Slipping away from the party took little effort. As long as Twilight and her friends were assured the trip wouldn’t take long and I wasn’t suffering some sort of severe sickness, they were willing to keep the party going while Trojan and Spike stepped out with me. I’d put on my best smile to convince them everything would be fine, doing my best to ignore the concerned stares tossed my way.

Definitely not my best start in showing the mares the strength of a royal guard pony, especially one recently ‘promoted’ to captain.

As we stepped out, I was about to ask Trojan a few questions about what she saw when I noticed a small commotion going on in the distance. Home base was positioned close to Sugarcube Corner since it also acted as Trojan’s love guru business, so under normal circumstances I imagine that seeing a crowd of ponies in the area would not have been a major deal. But considering the focus was at the Cake’s bakery shop, I began to fear the worse.

We rushed over to the scene to investigate, and were a few houses away when we heard it: violent arguing emanating from the Cake’s shop. Several ponies had wandered close by, watching the scene unfold before them with horrified stares. By the time we could make out what they were saying, it was the end of the conversation.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I want you out of this house until you’ve come back to your senses!” Cup Cake’s voice was strangled and sharp.

“I’m done with you! You can take your stinkin’ hide and those foals back to whatever dirty stallion you got them from!” Carrot Cake’s vicious tone was unmistakable. We watched from the sidelines as Carrot stomped away in a huff, ignoring the concerned Ponyville citizens’ calls that were mixed between protective fury and concern. Several of the ponies flocked to Cup, who was wracked with grief, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Let’s hurry and follow Mr. Cake before we lose him. Stay close to me,” Trojan said. I nodded, but Spike’s focus was on the sobbing Mrs. Cake. Trojan frowned. “Shortcake. If you really want to help, you need to handle one problem at a time. We can check on her later.” Her words brought Spike back to the matter at hand, and he nodded, resolute to solve this family crisis. We slipped through the crowds and pursued Carrot Cake.

As we stalked from shadow to shadow while maintaining a safe distance, Spike prodded at my foreleg to get my attention. “Hey Flash, are you okay?” he whispered.

“I’m fine,” I whispered back, my eyes focused ahead. I knew what he was really asking, and this was not the time or place for it.

“Are you sure? Because on that stage you—”

“Drop it,” I hissed curtly, only to instantly regret it. Spike’s expression deflated into a combination of irritation and dejection. “Sorry. I just... I really don’t want to talk about it, okay?” I said a little more gently.

He nodded, his expression a little brighter.

“Shut it!” Trojan glared at us. Nodding apologetically, we spoke no further as we chased down the aggravated baker.

Carrot Cake had reached the outer limits of the town when he stopped. Fearing he noticed us following him, we curved around one of the vacant buildings to stay out of sight. He sat on his haunches, shook his head and began rubbing his temples like he was suffering a major migraine. This bizarre behavior seemed to intensify as he dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. At the corner of my eye, I saw Trojan’s ears perk up as her eyes widened, alarmed and searching.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

“Mr. Cake’s starting to recover. Stay quiet, I’ll explain later.” I was about to move forward when Trojan extended her hoof to block me. “Wait and look.” As she spoke, a grey unicorn stallion emerged from around the corner of an adjacent building and approached him. Carrot looked up at the mysterious stallion weakly and said something, likely asking for help.

The other pony struck Carrot’s temple, knocking him out cold.

I had no doubt that was a changeling about to enact some terrible plan with Carrot.

Instantly, Trojan’s hoof went to clamp Spike’s and my mouths, her eyes narrowed into slits. Had she not done so, I would have immediately gone after them. Judging from Spike’s fierce glare and growl, I knew he would have done the same.

“I know what you two are thinking, but we need to wait and be quiet,” Trojan instructed in a stern whisper as she slowly withdrew her hooves. “Eventually, that changeling will report back to whoever is leading this operation, maybe even Chrysalis. If we take out the leader and their hideout, we’ll solve this problem in one fell swoop.” As she said this, the now-confirmed disguised changeling opened his mouth and leeched green magical essence from Carrot, his face stricken with pain. I’d seen this; the changeling was feeding off of Carrot’s love. Or rather, considering what we’d witnessed earlier, whatever was left.

