It hurt, asking for help from these ... these ponies. But what else was I going to do? I'd already seen that I was no match for that buzzing bitch Genko had teamed up with. Even now that I knew she was there, even now that they weren't expecting me ... how could I fight her without my ki? Genko, I could handle, but there was nothing I could do against her powerful attacks.
Long moments passed before Fluttershy recovered from the near-faint she'd fallen into after she said the name 'Chrysalis', but finally she came back to us. “It is Queen Chrysalis, isn't it? Where is she?”
“Well, she was all black, had insect wings and a crooked horn... Oh, and her legs and arms were full of holes.” I paused, looking up at her. “Is that Chrysalis?”
Fluttershy gulped and nodded.
“Can you beat her?”
A long pause ... and then Fluttershy nodded. “With my friends together, we can handle anything.”
“You and your friends have beaten her before, haven't they?”
“Um, well ... ah... We faced her before, and she was defeated, I suppose.”
That didn't sound particularly encouraging ... but then again, the gentleman next to me was positively raging with strangely-tinged ki inside. Surely he could handle it. I turned my head toward him. “Can you—?”
“Oh no. No no no.” He waved his arms in front of himself. “I was only made free on the condition that I be completely good, and I'm not about to risk that.”
Fluttershy looked up at him with big doe eyes. “We could really use your help.”
He sighed. “Fluttershy, as much as I may like to, you know as well as I that some of your friends are still looking for any excuse to send me back to stone-sburg. And while Chrysalis might be as evil as they come, fighting her would still be a tad too morally ambiguous. I'm sitting this one out.” With that, he snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of light.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and shook her head. “I'm sure he means well. But he can be so difficult sometimes.”
Staring at the spot he'd been before he vanished, I squinted. I wasn't so sure about him meaning well. But maybe that was just a bit of mistrust left from my previous dealings with him ... or maybe it was because I could feel the pandemonium of twisted ki inside him. Still, I was fairly sure I would regret trusting that man ... and despite the overwhelming advantage he might have given our side, I wasn't upset to see him gone.
'Our side'... It was weird to be thinking in terms of 'we' and 'our' again, especially with these beings I hadn't known for particularly long ... at least one of whom had mind-raped me. And yet, I did trust them, or at least Fluttershy, and not just because I was completely out of other options. Okay, so being out of options probably play a big part in it, but I did feel like I could trust Fluttershy.
“First, I suppose we should get you cleaned up...” Fluttershy squatted down lower and made ready to pick me up off the floor.
I rose under my own power. “No... We need to hurry. Genko and Chrysalis probably still think I'm trapped in her cocoon. If they find out I'm gone, they'll know something is up. They might run and hide somewhere, or they might prepare a trap. But if we get to them before they know, we could have a huge advantage. Go! Go get your friends. I'll—” I coughed, hacking up another wad of green goo. “I'll get myself ready.”
Fluttershy's face scrunched up in concern, but she did let go of me. “You're sure?”
I nodded solemnly.
She was about to leave, but as she touched the doorknob, she paused and looked back at me. “Genko? Who is that? I'm sure Twilight will want to know before we set out.”
“He's a demon, from my world.” Grabbing hold of the couch, I forced myself up. “Don't worry. I can handle him if you can keep Chrysalis busy.”
“A... A demon?” Fluttershy blanched as she said the word.
I squeezed some of the slime out of my hair and flung it onto the floor. “I can handle him. Go!”
She nodded and darted out. As the door gently swung shut behind her, I worked on cleaning off my armor, hoping what I said about being able to handle him had been true. Genko and Chrysalis still had my sword – they had all my weapons. The thought of Genko's filthy mitts on my sword made me shudder, but I forced myself to snap out of it. My best chance was a lightning-fast raid with Fluttershy and her friends. Hopefully the element of surprise would give me enough time to grab my sword from wherever he'd put it.
