A charity show at Stalliongrad. Lahkranaz was stunned that ponies had such a word as 'charity'. He thought about everything he had ever been told about ponies. Everything about how they're greedy, power-hungry monsters that upset the balance.

They're just... not. They just don't know a thing about what happened in the past. That Bronco-winning film only served to prove that to Lahkranaz's previous education about pony greed was inaccurate. These are innocents- no, these ponies are children. This isn't like a juvenile youth who deep-down knows a crime is wrong, but commits such an act anyway. These ponies are just simply unaware that anything is wrong, and there has never been a leader who taught them of the way the world works.

Even Celestia, Lahkranaz would have to assume. After all, the film did show that the Queen was assassinated, and the Royal Sisters seemed to endorse any kind of representation for that crime. Their own mother. The changeling wondered if there was much of a relationship between the mother and the daughters. In fact, he wondered if he really wanted to know.

A magnificent tree- that Stallios building. Lahkranaz even met the creature who owned the tower when they arrived again. "So glad to see you again so soon, Mr. Foalington," Stallios said with a swift bow of the head. "And Mr. Gilmare. What brings you two here again?"

"We want to run a charity gig at your tower, Stall," Floyd replied in a manner that harshly contrasted with the tower owner's fancy attitude.

"Really? You two playing a show together?" Stallios asked with extreme interest.

Even when he was hearing the plan for the third time, Lahkranaz still found it unbelievable. He couldn't have been so lucky, being in a position with two providers of such intense power.

---

Cornelius was a damn good musician in his own right. The aura he created was calming and beautiful. Floyd, on the other hand, played the sounds of legends. The colours of the grizzled guitarist's music were immensely powerful. Lahkranaz felt both at once. He began to uncontrollably shiver.

"Hey, you okay?" Gaffer whispered.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just..." Lahkranaz gulped, "This music... It's... mythical... but it's real."

"Oh crap," Gaffer muttered as he glanced to C-Stand.

"I feel the p-power of th-this music," Lahkranaz growled.

"Dude, you need to get out fast," C-Stand hissed urgently, "You're kind of changing."

What? Lahkranaz thought as he glanced to his coworker. The changeling then looked at himself.

His disguise was warping with an intensity akin to nuclear radiation. This was not good. He did not know this was possible. If this were the Queen, maybe she could store this amount of energy, but Lahkranaz could literally feel his essence begin to tear apart.

"I-I h-h-have to g-g-go," Lahkranaz stuttered as he attempted to dash to the door. Even for a changeling, something was terribly wrong.

There were armoured guards at the door.

"There he is!" one guard shouted as he pointed a hoof straight at the shivering changeling.

The music stopped as Cornelius shot his gaze backstage. The audience began to applaud for a split second before they too realized something was wrong.

The only word on Lahkranaz's mind was: How?

"N-No!" Lahkranaz's mouth foamed. "Not n-n-now! I need t-t-to g-get out-t!"

"The hell's happening?" The same guard asked.

"I don't know, but take him!" Another guard, the Captain, shouted.

"What in the world is happening?" Cornelius called as he hopped off his stool and marched towards the backstage.

One of the other two guards lunged, and Lahkranaz wasn't expecting a full-body tackle.

"NO!" Lahkranaz shrieked. "Please stop! I need to get out of here!"

"He's resisting arrest!" The captain called. The tackling guard accepted the note as code for "Knock him out." and swung a hoof aimed right at the warped changeling's temple.

Scrambled senses and pain, but that subsided almost instantly. The changeling lost consciousness.

The body, however, did not follow.

After the hit, Lahkranaz's white, faded pupils went black, and widened to cover the entirety of his blueish changeling eyes. Time seemed to slow down for everyone. Then the entire backstage area exploded from a massive surge of expelled energy. The audience saw Cornelius launched backwards into his piano while Floyd panicked and hit the floor. C-Stand and Gaffer flew, landed, and rolled across the stage as well. The audience was then full of a variety of reactions, from gasping to screaming. The changeling couldn't hear it. He wasn't conscious anymore.

Lahkranaz's body slowly stood up, now disguise-less, and covered in what was left of the guard who took the full force of the blast. "EQUESTRIA WILL FALL TONIGHT," Lahkranaz announced in a downright demonic voice. His immediate vicinity began to magically decay as the immense power stored in the changeling seeped out slowly, but surely. Whatever took Lahkranaz's place was a mutation; all the pent-up energy was no longer positive.

