“Who are you?” Chrysalis demanded angrily, as her focus shifted from Big Mac to the draconequus.
“Don’t you remember, your majesty?” Twilight replied, a tincture of humor replacing some of the fury in her voice. “Oh, I’m so disappointed. Especially after all the things we did together, all the time I spent learning your most intimate of secrets.” She shook her head in disappointment at the changeling queen. “And now here you are, making demands like some foal who thinks they’re entitled to know anything.”
A blast of magic struck the draconequus full in the face. “You DARE mock me?” screamed Chrysalis. “You know not who you are dealing with... but I shall gladly enlighten you!” The spell faded and the changeling queen stared, unbelieving, at her opponent. Twilight hadn’t even blinked. She put one taloned hand up to her mouth and yawned in mock boredom.
“Really now? Is that your pathetic response? You’re going to throw a tantrum? You really are a foal.” There was the sound of someone snapping their fingers as the tuft on the draconequus’ tail twitched. It was accompanied by a flash of light. Chrysalis vanished, only to be replaced by a much younger version of herself.
“And just like any naughty foal, there are times one must really put their foot down...” A massive boot suddenly appeared in the air over the newly formed changeling princess. “Good bye bug,” Twilight sneered. The boot hovered there for an instant, then came down with enough force to crush her. Chrysalis curled up like a terrified foal, not wanting to see the deathblow as it struck. It never connected. Instead the boot was stopped by a half-domed shield that shattered the magical construct to pieces.
“Who dares?” hissed the draconequus.
“Ah do!”
She focused once more on the red-furred alicorn and laughed. “This is too precious. I mean, isn’t the queen of holes your enemy? Now, you defend her life against me? And they say I’m fickle.”
“Eeeyup.”
The draconequus slithered over to Big Mac and placed a finger on the end of his muzzle. It was all he could do to not flinch.
“You would stand against me, and defend a world you aren’t even a part of?
“Ah haf ta.”
“Why?”
“Cause it’s the right thing ta do.”
The Twilight chimera giggled. “Oh, that is so noble sounding of you, even with the countrified twang you give it. I’m betting on your own world you’re some kind of brave and bold knight.” She blinked her eyes coquettishly at him, then physically pushed him back about a dozen feet with hardly any effort at all. “You realize that your alicorn powers are no match for the power of chaos, don’t you?”
“Nnnope! Don’t know nothin’ o’ the kind.”
The draconequus pouted. “And here I was thinking you had some brains in that thick, bumpkin head of yours.” Her voice suddenly became more intense. “Why I even believe you’ve forgotten all about my associate.”
Even before she finished speaking Big Mac had abruptly tucked and rolled to the left, avoiding the black crystal spikes that suddenly erupted from the floor. Glancing out of the corner of his eye the farmer could see the figure of King Sombra standing in the arched doorway behind him. He smiled crookedly.
“Nnnope.” There was a flash of light as two large hands appeared, hovering over Sombra. Before the unicorn could react he had been picked up by one hand as the other deftly reached down and removed something invisible from his horn. A bright light enveloped the witch king as he turned into the tall, scrawny form of Flam. “Didn’t forget ‘bout him, just didn’t pay him any mind ‘til Ah had ta.”
“Brother?” the yellow unicorn asked in confusion, looking around the room.
“Ah’d look fer him outside if I was you, where it’s safe,” Big Mac commanded, pushing the snake-oil sales pony out the door. One hand vanished even as the other crushed the black bone ring it had removed from Flam’s horn. There was a cloud of black smoke and a scream of anger as the ring ceased to exist. Flam took one look at the draconequus and ran as fast as his hooves could carry him.
Twilight sighed. “I suppose this is something I’m going to have to take care of myself. Good help has been so hard to find since I lost my number one assistant.” She looked over at the other five ponies as they helped Trixie to her hooves. The draconequus suddenly brightened.
“OH! There you ARE!” There was the sound of snapping fingers and Spike appeared next to her. She used her magic to pick the young dragon up by his tail. “My! How you’ve grown. It really has been too long since I last saw you.” She reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into a hug that easily could have been mistaken with that of a python. The teen drake’s eyes bugged out slightly.
“HEY, YOU BIG BULLY... LEAVE HIM ALONE!” yelled Rainbow Dash. She started to throw herself at Twilight but was brought up short when Babs clamped her teeth on her tail.
“Easy there darling,” cautioned Rarity with a whisper. “We need to stay together and let Prince Macintosh lead the way.”
“If there’s any bit o’ Twilight still in ya, y’all might want ta ease up on Spike so’s he can get a breath,” Big Mac warned.
“Oh... I suppose so. I really don’t want to break him... yet,” the draconequus replied. She gently tossed Spike to one side. The dragon collapsed, unconscious on the floor. To everypony’s relief, they could see he was still breathing.
“By the way, the name’s Eris, not Twilight, though I’ll be the first to admit there is more than a little bit of your unicorn friend in me.”
“Eeeyup. Ah can see that,” the alicorn replied. “Ah’m guessin’ she was yer key inta this world.”
