Shining Dash

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Revenge

Sunset Shimmer had just teleported onto the battlefield moments before it happened.

The Queen’s familiar, mocking laughter filled her with disgust-she looked up just in time to see her former mentor fall towards the ground like a bird that had broken its wing.

It was strange to see the entire battlefield seemingly freeze as both sides witnessed Celestia’s fall in stunned silence and disbelief.

Even with all of the love they had stolen, it seemed that even the Changelings themselves were uncertain of their victory until now-not that they didn’t have good reasons to be concerned. Without princesses, Celestia had still managed to fight Chrysalis to a standstill and keep her occupied. If those idiots hadn’t given them exactly what they wanted, she probably would have won that struggle, eventually.

“You idiots!” Chrysalis laughed. “Did you really think love would be the answer?”

Sunset opted to push forward while the Queen was still gloating, while she didn’t like to admit it, part of her was worried about the severity of Celestia’s injuries.

“We feed on love, remember?”

Sunset also decided that she would only focus on taking the Queen down, unless anyone got in her way-that went for both sides. She had already waited for far too long, she refused to be denied her vengeance any longer. The hatred that burned in her soul only intensified after seeing Celestia being taken down.

“All you’ve done is provide us with a free meal and more power with which to subjugate you.” Chrysalis continued, triumphantly. “If you are willing to renounce your allegiance to Celestia and pledge your loyalty to me instead, I can arrange your tradition into becoming a member of the hive much…smoother with more perks and power than a common drone.”

Her eyes scanned the battlefield of guards, only to see the stallions glaring back at her defiantly along with those mares possessing the Elements of Harmony-who must have been Celestia’s other lapdogs. The only exception was the yellow one next to a Pegasus guard-who appeared to be more frightened than anything else. Breaking her will shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, she appeared to be naturally frail and timid.

“Any takers?” She prompted, her eyes sweeping over the battlefield once more.

The rage that should have filled Rainbow Dash was instead turned to guilt as she turned back to Shining Armor.

“D-did I do something wrong?” She asked, shakily. “I’m sorry-I’ve never done that before!”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong-you were great.” He reassured her before glaring back at Chrysalis once more. “We just should have that that through more.”

“PRINCESS CELESTIA!” Twilight exclaimed, frantically galloping towards her before being stopped by her brother’s voice.

“Twilight!”

Instinctively, she stopped-being reminded once more of when they were younger and he would use that tone when his parents had him look after her and he would need to use that tone to assert his authority before scolding her for something.

“Is Celestia going to be alright?”

Despite his steely exterior he was putting up for the Changelings, she could tell that beneath it he was just as rattled as everyone else and partially blamed himself for this.

‘You’re asking ME!?’

“It’s just that…you’ve studied under her directly, so maybe you’d know if this is just some kind of fake out to get the Queen to lower her guard?” He pressed hopefully, seeing the strange look she was giving him.

“I…I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know.” She replied. “But, it looked to me like she really did get hurt-shouldn’t we go try to help her?”

“No, she’ll be expecting that.” Shining Armor may not have had much combat experience in conflicts of this scale, but there was something in particular that he’d learned from veterans and some books Twilight lent him on warfare that stood out in his mind. “This could be a trap, and she’s just waiting for someone to get near Celestia with their guard down, so she can blast them.”

“Then what should we do?” Dash demanded, frustrated.

“I’m not sure yet, give me a second to think of something…”

---

Sunset concluded that if Luna and Cadance hadn’t yet intervened and tried to take on the Queen, at this point-then they must have already must have been incapacitated in some way.

As her eyes scanned the battlefield, she could see a Changeling about to pounce on a grey Unicorn guard, who saw it in time to immobilize it in as a periwinkle aura outline its body, the tip of his horn grew brighter as the Changeling’s neck made a cracking sound before it fell to the ground limp, appearing as if its head was on backwards.

Disinterested, Sunset turned her head to see the one guard she was looking for next to a large building, standing in front that quiet Pegasus, protecting her from an onslaught of Changelings.

Flash was panting with droplet of sweat running down his forehead and thin trickle of blood running down the side of his chin from a cut on his lower lip, his mane was slightly frazzled and his armor was cracked, it also looked like one of his wings had been clipped.

