My eyes opened, as I found myself hanging upside-down. I managed to move my hands through the green slime that imprisoned me. I could still breathe in my cocoon, but it was severely limited. I struggled to keep awake, as I turned in the cocoon. I could see green glowing objects as I scanned my surroundings. Besides that light, everything was dark and smelled strongly of sulfur.
I reached into my holster, only to find that my guns were missing. I checked myself, to see if anything else was missing. It seemed that everything else was accounted for. I dug into my pants pocket, and drew a large knife. I managed to cut myself out of the green cocoon, as I fell on my legs.
I heard a large snap come from my left leg, as I felt a huge amount of pain run up my body. It quickly became apparent that escaping from this place would be easier said than done.
Hobbling at a snail’s pace, I went down a dark corridor surrounded by more cocoons. Upon further inspection, I saw almost all the cocoons were emptied, so I decided to move on. Just as I walked away, I heard a muffled voice from the only remaining cocoon. I turned around and headed towards the voice. A putrid smell started to flow in, as I saw shadows come around the dimly lit corner. I hid behind a gathering of rocks to find out just what had captured me.
Judging from what I’d seen before, these creatures behaved much like bees. The first step, besides escaping, was to set the creature in the cocoon free. I would have to be fast, something my left leg wouldn’t allow easily.
I took out my knife and slashed open the green cocoon, as the creature fell out of it. The figures moved closer to where I was, I knew I would be cornered easily if I didn’t hurry. As I turned around to look at whatever I saved from the cocoon, I heard a soft voice. It was another one of my hallucinations, which plagued my mind more often now. I tried to ignore it, as I turned to a stallion who had on a golden uniform.
He was barely conscious, as I lifted him off of the black bedrock. I didn’t blame him, because the smell of the place could make anyone faint given enough time. Carrying him on my shoulders, I moved into one of the few spots surrounded by discarded cocoons. I put him down behind them, as I prepared for a close encounter.
The creatures that came around the dark corners of the cave were the same one’s I had battled before. This time, however, they were accompanied by a figure who was covered by a crimson robe.
The figure removed the hood of his robe, as his skull glowed in the cave. His jaw was half shattered, as the rest of his head was just a broken mess. He had no eyes, just what appeared to be thick cobwebs. His skeletal fingers twitched randomly, which showed off the silver rings that he wore on his right hand. With a quick motion, he pointed in my direction with two fingers and vanished into thin air. He appeared to my left side, barely a few feet from my face. Before I could react, the hooded skeleton grabbed my head and slammed me against the cave walls.
My head was pounding, as I quickly forgot the stallion that I had saved moments ago. I tried fighting the skeleton, but he was so unrelenting with his attacks. With every hit, I fell deeper into a pain-induced sleep. My body would not take much more abuse. Just as I was about to pass out from the pain, the formerly disabled stallion saved me. The pony kicked the hooded skeleton square in the chest, as its bare ribs shattered.
I was somewhat shocked at the sudden defeat of an enemy I had trouble fighting. I had a chance to look closer at the equine that saved me. He was a unicorn, like the ones I had heard about in fairy tales, but I never thought such creatures could form a military force. He had a blue mane and a white body, with armor depicting him as a high ranking officer. He had on a slightly torn blue robe, which had a symbol on the back that I had seen before. It was a pink star surrounded by four smaller white stars, representing some sort of family lineage. He had a shield on his flank, which I assumed was a symbol for his purpose.
I was still in a daze from all the hits I took from the skeleton, so I barely noticed that the pony seemed to be telling me something. He motioned me over with his hoof, and his horn glowed with a blue aura. I felt a tingling sensation in my left leg, as the bones were reconstructed within a matter of seconds. The unicorn had healed my severe wound from earlier, but that didn’t change the fact that we were both cornered in the cave.
“Hey, are you alright?” the unicorn asked.
“Yeah, thanks for the assist.”
“No problem. We have to get out of here, and fast. I can sense hundreds of those creatures closing in on us.”
“Really? I had trouble with a few of them a while ago. I only managed to take down at least ten before I was overwhelmed. They have power in numbers, that’s for sure.”
The unicorn raised an eyebrow, “You fought ten at once? That’s hard to believe, since you don’t have any magic to fight these things.”
“Yeah, I even met their leader once, she was quite a handful.”
“You fought the Queen of the Changlings? Celestia sent my unit out here to take precautions against an incoming conflict a few years ago. We followed Chrysalis and her hive for many years to see what she was up to, since we had reports of Equestria’s citizens disappearing. She took all of us out single-handedly, and held us here. I can only imagine what she did to us afterwards, since I was knocked out. Until you cut me out of that cocoon, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”
“Since we saved one another, I would like to know your name.”
