The changeling hissed, searching the area with its dark red eyes. The fangs in its mouth clicked and the long red wings at its back were buzzing. The claws curved a slight angle, like those of a mantis, making them look rather short. The head of the creature turned slightly as a muffled whimper came from one of the ponies on the ground. Like a coiled spring, the right claw lashed out, piercing through the pony and lifting it in front of its head. To Thiemo’s horror, the pony was still alive and screamed in pain as not only his foreleg was severed, but sharp claws were buried into his stomach.

What passed for a mouth stretched unnaturally open before relative quiet returned, the break in the silence coming from the thud of the pony’s body, sans head, flopping onto the ground. The changeling chewed on its meal like it was bubble gum, pausing only to lick its three-fingered claws clean.

Everything that had occurred during the last thirty minutes caught up with Thiemo, manifesting in the form of burning acid bubbling in his throat. Paired with a gagging sound, what little had been in his stomach now mixed with the blood splattered on the ground.

It was, however, not the only noise that sounded through the room. A whimper could be heard, now that everything else was dying down. No, it was actually crying, only so faint that Thiemo hadn’t recognized it right away. And he wasn’t the only one to notice. The monster, which had taken a few steps into the hall, also sought the source. Thiemo found it first. Far away, in the last corner behind the teleporter where he had laid down his sister, he found golden eyes that were filled with terror and tears as they looked into his.

The little he could see of Lyra was shaking, wailing, and sobbing as she was now exposed from behind the pillar. Thiemo had completely forgotten about her. She had simply gone unnoticed in the chaos that had occurred. Now she had chosen the absolutely worst time to be detected again.

“Lyra! Run!” Thiemo yelled at her and, with a bit of help from the pillar, lifted himself back onto his legs.

The changeling first looked at Lyra, then to Thiemo, and then repeated the movement. Then it did something that he hadn’t expected. It laughed, the sound freezing Thiemo. He had heard a similar laugh before, and a shiver ran down his spine. This was no simple laugh; this was the laugh of evil that had just found its new favourite toy. The laugh, although slightly different, was that of Nightmare Moon.

Then it charged forward. With the speed that would make a leopard envious, it ran on its six stilt-like legs directly towards Lyra. The mare yelped and cowered. For a moment, Thiemo wondered why she didn’t flee, but then he realized that she was protecting Danielle with her own body.

Thiemo began to move and once again gathered magic in his right hand. He was faster than the changeling, but just in the moment as he caught up to it, it turned around and swiped him with the back of its left claw. He flew a couple of meters and slid over the floor until a soft body stopped him. He had no time to catch his breath, as the mantis-like changeling was charging at him now, trying to trample him. He rolled to the side at the last second, and it struck the body he had been leaning against, but it still had enough legs left. Thiemo continued rolling, but one of the legs caught his coat and he heard it rip. Then a third leg struck his stomach. A loud yelp escaped his lips as inhuman strength was forced upon his body.

The changeling did not attempt to push him further. It instead held him in place as Thiemo tried to lift its leg off with his healthy hand, but to no avail. It leaned down to him, the glowing red eyes staring directly into his. The fangs in the changeling’s mouth clicked rapidly, and it chuckled.

A short flash of light was all the warning he got, as in the next moment a magical bolt struck the changeling in the back of its head. “Leave… Leave him alone!” Lyra’s voice sounded. She was sobbing. “Leave him alone!“ she repeated and shot again. This time, the changeling simply dodged by moving its head.

For a moment, it seemed torn whether it should keep its attention on him or Lyra. Then it pushed its leg down against his stomach one last time before turning towards Lyra. Lyra squeaked again and various magical missiles flew through the room. She wasn’t a good shot, and paired with her fear, most of them missed their target. The rest posed no problem to the changeling, which slowly stomped over towards Lyra.

“Lyra…” Thiemo panted now as air filled his lungs again. Once more he tried to stand up, but the infernal pain was keeping him from that. He was no doctor, but he was sure he shouldn’t be tasting blood in his mouth.

Never in her life had she felt so much terror as in this moment. Her legs were shaking, her view was increasingly blurry, and hiccups shook her every few seconds. “Leave me alone!” she screamed at the creature that stalked towards her.

It was as though it had emerged from one of Lyra’s worst nightmares. As it slowly came closer, it seemed to almost enjoy the situation. Her hooves wanted her to run, but her heart told her that she couldn’t leave Danielle to this thing. She could never forgive herself for this if she did.

And then it stood in front of her.

It looked down at her as if it wanted to say “Now what?” However, it gave her no time to formulate an answer. Its left claw wrapped around her neck and it slowly began lifting her. It was so quiet that when Thiemo dimly called her name, that she mistook it for her own heartbeat. She couldn’t breathe as it began to increase pressure. Tears were running down her cheeks, but that didn’t seem to be enough for the monster. It wrapped its right claw, pincer by pincer, around Lyra’s right foreleg.