Above them a Changeling tackled a Pegasus guard, slamming him into one of the windows of an upper floor. Glass began to rain down upon Flash and Fluttershy, who ducked down with their forelegs covering their heads. Sunset stopped the shards mid-fall by catching them with her magic before throwing them at the Changelings that had been charging at the other two. Sunset teleported before the duo as the shards tore through the Changeling’s exposed eyes and chitinous exoskeletons, apathetic to the screams of agony behind her.

“Well, I have to admit-I’m surprised the two of you were able to last this long with Celestia down.”

Flash opened his eyes, once he realized his body wasn’t going to be shredded apart from the falling glass.

“Sunset! You’re here!” He exclaimed, relieved.

“Of course I am, the Changeling Queen is here-and I need to ensure that she dies.” Sunset replied. “And before you start-yes, I’ll only be taking out the Changelings that get in my way or are an immediate threat to you guys-“

She glared at Fluttershy, who leaned against the wall and lowered her head, so her face would be even more obscured by her mane-like a small animal trying to hide from a large predator.

“Why are you with her, anyway?”

“Because I promised Rainbow Dash that I’d protect her with my life-and I’m a stallion of my word.”

Sunset looked skeptically at the Element of Harmony around the mare’s neck, which appeared to be in the shape of a bright pink butterfly, causing her stomach to churn in disgust at the thought of Flash potentially throwing his life away to protect someone like her.

“I have some trouble believing that someone who can wield an Element of Harmony would need protection from some common guard.” She replied, haughtily.

“But, it’s true-I am weak and helpless.” Fluttershy spoke up. “I-I hate fighting and the only times I’ve ever done it were when my friends were in danger.”

“Well, everyone is in danger right now-and I don’t see you doing a damn thing to help.”

“And just what do you expect her to do-urgh!” Flash winced as the pain coursed through his injured wing as they began to flare up aggressively.

Both mares approached him in an attempt to examine his wound before Fluttershy caught Sunset shooting her a death glare and back off.

“You okay?” She asked.

“I’m fine.” He growled. “What the hell is your problem?”

“Listen,” Sunset lowered her voice. “I’ve seen my mother and other mares like her play games like this where they would find a strong, young, moderately attractive stallions and act weak and helpless just to lead them on and get things done for them, do you honestly believe someone so spineless could have an Element of Harmony?”

“Just because she’s timid, doesn’t necessarily mean she’s spineless.” Flash retorted.

“Yeah, I can act too Flash-just because she seems like a nice girl, scared girl doesn’t make it so-haven’t you wondered why she’s always so quiet? Or what kind of dark thoughts must be going through her mind?”

“No, because she really isn’t that self-reliant-why else would one of her friends ask me to look after her specifically?”

“Rainbow Dash is one of the idiots who screwed us by getting us into this current predicament, how do you know she wasn’t trying to set you two up as a back-up in case she and Shining Armor failed? Or what if she’s a double agent?”

“WHAT!?” Flash asked incredulously, “Do you have any idea how paranoid you sound?”

“We’re in the middle of a battle against shape-shifters, paranoia is a pretty reasonable response to that. Besides, look where all that touchy-feely crap has gotten us-their Queen is stronger than ever and all three princesses are out of commission. Without all six Elements, protecting her is pointless-as a soldier, I expected you to be more pragmatic than this.”

“If I was being pragmatic when we first met, I wouldn’t have given you a chance-instead I would have arrested you and went through with my consideration to have you institutionalized as you were potentially a danger to yourself, but certainly a danger to others considering the past few days and your colorful history of criminal activity.”

“I’m sorry…but, I really don’t think this is the best time…or the place to-“Fluttershy mumbled before being cut off by Sunset.

“You wouldn’t have been successful, even if you tried-I could have easily broken every bone in your body.”

“Which, would have proven my point-and if you’re here to stop the Queen like you’ve been claiming-then, why don’t you do that instead of pushing this so hard?”

“I want to know why you’re still protecting her, when we can no longer use the Elements of Harmony to defend ourselves-it’s a waste of time.”

“I won’t break a promise just because it’s no longer convenient to keep it, but I don’t think that’s what this is really about-I think you’re jealous because despite all of your intelligence, you can’t possibly conceive of a scenario where someone associated with you might interact with a third-party and not actually be conspiring against you in some way.” He took a step forward.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

“How can you trust her? You barely even know her outside of what you’ve been told.”

