Light and heat and pressure cleared, and Ocellus landed on her four hooves easily, just as easily as she had several years ago when Thorax had lead the nursery and hatchery into Reformation, the end of their hunger. Blue fuzz once more covered her carapace, which now lacked holes in her legs. Her gossamer red tail and frill and elytra were back, and she opened the elytra and spread her unblemished wings. She put her hooves to her mouth to help choke back a relieved sob, and felt that her fangs had shrunk down, no longer jutting from her mouth.
And the hunger. The pain and ache in her heart and stomach that felt like it was trying to eat her alive, that demanded she go out and find love to satiate it - that knew that Smolder loved her, was a vital source of love. The hunger had made Ocellus want to seek out Smolder not as a friend, but as food...but it was gone. Her heart was whole.
Beside her, Chrysalis landed with similar grace. Once more the former queen's carapace was covered with cream-white fuzz of its own, though at the bottom of her hooves it was orange. A mantle of orange fur surrounded her neck, chest, and withers. Her hair was voluminous and long and full, aquamarine at the roots on her head and dock but fading to lime-green as it reached the tips. The horn on her head had straightened itself out, and on her back were purple elytra that Chrysalis opened herself, extending four translucent wings instead of two, the hind wings about as long as her previous ones while the tips of the front wings extended up and past her horn, making them longer than even King Thorax's.
She'd helped her Reform. Chrysalis, the former queen, the evil tyrant who had ruled the Hive for a thousand years, had helped Ocellus Reform. More...she'd done it herself, and this time it had been no accident. Chrysalis' own love now lay within Ocellus' heart beside her own, filling her, feeding her, warming her, and if Ocellus was being honest with herself the result of Reformation for Chrysalis was to make her beautiful.
Chrysalis' eyes met Ocellus'. They'd turned from green to blue. Ocellus stared back with her hooves still at her mouth, feeling her lip tremble, her body quiver, tears spilling forth...Catrina and Cacophony had tried to steal Reformation from her, but Chrysalis had saved her, taken her shared love...
“If you hug me,” Chrysalis warned, “I will hurt you. Over a period. In an amusing fashion - ”
“Worth it!” Ocellus decided as she lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around Chrysalis' neck, burying her muzzle in Chrysalis' mantle of fur and gripping her with all the strength her tiny true form could muster. Chrysalis flailed as she stumbled backwards and fell onto her haunches. Ocellus felt one foreleg close around her, and expected to be torn from Chrysalis, but instead it only rested across Ocellus' withers, even squeezed her slightly. Ocellus' reaction to the squeeze was another sob that was muffled in the warm mantle of fur that she'd been buried in. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She repeated over and over again.
Ocellus smelled and tasted a mixture of confusion and the tiniest hint of affection from Chrysalis. She wondered if the queen had ever been hugged in her true form before. After a moment, Ocellus felt Chrysalis nibbling on Ocellus' own outpouring of gratitude and joy and relief, following by a slight gag from the queen. “Blegh. Too pure,” Chrysalis said, lifting her other hoof and pushing Ocellus from her. “Fine, you get the one. And you will never, ever, ever tell any creature.”
Ocellus wiped her eyes, nodding. So great were her tears that their hooves were getting wet...no, wait, that wasn't possible, even Ocellus couldn't cry that much. The two changelings looked down, and saw that in fact the entire floor was beginning to flood. The water tanks in the room had burst open, all of them, from the force of the explosion of love. Water was spilling forth in great streams from both from the pipes that lead into Tiatarta's water supply, as well as from above as the pools in the Chill Spot no longer had pressure and the water drained out and down. Already half of the room was flooded to a depth of an inch. Chrysalis saw her purple stick floating nearby and snatched it quickly from the water; Ocellus wondered at it, but decided she could wait to figure out what the story with it was.
The damage from the release of love went further than just the water tanks. It had slammed into the alchemy tables, sending them flying in every direction away from the two changelings as they had embraced Reformation. Broken glass lay scattered everywhere, the shelves containing the alchemy ingredients had been splintered and their contents spilled onto the ground, with chemicals and ingredients seeping into the water and causing it to slowly turn a rainbow of colors.
