"Got to get away! Got to get away!" The pink mare yells as she ran down the dirt path and over the providence line.

"Why are we stopping?" A changeling asks.

"Because we can't enter it without getting into trouble." Another says frowning. "The queen would have our heads."

"Looks like those at the fort spotted the pegasus." A changeling says before a warning shot land not far from them, letting them know they see them as well.

"Better get going and report back." The other says starting to fly away.

"Captain, we captured the pink pegasus. What should we do with her?" A soldier asks.

"Being her to the Overlord. He'll know." Another said looking the pink pegasus over.

"Are you sure this will work?" Sky asks looking at what he thought was an oversized crossbow equipped to a large beast of burden sub-breed of the Wildebeest.

Daring nods. "Mounted crossbow for movement and allowing you to move quickly. Just need to train these guys to travel far with them." Daring says making sure the straps was tight.

"Dear, what can these do that regular ones can't?" Sky asks.

"It shoots three at once." Daring simply said.

"So?" Sky asks before Daring fires it at a stone house left abandoned.

Daring smirks as the three arrows shot in succession and breaks the wall of the house and then the other wall inside and then through it and hits a group of rocks. "That's why."

"Whoa." Sky says as many of the officers and nobles went to look at the damage.

Daring chuckles. "Better huh? And check this out." She said grabbing a barrel of arrows and takes out the used one before slipping the new one on. "Reloadable easily."

"You keep outdoing yourself my golden wife." Sky whispers into her ear.

Daring just slaps his chest. "Shut up."

"I love you too." Sky says.

Daring smiles. "At least you have gotten better."

"Is there anything you can't think up?" Sky asks.

"Well, I can't think up a good sandwich." Daring said smirking.

"And there is the mare I have come to love as well." Sky says.

Daring sticks her tongue out at him.

"Now if only you would put that tongue to better use." Sky teases.

"Shut up." Daring said checking the ballista again.

"Want to rephrase that?" Sky asks picking up and holding Hazy.

Daring rolls her eyes and takes her and holds her. "How's my good girl?" She asks nuzzling her.

"Overlord." A messenger calls running up.

Sky hums as he looks over. "Yes?"

"There is a pink pegasus at the border. Guards caught her entering from Celtica." The messenger says.

"Any reason she is coming in like this?" Sky asks confused.

"They say she was being chased by changelings. Though they are unsure if she is one." The messenger says.

"Send her to the castle throne room. I'll see about finding out if she is one or not. Keep her tied up, though." Sky orders.

"This bad?" Daring asks.

"Hard to say. Got to get Raven and Zora. They are more knowledgeable on the occult and changeling related matters than I." Sky says.

"Should I wait in my room with Hazy?" Daring asks holding Hazy close.

"Yeah, I think that would be best." Sky says thinking on it.

Daring nods and carries Hazy off. "Be careful."

"Before you go, how are the…what were they called again…road?" Sky asks.

"Coming along well. They are really being financed now with all the merchants." Daring said smirking.

"So how many are complete now?" Sky asks.

"We got the roads around a few cities, but the trails are taking longer." Daring said.

"How many fiefs are connected?" Sky asks.

"Just three, including this one. We are working on expanding outward." Daring informs.

"Well, at least we are making progress." Sky says.

"That will help many." Daring says still walking off.

"Remember to feed her and put Hazy down for a nap and don't get consumed by your work." Sky reminds.

"Yeah, yeah." Daring said sighing as she rocks Hazy.

"Bring in the prisoner." Sky commands sitting on his throne in full armor.

The guards come into the room and pull along a pink unicorn to him that seemed to be relieved as she looks to him.

"Raven, Zora, can you determine if she is really a pony?" Sky asks.

They raise an eyebrow as they walk up to her and look her over and even poke her in a few places. "She's fine." Raven said.

"Zora?" Sky asks looking for her approval as well as Zora was casting magic spells to determine this.