“And I knew you even less and I gave you the benefit of a doubt and I’m pretty confident that Fluttershy is not putting on an act or trying to manipulate anyone, she has shown empathy towards others, and she doesn’t have a long history violent criminal activity-unlike you.”

Sunset stumbled back in shock, as if she had been slapped before glaring at the two of them, Flash had a similar look on his face, fully aware of what he said, but reconsidering whether or not he may have gone too far.

“Fine then, screw you both.”

“Sunset, wait-” Flash reached a hoof out in an attempt to stop her before she disappeared in flash of magical sparks before he sighed.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to cause any trouble…” Fluttershy spoke up, timidly.

“It’s not your fault.” He sighed again. “To be honest, if you weren’t here, it would probably have been something else-Sunset has a lot of….issues…and not all of them are unfounded.”

“Y-you don’t have to protect me anymore if you don’t want to…” Fluttershy spoke up again, hoping to set up some damage control-or at the very least, prevent the possibility of inadvertently making the situation worse.

“Like I told Sunset, I made a promise-and I fully intend to keep it-and no offense, but I doubt you’d make it out here very long on your own.”

“Do you think your friend will be okay?”

Flash looked out onto the abandoned city turned battlefield uncertainly, he really didn’t know if Sunset would be able to stand a chance against the Queen. He just hoped that in her current state of mind, she wouldn’t do anything stupid. And he certainly didn’t want those to be the last words he said to her.

---

“We’ll die before we betray the princess.” Steel Vanguard spoke up defiantly, approaching Chrysalis.

“While that could easily be arranged, it would be far more useful to keep you alive-swearing fealty to me would just make things easier for both of us. If you stubbornly refuse to join the hive of your own volition-we can simply break every bone in your bodies until this city has been sufficiently altered to suit our purposes.” She narrowed her gaze. “And then, physically unable to resist you will be placed into a cocoon and be forcibly altered-don’t worry though, you’ll have a brand new and improved body at the end.”

Steel Vanguard’s ears perked up at the sound of wings buzzing towards him before standing on his hind legs to get a better visual and saw a Changeling charging towards him too quickly to change its trajectory before he brought his powerful fore hooves down on its spine-cracking sounds were audible as its vertebrae shattered under the Earth Pony’s strength.

The Changeling screamed out in agony as if lie on the ground beneath Steel, who stomped his fore hoof on its back-causing it to wince as he returned his glare to Chrysalis.

“You’re gonna have to do better than tha-“

He looked up quick enough to see an emerald green blast of magic heading towards him before feeling a burning sensation across his cheek. The burning sensation also spread across his shoulder, knocking him onto his back and sending him skidding across the ground.

Chrysalis grinned maliciously with her fangs exposed, her slender neck making her reminiscent of a viper that was about to finish its prey by sinking its fang into it.

One group of Changelings that weren’t participating in the fighting were speaking amongst themselves, while she would normally be furious-she was far too euphoric over her victory against Celestia to concern herself with a few lazy subjects-especially now that their victory was assured.

“Are you insane!?” One asked in a harsh whisper. “I don’t like any of this either. And I’ll admit there might have been a chance of us overpowering her before, but if we rebel now-we’ll be obliterated.”

“So, you’d rather die as a coward-as a slave?” The ringleader countered. “You heard earlier, Celestia proposed a pretty fair compromise that could have benefitted all of us, but she refused. Chrysalis is obsessed with power-the more she has, the more she can reign over us.”

“Even if it’s as a coward-I’d still rather be alive.” The first Changeling retorted. “We might suffer, but we’d still get to exist.”

“Don’t be so sure about that-the more I’ve learned about her, the more I’ve come believe that she’s genuinely insane-and I don’t think having more power is going to help that any.” The ringleader shot his compatriot a meaningful look. “Even if she doesn’t kill you, you may very well wish that she had. She’s always told us that we were doing what we needed to survive by capturing, harvesting, and converting Equines to the hive-that they were unfortunate, but necessary evils.”

“I’ve asked her about the possibility of a symbiotic relationship with other species and she said that none would ever go for it because we are already perceived to be a threat-and for good reason I’d say-but, when Celestia made the offer-it seemed completely genuine.”

