Pride & Power

[Bolt]

Powerful roars shook a cave deep within the Everfree Forest; painful snapping could be heard along while a vast number of brightly colored changelings were being ejected from the cave with great force, a pile of their battered or outright broken bodies was piling up outside. A blue stallion sized dragon was descending deeper into the cavern easily cutting down any changeling opposition that crossed his path; the brave ones valiantly tried to fend off the dragon while smart ones fled in fear. This was something the dragon Bolt tended to do from time to time when he needed to let off steam and after being saved by Princess Twilight he was feeling particularly powerless. A dragon's pride was more important to him than even his horde of treasure; so here he was deep within a cavern in the woods taking on a changeling hive in order to gain the location of it's queen. In one final assault the entire swarm rushed the dragon, Bolt smiled gnashing his teeth into a cocky grin before he looked skyward and gave a mighty roar; this roar yielded a powerful stream of fire spewing forth to burn and braze the festering colored insects. This hail of fire was enough drive the rest of the swarm out of the cave; leaving only one remaining.

Bolt towered over the cowering changeling looking into it's fearful bug-like eyes. The fearful changeling tried to flee only for the thunderbolt of a dragon move swiftly pinning him against the cave wall. The blue reptile gave an aggressive smile tightening his grip around his prey's neck; he was enjoying lording his superiority over this lower life-form. Finally he had what he wanted, one of them pinned to a wall like a fly. Inhaling the dragon took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking in his rough and raspy voice. "I'll make this easy for you. You tell me where Chrysalis is, I let you go and you and buddies can come back into the cave. If you don't feel like complying I burn your entire home to the ground." While he was interrogating the fly-like pony he couldn't help but wonder why the changelings were brightly colored and not the usual jet-black. "What in Equestria happened to these monsters? I was sure they were a darker color and their queen would be here. Never mind that now, as soon as I squeeze her location out of this guy I can leave."

[Switchback]

Coltson just so happened to be on a mission in the Everfree forest at the time, having heard rumours of strange cases of violence and injured creatures in the forest it was determined by SMILE command that he should investigate in case an item could be the cause of such incidents. Carefully he moves through the forest, wary of the creatures within as any sensible pony would be; he only had one lead he could follow up on, a hive of Changelings that lived in the forest; he had contact with their leader a few times before, and was on good terms with the group, so he had no worries about being allowed in. Just getting there was the problem; the forest was not known to be docile by any means. As he finally arrived at the entrance to the cave where the hive dwelled he noticed the scenes of destruction outside. Running to one of the Changelings he checks them over; all of them were in a bad way. He touched his hoof to his ear as his horn ignited, using a communications spell that he had learned from some pop star pony's agents, he alerts his superiors of the situation and requests medical teams for the changelings. He then moves into the cave, his horn igniting to cast a beam of light as he moved through the cave "REA if the creature attacking this hive is sentient, please stand against the far wall! You are under arrest for attacking a nonviolent nation under the treaty between Griffons, Ponies, Dragons, Hippogriffs, Yaks, and Changelings! Stay where you are or I will retaliate." he announces his presence before moving in further. 

[Bolt]

Bolt lets out an annoyed growl slamming his victim into the wall again. "Chrysalis, Now!" He demanded only wanting to leave this woods as quickly as he could, true Bolt was brute but he also liked being able to mingle in pony society freely; he mostly kept his claws and fangs to species widely considered monsters, he honestly thought changelings still fit that bill. The nervous insect stammered out meeting with the dragon's demands.

"C..cc...hhrysalis? She hasn't been queen in sometime. We've a new leader now whose opened up relations with the ponies."  Bolt dropped the changeling and he stumbled off towards the exit tripping over every bump as he went, likely because he was terrified by the sudden attack. The blue dragon dropped onto all fours muttering something foul under his breath. 

"These things aren't being considered monsters anymore! Didn't they attack a major city less than a year ago? Blasted ponies trying to de-fang the world one species at time. Bah, Let them come, I've nothing to hide." He thought to himself as he leaned against a nearby waiting for the feds to catch up. If he wanted to avoid this encounter he simply could have sped up the vibrations of his body and phased through the cave walls however he was interested to see where this change with the changelings was coming from.

