//------------------------------// // 35 Her Mask // Story: Errant Finale // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// “I need an answer, NOW!!” Twilight Sparkle grimaces as the black crystal in the sky forms not another round rock but an aerodynamic spear, a wicked barbed point on one end and curved fins on the other. It crackles with a dark energy, sending bolts of green and purple in every direction. King Sombra launches the spear, though this time it is not aimed at Shining Armor. It isn’t even aimed at her. No, he’s aiming at the one other pony who stands a chance of repelling him. Not just in the immediate, which she might be able to do. But with how her power has been fluctuating? She doesn’t think she can hold him off for any real length of time. Twilight always had a knack for spells, but her skill with shields is nowhere near as good as her brother's. And she has to be the one to find or make The Crystal Heart! And yet the spear gets closer and closer, hurtling through the air, gaining more and more speed as it plummets. Queen Chrysalis’ eyes widen as the pinprick of black gets larger and larger. Her muscles refuse her commands to move, locked in place by fear. Any thought she had of forming an alliance, however temporary, with King Sombra are dashed, stabbed through the heart like the incoming spear is about to do to her. “If you can’t do it-” shouts Twilight Sparkle from close by. Her horn flares a brilliant raspberry, no more time to waste. What?! Queen Chrysalis nearly lashes out at the infuriating alicorn. How dare that impudent brat even think there is anything she can do that the Queen of the Changelings can’t! NO! she bellows internally, her horn flaring a bright green. “Yyeeeesssss!!” cackles King Sombra madly, his deafening voice booming off the crystalline walls. He barrels forward, following his electrifying spear in a glorious charge directly at the pink alicorn. A bright green wall of energy shoots from Cadance’s horn straight at the spear. The two collide, shearing off the wicked barbs but sharpening the tip as it pierces through, still pointing directly at her heart. Shining Armor lunges between Cadance and Sombra, putting the large bulk of his barrel directly in the spear’s way. Twilight Sparkle’s horn shoots off a wall of her own, knocking the spear slightly off course and blasting the smaller fragments clear of the balcony. King Sombra’s mad cackle is interrupted as the remnants of Cadance’s shield smash into him. He roars, about to regain his momentum, only for a second tornado - courtesy of Rainbow Dash, the winded mare looking like she only has one more in her before she collapses - to wildly buffet him and throw him off course yet again. Queen Chrysalis barely raises a foreleg to try to intercept the crackling black spear. Her head snaps back as Shining Armor leaps in front of her, the spear piercing through his upper foreleg. Yet it continues through, a bemused part of her mind grinning at how the spear passes directly through one of the holes in her dark gray foreleg. The spear embeds itself into the balcony, pinning Shining Armor against Queen Chrysalis’ leg. The unicorn howls in abject agony, the crackling dark magic sending his body convulsing. “Shiny!” Twilight bellows from above. Queen Chrysalis gapes, but not at her own leg. Instead, at the unicorn who put himself into harm’s way for her, who nearly took a spear through the heart for her. Hope and love radiates from his inner core, all directed into her own. Except it is tainted. Anger, Hatred, Rage, all seethe through his wracked and tortured body. The Queen’s fury bubbles over at the foreign emotions invading her lover. Her horn shines, brighter than before, pouring every last ounce she can into her own shield! She is Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings! She will not bow to this mockery of a tyrant! She roars in impassioned fury, only for a new sensation to touch her lips. Fear. She drinks in King Sombra’s Fear, his Dread, his abject Horror at her not just copying but perfecting Shining Armor’s shield. It radiates off of her like Shining Armor’s love for her, blasting not only the mad King but every last remnant of dark magic he conjured out of the castle, out of the Crystal Empire, and if she had the strength, out of the Frozen North. Queen Chrysalis, no longer pinned, stands in exultant victory. Green eyes watch as the speck of black becomes so small she can’t make it out from the translucent green shield. Her green wings buzz