Lahkranaz's shivering body looked at C-Stand and Gaffer. Their faces were painted with nothing but fear. He saw Cornelius, who lay limp atop a destroyed piano. "NO!" Lahkranaz bellowed as his glance shot back at the other two guards, "YOU DID THIS! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!"

The Guard captain tried to stand up, but Lahkranaz's hoof shot forward. The Captain's limbs shot outward like a starfish, only for the bones to bend like the curves of a pretzel. The agonizing warping of bone was complemented by screaming, followed by sudden death.

The last guard scrambled for the door. The psychotic changeling grabbed the guard with his telekinetic magic and threw him across the amphitheatre. The audience's shrieks then synced. The psychotic breakdown turned to blood lust in general.

---

Cornelius saw Grip as the stagehand... the Changeling... hovered lazily through walls that warped open with Grip's proximity. All this time, the one who worked as an excellent stagehand, who went to the pub with them and got knocked out by salt, who wanted to see the Chargerton Stampede and watched the Exegesis of Frozen Waters. The one who reminded him of his brother in some strange way.

A changeling.

No, not just a changeling. Cornelius groaned as he pushed himself out of the wreckage of his piano. Changeling or not, Grip was a friend. The face was false, but the attitude was real. The demeanor was real.

He finally stood and turned to Floyd- who was still lying flat on the ground. "Floyd," Cornelius said.

The guitarist looked up at the pianist. "Did you see that?" He asked, "I saw that once... The pictures..."

Cornelius helped Floyd onto his feet, all the while thinking about the implications that Grip was a changeling all along. It didn't matter, he thought, the Changeling was a friend. That explosion was not from him. There was something alien involved; something monstrous. Gaffer and C-Stand also pushed themselves up with their respective groans.

The entire building shuddered, and a duo of guards barged onto the stage. "Floyd, Cornelius!" One guard called, "We have a carriage and orders to get you out of here!"

"What about everypony else?" Floyd asked as he slipped his guitar onto his back.

"Others are taking care of the evacuation. Don't worry about them," the guard replied.

Reluctantly, Floyd, Cor, and the two stagehands followed the guards and evacuated on a small chariot.

---

Stallios sipped on some expensive tea, leaning back in his office chair and reading over some reports that required his attention. He was also in the middle of a call with another pony.

"So he's on his way to eye replacement surgery?" Stallios asked, "That's troubleso-"

The entire tree shook, and Stallios was thrown out of his chair. The phone flew out of his magic focus and swung along the edge of the desk like a pendulum. "The hell just happened?" Stallios called to no one in particular. He reached for the phone once more with his magic and checked to see if the call was still operational. "Hello?" he called before realising that the line was dead. "Oh no, they couldn't have believed that lunatic. They couldn't have..."

Another explosion. Stallios scrambled to plant his back against the wall. His eyes were suddenly wide as dinner plates. They're not actually trying to demolish his masterpiece with him inside it... Celestia wouldn't allow that, even if she knew what he did to that bumbling architect. Stallios tried to whisper these truths to himself, hoping he would believe them.

Before paranoia could consume him entirely, a powerfully glowing presence tore the floor in the center of Stallios' office open like an orange peel. Up from the hole, a changeling with pitch-black eyes and a poisonous aura that could be seen by anything rose.

"I see you," Lahkranaz said, "I feel what you did. There's one who can't see now because of you."

"What?! How?!"

"You disgust me like all ponies, I'll succeed where my Queen has FAILED!" Lahkranaz raised a hoof, and then left. Later, when the clean-up crew arrived in the very same office, the only thing left of Stallios was half of a torso and plucked eyes.

This tree was ugly... UGLY... UGLLLYYYYYY!!!

---

The Stallios World Tree's trunk buckled as the entire canopy leaned until it was perfectly on its side. From there, it slid and smashed into the downtown area below. The impact instantly demolished multiple buildings and kicked up tonnes of dust. The now far-gone changeling hovered above the almost effortless destruction like a floating ape. His face- despite the emotionless pitch-black eyes- had a curious demeanor to it.

Lahkranaz's aura had rend the fabric of space itself. He could feel the presence and auras of other creatures aside from ponies. He saw creatures that had never been seen before. He could feel through time and space, and he loved this power... rather, what was possessing him at this point was loving it.

His consciousness was almost non-existent at this point. There was only the immensely strong craving of revenge. He wanted to crush everything after the humiliating defeat at Canterlot. Given that he already destroyed one of the greatest marvels of Pony history with a single strike, he knew he could crush everything.

He didn't care about the death toll. It wasn't his job. Deaths are a statistic when they reach a high enough level.

