“Hurry! Get out of the city!” Scoddri shouted with the RCV as loudly as he could, spurring on the stampedes of ponies rushing to the gates leaving the city. Being a quadrupedal herding race was especially useful in instances such as right this instant, where a mass exodus was necessary. The earth ponies and unicorns all fled with panicked precision, not caring about personal space as they flowed out of the city like a kaleidoscope river. The pegasi, both military and civilian acted as waypoints, shouting and directing the flow from above, several hovering over each turning point to fly in an arrow formation to point the way to go.

“Flee My Little Ponies! Canterlot is crumbling!” Celestia shouted as well, encouraging them to continue their stampeding as she personally teleported stragglers or poor souls who were nearly trampled to death to Ponyville, as the primary evacuation location of Stallion's Landing was clearly compromised, and she hadn't gotten word from Luna on the situation yet. “Status report!”

Her demand to one of her Solar Guard captains got the pegasus to flinch, only to recover quickly and salute. “The evacuation is going as quickly as can be managed Princess! But if we don't get them all out of the royal district soon-!” Suddenly, the royal district just outside Castle Canterlot practically exploded as the bedrock beneath heaved, and the castle itself began to tremble as it sank, the ledge it sat on losing stability. “No....”

“It is just a castle captain! It can be replaced! But the ponies that could still be inside can't! I will search for stragglers and get them to safety, continue with the evacuation!” Celestia teleported back to her crumbling castle, unshed tears threatening to leave her magenta eyes. “How could it come to this? Why is this happening?” She used a Detect Life spell, and then a Detect Undead spell to discover several staff were hiding throughout the castle, likely being trapped or too scared to move, Shining was still in the council room with several of her guards, and a large mass of undead signals were coming from the dungeons. “I cannot leave any of them, they might have answers I desperately need.”

Celestia took a calming breath, and focused on each signal, and teleported them all to Ponyville save Shining and the changelings Spike had sent to the dungeon. The changelings because she had to consider where was secure enough to put them, and Shining because...he resisted her remote teleport. 'Shining, what are you up to?' Celestia asked telepathically as she decided to send the prisoners to the Ponyville jail, it would be filled to bursting, but it would have to do.

'Cadence! I have to find her!' Shining replied as he finally left the room through sheer force upon being woken by the sensation of nearly being teleported. 'That imposter said she'd give her back once this was over before she knocked me out! But I'm not waiting! I have to save my wife!'

'Shining the castle is crumbling! You have to-!'

'I HAVE to find my love! I won't leave without her!' Celestia was stunned by a spear-shaped hollow pink barrier pierced clear through the middle of the castle, just before her, and Shining falling past her through the tube with determination in his eyes, and in that split second they made eye contact before he continued on. 'If there's one thing Cadence has taught me, it's that love can conquer anything! I won't let anything get between us, even if I have to move the stars themselves!'

Tia was stunned, and impressed with her Royal Guard captain, and smiled understandingly. He'd be fine. 'Then Faust-speed to you stallion. Bring my niece home. I must continue to evacuate the city.' Tia teleported out of the castle moments before the ledge gave way, and the symbol of Equestria's capital tumbled over into the forested valley below, a terrifying sight that more than half the country witnessed.

“Whoa...that was close.” Shining commented as he looked above him at where the castle once stood. The solid structure had lifted practically completely out of the ground by it's magically solid foundation, exposing the sky through the hole he'd punched through bedrock into this...green...chamber.... “What the tartarus?”

Shining gaped at the cocoons around him, seeing all the changelings within them. But the one that drew his utmost attention, was the oddly pink and purple one in the largest cocoon he'd landed next to in the center of the room. He felt shock as recognition shot through him. “CADENCE?!”

Shining didn't question it, he knew this one was his wife-to-be, and promptly ripped it in half with his magic, getting a coughing and sputtering changeling of Chrysalis's former stature to awaken as she fidgeted on the floor. “Sh-Shiny?” The voice had an odd echo to it, giving it an ethereal quality that oddly mesmerized the stallion even more than her original sultry and caring tone. “Wh-where are we?”

She stood shakily, Shining moving to steady her by letting her lean against him, her towering stature was of no consequence to him as he looked into her soft red slit eyes. Her wings were like Kaminak's, but the veins were pink, her body the same, while her ringed midsection was a light purple, her mane and tail were the same as before with their tri-colored light hues of purple, pink, and yellow. In fact, she still had her crystal heart cutie mark and her legs didn't have holes in them. She basically looked the same as before, only made of pink chitinous crystal and with fangs. She radiated a visible pink aura of pure Love as well that invigorated Shining, and seemed to make all the other changelings stir in their pods.

