A/N: I started writing this chapter a while ago but got near to the end and didn't know where to go from there. Now, however, I know exactly where I want this story to go and how I'm going to finish it. It's not over yet but it will be soon- it's just building up to the action, after all. Now to answer the reviews in this tiny little copy-paste box. Oh, and this has been reuploaded because something along the way screwed up the formatting.
lolmaster: Thank you, the next chapter is here right now.
Avatar Eddy: It's here now! Sorry for the delay, I was a little stuck.
Guest: While that would make an interesting story, I don't want to write it. Why don't you give it a try?
snickers10896: Why thank you! It's easy to write cute when writing about something cute.
Guest (late edit): Shit (excuse my potty mouth), I had no idea that had mcfucked up the formatting on that chapter. However, you didn't need to be such a dick about it. Bad anon, out!
Much to Vanellope's displeasure, she couldn't exactly use her wings all that much during their trek. She had to hide in the forest, still too afraid of detection to come out, and her wings were simply too huge to take flight. So she grumbled and looked with extreme jealousy at the one winged member of their party who was flying.
"So, princess-" Rainbow started, and both Vanellope and Calhoun hushed her quickly.
"Just call me Vanellope," the alicorn reminded her. "Nopony can know that I'm not just a regular pony."
"Alright, Vanellope, so how fast can you fly?" Rainbow asked, flying backwards so she could look the princess in the eyes.
"Faster than you, I'm sure," she bragged. "I'm the fastest pony in Candy Cloud, both on the ground and in the air."
"Oh yeah? Have you ever done a Sonic Rainboom?" Rainbow asked with a grin.
"No, but I have heard that somepony managed to do two. I've secretly always wanted to meet her to find out how she does it," Vanellope replied, a grin slowly forming as she thought of meeting her idol.
"Well, you're looking at her," the Pegasus boasted. "And I've actually done three."
"The other one must've been after I was usurped, then," Vanellope figured. "I couldn't exactly see much from my prison cell."
Ralph looked down at her sympathetically and nuzzled her mane.
"It was at the wedding in Canterlot after the changeling invasion," Calhoun recalled from the front of the group. She was still keeping an eye out for changelings, which seemed to be appearing in ever-growing numbers.
They were getting closer to Candy Cloud, and Vanellope was getting all the more nervous.
"That was my brother who got married," Twilight informed her. "And the princess who the changeling queen took the place of was my old foalsitter."
"A foalsitter and the big brother getting together? Classic," Calhoun snickered. "Just like a romance novel."
"You read romance novels?" Felix was so excited that his voice almost came out in a squeak.
"Cool your hooves, Casanova," Calhoun laughed. "That was when I was a teenager. Carefree, not having to worry about changelings, with a coltfriend who I loved more than anything…." She suddenly sniffled and trotted forward, almost cantering.
"I do hope that someday she can open her heart to love," Felix sighed wistfully. "She is just so… spicy. And beautiful, and good with magic."
"She's not the only one," Ralph commented, looking at Vanellope.
She blushed and nudged her new coltfriend.
"Isn't all this love a bit dangerous?" Twilight worried, and that was when Calhoun came galloping back, firing shots at the changelings swarming behind her.
"Run!" she barked, not that they needed any prompting.
They galloped out of the forest, the changelings just metres behind them.
"How good is your teleportation magic?" Vanellope called to Twilight.
"Not great, I can only manage a few ponies at a time!" Twilight called back, looking behind her in worry. It was a mistake. She tripped on a root, ending up sprawled on the ground.
But then Rainbow swooped in and pulled her up into the air, beating her wings harder to make up for lost speed. Vanellope's horn glowed an electric blue and a blue field suddenly surrounded all of the ponies. Her heart pounded as the old anxiety over breaking her charm resurfaced, but then it vanished when she heard the chittering changelings behind her. She pushed with her magic and they shifted through time and space. She immediately got to her hooves where she'd landed and looked around quickly. Her heart instantly sank. Of all the places that she could have come, she had to teleport here.
"Ralph," she whispered, instantly casting a muffling spell on her hooves before trotting over to him. "C'mon, Ralphy, get up!"
He slowly opened his eyes after she nudged him, and blinked in confusion. The other ponies were scattered around, all in various stages of consciousness.
"Where are we?" he asked as he got to his hooves. He kept his voice low, no doubt having noticed that she was whispering.
"The last place I wanted to be," Vanellope admitted, blinking tears out of her eyes. "We're in the castle."
"Don't blame yourself," Twilight advised her, also in hushed tones. "You were panicking so you teleported to the first place you could think of."
