Chain of Dreams

by Hippocrene Artifex

Chapter 6: Arbellason

Far to the southeast, another attack was in action; one that swept over the mountain city of Canterlot and filled its lovely blue skies with swarms of black. It was nothing less than a state of full panic in the city as ponies were being picked off from every corner. When the attack commenced, as sudden as it was, alarm broke out all over the city that gave way to several defensive fronts to be held and organized by civilians and guard ponies alike. Yet, one by one, they all fell against the might and numbers of the Changeling legions that were bent upon havoc and destruction. The last of these defensive lines was where Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns was situated.

Comprising mainly of young students, the changelings had underestimated their magical prowess. The attacking units that were sent to that school, although not small in number, were quite useless against the quickly organized defense the young unicorns mustered. One of these students, a particularly hard-voiced colt, kept shouting, “Don’t you dare wane! Evacuate the younger foals and prepare for...”

But whatever the colt wanted to prepare for simply evaporated from his train of thought as a tenfold-greater swarm covered the rising noon sun. At that sight, his eyes grew wide for mere moments with shock but such a scene, though despairing to no limit, did not take hold upon his heart for long for it was then that he raised his head high and galloped forward while shouting to those he left behind, “Retreat! Let none be caught!”

As his horn started to glow, a soft evergreen hue, another horn started to glow right next to him, and the colt, refusing to take his eyes off the changelings not far ahead of him, snarled, “Go back, Lilac! This is no place for petty rivalries.”

But the grey-coated and lilac-maned mare that ran next to him shouted back, with a hard tearing gaze to her eyes, “No! I won’t let you go alone, Arbellason. We do this together or we go back with the other students!”

Arbellason picked up speed, and his horn glowed brighter. The fact that he did not bother to answer back did not much bother Lilac; he always had that dark look to his eyes, and this brooding silence was his defining characteristic. Though they both were hot-headed rivals in magic school, Lilac had more on her plate to be concerned for, and her first concern was the colt who was charging head-on with a shining horn into the swarm. She knew him well enough to realize that he was fool enough to decide to attack an entire legion of changelings on his own but she was not about to let that happen. Her horn started to glow warm purple and both mare and colt vanished right before the moment when the changelings were about to sweep them both away.

An instant later, they appeared away from the scene of confrontation and into hiding in a narrow alley. Arbellason was quite dizzy but, when he gained his bearings, he yelled at her, “What have you done? Don’t you ever get in my way again!”

Lilac, who had by now reached her breaking point, screamed at him, “Idiot! You can’t attack them on your own. We need to find the Princesses. They’re the only ones who can banish the changelings from all of Equestria.”

“Can they?” Arbellason snorted mockingly from his nostrils, “Open your eyes, Lilac! The changelings are all over the city and our school is in the far end; had they been defeated, they would not have reached us. No, we are on our own, and it’s most likely that the Princesses fled and left us to fend for ourselves!”

At his faithless words, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes; she could not begin to believe in any word he uttered but the fall of the city all around her gave her nothing to argue him with. Her pride in the royalty of her own country, however, gave her a small ounce of stubbornness to confront him with, “I can't believe that! You don’t know the princesses and how they care for their subjects; they would never leave us! I am going to the castle and see for myself how they will banish the changeling forces. You are welcome to join me when you stop acting pathetic.”

With these decisive words, she turned her flank to him and walked to the end of the alley, right behind a large, ornamental potted-shrub that was, amazingly, still intact. To her horror, she saw ponies chained and being led by wickedly-smiling changelings through the streets to places unknown. The presence of Arbellason, whom she knew was now standing behind her, gave her some comfort despite his silence. When the street cleared a bit, she turned her head to look at him and he nodded. Both mare and colt crossed hooves, her horn glowed, and both vanished to reappear not far from the Royal Castle, safe in the cover of shadows. There, signs of a great battle were strewn all over. All that was left of the guards that never before left their posts was crushed under changelings of huge muscular structure that now took their places.

At that moment, most of Lilac’s hope at any chance of reaching the Princesses, and seeing to the freedom of the city she had come to love, was shorn away. Then a greenish glow caught her attention.