“My key...?” she asked, then smiled wickedly. OH, you are certainly most perceptive.”
“I knew it,” offered Pinkie Pie to the other. “A zombie ghost.”
Eris looked at the party pony with a deadpan expression. “Really? Was that your best guess?”
“It’s obviously somethin’ more, Ah’d say.” Big Mac observed. “Ah just wonder why ya chose Twilight?”
“You know, it’s rather funny how that works,” replied the draconequus. “There I was, a disembodied spirit, a tourist if you will, floating around this world on a lark when I chanced upon your poor friend, broken in too many places to count and slowly bleeding out after her fall. Barely alive, she had just enough free will left to accept my offer of life, though I wouldn’t necessarily vouch for her state of mind at the time.”
“In plain, simple terms, you took advantage of her,” Trixie asserted.
“Of course I did. She would have been dead otherwise,” Eris offered. “I took over her body and pushed her deep into her own mind, then applied what magics I needed to cause her to shape and heal into the form you see now. A much more svelte look if I say so myself. It took me a while, but the effort was worth it.”
“If Ay understood the prince, yer a spirit of chaos,” Babs asserted. “There can’t be more than one o’ youse on a single world.”
“Quite true,” Eris replied, chuckling, “But I am so much more... Fortunately, I completed manifesting on this world at an opportune moment, while my ‘doppelganger’ was still trapped in stone. Naturally I took the statue and put it in stasis so the chaos unleashed by your Nightmare Moon could not set him free. The rest was a simple matter of using a disguise spell to make everypony believe I was him and overthrowing your evil queen of the night.”
“So HE was actually you the whole time?” Fluttershy whispered.
“Guilty as charged,” Eris replied with a slight bow. “He must be so mad right about now.”
“If y’all are a disembodied spirit, where’s yer original body?” asked Big Mac.
“Safe enough, on my own world. I can easily move my spirit back and forth between here and there when I want, making me the first of my kind to have control of two of the eleven worlds.”
“Ta what purpose?”
“Oh, I dare say that with this kind of power, it shouldn’t be too hard to gain control of all eleven worlds, one by one. I know how to now. Then, I won’t be just a chaos entity... I’ll be a goddess.”
“Y’all should be careful what ya wish fer,” the alicorn said. “Bein’ a goddess might not be all it’s cracked up ta be.” Big Mac fired a burst of energy from his horn and Eris dodged easily, then frowned as she saw it envelop Spike and teleport him back among the other ponies.
“Now that was uncalled for. I said I didn’t plan to hurt him,” the serpent pouted, snapping her clawed fingers. There was a pop, and the farmer suddenly found himself floating in a gigantic fishbowl complete with miniature castle and a faux treasure chest. “This is going to be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, or bowl as it were...”
Holding his breath, Big Mac teleported behind the draconequus and landed a solid buck to her chin, launching her up and across the room to land in her own fishbowl. Concentrating, he transformed a chandler that hung over the bowl into a gigantic bag of flower. It split open and dumped the contents into the water, turning it to glue.
“Ya know, that’s exactly what happened first time Granny Smith tried teachin’ me how ta make a pie crust.”
Eris quickly surfaced only to discover she was covered head to tail in a thick, sticky paste. Glaring angrily at the alicorn she raised her hand and snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. With her hand covered in glue, she couldn’t produce the snap she normally used to cast a spell. The draconequus slithered sloppily out of the fishbowl and grimaced, then burst into flame, cooking the paste off her body.
“Clever princeling... I’m going to have fun humiliating you.” She reached for Big Mac, her arm stretching like rubber before grabbing him around the barrel. “Let’s see how much you like getting squeezed.”
The arm stretched and tightened. The farmer groaned slightly in pain, then used his last breath to gasp out a single, arcane word. In response a simple white bucket appeared over Eris’ arms before tipping over and spilling its contents. There was a flash of icy white mist as the liquid froze her arms solid within an instant. The draconequus screamed in pain and released Big Mac even as her upper arms cracked, then shattered into a thousand fragments. Her grip on the alicorn eased and her hands sloughed off him, turning into putty. He smiled, remembering back to when he was a captive audience as Twilight rehearsed a chemistry lecture one summer evening. She’d certainly been right about the effects of dry ice.
“THAT HURT!!!” Eris growled as a new set of arms grew out from her shoulders in a matter of seconds. She snapped her fingers again and a miniature tornado engulfed the stallion.
Big Mac found himself swept off his hooves, unable to target a counter-attack at the draconequus as he whirled madly around the room. Thinking fast, he cast a spell on himself, giving his body the density of stone. He dropped back to the floor, cracking the tile beneath him. Obscured by the dust-laden winds, the alicorn cast a spell that caused a small, black cloud to form at the apex of the funnel. Within seconds Eris found herself inundated by a blast of sleet, followed by a barrage of hailstones.
“Now that’s just rude...” The draconequus snapped her fingers and the throne room abruptly ripped itself apart. Some of the castle stones rearranged themselves into a barrier, blocking the ice assault. Others turned into a pair of massive stone golems, each armed with an imposing club. They began advancing on Big Mac.