"No, you don't understand," Vanellope urged, her vision blurry with tears. "The imposter rigged my room with wards and traps. Now that we're in here, we can't get out. We're stuck."
"Changelings can't use unicorn magic," Calhoun offered, rubbing her head with a hoof as she rolled off the bed and landed on her hooves. "What magic they can use is only basic stuff- levitation, maybe some teleportation if they're lucky. But changelings excel at illusion spells- kinda like you." She looked at Vanellope and smiled.
"Oh, that's how we can get out of here!" Vanellope gasped in excitement. Her horn glowed again and soon all six of them looked different.
Vanellope was back in her old disguise, with a few odd bits of candy stuck in her mane and tail, and she looked over the rest of them proudly. Ralph looked a little odd with a dark blue coat and red mane and tail, but Calhoun's new white coat suited her. Twilight and Rainbow Dash, however, had changed the most. Twilight's coat was now a light pink and the streaks in her mane were purple and white. Rainbow Dash was a lighter blue and her mane had pastel shades in it. It was also curlier, which clearly made her uncomfortable.
"I was thinkin' that we could just teleport back out but this'll do," Calhoun admitted. She glanced towards Felix and grinned. He looked so strange with his orange coat and blue mane and tail.
"Oh," Vanellope blushed. "Well, anyway, let's sneak out past the guards. I dunno how we'll explain what we were doing here, though."
"Cleaning the castle?" Ralph suggested.
Vanellope nodded, laughing. "Yeah, that'll do."
They walked together down the corridors with Vanellope in the lead. Calhoun lit her horn and scanned for changelings, and then she froze.
"They're everywhere," she whispered, trembling. "Oh, this is much worse than I expected."
"Just relax," Vanellope hissed to her. "Keep your cool and we should be able to get out of here with no problems." It was easier said than done. As they moved through the castle towards the entrance, Calhoun wasn't the only one whose muscles were so tense that she could barely move. Even Vanellope found it hard to resist running, especially when the front door of the castle came into view. And then she heard a voice that chilled her blood and brought forth unpleasant memories of a dark dungeon and endless pain and terror.
"Excellent racing today, everyone," the purple alicorn declared as he trotted into the castle.
Ralph subtly moved so that he was between the white-maned alicorn and his marefriend, and they kept moving slowly towards the door.
"You raced best of all, your highness," a green dragon commended him in a droning voice.
"Oh, Bill, you flatter me," the false king giggled.
Behind Ralph, Vanellope had to clench her teeth to resist screaming. She'd never treated her faithful little dragon like that. They were within sight of the outside now. Vanellope could smell the sugary air of the pink candy cloud. And then…
"Hello, I don't remember hiring new help."
Vanellope almost jumped out of her skin, as did Calhoun. All the changeling hunter could see was the changeling beneath the disguise.
"Oh, your little dragon there hired us," Felix replied, quickly jumping to their aide. "See, he said that with the racing season coming up, you'd need more help keeping the castle clean…"
As he chattered away, the rest of them slowly inched towards the outside.
"That was a close one," Vanellope sighed shakily once they were free of the castle.
She was shaky on her hooves, so Ralph lifted her easily onto his back. She relaxed gratefully into his strong mass.
"I nearly lost it in there," Calhoun admitted. "There were just so many of them…" She shivered uncomfortably.
"Yeah, well, can you change us back now?" Rainbow requested, eyeing her colours with disdain. "I feel so... girly."
"Soon," Vanellope promised. "We just have to wait for Felix to catch up."
"Then we can get the heck outta here," Calhoun vowed. "I'll return to my base and tell everypony that all the rumours are true. This'll all be over soon."
Vanellope nodded, smiling gratefully. She never would've got through all this without her new friends.
Felix eventually returned to them what felt like at least half an hour later, looking as peaceful as ever.
"Well, did he buy it?" Rainbow asked eagerly. "Are we safe?"
"Safe as houses," Felix declared with a proud smile. "I don't mean to brag, but I can be quite convincing when the need arises."
"Like Fluttershy with her animals," Rainbow spoke up, and they chattered happily on the glistening sugar road in front of the sugar castle.
Inside, King Candy sat upon his throne being fanned by his draconic assistant.
"Did you really believe his story, your highness?" Bill asked, waving the fan as quickly as he spoke.
"No, of course not. Although that Pegasus did try to be convincing," the changeling replied.
"Shall I?" the dragon asked, glancing at the pull-rope beside the castle doors that were now closed.
The false king nodded, and then smiled at the screams. They were music to his ears.
Closing notes: Don't hesitate to let me know if there are any other formatting mistakes. I think the problem came because I switched between Google Docs and Word. Next chapter should be done soon, I'm working on it.
