Chapter 14 - Spike vs. The Changeling King
The group woke up very early the next morning; in fact, they did it one hour before sunrise. Spike agreed on watching over his companions while they slept, as he could use the Power Stone to give himself unlimited stamina and stay alert the whole night without any sleep; not something he'd like to do regularly since it would be mentally stressing, but very good in case of emergency missions. Besides, after Lyco and Leeta's incident the previous night, it was obvious the whole group would need a good break before continuing.
After a while of walking, the group finally felt the scent of the Changelings (mostly the dragons and canines, of course); usually, the Changelings could copy any creature's scent in order to make their disguises more effective, but in this area, where they were at their strongest and with numbers on their side, they conserved their normal aspect and scent most of the time.
"Ugh. No wonder the Changelings change their scent when they transform... they stink." Lyco commented while taking a good sniff. "It's like a mix of... garbage, compost, and a rotten steak."
"With a skunk on top." Fumes agreed with her.
The group now went into full stealth. Spike used the Reality and Mind Stones to keep themselves pretty much invisible to the Changelings' surveillance patrols, but they still had to keep themselves silent, since Spike had to make a considerable effort to keep a group this big relatively invisible, and blocking their noise would make this a more delicate labor. They almost got discovered twice, first by some normal-looking Changelings flying right over their heads, and later by some bird-morphed Changelings that, luckily, due to their proximity to the hive, still had their normal scent and the wolves could identify them.
"The scent is becoming more intense. We must be getting quite close to the Hive now." Spike used the Mind Stone to communicate with the group with minimal noise.
"You're right. Try to use your telepathy on any Changeling to find out if there's an entrance we can use." Adam thought back.
Spike nodded, and, after advancing a bit more, they finally saw the Hive. Spike thought it looked a lot like the cocoon-like trap Chrysalis had used against Celestia at the Canterlot wedding, but, obviously, this one was gigantic. Only reason it wasn't visible from a further distance was because of the many trees and rocks blocking the group's view.
"Look. More Changelings... whoa, that's how my voice sounds in my head?" Shakes thought while pointing up at several flying Changelings leaving the Hive.
"Yep, that's your voice. Okay, let me see how the Changelings' mind sound like." Spike focused on the last Changeling leaving the Hive. He made a quick scan, a process that made the Changeling to stop flying and shake his head, feeling a light migraine; Spike cut the scanning before the other Changelings could notice it.
"The only way in or out is precisely that entrance. Guess we'll need to make our own entrance." Spike told the group as they got closer to one of the Hive's least guarded areas, finding a spot without any sentinels around.
"And how are we making the entrance?" Fumes asked.
"Claws and teeth, how else?" Garble shrugged as he got ready to start clawing and biting the wall, but Spike stopped him.
"This area is mostly unguarded because the wall is very thick, Garble; at least 4 feet. We need another way... And I think I got it." Spike grinned and used the Reality Stone to morph himself into a huge, armored animal with drill-like hands and arms. "Here comes a tunnel."
Spike used the drills on the wall, and, surprisingly, did very little noise. Still, Rarity and Adam used their magic to create a sound-proof barrier around them; basically, using a spell from Adam, and Rarity giving him some extra power so he'd conserve his strength for later. Meanwhile, Sally and Lupe used their elastic hands and arms (making them much bigger in the process) to remove the debris falling from the wall as Spike continued drilling, and Applejack, and the rest of the Mobians and dragons, kept their eyes and ears on alert in case any Changeling happened to fly around; even with Spike and Adam's powers at work to keep the group silent and invisible, the Changelings would still notice a giant hole in the wall.
Once the hole/tunnel was big enough, Rarity and Adam stayed in the back of the group as they started entering, so their magic could still cover them up a bit, and once they were the only ones left, Adam used a small illusion spell to make it seem the wall was still intact. Unless a Changeling happened to touch the wall, this trick would work perfectly.
The inside of the hive looked a lot like a combination of a large cavern and a beehive, but still with the Changelings' specific stench. The group had to hide behind a few pillars to avoid detection, while Spike used the Mind and Reality Stones to locate King Sombra.
"He's right in the middle of the Hive... and with a few hundred Changelings around him at all times." Spike groaned mentally at the last part.
"Spike, you're the one with more chances to defeat him, and besides,you are the one with the Stones to try healing him." Adam pointed out.
"We can start a battle here in the Hive to keep all the Changelings busy while you enter Sombra's chamber and fight him." Sally offered.
"Ah, a random battle... nice idea." Garble thought, grinning at the idea.
Spike agreed and the group got ready for action when realizing all the Changelings were now heading to the exit, with evidently hostile intentions.
"Spike, mental scan." Lupe told the dragon. Spike obeyed, and this time it was pretty easy since ALL the Changelings were thinking the same.
"A mass invasion... Sombra is sending all the Changelings to attack Equestria. He knows we'd do something to stop him, and he's gonna make as much damage as possible before we can do a thing."