against her dark gray chitin, strength surging through her pocked limbs. Until a desolate voice from behind breaks her from her jubilation. “Stay with me!” cries the yellow pegasus, her pink mane swept back and out of Shining Armor’s eyes. She slaps the dazed unicorn across the muzzle, shouting again in his face, “You hear me?! Stay awake!!” The cerulean pegasus swoops down, lifting Shining Armor’s arm with no regard for the blood pouring out and coating her forelegs. “We’re looking at a bisected radius, the spear completely disintegrated it. One artery is severed, at least.” She points a hoof at Doug, the human instantly crouching by her side. “Hold down here as hard as you can. Applejack, I need you to get a tourniquet. Or,” she turns, looking up at Twilight, “can you cauterize this? Safely?” “Um,” Twilight barely forces out, a shade of green on her face not unlike Chrysalis’ wings. Her eyes remain locked on Chrysalis’ new form, her body shaking so badly she’s quite close to stabbing somepony with her horn. “N-n-n-” Applejack whips her rope out from under her hat, glad to finally have something she can help with. She stuffs one end in Shining Armor’s mouth before she snakes other around his nearly destroyed foreleg. She wraps as tight as she can, ignoring the muffled, agonized screams of the unicorn. Blood stops spurting out of the wound, but Shining Armor is still fading quickly, his breathing growing ragged and hoarse. Queen Chrysalis grimaces; they may have stopped the bleeding, but they have done nothing to the dark magic coursing through him. She smirks to herself, having purged the same emotions out of her own core many years ago. “Back aside,” she commands harshly, pushing Fluttershy out of her way. The yellow pegasus shrieks in fear at the dark gray chitin, though her fright is short lived as she immediately returns to Shining Armor’s opposite side. Queen Chrysalis touches her shining green horn to Shining Armor’s skull, drawing anxious and bewildered gasps from everypony. But not Doug, she notes, the human sparing her a grim glance from his spot on Shining Armor’s foreleg. She grins as she tastes the emotions coursing through the unicorn. It wouldn’t be as filling as devouring his love for her - well, nothing is that empowering - but it will still do nicely. Shining Armor’s seizured jerks slow as she absorbs all of the foreign anger inside of him; she makes sure to leave his own - directed at King Sombra, of course. The hatred and the rage, though; she has rarely seen those in a pony. Even when Sombra was threatening her, Armor didn’t feel hatred for him, not this strong. What had twisted the King to make him so? Shining Armor collapses as the last of the destructive emotions drain from his body. Rainbow Dash never stopped, the hole in his foreleg now bandaged to the best of her field training. She grimaces at the ugly wound; now that the action is over, she turns almost the same shade as her lock of green. Still, Rainbow manages to speak. “T-Twilight, how good is your healing magic?” “N-not enough to patch up a wound like this,” she hesitantly replies, though the purple alicorn can’t tear her eyes away from the creature possessively standing over her brother. “C-C-Cadance? A-are you okay?” “I’m fine,” Queen Chrysalis practically spits out, cradling her lover. “Are you sure?” asks the meek yellow pegasus, her hoof coming up to touch the hole on Chrysalis’ foreleg where the spear passed through. “This doesn’t hurt?” “No, it-” Queen Chrysalis cuts herself off, staring at her dark gray foreleg. The very not pink, not whole (though the holes are smaller than normal), not alicorn foreleg. Instead, the hard chitin of her natural form. She stumbles over her words like a newly molted pupa, “It, it…” “Was it King Sombra’s dark magic?” Applejack asks, voice quivering. “Ah heard he twisted ponies, but this?” “It,” Queen Chrysalis stutters, her mind drawing a blank. Pretending to draw a blank, because that’s how the real Cadance would react in this situation. Yes, she’s merely bluffing that she’s in shock! “I…” “Do you all have any other ideas?” Twilight Sparkle demands, her eyes narrowing as Doug averts his own. “I’ve never heard of dark magic transforming like this, but if King Sombra can maintain a dark cloud like that, then there’s obviously a lot I don’t know about it.” “Cady?” Shining Armor moans from underneath her, twisting his head to gaze up at her. He groans in pain from the motion, but his eyes are filled with love. Tinged with worry, and a hint