It would only get higher, and the guards posted in Stalliongrad knew it.

It was time for Equestria to fall.

Lahkranaz could hear everything in Stalliongrad. Mostly blood-curdling screams of panic, and strident voices barking orders. The latter were definitely guards. Lahkranaz wanted to snuff those unpleasant souls. He wanted to snuff everything.

Among the voices he heard, one stood out among the rest: "Pink and Cream have been evac'd."

Cream was Cor's codename. The thing that possessed Lahkranaz knew that because Lahkranaz himself knew that. He would have to die later.

"What about the civilians?"

"We have teams trying to secure the Stallios Tower."

"Sir! We have an emergency!"

"Hail Sergeant Obvious! Are you looking at the same damn Stalliongrad?!"

"No! It's The Manticore Killer! My squad spotted him!"

Lahkranaz noticed that all the strident voices ceased. Manticore Killer, eh?" his violence-craving controlling self growled, "Let's see how tough he really is."

"Can we worry about him once we take care of that... whatever that is?"

"WHERE IS HE!?" Lahkranaz shouted across the city, "THIS POWER... IT BURNS... IT'S GLORIOUS!!!"

The thing that possessed the changeling demanded a challenge. With both hooves pointed down, Lahkranaz focused, and the remainder of the tree trunk began to flatten.

Windows exploded into raining shards, while metal warped and split as the trunk's height got lower and lower. Eventually, Lahkranaz had forced the trunk to about two stories above the second-tallest building in Stalliongrad.

The giant disc dropped to the side- having previously been held up by the trunk. Lahkranaz roared in victory as the giant disc slammed into the buildings, flattening it all.

"Celestia-Damnit!" many voices shouted amidst the constant screaming and announcements of things that are infinitely undesirable.

These ponies and their greed. They ruined this world. They killed Equilibrium. It was time the world took itself back! Lahkranaz lazily motioned, but the force in which he darted off was unheard of.

---

Lahkranaz floated down toward the ground level to a rapidly milling crowd of ponies moved southward- away from the tree, and hopefully from Stalliongrad. They saw the changeling and the rippling energy field that was held around him. They screamed.

"THE EXEGESIS OF FROZEN WATERS IS NOT FICTION!" Lahkranaz screeched as he held a hoof out. A building was ripped from its foundations and dragged along the street, effectively blocking off the crowd. "YOU ARE, ALL OF YOU, A PLAGUE ON THIS WORLD. OUR PRECIOUS ASYLUM!"

The ponies continued screaming.

"EVERYTHING HAD AN ORDER BEFORE YOU CAME ALONG! YOU FILTHY, RANCID EARTH PONIES, YOU VIOLENCE-CRAVING PEGASI, YOU PRISSY, GREEDY UNICORNS!"

"Changeling!" bellowed a voice.

"IT'S NAME IS LAHKRANAZ!!!" The Changeling interrupted. The boom of his voice reached across the city.

He was then tackled by a humongous creature. It was a blur of Burgundy and dark blue. Lakhranaz' consciousness would have identified the streak immediately.

Whatever was controlling the changeling didn't identify that Kurt Foalington had entered the carnage.

The duo hit the ground and tumbled until the pony got his hind hooves dug onto the concrete and threw the changeling into a wall. The hardened bricks buckled on the impact, but most of the damage was dealt by the space-tearing aura.

Lahkranaz glared intently at the creature- who already showed signs of tear on his flesh. The monstrous creature appeared unphazed by the wounds. Before the changeling could wonder why, he noticed the wounds rather rapidly sealed up again.

"A CHALLENGE," Lahkranaz said, "I ACCEPT."

Kurt smiled, but still flinched when the changeling lunged.

At the last second, Lahkranaz stopped when Kurt's head darted out of the way from an incoming tackle. With the sudden stop, Lahkranaz threw a new punch that connected with Kurt's jaw.

The power was enormous. The blow sent Kurt flying across the street and through the window of a flower shop. Lahkranaz cackled maniacally at the superior show of strength.

The cackle ceased when Kurt rose from the damage, ready for another hit. The force should've easily dislodged the creature's skull from its spine, the thing that possessed Lahkranaz thought.

"IMPRESSIVE!"

"Got a mean swing there," Kurt retorted, " But I've taken harder hits than that."

Lahkranaz growled and charged, rearing for another energy-filled punch. As Lahkranaz swung, Kurt shot to the side. Before the changeling tried to repeat the same action, a hoof slammed into the changeling's ribcage, and was followed by another one right into the jaw.