“The same mare who sealed her own sister into the moon for a thousand years?” Another Changeling cut in-she was one of the few females.

“Considering what she turned into, I doubt she had much of a choice at the time.” He countered. “Besides, I’m pretty sure she regrets having to make it.”

“Even if we do agree to help you out-what do you expect us to do-charge the Queen?” She pressed.

“If we have to-but, I think if we can get that crown that was taken from that Unicorn-she could help us.”

“Well, there’s a few issues with that; she’s behind a shield, we don’t even know who took the crown or what they did with it, since we’re Changelings she has no reason to trust us, and we have no idea what will happen if they do get to use their magical jewelry-will it affect ALL Changelings, the Queen, or just the ones that aren’t us?” The female retorted. “And whoever is affected-will they be killed? Turned to stone? Blasted into the sun? Sealed into the moon?”

“Either way, both options are looking pretty suicidal.” The first Changeling agreed. “I don’t even know how you got me roped into this in the first place-instead of asking questions, we should have just kept our heads down and kept on following orders-there’s no reason we can’t forget about all this and go back to doing just that.”

“Yes, there is-I can’t go back to that and live with myself after coming to understand the horrors of what we’ve done-what I’ve done.”

“You know we agree with you-we wouldn’t have come this far if we didn’t, be he has a point-we do have self-preservation to think about.” The female Changeling sighed. “Even if the Equines would have agreed to try and live peacefully with us, the chances of that happening went down with their Princess-even if she’s still alive-I’m pretty sure her offer has expired after that.”

“And how long do you think you’ll be able to last under Chrysalis’ new reign? Is that really how you want to live? With more guilt and terror piling onto your soul until the day you actually do die, filled with regret?” He challenged. “Or would you rather die knowing that even if you fail-you at least tried to do something right before the end?”

The other two exchanged glances before agreeing.

“Alright, we’re with you…but, you’ve gotta think carefully about how we’re going to do this-we only have until this battle is over before we lose our window of actually having a chance to take her out.”

Chrysalis hadn’t moved sense she had put that foolish stallion in his place for defying her-she had been soaking in the delightful carnage of the battlefield, amused by the Equines pitiful attempts to resist her will.

There was a low groan as her attention returned to the stallion she thought she had disposed of. He slowly lifted his head as his body shook, struggling to bring himself back up onto all four hooves. Steel Vanguard at her defiantly, blood running down the gash on his cheek.

“Well, well…you certainly are a stubborn one.” She chuckled.

“You…bitch….I’m not gonna lot you-“

“Let me what?” She continued with mocking laughter. “You can barely stand…but, what should I expect? You Earth Ponies are notoriously thick-skulled…of course the utter hopelessness of your situation would be lost on the likes of you…poor thing-you’re trying so hard, too.”

The tip of her horn began to glow, preparing for the killing blast. Even with this guard being assaulted with but a fraction of the power coursing through her body, he was still simply too stupid to realize that his side had already lost without their precious princesses to protect them.

“I suppose we can just chalk this one up as a mercy killing.” She grinned, sadistically before releasing the blast.

Both were taken off-guard as Sunset Shimmer appeared between them with a magical attack of her own, resisting the blast.

Unfortunately, all Sunset could do was slow it down-she could pour more magic in to fuel it-but, Chrysalis clearly had much more in reserve to overpower her eventually.

“What are you waiting for? Move you idiot!” She growled to Vanguard.

Snapping out of his confusion, Steel complied.

Sunset then redirected her magic to teleport once more, causing Chrysalis’ blast to power through hers, now that there was nothing impeding it.

Before Chrysalis could call her a coward, a hoof collided with the side of her jaw-destroying her concentration and disrupting her blast in the process.

Both sides observing this were able to avoid the path of the misdirected attack.

Sunset returned to her original spot before Chrysalis.

“How dare you…” she snarled before recognizing Sunset’s physical attributes. “Wait…I remember you-the miserable little wretch who burned down our last hive.”

“Sunset Shimmer.” She informed her, “But…that works, too.”

“And if memory serves, you continued to generate the flames, despite your likelihood of survival decreasing as they spread-do you plan on disregarding the live of your own allies, as well?”

“Only if they’re stupid enough to get in my way.” She growled, glaring back at Chrysalis.