Catrina had been hurled by the explosion of released love, Ocellus was sure, but the Abyssinian was already back on her feet, crouched on top of a fallen cabinet and hissing at the water that was slowly making its way towards her, her dress frayed and torn but intact. Rep and Zephyrwing were picking themselves up as well, wasting no time in going over to Cacophony. The alicorn-changeling princess had been hurled against a wall and then fallen to the ground, and hadn't picked herself up yet. She looked unharmed, and indeed her eyes were wide open as she stared at the magic mirror that had followed her flight and impact and lay beside her - or what was left of it. The force of the released love had been too much magic too quickly - its surface had shattered, leaving only its upper half in any way intact, barely two feet of smooth glass. Everything else beyond that was splintered, cracked, or missing entirely.
“Not quite the size of the entire Hive,” Chrysalis groused as she took in the force of the explosion, but then she perked up. “But bigger than when Thorax turned on me, certainly! I can live with that.”
“My mirror...” Cacophony intoned as she was pulled to her hooves by Rep and Zephyrwing, barely seeming to notice. “The...y-you...but...b-but...”
Chrysalis looked between Catrina, the two hybrids, and Cacophony, then to Ocellus. “It's probably too much to hope that Ecdysis gave you any combat training, isn't it?”
Ocellus shook her head, shifting from one hoof to another as she stood. “B...b-but I can turn into a bugbear or a dragon or - ”
“Teenage dragon, fine; bugbear, no, you'll exhaust your magic too fast trying to maintain such a large form for any length of time. Also minimize shapeshifting in general to conserve magic.” Chrysalis' eyes narrowed as she took in the situation, eyes darting left and right over the room. “I could probably take any two of them, or all but Cacophony at the same time. But I imagine after that explosion we're about to be swarmed by hybrids - ”
“You broke my mirror!” Cacophony screamed, spreading her wings as she whirled on Chrysalis and Ocellus, not caring that doing so smacked Zephyrwing and sent her stumbling away from her. She shoved Rep aside as well as she stepped towards Chrysalis. Her horn glowed and she picked up the mirror, sending magic through it. The intact portions glowed and fell into themselves, the portal functioning - but what was left was too small for Cacophony to fit through. “You broke...why?! How am I supposed to get home?! It will take months to make it big enough!”
Chrysalis stepped forward. “Well, if you were a real changeling, you could shift down to something small - ”
Cacophony screamed, and Chrysalis winced, the former queen seeming to realize that she'd made a mistake in needling the alicorn-changeling. Naturally, at the same time, the door to the chamber slammed open, ten hybrids came flying in - and the ceiling started collapsing.
That the explosion had cut off most of Smolder's roar and muffled the start of it was a blessing in disguise. The shockwaves made Smolder stumble, though she kept her footing, but needing to spend even a second thinking was enough to coral her inner wyrm, stop her from roaring and letting every creature know exactly where she was and have all the hybrids charge towards her.
She didn't know how many hybrids there were. They themselves didn't think that there was “that many” of them, but how many was that? Six? A dozen? Two dozen? Maybe one day she'd be able to laugh off those kinds of odds, but she wasn't an ancient wyrm yet, she was still a teenager. And no matter how much danger her friend, her hoard, her Ocellus was in, charging out blowing fire and challenging anything in her way just wasn't going to get her what she needed.
Plus the convenience store clerk was still in a cage behind her, still unconscious. If she lit the whole place on fire or started choking it with smoke, it wouldn't go well for him. She stomped over to his cage and tore loose the lock - she didn't care to find the key - and checked on him, smacking him lightly a few times, but consciousness wouldn't come. Smolder growled and snorted smoke as she stepped away, trying to think. Ocellus was in danger. Queen Chrysalis was here somewhere and cutting a deal with Catrina, it didn't matter what for, for all Smolder knew Catrina would offer up Ocellus to Chrysalis like some kind of prize to sweeten the deal...give away Ocellus like she was hers to give...take her from Smolder...take her hoard...