“Sure, my name is Shining Armor. I have a younger sister, so I’d like to get out of here alive, if it’s possible. May I have your name?”
I pondered what I should say, since Shining Armor had such a corny name, I said one also.
“My name, is Lightning Zephyr, or Lightningwind. I’d rather not talk about my family at the moment. Besides, we still have to get out of here.”
“You’re right about that, do you have a plan?”
“No. I thought of just using teamwork to take out the small fries and escape as fast as we can.”
Before Shining Armor had a chance to respond, the large group of changlings had rounded the corner. I took out my knife, while Shining charged up an attack from his horn. The changlings had took our forms, as they quickly grew in number. They rushed at us, as Shining and I braced for the incoming assault. One after another, they fell, as we kept fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. I felt a dark presence, as the walls of the cave started to shake violently. Screeching wildly, the changlings suddenly collapsed, as a dark mist surrounded us.
The mist suddenly took human shape, as Shining looked at me in distress. The mist spoke to me, “What are you doing?! You are supposed to kill Celestia, or have you forgotten our deal? It doesn’t matter to me who this creature is with you, but if you don’t complete your mission, it will cost you more than your life. Unless you want this world to end, you will comply, understand?”
Shining Armor stood in silence, shocked to hear that I was supposed to assassinate the leader he was so loyal to.
I dove at the mist and stabbed at it with great force, letting it take all the rage I had pent up inside. It had no effect, as it started to choke me and lifted me several feet in the air. Shining Armor turned away, as I struggled against the figure holding me up. Suddenly, I felt a warm feeling deep in my chest. The misty figure released me, as my body was soon surrounded by a black and blue aura. My right arm shot out on its own, as black sparks flew from my fingers. These sparks formed a chain around my body, as the mist backed further away. I formed a gun with my fingers, and shot at the mist.
The mist was instantaneously surrounded by blue pulsating veins. It staggered back and forth for a few seconds, as it screamed loudly. Grabbing my brown trench-coat, the mist mouthed an indecipherable word, as it vanished.
Shining Armor had seen the entire scene, as his mouth was hanging open. He stammered, “H-How did you do that? That’s highly advanced magic, it was so advanced and brutal that it was banned centuries ago.”
I rolled my eyes, “I don’t need a damn history lesson, we need to get out of this cave, before more changlings show up. I’ll explain the Celestia matter later, we don’t have time to fool around.”
Shining Armor nodded, as the two of us ran up the dark staircase of the cave and further into the heart of the hive.
We fought our way to the entrance, where there was one final obstacle for us to face. As we ran into the sunlight, I felt a large chill up my spine. Something was waiting for us to come out of the hives, something with great power. We stopped to catch our breath, as a rotten smell struck my nose. It was her again, I was sure of it. Shining looked at me with concern on his face, “Hey, are you feeling alright?” I ignored his question, as I ran through strategies to defeat Chrysalis.
Shining and I kept walking towards Ponyville, as the smell from earlier became more intense. I heard a small crack, as Shining collapsed. Chrysalis could be seen smirking just a few feet away, but it wasn’t her who knocked Shining out, it was someone more powerful than her. Chrysalis had a companion beside her, who looked exactly like me, only his green eyes set us apart.
Chrysalis smiled, “Well, it seems that the hive didn’t prevent you two from escaping after all. It’s a good thing that your friend helped me find you. You look shocked, haven’t you seen this figure before?”
I blinked several times, as the figure’s true form appeared, the red-robed skeleton grinned. He spoke to me proudly, “It seems that your friend ‘Shining’ had some pretty good hits in him. He knocked my jaw clean off. Too bad I can’t be killed by a mere unicorn, especially one of his level. You, however, are a hindrance to our plan. Let me explain this to you, because you have no chance of stopping us. We plan to take out Celestia, but we can’t possibly kill an alicorn of her level. The thing we can do, is incapacitate her using an alicorn-like creature. That’s where Chrysalis comes in. She wants to rule Equestria anyway, so she wants Celestia out of the way, so it’s a win-win scenario for us. So, without further hindrances, we shall take over Equestria, and your world as well. There is nothing that you can do to stop us, Lightningwind, so kindly give up.”
I gritted my teeth, I knew that taking on both Chrysalis and the skeleton would be practically suicide. I needed Shining Armor awake to even have a chance at defeating them. My best option at the moment was to run away. I knew my limits, even with my newfound powers, I didn’t want to test its limits this early on. Dashing to Shining Armor, I carried him on my right shoulder, and ran as fast as my legs could carry me.