Turning her head back in curiosity, she saw Arbellason, who had retreated deep within the shadows, gazing at his own hooves with something akin to deep sadness upon his usually hard eyes. That look, however, lasted only a mere moment more for he then closed them and turned his head in a wide circular motion. From his horn, dark and slimy shower erupted into the air to fall slowly back on him like a cloud of dust. As the dark matter touched his coat, his form slowly started to change: his eyes and pupils expanded and turned from hazel to poisonous blue, his sun-kissed bronze coat gained a darker hue that slowly changed into the lead changeling-black and his unkempt, raven-black mane and tail shortened and became untamed spikes of the same color of his coat. The last touches were when filmy layers sprouted from his back and arranged themselves into false wings, see-through holes appeared in his hooves and two fangs grew down and past his once firm chin. With all finished, Changeling-Arbellason fell to the ground. He was panting so hard as if he had been running a great distance and Lilac, approaching him, her eyes wide with increased wonder, asked, “Why’d you do that? We could’ve found another way...”

A wheezing voice, so unlike the steely tone of Arbellason’s, answered, “You want to see your princessesssss? The battlements are well watched and guarded, and thissss is the only way we can go in.” He then forced himself to his hooves and spoke with shaking knees, “You will go inside as my prisssssoner; thissss will give us enough time to find our path to the Royal Hall but I cannot hold the ssspell for long.”

At his words, Lilac nodded and spun her head once. From the glowing tip of her horn, a stretch of rope streamed that tied itself around her neck and then through one of the holes in Arbellason’s changeling-forehoof, just the way she saw them tied around the changelings’. Being an adventurer with a carefree nature, Lilac so hated to be restrained in any manner, and being tied to Arbellason, her absolute rival, made it all the worse. But, after taking one last look at him, she swallowed her pride and moved out of the alley. She could imagine what pains he must have taken, both physically and emotionally, to change his shape; he, after all, never cared much for that which did not concern him, but his act, though quite chilling, showed something not unlike the care of her brother, whom she never stopped worrying about since the start of the invasion. Indeed, her mind kept wandering back to the small note she quickly scribbled and entrusted to her childhood companion, who had furiously tried to remain with her, to take to her twin, but what she placed in it seemed now too brief and insignificant in comparison to the ache and worry she felt at this dreadful time.

Once in the street, though, Lilac chided herself and adopted the sad feelings and demeanor portrayed by the rest of the captives to hide the myriad of emotions that swirled within her. She walked slowly up to the main gates but the changelings there did not stop her movement. It seemed odd to both colt and mare that they were not inspected, but whether it was because of Arbellason’s new shape or that the changelings were too drunk on their victory of occupying the city, they could not guess, nor bothered to spend precious time pondering at.

Inside the castle, it was much different than it had been when they had last visited. All residents of Canterlot had the allowance to walk through the main halls of the royal castle when their needs required the personal attention of the Royal Princesses, but being granted admission into Princess Celestia’s personal school of magic meant that the gifted ponies had access to these halls at any time they liked. Now, as they walked through the corridors, it was different than it had been outside. There was a stillness that engulfed the very air; no signs of battle that must have raged were evident anywhere, and the place appeared as tidy and clean as ever, but what it lacked was the bustling life of messenger ponies and ministers at work as they ran the affairs of Equestria. Indeed, the silence seemed much more frightening than the yells and shouts of the small skirmishes that occurred around the city.

Confused and worried, Lilac turned to look at her false captor and whispered, “Let’s go to the Royal Chambers, we might find Princess Celestia there... I don’t like this at all.”

Lilac waited only a moment for confirmation from Arbellason and so took a direction that would lead her to the royal chambers of Princess Celestia. She had never been inside it before but she knew her path to it well enough, and, a few minutes later, found herself standing right before the arched doors.

As both stood uncertainly before the doors, muffled voices reached their ears and they strained to hear more. The voices were hard to discern but they seemed to carry the tones of an argument that subsided to one voice after a moment. At their mutual nod, Lilac and Arbellason pushed the double doors gently open to a crack and, to their shock, found none other than a tall, slender black figure with a twisted horn. It was only too easy to realize who the changeling, that had her back to them, was for her figure was more than detailed and described in their course in ‘Equestria; A Modern History’: Queen Chrysalis.

