Cadence stepped into the grand hall calmly, her eyes scanning over the work being done. She still couldn’t discern what was happening within, despite one of her drones being a part of the group helping the elf. Neither Celestia or Luna had deigned to inform her, simply stating that it would help protect her and that she shouldn’t have to worry about it.
She didn’t trust it to be a simple protection spell. She didn’t know much about enchanting, but this seemed a bit too complicated for a shield. Whatever its true purpose was, it would be pointless in the end. That elf wouldn’t be a problem for long.
Stepping forward, she noticed the elf in question had paused in his work and was staring at her. It was an impassive stare, but she could feel the anger and uncertainty behind it. Strangely enough, she couldn’t sense any fear from him, some panic, yes, but not fear.
How interesting.
Outwardly, Cadence gave off her friendliest smile, glancing towards the group that had paused their working to gawk at her. Her drone got the memo, and began to usher them all out.
Silence reigned until the last of the ponies left the hall, leaving her and the elf to stare each other down. The elf stood up and faced her fully, a heavy scowl on his face.
“Well, let’s drop all pretenses.” He said, running a hand through his dark hair. “You’ve come to kill me, haven’t you?”
“Why would I do that?” She asked innocently, her face being one of abhorrent shock. Her words were laced with magic, playing across the elf’s ears. She couldn’t help but smirk as she felt her magic fill his mind, a familiar green glow emanating from his eyes. She felt compelled to laugh at how easy it was. The power she was gaining from the real Cadence was truly something to be awed.
She never did get the chance to laugh, however, as the next moment, her sight was filled with fire. She barely had time to react before she was engulfed in flames. Eyes widened in shock, her magic shot from her horn, teleporting her out of the way.
“So that’s what’s happening.” She heard the elf speak. Looking at him in surprise, he was clutching his ear, a grimace on his face. After a moment, his hand pulled away, a sickly green energy following it as it was removed from his ear. After a moment, the energy faded into nothingness. “Too bad that won’t work on me."
Cadence couldn’t help but scowl at the sight. How had this damned creature done that? There should have been no way for anyone to break free from her control once they had already been affected! This should have been impossible!
Sadly, she didn’t have the time to ponder this, as said creature wasted no time in following up his attack. A foot slammed into the ground, giving her enough of a warning to move before a spike of stone shot from the floor where she stood. Before she could register exactly where she landed, she was forced to move once more, as the tip of the spike was blasted in her direction.
Landing in a huff, she scowled at the elf who looked at her impassively. Any hint of panic gone from his emotions, replaced with a confidence that aggravated her.
“Guess I was panicking over nothing.” He commented as he paused in his attack.
Nothing? Nothing!? This blasted creature dared speak as such. He had no idea who she was. What she was capable of! She was Queen Chrysalis! Conqueror of the Changeling Hives! Mistress of Minds! Lord of Disguise!
This creature was an abomination that no one had heard of before! It was he who was nothing. She would make him realize this. She would take him, break him, and make him beg for death. She would destroy his mind until there was nothing left to resist, and once he was under her control, she would have him obediently destroy all that he held dear!
She was too busy within her own mind to have realized that the elf had begun his attack once more. She only became aware of this fact just a moment before a lance of ice made a hole in her head. Her fury overriding her instinct to get out of harm's way, her magic reacting faster than she had anticipated.
The ice was blasted into a million pieces an instant before it made contact, her magic forcing the shards away from her face. She glared past all the debris of the act to find a surprised looking elf opposite her. Of course, the elf regained his composure quickly, beginning to cast another spell. However, that small moment of pause caused by his shock was enough for Chrysalis to finally make an attack of her own.
Sickly green magic bubbled around her horn as she summoned her magic. She charged so much magic that her horn overflowed, forcing the magic out in a concentrated beam. The elf seemed to have taken a note out of her book, as he did not stick around to see what this beam would do to him. He jumped to the side, firing off his own attack as he did so.
Lightning shot from his hand, connecting with Chrysalis before she could react. As the shock of electricity cut through her, her disguise dropped for a moment, revealing her true form.
Dark chitin covered her from head to hoof. A fanged grimace of pain crossed her face as pain shot through her. Green, slit eyes closed for a brief moment as she endured. A hole riddled leg lifted off the ground for a moment before locking up. A second later and her disguise reappeared, hiding her visage from the elf once more.
“There’s the monster I was looking for.” The elf smirked, even as he brought his hands up, coated in ethereal energies. The floor cracked and shot up in front of him, extending all the way towards Chrysalis herself.
Her mind was still on the fact that he called her a monster. Her fury renewed, hardened eyes focused on the attack. Her horn glowed with green, just before the floor was forcibly flattened. She could feel his spell fighting against her own, but she had poured more magic into her’s. This didn’t put a damper on the elf, however, as he shot out a lance of energy within the next instant.
