//------------------------------// // Friend or Foe? // Story: Words From an Unknown Soldier // by carefreedude //------------------------------// I couldn't believe what I just did. I killed my best friend. I was filled with more fear and sadness then I have ever felt before. I bowed my head to the ground, not wanting to look at the corpse of my friend. Suddenly, I heard a noise; a small cough from nearby. I looked up at Spellflash's face. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open. Very faintly, I heard the sounds of him drawing breath. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead! But his wound was bleeding pretty badly. He needed medical attention, and soon. I looked around at the carnage surrounding us. Changelings and ponies were still fighting without even noticing us. Everypony was essentially fighting shoulder to shoulder, with no opening in sight. There was no way I could get Spellflash away from here with all the fighting going on. Then, all of a sudden, I heard the loud blast of our cannon again. I'm unsure of what happened, but this time I could feel the force of the blast. I turned around and saw that our war machine had exploded. How and why, I do not know, nor did I care. The blast had cleared a path, just big enough for us to make our escape. I rested Spellflash on my back and ran as fast as I could out of the front lines towards a clearing near the edge of the mountain. Right when Discord vanished before the princesses, Twilight turned her gaze upon Celestia. "So, since Discord decided to step in, does that mean we pretty much won?" Twilight asked her mentor. Celestia shook her head. "No. I think Discord is just going to save your friend and simply teleport away. While he does not wish harm upon her, he still wouldn't want to ruin the, as he put it, 'the chaos of battle.'" "Then we still have the problem of getting rid of that drake. I can see it already starting to reform itself." Said Luna with a worried expression. Twilight let out a sigh of frustration. "If only our magic would be strong enough to take it out. It would make this situation a lot less stressful." Zecora was the first to respond to her statement, "I know exactly, what we must do." She said. She then reached her mouth into her bag and pulled out a vial of green liquid. She set it on the table in front of the princesses. "Your magic will increase, when you drink this brew." Twilight levitated the bottle to eye level and examined its contents. "What is this?" Twilight questioned. "'A Mages wish', which is made from a flower. Brewed to bestow, unlimited power." The zebra responded. The three princesses maintained a look of confusion on their faces, for none of them have even heard of such a potion. "It is a potion, of my own design. For which the main ingredient, took many years to find. Miss Sparkle, you have been chosen. To be the first, to try my potion." While unsure at first, Twilight decided to drink the potion. She knew that Zecora has never steered her wrong in the past, so there should be nothing to fear here. She used her magic to uncork the bottle, then proceed to hover it towards her lips, the contents of which were only millimeters away from touching them. Suddenly, a loud scream could be heard in the distance. All three princesses immediately looked towards the direction of the scream, witnessing the draconnequss plummet to the ground. "Was that... Discord?" Luna questioned. All three had a look of disbelief. None of them could comprehend how Discord could get hurt. "The lord of chaos? Cannot be. Now will you drink your potion for me?" Zecora responded, pointing at the bottle still hovering in front of Twilight. "We should send out a search party to find where he landed. He maybe in trouble." Said Twilight to Celestia, ignoring her stripped friend. "He is fine, don't be ridiculous. Now drink, to gain some magic trick-ulous." Zecora commented with a little more anger in her voice than before. Still ignoring her, Twilight called over a couple of guards. "Get a small search party together and start looking for Discord. Who knows what may happ-" "DRINK THE POTION!!!" Zecora Exclaimed, instantly getting the attention of everypony present. She panted heavily as everypony watched in shock and confusion. Suddenly without warning, she was levitated of the ground and smashed back first into a nearby rock and remained pinned there with magic. With her horn glowing, Twilight walked up to Zecora and said "Who are you?!" in an assertive tone. "I'm Zecora, don't you see. It is, the one and only me." Zecora responded in a panicked tone. Celestia immediately confronted Twilight. "Twilight! what are you doing?!" "This is not Zecora your highness." Twilight responded. Rarity walked up to the white alicorn. "She is right your highness. The real Zecora would never speak out of rhymes, even when angry." "And thus, i repeat my question. Who are you?" "You will get nothing out of me." Zecora said in a strange voice. "I may have failed to poison you, but thanks to your trust of the zebra and the pegasus, our victory is assured." With these words, the zebra melted before them into a green puddle. Twilight looked at the puddle in disgust and anger. "No! I