Rainbow Dash had only strayed from Rarity for a moment, she had promised to help her with some shopping in town and while she was bored over the calm bustle of the market, she wasn't one to go back on her word like that, especially for one of her best friends. However, it seemed that the market wasn't going to just be all dull shuffling along the crowds as she saw one of the new guards that had been stationed at Ponyville looking rather suspiciously across the sea of bodies towards somepony. Intrigued by the soon-to-be spectacle, she followed to watch, and if by chance a Changeling was revealed, it was only natural for an Element to be present to ensure that it was safely captured, the entire thing was a win-win. So when she watched the exchange between the guard and her supposed target unfold and the spell to reveal a Changeling was cast, she took steps towards the two through the momentary flash of blindness.

She was forced to halt and her eyes went wide, however, when her vision had cleared and the sight in front of her left her in shock, just like the others who were watching the display. She practically felt all sense depart from her mind and the color drain from her face at what she was looking at. An enraged Changeling holding some kind of sharp object, likely a knife, sunk deep into the guardspony's side through a gap in the armor. That...that wasn't right, Changelings didn't...Rainbow Dash felt her brain almost short circuit in disbelief at what she just witnessed, her entire body felt frozen in place, unsure of what to even do with the information she just absorbed.

She just witnessed a Changeling try to kill a pony.

It took the guardspony a moment to even realize what had happened, her body already shaking and having stumbled a step to the side from the impact alone before the Changeling tore the blade from her and started to make a break for it. The poor guard let out a cry of pain, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her state of chilled observance. She recognized what the mare was trying to do immediately as she fruitlessly clawed at the armor she was now trapped in-- she needed to stop the bleeding. Rainbow Dash could practically see the moment when she was unable to stay upright on her own anymore and burst forward with a flap of her powerful wings, landing at her side quickly, shaking. She caught the mare and started trying to undo the straps of the armor, to untie the small knots keeping it secure to her body. Her fingers were shaking-- they needed to stop shaking!

"Rarity!" She yelled out, unsure of what else she could possibly say in that moment, knowing her friend was the most reliable with magic at the moment and they needed to act quickly. She grit her teeth as the straps finally gave and she pulled the breastplate off. A nasty wound was bleeding into the shirt the mare wore under her armor and Rainbow Dash pressed her hand firmly over the wound immediately, earning a strained hiss of pain from the other mare.

"Hey, hey hey hey, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, alright," she needed to say something reassuring, everything was going to be fine now that she was helping, of course it was. She had spoken quickly, voice almost broken as she tried to keep herself from hyperventilating in panic as she tried to soothe the mare in her hold. She wasn't ready to have somepony die, especially not in her arms. It seemed Rainbow Dash was not the only one of the two who had been attracted to the commotion, as Rarity was at her side almost immediately after she called out, floating the rest of the armor away with her magic quickly. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe what was happening, a Changeling had turned actually violent, physically deadly...a Changeling that was currently escaping the scene. A seed of anger settled in Rainbow Dash's chest, quickly blooming into a deeper rage that worked to redirect her panic into more action. She looked up at Rarity, who had a horrified expression on her face.

"Rarity," she tried to force confidence into her voice, "you...you need to get her to the hospital, press your hand here to stop the bleeding, I'm gonna go put a stop to that Changeling." Rarity didn't even stop to show disdain at having to get her hands dirty and immediately did as she was instructed, but hesitated when she met Rainbow Dash's eyes.

"Dash, that...that beast is...it did this...I don't want you to..." Rarity was struggling to put her emotions into words as she lifted the pony with her magic, holding her hand firmly over the wound like she was instructed.

"I'll be fine. I'm not letting it get away to hurt anyone else," she said, voice firm despite the gnawing tenseness. Dash transitioned her panic into a solid, burning motivation to respond to what the Changeling had decided to do and it helped her steel her nerves as she launched off the ground, confident at Rarity's ability to get the mare to the hospital safely. Wind rushed by her in a familiar way as she ascended, seeing the form of the Changeling nearing the edge of town. If she wasn't fast it was going to escape.

And if nothing else, Rainbow Dash was fast.