A swift spell deflected it, slamming his attack into the wall, where a cloud of debris filled the air.
~-~
The cloud obscured his view of his opponent. An event that was never good in a battle. Taking on the side of caution, he decided to move to his left. A choice that was swiftly proven to be the correct course, as a ball of barely contained energies shot through the space he had previously occupied.
He could practically feel the magical energies overflowing from the attack as it slammed into the wall. Despite his confidence earlier, he felt a general unease creep back into his mind. He had been too quick to assess his opponent, and in any other circumstance, that could have likely ended in his death. Luckily for him, this changeling clearly lacked skill in the combat department.
He might have been two months out of practice, but he was certain he could defeat her. The issue with this, was that what she lacked for in skill, she made up for in sheer magical power. He couldn’t comprehend where she had obtained such abilities, but she seemed to be pouring unstable amounts of magic into each of her attacks. Obviously, that made them unfocused and unstable, but if he were to get hit by one of them…
He doubted there would be a body to recover.
Frowning, he refocused on the Changeling opposite him as the resulting cloud of debris from her attack showered him. He had no time to think of such things, he had to fight, and once he won, he would toss the bloodied carcass of the changeling at Luna’s hooves. He could only hope that the mare would overcome whatever mental magics had been placed on her once this beast was defeated.
Ignoring the debris on his back, he focused on another ring and pressed a hand to his chest. Within an instant, he began to process everything around him at an alarming pace. A new attack came at him. Another uncreative beam of energy that seemed the waver and bend along its path.
With his new found speed, it was trivial for him to simply sidestep the attack and release one of his own. Deciding to take the opportunity for some irony, he shot a beam parallel with the changeling’s. It took a solid form, shooting out in a resplendent silver colour. Compared to the changeling’s mess of a spell, it could have been considered a work of art.
The beam made contact before the mare could truly defend herself, though her half formed magical shield was enough to deflect it from her heart. Instead, the beam shot down into her leg, creating a new hole amongst the others.
This one bled a dark green.
Storing that information away for later, Aurick tapped into a magic he rarely used. It was a generally frowned upon study that he would only use in dire situation. As he was alone, and facing an opponent who could easily obliterate him should she get to land a blow, he figured it could be considered so.
The green blood within the changeling’s wound fell to his control. Even as the mare charged up another attack, he focused on the blood. With a simple thought, the blood in her leg expanded within the wound. Expanding with explosive force, a shriek of pain emerged from the changeling’s throat as her spell fired off into the roof. Her leg flew off, unbalancing the creature and making her fall forward onto her face.
Aurick couldn’t help but smirk as the fake Cadence’s face contorted in pain and fury. The smirk faded and was replaced with confusion as she shouted. “What are you waiting for!?”
Aurick thought the words were directed at him, and he was about to reply when he realized how wrong he was. His breath was knocked out of him as something slammed into his stomach. He could feel the burning of magical energies, and a glance up showed the slowly appearing image of another changeling.
Within that moment he realized just how foolish he had been. He had assumed that this was a one on one fight. Such a thing had never been confirmed. He should have known that the leader of a race of deceitful shapeshifters wouldn’t have picked a fight without some trump cards hidden away.
Sadly, the surprise and anger he felt distracted him from his true opponent. He returned his gaze to her too late however, as the legless mare had already charged a spell. He had no time to react or get away when she unleashed it, as it was nothing like what he was expecting from the mare’s previous examples.
A portal opened below him, and he had no time to move away before he was sucked through.
Within an instant, his view changed. Replacing the newly broken hall was blackened walls, covered in iridescent moss. In a strange sense, it was a rather pretty sight, as the moss glowed in various colours across the wall, creating a rainbow of light.
The sight was quickly taken from him as he landed in some form of thick substance. Panic creeped into his mind as he attempted to swim to the surface, but every stroke failed to do anything as he slowly sunk into his sticky surroundings. His lungs swiftly began to burn as he wished for air.
He attempted to cast a spell that should have propelled him from the murky depths, but the spell fizzled out before it could even be released. Something was blocking his magic! He attempted to focus on one of his rings, knowing that they would be unaffected by this, but it was too late.
His lungs had had enough, and unbidden, he gasped for breath. The substance entered his throat, swiftly filling his lungs and then he… breathed? He could breath, despite his lungs being filled with something other than air.
He would have begun to ponder this, if his mind hadn’t started to slow. For some reason, he was feeling really sleepy. A voice in the back of his mind told him that he shouldn’t go to sleep, but he didn’t listen. Sleep sounded really nice.
He felt like there was something he had to do. What was that again? Maybe it could wait? Just for a few minutes, so he could get some rest?
That sounded nice.