Her mouth opened to plead, but it was too late. With one strong pull, it ripped her leg from her body. She wanted to scream, to shriek and screech, but nothing escaped her lips. Frantically, she tried to gasp for air, but it just kept pushing harder. Crimson chaos danced before her eyes, her head pounding as she began to convulse, white agony streaking across her senses, latching onto every heartbeat that pumped her lifeblood from her body.

Harsh crunching could be heard, and her leg disappeared from the world.

The crimson mask began to fade into a veil of darkness, merciful unconsciousness pleading her to be embraced into its arms, but then she could feel the horror creeping up to her left foreleg. Once again, the menacing claws wrapped around her leg.

“Big mistake.” She couldn’t make out who had spoken, though suddenly the creature released her, and air filled her lungs again. But she could no longer keep her eyes open.

Thiemo flinched and the memory of pain streaked through his body as he had to watch with wide open eyes as Lyra‘s right foreleg was ripped from her body. No scream penetrated the room, her hind legs rapidly spasmed, then she was no longer moving.

With his last remaining ounce of strength, he finally stood up, but his mouth was immediately filling with blood, forcing him back to his knees. The creature had hit something important, that was clear. Without adrenalin pumping through his veins, he surely would have long been completely rendered immobile. And if that wasn’t enough already, he began to feel the first pangs of dizziness swim around his head. He tried to reach out his hand to give the changeling the shock of its lifetime, but he immediately lost his balance and had to brace himself with the hand again.

In that moment, the changeling slammed against the wall a couple of meters next to him. Thiemo’s head jerked up. There, where the changeling had just stood, was his sister. Her eyes were glowing white, massive snowy wings spread out from her back. In her extended left hand was the claw as well as the arm of the creature. A green, thick substance dripped to the ground.

Her wings twitched, then something shot past Thiemo so quickly that he was thrown back to the ground. A distressed yelp pierced through the air and the castle got another hole as Danielle pounded through the wall with the creature’s body.

For a moment, it was completely silent, then a thud could be heard as the body of the creature fell back into the room through the ceiling. Danielle followed through the same hole. Her top was torn, probably because of the wings on her back and her hair had gotten loose. She levitated down into the room and landed aside the changeling, who had not moved since it had landed.

“My name is Danielle, the Judge. I am Justice! For your actions, I sentence you to death. Make your peace!” Thiemo didn’t see where she pulled it from, but with a hand she suddenly drew forth a giant claymore from between her wings. It was as simple as it was noble. The pommel and the ends of the crossguard were made of the same metal as the guard and hilt themselves, but decorated with a fine pattern. The blade, which seemed to be made out of stainless steel, shimmered in the golden light. That was everything Thiemo could see. His sister stepped on the lifeless body and buried the sword in the long neck of the changeling. All six legs flinched and the remaining claw tried to swipe at her, but to no avail. Then it was motionless.

Leaving the sword in its place, Danielle stepped down from the large creature and with a few steps went over to Lyra. “A great injustice has been inflicted upon you. I cannot give you back what you lost, but I may soothe your pain,” she said as she went down on a knee and embraced the mare in her arms. Her wings wrapped around them like a cocoon, and once again a golden radiance flared up.

With Lyra still in her arms, she rose again, turning towards Thiemo. He looked at the mare resting in her arms, a stump where her leg had once been. But there was no more blood and, judging by her face, no pain as she rested against Danielle’s bare chest.

She now walked over to him, her eyes still with a radiant glow, as she once again stepped over the changeling as though it hadn’t even been there. Thiemo wanted to speak, but she put an arm around his shoulders, forcing him to sit down with ease.

“You will live,” she spoke in a whisper, which was still as loud as normal person talking. “Please watch over her.” She passed Lyra to him, and just as the mare leaned against his body, Danielle collapsed. Thiemo barely managed to catch her with his own body. Unfortunately, it turned into a rather uncomfortable situation, as his sister’s exposed femininity pressed against his right shoulder. With a moan, he slightly knocked his head against the wall and mentally prepared to wait for help.

As the shield began to form around the Empire, Cadance took a break for the first time today. Even with the near limitless love of the Empire which replenished her power, her body began to ache. She no longer felt her wings, and so she landed on a smaller skyscraper at the edge of the city centre.

Her gaze first wandered down to the streets. A unit of soldiers ran between the civilians on their way to castle, looking for stragglers. She didn’t count how many humans she had eliminated, but there couldn’t be many left.

A scream immediately brought her into the skies, and she shot in the direction where she thought it was coming from. As she saw fleeing citizens in the street, Cadance knew that this was the right place. She began to descend and followed the small family, consisting of a stallion, mare, and two foals, who were on the run with some saddlebags. “What happened?” she asked hastily.

Not just the family, but also some other ponies stopped as they saw Cadance. “The humans, they are coming our way! They almost ran over us!” the stallion shouted and pointed towards the shield.