Chrysalis was prepared to launch yet another blast at Sunset before she disappeared once again.

“Where did you run off to, coward!?”

Pain shot through her ribs as Sunset’s hoof collided with her side. Chrysalis turned her head back towards her before she disappeared again, this time reappearing on her other side. Sunset bucked against her hind leg before teleporting once more.

Chrysalis nearly lost her balance before catching herself, her horn lit up as a transparent green magical sphere was generated around her before exploding in a violent blast that would push back anyone near her.

Sunset, who had reappeared in the air slightly above the Queen in an attempt to crack her skull open was thrown back, crashing down on the pavement-she landed on her shoulder with a dull crunch.

The pain only served to fuel her rage as she forced her body to get back up on all four hooves. Magically grabbing a piece of debris from Chrysalis’ earlier blast, she altered the material to change the piece from the broken street into sharp, steel object before charging toward the Queen, ignoring the pain from her injury.

Chrysalis was prepared to assault Sunset with another blast as soon as she came close enough for it to do maximum damage to her body, but was caught off-guard when Sunset slid under her while stabbing the piece of metal into the chitinous armor of her under side, dragging it with her as she slid-cutting into the soft, flesh of her abdomen causing greenish fluid to seep out of the wound-which appeared to be Changeling blood.

Wincing from the burning sensation from the slash down her belly, the pain flared up even greater as she quickly turned around to prevent Sunset from striking at her again in a similar manner, she threw a magical blast at the metallic shard, causing it to explode-some of the shrapnel embedding itself in Sunset, taking this opportunity she fired another blast at her-striking her across the face with enough force to throw her backwards onto her side.

Chrysalis glanced at a group of Changelings, giving them a nonverbal signal to finish Sunset off. Obediently, they charged towards the fallen Unicorn before a transparent yellow-orange sphere surrounded her body. While surprised that she could still generate enough magic to put up a shield, they pushed forward regardless-at this point, it probably wouldn’t have taken much to break through it.

As the Changelings slammed their bodies into the shield, trying to fracture it-they screamed out in agony as physical contact with it caused it to burn through their chitinous armor and flesh.

Chrysalis’ eyes widened in shock and confusion at what she was witnessing.

Within the sphere, Sunset slowly got back up onto all four hooves once again before spitting out blood, glaring at Chrysalis defiantly.

“I didn’t get to study under Celestia directly due to pity-a lot of my education was through observation-shield spells like the ones Shining Armor and Cadance use are good for defense-but, they are more of a stalling method if you can’t come up with a good counterattack, which as you’ve realized can be broken through with enough force and persistence-and this was my solution to that dilemma.”

Thanks to the blast that struck her, it was difficult to speak with the pain coursing through her jaw-more blood was also beginning to seep out from the cuts on her lower lip, which curled into a scowl.

“I told you what would happen to anyone who got in the way.”

The sphere began to fracture, the Changelings around it who weren’t writhing in agony from contact with it looked on in confusion as the cracks began to spider web before shattering-the shards that formerly made up the shield turning to flying shrapnel-impaling those closest to it. The Changelings who had still been airborne around Sunset, were now dropping to the ground like flies, the magical shards piercing their bodies burning through their insides-the heat cauterizing the entry and exit wounds of their impalement. All they could do is thrash around and scream in agony until their inevitable deaths.

The other equines were horrified by what they are seeing, while this was a war for their survival now-the fact that Sunset had been developing techniques like this for a while now and could still execute them so easily without hesitation was disturbing. Despite her claims of no longer wishing to wipe out the Changelings, it made perfect sense how Celestia would be concerned about the personality of someone like her-especially given her magical prowess. At this point it really began to sink in for Flash that if they didn’t try to dissuade her-she probably could have exterminated the entire Changeling species if she wished, given the terrifying amount of power she wielded for a Unicorn and the resolve she had thus far shown.

Chrysalis bared her teeth and growled to herself, seeing the subjects she had commanded to execute the little upstart fail, yet again. Watching them writhe on the ground in agony only increased her disgust. It served them right for their failure.

Glaring back at Sunset, she could see that the girl had more resolve than ever-she was fueled with a burning hatred for her that may have even matched the intensity of the sun itself-despite herself, Chrysalis chuckled at this thought.

