A Pony had sought out our clan in the badlands because we were the best at what we did was espionage act of all kinds. The pony wanted the best. That pony had talked too much so I didn't pay much attention during the meeting I slept through most of it actually. All that really mattered about the meeting to me was the mission and the reward. Those were the two things Mother our clan's matriarch review with the clan on anyways.
Our mission, we were to subdue the pony matriarch. Mother said she was called a princess not a matriarch. Princess Celestia Equestris and some list of long titles I didn’t care to remember. Subduing her that was the mission. The most interesting part was the reward. Land in equestria and bits lots of bits more than our clan had ever received for a mission more than the clan had made in my lifetime. Mother had been more interested in the first promise for lands I didn't really understand why. We had a home already. Our cave was very nice I believed.
I understood why when we all entered the pony lands called Equestria. It was so much nicer there than in the badlands. Plants were so commonly seen in Equestria but were rare in the badlands. There was water right on the surface ponds, lakes, and rivers. And there were so many animals that looked like easy prey. Not like the monster's of the badlands who tried to eat you if you failed to eat them. If we lived here there would be no need for missions not unless we wanted them.
Our matriarch came up with a strange plan to capture the pony princess. I did not understand why we would use this plan it seemed far simpler to just poison this Celestia’s food or hit her with a paralyzing arrow or dart like we would any other ruler.
But mother said these normal would plans fail. The pony leader was to powerful she said, that seems silly to me. Ponies were weak soft skittish creatures, not powerful ones. Some had wings and could fly but they were easy to catch in a web. Others had horns to use magic but all the ponies I had ever met with a horn had weak magic. Some ponies had neither horn or wings they were a bit stronger than other ponies but poisoned bite always stopped there kicking. And ponies always ran instead of fought to begin with.
The plan was for all members of our clan were to enter small pony town that seemed very large to me there must have been over a thousand ponies there how it could be considered small I could not conceive.All the clan members but me I was to wait with my bow father away on a hill to shoot Celestia when she appeared. I was to shoot her with an enchanted arrow a reward from a Centaur wizard I had worked for in the past. The arrow was immune to the effect of magic and was dipped in a poison mother had prepared for this mission especially
In the pony town my clan went to work capturing ponies. Webbing them up and paralyzing them. Then they got to work covering the town and area around it in more webbing from building to building, from building to tree so they could get around at speed and set up dart threads. But no webbing on the hill I was on. My position needed to stay unnoticeable. When the landscape was fully set up to mothers liking she released one of the ponies.
I didn’t understand this part of the plan I thought this pony would have sought out guards and soldiers not a princess but I wouldn’t question mother about it. Mother was the most powerful of our clan but in other places matriarchs ruled for reasons outside of power I had learned this well. In my many missions I had learned leaders were usually some of the smartest they were rarely the strongest in there clan. I thought ponies held nothing in common with us spiders but maybe they also respected power among there leaders?
Mother had been right about the plan working. The Pony matriarch Princess Celestia showed up as mother described she would, in a blinding flash of light. She did not look at all much like other ponies. She was bigger than all the ponies I had ever seen at least as big as me. Celestia's mane and tail also flowed and glowed like shimmering light rather than behaving like pony hair. Celestia also had wings and a horn than other ponies that was the strangest part ponies were supposed to have one or the other or none at all not both.
This Princess Celestia was shouting something at us all. I’m not sure what about I was to far away to hear clearly.
The clan started to fire as soon as she stopped shouting. All the projectiles they used bounced off some magic shield darts, arrows threads web net nothing would reach her. And Celestia had started to fire beams of magic and fire balls down on my family im return but she seemed a poor shot and hit nospider or rather my family was good at dodging and she could hit nospider.
I released my arrow and it went right through the shield and into the pony rulers … what was it ponies called those marks on there bodies? The talent mark maybe? Celestia’s was shaped like the star of day. Mother had told me it did not matter where I aimed so long as I hit Celestia. It would not kill Celestia even if it would another creature she said the pony ruler was immortal.
It looked like the mission would end then. Celestia’s eyes that had been glowing white with magic had stopped doing so. They were returning to a normal color. The magic shield around her dropped. Her wings slowed and she lost alttitude. And my family ceased firing projectles. Immortal or not she did not seem so powerful after all. My clan member began ensnaring the Pony with threads of webbing ready to pull her down to the ground.
But then her eyes and horn glowed blindingly with magic once more. Her mane and Tail the looked like some kind of light know looked like fire. The threads of web that should have held strong and weakened her magic turned to ash. And I saw in the sky a great light coming down from the Daystar.
And now I was burning. Our clan was burning, My cousins were all burning, my sisters were all burning, my brothers were all burning and my mother was incinerated. All my family all my friends, all of us were being cooked alive by sun fire in our own chitin.
I'm the farthest away maybe that's why i’m not yet dead, that's why I haven't been vaporized. I'm not within the fire just close by enough to be roasted. The brightness was quickly becoming overwhelming to look at as the light faded into darkness but there was still so much heat it didn't stop I just went blind I realized. This burning heat, This searing pain, is this death?