As the nausea that almost engulfed her subsided, the words of the Queen reached and registered in Lilac’s ears, “... and you will continue with your duties in raising the sun upon my new Changeling Empire or else your precious Equestria will slip into a dark and moonless wasteland!” There was a sneering laugh that made goosebumps creep all over Lilac’s coat as Queen Chrysalis continued, “Of course, you know your power would affect us Changelings... but not as strongly as it would your precious, little ponies, and I think you’d rather not risk that, Princess.”

Lilac followed the direction Queen Chrysalis was looking at and finally saw her; Princess Celestia. The Princess stood as proudly as she could against the tyrannical invader but her tears betrayed her hard and narrowed eyes... tears that portrayed everything that threatened Lilac’s being since the start of the invasion: defeat, despair and submission. Something snapped within her, then, and she fell on her hooves in despair, pushing the double doors open with her fall.

Both Princess and Queen turned to look down at her where she had fallen and started to cry silently but the solar princess and changeling queen, looked up when a voice spoke; a voice that no longer wheezed, “I almost embraced the faith that there is hope for us still, Princess Celestia! I was ready to see Lilac’s conviction to the end!”

Arbellason’s form slowly started to change, starting from his hooves and slowly up, as he continued, “A leader cannot choose to submit; only resist to the bitter end.” The hissing stutter he had adopted in his disguise ebbed away, his words carried on his own voice. “A leader cannot suffer the shame of defeat and you, my Princess, are not one!”

With the last of his words, his true form was revealed; it was not that he could not hold the spell any more but that he no longer saw a need for it. Indeed, his eyes appeared in their true shape with the three last words he spoke: hazel, cold, and cruel but with a fierce gaze shining within them that made Princess Celestia turn her head aside in shame.

It was Queen Chrysalis, however, that broke the silence when she addressed the colt before her with a dark sneer, “Hmm. If your shape remained unchanged, colt, I wouldn’t have recognized you as one of my changelings; cold-hearted as you are. What’s your name?”

“I have been called by many names and the knowledge of my true name is hardly of any importance to you, Changeling!”

At his words, Queen Chrysalis nearly broke out in maniacal laughter and spoke softly, a tone of voice much more frightening than any yell or scream, “Well well well. Such a fine specimen, you are, and a loyal subject to your own kind, no doubt. Such a shame that you could not be one of my own.”

For a few moments, she gazed at Arbellason, who stood proud, then to Lilac, who silently wept on the floor, and spoke to her first, “It seems your companion here does not share your sympathies,” and raising her head back to look Arbellason in the eyes, “Still, you two will make excellent sources of food for my children. Guards!”

At her call, Princess Celestia whipped her rainbow-maned head around and started forward but a venomous glare from Queen Chrysalis stopped her mid-step. Her lavender eyes reflected a horror only she knew of and plea came from her, “Please. No!” The Queen, however, shook her head with a chuckle and, at once, three bulky changeling guards landed between Queen Chrysalis and the two ponies. Lilac was simply lifted into the air by the glowing, and twisted, horn of the Queen and was thrown sideways to clear the path between the three menacing changeling guards and the colt whose look of pure defiance mixed with apprehension shone clearly in his eyes.

The magic tutorage of advanced curriculums touched upon the most complex of magic and spell matrices. It could not be denied, however, that the school environment of practical application was perhaps much too monitored and sheltered to maintain the safety of its students. This, of course, meant that Arbellason stood no chance at all as the three formidable-looking elite guards combined the glow of their twisted horns and sent a malignant, spear-like shot at the standing colt. Both Lilac and Princess Celestia surrendered to despair when the magic burst exploded upon impact. As the smoke rose at the door, Chrysalis snickered, “Oh well, it seems that he was worthless, after all...”

But the Queen hesitated.

A glimpse of something she did not expect glowed faintly before her and it were only moments later that the smoke cleared to reveal a sweaty-browed Arbellason with a sphere of dark evergreen matter surrounding him in a lattice of crisscrossing rays of opaque glow. It was for the first time, since the start of her well-planned invasion, that Chrysalis was intrigued. Impressive displays of magic were not new to her; after all, she had experienced the full and humiliating impact of one when the combined love of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence banished her and her troops from Equestria seven years ago. With a silent nod from her to the leader of her elite guard, the attack was renewed. Burst after burst of terrible poisonous green that was the evil magic of the changelings, were sent at Arbellason. Had the protective shield he cast been a mere protective charm, it might not have withstood such blasts had he not attached its source to his own strength and stamina.