Zora hums as the pony glow before it ended. "No illusion or changeling magic. She's fine."

"Thank you. Now, who are you?" Sky asks.

"Cadance. My name is Cadance." She says very worriedly.

"Cadance. That sounds familiar." Sky says.

"Sir. She is the Lady Lord of the bordering fief and one other in Celtica." One of the advisors nearby says.

"Ah, Lady Cadance. Sorry for not recognizing you, but we have never met in person." Sky says.

Cadance sighs in relief as she has her ropes undone. "It's fine. But I need help."

"Yes, the changelings have become more aggressive with their attempts to spread…how many have we executed for trespassing again?" Sky asks.

"Around two hundred sir." The advisor said.

"Any still imprisoned?" Sky asks.

"Just ten." The advisor said.

"Keep it that way." Sky says turning back to Cadance.

"Can you help me get my fiefs back?" Cadance asks.

"…you know that I can't move my armies freely after taking Gual. So the question is, what can you offer to justify the price to me?" Sky asks.

"Fealty." Cadance said looking more worried.

"I'm sorry. What was that?" Sky asks casting a glance to Snow and Flitter.

"Fealty." Cadance repeats. "Please help."

"I want it in writing." Flitter says.

Cadance nods. "Ink and paper please?"

Flitter has the servants bring out a table, parchment, and ink.

Cadance sighs as the table was set in front of her and she starts to write.

"Dark Tail." Sky says looking to him.

Dark nods and walks over and starts to read what she was writing. "It is…legit. She is serious." He said watching as she signs her name.

"Muster the troops. We are going to liberate our territory." Sky informs getting up.

Cadance sighs as she looks down and shakes her head to herself.

"Is there something else?" Sky asks.

"My…my husband…Shining Armor let himself be captured to allow me to escape." Cadance explains.

"He fought them?" Sky asks.

"With whatever guards he could have mustered. Can you please help them too?" Cadance asks looking pleadingly.

"We can try, but we don't know what the changelings do to those they capture." Sky says.

"Just try. I really want him back. Him and the rest." Cadance said worriedly.

"We will, but prepare for the worse just in case." Sky instructs.

Cadance slowly nods. "Thank you."

"Sir, we are having trouble gathering so many troops so soon." Dark Tail informs.

"Then hire mercenaries…I believe we have one in our borders. They were hired to settle a feud between the lords of Dijon and Tours fiefs." Sky informs.

"The Band of Hawks? How much should I give?" Dark asks.

"Call their leader and offer three chests full of treasure." Sky says.

Dark nods and walks away to prepare the chests.

"Our numbers will not be as great as when we took Gual. We are going to have to fight a more long-term battle." Sky thinks aloud looking through his maps and spy reports as they kept traveling south into Gual.

"It does make you wonder, how much times has changed because of this event. Changelings making a move." Snow said riding with him.

"They have been making strange moves for years now. Only now do we see that they aimed for territory west of the mountains. If we have the opportunity, I want one of our fleets to take the Isle of Mare, their main territory." Sky says.

"But then you would have to fight all of them and make sure they don't come back." Snow says watching him.

"We all know that that island is their main nest. We take that and it will really hurt them, maybe even make them not become that big of a threat for a few years while they try and find a new place for their nests." Sky says.

"And they would still cause problems. You would be driving them to extinction. They would attack a city just to have their food supply." Snow said shrugging.

"I know, but I like to eliminate problems and not leave it to the future generations." Sky says as Celebrimbor knocks a large rock off the mountain pass.

"And yet you want to do this to the extreme." Snow said carefully watching him.

"Would you rather the kids have to fight them in the future?" Sky asks.

Snow stops and looks away at that.

"That is why my wife." Sky says as the convoy of one thousand riders makes it through the pass.

Snow stayed silent all the while as they kept traveling along.

They keep traveling to the south-west. Along the way, a messenger rides up carrying a standard Sky knew wasn't of his forces.