[Switchback]

As Coltson moves through the cave he comes across the leader of this hive who was having a hard time walking straight, he stops the Changeling, getting him to calm down "Mandible, calm yourself, we have a medical team moving in on the location to see to your hive members, wait outside the cave for them, I will get this criminal for you." he says, sending the Changeling on his way as he keeps moving into the cave, putting on an amulet as he goes, his horn lighting up as an aura starts to spread across the cave, the aura made to weaken the natural abilities of anycreature in the aura, used by SMILE agents to help make situations less dangerous for them. As he nears the end of the cave, the light shining on Bolt "Stay right where you are, dragon! This act of aggression against Changelings shall not be tolerated!" he shouts, moving in quickly, going to use his magic to hold Bolt in place as he uses the communication spell again "Criminal is a dragon, someone get in contact with Dragonlord Ember, this one is hers to deal with."

[Bolt]

True while within the aura Bolt's strength and ability to breath fire felt severed diminished however his speed was a gift he'd received from the heavens and was unaffected by the magical trinket. Feeling the weakening effects of the amulet the dragon staggered from side to side feeling lightly woozy; after taking a moment to focus his mind and settle his stomach he replied in shock. "Hold up! You're the dude from the book store in town. So you're a narc huh? I knew I didn't like you for a reason. Firstly I've done NOTHING wrong; changelings have been on the approved monster list for years and I haven't killed anybody.....yet. Also if you think I'm going to answer to some pink lizard whose been de-fanged by Twilight's little brother you're sorely mistaken." Seeing the unicorn light up his horn Bolt dashes out of reach while heading deeper into the cave. "Yanno I could bail anytime I wanted but since you're here let's make this fun."

[Switchback]

He follows Bolt further into the cave, keeping his beam of light on the dragon "I looked up with your monster hunters. There's no such thing. You are allowed to hunt verified non sentient beings, however, Changelings have always been categorized as sentient; I should know, I was trained by the pony who categorised them. And you have not killed any, however you have commited grievous bodily harm on at least twenty three counts. Along with attempted treason with intent to usurp peace treaties, and acting without official license. Princess Twilight will not be happy that you have put the relations between dragons and changelings in such a way." he keeps moving through the cave, keeping the light on Bolt; he knew the dragon could still run away; but there was nothing the dragon could do to him, so if he ran away, he could bring the evidence to the princesses to get permission to involve other agencies with the chase, besides, nopony would believe this particular dragon if he tried to rat Coltson out. "Also... pink? Last time I met the Dragon Lord, she was blue. Also you are legally bound to answer to the Dragon Lord, she wields the staff, not you."

[Bolt]

Bolt rolled his eyes and made mouth motions with his claws as the unicorn rattled on. Snickering he shrugged before placing his hands behind his head and flopping onto a rock. "Well there you go, just goes to show you what little interest I have in the so called Dragon Lord. I don't take orders from some chick with am ornate stick." Bolt was an interesting kind of dragon he was arrogant and egoistical sure but he also refused to kill ponies so he was going to talk his way out of this situation. Slumped over the rock he brought his tail forward and started to talk in his cool and raspy voice. "It seems we've reached a stalemate. You know I've hurt a bunch of these losers and I know your true identity. You blow the whistle on me and make it hard to spend time in society then I blow your cover and tell everybody about you and your little pals here. Trust me with me word can get around very fast, why what starts as a little rumor in Ponyville can be front page news in Las Pegasus the very same afternoon. I'm just out here looking for Chrysalis so why don't you turn around forget what you saw here and leave me in peace." 

[Switchback]

He nods with a chuckle "Thought you wouldn't. I know who you do take orders from however, somepony who can keep you on an appropriate lead. And sadly, it's protocol with situations involving attacks on non native populations to call in the Princess of Friendship to oversee the arrest and incarceration of parties involved. Ignorance is not an excuse sadly." he briefs the dragon on a bit about the situation he was in, before laughing at the dragon "Stalemate? Come on now, you know as well as I do that practically everypony sees you as nothing more than a menace to society, a thief, and vandal, they'd think of you as a liar as well easily. Use your head for once, stop making trouble and work to create a solution. You have broken laws on lands non-native to yourself. This is something very serious, and the public would highly doubt something you say about a book seller being a secret agent. Also, once the Princess has briefed you on your future it is protocol for me to erase your memory of all parties involved. So um, yeah, sorry about this, but threatening an active agent has just moved you up the list of threats."