"What do we do now?" Amy asked.
"New plan. You guys go outside and keep the Changelings here." Spike frowned.
"We can't fight all of them alone!" Shakes gulped.
"Not alone." Spike grinned now. "If Sombra is doing this, it means we no longer have to care about the Alarm Spells. Stealth is over."
A few seconds later, the whole group was teleported outside by Spike, who stayed inside the Hive. And then, the rest of the group, those who had stayed in Ponyville, teleported alongside them.
"Whoa. I'll never get used to this trick." Knuckles groaned.
"You and me both, dude." Garble chuckled.
"Okay, guys, here's the situation; the Changelings are gonna invade Equestria unless we stop them here. Spike is inside to handle Sombra himself but he needs us working here." Adam explained. Now Sally took command, as she was used to coordinate large battles.
"Garble, you and your friends fly up there and give us cover. Rainbow Dash, Sonic, you guys use your speed and keep all the Changelings close to the Hive; any Changeling moving half a mile away, you bring it back here or beat it up. Daemon, Adam, you guys get the Hive's entrance; use attack spells and elemental strikes to keep them busy and limit their exit. The rest of us, keep the battle here and try to damage them as much as possible. And Knuckles..."
Knuckles frowned a bit.
"Smash."
Knuckles got a little grin.
"Now we have a plan. Let's get it on!" Rainbow grinned and hoof-fist bumped with Sonic before they dashed at top speed, moving around the Hive and giving several kicks/punches/head-butts at high speed, keeping the Changelings from escaping the rest of the group, that were already battling, the whole group obeying Sally's commands, especially Knuckles, who was just too happy to hit groups of Changelings at full strength. When the Changelings realized Sally was the one directing their enemies, they tried to take her down, but Garble and the other dragons kept her well protected with aerial fire blasts, so Sally only had to hit a few enemies while focusing mostly on directing her allies in battle.
The moment Spike looked at the Hive's entrance and saw several Changelings getting blasted inside by Daemon's lightning attacks, he knew it was the perfect time to face King Sombra. Spike used the Time Stone to accelerate himself and enter the chamber at super speed, using its only entrance he immediately sealed with an intense dragon breath's flame, so Sombra couldn't escape.
"Alright, Sombra, it's now just you and me." Spike grinned but wide opened his eyes when noticing Sombra was much larger than usual, and surrounded by several Changelings, all of them tougher-looking than the usual ones.
"And my bodyguards, Dragon." King Sombra grinned evilly at the purple dragon. "I expected some... plan to try stopping me, so I took some measures. I admit I'm surprised at how powerful your little strike team is, but I'm also disappointed at how bad this part of your plan is. You made quite a mistake locking yourself with us."
Spike realized that, even with the Infinity Stones, it would be quite hard to battle King Sombra and his guards at once. The dragon did a quick mental scan on himself and some of his allies outside, namely those with military and strategic abilities, and then got a little grin.
"Oh, no, Sombra, you got it wrong. I'm not trapped here with you; you guys are the ones trapped here with me. Or more precisely, with US." Spike said while using the Reality Stone on himself, energized by the Power one, and with the Soul and Mind Stones to provide a mental and spiritual bond, that would soon be necessary. A blinding flash of light later, Spike had divided himself into six clones of himself, each one with some differences.
The first and more noticeable was extremely big and muscular, so much he'd probably dwarf Daemon and Big Macintosh at once; he also looked much tougher and aggressive than normal; another was very similar to Spike's techno-dragon form but with a bulkier, brighter armor, in red, silver and golden tones; next to him, an archer dragon, just slightly taller than normal Spike, dressed in black, with a high-techl bow at hand, and wearing red shades; behind him, a very imposing, muscular warrior dragon, that Spike obviously created with Daemon in mind, but with a large red cape instead of wings, and holding a big battle hammer; quickly moving in front of the group, a clone that looked a lot like the 'Knight Spike' from the dragon's old dreams, with an outfit and shield similar to the one Spike used when battling the Diamond Dogs; and finally a lean, black-leather outfitted dragon with some techno-appliances on his wrists.
"Now, Sombra, you wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?" The shield-wielder frowned at Sombra. "I know you'll probably say you want the 'hard' one, but it's just good manners to ask beforehand."
"Well, here's my answer." Sombra nodded at his bodyguards, and a moment later they all morphed into huge, humanoid shapes that looked a lot like armored insects, all of them having large claws and what seemed to be a mix-up of a spear and a battle staff.
"Okay... you did it; they became uglier than before." The archer smirked at Sombra.
Some of the bodyguards then pointed at the Spike Clones with a hand each, and surprised the dragons for a moment as the armor covering their arms became small cannons.
"Somehow, I doubt they're gonna shoot us a party." The armored dragon got a defensive stance.