That strength and stamina, however, was not that of an Earth Pony and even that has its limit as every blast that met the barrier took its toll on him. It was a sight to behold, at first, when the colt stood his ground against the blows, almost inspiring hope within Lilac but that did not last many moments as his knees started to shake again and his hind legs buckled to the ground. At that moment the shield flickered and an end was a certainty, a neighing screech issued, then, from within him.

Arbellason was enraged beyond any logical thought at the prospect of defeat. The tip of his horn glowed brightly at first, then started to cast bright green rays. A step forward was all that he took when a warm-purple, and thin, layer stopped his path and replaced the protective shield that had all but crumpled. His mad eyes searched all around for its source but, when his mind finally caught up with him, he looked down into the tear-ruined eyes of Lilac. It was she that ran before him when he screamed his mindless rage and conjured the deflective shield to prevent him from mindlessly attacking a queen of unparalleled magic. Both mare and colt looked at each other through the purple shield but while he stood there, stunned at what he suspected was her intention, her lips formed the word her tongue could not utter, “Go!”

Arbellason stood rooted to the floor there for a few moments more as he gazed at her numbly but that made her scream at him, “Go! Run, Arbellason! Leave this place, save yourself before all is lost!”

With her yells resonating through his ears, he turned his back to her and galloped out. A short scream and a following gallop told him that Lilac could not hold off the guards and that he was being closely pursued by them. Surrounded by the changelings in their own territory, he was greatly at a disadvantage and so he ran fast and hard through the corridors, out to the castle’s courtyard, and into the streets. The guards that stood at the entrance gaped when a bronze blur passed them by. The shout of their leader, who was still on Arbellason’s tail, moved them into pursuit of the runaway. Ruined houses and shops sped by and several blockades came across his path to the city’s gates. Several times, he tried to use his magic to teleport himself elsewhere but a dizzying sensation ruined his senses whenever his horn started to glow, engulfing his mind and telling him that he had not the energy nor the stamina to do so. In the end, he found himself at the edge of the city; a balcony overlooking the forest at the base of the mountain.

It was a lovely place he knew so well from his solitary walks around the city, where many a romantic relationship bloomed but the balustrade on the edge was broken in several places and barely standing. The white marble had blackened marks at the broken edges and floor tiles; evidence of evil blasts of magic. Arbellason was panting hard when he reached the balcony but the tell-tale buzzing sound told him that he was no longer alone. Dread crept inside the jumble of his thoughts and hopelessness, for the first time, threatened him.

A flash went through Arbellason’s mind; a flash of defiance and blazing anger that cleared his mind enough for him to remember to breathe. On that balcony, Arbellason closed his eyes and took a deep breath. An untamed gust of wind played at his unruly mane and felt to him as if to clear away the fogginess that engulfed his mind but his reverie was not allowed to last when the changeling leader yelled at the assembled changelings, five including himself, to attack.

At once, Arbellason’s eyes opened and his glowing horn carried him a mere inch above the ground and instantly moved him sideways. Five shots of the wicked changeling magic crisscrossed just where he was standing but the changeling bullies, who were so engrossed in their own mean aura, gulped and took a step back when Arbellason turned his head to them to reveal blazing eyes. It was in that one moment, when they gaped at him in their fear, that his horn quickly glowed then brightly shone and a turbulent gust of wind swept the five of them and swatted them hard against a wall and, one by one, they fell to the floor unconscious.

Arbellason, never pushed beyond his limits before, allowed himself to close his eyes and rest his senses. He felt on the verge of losing himself when a buzzing sound invaded his ears once again and, opening his eyes slowly, he saw none other than the Changeling Queen with an entire regiment behind her landing on the floor not far from where her elite guard and their leader lay out-cold. They all had the same menacing looks on their eyes as they cornered the exhausted Arbellason. Queen Chrysalis, after gazing with slight wonder at her unconscious guards, adopted what she thought was a motherly tone to her rather callous voice and spoke, “My, my, my. You’re quite the specimen of latent magic... Arbellason, was it? Why don’t I make you an offer that’s simply too good to resist.” The silky tone felt as enticing as a glass water in the middle of a scorching desert. “Surrender of your own free will, join my elite guard and I will personally make sure that you are made amiably comfortable.” There was a small pause and, as they gazed at each other, Queen Chrysalis’s cat-like eyes curved themselves into lustrous and bewitching bright jewels as she continued, her horn faintly starting to glow, “Though if you choose to refuse... well, I’d be rather heartbroken to say the least...”