[Bolt]

Bolt simply shrugs with a sincere grin. "I am what I am. I embrace what I am, I don't run from it. Just as you ponies thrive of peace as prosperity dragons are engines of destruction and power, we thrive on pride and power and I'll demanded if I'm going get in trouble for being how nature made me." Bolt raised an eyebrow while he thought to himself. "Sure it sucks he's going to tell Twilight what I've done here but he was stupid enough to tell me what he's going to do before hand." Finally Bolt decided to pull out his hunting license dropping it into the ground tapping it. "I don't care if this thing is outdated the official hunting guidelines state that changelings are fair game. Maybe I missed an update so sue me, sometimes dragons sleep for years at a time. I'm not going to be prosecuted when I've done nothing wrong. These things are barely sentient anyway, they are little more than insects, way I see it I'm going the world a service." Bolt pondered for but a moment loosing himself in thought again. "I've got to admit having a chance to spend more time with the princess is tempting however arrest and incarceration? I'd go stir crazy being locked up so I'm going to pass." Finishing his thought Bolt stood sternly as lightning shot through his eyes; this signified that same energy was coursing through his entire body. He gave a deadly glare before eyeing the exit. "Give me one reason not to just shoot out that door right now."

[Switchback]

Coltson shakes his head with a sigh "Keep telling yourself that, kid. Same spiel I used to tell myself." he puts the amulet back into his saddlebag stopping the effect so his own magic power was back to normal. "You dragons always seem to mix up bravado with pride. Pride is about being more than just yourself." he looks down at the hunting license, picking it up and inspecting it "Actually this organisation was never a legal Equestrian organisation. It's more of a dragon-lands thing, I should know; my boss' grandfather was behind the creation of this when he was young. It's more than an update you've missed lad. And sadly ignorance is not an excuse; you committed a crime, whether you meant to or not sentences still must be discussed. And they are as sentient as dragons are, in fact there's quite a few Changelings in service to Equestria and her allies. One reason? Is that it. Well currently your crimes are crimes of passion at worst, crimes of accident at best. But if you run away from here; you are willingly admitting to intention of what you have done, and also will be trying to run from justice, which is a crime of itself. So go ahead, you step out this cave and become an enemy to Equestria."

[Bolt]

Bolt rolled his eyes and spat embers in annoyance as he decided to comply. "Fine, let's just wrap this up quickly okay? I can't stand all the red tape and paperwork stuff like this builds up." Looking to all the ponies around the exit Bolt simply shook his head the thought they could even match up was hilarious to the blue dragon. He had no idea if Colton would be true to his word or where they were taking him but he was sure no prison they could construct would hold him with the exception of Tartarus. Waiting on baited breath he raised an eyebrow inquiring. "What next?"

[Switchback]

"Trust me, nopony hates the red tape work more than me. And I am the one who will be filling in all the paperwork." Coltson says as he approaches the edge of the cave "I'll try and get a copy of modern affairs sent over to your abode so you can make sure you don't make any more mistakes like this again, I think the princess has a copy in her library so I'll send over mine and see if I can negotiate with her to trade another book for her copy." As they leave the cave into the gloom of the everfree, all of the changelings he had attacked before were all gone now, along with the other agents "Now we drop by the Princess, hopefully she'll be at her school at this time, she may see fit for community service as a punishment. I believe they have a reformed Changeling among the students at the school, so that could be a starting point for you to learn how far they have come as a race."

[Bolt]

Bolt dashed in front of Colton holding out his claws in a halt motion. "Hold up! You can't tell Twilight about this; she's been really good to me lately even going so far as to take a metaphorical bullet for me. We can't bother her with this, she works way too hard to have to put up with the crap I cause. Look take me to Luna or Celestia but Twilight is out of the question. I don't buy into her friendship crap but I do have a lot of respect for what she dose. How about you and I cut a deal? There's gotta be somebody out there causing more trouble than me that you could use my talents to catch. I can literately circle the globe seven times in a second, tell me that couldn't catch you a load of perps." The blue dragon seemed desperate to not get the purple alicorn involved after how well she'd treated him.