~CRYSTAL P.O.V
Starlight and Winslow tried to calm Thorax down since he started hyperventilating. While they were doing that, I was trying to think of a plan to get us out of this mess while Lukas and Jesse were giving me some suggestions, and the other four looked at the tunnel, worried.
"This seems like one of those moments where we need a plan," Discord commented.
"Oh, for crafting's sake. What kind of plan?" Petra exclaimed.
"Petra's right! We have no magic, and it's not like my illusions are gonna save us," she stated.
"Well, don't yell at him about it," Ivor replied.
"Oh, will you guys stop fighting!" Jesse yelled at the four.
Starlight smiled, walking over to Trixie. "Do you have any of your smoke bombs?" she asked.
Trixie smirked. " Are you kidding?"
~~~~~~
~THIRD PERSON P.O.V
A group of five Changelings flew down the hallway where the main group was before but just spotted Trixie, standing there along. She lifted her head, smirking at them. "Looking for somepony?"
The pony threw a smoke bomb down, disappearing in a puff of smoke. The Changelings charged through the smoke, ultimately confused about why they didn't get her.
Trixie appeared from a puff of smoke on a ledge behind them. "Is that the best you got?" she taunted.
The Changelings snarled, charging at Trixie again, who disappeared in a puff of smoke. The kept charging through each smoke cloud that appeared on different ledges.
She ran down a hallway with five Changelings chasing after her, but two stopped to go into a hole in the wall, it closing behind them. From above, Starlight, Discord, Crystal, Jesse, Petra, Winslow, Lukas, and Ivor watched it all happen.
"Not exactly great and powerful, but effective," Discord drawled.
"Yeah, it was... Okay," Ivor agreed.
Petra nudged him in the side. "Are you kidding, it was great!" Petra argued.
"Alright, you two, calm down," Jesse tried.
Lukas groaned, throwing his head back. "Not again..." he complained.
Crystal giggled slightly, causing Lukas to blush, turning his head to look at her. "Alright, Trixie was great. Let's just leave it at that,"
Trixie popped up, humming with a smirk. "I'll take it,"
They turned around and spotted 'Trixie' walking over to us. All of us took a step back except for Trixie. "Klutzy?" Starlight asked.
The two Trixies' smiled. "Draconequus!" the two shouted in unison, one of them transforming back into Thorax.
Discord groaned. "I really think we need a new codeword,"
Thorax smiled. "That was a pretty good plan,"
"I say about... Seven out of ten plan," Ivor stated.
"Still a good plan," Jesse added.
"Now, that that's out of the way, we've got something else we need to get back to," Crystal waved her hoof around.
Trixie nodded in agreement as Winslow hopped onto Thorax's back, causing the Changeling to pat him on the head. "But we still don't know where we're going," Trixie pointed out.
"That is a problem," Lukas agreed.
"Actually, we might,"
They looked over when Starlight started speaking. "Two of the Changelings didn't go with the rest,"
Thorax face-palmed himself. "With an intruder in the Hive, they went to protect the queen. Good thinking, Starlight," he praised, causing everyone to smile at her.
Starlight laughed nervously, looking uncertain.
"What are we waiting for, let's find those Changelings," Petra concluded.
~~~~~~
~CRYSTAL P.O.V
We followed the two Changelings as much as we could from a distance, hiding when other Changelings were getting close to us inside different holes. Walking into another hole to hide, we spotted a couple of Changelings flying past. Once they were gone, we crept out and continued climbing the stairs.
I rubbed my face, slightly tense about what we were going to face ahead of us. Lukas, who noticed how tense I was, wrapped a wing around my back to comfort me. "Hey, everything will be okay. Don't worry," he reassured.
I smiled back at him. "Thanks, Luke," I thanked, which he smiled back.
Soon, after a lot of dodging Changelings and walking up the stairs, we reached the top of the stairwell. We peaked out over the stairs and spotted six Changelings standing guard in front of the doors leading to the throne room and the two flew past them.
We ducked lower, hoping that we weren't spotted. "Oh, this is bad..." Jesse muttered.
"Now what?" Trixie asked in a hushed whisper.
"How do we approach this?" Petra wondered, rubbing her chin.
"We... Go in," Starlight decided.
Winslow meowed, causing us to look at him, only to see Thorax shaking in fear. "Even if I wanted to, there's no way past the guards. We'll be spotted for sure," he warned, hugging Winslow close to him.
"Well, that's clearly reassuring," Ivor dryly commented.