"Message!" The rider calls.

Sky raises an eyebrow as he takes it and looks it over. "Oh, you have to be kidding."

An officer rode up to him and they talked for a bit before the messenger rode off. "Overlord, general Dark Tail has succeeded in employing The Band of the Hawks for you." The officer says.

"Good. Now everyone, ride on hard." Sky orders behind him.

"Yes, sir." They all said.

"What is the first order of business?" Snow asks.

"I want to inspect the five thousand armies waiting for us when we reach Brightmill. From there, we will wait for the mercenaries and then after a few days rest for them, we move out." Sky informs.

"I see. Anything you are looking for particularly?" Snow asks.

"I want to see what we have that will determine my strategy." Sky informs.

"This is going to be a long and tough battle, isn't it?" Snow asks.

"It's the changelings. Of course, it will." Sky informs as they crossed into the Elfedge fief.

Chrysalis looks to the pod and lightly runs a hoof along it. "Aw. Going to be such a pretty little changeling soon."

"My queen." A changeling says.

"Yes? What is it?" Chrysalis asks turning to him.

"We have a report. The overlord of the north is moving through Elfedge to the border." The changeling report.

Chrysalis frowns. "Perfect. Just perfect." She grumbles. She sighs before closing her eyes. "There you are. Tell me what's going on."

"My queen. The overlord is moving to the border riding hard with a thousand of his elite salamander guards." The changeling reports.

"Anything special he is taking?" Chrysalis asks, wondering what drove him to this.

"I will…wait…no. Please! ARGGGGG!" The changeling screamed before the connection died.

Chrysalis groans as she holds her head. "Damn. They found him. Ready the army. We have a fight coming towards us." She calls out as she tries to use a spell to ease her headache.

"Six hundred well trained and equipped veteran mounted knights, one thousand trained veteran pike wielding soldiers, eight hundred halberd trained soldiers, one thousand and five hundred archers, one thousand swordsponies, and one hundred mages." Sky recounts from the inspection.

"So what's the plans?" Snow asks.

"The mercenaries haven't arrived yet and counting in my one thousand elite royal guards, we have six thousand." Sky says.

Snow sighs. "We are in for a tough fight with what the changelings can do."

"And they know we are coming too. I didn't kill that spy soon enough." Sky says.

"We can do it. We conquered a province, we can fight off this group." Snow reassures.

"This enemy is different they have the ability to shapeshift. We need a way to identify them." Sky says.

"Maybe mark with a special magical mark?" Snow suggests.

"We have to identify them first…apply it to our own men." Sky says.

"And that means fighting it out to get it on them if they resist." Snow said.

"They are not to do something to them. It is to distinguish them from changeling infiltrators." Sky says.

"But it needs to be something only our testing would know." Snow said tapping her chin.

"Agreed. So get all of them looked over by medical magic users and have it applied then." Sky says.

Snow nods and gets up and walks away.

"We will be stopping after we retake both of Santiago and Viscaya fiefs. This isn't going to be to conquer all of Celtica this time. We don't have the numbers." Sky says.

"Maybe we should concentrate on the changelings first and we can work from there." Dark suggested

"Unfortunately, Dark Tail, you won't be coming with us you have to maintain our defence at the borders to Libya." Sky informs.

"Sir…? What absurd thinking are you going on about?" Dark asks confused.

"Those are your orders general. I don't want anyone getting any ideas when they hear I am not in my territory." Sky instructs.

Dark sighs. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now your brother will be handing the Belgica border." Sky informs.

"I'll see to it that he knows the situation." Dark said looking to the map.

Sky waited in silence as he thought of what would be his next move.

"Are you okay?" Tear asks next to him.

"I am just thinking of what I should do since both Sprout and Bloom will be aiding Dark Tail and Moonlight with the defense." Sky says.

"You'll do amazing." Tear reassures.

"Tear, I want you to go and get one of our fleets to fully commit to conquering the Isle of Mare." Sky instructs.

