Part 3: Chapter 5: The Princess.

Candance hid behind a corner and when the mutant ran by, she grabbed his wing and spun him into a nearby building. He crashed through the wall as the dust cloud formed.

He shook off the confusion and looked around, the light of his armor flickering on. Surrounding him was a group of 10 royal guards. They were gearing up, grabbing swords and spears when the mutant came crashing in. They took one look at him and raised their weapons.

Candance waited until the dust cloud had settled before walking towards the hole. She was half-way there when out came the severed head of a royal guard, the eyes and mouth still twitching and jerking around. Behind it came the walking headless body of the guard, falling to its side once all neurons had no more instructions from the brain and began to twitch.

She walked in to find all nine guards still alive. All however, had their armor and weapons laying in a pile in the center of the room, with the mutant no longer there.

"What happened?" She asked.

None answered her, still in shock.

Candance growled as she walked to the sergeant on her left. "Sergeant,"

All he could do was look up at her.

"What happened here?"

He didn't reply but instead shook his head.

"He came in…" One guard spoke up, shaking like the rest.

"Then what?"

"We all looked at him, raising our arms but…but…"

"But what?"

"It was too fast. It sliced open the private as if he was made of butter." The guard broke down into a sob.

Candance frowned then patted the guard on the shoulder before embracing him in a hug to calm him down. "It's okay. Shh. It's alright. Everyth-OW!" She yelped in pain as the guard bit her side. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

The guard looked up at her and she realized that he had no pupil; his eyes were green and the two teeth sticking out from his smirk were un-naturally pink. "I have to admit," the sergeant spoke out, changing form. "You fell for that so fast. Much faster than the time you fell for the muffin-pony disguise."

She looked to her left and saw the Sergeant transform into a changeling. The guard beside her bit again, this time blood streamed from the wound. "Changelings aren't cannibals though."

The Changeling removed her helmet and grinned. "But Carl here wasn't a pony in the first place. He was bitten by a vampire bat, and ever since he became a Changeling like us, he has been eating ponies and only ponies. He's the only one like that."

"So," Candance replied as she grimaced in pain. "Where's the mutant?"

"Who, Charlie?"

"Yeah."

The pile of suits began to move and out came the mutant, his helmet off and had a guard helmet on. "These are too big for me." He said with a chuckle.

"Why not use the helmet made for the suit?"

"I do, it's just that I can't breathe in it."

Chrysalis giggled as the changeling behind Charlie came in. He nodded to his friends and Chrysalis before looking at the downed queen.

"Don't kill her."

"Why?"

"WE are only here for Celestia. She," Delta said, pointing to Candance. "Isn't the target."

The Changeling nodded but continued to feed. Delta donned his helmet and continued to stare at Carl.

"What?"

"Stop drinking."

"Shut up, colt." The Changeling insulted, taking his teeth out of the downed Queen's side. "Chrysalis doesn't tell me what to do, so what makes you think I'll listen to you?" He shoved Charlie back outside with a hoof. "The last time I checked, your colt-friend was the leader of this Army, where is he now?"

The metallic brace lied on the ground, and in its hoof was the white horn. The mutant in armor stood up and shook off the distortion, before having his friend take over and dodging the swinging axe. Alpha looked up to see King Shining Armor, up and moving. He glanced at his burnt limb, now in open for all to see, including Shining.

"Bet that hurts." Shining said with a laugh. "Aww, did the unicorn take off your wing?" He stepped forward and swung his axe. Alpha sidestepped, keeping his anger and himself at bay. Something flashed and he looked past Shining to see his wing, still spinning albeit slightly.

"That isn't a good idea."

"Have any other suggestions then?"

The two stopped moving, both Alpha and Shining.

"Don't fight, just wait and watch."

Alpha did what he was told and watched as Shining slowed his breath. Once his heart began to beat at a normal rate, his face changed as the pain resurfaced and he dropped his axe, his hooves covering the stump on his head.

"What the hell am I witnessing here?"