“Something funny?” Sunset asked, neither her tone nor demeanor changing.

“I just had an amusing thought…it’s a shame we couldn’t have rebuilt your body or your mind to our needs-you would have made an excellent Changeling-but, it seems you were smart enough even to find your way out of that cozy home we made for you until your transformation was complete.” She sighed.

“Even if you weren’t seeking retribution for the accidental death of your friend, are our ideals and principles really so fundamentally opposed that you would not even consider becoming an ally to our cause?”

Sunset merely scoffed.

‘What a coward-she was getting beat-bad. And when she finally got a good hit in on me she sent her subjects to do her dirty work and finish me off, rather than risk any harm to herself. Now that they’re at deaths door, even she knows the loyalty of her other subjects aren’t strong enough for them to launch a suicide attack on her orders-so, she’d trying to sway me to her side in a desperate bid to spare her own life.’

“As cliché as I know this will sound-we really aren’t all that different-look around you; you’re equine comrades are terrified of you. You are not like them-you enjoy killing and causing pain-it’s who you are. And like us, you have a talent for lies and manipulation-they will never accept you for that-even your own beloved teacher was afraid of you, remember?”

Sunset looked around at the guards and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony who were still visible between the Changelings-a majority of the fighting seemed to have stopped to see what was happening between them-not that she could blame them. A lot of them did appear to be horrified and as manipulative as she knew the Queen was being-she wasn’t wrong. Sunset looked at her injured shoulder, which was exposed through a hole in her jacked, which must have been torn open when she landed on it.

“What happened to your friend was a regrettable mistake…I realize that there is nothing that I can say or do to make up for that tragedy, but perhaps if you join us we can give you certain…concessions that may help encourage you to change your mind?”

“Concessions?”

‘Oh, this has to be good…’

“What if you join us…and you are allowed to stay exactly as you are-no alterations to your mind or body, you can also be my second in command, even have a few your loved ones given the same immunities-with a few exceptions of course.” She quickly added, glancing at the fallen Celestia.

“I must admit, the offer’s tempting-but, you’re a species of manipulative pathological liars-just like me. Besides, I don’t have any loved ones. And even genuine promises of things like immortality or the infinite knowledge of the universe won’t change my mind about what I’m going to do to you.”

“Ah, but that’s not entirely true...you do have affection for them…some of them, at least I sensed it. We Changelings are very keen at detecting affection-you were concerned about her survival when Celestia fell to my newfound power, you were also concerned about a certain member of the guard.” Chrysalis pointed out.

Despite the pain in her jaw, Sunset began to grit her teeth-keeping her emotions hidden had always been an advantage, now this insect was broadcasting her weaknesses to the entire battlefield.

“Now, for obvious reasons your mentor’s fate cannot be altered from our initial plan, but perhaps if we spared the other one?”

‘It doesn’t matter, even if I were seriously contemplating her offer, there is no way Flash would go along with it he’s too…noble, besides in all likelihood what she’s promising will only likely be temporary until she finds a way to exploit some kind of weakness or kill me in my sleep-the only reason she hasn’t threatened to harm Flash yet is because she must be wisely fearing whatever hostile action I’ll take as a response-fortunately, it doesn’t look like that will even be needed to end this.’

“No dice.”

“That is regrettable, but I suppose that despite your intellect, you simply revel in savagery too much consider the benefits of my offer.”

Sunset smirked.

“Coming from you-that’s rich.”

Chrysalis’ wings began buzzing as she ascended from off the ground in attempt to use the one remaining advantage over Sunset that she could still see.

Already prepared for this contingency her horn lit up as chains shot up from the ground, snaking towards Chrysalis with shackles at the ends before latching onto all four of her legs. The links of the magical chains began to heat up as they dragging pulling her back down the ground, her wings desperately in a futile attempt escape. The links and the shackles themselves were glowing a bright yellow-orange as the heat intensified and were slowly changing to an orange-red as her body slammed back into the ground.

Sunset cantered toward her as the chains kept all four of her legs spread out, now only her head, tail, and wings were free.

“I would have waited until you gained more altitude to do more internal damage, but I didn’t want to risk it-anyway, I felt that immobilizing you would be a nice form of karmic retribution, considering it’s the same kind of position you and your Changelings like to put your victims in while they are forcibly mutilated and mutated against their will.”