"We need some kinda of... Distraction!" Starlight realized.
Trixie dug through her bag, coming up short. "I'm fresh out of smoke bombs," she informed us.
"Well, that seems about right," Lukas commented.
Discord waved his paw around. "Normally I'm the most distracting thing I can think of, but without magic..." he trailed off.
Starlight smirked. "You shouldn't underestimate yourself," she said, causing Discord to look at her in confusion.
Petra, Jesse, Lukas, and I turned to look at Ivor. The man realized we were staring at him, causing him to glare at us. "I know what you guys are thinking, and no, I don't agree with it!" Ivor whispered/shouted at us.
"Come on, you can distract and annoy anyone by just being in the same room as them," Petra stated.
"But why us?!" Ivor whispered/yelled.
"Come on, there'll be a higher chance for them to be distracted for us to sneak past if you two do it together," I tried to reason.
Ivor just groaned, rubbing his face.
~~~~~~
~THIRD PERSON P.O.V
Once the two Changeling's had gone through, the door closed behind them. Discord and Ivor stepped in front of the guards, causing their attention to be drawn to them.
The two were both holding a microphone each so their voices could be projected better. Discord tapped his microphone, causing a bit of feedback from it to echo throughout the cave. "Hello, Changelings and Changelette's. Believe me, we're just as surprised as you are that we're here. When we heard we'd be playing for a bunch of Changelings, I was beside myself, but then I realized it was just one of you," Discord joked.
The Changelings looked unamused, hissing as they took a few steps toward them, causing the two to step back.
Ivor laughed nervously, clearing his throat. "In all seriousness, this isn't the toughest crowd we've ever been in front of. But it's definitely the easiest to bug," Ivor continued to joke with a smirk.
After the joke, the Changelings looked more confused than angry or annoyed. Ivor's smirk fell. "'To bug?' Is this thing on?" he questioned, tapping the microphone with his hoof.
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't," Discord commented, doing the same.
From behind some rocks, Starlight, Crystal, Lukas, Jesse, Thorax, Winslow, Trixie, and Petra crept towards the doors. Starlight pushed them open enough so they could slip inside, unnoticed.
Once Discord and Ivor noticed they were inside, they glared at the Changelings. "Well, if any of you think you can do any better, be our guests," Discord said as the two threw their microphones to the ground.
"Just try to come up with better jokes than we did," Ivor added before the two ran off, the Changelings chasing after them.
From the small cracks in the door, the rest of the group watches Discord and Ivor being chased around by Changelings, still managing to avoid them. Trixie looked over to the others. "It is absolutely ridiculous that that worked," she commented.
"I have to agree with that," Petra stated, causing Jesses to elbow her in the side.
~~~~~~
~IVOR P.O.V
Discord and I ran down a tunnel through the hive, hoping to lose the Changeling guards that were chasing us. I pointed to a bunch of rocks we could use as cover to hide behind. We leapt behind the rocks and watched the Changelings fly past and down the tunnel.
Once they were gone, we came out of hiding. "It is certainly a pleasure to have such dedicated fans. I'll have to come back with some new material once I rescue Fluttershy," Discord said.
"We could go on tour! Travel to different worlds to show our act!" I suggested,
"Oh, that sounds fantastic! A fun time! We'd be famous in no time," Discord commented as we started walking back the way we came.
I laughed. "Totally! With all the treasure we could hope for... Ah," I started saying before I looked at the ground sadly. "Soren would've loved that,"
Discord looked toward me confused. "Soren? Whose-?"
He was cut off when we heard the sound of crying close by. "What was that?" I asked in a whisper, causing Discord to shrug in response.
"Oh, why did this happen?"
I froze up since I recognised that voice. "We should properly check that out," Discord suggested, to which I followed behind, slowly.
We rounded a corner and spotted two points, one who I could tell was Fluttershy, sitting down crying since her tail was stuck under a rock. And the other pony had his pony stuck under a rock... Someone who I thought I'd never see again.
"Soren?" I breathed out, disbelief clear in my voice.
"Fluttershy!" Discord exclaimed as we walked over to them.
They looked over to us, with Soren smiling at me. "Ivor, it's wonderful to see you again," he greeted.
"Discord... We're stuck," Fluttershy said, motioning to the rock keeping her trapped.
"You certainly are," Discord agreed.
"Soren... I just... How did you even get here?" I asked in disbelief.
"I was roaming around the portal hallway when I fell through the portal into this world. I landed in this Hive and have been avoiding those bug creatures ever since. I met up with Fluttershy but we got stuck," Soren explained.