The skeleton merely stood still and nodded to Chrysalis, giving her the signal to chase me down. She was fast, especially with her wings and having four legs. She didn’t hesitate to stab me with her horn. I dodged all of her strikes, but I lost my footing and dropped the unconscious Shining Armor. I scrambled to my feet, just as Chrysalis fired a green beam at me. I parried her spell with my bare hands, showing her my power. I absorbed her spell, and combined it with my own, and shot it back at her.
A sudden gust came by, as the skeleton negated my spell. He shifted within inches of my face, and rammed his elbow into my throat. I coughed and wheezed, as I tried to regain my balance from the vicious hit. Staggering back to Shining Armor, I was willing to protect him at all costs since he had family. The skeleton paid no mind to my movements, as he drew forth a blade from his robes. With a simple wave of his fingers, he rendered me immobile. The blade from the knife was sharp, as the blade shined in the sunlight. I could do nothing as the knife was mere millimeters from my left eye. With a quick movement of his wrist, my right eye was no more. I wailed in pain, as the skeleton made a single slice across my face. Cackling madly, he put away his knife and disappeared in a cloud of red smoke. Just like that, I had lost one of my eyes, a precious thing to a man whose entire life had depended on them. There was nothing I could’ve done to stop my eye from being taken. I could, however, still save Shining Armor.
Chrysalis was somewhat shocked at the skeleton taking my eye, I suppose she wasn’t used to such a grisly scene. She looked at the unconscious Shining Armor, and she glanced at where my eye used to be. Chrysalis silently walked away from us, as she returned to her hive. I was standing motionless, wondering why she didn’t finish us off, perhaps she wasn’t as cruel as the skeleton. Shining Armor got up in a daze, as his body was still badly bruised.
He looked at me, and nearly lost whatever he had for lunch. He took a few deep breaths, as he regained his composure. He cleared his throat, “Who are you, and why are you interfering in Equestria’s affairs?”
It seemed that the skeleton had knock him out for a loop, apparently wiping his recent memories clean. I wanted to tell him what just happened, but I thought of his family. I didn’t want him to worry about his family all the time. I sighed, as I made up a story for him.
Telling him I was a human wouldn’t sit too well, so I avoided talking about that. I told him that Equestria was in danger, and was being threatened by someone. He was stunned when I told him his comrades had been taken out. Eventually the conversation turned to what Shining was going to do now.
Shining’s eyes suddenly lit up when Twilight’s name came up. “Is she alright? I swear, if anything happens to her...”
I calmed him down a bit as I asked, “What are you going to do now that Equestria is in danger?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to warn Princess Celestia about it. Then I need to see if my fiance is alright.”
I raised an eyebrow at this new information, “You have a fiance? Then why did you take this mission in the first place?! Didn’t Celestia think of the possible repercussions if your family were taken hostage or you were killed?!”
“She has her reasons, I doubt that you’d understand, since you are alone all the time.”
I was taken aback by Shining’s sudden outburst. “No, I don’t understand. But it still doesn’t constitute sending you out here! In any case, we must separate here.”
Shining looked at me plainly, “I suppose we should, since it would upset Cadence that I was involved in this. In fact, I think we should keep this under wraps for now, at least from Cadence and Twilight. That way they are safe from immediate danger.”
I thought about Shining’s plan, and it seemed sound enough, I then thought about my family again. I didn’t want Shining to suffer as I did, so I did the first thing that came to mind.
“Hey, Shining.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll keep watch over Twilight for you, since you have Cadence to worry about. I won’t charge you anything, just trust me on this, alright?”
Shining didn’t seem very naive, but he seemed to agree with my plan. It wouldn’t cause as much of a fuss if it were just me, rather than twenty or so incompetent guards.
“Your terms seem fair, I seem to slightly remember you saving me a few times.”
Shining’s smile faded quickly, as he grabbed me and pulled me close to his face.
“If you don’t keep my sister safe from whatever this threat is, don’t expect to live very long, got it?!”
I stared into his eyes, as he tried to intimidate me into agreeing with him. I shoved him away as I turned my back to him.
“Yes. I will protect her with my own life if I have too. However....if you interfere with my methods, your sister will be done for.”
We both stood still for what seemed like centuries, until we nodded and walked away.
I now had to protect a pony that I probably left a bad impression on. It would be hard to protect her if she was suspicious of me. So my next step was to visit the one pony she trusted more than any other, Princess Celestia.