* * *
By the time Fluttershy returned, I'd managed to get more or less cleaned up. I hadn't showered as I'd desperately wanted to – I hadn't even disrobed to wipe myself down thoroughly. I couldn't risk delaying things if they all showed up while I was still in the middle of it. But I had managed to wipe myself down well enough to be suitable, and I'd managed to clear the last of that green slime out of my lungs with a quick session of jogging in place ... that had ended in hacking coughs and a new puddle on the floor. But I was as ready as I was going to get when the door burst back open.
Twilight was the first inside, and I fought to restrain myself from cringing. I needed these ponies to be my allies; I couldn't let my distaste and mistrust show.
“Where is she?” Twilight demanded. “Where is Chrysalis?”
I was already heading for the door. “Come on, I'll lead you straight to Chrysalis and Genko.”
Twilight's ki flung me back onto Fluttershy's couch. “No. Tell me where she is. Fluttershy told me about this Genko. If you're bringing demons to our world, I'm not sure I can trust you. It's better if you just let us handle this.”
“Hey!” I fought my way back up, and to my surprise, her ki allowed me to. “I didn't bring him here – he brought me here! And yes, maybe you could handle him on your own, but you shouldn't have to. He's my problem, and I'll deal with him. You just keep Chrysalis off my back while I do it.”
Twilight paused and thought for a moment as the rest of her friends peeked in through the open doorway. She glanced back at Fluttershy. “Can we trust her?”
So... everything would hinge on what Fluttershy thought of me. After far too long a delay, Fluttershy finally answered. “Um, well, I guess maybe we could trust her?”
It wasn't exactly an enthusiastic assertion, but Fluttershy's friends seemed to think it was enough. Twilight summoned me through the door with a wave of her hand, and we set off toward Ponyville.
As I led the six of them onward, I tried to explain the situation as well as I could, including a brief description of my world, demons in general, and Genko in particular. I wasn't sure how much of it they believed or even understood, but that didn't matter. I just had to do the best I could to prepare them for what they would see when we found those fiends.
* * *
Without wasting any time, I led them to the room directly below the Town Hall's highest attic. They knew to be as silent as possible, but their hooves made what seemed like a deafening racket on the wooden floor. Masters of stealth they weren't, but at least none of them was foolish enough to talk, not even the pink one.
The triangular hole in the ceiling was still there, though it had been hastily covered with loose boards. We all stared at it solemnly for a moment.
But only a moment. We'd wasted enough time already. I pointed up at the hole, then counted down on my fingers: three... two... one...
With one mighty athletic leap, I jumped all the way up through those boards, batting them aside as I surged up through the floor and landed on my knees. Immediately, I dodged to the side and grabbed for the corner of the room where I'd last seen my sword. It wasn't there!
But neither was Genko ... or Chrysalis. I frantically searched the tiny room as Fluttershy and her friends heaved themselves up with varying degrees of grace ... but I couldn't find Genko and his bitch anywhere. The deflated cocoon was still here, but there was no other trace of them.
Once we were all up, Fluttershy's friends looked at me, their eyes full of suspicion and doubt.
I shrugged. “Genko and Chrysalis were here! I swear they—”
They surged up through the floor in balls of green fire. Chrysalis hissed and flung green glue from her fingertips, Genko ran at me with his teeth bared ... and swinging my sword!
The tiny room exploded into chaos. It was far too much for me to keep track of. I had my hands full just trying to dodge stray wads of glue from Chrysalis and sweeping cuts from Genko wielding my own sword. How dare that fat bastard lay hands on my sword! How dare he wield it? If I had my ki powers, I could have ended this fight in a second, made the blade turn on him. ...But I didn't have my powers.
And I was out of options. Even though I was much more agile than him, the room was tiny and filled with patches of sticky glue. I was running out of room to run, and I still had no weapon. Genko might be slow, but he wasn't so slow that I was willing to get inside the reach of his – my! – sword to try and grab it from him. Already, one close call had cost me the tip of my tail.
What little I could see of my allies wasn't any more encouraging. A couple of them were already stuck to the floor, and the rainbow-haired one was stuck to the ceiling. Twilight was locked in a stalemated battle of ki-beams with Chrysalis while the orange pony clung to Chrysalis' back, apparently trying to wrestle her ... but only managing to slow her down a little. At least that did slow her down enough to give me and Fluttershy a decent chance of dodging her slime attacks, but it couldn't last.