"And we should properly help you two get free," Discord started saying, reaching to help Fluttershy when he paused. "But..." he laughed, waving a finger.
The two looked confused. "But, what?" they asked in unison.
"You're obviously not Fluttershy and Soren... I think that's his name?" Discord stated.
Fluttershy looked to the ground sadly while Soren just looked away. "Oh..." she whimpered sadly.
"I mean, we're separated from the group, and we just happen to come across the one pony we each care most about. I can smell this set up from a mile away," Discord reasoned, turning away from the two.
I glared at Soren, poking his chest. "Besides, Soren's been missing for over a year and he's the biggest coward I know. I may have loved him once, but he loves his work and Endermen way more than to go. And he hates portals," I explained, turning away from him.
Soren sighed sadly from behind me. "Of course," he muttered.
Fluttershy sniffed, clearly holding tears back. "No... You're right... There's no way you two should trust us... Just go find the others... We understand," she shouted, bursting out into tears.
We turned back to look at the two with an annoyed expression. "Oh, come on," Discord groaned.
"Seriously?" I also groaned.
Suddenly, we heard a bunch of crying behind us so we turned around to see dozens of Fluttershy's and Soren's, with the Fluttershy's crying and the Soren's looking down at the ground in sadness.
Discord and I were freaked out, not sure what to do next. "We're probably all Changelings. You both shouldn't rescue any of us," the Fluttershy behind us cried as we looked back at them.
Soren smirked slightly. "Unless... You two think, that maybe one of us might be the real Soren and Fluttershy. Oh, that certainly would be a nasty Changeling trick, now wouldn't it?"
One by one, the Fluttershy's started pleading that they were the real Fluttershy while the Soren's kept saying how much they wanted to go home.
Discord and I just stood there, not knowing what to do at all.
~~~~~~
~CRYSTAL P.O.V
Starlight, Trixie, Thorax, Lukas, Winslow, Petra, Jesses, and I hid behind some rocks, watching the door to see if Discord and Ivor. Between seeing them and Trixie, the castle will be crawling with guards soon," he warned.
"This is bad..." Lukas muttered worriedly and Winslow meowed in agreement.
"But if we do manage to destroy Chrysalis' throne, we'll need them. Discord could take on the entire Changeling army by sneezing if he wanted to," Starlight pointed out.
"And if we manage to find the portal home, we can't leave! Ivor's part of our group and we can't just leave him here," I added.
"And in the hooves of the Changelings," Jesse added.
"They've properly already been captured!" Trixie stated, shaking in fear.
"Maybe they have. But there's a chance they're fine," Petra tried to reassure her.
"Hello?"
We looked over and spotted Discord opening the door, with him and Ivor walking through. "Fellow rescuers?" Discord called out again.
"Guys? Are you there?" Ivor called.
We all exchanged nervous looks before we walked out from behind the rocks, heading over to them. "We can't stay here," Thorax started saying, standing in front of the two. "We gotta find the throne,"
"Oh, we heard some of the Changelings, who were chasing us, say that they know where it is," Ivor told us with a huge grin, waving his hoof.
Trixie and Starlight exchanged a look. "Klutzy?" Trixie asked.
Discord and Ivor looked at us confused before they laughed. "Oh, we can be klutzy," Discord replied, causing my eyes to widen.
No... They got them...
"Now, follow us..." Discord called, he and Ivor leading the way.
We followed them, but we lagged behind. "Oh, Ivor..." I muttered, sadly.
Lukas wrapped his wing around my back again, nudging his head with mine. "It'll be okay... We'll get him back, don't worry," he tried to reassure me, but I could tell he was just as worried as I was.
"You know that's not Discord and Ivor, right?" Starlight asked in a whisper.
"Yep," Petra and Jesse muttered in unison.
"Obviously," Trixie stated while Thorax and Winslow nodded in agreement.
We got to two large tunnels and saw 'Discord' and 'Ivor' motioning us down the left one. "This way! We're almost there!" 'Ivor' called, the two walking down the tunnel.
"I know this trick. If they say to go left, we should definitely go right. They're leading us to a swam waiting to attack," Thorax stated, starting to shake in fear.
"There's gotta be a way around this..." I muttered, trying to think of a plan to get us out of this.
"We could go the other way," Lukas suggested.
"Are you kidding? Then they'll know we know!" Starlight stated.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Jesse asked.
Trixie and Petra looked at each other, nodding before they took a deep breath. "Okay, we'll handle this," Petra stated, the two starting to walk forward while we looked at them in shock.