It then felt two more hooves smash into his gut with the force of twin cannons. Lahkranaz back-flipped as his wings instinctively flapped about to mitigate the launch. he still landed onto the street.

The changeling was quick to get back on his feet. Lahkranaz pushed himself out of the way as Kurt charged to slam a hoof into the back of his head.

From there, it rose both its forehooves, aimed right at Kurt.

"Bang," Lahkranaz grinned.

From an unseen force, Kurt was launched down the street, over the crowd, and into the third story of the recently-dragged building from an explosion of energy. Lahkranaz calmly stood up onto his hind legs and cracked his neck.

The crowd was the last thing on the changeling's mind now. He wanted to have a look at what he did to the stallion. With a bend of his hind legs, he launched himself after Kurt Foalington- into the same window he last saw the burgundy one crash through.

There were holes through almost every wall on the third floor. The very last one- a solid concrete slab like the first wall Kurt hit, was heavily cracked. The stallion appeared to be lifting itself up and shaking his head. "That all you got?" Kurt asked as he turned his head toward the changeling.

Lahkranaz snarled at the opaque eyes that gave no indication of pain or even acknowledgement that anything was happening. The stallion's eyes were dead, and there appeared to be no aura to speak of. The possessing... thing... hated that. He wanted everything to fear him.

"Stop trying to kill me and kill me!" Kurt taunted.

Lahkranaz shot both his arms out again, and the side of the building burst outward. Kurt was sent flying further down the street on the other side. Lahkranaz wasn't through. He hovered quickly after the stallion, rearing for another attack.

Kurt tumbled and rolled down the street until he flipped himself back onto his feet. "The hell did I just say?" Kurt yelled, "No one lives forever, come on!"

Lahkranaz hit the ground with a force that caused the immediate road around him to crack in a circular pattern. He then lunged at Kurt with a flurry of hooves.

Kurt was definitely an expert in close-quarters fighting, Lahkranaz would have thought if he were still conscious. With swift, incredibly trained movements, Kurt had pinned the changeling's arms around each other, and reared a hoof to slam into one elbow. Lahkranaz tried to pry himself out of the situation, but the hoof connected, and a sickening crack was heard.

The creature shrieked in agony, and the spacial rend flared out in an overflow of power. Kurt's body hovered as his hide was being torn apart at almost every pore of his body. However, the surge did not last long. Lahkranaz felt at the now-useless foreleg and shrieked again. The remaining hoof thrust forward, and the resulting blast sent Kurt farther away.

"EQUESTRIA MUST FALL! HOW DARE YOU!!" Lahkranaz bounded after the pony- whose wounds from the more serious tearing still showed signs of healing.

"You're not yourself today, are you?" Kurt asked. He appeared to wince from the agony of everything trying to heal at once.

"HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING!?" Lahkranaz demanded like a foal who had their favourite toy taken from it.

Kurt choked on blood, but he remained smiling, "It's a kind of magic."

"MAGIC THIS!" Lahkranaz shouted as he held his good hoof forward.

Kurt's body twitched and rose in the air. His limbs forcibly spread out like a starfish. Lahkranaz tried to focus, but for some reason, the pretzel effect wouldn't happen like the previous guard. Lahkranaz screamed as his planned action wouldn't work.

"Out of juice, eh?" Kurt laughed. "I thought you'd last longer!"

"THIS IS NOT FUNNY!!"

A squad of Pegasus guards dropped from the sky and landed around the duo. They all had weapons drawn. Lahkranaz glanced at the newcomers, and noticed that civilians also took a stupid risk by being an audience for this fight. He did not see Kurt look at one of the guards- who was positioned behind the changeling- and wiggle an arm.

"Very well, I'll find another way to kill you," Lahkranaz grumbled as he threw his hoof toward the ground. Kurt was pulled face-first onto the asphalt road. Lahkranaz raised his good arm, concentrating an immense build-up of energy into the flat of his hoof. The space-rending aura began to vanish as the energy reached incredibly dangerous levels.

"Now!" Kurt shouted to the guard behind the changeling as Lahkranaz reared to swing.

Lahkranaz turned to see the Guard get ready to throw a blade to Kurt Foalington. Before the blade left the guard's hoof, Lahkranaz swung his hoof back toward the guard. He planned to vaporize the guard with the pent-up energy instead. The energy sparked, but vanished in a pathetic puff. The changeling felt something cold enter his stomach.