still need answers from you!" Celestia put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "It's no use Twilight, the changeling has killed itself in order to prevent us from getting information from it." "Wait, did it not say the zebra and the pegasus?" Luna inquired. Twilight and Rarity both gained a look of concern, as they realize that there was a mare that entered the Everfree Forest with Zecora. "FLUTTERSHY!" They both shouted at the same time. Out of nowhere, they heard a loud roar. All of them turned around to see the draco chyrstallus regain its original form again. It started attacking the ground forces with gratuitous violence. "Twilight! I know your friend is in danger, but we need to do something about this first." Said Celestia. "If that beast is not taken care of, then we will have no means of even finding your friends." "I know that Princess, but we have no idea how to beat it. It just regenerates every time we break it. How do we destroy it without it coming back?" All the mares shared the same clueless look as they contemplated on what they must do. Suddenly, they noticed a small crunching noise coming from behind them. All of them cast their gaze upon the baby dragon as he was nervously eating gems from a bag. He stopped eating for a moment to witness the same grin they were all giving him. "What?" He responded with his mouth still full Meanwhile, back at their plateau, Sombra and Chrysalis were laughing triumphantly. "You hear that your highness?" Sombra questioned. "That scream is the sound of victory. My plan went flawlessly, right down to the last detail." "Yes. And because of that, Canterlot will be ours." The changeling responded. "Ours? Oh, thank you your highness. You just reminded me about a part of my plan that I forgot to mention." Sombra responded, his horn glowing. Chrysalis turned her gaze towards Sombra. "Oh yeah? And what might tha-" A large crystal suddenly emerged from the ground and penetrated the queen's torso with ease, cutting off her sentence. She coughed up some blood and tried to support herself up, unable to free herself from the great shard. Several changelings nearby saw this and instantly sprang upon Sombra. Without him even moving, several more crystals shot out of the ground around him and easily killed them all. The shards sank their way back into the ground, leaving the dead changelings behind as they did so. "Why?" Chrysalis questioned in a low whisper "Why even involve us, if you were just going to betray us?" Her words were soft, and she would cough every other word when speaking. Sombra, with his horn still glowing, simply looked at Chrysalis with his evil grin. "Well you see, your highness, while I would love to just walk up to the kingdom and take over, there were two problems standing in my way. Those problems were the elements of harmony, and that meddlesome draconequus. Thanks to you and your subjects, both problems are now gone." Chrysalis still rested on the crystal spike, unable to free herself. "You cannot win now you monster! Not even a unicorn as powerful as you can defeat an entire army." Sombra laughed at this accusation. "Now why would you say that, my queen?" He questioned her. "Ever stop and wonder why it is I'm so obsessed with crystals?" Chrysalis glared at Sombra without responding, so he continued. "You think I want them because they are pretty? Or because they are valuable? The answer, my queen, is no. The reason I love crystals so much, is because I draw my power from them. And the more crystals in the area, the more powerful I become." "How is that suppose to help you?" She asked, still having difficulty breathing and speaking. "There are no crystals in Canter-" She cut herself off, remembering the events at the royal wedding, about where she imprisoned the princess and the unicorn. "The caves beneath Canterlot!" She said in disbelief. "So that's the reason you wanted to come here! You wanted the power that the crystals would bestow upon you!" "Ah, quick as a whip, aren't you my queen? To bad you won't live long enough to see me rule this land. But I do suppose you deserve a reward for helping me succeed." Sombra brought a hoof to his chin, as he brainstormed how to thank her. "Oh I know! You did all of this for the sake of your people, isn't that right?" Chrysalis remained silent. "Then I promise that any changeling that survives my take over, will have the honor of being one of my slaves." He finished his sentence with an evil grin. Chrysalis' eyes widened in terror before quickly changing to an expression of rage. "I swear Sombra, I will see to it myself if necessary, you will pay for this!" A shadow was suddenly cast above her. She looked up to see a massive crystal hovering overhead. "Sorry my queen, but you may find that to be a pretty difficult task to do while dead." With these words, the massive crystal fell to the ground, crushing the changeling like a grape. A blue liquid started to seep out from beneath the crystal and then proceeded to trickle off the edge of the plateau. "Hmm, I did not know that changelings had blue blood. I always thought that it would be green." Sombra then jumps off the plateau and lands right behind the army of changelings.