"SHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I yell as I hit the level below. "Ouch..." The floor gives way again and I continue to fall.

"Oooff!" I groan. My head is throbbing and I feel dizzy as I try to sit up. A sharp pain in my leg stops me from getting up all the way. I look down and see my right leg is facing inward. 'Shit, my leg's bloody broken,' I think to myself and channel three life elements through me.

I sit there groaning in pain as the bone resets and the damaged muscle repairs itself. I can't afford to take anymore damage, my mana is almost out and I have no idea where I am.

Once I finish healing, I stand up and look around. I can't go back up, the hole is too high. If only I could channel four elements, I could fly out. I'm in some sort of natural cavern, no black organic rock is covering the walls and there's a small lake with a small island in the centre. A pedestal stands in the middle... wait... this look familiar... oh yeah! It looks just like the place from that Daring Do book Luna got me to read to her.

The only thing missing is the ruby skull.

I look around and see a tunnel to my left, I then look back up at the hole and call out to Luna. "LUNA! CAN YOU HEAR ME!?"

No response.

---

---

'He's taking too long' I think to myself. We got back to the ships and got Blueblood and the little filly named Fleur Lily something to eat and drink. The little filly is in better condition as Blueblood gave half of his food to her during their imprisonment. Blueblood has also put the changeling named Thraxx in his own cabin.

I want nothing more than to blow the hive up with a barrage of sunfire shells, but Adrian is still in there and the remaining changelings are attacking our ships. The pegasi guards are combating them in the air while the unicorns and earth ponies attack from the ships decks with spells and arrows.

And due to Adrian's resistance to pony magic, I can't feel his presence, I can't even feel the presence of his armour anymore or contact him telepathically. Just teleporting him a short distance the first time was taxing.

I look back at the Hive's destroyed gate with worry. "Please, be safe."

---

---

I wait for a minute longer but there's no sign of Luna or any guards. I look back at the tunnel and head towards it, it's better than sitting here doing nothing.

I enter the tunnel and channel a shield element through my stave and the light from the orb illuminates the tunnel allowing me to see a few metres around me. I walk for a good twenty minutes with my sword drawn and at the ready.

The walls start turning back into the black organic rock stuff and the tunnel branches off into three ways. I can hear voices from the tunnel ahead while the other two are silent.

I head down the tunnel ahead of me to see if there is anyone else being held captive down here. I reach the end and I'm shocked to see some kind of small town, I hide behind a boulder to the left and look around. Changelings are walking around in rather poor clothing, men, women, and children, talking and playing in this small town. Dome like structures with doors and windows line the cavern's walls both at ground and ceiling height. Lights are placed throughout the town, allowing me to see everything.

To the right is some sort of market with stalls, changelings are trading items with blackish green coins with each other.

A lot of the people here look starved and have holes in their forearms and shins... I frown at the state of this place, how can anyone live like this?

A sudden tapping on my leg gets my attention and I look down to see a little changeling girl looking up at me with wide blue eyes.

"Are you lost, Mister?" she asks. I still have my stone armour with the black chitin like rock on me, I guess she thinks I'm a changeling.

I just stare at her, she's really thin and looks like she can barely stand on her own. She also has a bandage on her left arm.

"Are you alright?" she asks again with a tilt to her head.

"Err, yeah, I'm fine. Where am I?" I ask her.

"You're in the Jade Shell Outpost Hive," she tells me, her little dragonfly like wings flicking now and then.

"I see..." I look around to make sure I'm still hidden and then back at her arm. "How'd you hurt your arm?" I ask her.

She places her right hand on her bandaged arm. "I tripped and cracked my chitin," she tells me.

I sigh, sheath my sword and smile at her. "Would you like me to heal it for you?" I ask her. She may be a changeling, but she's still just a child.

"Really?" she asks and I nodded. "Okay!" she says and holds her arm out.

I remove the bandage and point my stave at it. I channel three life elements and she looks at the floating green orbs with wide eyes. "That's pretty," she says.

I chuckle and cast a healing beam at her arm and the cracked chitin slowly mends itself. What surprises me more is that the holes in her arms and legs suddenly start closing, her body also looks like it has put on a bit of weight as well.

She gasps and then burps loudly. "Excuse me," she says... what the hell just happened?

She looks at where the cracks were and then at her arms and legs. "Wow! My arm feels better and I don't feel hungry anymore! Thanks, Mister!"

"You're welcome... what's your name?" I ask her.

"I'm Shella!" she replies, sounding much more energetic.

"Nice to meet you, Shella. I'm Adrian. Do you know the way to the surface from here?" I ask her.

She nodded quickly. "Uh-huh. Just head back down that tunnel and take the next tunnel to the right. It'll take you out the side of the mountain," she tells me.

"Alright, thank you for your help," I smile at her.

"Shella! Shella where are you!?" a woman calls out sounding worried.

"I'm over here momma!" Shella calls back making me panic. The girl's mother looks over to us and looks at me with fear.

"I gotta go, take care of yourself alright?" I quickly say and sprint off down the tunnel.

"OKAY! Thanks again!" she calls back to me.

"What do you think you were doing!? That thing could have...." I hear the mother scold her child before I was out of range.

I followed her directions and reached the cross section again. To my left, I see armed changelings running towards me, ordering me to halt. I run down the tunnel to the right for five minutes and spot a black door at the end, I push it open and I'm back outside.