And it didn't. I lunged to the floor, desperately avoiding both a slice from Genko and a flurry of slime from Chrysalis. I dodged both, but only at the cost of laying myself flat out on the floor. The slime that had been meant for me went on to tack Fluttershy's wings to the wall. I rolled to the side just in time to avoid the point of my own sword being driven down into me; it cut into the floor instead. I was up and running in an instant. I had to take out Chrysalis, then my friends could help me with Genko and—
I dropped to the floor, screaming.
Genko had jabbed my sword into the inferno where Chrysalis and Twilight's ki-beams met. Alien and incompatible ki surged through it – and surged through me as well. It was agonizing. All I could do was fall to the floor and writhe in pain.
In the distraction, Chrysalis grabbed the orange one off her own back and flung her across the room. Twilight was forced to break off her attack. She managed not to blast her friend, and even to catch her ... before they were both smeared with a wall of slime and pinned in place.
Twilight didn't need to move to attack though. She yelled something about rainbow power to her friends, then blasted out a beam of ki at Chrysalis, and again they met in a deadlock of equal power.
This time, though, Genko was free and unencumbered. He laughed a big, deep laugh that made his gut jiggle up and down. “Can't kill her that way, huh, bug bitch? I'll show you how!” Two big steps took him within range, and he raised my sword high above Twilight's head.
But I'd recovered enough to be useful again. Scampering over to him without even bothering to get off the ground, I latched on to his blubbery leg and sank my teeth in deep. His flesh tasted horrid, but oh how he howled!
Genko moved to swing the sword at me, but he slowed and stared around himself, dumbfounded, as a strand of rainbow light began to connect Fluttershy and her friends. He shook it off after just a moment, then took the time to kick at me with his free leg.
But that wasted time was more than he had left.
The glowing rainbows curled around him and Chrysalis, freezing them in place just before he could bring my sword down on Twilight's head, just before Chrysalis could duck out through the hole in the floor. The beams spun faster and faster, glowing brighter with every rotation. With horror, I saw them begin to circle me as well. I took one last look at Fluttershy and her friends... Even though they were pulsing with the very same power that seemed like it was about to devour me, a strange feeling came over me. I would ... miss them, especially Fluttershy. It hurt to think of losing them, the last friends I had.
It all ended in one blinding flash.
* * *
“Commander! Commander, wake up!”
I opened my eyes with a slow groan, to see Captain Filoktes leaning over me, along with a few of his men. It took me a few blinks before I could see them as more than just a blur ... and a lot more blinks before I believed I was seeing them. I sat up.
We were in Genko's tower ... probably on the floor below the one I'd fought him in, which was now open to the sky above. Genko stood next to me, my sword still raised in his bulky fists, but he was all gray. He was... He'd been turned to stone! I stared and panted for breath.
“Commander, Genko's forces have been routed, save for a few holdouts in the dungeons. Your orders?”
How...? The whole time I'd been gone must have been no more than a few minutes here. How was that even possible? I mentally shoved that aside; no use worrying about it right now.
This time, when I called upon my healing ki, it flowed readily. My strength returned in mere moments, allowing me to stand again, though I did wobble a little. “Stand down and guard the entrance to the dungeons. They'll probably use hostages, so we'll need to use ki to take out their captors without harming the prisoners.” I smashed my hand into Genko's fists, lacing the blow with ki that let me punch right through the stone, shattering his hands away and grabbing my sword back from him. Finally, finally, I held it in my hands again, able to feel the flow of ki through it. I felt invincible with the sudden rush of power. “Break this fucking statue into pieces and grind the pieces into dust. I'm going down to the dungeon to rescue the prisoners.”
Filoktes stared at the petrified Genko. “H-how did you do that, anyway? I've never seen any ki attack like that before.”
I smiled a toothy grin. It never hurt to be a little mysterious to one's subordinates. “It wasn't me. I had help.”