A low rumble escaped Smolder's throat and smoke and fire spilled forth. Before she reined her instincts in again she was at the door, fist raised and ready to punch through it rather than waste time opening it...she redirected the force of the punch down, into the floor beneath her, satisfying her inner wyrm's desire to break something right now. The tiles beneath her gave way, as did the wood and plaster underneath.
Smolder almost let out a roar of frustration, but stopped when she looked at her arm, still buried halfway to the elbow in the floor. And Rep had said that Nonchalant - that Chrysalis - was downstairs...
Smolder let out a long and relieved sigh. “Okay. Big stupid dragon had a good idea for a change,” she said as she withdrew her hand from the hole, then slammed it down again, then started putting her other hand to use, tearing away at the floor, her claws gripping and tearing loose anything that was in the way. There was treasure down below if she could just dig enough. Treasure with soft fuzz and a warm carapace and eyes that glittered like gemstones. All she needed was to make a hole big enough to reach it...
She'd resorted to actually biting her way down when the floor, weakened by her efforts, gave way underneath her. Smolder let out a cry of shock and tried to unfurl her wings to stay in the air as debris rained down. She heard a high-pitched, enraged scream, and then...
“Okay I take it back I love the stupid dragon!” A voice Smolder didn't know called out. Smolder had just enough time to register the sight of rainbow-colored water everywhere and a bunch of different creatures, but no time at all to take in their details as two of those creatures surged up and towards her. Smolder didn't care what one of them was because the other was Ocellus, who collided with her in mid-air. Smolder made to hug her, but Ocellus was pushing her up and through the hole she'd carved. They impacted the ceiling of the room, then fell back to the floor in a heap.
“Ocellus!” Smolder cried out as a series of blue and pink flashes came up from the hole.
“No time!” Ocellus cried, turning around. Whoever she'd been flying with had followed and become stuck in the hole, due to it being too small for her.
“My life will not end with me shot in the rear!” The creature - she looked like a giant, cream-colored Reformed changeling, only with hair and normal rather than compound eyes - forced her way through the hole she was caught in with Ocellus' help.
Smolder squinted at the giant changeling, then her eyes widened. “Chrysalis!” She realized, grabbing Ocellus' hoof.
“Dragon!” Chrysalis exclaimed back, horn glowing blue and shooting something down through the hole she'd emerged from.
“Cacophony!” Ocellus cried out at the sight of something down the hole, not letting go of Smolder but instead dragging her past Chrysalis and towards the room's door.
Smolder blinked. “Who?”
“ME!” A creature that looked like the offspring of Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadance exclaimed as she burst through the hole, spreading gossamer-feather wings wide and gnarled unicorn horn glowing a hot, angry pink. She fired off a burst of magic, but Chrysalis stopped it with blue magic of her own, the beams meeting, struggling for a moment. Smolder didn't see much more as she was dragged out of the room by Ocellus, but there was a loud snap sound and then an explosion that tossed Chrysalis from the room and against the opposite wall. She landed on her side, but quickly picked herself back up and ran after Smolder and Ocellus. The convenience store clerk followed next, apparently having finally woken up, and ran in the opposite direction of the three. Then Cacophony came stumbling from the room, looking livid, and trailing her were hybrids - twelve of them, most of them ponies, but there was a griffin, an Abyssinian, and who Smolder presumed to be Rep the dragon-changeling as well.
“What did I miss?!” Smolder demanded. They'd reached a set of stairs and went barreling up them as fast as they could.
“Nonchalant was Chrysalis!” Ocellus exclaimed.
“Queen Chrysalis!” Chrysalis objected. Her horn glowed and she ripped the door ahead of them from its hinges, none of the three having to slow down as they barreled up and into the Chill Spot. It was already being evacuated due to the noise and shaking and screaming from below, but at the sight of Chrysalis with her horn glowing bright, angry blue and Smolder trailing smoke from her nose and mouth as she ran (and Ocellus was there too), the remaining patrons all fled at full speed.