---

---

After thirty minutes of fighting and worrying, I feel the presence of Adrian's armour again to my left at least half a mile away. How did he get that far?

"Set course! North by north west!" I shout out.

The ship starts turning and the pegasi land back on the ships. We fly for five minutes and I see somepony standing alone on the ground, I can feel that it's Adrian. Suddenly others appear out of the mountain and start shooting at him with bolts of magic.

---

---

I cast a barrier spell in front of me and boost it to full strength. I then channel a single earth element and two fire elements and launch it at the attacking changelings as my barrier deflects their bolts of magic.

"Capture him at all costs! By order of the Queen!" one of them shouts out. They want me alive?

I can hear the sounds of the ships engines to my right and look up. I can see Luna's ships heading my way. I cast another fireball spell and launch it upwards as a signal.

I continue to fight the changelings for another two minutes. One tried flying over my barrier, only to get blasted by a beam of steam and blown away.

Pegasi guards land beside me and the changelings retreat back into the mountain, I blast the cliff face above the door causing it to cave in. I fall back on my ass and start breathing hard, my mana is just about to run out and I'm tired from the running.

The ships arrive and Luna flies down to me. "Adrian! Are thou alright? We were so worried about thee," she says and hugs me. "How did thou get all the way out here?" she asks me.

I tell her how I fell through the floor twice and found an underground tunnel network and the changeling town and how a little changeling girl told me the way out.

"There is a town in the mountain?" she asks confused. "There was no such place in the assassin's or the impostor's memories..." she says with a frown.

"It was rather small, like a border town. it looked like is was recently built as well, and the people looked like they were starving," I tell her.

"That would be understandable, changelings require love to feed on to survive. The hungrier they get, the more holes appear on their arms and legs. They're cannibalising their own bodies to survive," she tells me.

"Then how does that explain the girl's holes closing when I healed her injured arm?" I ask Luna.

She looks at me wide eyed. "Thou let a changeling feed off thee?" she asks shocked.

"No, I don't think so at least. I used a healing beam to heal her cracked arm, her holes just closed along with her injury," I tell her.

She looks down in thought. "Mayhap thy life element has the same properties of love?" she mumbles to herself. That would explain why they wanted to capture me alive then.

"Let's figure this out once we get back to Canterlot, I'm feeling exhausted," I say to her.

"Very well, let us be..." She's cut off as an explosion to my right kills a guard. I look up to see changelings firing their own cannons from the holes in the mountain. One of the sloop like ships takes a hit in the hull and bits of wood fall from the ship. The other ships start opening fire on the changeling cannons.

I look up to see a changeling taller than the others with an elegant green and black dress looking down at me. "So this is the creature that can create love instantly?" she says and smiles wickedly, next to her is the little girl I healed looking scared and crying.

The tall changeling then places a hand on Shella's head and I see pinkish green energy flow out of her and into the woman. Shella screams in pain and I see holes appear on her again while the woman's start closing slightly. Gathering what little mana I have left, I fire a rock at the woman and knock her back into the tunnel. Shella then collapses to the ground.

"Luna! Can you grab the girl and take her with us!" I tell Luna. There's no way I'm leaving her here with that monster.

Luna hesitates and looks at me, I plead with her with my eyes. She groans in disapproval and levitates Shella over to us. I pick her up and we make our way to the ships.

"DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!" the woman screams at the other changelings. Wow, she's back up already? She can really take a hit.

We get on board and the galleon ship takes a hit. The left harpoon ballista is torn off and one of the crew is blown across the deck, a piece of wood sticking out of his leg. I'd heal him, but I have no mana left.

"I'll have you all executed if you let it get away!" the woman threatens her people.

Luna helps me into her cabin and leaves me with the unconscious Shella on her bed. Unable to stay awake any longer, I fall asleep.

---

---

So, Chrysalis thinks she can take Adrian away from me? I'll show her just what happens to those who threaten my mate!

I summon my scythe and jump over the side, thirty of the pegasi guard follow me and I engage Chrysalis who now has a black razor sharp thorn like whip and her own black chitinous armour.

I swing my scythe at her head and she ducks under it. She swings her whip at me and I teleport behind her, I then swing my scythe down and she jumps forward with the aid of her wings, leaving my scythe to pierce into the rocky ground.

She laughs at me and I fire a bolt of magic at her, she fires one of her own at it and they explode on impact. My guards are dealing with the changelings around us while I fight Chrysalis.

Chrysalis then brings her whip up and then swings it down at me. I jump to the right and the whip snaps at the ground, leaving small slash marks from the razor sharp thorns.

I fly back and get some distance from her, she laughs again, calling me a coward. I then charge at her with as much speed as I can gather. She holds her whip to her right side, waiting for me to get closer. Just as she was about to swing, I teleport behind her, still moving at high speed and tackle her into the side of the mountain.

I bring up my scythe to end her, but her horn glows and she teleports away. I look around but I can't feel her presence anymore. 'Look who's calling who a coward now,' I think smugly to myself.

The other changelings flee once they realise Chrysalis ran away. As much as I want to bring down this mountain on them, I will not kill civilians.

The guards and I return to the ship where I order all our ships to return to Canterlot.

Next Chapter: Chapter 26: Now what? Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 59 Minutes