What I hadn’t seen before was white magical essence being transferred from the changeling into Carrot.

What in Tartarus was happening here?

“Later,” Trojan denied my unasked question. Whatever was going on caused Trojan considerable stress, her teeth bared in a snarl.

The exchange of magic energy lasted about a minute before the grey pony was done. Despite having fed off of Carrot, the changeling looked even hungrier than before. Ravenous even. A spark of ice-blue magic flashed in the changeling’s eyes as he pulled the unconscious baker close, muttering something rapidly. Just when I thought things could not be any stranger, the changeling began draining the white energy it had just finished transferring.

Trojan’s eyes widened.

“Has he lost his mind? That could kill him and...!” Trojan’s words were barely audible. I’m sure she hadn’t meant for me to hear it, but I did. That tore it.

I dashed out of the hidden corner flew at the disguised changeling, delivering a flying drop kick to his face.

The changeling was knocked a good meter away, crashing hard into the earth. I grimaced as the changeling stirred dizzily to his hooves. I’d hoped that attack would have been a surefire knockout.

"Get Mr. Cake out of the way!" I barked the orders and stood protectively between the recovering changeling and Carrot Cake. Trojan knew to change her disguise as she stepped out and assisted with recovering him, now donning the disguise of a brown stallion pegasus with a black mane. I also knew she had to be furious with me. I’d deal with it later, as I had a murderous changeling to take down in front of me.

The changeling hissed viciously as he dropped his disguise and launched green magic bolts from his horn towards me. I deflected the bolts with my hooves, ignoring the burning sensation on my keratin. Knowing Spike or Trojan was still trying to move Carrot Cake, I couldn’t risk dodging the bolts.

Its ranged assault having failed, the changeling resorted to a swift horn rush to stab me. He was quick, and had I been any other pony, it might have been dangerous. But I had an advantage the changeling was not prepared for: my cutie mark talent.

As the lethal horn attack neared, my muscles and senses pulsed and intensified, adrenaline flooding my veins. My heightened focus made what was once an alarmingly quick attack a painfully slow tackle.

I pivoted to dodge the deadly lunge and grabbed his horn. My hoof smashed into his face repeatedly, denting and cracking the chitin with every hit. He struggled to break free, weathering my blows. Heat flowed into its horn, warning me of an imminent magic attack. I wrapped my other hoof around its horn and lifted him into the air like an oversized bat, then threw him at a nearby wall with all my might.

The changeling gasped from the impact and fell to the ground, wheezing and coughing up a glowing green substance I assumed was blood. This changeling was tougher than I expected, rising to his hooves after getting throttled by my barrage. The tenacious bastard rushed at me again, this time going for a more coordinated melee assault. I met at the middle for the hoof-to-hoof combat.

This changeling was admittedly better trained at hoof-to-hoof combat than most of the ones I’d fought during the Canterlot invasion, capable of throwing swift punches and kicks while watching my body movements to anticipate my attacks. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t hold a candle to Trojan, who stood on equal ground with me.

I quickly outclassed the changeling’s attacks and parries with my lightning-quick attacks and expert blocks and grapples. Despite earning a few bruises in our exchanges, those were small sacrifices to the mounting bruises and cracked carapace of the changeling who was running out of steam. I could see the fear in his eyes as he finally realized I was far beyond his capabilities.

After narrowly dodging my hook punch to the jaw, he tried to fly away.

Turning his back to me in order to run would be his final mistake.

Grabbing his hind leg, I spun rapidly before slamming him into the ground. I jumped on the prone changeling, straddling his torso as I rained blows. Every punch I landed on the changeling’s face sparked something inside me, and I continued my relentless assault. It wasn’t until something rushed at me from the side and shoulder-checked me that I realized the changeling had long since stopped blocking my blows.

Battle adrenaline was still flooding my system when I bounced back, expecting one of the changeling’s buddies to have shoved me to the side. I was surprised to find the assailant to be an incredibly furious Trojan.

Trojan stomped towards me, closing the distance until her face was almost touching mine. I couldn’t help but notice how her anger flared as she quickly glanced at the changeling I’d just finished beating into a pulp. "You idiot! Do you realize what you’ve done!?"