“I...think a hatchery of some sort. You...oh Cadence, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize an imposter took your place for so long and-mph?” Cadence shut him up with a kiss, getting him to hum and kiss back. They stood there a moment, a solitary moment of bliss and peace in a time of chaos. They broke apart, with Shining looking at her in a drunken stupor while Cadence smirked, her fangs adding to the mischievous quality of it.

“I love how stupid you look when I do that.” She giggled, and then looked around her, her new form providing things she couldn't do before. “They're ponies...all of them.”

Shining shook himself to awareness, and looked around at the pods. “You mean...like what they did to you?”

“It's not their fault...I...I hear them.” Cadence blinked as she panted a bit as tears formed in her eyes. “These poor ponies...I...Shining we have to help!” What neither of them knew, or realized until later, was that Cadence had become a Queen, so she was linked directly to the Hivemind. They hadn't considered what altering an alicorn would do.

“How?” Shining asked as he stood at attention. His princess and future wife had orders.

“First, we free these poor ponies. Then-.” A furious dual roar and a terrible trembling alerted them to the danger, and she became further secure in her decision. “We evacuate all these ponies first, then we can devise a plan of action to help them and smooth this all over.”

“Got it.” Shining then cast his magic over the rest of the pods, and ripped them all open as Cadence caught them in her magic, ignoring their scared and otherwise confused reactions to awakening so suddenly.

“Let's go!” Cadence charged her magic, which was oddly more potent than before, and she teleported them all to Stallion's Landing as it was the safest place that she knew of nearby, only to blink at the necropolis it had become, and a stunned Luna standing right in front of her. “Uh...Auntie, what's going on?”

Luna blinked, and looked to Shining next to the disturbingly familiar creature. The captain nodded in all seriousness, and she regained herself as her soldiers relaxed. “Well dear Niece...much has happened.”

===//////>

GL shouted in protest as Kaminak drove them through another wall of crystals with a pulverizing punch from their hard hematite fists, which were literally harder than iron. “What is this? Do you think this is funny? Without pilots you're just glorified suits of armor!”

GL got back to all four feet, and leered hatefully at their corrupted pilots with all four gleaming green eyes. “Then what does that make you? A giant glorified sex doll? Couldn't choose one so had to have the best of both worlds? Planning on a five-way with all your mares pounding away at you? You've got the equipment to handle it now.” They dodged as the blushing and furious Kaminak tried to skewer them on their stretching and whip-like tail's stinger.

“THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

As the two powerhouses traded blows, the others just tried to survive the collapsing cave system around them, all whilst being embarrassed and aroused at all the innuendo and outright sexual quips they shot at each other. Trixie, having just awoke after having her helm undented by Rarity and Twilight was the most heated as her ice dripped from melting. “H-hot....”

Twilight had her hooves over her eyes as her flames were flaring freely. “Very....”

“We have to do something!” Spike shouted to get their attention off the raunchiness of the situation. “This is getting out of control! Canterlot will sink into these caves at this rate!”

“R-right! We must stop them, but how? They're the strongest of us all!” Trixie asked, only for Spike's horns to glow along the spirals in the tell-tale green of Spiral Power, and Trixie's glowing mouth beamed as her own horn joined in, Twilight's did as well, Game allowed his combat form forth, and his spiral stripe joined the light show.

All the others save Fluttershy's spiral patterns subtly engraved along the surface of their armors also joined in, as Shy was focused entirely on keeping Chrys and Amy safe from harm as the two changelings were still knocked out.

“GATTAI!”

Spike rapidly grew to his largest controllable size, easily being 20 feet, which almost filled their section of the cavern. Twilight turned to purple energy, and shot for his head, further armoring it as her horn and flaming mane was added to his features. Trixie turned light blue, and merged into his neck, turning the spines and back of the neck into a forest of rapidly melting and freezing ice spikes while his neck armor turned powder blue. Gilda turned amber and launched to his shoulders, adding her talons to his front hooves as the armor turned tan, and her armored wings joined his own further up his back. Blitz turned cyan, and went to his wings, turning his middle barrel cyan as his own wings tightened, and became more streamlined. Rarity turned white, and merged with his haunches, damn anyone try take THAT from her, and his hind legs turned white while the armor got sleeker and more mobile yet stronger. Zecora became a mix of black and white as she shot for his powerful tail, turning it striped in a spiral formation that began to glow as well. Finally, Applejack turned gold, and launched for Spike's chest, turning his armor gold, and adding thick shielding for more protection, while imbuing Spike with even more power.