She practically blurred through the air as she approached the Changeling, who only had a moment to look back at who was approaching before Rainbow Dash's body slammed into it, earning an enraged hiss as they plummeted to the ground. She made sure the Changeling was below her as they hit the ground in the middle of a street near the edge of Ponyville.

"You're not getting away that easily-woah!" she started to snarl before finding herself thrown backwards as the Changeling threw her off itself with surprising force. It whirled on her, an odd bend in one of its wings now and Rainbow Dash smiled at the sight despite the danger, knowing it wasn't going to get away so simply anymore. She got to her feet quickly as it rushed at her. With a powerful beat of her wings she hopped over it, but the sound of something slicing through the air echoed in her brain, draining any excitement she could have had at the brawl she had gotten into when landed and turned to see that the Changeling still had a knife.

She narrowed her eyes. She had to be careful here, very careful. But that's okay, careful was something she was good at, some might even argue the best. She took a breath as she tried to remember what she learned those few times at the special Wonderbolt training sessions they did with the royal guards sometimes. She wasn't a full member, so she only got to go sometimes (and only mostly paid attention to the long talks), but she remembered one of the guardsponies talking about how if someone had a weapon, it was something along the lines of...keep it away and try to get control of it? She couldn't remember if there were any further specifics, but that concept seemed easy enough, right? The Changeling went to swing at her again, so she dove towards the side, kicking up at its arm as she went under the knife. If she disarmed it, then it was going to be easy to keep the weapon away and then it would be back to the kind of conflict she was more used to. She felt her boot solidly connect with its arm, but any satisfaction at her own maneuver was lost when she saw that her strike didn't have much effect on the Changeling and now it was bearing down on her.

Buck.

"Gah!" she let out, kicking up with both legs as the Changeling used both hands to stab down at her. Her boots landed on its chest and stopped its body from descending further as she caught both of its wrists with her hands. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stared up into the Changeling's eyes, a green glow flaring through them unnaturally. She wondered about that for only a moment as the Changeling tried to force itself down more against her grip with a growl, causing her to yelp and push back harder. She needed to think fast, this was going to go badly real soon if she didn't get it off of her. Her eyes widened with an idea and dropped one foot off the Changeling, slamming her heel against the ground before kicking off and flapping her wings, launching herself backwards, leaving the Changeling flailing somewhat as she disappeared from under it.

That was too close, she thought, staring down at it from above as she hovered.

"Give it up, you're not getting out of here now!" she called down at it. It stared at her before its horn lit up with magic and became engulfed in a sickly, vibrant green fire. That was different, too, she noticed. Different moreso, was the ball of green fire that was sent her way. She rolled gracefully through the air out of the way, frowning as the heat of its vile magic passed by her. That magic...it felt bad, and she realized that was likely due to the fact that it was actually meant to kill her, just like the knife. This Changeling was a threat to everypony. She dodged another ball of flames and dove down at it-- she just needed to land a solid blow to incapacitate it, and she couldn't help the smirk the cracked through her expression as she felt her fist land solidly against the Changeling's jaw, succeeding in knocking it over. Ignoring the pain in her knuckles at hitting the harsh body of the Changeling, she took the chance and got on top of it, the blow having managed to stun it momentarily enough for her to grab it by the wrist and wrench the knife away, throwing it to the side. Now they were in her element, she punched down at it, nailing it again across the jaw. It shouldn't take too many hits like this to get knocked out. Only two or three should suffice.

On the fifth she found herself gasping for air as a fist nailed her in the stomach. She practically crumpled from the force-- way more intense than the times she sparred with other Wonderbolts and was nailed in the gut in practice. Her world practically whirled as she was rolled onto her back and she raised her hands, anticipating the rain of blows to begin on her in return. They didn't come. Instead, a firm grip snaked around her throat and her eyes widened. The Changeling was trying to strangle her! She grabbed at its wrists and tried to wrench it off, panic filling every sense she had as alarms started rung out in her head. A few moments later and her lungs started to burn. She flailed her legs and wings, trying to kick away, to do anything. When that failed, she started trying to punch, but she had no energy to put any true force into her hits. The Changeling stared down at her like a predator amused by its prey as blurriness filled the edges of her vision. She let out strangled chokes and tried again to pry its hands away, fingertips turning white with her efforts but nonetheless useless.