At the innuendo, something shifted within Arbellason as he gazed at the entrancing green eyes. A certain feeling started to invade him; one he thought that he buried long ago. His breath became shallow and horror invaded him as he gazed into the glowing green slits of Queen Chrysalis. He was certain that she was trying to entrance him with her alluring words as her offer to him all of a sudden started to appeal to him. Truth be told, was it really such a bad thing to become a Queen’s personal guard? Was it really so horrible to... become one with her?

“Set yourself free...”

These words crossed his mind and lingered for a sliver of a moment. He could not begin to understand what they meant nor remember who said them to him in the first place.

“Set yourself free. Vanquish your own demons, brother.”

The same words whispered through his thoughts again but, this time, they were accompanied by the mental image of a gently-smiling face with milky, white eyes... those of a blind sister he said goodbye to before he left for Equestria. A tear escaped his eye when he tried so hard to hold that memory yet it was not meant to last as, with a tremendous shock, he returned to his own mind to realize that he had taken a step towards the Queen in acceptance.

His breathing quickened then eased a bit whilst his heart, which almost numbed at her bewitching words, twitched painfully within his chest. Cold numbness, that was nothing less than bliss to him, invaded his being once again yet, as he raised his eyes to those of Chrysalis’, hers were fuming with rage. She knew, as she looked at the deep hazels, that her subtle spell was broken by a fiercer love that protected this colt from her charm but, as a the Queen who brought forth the end of Equestria, the rejection was far more than she can handle and so she reared on her hind legs and struck the ground hard where she came down on her front hooves.

At once, green fires erupted from her hooves in two directions that encircled the balcony upon which he stood. Arbellason was only allowed a moment of confusion when the green fires started to move across the edges of the white marble tiles of the floor and in his direction. His fears were ascertained when Queen Chrysalis spoke in a harsh and thunderous voice, “It was foalish of you to reject my offer, you little whelp! I would have made sure you did not suffer but now, it seems that your folly will be your own demise! Though don’t worry; the one who has their faith in you will only suffer a small portion of your humiliation once we are through here!”

But what the mercilessly-laughing queen did not realize that she had touched upon the one sensitive issue that would enrage his heart. The fear she saw reflected in his eyes was so instantly forgotten and replaced by a fiercer one for the idea of Andromeda, his young sister, falling into the evil schemes of Queen Chrysalis enraged him beyond rational thought. At once, Chrysalis’s laugh ended abruptly as the balcony started to shake with the glowing horn of Arbellason but his inflamed eyes opened wide in horror when he remembered the standard Form-Keeping Charm placed upon the city.

It was not long ago that he studied this particular matter in the class ‘Modern History’ when Princess Celestia placed one powerful spell above the city to keep its elegance and form intact and protected against the decay that befall cities with the passage of years. Of course, evil magic can be twisted to defy this spell and leave a nasty and blackened trace of destruction, which was what Arbellason so carelessly neglected to structure, in his burst of rage, when he intended to make the floor explode below the Queen’s hooves and send her back where she came from.

The spell, so innocently cast by Princess Celestia many years ago, served to work as a protective shield for the city when the very floor below him violently shook and then exploded. Arbellason felt as if his very breath was knocked out of him as he was forcefully thrown backwards with chunks of marble flying all around him, into him and over the balustrade. With his heart beating fast and his thoughts in a race, it felt to him nothing less than a slow-moving dream when he lost the feel of the ground below his hooves and his body started to fall from the high mountain of Canterlot. It dawned upon him, then, that he truly was defeated; that there was no longer the hope for defiance against those who defiled the one home he had had since he left the sand mounds of Saddle Arabia to the green fields of Equestria.

As the forest sped in his direction, a simple thought passed through his fading mind that he still must survive; a thought that made a life’s difference to him, perhaps, when a small sphere formed around his falling body, which was all the strength he had left, before he was claimed by the oblivion.

Comments

[SpitFlame]

awesome story. keep it up