“She's Reformed!” Ocellus continued for Smolder. “But there's was a magic mirror to another world that has an evil Princess Cadance named Cacophony and she's the one who's been poisoning the Nook and she's been working with Catrina to do it but then she wanted to make Chrysalis her general and get her to help but instead of helping Chrysalis saved me and - ”
“There's an alicorn-changeling and her minions trying to kill us!” Chrysalis interrupted and summarized. She skidded to a stop and spun around, horn glowing bright blue and shooting a beam of energy straight at the door, nearly taking the head off of a hybrid that only barely ducked in time to avoid it. Chrysalis looked to Smolder. “Are you any good in a fight?”
Cacophony came surging up, spreading her wings wide and taking to the air, her twelve hybrids coming up after her. Smolder flexed her claws and spread her wings and breathed fire, but also shook her head. “I could take one or two, distract three or four, maybe...but, wait, Nonchalant could teleport!”
“Idiot, I'm Nonchalant - oh.” Chrysalis realized, then let out a yelp along with Smolder and Ocellus as the three had to duck down and under a blast from Cacophony. Chrysalis rolled over Smolder without getting up even as she turned into Nonchalant once more and grabbed Smolder and Ocellus in her hooves, horn glowing bright blue. There was a flash-pop and a bare second of nothingness, then the three of them appeared outside and in an alley across the street from the Chill Spot. The Sun had fully set by now, though the Moon and stars overhead were bright.
“Alright, now one of two things is going to happen,” Chrysalis said as she resumed her true form, then stated herding Ocellus and Smolder away. “Either Cacophony is going to cut her losses, grab the mirror, and run, which is what I'd do - ” There was a scream of pure rage and hate and a bright flash of pink as a column of magic shot up into the sky, “ - or she's too mad to think straight,” Chrysalis finished.
“WHERE ARE YOU, SHADOW-OF-MY-MOTHER?!” Cacophony cried. “I WILL TEAR THIS TOWN APART TO FIND YOU! DON'T THINK I WON'T!”
“The other me did a terrible job raising her,” Chrysalis noted over the sounds of Tiatarta’a population letting out cries of fright.
“Wait, what?” Smolder asked, blinking. “You raised Princess Cadance?”
“No, another version of Chrysalis raised this version of Cadance,” Ocellus provided, though from the sound of her voice it had been a reflexive response. She swallowed, looking to Chrysalis. “Wh...what are we going to do?”
“What that one is too stupid to: cut and run.” Chrysalis' form shimmered, and she became an orange-coated pegasus. “Ocellus, pegasus form for speed. Dragon...” She looked around, then grabbed a tarp that somepony had discarded in the alley off the ground and threw it over Smolder.”This'll have to do. We get to water and then swim for Los Pegasus.”
“What about Tiatarta?” Smolder demanded, tearing the tarp from her and tossing it aside.
“What about Tiatarta?” Chrysalis retorted.
“What about the Nook?” Ocellus asked.
Chrysalis began to respond to that, but froze as she did, glancing away. “I...” she began, stopped, then steeled herself and looked back to the two teenagers, returning to her true form as she did. “I can't fight Cacophony and her hybrids all at once, all alone! Not to mention I have no idea where Catrina is and that...concerns me.”
Smolder put her hands on her hips as she thought, then snapped her fingers. “Wait, the Nook!” She said. “There's five hundred changelings there. Some of them must have been warriors, right? We don't stop Cacophony from going there, we lead her there, even the odds!”
A smile slowly crept across Chrysalis' face. “Lead the creatures behind the poisoning of my changelings to them...no hybrid is a match for a true, pure-blooded changeling and there's hundreds at the Nook...good idea.” She gagged a little at that. “Geh. Still has an aftertaste.”
“Laugh it up, Chryssy.”
“Dragon, if you ever call me that again I will break your horns from your head and shove them up your - ”
“I found them!”
The three glanced up and down the length of the alley, and saw the Abyssinian-changeling. She had wings like the other hybrids, long and thin like a dragonfly's, with fangs that were about the size of an unreformed changeling's. She was pointing down the alley and waving to her compatriots. Chrysalis' horn lit up and fired a blast that hit the Abyssinian-changeling in the chest, sending her flying, then she turned on the teenagers as the three started running down the alley. “Ocellus, pegasus form, fly to the Nook and let them know we're coming, get them ready.”