The six other ponies braced themselves against the winds whipping around them. Rarity looked over at the revived Trixie. “What do we do now?”
“I’m not sure,” the blue furred pony replied. “I can feel the power of the elements, but I don’t know how to control or aim it.”
“Well, we’d better do something quick,” said Babs. “Ay don’t know how long my cousin can keep Twilight, or whatever she’s called busy.”
She was cut short by the wail of foal. Everypony turned to see a young Chrysalis, crying in terror as the wind began pulling her toward the center of the maelstrom. The shield that had been protecting her collapsed. Fluttershy was the first to react, galloping over to the former queen of holes and scooping her up. The wind tore at her long, pink tresses as she fought her way back to the side of her companions.
“What’d you do that for?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I couldn’t just leave her out there... she looked so lost and afraid.”
“Flutters... we’re not talking about some bunny rabbit. That’s Chrysalis for hoof’s sake!”
“Is it?” the yellow pegasus replied. When Dash looked, she saw the changeling queen hugging tightly to her friend and mewling like a lost kitten. She had to admit, the foal certainly didn’t act like Chrysalis.
“Whatever... Just don’t expect me to help take care of her, especially if she needs changing!” The cyan pegasus paused and looked closely at the foal. “What’s that on her leg?” Reaching over, she opened the overly large sheath bound to her left foreleg and pulled out what looked like a gnarled, black stick. That’s when everything went south.
It seemed to everypony that the whole world dropped about a foot as they were all thrown off their hooves. Laughing manically, Eris spun around in mid-air as the world about them shook.
Big Mac launched himself into the air, hovering just above the draconequus and fired a blast of green energy, not from his horn, but from the element hidden behind his plow collar. It caught the princess of chaos by surprise and knocked her to the ground, sending her skidding across the tiled floor. The earthquake stopped.
“This has gone on long enough,” she snarled, picking herself up and dusting herself off. Her fingers snapped once more. A dozen columns of stone erupted from the ground, encircling the alicorn prince before arching inward and fusing together at the top. “Does the little birdie like its new cage?” she mocked.
“Nnnope,” Big Mac replied. There was a flash and he disappeared.
“Teleporting... really? That is so old hat. All I have to do is trace the energy flow and I know where you’ll be popping back in.” She readied a spell, holding it in her claw as she turned around. A confused expression crossed her face. “Where did you go?” she muttered. She then called out in a sing song voice... “Come out, come out wherever you are.”
There was another flash and the stallion appeared right behind Eris. “Ah’m right here!” He spun and kicked with both back legs, sending her tumbling across the throne room. She rolled to a stop and rubbed her chin, even as a tooth wobbled, then fell out.
“How...?” then she grinned, unintentionally showing the new gap between her teeth. “Oh, I see... You didn’t teleport. You shrank yourself down to the size of an insect. Clever boy.” She snapped her fingers and the stallion suddenly found himself entangled in a massive ball of cotton candy. Eris waived her hand and the candy sphere shot across the wide open room splattering against the only wall left standing, the one behind the two thrones. Mac slid down about three feet then found himself dangling from several thick cords of spun sugar. Before he could react, the draconequus conjured a dozen candy cane spears, the end of each being sharpened to a razor like point.
The alicorn prince saw what was coming next, so he cast a shield spell between himself and his opponent. The candy canes shattered against the magical barrier, sending red and white striped shrapnel everywhere. Everypony in the room ducked as the sweet barrage sailed over their heads.
“HEY! You can’t do that!” yelled Pinkie Pie. “You’re wasting a perfectly good treat!”
“Pinkie, darling,” Rarity pointed out, “You should worry less about her crimes against confection and focus more on how we stop her.”
“Maybe this does something,” offered Rainbow, holding up the black, twisted stick. “I mean it did belong to her after all, when she was still Chrysalis.” Unfortunately, the cyan pegasus’ voice had a tendency to carry, even when she whispered.
Turning, Eris saw Rainbow as she held up the stick. “THAT’S MINE!” she shouted. She snapped her fingers and a pinkish field of energy wrapped itself around the wand. Before she could react, it was jerked out of Rainbow’s hoof and began sailing across the room.
Struggling to free himself from the cotton candy, Big Mac saw what had drawn Eris’ attention, recognizing it instantly. “Don’t let her get her hooves on the wand!” the stallion called, even as he yanked himself free of the last threads of sugar and dropped to the ground.
Both Rarity and Trixie reached out with their telekinesis and grabbed the wand. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do anything except slow its progress.
Reacting quickly, Babs swiftly drew out her service revolver and aimed it, not at the draconequus, but at the wand. She cracked her neck, rotated it and closed one eye before squeezing the trigger.
The sound of the shot echoed through what was left of the throne room and out into the glade in front of the castle. Time itself seemed to slow down as the bullet made contact with the gnarled wand and shattered it. “NO!” screamed Eris as the world was absorbed by a silent, blindingly white explosion. For an instant, it felt as if the sun had descended to the earth. The last impression that Big Mac had was that somehow, things had just gotten worse.