all would be the lack of emotions this apparition gave off, as if the thing before was nothing more than a shell. Something that didn’t match the look of fury across its features.

“What are you? You couldn’t possibly have broken out of that despair I left you in! I demand that you ans-” She started to demand but was forced to cut herself short as she had to dodge out of the way from the human recklessly launching himself at her with a beastlike snarl.

“So be it,” She growled back as she hopped backwards to avoid an arcing strike from the soul spear the human wielded.

If the human didn’t want to live then she would be happy to oblige him. She thought to herself as she lit her horn to prepare for the impending fight.

Following the unnatural bolts of lightning Rainbow found herself and Twilight getting closer and closer to Canterlot castle proper until the sound of battle could be heard in the distance, carried by the sweeping winds.

As the two flew over the outer walls of the castle the full extent of the battle being fought revealed itself. Everywhere pockets of guards fought in tandem to keep swarming changelings away from their comrades and in the skies princess Luna could be seen desperately trying force her way through a wall of changelings.

Woah. Rainbow thought before she could stop herself. There was no end to the struggles before her and for the first time this night she was unsure of what she should do. Unfortunately for her a sky blue coat with a rainbow mane is quite visible, even in a snowstorm. So before she could make a decision for herself or discuss their options with Twilight a screech rang out followed by the buzzing of changeling wings.

Looking at Twilight she found her friend wearing a grim expression as her horn started to glow brightly. I guess she has quite the grudge for what they did to Spike. She had time to think before they were forced into the ongoing fray.

She cursed under her breath as she tried to push past the wall of buzzing Changelings again and catch up with Cloud who she had seen fly straight through one of the throne room windows. But despite how many changelings she destroyed there seemed to be three more to take every fallen bugs place. Together with her guard in the skies and the solar guard supporting from the ground they should’ve been able to push through this. If only what passed as a guard hadn’t diminished so much over the last millennia we would’ve never been under the threat of a second invasion in the first place. She lamented to herself as she dove to support one of her guards that had gotten tangled in an aerial melee with two drones.

Her magic lashed out as she flew past effectively clipping the changeling wings, leaving them to fall with surprised screeches while simultaneously freeing up the guard. The mare in question offered her a quick salute before rejoining the fight, paying the favor forward to changeling that had attempted to flank yet another bat pony. There’s no end to this. Luna allowed herself to think wearily. Through a small opening between the buzzing changelings she saw Cloud almost recklessly knock away a blast of changeling magic with his spear before he was once more lost from view. Hold on my friend I’m coming! She thought with renewed vigor, flapping her wings to intercept a little too bold drone above her.

As the drone fell to hoof connecting solidly on its jaw she found another small moment of respite as she hunted for her next opening. Between the changelings she caught another glimpse of Cloud missing the changeling queen with a wide swing of his spear. A magenta flash of magic lit up night, making her tear her gaze away from fighting in front of her. What she found instead was Princess Twilight and the element of Loyalty engaged with an ever increasing force of changelings. Reacting quickly she called out to the four guards closest to her.

“Tuft, Orange, Wing, Remedy get over there and help Princess Twilight and Loyalty!” She cried out, motioning with a hoof.

The four guards quickly disengaged and offered a quick. “Right away ma’am!” Before they flew over to support the newly arrived Twilight and Loyalty.

Turning her focus back to the much more immediate fight she caught the arrival of Longshot’s squad as they slammed into the flank of a mass of changelings that had been harassing a group of Solar guards on the ground. A bright flash of green, shining through the swarming drones followed by the sound of an explosion had her trying to catch another glimpse of what was going on inside the throne room. When she finally got one she found that multiple pillars in the throne room had been demolished and Cloud was now on the defensive. With an angry shout she threw herself at the wall of drones, attempting again to break through with renewed vigor. She was however ultimately denied once more as the drones formed up in front of her, dying one by one to her attacks yet remaining unyielding.

Seeing how her current tactic wasn’t working she fell back, trying to bait the changelings into breaking formation to pursue her. While her tactic proved successful and she managed to get a hoof-full of drones to follow her it wasn’t enough to create the opening she wanted. What it did do however was to give her a clear view of Cloud seemingly stopping a magic blast in mid-air as the air sparked and crackled around him. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the display before a changeling that had gotten a bit too close forced her focus back onto her own fight. With snarl she fired a blast of magic, pushing back the approaching drones so that she could get some breathing room to take stock of the situation.

Then suddenly everything seemed to happen at once. Another quick glance showed Cloud finally scoring a hit against the changeling queen, the blade of his spear making a shallow cut on the softer chitin that covered her face. The queen in turn flinched both in pain and surprise which in turn caused her drones to stop for a second and her previously apathetic sister to lightly shake her head in confusion just before a flash of green magic threw Cloud towards the rubble of a broken pillar. Taking advantage of the small window of relative calm on the combat zone Luna dashed forward and finally managed to get past the wall of changelings.

She dove in through the window Cloud had smashed through a few minutes earlier just in time to see Chrysalis hurl a long piece of rebar towards the long since exhausted Storm paragon. No. Her mind screamed as she tried to reach out with her aura in time only to be denied when the long piece of metal pierced Cloud’s abdomen.

“NOO!” She cried out, slipping into the royal Canterlot voice as she rushed towards Cloud.

She was a few meters away from Cloud as he looked down towards the offending piece of metal currently spearing him. He seemed confused as he lightly pressed one of his hands to the wound before slowly pulling it away and for a second he just stared at the now crimson hand, swaying unsteadily.

“Oh…” He uttered softly before his legs gave out.

She dove forward, catching the fallen human just before he hit the ground. His blood stained her coat as she tried to get any sign of life out of him. “Cloud! Cloud you have to stay alive! You ca-” She began to plead but a flash of light in her periphery made her throw up a shield on reflex and she was lucky that she did.

An earthshattering wail of anguish and fury echoed throughout the throne room effectively blowing out every single window. Luna turned her head to find her very distraught sister, somehow having cast off the last chains of the mind control she had been under, staring straight at the lifeless Cloud. It was from there that everything took a turn for the worse. Celestia’s coat darkened quickly as her mane and tail turned into raw fire and her otherwise rose colored eyes became slitted furious orange orbs that turned towards Chrysalis. With a cry of anger, this one even louder than the first wail, her sister released the fury of her celestial body in a room much too small to contain such power. Everything that wasn’t shielded was instantly immolated by the sheer heat alone. Tapestries turned to ash, the marble floor cracked and began to melt under sudden shift in temperature. But all that were secondary to what happened to the changeling queen. As she had been completely caught off guard she had been struck by the full force of her sister’s fury.

Luna could only watch from under the shield as her sister approached the already long dead husk of the former queen, cooked alive in her chitin before her organs turned to ash. With an almost predatory snarl Celestia lashed out with a hoof, breaking the burnt out and brittle husk with a snapping sound that echoed through the otherwise silent throne room. As the sound faded into oblivion another one took its place, one of thousands of changelings fleeing in panic into the darkness of the stormy skies above Canterlot.

We have won today. But at what price? Luna found herself asking as she tore her gaze from her sister to look at her weakly breathing friend in her hooves.

Author's Notes:

After quite the unplanned absence have a chapter with a new cliffhanger. All I can say is that the next chapter will not take as long as this one to see the light of day.

If I have any readers left I thank you for your patience. Next chapters working title is: Ash like snow.