“Don't use Chryssy's name,” Smolder added. She looked to Chrysalis and flexed her claws and beat her wings. “I'll help with the fighting, cover Ocellus.”
Ocellus glanced between the two of them. Smolder could tell that she wanted to argue being sent away, but she also seemed to know that all it would do was eat up valuable time. So instead, as they reached the opposite end of the alley, she threw her hooves around Smolder, hugging her tightly. “Be safe,” she whispered.
Smolder returned the hug tightly. “I'm sorry that I've been so greedy towards you,” she returned.
Ocellus pulled away, looking to Smolder's eyes. “It's not greed,” she insisted, tongue flicking out, tasting the air, the emotions in it - and its tip catching Smolder's snout just a little, sending a jolt straight through the dragon to the tip of her tail, making her wings spread to their absolute widest for reasons that Smolder couldn't grasp. Ocellus giggled at Smolder's reaction before breaking away, then flashed with blue fire as she turned into a pegasus - not just any pegasus, but Rainbow Dash, a from that was ideally suited for speed even if Ocellus couldn't reach the same extremes as the real deal. “We'll talk more later,” Ocellus said, her voice unchanged, before she shot up into the air and off in the direction of the Nook.
Chrysalis grabbed Smolder and dragged the semi-stunned dragon into the sky. “Come on, lovebug,” she said, catching a small purple stick that fell from beneath her elytra with her free hoof. “Much as I hate to say it I could use your help.”
Smolder shook her head to clear it, getting her wings under her and flying under her own power. Glancing behind her as they trailed after Ocellus-as-Rainbow Dash, she saw that indeed the hybrids and Cacophony had caught sight of them and were giving chase...and their numbers had grown by two. Smolder recognized Bubblegum, who looked angry, as well as another pony-changeling hybrid, probably Comet Tail from the convenience store. Fifteen-on-two odds, and one of those fifteen was an alicorn-changeling princess...
Cacophony let out a shout again, firing a blast of energy. Chrysalis and Smolder both dodged away from it in the air, then Chrysalis responded by firing back a bolt of magic herself, though she missed as well. There was several hundred feet between them and the hybrids - but all the pony-hybrids had shifted into pegasus forms, granting them extra speed that had Chrysalis and Smolder both beat. The distance was closing; they'd soon be close enough to try spitting ooze onto Chrysalis and Smolder, and while both could escape the ooze in their own ways, it would still knock them from the skies.
They were, at least, out from Tiatarta itself, flying over the jungle. Smolder looked to Chrysalis. “Ready to go, Chryssy?” She asked.
Chrysalis hissed - whether in anger at Smolder's continued use of the nickname or as a war-cry, she didn't know. But her form did flash with blue fire, and she was suddenly huge, a giant bird, a great roc, with a wingspan comparable to that of a wyrm dragon. Those wings flared and caught the air, instantly cutting Chrysalis's forward speed down to almost nothing - and causing the hybrids behind her to slam into her back and wings, too fast for them to slow down. They tumbled from the air, stunned, while Chrysalis crowed with amusement.
A tiny part of Smolder had reacted with fear to the sight of the roc and put on a burst of extra speed, but the more rational part of her mind flared her wings, cutting her own airspeed. She collided with Chrysalis' chest-feathers, but quickly grabbed hold and used them to pull herself up and over the roc-form's shoulder. Cacophony was right there, horn glowing, but she hadn't been expecting Smolder's appearance, nor the magenta fire that Smolder exhaled right at the alicorn-changeling's head. She let out a scream as she fell from the air, hooves clutching at her face.
Chrysalis shimmered and returned to her true form. Smolder made to fly off again, but something grabbed her leg. She turned and breathed more fire - but her target was Rep, who grunted in some small pain at the flames but didn't let go, instead pulling Smolder forward and slamming a fist into her jaw. Smolder saw stars, but didn't let that stop her from lashing out with her tail, smacking Rep across his face with all the force she could muster - which was quite a bit, causing Rep to release her.