“You miserable little wretch!” Chrysalis snarled, glaring up at her captor.

“Not as much as you’re about to be.”

Before Chrysalis could make a response, the tip of Sunset’s horn lit up again as the Queen’s body burst into flames, causing her to scream in agony as Sunset stood before her stoically.

“SUNSET!” Flash exclaimed, about to fly towards her before he was stopped by someone pulling at one of his hind legs, looking back he saw it was Fluttershy.

“What are you doing? I have to stop her!”

“But, what about what she said earlier…what if she hurts you?”

As he looked back at the scene, the flames on Chrysalis’ body were extinguished as quickly as they had ignited.

“You think I want to kill you because of the innocent life you took? No…I want you to suffer-at first, I was going to wipe out all of you filthy parasites, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you are the issue.”

The flames ignited once again, this time even bigger with more intensity.

“If your forces surrender, they will be given fair treatment-I know you’ve been screwing their heads…re-molding them to your twisted ideals and thought processes, coercing them through fear and desperation-you manipulative bitch.”

The flames died out once more.

“Your life is already forfeit, but if you care about any of your subjects in the slightest, then you should command them to surrender-you’ve seen what I can do-if you and your subjects refuse this offer and keep attack, then your species dies here-we will defend ourselves.”

“SUNSET!! STOP!” Flash shouted. “THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING! IS THIS ANY BETTER THAN THEM?”

Sunset looked over the Queen, her body was smoking from the flames and covered in burns-her mane and tail were singed and her wings had mostly been incinerated. The Queen was gasping for air. Despite her contempt for the creature, Sunset couldn’t help but admire her resilience-as cowardly as she thought she was earlier, she hadn’t begged for mercy under this torture.

“I KNOW YOU’RE ANGRY ABOUT YOUR FRIEND, BUT IF YOU WANT TO KILL THE QUEEN JUST DO IT-THIS TORTURE ISN’T GOING TO SOLVE ANYTHING OR CHANGE ANYTHING.” Flash continued.

There was no hiding it now-the darker side of Sunset Shimmer was not out in the open for everyone to see. As distressing as that was, Flash really did believe what he was saying, now that the Queen was subdued, there was no reason for the Changelings to fight anymore. She could either rot in the castle dungeon for the rest of her life or die here at Sunset’s hand-this torture was only dragging things out to satisfy her thirst for vengeance.

Sunset looked down at Chrysalis-who was glaring back up at her, panting-no doubt, anticipating her body begin burning up again at any moment. She considered Flash’s words, he did have a point-but, at the same time she didn’t deserve a quick painless death after everything she’d done. But, what would Celestia say? Or Peachy, if she were in her position? Of course, that would never happen-she was a good friend and wouldn’t have failed to save Sunset in time if their roles had been reversed, she chastised herself.

The point still remained that this vindictive behavior while it felt good-really good to get retribution-it was ultimately pointless in the practicality department, now that the Queen could be taken down the other Changelings would also probably back down or wouldn’t be too much of a threat now that they were all out in the open without the threat of civilian casualties.

‘So, that only leaves one last question-do I kill her or have the guards take her in and hold her captive for a trial until Celestia regains consciousness? Having her captive means we can interrogate her and see about restoring those forced to become Changelings back to their former selves-but, that also includes the possibility of her escaping and starting this all over again. Killing her would end her reign and probably convince the other Changelings that continuing this fight is futile-or it could just piss them off and encourage them to fight us until the last one has been wiped out. Either way, this will likely create a power vacuum in the Changelings’ ranks-but, that’s hardly our problem-they brought this on themselves, after all…’

“As much as I hate you-I can’t bring myself to let Flash or Celestia down again, so I’ve decided to-“

She was cut off as she was struck in the chest by a blast Chrysalis.

Comments

[Mellow]

Man, Flash.
I understand what he's saying and I agree with him, but he should really consider waiting until the enemy is incapacitated before distracting the main assault force.
On the bright side, live and learn... hopefully.

[JediWaffles]

“Well, I have to admit-I’m surprised the two of you were able to last thing long with Celestia down.”

Last thing long. uhm....

[Ianpiersonjdavis]

6443952

Can't believe I missed that typo-thanks for pointing it out.