"Rainbow Dash!" a heat from a magic spell passed over her, and with it came a sudden lack of weight pressing down on her followed by air coming to her lungs. She rolled onto her side and choked out gasps, almost retching as the soreness in her neck and lungs burned. She looked at where the Changeling was thrown, and at who had thrown it. She saw Twilight and Ezikeal, the former with a paled, panicked expression and Ezikeal held a firm gaze on the scene, glaring at the Changeling, who writhed in pain from whatever spell Twilight had shot at it. Twilight was at her side in an instant, panic filling her voice as she spoke.

"What happened!? Are you okay!? It was-- it was trying to-- what's going on!?" Twilight ran some kind of spell over her, probably checking for any serious injuries as Rainbow Dash caught her breath.

"It...had a knife, Twilight," she practically saw her friend's pupils turn to pinpricks at the news.

"I had gotten alerted that something bad was happening and there was a Changeling- some of the detection pylons were going off, but-" Twilight started, confusion melding with panic.

"It stabbed somepony, I chased it down and almost beat it too, pretty awesome right?" Rainbow Dash said, boasting weakly to try to bring some levity to the painfully tense situation, but coughed, rubbing her neck. That was going to bruise, wasn't it. She looked over to where the Changeling had been thrown and saw Ezikeal standing over it, looking down at it. The Changeling glared up at him, but didn't attack right away, as if trying to match the intensity of whatever glare Ezikeal was leveling at it. Whatever patience it had for that moment quickly passed before it lunged up wildly to attack.

The thing's attack was wildly unfocused and Ezikeal used both hands to bat away the arm it tried to strike at him with, frowning at the effort it took to do so before leaning in and slamming the back of one fist into the side of its jaw. The part that disturbed Ezikeal about the Changeling, that's what this thing was from what he heard others say, was that the force behind its strikes and movements was rather...unnerving.

"Why are you aiming to kill others?" he tried demanding of it as it hissed, not giving any response. Before it had a chance to strike at him again, Ezikeal struck it first, using his other hand to drive a punch into its head. The hard flesh of the creature almost cut at his skin and he grimaced at the sensation. The punch had seemed to at least rock the creature some, as it shook its head before seeming to decide magic was a better way to handle Ezikeal. And it was when an all too familiar green fire engulfed its horn that Ezikeal's world came crashing down.

How could he have been so blind! He should've thought of the possibility that something would have simply taken the Fel's cursed power and that's why it was missing from the ground by the tree! Oh, this was now suddenly an issue of unknown scale. He didn't know how long specifically this Changeling had been taken by the Fel, or even if it was the only one, but it perfectly explained the sudden violence the Changeling was displaying.

A bright beam of purple magic knocked the Changeling over, interrupting whatever spell it was going to cast and a purple dome appeared around it. Twilight and Rainbow Dash came over, the latter of the two looking worse for wear.

"What...kind of magic was that..." Twilight breathed, looking at the Changeling, who seemed to be taking stock of its situation. Ezikeal wanted to tell them to run, or to urge the total destruction of the Changeling, but that would reveal he knew what was going on, and was hiding it from them. A strange hiss drew their attention as the Changeling seemed to right its crooked wing before its horn erupted in green fire again.

This situation is bigger than the fragile attachments I've been building...some concessions are going to need to be made here.

"Twilight, whatever strength this containment spell is, you need to strengthen it," he said quickly, seeing the Changeling's magic begin to cast.

"What!? There should be no way for it to be able to-gah!" She let out as an explosion of green magic practically shattered the dome and threw the three of them back. Ezikeal was the first to his feet and helped Twilight quickly stand and faced the creature. It stared at them before sending a ball of green fire towards them, but it was too high to hit them. The puzzle of how it missed so far was solved almost immediately when the ball impacted a house behind them, exploding into a green flame that started to spread over the building. At the same time the Changeling took off in flight again.

