Shining Dash

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Armistice

“SUNSET!” Flash shouted, this time breaking free from Fluttershy’s grasp and flying towards her.

The chains that were keeping Chrysalis bound began to dissolve as Sunset fell into unconsciousness. Chrysalis struggled to stand back up as Flash rushed to Sunset’s side.

Flash slowly turned her over to reveal a large scorch mark on her chest, still smoking. Beginning to panic, he was about to put an ear to her chest to see if her heart was still beating before thinking better of it. As his head was lowered, he could hear something…breathing…it was shallow, but he gained a small amount of relief knowing that she was still alive. Flash was about to let a sigh of relief before remembering Chrysalis, who was now standing up straight, despite her injuries. The burns from Sunset’s assault left her mane and tail singed as well as her wings appearing to be significantly damaged as well.

“How pitiful…you knew the dangers of holding affection for others, yet you still allowed your emotions to control you.” She gloated, while the scorch marks were harder to make out on her chitinous body, the side of her mouth appeared to now be slightly deformed as a small section towards the end of her lips appeared to be cauterized together. “You let your personal feelings override your common sense and hesitated, even in my weakened state-that was all I needed to charge up a sufficient counterattack.”

Looking down at Flash huddling over Sunset, Chrysalis’ lips twisted into an ugly frown, wincing slightly at the pain from her injury.

“You would have made an excellent Changeling…it’s a shame that in the end you succumbed to the same mental illness that plagues the rest of your pitiful species-despite the bad blood between us, I almost feel regret for having to simply kill you. It feels like such a waste…but, you’ve proven in the past to be too much trouble for me to allow you a second chance at joining our hive…”

Once again, the tip of her horn sparked to life with an eerie emerald glow.

Flash could only sit there, glaring at her. If he tried to attack her and managed not to get hit by her before she could fire her blast, Sunset would be completely vulnerable for other Changeling to deal the killing blow. And with everyone watching them on both sides, any medic trying to assist her would also likely killed before she could be removed from the battlefield.

“I’m not going to make the same mistake as last time, I fully intend to finish you off myself.” Chrysalis announced, knowing full well that even if the stallion between them wasn’t as cowardly as she thought, he probably realized how futile protecting her at this point, yet his affection seemed be driven to some suicidal notion of protecting this Sunset Shimmer.

“At the very least you can take some solace with the knowledge that it required the Changeling Queen to end your life-not many have been worthy of that honor.”

---

All of the Equines were either watching the events unfold before them along with the Changelings or looking towards Shining Armor for instruction. He was still trying to figure out the best course of action, trying to limit their casualties while somehow ensuring their victory. Things were looking pretty bad-the princesses and Sunset were all down, they no longer had all of the Elements, nor was he going to allow Twilight to go toe-to-toe with the Queen-even if she was their next most magically powerful candidate. He wouldn’t be able to bear going back to Spike and their parents and look them in the eye and anything happened to her because he couldn’t protect her. On the other hand, the Queen was in pretty bad shape after fighting Celestia and Sunset-as she said herself; if Sunset hadn’t hesitated, she probably could have finished her easily.

Rainbow Dash glared at Shining Armor in annoyance.

“Fine, stay around twiddling your hooves if you want-but, I don’t care how dangerous this is-I am not going out without a fight.”

Twilight saw her wings move a split second before it happened and tried to get a magical grip on her. Before she or Shining Armor could stop her she took off, flying at top speed. Shining only saw a cyan blur followed by a long rainbow trail as a blast of cool air rushed past him.

---

Flash jumped between Chrysalis and Sunset, hoping that at the very least his body would be able to absorb most of the blast’s impact.

At that point, a rainbow streak darted across his line of sight.

Chrysalis felt herself being thrown backwards as the air was being pushed out of her lungs and pain exploded in her chest, accompanied by cracking sound beneath the chitinous plating.

Falling onto her back, she tried to get up once more while refocusing the magical energy back into the tip of her horn to retaliate against whoever it was that dared to assault her at such a crucial moment.

It couldn’t have the Pegasus-he would have stopped her earlier if he were capable of moving at such a high speed.

As she tried to stand she struggled to continue breathing with pain and pressure pushing down on her chest, she tried to command her subjects to kill whoever stood between their Queen and her prey-however, she could only cough and wheeze.

The only thing she could manage to do in her current position was struggle to raise her head to see over the rest of her body, much to her disbelief, it was the same idiot that granted her the power to defeat Celestia-that rainbow maned Pegasus.

It appeared as though she took quite a bit of damage from that impact as well-she had just managed to get back on her hooves and was staggering towards Chrysalis with a hateful glare and gritted teeth.

Realizing the severity of her situation, she looked helplessly towards her subjects-if they were watching-then surely they would fulfill their duty and defend their Queen?

---

Immediately upon seeing the Queen quietly appealing for the other Changelings for assistance, Shining Armor generated a shield around her, Dash, Flash, and Sunset to keep them from interfering-at this rate all she needed to do was kill the Queen it would be checkmate.