The completely darkened eyes began to lighten up as Lahkranaz turned to the front once more. He looked at Kurt- who was gripping a Guardspony's blade- and then to the present Guard Captain- who appeared suddenly unarmed. He then looked down at the blade. By then, the pupils retracted back to the original white fade atop a light blue iris.

---

Lahkranaz could see again. The first thing he saw was what appeared to be a blade in the center of his abdomen. The changeling looked up, his eyes now back to the normal green iris with snake-like pupil. "What happened?" he asked the one who was holding the blade. "What... what did I do?"

It was Kurt Foalington with the present Guard captain's weapon. The massive beast softly placed a hoof on the changeling's shoulder.

That was him, Lahkranaz thought as he stared at the burgundy stallion's eyes. Those eyes didn't look opaque like before; there was transparency in them. The changeling could peer through those tiny windows and see what the pony really was.

Kurt is one thing: a warrior. No pony the changeling has ever seen had eyes that contained such a violent fire. Lahkranaz thought ponies like that were extinct in pony society, yet here one was. This wasn't some hoof-swinging militia pony like the rainbow one who bucked the changeling in the face. This wasn't just one of the many guards Lahkranaz had taken down for his kin to feed on during the invasion. This Kurt Foalington character has killed, and liked it.

Judging by the wounds that hadn't healed yet, the pony was incredibly hard to kill.

The aura, which now was visible to the changeling, served as the nail in the proverbial coffin. This pony was a murderer, a cold-hearted killer, and the brother of one of the most beautiful musicians the changeling has ever met. There was a fear that brewed in Lahkranaz's core; fear of that variant of juxtaposition.

What has caused such a phenomenon to occur? He wondered.

But then, the pony's aura slowly vanished to one of regret. Lahkranaz didn't understand why. The changeling tried to speak, but his lungs started to expand and contract as rapidly as his heart beat- which had spiked at that point. His personal aura diminished like an upside-down water bottle.

He felt fluid in his throat- the cause of his hyperventilation. He knew what the fluid was. It was warm, and almost cozy, and the sudden overabundance made him unable to breathe.

"Look... It's too far-gone, Changeling," Kurt flatly whispered, "Ponies have ascended too high. If you make them fall, the impact would have consequences we can't imagine."

Lahkranaz wanted to ask how, but his suffocation prevented such actions. The blade retracted, and Lahkranaz dropped to the ground.

"I saw the Sea Ponies, there's only one thing we can do now," Kurt added.

Kurt glanced around the witnesses and fear-stricken guards, and swiftly bounded over one and vanished into the shadows of the buildings.

"You five, after him!" the Guard captain barked as he and the last two ponies approached the downed changeling. The five pegasi took to the air and darted after Kurt Foalington.

Lahkranaz felt his body being turned. The two guards appeared to be examining his wound. Somehow, his consciousness maintained structure.

"Grip!" the familiar voice of Cornelius called, "Grip!"

The one guard in Lahkranaz' field of view turned and raised a hoof in defiance. "No, Mr. Foalington, it's not safe."

"Who did this?" Cornelius manically asked.

"Your brother," the guard replied. As Cor began to tear up, the guard whispered "He did what he had to do, Cornelius."

Cornelius didn't respond. Instead, he poked his head into the changeling's field of view.

"Listen to me, Grip. You're going to be fine," Cornelius sounded serious, but the changeling knew it was futile. Kurt's stab was true. There was too much for two guards to hold down before real medical experts came around. Besides, what pony even understood the biology of a changeling?

"You just had a bad dream!" Cornelius barked, "Stay with me!!"

Lahkranaz raised a hoof. He now saw that his form was flickering like a television screen. Static in between forms. Changelings young and old knew what those symptoms meant.

"I can't, sir," Lahkranaz coughed. He felt the same fluid blast out of his mouth as he tried to speak. "I'm sor..."

"Don't horse-apples me! Changeling or not, you're a good creature! I know you are! You were with us the entire tour!"

The guard tried in vain to get Cornelius away, but the pianist held his ground.

"Look at me!" Cornelius barked, "You're going to get fixed up! We're going to watch the Chargerton Stampede! Gaffer, C-Stand, and everypony! We're gonna see the Stampede and everything will be fine!"

Lahkranaz shook his head and pointed his good hoof around the large amounts of property damage he had caused in the rampage.

"I... I'm so... sor... sorr..."

He never got to finish his sentence. Everything in the changeling's field of vision blurred before becoming consumed by darkness. Lahkranaz' raised arm went limp, and the already weakened aura faded completely.

There was nothing, like some have expected and others refused to accept.