Chapter 6: The Ambush
=Rallies 366, The Screaming Jungles, Just Outside the Pony Tribe, 6789 C.E. =
Romana looked at the Masses of Changelings and wondered how they would get out of this situation. She could tell that putting at least a hundred ponies in their way would lead to a feeding right here and now. It wouldn't be likely that they would all survive this, but she knew that there was obviously only one option…
"RUN!" she yelled out to the tribe.
Instantly, the tribe began running, desperately moving forward as fast as they can towards the area where they would be teleported back up to The Changeling Hive. It wasn't exactly that simple though. They were caught by some of the Changelings, and the ones that were caught were fed upon. But not by sucking the love out them. They did that, but not in that way. They sunk their fangs into their flesh, and sucked the love from the body parts they had eaten.
Romana knew that since the tribe had only been given the command to run, there was only one way that she could run. She began running towards the Changeling that was carrying Daring Do on his back. She didn't normally do things like what she was about to do. She punched him in the face, grabbed the cocoon that Daring Do was in, and pulled it over her back. No time to get her out yet. She started running to the area of teleportation as fast as she could.
In less than a minute, she was there. She looked around the pony tribe. There was only about a quarter of the ones that there were originally. She looked out into the jungle. She heard an ear-splitting scream, and she realized with a shock that there weren't any more coming. She felt incredibly guilty at this. She had immediately taken the most last-ditch plan she could think of, and look where it had gotten them now. She began a body count. Out of 104 tribe members that there were originally, there were now only 28, the Chief Jungle Stalker being among them. She heard a hissing noise coming directly from the jungle behind them. She raised her communicator and pressed the button on it. "Doctor, we need you to bring us back now."
"Got it, Romana." The Doctor's voice said over the communicator.
Romana could feel the transporter beam reach the tribe just as the Changelings began to come through the jungle.
=Rallies 365, The Changeling Hive, Level 63, Teleportation Control Room, 6789 C.E. =
Romana felt the jungle disappear around her and a new room reappears around her, and then she was back in the teleportation room.
"Hello, Romana, how did it- Oh my." The Doctor said to her.
Romana turned around to see that a Changeling from the planet below had been teleported up as well. She ran off the platform, ushering the tribe off of it with her. The Changeling bared its fangs and jumped off the platform for the kill.
The Doctor instantly pressed the button to end the hypnosound signal.
Jungle Stalker snapped to attention, and, after he saw the Changeling, without looking around to see where he was, pulled a knife out from a flimsy straw saddle bag, and jumped forward and stabbed it dead.
The Doctor was instantly reminded of Leela.
Then, Jungle Stalker began to look around at his surroundings, and all of the tribe began to look around at their surroundings. Amidst the sudden mutters of confusion, Jungle Strider looked around and saw Romana. "You! Demon Colors! Where have you taken us, and where is the rest of my tribe?" he asked angrily.
Despite being insulted, Romana stepped forward to deliver the bad news.
Meanwhile, The Doctor began ripping Daring Do out of her cocoon. She popped out, gasping for breath. "Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded.
They turned to the Chief, who seemed remarkably saddened by whatever he had just been told.
"All right, listen everypony!" The Doctor said to get their attention. "I have a plan to stop the Changelings!"
"You mean the Predators?" asked one of the members of the tribe.
"Yes yes, whatever." The Doctor said "Anyway, I did have a brilliant plan, but after I came here, it got even brillianter!"
"But that's not a word." Daring Do pointed out.
"So?" he asked.
Daring Do just nodded at that, slightly exasperated.
"I had originally planned to connect myself to the Hive and use hypnosis to stop the attack, but instead…" he said to Romana and Daring Do.
"You can broadcast the hypnosound through the Hive and use the mental link against them." Romana said in realization
"Exactly, I just need to change the frequency with the sonic screwdriver and it will work far more effectively." The Doctor said.
He then pulled out his sonic screwdriver and walked over to the computer where he had started the hypnosound signal. He used it to open the panel, and he began pulling an incredibly long cable out of it. "This goes down 37 levels!" he explained. After a few minutes, he pulled out the end, which was a very large speaker. He used the sonic screwdriver on it. "Should work now."
He began pulling it along with him out the door, with Daring Do following him, and Romana staying at the button that released the hypnosound. The pony tribes looked confused at the whole operation, but decided not to interfere.
The Doctor got to the edge of the level, and turned to Daring Do and her wings. "Could you-"he asked.
"Are you going to rely on me to fly you everywhere?" Daring Do asked him as she spread her wings out.
"Probably." The Doctor admitted. Daring Do grabbed him and began flying him over. She landed him in one of the pods. He began searching around for a speaker of some sort. Finding it, he held the hypnosound speaker to it. "This was too easy. We didn't even need to use K9 for it." He mused to himself. He motioned for Daring Do to fly over. She did, and he held out her wrist communicator and pressed the button on it. "Romana, now!" he shouted into it.
A barely audible sound came from the speaker, as it was broadcast into the minds of every Changeling everywhere. The Doctor could just feel every Changeling everywhere stop in place as they went into hypnosis. "Attention Changelings! I command all of you to go to sleep wherever you are, but take care not to fall into any stars." And then he felt every Changeling everywhere comply.
They began to rejoice as they knew they had actually won.
=Rallies 365, The Changeling Hive, Level 100, The Throne Room, 6789 C.E. =
Vixon felt confused. All the voices in his head, those of the Hive, had just stopped. Then, he realized what that really meant. The Doctor had won. He had stopped the attack.
He screamed with lethal fury. He sat up from his throne, and began walking away, prepared to rip apart every Changeling or pony that stood in his way. He had his own ways of destroying his enemies.