“Twilight! I’m going to need you and your friends to keep the Changelings off me-some of them will try breaking by shield down by force, but others will probably be smart enough to go after the source generating the power to sustain it.”

Twilight felt like she was stuck in a trance throughout this entire battle felt incredibly surreal and that feeling increased as the longer it dragged on, the more things seemed to escalate-at the beginning she had entirely expected things to be one-sided in their favor, but after she lost her crown and Celestia was knocked out of commission it seemed like all hope was lost. But then Sunset Shimmer showed up with the most brutal magical beat down she had ever witnessed, before she was taken out as well. And now Rainbow Dash’s brash, impulsive nature actually seemed to be helping them for a change-

“TWILIGHT!” Shining shouted, angrily. “I need some cover! The shield will be stronger if I can focus one-hundred percent of my magic on it!”

True to his prediction, Changelings swarmed the spherical barrier-obscuring what was going on within in their attempts to shatter it.

“Girls! Come over here!” she shouted.

As she awaited the other four to converge on her position she observed something strange-some of the Changelings appeared to be attacking each other.

“Shining Armor, look!”

Listening to his sister, he looked up to see the Changelings crawling along the sphere trying to crack it were being assaulted by other Changelings.

“What are they doing…have they gone insane?”

“I-I don’t know…”

It didn’t seem like they were holding back either, they were attacking each other with the same tenacity and brutality they had shown earlier.

With different parts of their bodies’ morphed, they clawed and bit each other-piercing through the chitinous armor of each other’s bodies.

As he watched their sickly green blood splash across the magical barrier he had created, Shining Armor remembered Twilight and the fact that this was the first full-fledged, bloody battle that she had ever witnessed, let alone participated in-and immediately felt guilty for having let her witness something so horrific firsthand.

But, when he turned to her-the rest of her friends had already arrived.

“What do you need us to do, sugar cube?” Applejack asked, leading them.

“I-I need you to protect my brother-he’s the only one that can keep that shield up-and that shield is the only thing standing between Rainbow Dash and all of the other Changelings out here.”

“Until what?”

“I’m going to go in there and try to save Rainbow Dash, that is if the Queen hasn’t already…no.”

Twilight shook her head.

“I always knew that girl’s impulsiveness would her killed…usually I’m close enough to stop her from doing something as stupid as this when these things happen…” Applejack sighed.

“We have to try and stay positive-if we start thinking like that…then we’ve already lost.” Twilight replied, trying not to sound as shaken up as she felt.

“Well, forgive me for being a ‘Negative Nancy’ but, how in the world do you plan on getting out of there if the Queen is still conscious?” Rarity cut in.

Twilight paused, trying to collect her bearings as Rarity pressed her.

“And not to undersell your own talent, but all three of the princesses and now that other girl-who has shown to have considerable magical herself-have all fallen to her.”

“Actually, Luna and Cadance were overwhelmed by Changelings.” Twilight reminded her. “And she only overpowered Celestia because Cadance’s plan backfired and Sunset Shimmer hesitated at a vital moment. But, if we plan this carefully-we might be able to pull this off, besides did you see what she looked like before Rainbow attacked her and the shield went up? Her body is in very poor shape-even with as durable as it seems to be, it has to have its limits-and I’d say it has just about reached them.”

“And that’s all well and good, but what about the Changelings out here?” She pressed.

“Up until recently, it seems like the Queen is the only one they seemed to listen to-if she’s beaten or captured, then that’s probably what will secure our victory-since it’s become clear she won’t surrender.”

Twilight looked around at the skeptical looks they were giving her.

“Come on, when I have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing on her hind legs, waving her hoof in the air frantically. “When you said that the fate of Equestria didn’t depend on you making friends when you first came to Ponyville! Then, there was that time you thought Discordd was hiding the Elements in Celestia’s hedge maze! There was also that time you had a mental breakdown and brainwashed the entire town for a friendship report! And then there was that other time you gave yourself a mental breakdown by accidentally creating a time paradox! And then-“

As Pinkie continued down the list, Fluttershy slowly approached Twilight.

“Um, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget about Flash Sentry…Rainbow Dash asked him to look after me when the fighting started and he fought really hard to protect me.”

Twilight blinked as it took a moment for her to remember that he dove in between Sunset and the Queen earlier.

“Yeah, I’ll do my best.” She promised before turning back to face Shining Armor, who surprised her by pulling her into an embrace.

“Come back safe.”

His voice was unusually shaky, to the extent that it scared her-he was all too aware of the very real possibility that she might actually die here.

“I will,” She promised. “And I’ll bring Rainbow Dash and Flash back with me, too.”

As her friends took positions around Shining Armor to protect him from possible Changeling attacks, Twilight took one last look at them before disappearing in a flash light.