Game, Pinkie and Mac looked to each other, before nodding, and turned gray, pink and red before launching in lasers into a surprised GL from behind, staggering the mecha as they began to grow bigger, and blocked the incoming strike from the shocked Kaminak. ^Miss me?^ #So THIS is what combining is like! Awesome~!# (Eeyup!)

'Thank you for the aid!' GL responded to their new pilots, before they grew as big as Kaminak, and tossed them towards a far wall, furthest from Fluttershy and the injured changelings. “How about a trip?”

“With express travel speeds!” Spike's voice had the echo of all those who combined with him, and he opened his massive maw before all three horns and his teeth glowed green, charging a giant sphere of raw energy between his jaws within mere moments, before firing the beam through the cave, destroying any crystals between them and Kaminak as GL moved aside.

“OH SHI-!” Kaminak didn't finish their shocked exclamation before the blast hit, and launched them clean through the whole cave, and out into the forest valley between Mount Shire and the Unicorn Range. The blast hit near dead-center in the valley, and exploded in a dome of green light that obliterated most of the forest, and the blast itself nearly reached the bottom of Cloudsdale above, which promptly began emergency relocation as the citizens and military began pushing the mobile cloud city out of the danger zone at a good speed.

“NO~!!!!” Shy screamed as tears poured out of her helm's eyes, and she carried the two changelings with her to see the damage as the two giant combatants also did as much. “All those poor animals!”

“D-don't worry Shy, see?” Spike pointed down into the near barren valley, and they could see innumerable critters all skittering away from the epicenter of the blast. “That attack was only intended to shove Kaminak out there and remove any obstacles that would have done so. It wasn't going to hurt anything alive.”

“Oh, thank goodness. But all those homeless animals.” Shy still teared up as GL put a foreleg to her shoulder in comfort.

“(Hey now, y'all be calm y'hear? We can help them later. Kaminak comes first.)” GL let Mac's voice through, getting the mare sniffle and push her desire to drop everything to help the animals to the side. Her friends needed her.

“Um...we'd better get out of here.” Spike commented nervously as the ceiling began falling into the cave system. “Our attack finished this place off.”

“I'll take care of them, you try and snap those meanies out of it.” Fluttershy sternly stated before picking up the small buggy ponies, and flying out the hole and up to find what to do with them as the combined warriors looked to each other, nodded, and flew out of the gaping hole in the cliff side as the plateau above it crumbled inward like a giant sinkhole, taking the ancient city of Canterlot in finality.

Canterlot was gone.

===//////>

Celestia and Scoddri both looked at the ruined city in sadness. Today was supposed to be special, a day of love and togetherness. Now there is nothing. Thousands have lost their homes in a matter of hours. Thankfully aside from a great many injured in the exodus, nopony died. Tia sniffled as she leaned into Scoddri's shoulder, accepting his wing hugging her in comfort. “There, there Tia...it's just a city.”

“It wasn't just a city...this was my home for over a thousand years. The home of thousands of My Little Ponies their whole lives. And now it's gone...what will this tell our subjects? That we can't protect them? That against those who would see us fall, that we're defenseless?” Tia began letting her tears fall as she nuzzled into Scoddri's scaly neck. “I've failed them...how can we come back from this?”

“By working together!” Luna's voice called everypony's attention, including the nearest civilians not engrossed in wilting despair or looking upon the giants in the barren valley below that seemed to be in a standoff. They saw their Princess of the Night, her soldiers, and a horde of frightening beings lead by an oddly beautiful one that stood beside Captain Armor. “We have found our Niece. She has apparently been in the former enemy's custody for months now.” Luna gestured for Cadence to step forward, and she did so without hesitation, looking the baffled and concerned Celestia straight in the eyes, before she hugged her despairing aunt and uncle Scoddri with a sniffle.

“I'm so sorry....” Cadence stated, getting everypony confused save the ones that came from Stallion's Landing.

“What for Cadence? You've done nothing.” Tia replied bewildered, only for Cadence to back away, and look her in the eyes sadly.

“I'm not apologizing for me. I'm apologizing for the poor ponies who did all of this.” She gestured to those behind her, who all similarly looked sad. “These ponies here were taken recently, in the similar time span that I've been gone, since they caught on or needed to be replaced for the plan to work.”

One stepped forward, he looked no different from the others, but his voice was very familiar. “Yes Auntie, it is true. These poor creatures...I...I couldn't imagine where they were coming from before I awoke like this.”