Tear nods. "I'll see what I can do." She said getting up before moving to him and kisses his cheek. "I love you."

"Love you too." Sky says.

Tear smiles and walks away at that point.

"Sir, the mercenaries have arrived." An official informs coming into the office Sky was using.

"And have their numbers been counted yet?" Sky asks.

"Around two thousand sir." The official says.

"What do they mostly have?" Sky asks finishing pinning the letter.

"We have around five hundred of archers. One thousand are swords or axe soldiers. And the last five hundred are mounted mercenaries." The official reads out as he read from a parchment.

"Those rough estimates or did someone actually count them all?" Sky asks.

"Rough." The official says hanging his head.

"How well are they equipped?" Sky asks.

"Varying. They seem to armed as mercenaries should be. Varying different types." The official says looking over the parchment.

"Inspect the equipment. If the quality is not that well, they will only hinder it if they have inferior weapons." Sky informs.

The official nods. "Of course sir."

"That is all." Sky says using the flame from the lamb to start melting the wax to seal the letter.

The official nods and walks away.

"Two days, then we march." Sky says smearing the wax onto the letter, sealing it, and then uses his wax seal stamp.

"Listen up, we are moving out." An officer calls to those camping out.

Everyone starts to pack up as some grumbles to themselves. "Can you believe it? Changelings." One of the mercenaries said as another picks up his bow nearby.

"Why not? It's not like we don't have to fight other things." One mercenary says lifting a great sword.

"But we have been dealing with it on our own. Look at these guys. They don't seem very trained at much." Another says sweeping a hoof toward the soldiers nearby.

"Look, we were hired to out to the king of the north. This is our chance to work for a powerful ruler and get in his good books." Another says agitated.

"And whose to say that he wouldn't turn against us?" The archer asks.

"Can it. All of you. " The mercenary captain to them calls.

"Sir." They said not standing at attention but just hefted their weapons up a bit.

"We are moving out. So get going." The pony instructs.

They all grumble as they get up and grab their bags as they follow the group starting to head out. "You think the changelings would be wiped out?" The archer asks.

"I wouldn't bat a tear at the bugs being exterminated." One of them says.

"Would make you think. What's going to happen if they do get wiped out?" The archer asks looking around.

"One less threat to us." Another said.

The archer frowns a bit as he hooves his arrows and counts it off in his mind. 'Idiots. Crazy idiots. At least she's far away.'

"Is there anything special about these lands?" Sky asks looking over the land ahead.

"Mostly that rocks seem to jut up from the landscape now and then. You don't even notice it and it's like pikes lodged into the ground. Another is the face of the mountain range nearby gives the air here a salty taste." Snow says.

"Any sign of the changelings?" Sky asks.

"No…that's the weird part." Snow said frowning.

"Have we seen any other living thing?" Sky asks.

"Birds, some critters. Nothing much." Snow says as she keeps a watch.

"All halt!" Sky calls.

They all immediately stop at that point as some wonder what is going on.

"Officers, meet up. We need to discuss our plans. Snow, get some to take count and see if you can find any without their mark." Sky says whispering the latter half to Snow.

Snow nods and gets off her mount and walks off as the officers comes up to him.

Sky smiles under his helmet as he talks before there were screams heard.

"What was that?" An officer asks.

"Changelings were discovered amongst the ranks like I thought." Sky says.

"I assume you are killing them?" Another asks looking to him.

"Of course before we left, the medical mages put a magical mark on each of you. Without that, you are a spy and you get the axe." Sky informs.

They all start to look around their bodies for any sort of mark.

"You need to use magic to make it appear." Sky informs before all of them have a mark appear.

"This…is the mark? Are you sure it can't be remade by them?" Another asks suspiciously.

"There are more than one." Sky informs.

"Good. Because if you took us down, they might regret it." One said.

"Now back on subject. We are going to draw them out." Sky says confidently.