---

Chrysalis was dismayed to see the shield go up. Briefly, she had regained hope upon seeing her loyal subjects on the other side desperately trying to break it down for her. The second she saw them beginning to fight amongst themselves, however, was the moment she knew that she had made a mistake allowing any of the other females to live. Undoubtedly, one of them were trying to usurp her-they should have been culled off with the rest-there was no other explanation for their betrayal.

The difficulty she had moving and the painful breathing she was enduring made her feel almost certain that the Pegasus’ impact had broken most of her ribs. It was frustrating, yet at the same time almost comical, to think of how far they had come in this battle, only to fall to Pegasus filth. Normally, these circumstances on their own wouldn’t be too much of an issue to rectify-if only her assailant weren’t so tenacious and she had more time…

Rainbow Dash advance towards the Queen, despite the pain coursing through her body from the collision. The Changeling only looked more terrifying than before with her disfigurement, but she was filled with far too much rage to be intimidated. Her friends, her Dad, Shining Armor, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, and Equestria as a whole would all be gone if these freaks got their way. And it was partially her fault…

As she reached the Queen, whose body no longer seemed to be in good enough shape to move on its own very well-she looked down at the vile creature. All she could think about was all that pain and destruction they had caused-and would continue to perpetuate if they weren’t stopped right here, right now. She didn’t know if they would be able to stop the rest of the Changelings, but she knew that their best chance for that would be to take out the Queen.

Losing her balance, Dash stumbled to the point where she nearly had to crawl over the Queen’s body to get close enough to her face.

Chrysalis got a good look at the Pegasus for the first time and was genuinely surprised at the mare’s vibrant appearance in stark contrast to her behavior as Dash struck her across the face, her hoof colliding with the tender flesh of her recent burns, causing spittle to fly out of the side of her mouth. It genuinely surprised her that someone weakened by love was able to-like her-draw such strength from pure hatred. As she struck again, Chrysalis couldn’t comprehend how beings lesser than Alicorns and Unicorns could manage such strength-she had always pegged Equestrians as weak and cowardly due to their peaceful nature-yet, if anything their beloved leaders falling only seemed to strengthen their resolve.

Flash watched in disbelief, as his first real battle this entire thing had felt so surreal, but every time he thought things couldn’t get any weirder, each new development provided him wrong-not that he was particularly complaining in this case.

There was a flash of light when Twilight Sparkle materialized between him and his line of sight to the Queen.

“Rainbow Dash!?” She called out.

“Over there!” He pointed behind her.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what happened, all of a sudden she had stopped pummeling the Queen and now had her hooves pressed down against her throat. As much hate as she had for Discord back when he was loose, she never actually believed that she was capable of hating someone to the point of actually wanting to kill them before this. Even now, a part of her felt a strong sense of guilt for doing this, but what other choice did she have? The Princesses and the Elements were gone-if she didn’t stop the Queen, then who else could?

“Rainbow Dash!” A familiar voice called out

“Twilight?”

‘How did she manage to get in here?' Dash thought to herself. 'Oh right, she can teleport-duh.’

The Queen’s gagging died down as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, causing Dash to remove her hooves immediately as he heart skipped a beat. Twilight, who had been galloping towards her, skidded to a halt. The sense of rage and hatred Dash had vanished, only to be replaced by an ocean of dread and guilt overcoming her.

Was she a murderer, now?

“Twilight, I…is she…?”

Twilight placed a hoof on the Queen’s long neck, feeling around-searching for a pulse.

“Dead? No. I’m not an expert on Changeling anatomy, but it looks like she just lost consciousness-you should probably get off of her, too if you want to avoid causing further damage to her body.”

---

Shining Armor was beginning to grow anxious.

Fortunately, the Changeling hadn’t thought to attack him yet, or if they had-the other Changelings and members of the guard had intercepted them.

Once again there was a flash of light as Twilight rematerialized along with Rainbow Dash, Flash Sentry, Sunset Shimmer and the Queen.

“Twilight!” The girls exclaimed in unison as they began to crowd around her.

Shining Armor dropped his shield, causing the Changelings on top of it to fall before catching themselves as their wings began to buzz.

“Attention Changeling invaders!” He announced. “Your Queen has been defeated and is in our custody-at this point, nothing will be achieved through further bloodshed-surrender now and your lives will be spared.”

The Changelings seemed to comply as all of the fighting ceased.

“We also need some medical attention, over here!” Steel Vanguard announced to the medics, seeing Rainbow Dash pass out, now that those injured could now be treated without risk.

“We also need to round up these Changelings, so we can figure what that infighting was about and get the princesses treated as well-they’ll know how to deal with the fallout from all of this and what to do with them.”

Comments

[JediWaffles]

As she awaited the other four to converge on her position she observed something strange-some of the Changelings appeared to be attack each other.

attacking

‘How did she manageto get in here?'

add a space

Fortunately, the Changeling hadn’t thought to attack him yet,

changeling(s)

Also, I don't think changeling needs to be capitalized.

You're doing great though.

[Ianpiersonjdavis]

6562555 Thanks.

[harts fire]

hum this is a interesting chapter.