The Changelings then all shot at once, the attack looking like a series of short yet quite fast magical blasts; the shielded and armored dragons covered their companions, while the hammer and the super muscular ones countered by jumping at the Changelings and hitting them all apart with a mighty shockwave. The moment the Changelings dispersed around the chamber, the Dragon Clones dispersed as well to start attacking them, while the largest ones (again, Hammer and Muscular) continued their attack on Sombra.
Sombra used magical beams to hold Hammer and Muscular at a distance, and it worked, until Archer surprised him with an explosive arrow right in the eyes, hurting Sombra and interrupting his own attack, giving Hammer the chance to hit him full force, and then, with his defenses down, Muscular tackled the villain, using so much strength they both went through the closest wall and out of the chamber. The impact was so powerful that Sombra shrunk considerably, going from gigantic size to just barely bigger than Daemon.
"You... miserable... brute..." Sombra growled at Muscular. "You are all beneath me; I'm a King! A Sovereign! A god among mortals, You, Love Lorn Beast, and I won't be bullied by..."
Muscular cut his rant by grabbing Sombra by the leg and starting smashing him against the ground, using all his strength and making small craters due to the impacts, finishing with a particularly hard smash that pretty much stuck Sombra in the ground.
"Mmm... Puny Pony God." Muscular frowned. "I'll stick to Celestia and Luna, thank you."
Sombra, still stunned by the attacks, tried to turn into his mist-fog shape and escape, but Hammer and Armor stopped him from doing this, as Hammer seemed to have Daemon-like powers, creating a wind that forced Sombra to remain solid, and Armor sent him back to the crater with a powerful energy blast. Some of Sombra's minions tried to help him, but Stealthy surprised them by appearing out of nowhere and blasting them all with his techno-like bracelets' projectiles, that seemed to sting like bees or spiders but with much more force, similar to a small electric shock.
"It's time!" Shield jumped out of the chamber. "Muscular, Hammer, hold him down! The others, cover me!"
The huge clones did as said, holding Sombra, while the others formed a defensive circle around them; Shield then stood over Sombra and morphed his shield into a pair of gauntlets.
"I'm not Celestia, Luna, or Twilight, not even Zecora, so don't expect me to use delicacy. My exorcisms are much more direct!" Shield said while a set of energy claws popped out of the gauntlets, and then he sunk them in Sombra's chest. The villain yelled in pain and started shaking, with the muscular clones holding him in place, until Shield removed the claws from his chest, along with a ghostly, dark unicorn-like shape, similar to King Sombra's most powerful form but much darker and evil looking. The moment it was out of King Sombra, the villain calmed down instantly, and started changing into a normal-looking alicorn, with dark black coat, and long black-streaked silver mane and tail
"Your Evil Within." Shield frowned while holding the demonic entity in his hands.
The entity hissed and tried to escape or attack shield, but stopped when noticing the gauntlets had started to glow again, this time with blinding intensity.
"You're not really a living thing; the Infinity Stones told me that... meaning I don't need to hold back!" Shield growled as he started focusing all the Stones' power in a single, final attack. "You will not corrupt anypony else!"
The entity now roared in pain, as the Infinity Stones' glows combined in a single, bright, white light beam that started tearing it apart from the inside out. The entity's eyes turned entirely white and it yelled one final time before Shield unleashed the final strike, an energy explosion that obliterated the entity once and for all.
Out of the Hive, everypony (and the Mobians, dragons and changelings) saw the bright beam coming from the inside. The Changelings, having a bit of a hive mind, realized instantly that their ruler was gone, and since they were already losing the battle, they all gave up and dispersed.
"I'll go get..." Sonic and Rainbow Dash were stopped by Sally.
"They're no longer hostile. They don't wanna fight anymore; just escaping and hiding." Sally smiled. "Spike did it."
Inside, the clones nodded at each other and they all fused back into the normal Spike, who looked down at the now recovering Drake.
"Nnnngh... what... hit me... I... wait..." Drake shook his head and wide opened his eyes. "I... remember it all. That... King Sombra... it was me..."
"No... not you... not anymore." Spike smiled at him. "Your brother will be happy to see you again. And... if you wanna thank me for kicking an evil entity out of your body... you can start by catching me... because I think I'm gonna faint..."
Drake was a bit puzzled at the last statement until noticing Spike was slowly closing his eyes and his knees started shaking slightly. Drake stood up and caught Spike right before the dragon fainted; obviously, dividing his mind into six separate beings and controlling the Infinity Stones' powers at once wasn't an easy task, and now Spike was really needing a break.
"Thank You." Drake smiled while gently placing a sleeping Spike on the ground. "Mind if I give you company... because I think I need a break too."
Drake placed himself next to Spike and, just like the dragon, fainted right there; certainly, planning a massive invasion and fighting six super dragons at once while being possesed by a dark powered being, and later having it kicked out of his body, it certainly was very exhausting as well.