of revulsion, but even that is quickly clamped down on. His eyes then lift to her horn, still shining a bright green. He struggles with every word, pauses filled with a wracking cough. “You did it… you stopped King Sombra. You saved us.” “Yes,” Queen Chrysalis smoothly replies, her fang filled maw grinning wide. “Yes, I did.” And I totally didn’t do it just because you saved me, or because I was saving myself. “I knew you had it in you,” Shining Armor says before he limply sinks back down, resting his head against the crystal floor. “I’m glad I was proven wrong, too,” Twilight Sparkle says, drawing an irritated glare from the changeling. Twilight looks at the rest of her herd, “But that just means it’s even more important that we find the Crystal Heart as soon as possible.” She turns to Chrysalis, “Without Shining Armor to help power the shield, it’ll be even harder on you. I hope his horn recovers soon.” “What about you?” Queen Chrysalis demands from Twilight. “You expect me to power this shield the whole time by myself?” Twilight Sparkle looks at her hooves, glumly shaking her head. “I don’t trust my magic; I’ve barely had a day to get used to the power! I’m just lucky I kept that beam straight, and didn’t turn it into a cone.” Everypony grimaces at the thought. “Besides. If you thought you were faster at me at researching and finding things out, I would gladly try. But I think you know me a little better than that.” Queen Chrysalis scowls, already feeling the drain. It isn’t much, but if they expect her to maintain this for hours? At least she’s in her natural form, more easily able to channel her magic. And she doesn’t have to worry about changing the color on an already taxing spell. Well, she’ll just need to keep her Shiny close at hoof. Twilight Sparkle kneels down next to Shining Armor. “Are you doing okay? Do you want us to send for one of the Princesses to take you home?” “I don’t think that will be necessary,” Queen Chrysalis objects before Shining Armor gets a chance to say anything. Shining Armor smiles anyway. “I’ll be fine, Twilight. Just a flesh wound.” Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. “It took out a bone, dummy. You’ll have trouble standing on it, much less walking, until we get you back to Canterlot.” “Good thing I’m needed right here,” Shining Armor says, patting the ground next to Chrysalis. “Don’t you all have a heart to find?” “You heard him,” Twilight says. She flicks her head at Doug and Spike. “Well, if there aren’t any objections, then we should head to the library. I’ll get a letter to send the Princess, informing her of our arrival and progress.” She focuses on Shining Armor. “Stay safe.” The eight leave Shining Armor and Chrysalis behind, trading worried and frightened glances as they make their way to the library. Much to everypony’s consternation, Twilight shushes any conversation or questions until they are alone inside the walls. Finally, when they are standing together at a large table, she lets them speak. “That was not Princess Cadance,” Applejack states first, slamming an irate hoof down on the table. “Ah don’t know what kind of dark magic he used, but-” “You’re right and wrong,” Twilight interrupts. Everypony stands up a little straighter. “It isn’t Cadance, and it isn’t dark magic.” She draws in a large, deep breath. “She’s a changeling.” “A what?!” “A changeling.” Twilight sighs; she doesn’t remember nearly enough of the Queen’s previous invasions to be useful, but she does recognize her. No wonder Celestia assigned her that history book a couple years ago! “Unless I’m gravely mistaken, she hasn’t been Cadance this whole time. Queen Chrysalis has taken Cadance’s place, and is feeding off Shining Armor’s love for her." “So,” Fluttershy says quietly, “who wants to tell Shining Armor about this?” “Not it!” Pinkie Pie exclaims, everypony snickering. “I can’t believe I saved her sorry flank!” Rainbow Dash says, shadow boxing a few punches. “I say we go out there and give her what for!” “That’s just it,” Twilight Sparkle says coldly. “We don’t know where the real Cadance is. And, we need Queen Chrysalis to think that she still has us fooled. We need her to keep powering the shield keeping King Sombra out, at least until we have the Crystal Heart up and running.” “What do we do now?” Rarity asks. “Fortunately, I have a plan,” Twilight Sparkle says with a smirk. “Everything is going to be just fine.” Everypony groans. “Spike, take a letter.” Twilight steels herself as Spike pulls out quill and parchment.