Armor for two

by LostUmbrella

Chapter 9

"You!" hissed the changeling queen while getting once again on her hooves "What are you doing here?"

"C-Chrysalis?" muttered Shining Armor looking up to his savior.

"Yes, Shiny dear. Now everything will be all right," she answered caressing him; her comfort lulled him to sleep.

A visibly angered Ashley launched a green blast towards her predecessor, but it ended smashing against a light blue wall, courtesy of the pink mare standing near her smallest sister-in-law.

"Thank you, Cadence. Please, keep them safe while I take care of her," said Chrysalis levitating her husband near the other two ponies and one dragon.
She then turned to face her successor, who was at the far end of the corridor, and said with a harsh tone: "Now, want to push your luck with me or retreat peacefully?"

"You pathetic excuse of a changeling, you think you are a treat to me?" asked Ashley unbelieving what she heard, her voice dripping poison.

"Face reality sister, we are on even ground about power, and the army wont intrude a battle between queens risking to anger the one who comes out victorious. Either you go back to the hive or you hope to be luckier than me."

The younger changeling exclaimed with a scorned look: "On even ground?! I think you're overestimating yourself! I am the strongest changeling alive, and I'll show you your place!"

After those words, she jumped at her opponent, ready to buck her on the neck.
Chrysalis didn't say a word but prepared herself for the fight.
Soon, jabs, hooks and even a pair of uppercut flew between the two changelings engaged in a very close combat; most of them missed their intended target, but many others reached chests, necks and even faces, leaving in some cases deep indents or cracks in their shells.

"And now the two contestants take a step back to study a new strategy," commented Spike in a piece of door shaped in the form of a microphone as the two separated breathing heavily.

"Spike, what are you doing?" asked a mildly confused Cadence.

"I'm giving a commentary on the boxe match, what else?" explained the dragon as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Uh, sure, what else..." muttered the alicorn shaking her head.

Meanwhile, the two queens had taken breath and started pacing in circle, studying their opponent.

"Why are you helping the same ponies that made your plan fail? What do you hope to achieve?" asked Ashley stopping at the far end of the circle from where said ponies and dragon stood.

Chrysalis looked behind her back and saw that all the audience's eyes were pointed on her, even Twilight's and her brother's, who had both regained consciousness. She looked at the pink mare, asking a silent question with her gaze; Cadence only nodded.

"Originally," said the green-maned changeling with a heavy sigh, her head hanging low and her eyes shut "I came here to solve a legal problem born during the attack on Canterlot. I asked Cadence's help, since said problem interested her too. I wasn't trying to obtain anything incredible, just to make that marriage invalid."

"Wait just a second, why did you want to nullify my brother's marriage with Cadence?" asked the lavender mare corking her head in confusion.

"Not with Cadence, Twilight Sparkle. Or should I say, sister-in-law?" explained Chrysalis with another sigh.

The reactions to that news were various: there was a light thud as Spike fainted, an unintelligible blabbering from the librarian, two almost identical stupefied expressions from Shining and Ashley, complete of blank stare and hanging mouth, and a badly suppressed chuckle from Cadence when she saw said reactions.

"You've already gained control of the empire?! Why didn't you say that earlier?! We could have simply entered with your permission!" exclaimed the current changeling queen after a couple of minutes.

"Well, technically speaking she has no powers, officially," mumbled the alicorn as if she was excusing her sister-in-law's actions.

"I wouldn't have let the changelings take over the empire!" shouted Chrysalis rising her head with pride.

The silence fell on the group, lasting for a good pair of minutes until Shining Armor found the heart to voice everypony thoughts: "You wouldn't?"

"In this place I found a pony that accepted me for who I am, that helped me setting things right and that loved me as a friend: I wont let you nor any other changeling ruin her life!" she exclaimed stomping her right forehoof.

"Then I suppose there is no way to make you change your mind, right?" asked Ashley as her horn was enchased in a green aura.

"I'm sorry, it's all father's fault," said the other changeling charging her horn as well.

"You stopped the attack outside, I guess."

"Yes, right before saving Shining Armor. Luckily us queens can recreate a severed mind link."

"That explains why nopony came to help me," sighed Ashley before saying "This will be the last attack, you better be prepared, sister."

The two emerald blasts met in the middle of the distance between their owners, and there they started to wrestle, like in an inverted game of tug of war.

"As I said, we are on even ground," said Chrysalis, her features strained for the effort.

Suddenly, Ashley's beam got bigger, pushing back her predecessor's.

"No, you are wrong: I can eat every emotion, not just love, and with them I can easily overpower you!" boasted the youngest queen while giving her everything in that attack.