It didn't matter - the distance advantage that Smolder had enjoyed over the hybrids was gone, as a pony-hybrid and the griffon one both now closed in on her. Smolder stopped beating her wings and let herself fall so the two collided in the air, but Rep was back then, tackling her in the sky even as he glowed with pink flames just as Smolder went to exhale more fire. By the time she was actually breathing it, Rep had abandoned his true form in favor of a fully draconic version of it - and all the fireproof scales that came with it. He grabbed her face and roared at her, green flames of his own washing over Smolder.
The teenager grabbed Rep's arm with both hands, using it as leverage as she kicked out her feet straight into his gut, her toe-claws scraping at the softer scales here. Rep let out a surprised cry at that, but didn't let go, instead readying the claws on his other hand and slashing at Smolder's eyes - but just as the tip of one claw might have reached her, the hand was seized in a blue aura and wrenched away. Rep cried out as the aura completely surrounded him and tore him from Smolder.
Smolder glanced around, and saw Chrysalis hovering in the air. She'd spat ooze in the face of on pony-changeling, seized the griffon-changeling by the tail an was swinging it around to bash and batter at another pony-changeling, while her telekinesis or magical blasts kept lashing out at hybrid after hybrid. One closed in and tried to grab her, but she jabbed it in the eye with the purple stick she still had in another hoof, and it fell away screaming. “If you're not good for at least four at a time then you're not much use, dragon!” Chrysalis exclaimed, hurling the griffon hybrid down.
Smolder growled, or started to, but movement from below caught her attention - the hybrids that Chrysalis' roc-trick had stunned were climbing from the canopy they'd fallen into and launching themselves into the air. Smolder let out the best roar she could as she plunged down towards them, breathing fire as she fell.
Magenta flames caught one hybrid right in its gossamer wing. it screamed as the delicate membrane was burned away, falling from the sky. Just as Smolder thought she'd found a weakness, though, the remaining hybrids all glowed and transformed into pegasi once more - giving them more robust wings in the process. Smolder collided with one anyway, punching it square in the muzzle and breathing fire at next one that tried to get close. But then hooves collided with her back, sending her tumbling away. She flared her wings lest she fall into the canopy, kicking off from the hybrid she'd been pummeling. She saw Rep was back, still in dragon-form. She avoided his dive, but only just barely, and for the effort was rewarded with a fly-by attack from one hybrid catching her in the stomach. She gasped in pain and belched out smoke.
The next hybrid to try a fly-by attack was rewarded with a tail-slap. Smolder breathed in deeply and then exhaled more smoke, filling the air with a black cloud that she surrounded herself in, granting herself a few moments of respite - or that was what was supposed to happen. Instead she'd barely stopped exhaling when a hoof collided with her head and grabbed on, dragging her straight up and out of the cloud - a pink hoof. Smolder whirled in its grip and tried to breathe fire on Cacophony again, but the alicorn-changeling was faster, kicking her away and then lighting up her horn and blasting Smolder straight-on in the chest.
It hurt.
It hurt a lot.
It was in fact, by a wide margin, the worst pain Smolder had ever felt, too much for her to even let out a roar of defiance or even a scream in pain. She went sailing away through the air instead, whole body completely unresponsive as she stared at the enraged hybrid princess, her face was blackened by the fire Smolder had hit her with, but she otherwise seemed fine as she turned her attentions from Smolder and to Chrysalis, who had just fended off a trio of hybrids. Five more - Rep and four currently wearing the guises of pegasi - plunged after Smolder's falling form.
Well...at least I'm distracting more than four like Chrysalis asked...Smolder mused as she hit the canopy.The shock finally spurred a response from Smolder's body, letting her cry out in pain as she hit leaves, branches, and a tree truck, the last stopping her descent for a moment before she fell to the forest floor, belly first. That pain was at least a little more familiar, not much worse than smacking belly-first into a pool of lava. She could live with pain like that.
Smolder picked herself up onto four limbs, tail and wings both sagging, as Rep and the other four hybrids all touched down in a semi-circle in front of her. Rep was sticking to his draconic form, and smacked the ground with his tail. Smolder pushed herself up onto her feet. She noticed that the hybrids were breathing heavily, even Rep, and he shouldn't have needed to breathe while a dragon. Reflexive action, probably? Or...wait, they were unreformed. They only had so much love, and the shifting had to be taxing them. Maybe if Smolder could just outlast...?