"You six just get ready to run into the other tunnel," Trixie added.
"Wait, what?!" Starlight exclaimed, rushing over to catch up with Trixie and Petra.
"Petra, no! You can't do that!" Jesse whispered/shouted, rushing over as well.
"Trixie, Petra, you guys can't!" Starlight started saying, causing the two to pause and look at them. "I won't know what to do. We already lost Discord and Ivor, we can't lose you both too!"
"Petra, you don't have to do this. We can find another way around this-"
Jesse was cut off when Petra set a hoof on his cheek. "Jesse, there is no other way. I'm sorry that it came down to this, but this is the only way," she started saying before she took a deep breath. "Because of you, I was able to be cured of the Wither Sickness, so now I'm going to help you and return the favour. Please, Jess..." she pleaded.
I noticed Jesse holding back tears as he pulled Petra into a hug, which she returned.
Starlight was still stammering, trying to come up with something. "W-Without magic, I-"
"Starlight, you got us this far with just my illusions, Discord's annoying personality, and Ivor's... Funny quips. You don't need magic to figure out what to do next," Trixie started saying. "I know that you're afraid to be in charge, but you're really good at it. Listen to your best friend,"
Starlight seemed really touched by this. Smiling, the two pulled each other into a hug. After a few seconds, the two groups pulled apart, all having blushes on their faces.
Petra looked over at us. "See you guys on the other side,"
"Be careful," Lukas requested, conflict in his eyes.
"Good luck," I wished.
She nodded, she and Trixie looking over to 'Discord' and 'Ivor. "Hey, Ivor! Discord!" Petra called, the two walking over to them.
"Wanna see the new tricks we've been working on?" Trixie asked, the two stopping in front of them. Trixie covered 'Discord's claw and her hoof with a handkerchief. "I call it...." she started saying, throwing the cloth off with her mouth, revealing the two tied together. "The Changeling capture,"
"And I call this," Petra started saying before she twisted around 'Ivor', slamming him to the ground. "The Changeling Twist!"
The two Changelings, still in form, growled at the two. Trixie and Petra looked back at us with fearful expressions. "Run!" they shouted in unison.
With one last look, six of us rushed down the other tunnel, hoping that we make it to the throne room without running into any other Changelings.
~~~~~~
~JESSE P.O.V
Starlight, Thorax, Winslow, Crystal, Lukas, and I ran down the tunnel as fast as we could, hoping that we would be able to outrun the Changelings. We stopped at the end of the tunnel, trying to catch our breaths while Winslow jumped onto Thorax's back.
Suddenly, we heard the Changelings coming toward us from around the corner. Starlight pointed to me, Winslow, and Thorax toward a tunnel. The three of us nodded, rushing into a hole while Starlight, Lukas, and Crystal went into a different one.
~~~~~~
Starlight, Winslow, and I walked into the throne room, carefully keeping an eye out for any Changelings. We got to the middle of the room when drops of green slime fell onto Starlight and me.
We touched it with our hooves before we looked up and our eyes widened. Discord and Ivor were in two cacoons next to each other. Looking to the left of them, we spotted Trixie and Petra in a cacoon of their own as well.
"Petra..." I muttered as I spotted Twilight, her friends, and the other princesses.
Looking down from the cacoons, we spotted the throne at the other end of the room. Winslow meowed, hopping off Starlight's back. "Let's take out that throne," I whispered.
Starlight nodded in agreement and we started walking over to the throne when-
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,"
We froze when we heard the laughter, taking a few steps back to where we were before. "Two little ponies and a cat all by themselves,"
Looking up, we spotted Queen Chrysalis appear from two cacoons in a very bug-like manner. "Oh, how will I ever prevent this daring rescue?" she sassed with a smirk.
Starlight, Winslow, and I started backing away when we heard the Changeling's hissing from inside the holes around us. They started emerging from them and we were crowded, surrounded by a lot of them.
~~~
And that's a wrap for this chapter.
(And exams are approaching for me... HELP ME!!!)
So, just be warned, if updates slow down, then blame that.
I'll be able to finish the next chapter just fine, but when it comes to Episode 7 of MCSM (And the one you all want to see the most) those updates might take a while if they get in the way.
So be warned.
Anyway, the next chapter should be out (if exam prep doesn't get in the way. If it does, I'll post an update on my info page) between 20th-25th of September.
Anyway, for now, keep dancing in the moonlight and keep making the UwU, bye for now!