"I saved a life, that's what I did."

"No, you doomed us all! The queen is going to know we’re interfering! You blew our cover!"

Seeing that the danger was over for the moment, I closed my eyes and took a practiced breath to climb down from my battle high. Opening my eyes again, I returned her glare with my own. "Maybe, but we also know she’s working in this area, and I’m sure she’s not going to stop trying. We’ll get more opportunities to stop her when she starts sending recovery parties to find out what happened."

"This is screw up after screw up with you!” Trojan’s voice rose in heat and volume. A tiny spark of bright blue appeared in her irises. “At this rate, I doubt you could stop being a moron, much less stop a mastermind like Chrysalis!"

"Uh...guys?"

"I'm not going to sit by and watch somepony die.” My voice rose, to the point where I was almost shouting. “We're going to stop Chrysalis, but not at the expense of Equestrian citizens!"

"Newsflash: we can't stop Chrysalis if we keep tipping her off like this! You're screwing us over with your shortsightedness!"

"Um, guys? Could you stop for a second and—"

"We’re not going to sacrifice Equestrian citizens to stop her, and that’s final!"

"You could've fooled me! You're doing a good job of that already! In fact, why don't you take your self-righteous hero crap and shove it right up your—"

"HEY!" Spike yelled out from the corner of the building while standing next to Carrot Cake who was thankfully taken out of harm’s way. We both whipped our heads towards them, anger burning in our eyes.

"WHAT!?" The anger died on our lips as Spike pointed to the changeling I had just knocked down seconds ago, its body glowing an ominous white aura.

"Oh no..." Trojan paled as she stepped back, staring wide-eyed at the fallen changeling. "Scatter!" She flew back as fast as possible, terror in her eyes. Acting on discipline, I responded to the warning immediately and leapt towards Trojan’s position before an explosion of violent energy ripped from the changeling.

He rose to his hooves, his cracked and unconscious body moving like a possessed marionette. Before my eyes, the changeling’s body began to morph and mutate.

Sharp, rigid spines burst out of the changeling's back and legs, large fangs protruding from his mouth. Most telling were the black vein lines glowing through the cracks of his now-white chitin armor and his brightly-glowing blue eyes shrinking into a small sphere in the sea of endless black. This creature—no way I could call this a changeling anymore—quadrupled in size, towering over me.

"Spike." I spoke calmly, doing my best to keep the fear out of my voice. "Get Mr. Cake home as fast as possible. Sassy, go with Spike and—"

"You're not tackling this thing alone." Trojan stood beside me, snarling at the beast.

I gave her a quick glance of surprise. "Won’t fighting him risk blowing your cover?"

"He’s lost himself to bloodlust and hate. Right now, he doesn’t know or care who is friend or foe. He’ll just kill and kill until he can’t no more."

My muscles tensed as this ‘thing’ pawed at the ground, ready to charge at us. "What is this thing?"

"A slave of hatred. A hateling."

Unleashing a bone-chilling roar, the hateling charged.

Trojan and I took to the skies. His attention directed solely on me, the hateling’s now-enlarged gossamer wings extended, and it took flight after us.

"We'll make it follow us away from town! We can't let anypony else get involved!" I called out to Trojan. She nodded agreement, and we both fled from town, followed by the terrifyingly fast hateling who was hot on our hooves.

The enraged changeling released a hail of black magic bolts that were bigger and stronger than the green iterations. I grimaced as a few bolts grazed my legs, burning like acid. These bolts were definitely not normal magic. Nothing about this was normal magic.

"What the hay is going on with you changelings? They never did this when they attacked Canterlot!" I asked, yelling into the rushing wind.

“Not the best time to explain! But what I can tell you right now is you cannot beat this thing by yourself. You will need my help!"

I dropped myself a few meters to avoid a flurry of bolts before rising back up to Trojan's level. "How can we take this thing out?"

Trojan hesitated, uncertainty in her gaze. "Hatred is its driving force right now. By taking away its hatred, you take its power source. I can drain it."

Hatred? Drain it? Since when could changelings…

Wait. Wait a minute.

Since when could changelings feed on hatred?