She nodded. “The castle should be safe. A group of soldiers are two blocks away. They will escort you to safety.” It seemed as though the humans were retreating. As soon as the shield surrounded the Empire again, not only the harsh winter would be stuck outside, but their reinforcements as well, if there were any. A hundred, maybe two hundred humans, it couldn’t have been any more. Never enough to capture or even defeat the Empire. But why this attack? Just as soon as she had reached out her hoof to offer peace? What did they hope to gain from this attack?

There were simply too many questions, which meant that she would need prisoners. The option to simply let them go, in order to avoid further bloodshed, was not available.

Once again, she rose into the skies and flew in the direction the stallion had been pointing. She left behind the high buildings of the centre until large fields graced the landscape. Cadance noticed nothing unusual, but then it clicked. Many of the farms were destroyed, as if they all exploded. She searched for the described group of humans, but only found empty streets.

“The fields,” Cadance mumbled and looked down at hills filled with crystal corn and wheat.

Then she saw something between the plants. Something was moving, knocking down everything in its path. It was no human. Hastily, she rushed downwards and a familiar feeling began to spread in her. No, there were two. One was that of fear, and images of Chrysalis flooded her mind. The other was the feeling she always had near the Crystal Heart. The feeling of complete comfort, to be loved while lying beneath your mother’s hooves.

As she approached the creature, she immediately realized why it reminded her of Chrysalis. It was a changeling, there was no doubt about it, but one she had never seen before. What caused her blood to freeze in her veins was what it carried in its claws.

The Crystal Heart was pulsing wildly in the changeling’s claws, whose chitin seemed to burn where it touched it, only that it didn’t seem to mind. Immediately Cadance attacked, gathering magic in the tip of her horn, but before she could fire, something grabbed her by the hind legs and pulled her out of the sky. With a yelp, she looked downwards and saw another of those preying-mantis-like changelings, whose claws were wrapped around the ankles of her hind legs.

It pulled as strongly as it could and eventually threw her through the air. She tried to catch herself, but it was too late. She slammed on hard crystal, turning another house to ash. Just in time, she managed to catch the roof with all four hooves before it crushed her. “Not… today,” the princess spat out, gnashing her teeth as she used her strength the push the debris off her.

She needed a moment to stand and beat the dust out of her wings, but she was ready again, something the changeling didn’t seem to realize. It had turned its back towards her, rushing through the fields to catch up to its comrade.

This time it was Cadance who grabbed it by the hind legs and went even further by ripping out the two middle legs straight from its body. The changeling yelped in a high pitched voice. “No one attacks those I swore to protect without paying for it.” She didn’t care if the changeling understood her or not—this was more of a morale boost for herself than anything. The changeling was now fought against her magic, and much to Cadance’s surprise, she was struggling to keep it contained within. Quickly, she realized why. She was too far away from the ponies who loved her. Her subjects and family were all in the centre, and without the Crystal Heart in its place, her power would dwindle ever further. She was working against time.

With that knowledge in mind, she brought that creature closer to herself, turning its head sharply one-hundred-eighty degrees before it could try to escape again. Only then did she release it. She waited a moment to make sure that it was dead before rising into the air once again. The other one couldn’t have gotten far.

Déjà vu struck the princess as once again her hind legs were caught in mid-air. This time, however, she was not slammed into a house, but against the hard ground. The creature didn’t relent. Before she could recover from the first strike, it dragged her body again, slamming her against the ground once more. She screamed as two of the remaining legs brought her closer towards the fangs.

“I will kill you, Princess, but first, I will make every one of your nightmares come true. I will process your spouse into meat and feed him to you. I will give your daughters to my changelings as a toy and your ever so precious half-blood will have her legs ripped out again and again until she wishes she could no longer regenerate. I will bathe you in acid and pour burning lava down your throat. I will create a special kind of changeling that will lay eggs in your bodies, that will burst through your chest when they hatch. Again and again.” Cadance stared with wide open eyes into the glowing red ones of the changeling. “I will kill everypony in the Empire, use their flesh to bolster the sails of my fleet and their meat for my army. I will destroy everything that you love, what you are, and what you represent.” Cadence whimpered as it grabbed her wings. “And not just you. Equestria. Everything.” Cadance’s scream echoed through the Empire as the changeling, with one strong pull, ripped the wings from her body. The creature chuckled as it let her fall to the ground. “Do you know who I am?” it asked the prostrate mare. “I am your worst nightmare.”

Faster than the changeling could react, the horn of the princess pierced into its body. “My nightmares are worse.” There was no sound, only myriads of pieces that once were a changeling that now rained down on the ground around her.

Author's Notes:

Let's do a guessing game. Why did the changelings torture their victims?
The one could have killed Thiemo and Lyra easily, but didn't. Because they feed on...

Also, Lyra is a hero. Thiemo may not like her very much, but she is. Lyra went against social norms and learned about humans. She questioned Celestias' rule in regards of them and she event went with a known criminal to learn more.
Not many people would do that.

Thanks to Gron for translating.
Special thanks to JBL for editing.