Chrysalis fell on her knees under such magical pressure. As she tried desperately to find a way to out, hope slowly started to fade.
She shut her eyes trying to restrain tears. But when only a small, flickering flame remained in the dark sea of despair she had fallen into, she felt that unbearable pressure weaken.
She opened her eyes to see a pink horn next to hers, supporting her beam.

"I wont let my friend and sister-in-law down when she needs me the most!" said Cadence with a sweet smile.

Unfortunately, even with Cadence's love and help, they only managed to slow down the advance of Ashley's beam.
At that moment, something that the green-maned changeling didn't expect happened as a magenta beam intertwined with hers and the alicorn's: Shining Armor, seeing his wife (well, technically it should be wives, but it mattered little to him) in danger, stepped up and gave his own help.
That was enough to bring the situation to a stall once again.

"Nicely played, but your two friends wont last eternally Chrysalis!" said Ashley, knowing she was right.

"Twilight, would you please stop rambling about Cadence laying eggs and give us a hoof?" asked the stallion as beads of sweat started running down his brow too.

"Laying eggs? Eww! Why would you think something so gross?" commented the grey-maned queen with a disgusted face.

"Because we call our subject children. They seem to be fixated on this idea..." replied Chrysalis with a shrug.

Meanwhile Twilight, who had finally stopped babbling, didn't need a second call from her brother and rushed to help, adding her own magic to the multicolored beam.
Soon the situation turned in Ashley's disfavor, her ray being slowly pushed back.
It wasn't immediately perceivable, but Chrysalis could definitely feel her sister's beam losing power. Initially, she thought it was due to the help she was receiving, but, as the contact point between the two fluxes neared Ashley's horn, she realized that the truth was different.
There was a huge explosion of energy and bright light when the multicolored beam touched the black chitin of the shell of the youngest changeling queen, which forced the other four to shied their eyes with their hooves while a magenta barrier appeared in front of them.

The elder queen couldn't be sure, but she thought she heard a single raspy "goodbye" in the middle of the deafening cacophony caused by the blast.

The conflagration demolished the crystalline walls, ceiling and floor of the corridor near the origin point, leaving a huge spherical cavity in the palace.
As Shining shield was dropped, Chrysalis darted towards the hole, searching for anything that could give away any information about the other changeling destiny.
Cadence approached her and put a sympathetic hoof on her shoulder.

"I don't think she deserved to be pulverized," said the once again official queen of the changelings in a sad tone.

"Nopony deserves that," offered Twilight approaching the duo.

"She wasn't," said the stallion in a matter of fact tone.

Three pair of eyes darted from the hole, to him, and to where his extended hoof was pointing.
There, in the wall at the far end of corridor, could be seen a weird, pony-shaped hole.
Chrysalis didn't know what to say, nor knew the others, so they stared in silence, until a voice broke the moment:

"Twi, you'll never guess what crazy dream I had!" said Spike getting once again on his feet, oblivious at what had just happened.

Comments

[Deynarth]

I couldn't help but think about the typical team rocket departure from pokemon.

[LostUmbrella]

2192963

Exactly as I imagined the scene

[Burnasius]

Okay, the marriage issue is out, Chrysalis admits to like having the issue. Does this mean Shining keeps his wives?

[LostUmbrella]

2194848

My dear friend, you'll have to be patient about the future of our Chryssy

The next three chapters (at least) will be the epilogues, one for every story tread: Ashley, Sombra and Chryssy... Can you survive?

[Burnasius]

2196389

I don't care about Sombra, he's not that powerful of a villain. Ashley and Chryssy both have more worth to see.

[LostUmbrella]

2196589

So true, but it is just wrong to leave Sombra's and Bright Shine's story unconcluded, don't you agree?

[Burnasius]

2196675

I'm not the writer or author, so I have no complaints on how you work.

[LostUmbrella]

2196794

Well, that's nice
Anyway, I assure you that you'll soon know how our two changelings will fare

[Namara]

Okay, I'm goin to I've you some help here.
When indicating that here's more than one changeling, it's changelings. Same way with subjects. When describing a possessive, like saying Cadence has a banana, it's spelled Cadence's banana. Hope that clears things up! English is really, really tough.

[ShadowLDrago]

And now, back to what everyone has been waiting for, the Haunted Closet Saga.

[KvAT]

5297532
All hail non-violent Sombra

[Depressed_Tea]

"I'm giving a commentary on the boxe match, what else?" explained the dragon as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Now it's spike breaking the fourth wall.

[Razzy]

And the best bughorse wins!