"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow Dash yelled, voice still hoarse as she took off too.

"Rainbow-dammit!" he looked at Twilight, seeing a torn, panicking look on her face as she stared at the fire, but was deathly concerned to her friend.

"Twilight," he said firmly, getting her attention, "handle the fire, I'll go get Rainbow Dash,"

"Okay, yeah, okay okay, I can figure out what to do with this, I'm just- I haven't seen something like this before but I can figure it out," she seemed to be hyping herself up to tackle the stressful challenge instead of responding to Ezikeal.

"If it means anything to you, use magic based in Order. Arcane or something," he said quickly, getting ready to sprint off. Twilight whirled on him, eyes wide and looking at him like he had spoken some kind of secret mage code.

"You know what it is and know enough about it to know to channel an ancient, primordial force of magic to combat it!? Ezikeal, whaaat!?" She almost screamed, eyes practically popping out of her head and showing that he had somehow uplifted her entire worldview in one sentence.

"No time! I'll explain later if I must, but you should be able to do something, and quickly!" he didn't give that anymore time as the felfire started to spread over the building. He took off, racing in the direction Rainbow Dash and the Changeling had gone.

They had raced off towards the Everfree, that was not a good sign in it of itself, but Ezikeal knew he had to find them. It was a Fel infused Changeling, Rainbow Dash didn't know what she was up against, hell, she had almost been killed when they showed up, why did she rush off for a rematch so eagerly!? As he approached the treeline of the forest he silently thanked Applejack for putting him to work on the farm, allowing his endurance to carry him at a run the whole way. He heard a voice as he approached and found them. Rainbow Dash was rolled in the grass with the Changeling, looking to immobilize it from the looks of it. She was on its back, forcing its arms upward at an odd angle and jamming her knee behind its knee to keep it down. Ezikeal could see what she couldn't, however, as a second Changeling broke from the treeline, a weapon at the ready.

"Rainbow Dash!" He called out, racing towards them. She broke from grappling the Changeling not a moment too soon, raising her arms and barely deflecting the slice of the blade from the new attacker. Her eyes were wide with fear and a fist caught her head soon after, throwing her to the ground with disorienting force.

Ezikeal was not about to watch her get killed, and grit his teeth as he made his decision. He already had to explain a lot to Twilight, some talking with Rainbow Dash was just a little more on that list.

Rainbow Dash hadn't expected the second Changeling to come out of nowhere, that was totally not fair, but complaints of fair fights were the furthest thing from her thoughts as she clenched her eyes shut and tucked her knees up to her chest to try to stop the knife that was surely plunging at her that very moment. She lingered in her dizziness briefly, the sound of distant voice reaching her ears, before noticing that she did not seem to be getting stabbed. Her mind ran at a million thoughts per second as she opened her eyes, seeing the two Changelings standing around her, but facing somewhere else entirely and taking defensive posturings. She followed their gazes and felt herself freeze up at the sight before them.

Ezikeal.

He looked...different, and not in a great way. His skin had drained of its normal color, instead appearing as a pale, almost deathly, whitish grey. His eyes were alight with bright, blue magic that concealed their natural colors behind it and his face was twisted with what looked like pain and rage. His body was tense as he approached, sword in hand and swirling with power. The runes along the flat of it glowed in an intimidating display of whatever magic he was tapping into and despite how much she wanted to, Rainbow Dash couldn't look away from the sight. This was what Ezikeal had wanted to keep them all from seeing, this...transformation he underwent. The Changelings regarded the approaching aggressor with clear caution, hissing lowly before they both seemed to come to a decision of what to do as their horns ignited with the fire of that strange, sickening magic. Ezikeal raised a hand quickly and a wisp of blue magic snapped through the air before snuffing out the flame of one of the Changelings. Said Changeling let out a shriek of discomfort, grabbing at its own head, trying to shake of the lingering blue aura that clung to its horn.