I forced back the flood of questions that invaded my mind, sticking to only the critical ones that needed to be addressed. "What’s going to happen to you if you absorb all of that hatred? Are you going to turn into that?"

"Let's take the fight into the forest.” Trojan ignored my question as she pointed to the massive and ominous Everfree forest below us. Of all the questions to dodge, that was definitely one of her worst choices. “Don't fight it directly. Distract it as long as possible." She dove into forest, and I followed suit.

The Everfree Forest was blindingly dark. Our only source of light was Luna’s moon hanging in the clear night sky. It was a blessing and a curse for all three of us. Unless, of course, this hateling had night-vision, then we were all kinds of bucked.

The moment we entered the forest, we hid behind the thickest cover we could find, a large tree being my cover. Moments later, the hateling landed in the forest, though it was more like crashing gracefully. The furious monster jerked his sights left and right, trying to see into thick darkness while swatting down trees like matchsticks.

If those claws struck home, I knew I was dead.

Carefully, I crouched low and crawled through the underbrush, keeping a careful eye on the mammoth of a beast. Suddenly, he froze in his tracks, growling in frustration. It was difficult to see, but I was able to catch a glimpse of the white magic essence that leaked off the monster like steam. Where the magic drifted, I noticed Trojan's brown coat hiding behind a boulder, mouth open but face strained with effort. I hoped she knew what she was doing. I would rather not have to fight her as a hateling.

The hateling's sights turned to Trojan's direction and began its rampaging rush. Like when the pre-monster changeling tried to stab me, my body reacted to Trojan’s peril. I rushed at the hateling from hiding. The hateling jumped in the air, attempting to crush Trojan. My leaping kick smashed into his face, redirecting his flying charge and knocking him off course. He crashed on his side, barely a short distance from where Trojan stood. Trojan stared at me wide-eyed for a second before moving away to another hiding spot and continuing her efforts to drain the hateling.

He quickly stood up and roared into the night sky in rage, surprisingly unfazed by the kick I had poured all of my strength into. If anything, my kick seemed to only make him angrier. His roar was not as piercing as it was earlier, a good sign that Trojan's strategy was working. My troubles began when the creature set its angry sights on me and once more tore after me.

Using the environment, I danced around the hateling’s attacks and bites, taking the creature into tighter quarters to limit its range of movement. Thankfully, the hateling’s strategy boiled down to ‘smash or bite pesky thing until it stops moving’, which made predicting his attacks reasonable to manage.

Occasionally I would throw several quick punches and kicks on its face when its attention started drifting towards Trojan, but none of my attacks did more than redirect its attention. It was painfully obvious I would not be able to fight this thing without Trojan. I did not enjoy the idea of my life being in the hooves of a changeling, who clearly knew how I felt about her and changelings in general.

For the most part it was working: the creature seemed more distracted and dazed as he thrashed and raged and clawed after me. It was working until I found myself cornered.

My hoof and wing got tangled in the vines as I rolled to dodge a bite, trapping my movements. I paled, terrified, as I struggled to free myself before I was killed. The monster drew closer, raising its hoof to deal the killing blow.

That was when I heard a loud, almost alien cry emanate from the side.

Trojan appeared from the bushes, tackling the hateling's foreleg at breakneck speed while covered in a veil of white energy. A sickening crack followed; the hateling’s leg snapped into an unnatural position. Agonizing screams left his lungs as he fell over. It barely gave me enough time to unbind myself and get out of harm's way before the monster started flinging raging magic bolts in our general direction. We hid behind a heavy tree as Trojan continued draining him.

I glanced at Trojan to see her face contorted in excruciating pain, hanging onto the tree for support. Looking at this changeling take down her own mutated kind and absorb its hatred was admittedly difficult to watch.

As I thought back to my initial reactions to and thoughts of Trojan, I felt disgusted with myself.

I draped a foreleg around her shoulders and pulled her close, keeping her covered from the barrage of wild magic bolts thrown in our direction. The tree gradually chipped away from the powerful blasts. There was too much stray fire to look for another safe position to hide. Either this worked, or we were going to take a few dozen angry bolts to the face.