“Blueblood?!” Celestia shouted in alarm as she levitated the calm Blueblood around to look him over. “You too...what's going on?”

“I will explain aunt Tia. About the curse plaguing these ponies as best I can, but it's source is the same as Game's home, so trying to fully explain is impossible right now.” Cadence stated, before she began her tale, told straight form the Hivemind, which while rampaging, still answered her call for information. “Long ago....”

===//////>

Kaminak groaned as they pulled themselves out of the crater that blast had put in the ground. 'Since when could they do that?' {You just ignored it, you were so focused on yourselves you didn't pay enough attention to your friends.} 'How? We spend so much time with them.' {Time spent, does not equal time understood.} '...Who are you?' Kaminak asked, suddenly realizing there was far more than them in their heads. {Too many, too many names, too many identities. To know of them would drive you mad, as they had earlier.} 'What? How, when...ah....' {Shame, still need more time.} “YOU TRAITORS!”

GL and Spike landed before Kaminak, looking just as upset if not hurt to hear that from their clearly off-kilter friends. “We weren't the ones who betrayed.” GL stated.

“We're the ones trying to get you back.” Spike finished as he pointed one of Gilda's talons at them.

“Silence! We will not be so easily put down!” Kaminak suddenly began growing, quickly eclipsing Spike's 20 foot height as they towered over the valley, the size of a mountain as their features turned sharper, and their glowing parts shined brightly until they reached the size they fought Discordant at and surpassed it. “You didn't think we wouldn't go this far, did you?”

“Actually, we feared just as much.” Spike stated, all the others within him all harmonizing with him. “Gurren Lagann!” GL looked to Spike, who looked back even more seriously. “Gattai!”

“Got it!” GL suddenly turned to green light, and fused to Spike, who promptly began to grow, taking the shape of Gurren Lagann, but with all his and the other's features being added. Mac's red armor formed the torso that replaced Spike's neck, the arms the clawed gray manifestation of Game, and numerous pink cannons all seemed to sprout at various points as they matched Kaminak for size.

They glared at each other, anger being so palpable that not even the flames coming from Gurren Lagann could compare to the tension. “Nice trick.”

“We learned from the best.” GL shot back searingly. They both roared as they charged at each other. Kaminak tried to impale them on their horns, but GL stopped them by grabbing between the three horns a head with Game's claws. %Hey watch it! I don't want any more foals!% 'Sorry, but you kinda got the raw deal on that end. Just focus on not letting your shards keep enough energy to form into foals.' GL bellowed as they lifted a surprised Kaminak over their heads, and threw them back at Mount Shire, dashing them upon the base of the massive mountain, causing tremors through the area.

“Ugh...dirty trick.” Kaminak groaned as they pulled off of the rocks that cracked their hematite chitin. Hematite was literally stronger than iron, Shire Stone was several grades harder. The pain quickly subsided as the cracks filled in with liquid hematite and hardened. “Then again we aren't above using tactics to get where we need.”

“Aside from firing giant drills, magic blasts, or maybe dividing yourselves back into each half, what could you really do? We know all your tricks.” GL stated factually, their combined information saying this was true, only for them to get uncomfortable with Kaminak's eerie grins.

“Oh, do you?” Suddenly, huge chunks of their body began literally launching out of their legs, leaving familiar gaping holes in them. The chunks with their immense mass embedded in the ground where they struck, and seemed to writhe. “How about you get to meet the family?” The segments all skyrocketed in size, being only slightly smaller than the two titans, and soon almost 20 egg-like shapes had covered the valley between the combatants, getting GL to back away warily.

“What the buck?” GL's worried statement was answered with the black shells cracking, and then exploding. Revealing malformed and screeching monsters that only vaguely resembled Kaminak.

“Our children! Aren't they beautiful? Hear us little darlings, see that trash heap?” Kaminak pointed at GL. “They want to hurt mommy! Daddy demands you protect her while he consoles your mother.” Animak made a show of nuzzling a falsely distraught Kamina, and the Hive Spawn screech in rage before they all charged at the suddenly terrified GL.

“That's just not bucking fair!”

Author's Notes:

Behold! Changeling mass-reproduction! A bastardized version of natural crystal pony asexual reproduction, changelings can segment pieces of themselves to create mindless drones with ease. To "birth" a genuine foal, a changeling would need to be filled with Love first, so this method is unacceptable for proper reproduction, and so the changelings would have to do things the natural way to keep their numbers up.

Considering they can be either sex, that made things a bit easier than expected.