"His adrenaline was high enough that he didn't feel his horn being yanked off. Once his heart returned to normal, the pain registered."

Alpha walked past the screaming King and looked at his wing, frowning. Five of the thirty metallic feathers were bent and two were missing. "It is gonna be hard flying now."

"We practiced before."

"When?"

"Oh, right. You were asleep."

"You practiced to fly while I was sleeping? How did that go?"

"Not well to be honest. I stopped after three hours of practice."

Alpha smiled as he imagined Beta trying desperately to take off into the air but both the memory and the feeling left quickly as he looked at his burnt appendage. It has been so long since he had an actual wing, when he did not know Beta. When he was forced to work and live in the Rainbow Factory.

He moved the four long, crumpled feathers that he still owned on his burnt limb as he looked up at the Castle. It was huge, easily as tall as the skyscrapers he saw in Manehatten. He turned to see Nightmare, still on her cloud, barking and shouting orders, hooves pointed in different directions as she order her troops. She relaxed and looked around, catching his eye in the process. He jerked his head to the Castle and Nightmare looked at the top before searching around the citadel. She nodded once, waited, then shook her head.

"Celestia is still holding the rocks at bay but Trixie is gone."

A sparkle rocketed up into the sky behind Nightmare and exploded into the brightest light that any pony had ever witnessed. Alpha closed his eyes but even then could still see light through his closed eyelids. It was a red flare.

"Looks like Sweetie Belle actually knows how to use magic." Charlie spoke beside Alpha.

Alpha looked down to see his colt-friend in his armor, caked in dried blood. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked as he picked up his wing and slipped the brace on.

"A changeling decided to insult you in front of me."

"What did you do?"

"Kicked its flank." He waved at Nightmare who nodded in response. Charlie made the shape of a T with his hooves then brought his hoof to his neck and made a swiping gesture.

Nightmare was still for a few seconds before nodding her head.

"Tirek's dead." Delta told Beta.

"How?"

"Discord snapped his neck."

"Where is he now?"

"Discord is dead."

"What happened?"

"He began to choke Tirek. As he choked him, Tirek released his magic which Discord absorbed…"

"And blew up." Beta knew what had happened.

"Pretty much. Discord should have known why Centaurs are the only creatures able to absorb magic."

"Why?" Alpha asked.

"Centaurs are half human, half horse. Because they are made up of two species, they have abilities that ponies don't, one of which are absorbing magic without consequence." Delta explained.

"Right. Pure Magic in this world takes form of a rainbow colored liquid. Tirek's magic was made up of both Un-natural and natural pure magic. As Discord could only use one type and not the other-" Beta continued.

"He exploded." Alpha said once he understood what happened.

A suit of armor flew towards him, an ally, glowing in rainbow-colored light.

"Dash." Alpha spoke. "What's up?"

"Cloudsdale is destroyed, there is nothing left of it." Dash reported bitterly.

"Right," He pointed towards the flares that were still flying up into the air. "Scoot, Sweetie and Apple Bloom are in Ponyville. Flares are going up which means that Royal guards were trying to flank us. Take your group and go help out."

Dash nodded and turned, pointing towards the village and flew there, following the others.

"So," Charlie spoke out. "What next?"

Alpha looked up at the Castle before pushing Charlie out of the way and barely getting out of the way himself as the white suit of armor hit the ground where they were just standing. It was glowing bright blue, the same color as its mane.

"Like my armor?" The mare from within spoke out. "It's a version of yours, just more powerful and mine."

"You must be Trixie."

"That's Trixie the Powerful to you." The mare snapped back. "I'm more powerful than you Beta."

"Doubt it, to be honest."

The mare stood on her hind legs, the suit giving off its own light like the others. Nothing was new until Beta recognized the age-old weapon in both of her front hooves: Flails. She dropped the spiked balls and whipped one at Alpha. He jumped back, the ball inches from his face. She whipped the other, and Charlie ducked, letting it soar above his head.


Whoops, Fell asleep today, didn't get to post this when I wanted to. My bad. :/