"I...I can't drain all of it...it's too much...!" Trojan choked, gasping as she leaned weakly into me. Her body felt ice cold.

Despite our conflicting difference and my personal prejudice, I had to acknowledge that Trojan was doing everything in her power to stop this hateling. But what could I possibly do in this situation to help her?

That was when I remembered something vital, a crazy idea coming to mind.

"Would draining me help?"

"W-what?" Trojan gasped, horrified. Never thought I would see a changeling react to such an offer that way. Then again, I never thought I would be offering love energy to a changeling. Amazing how quickly things could change when your life was in danger. "If I do that, the hatred might—"

"Would it work?" I repeated sternly. For a moment, I saw clear confusion and uncertainty in her eyes. Eventually she nodded, confirming my suspicions. After all, if the theory of love being the opposite of hate applied to magic as well, it made since using my love energy could help her balance whatever the hate energy was doing to her.

Never thought I would say what I said next to a changeling, especially to Trojan. “Drain me.” Trojan said nothing as she nuzzled into me, her breathing turned ragged.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on things I’ve loved. As I did, I felt my strength and warmth wane rapidly, a twisted mix of agony and strain wracking my senses.

I imagined the citizens of the Crystal Empire. My friend and hero Shining Armor. Princess Cadence, whom I looked up to like a mother. Little foals whom I had helped and who looked up to me as an example. My parents, who inspired me to be the best I could be and fight for what was right. I tried to ignore the feeling of my very soul being pulled at in favor of supplying Trojan with however much love she needed to counter the hate she was absorbing. I poured all of my focus into channeling my feelings and making sure Trojan had what she needed to get the job done.

"We...we did it."

I opened my eyes, noting the lack of deadly bolts flying by. Glancing around the corner, I saw a drastically weakened and now normal changeling stumbling about with a limping leg. His eyes were its normal pale blue color, startled and frightened.

"Should I worry about any more surprises?" I whispered.

"No, but you can let go at anytime." I turned to see I was still holding onto Trojan, a sleepy grin on her face. I immediately released her and grunted in annoyance. We’d just barely survived a berserking monster and Trojan still had the energy to joke around?

For some reason, that pulled a smirk out of me.

"Don’t get used to it," I mumbled quickly as I emerged from my hiding spot. The changeling caught me advancing and scuttled back, too injured to fly or run. One good punch to the jaw would likely knock it out for good. "It's over, changeling. Come quietly and—"

"Hello? Is anypony there?"

Oh no. Not now.

Both the changeling and I froze as we directed our attention to the sound. I recognized that voice anywhere: Pinkie Pie.

I snapped my attention to the changeling who was now smiling sneakily. Quicker than I could blink, the changeling disguised himself as Cup Cake and hobbled towards Pinkie Pie's direction.

"PINKIE, COME HELP! THIS CRAZY PONY IS TRYING TO KILL—!" I dashed forward in a panic and delivered a crushing blow to the changeling's skull.

As my peripheral vision caught Pinkie Pie and Spike in view, I realized I was too late. The changeling was sent flying into the bush, with me stuck in a striking position.

There was no denying how bad this looked.

Pinkie Pie stood stock still like she was frozen in time, eyes wide. Spike looked between me and the bush I had sent the changeling flying into, speechless. I felt the proverbial storm coming, and I was without an umbrella or shelter to take cover in.

As calm as I could manage, I faced Pinkie and Spike, carefully wording the explanation in my head. Maybe, just maybe, I could get myself out of this mess before it escalated.

I took a deep breath.

"Pinkie—"

I didn't get any further, as Pinkie Pie punched me in the face.

Author's Notes:

Crap just got real!

Also, I have to thank Setokaiva for coming up with with the word hateling. Writing this chapter, it turned out to be incredibly fitting for a variety of reasons.

Yeah, so a LOT of things happened in this chapter. Some obvious, some not as obvious, but hopefully it is all of the awesome for you guys. While I didn't have to make a lot of big changes with this chapter, there were several smaller details that I had to revise who knows how many times, but overall I absolutely love how this chapter turned out.

As usual, please a like if you enjoyed it, and drop a comment to let me know your thoughts. Stay awesome, you bronies!