Rainbow Dash looked at Ezikeal and flinched, letting out a small sound of shock when a black, shadowy tendril of magic shot through the air like a bullet, slamming into the other Changeling, who released a poorly aimed ball of green fire at its attacker with a panicked noise before being torn through the air towards Ezikeal. A cold sense of fear solidified in Rainbow Dash's mind as she watched Ezikeal move without hesitation and with a sickening, snapping crunch that mingled with metal shearing flesh, Ezikeal impaled the Changeling on his blade and held his other hand under the Changeling's chin, pointing its horn towards the sky presumably in case it fired off one last spell. The violence of his movement as he flung the now motionless body off his sword without seemingly any care had Rainbow Dash shuffling backwards, away form it, away from him. She didn't personally care about the Changelings, no, but seeing one get dispatched so forcefully and in a way that showed the snuffing out of life was second nature to the one she was beginning to like as a friend sent shivers down her spine and discomfort in her very being.

The other Changeling seemed to have recovered from whatever magic Ezikeal had used to cancel its spell and fired two bolts of green magic at him. Ezikeal went to step out of the way, but he seemed to hesitate, gasping out roughly in pain, somehow, and Rainbow Dash heard his voice, the chilling, unnatural echo it held within it as the sound left his lips. Why was he hurting? He didn't get hit, and as the blasts of magic approached he raised a hand. With a dull, unnerving hum, a swirling weave of strange, interlocking runes surrounded him and seemingly absorbed the first of the two blasts of magic, and he was able to sidestep the second. His eyes locked on the Changeling right next to Rainbow Dash and she felt with certainty that she needed to get away from whatever was about to happen.

What that was did not remain a mystery for long as Ezikeal rushed forwards suddenly, she could feel the temperature around her drop as he got closer before he brought his sword up and swung down at the Changeling, the edge of his blade glowing with a strange, dark red aura , fueled by one of the runes on his blade that had ignited in a similar color, before it faded to nothingness after he swung. The Changeling had backpedaled and Rainbow Dash saw an opportunity to be of some use, even if it wasn't required and she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring any attention to herself, still on the ground and vulnerable. She kicked out her leg and tripped it, resulting in the Changeling letting out a cry as stumbled back. She looked to Ezikeal and couldn't see past the glow of his eyes-- was he even conscious of his actions right now? She had no idea how the magic worked, but she did recognize how the hammering of her heart that she could practically hear in her ears was telling her to get away from him. The weighing of threats in her mind completely discounted the soon-to-be former Changeling and her fight or flight instincts were all reacting to Ezikeal instead, being this close to someone wielding strange magic and able to just thoughtlessly dispose of whoever opposed it pierced her heart with an existential panic. Dash closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch as a Ezikeal ended its rampage, a single snarl escaping it that morphed into agony for just a moment. When she opened her eyes again she was looking at Ezikeal, who was looking at her as he removed the blade.

"H-hey, Ezikeal...u-um.." panic gripped at her under his gaze, no, not panic, she didn't panic, it was just...her throat hurt from getting choked earlier, that's it. He made no movements towards her, something she was thankful for even as she continued to scoot away purely to give him space.

"Rainbow Dash," he said, and the way her name sounded in the cold, empty shell of his voice made her shudder. She wanted to leave so, so badly, but she felt similarly strong emotions at the prospect of just abandoning someone who just saved her, even if it had a small chance to be just saving her to be the last victim.

"Y-yeah that's me! S-So uh...You're not gonna...I mean- please don't if you're thinking it- I mean- buck!" She tripped over her words more than herself as she got to a standing position and primed her wings for a speedy takeoff if he made any sudden movements. The only sounds for a moment were their combined heavy breaths, Rainbow Dash from panic and Ezikeal from...pain and exertion? The noise escaping with his breaths drew her attention, cutting through the fear for just a moment, it sounded like he was in a lot of pain, did he get stabbed and she didn't notice? She was about to ask if he was okay when he made a move that silenced her immediately. He brought his sword up, and Dash raised her wings a bit more to get ready to take off. He raised a hand up in a calming gesture, and she managed to hesitate even as he sliced the blade to the side, throwing off the glowing green blood that stained its edges before he started to slide it into his sheath. As he did so, wisps of white magic seemed to flow out of the blade and back into his body. The color seemed to return to his skin and when it was fully sheathed, the glow fled from his eyes and he let out a harsh gasp before falling to his knees. The hilt, still visible out of the sheath, lingered, and the runes glowed with latent power.

"I'd never...wish to harm you..." he rasped out. She felt a pang of relief that his voice had returned to normal as well as a small pang of guilt that she was very seriously worried about that just a moment ago, well, worried he would try to at least, she'd be too quick for him, surely.

"Well...could've fooled me, dude..." she tried to put a coolness to her tone as she spoke, drawing close to him again as she saw him on the verge of falling over, "you alright...I mean...that was..." she trailed off as he shook his head.

"I'm sorry you had...to see it like that..." he said. What? He saved her life and was apologizing? Sure it was terrifying and she thought he might go after her next, but...

"Dude, we're fine, you saved my ass, so...thanks, for that, even if I have a lot of questions about what I just saw..." she put a hand on his shoulder to steady him, but tensed a bit at the coldness that still permeated through his form, "are you hurt?" the magic he used was...well beyond Rainbow Dash's understanding, but she knew enough to know that it was this "dark magic" that was taking a toll on him like this, and she also knew enough to know that she wasn't a fan of it doing this to her friend.

"Drained, exhausted. We need to get away from the bodies..." he said, urging her to move.

Right.

The bodies.

He had just killed two Changelings. The discomfort of that fact was evident on her face, she couldn't hide it and he didn't press as she helped him stand and led him a little bit further from the scene of the conflict before he asked her to let him down. He set himself down before he rolled onto his back, Rainbow Dash taking a seat next to him, uncertain of what else to do.

"Why'd you...go after it a second time?" he asked after a few quiet moments.

"I wasn't about to just let it get away with stabbing a pony...besides, I handled myself fine-" she caught a look from him, "well, mostly fine, I didn't expect them to be that strong...Changelings are usually pretty easily handled, they usually rely on numbers to overwhelm but that was...different," she said, really thinking back on everything that had happened. She decided to go after it again because she felt like she was more prepared for the second round with it, knowing it was stronger now, meaning she just had to use even more force, and with it being disarmed there was much less of a risk, at least that's what she was thinking.

"This shouldn't have happened...they shouldn't have gotten a hold of this power..." Ezikeal said, the somber tone in his already somewhat low, smooth voice caught her attention. Dash looked down at him, seeing the remorse plainly written across his face, the regret of something unseen dancing across his vision. She puzzled it over in her mind for a moment before the source of his distress clicked in her mind.

"You know it? From where you're from?" she asked, and when he gave a small nod in response she couldn't stop a small huff from escaping. Trouble always seemed to follow interesting ponies, now didn't it, and this was some serious trouble. If this power the Changelings were using came from Ezikeal's dark homeland, that meant a lot of trouble was about to be coming to light, wasn't it. She didn't feel ready, but it seemed like Ezikeal was going to be forced to reveal more of what he knew now, and clarity comes with truth, doesn't it? She was beginning to get a better understanding of why he was so secretive with himself, though. She couldn't really blame him, what she saw was, well, pretty hardcore, intimidating even, and would no doubt scare others who saw it, or what he could do with it. It made sense that he'd be scared of making friends and then having them find out there's this deep dark violent side... She let out a small sigh.

"I won't tell anyone about what I saw, not yet at least. I kinda get why you're hiding...that...from everypony. Besides, I owe you for saving me back there, I guess helping keep some of your privacy is the least I could do," her voice had dropped to a low tone, a humbleness she had to admit to from being saved, but she heard no response other than steady breathing. She glanced over, finding him unconscious, likely passed out from whatever exhaustion had taken a hold of him. A small, mirthful smile cracked her expression as she laid back in the grass, relieved that the conflict was done with, and stared up the sky-- she would keep her word on that, but no shot she would be caught hurting her own pride with that statement aloud again. He might be mysterious and absolutely terrifying, but he saved her, and so she decided that, at this time, he was a friend.

We got some plot starting to pick up right at the new year.

Feedback as always welcome, thanks for reading and thank you to those who are enjoying this story enough to stick around, hopefully this chapter helps to continue holding your interest.