Rep surged forward, roaring green flames as he did. Smolder fell to her knees - not out of pain, but rather so that she could launch herself horns-first at him. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening, and he stopped his charge just in time to avoid skewering himself completely - but Smolder's horns still nicked his stomach, and Smolder felt softer flesh give as Rep cried out in pain, stumbling away with one hand at his chest. The blow hadn't been debilitating or anything like it, but maybe it hurt around as much as Cacophony had hurt Smolder.
Smolder grimaced as she stood back up, eyeing Rep and the four hybrids. Their forms all shimmered as they took on hybrid forms once more - and started heaving, readying ooze. Smolder was grateful for the warning as she pushed herself backwards, wings beating for extra speed even as she exhaled fire in as wide a cone she could manage. Two of the hybrids reacted with a surprised shock that caused the ooze to get caught in their throats, while the other two managed to spit ooze anyway, but missed due to the fire blocking their line of view. Rep had charged straight on through the flames. Smolder met the charge, claws on both flashing. But Rep's slash was downward, and Smolder smiled as she leaned into it, letting the claws rake harmlessly across her natural armor, while her own claws went up, going against the direction the scales folded and finding purchase in the softer flesh beneath. Her reward for her clever move was a cry from Rep, but also a spin and smack with his tail. She stumbled away, but made sure to breathe fire as she did to keep the other hybrids away.
She had a feeling that Rep had never fought a dragon before. She also suspected he was probably a fast learner, however - and he had backup and she didn't, not right now in any event. So she took in a deep breath and belched out a wall of smoke again, then turned and ran into the forest. She only needed to last long enough...
Just because Ocellus looked like Rainbow Dash at the moment, it didn't mean that she was capable of the same extreme feats of speed, which relied at least partly on pegasus magic that Ocellus could only partially duplicate. But even still, the professor at the school of friendship had spent years training her body, sculpting it into a speed machine, and so Ocellus' precise replica of it was still the best possible option for fast flight out of any pegasus form she could have taken . A rainbow contrail of simulated pegasus magic followed her as she beat her feathered wings as fast and as hard as she could.
Ocellus was within sight of the Nook, maybe half a mile out, when the hybrids struck. Two pegasi and a griffon burst from the foliage of the jungle ahead of her, too close for her to slow down or avoid. She collided headlong into the waiting grip of the griffon, who let out a gasp at the impact but was expecting it and so reacted quickly, grabbing her wings in her talons. Ocellus' cry of fright was muffled as the pegasi closed in on her, forms shimmering with pink magic and beginning to heave.
They'd forgotten about these hybrids - the ones sent out hours ago to cover the Nook, the backup plan for Bubblegum's team. Ocellus almost shifted into a bugbear, but then remembered Chrysalis' admonishment - going large consumed a lot of magic, made for a poor decision in a fight.
But what about going small? It had worked against Smolder earlier today in the water. Ocellus burned briefly with blue fire, transforming herself into a rat that easily squirmed from the griffon's grasp and ran along her arm and onto her back, before resuming her Rainbow Dash imitation and shooting off again.
The hybrids let cries of anger, giving chase. None of them had assumed their true forms; they probably didn't know that Ocellus knew about them. Unfortunately, her lead on the pegasus-hybrids was tiny, just a few feet; they couldn't spit out ooze at these speeds, but glancing behind her she did see one focusing, pink fire burning on his forehead as he struggled to maintain a fully pegasus form and its speed...while also giving himself a unicorn horn. He'd be able to blast her or seize her with telekinesis.
Ocellus let out a cry, flaring her wings and sticking her hind legs straight out behind her, cutting her speed - and slamming her hooves into the hybrid's face. He let out a surprised shout, pink fire consuming his entire body as he returned to his hybrid form and fell from the sky, colliding with and landing in the canopy of a tree. He tried to move for a moment before falling fully unconscious.
But now Ocellus was behind the griffon and pegasus hybrids, and they spun around quickly. Ocellus beat her assumed wings to try and get altitude, but the pony hybrid followed her while the griffon proceeded forward and towards the Nook, anticipating Ocellus' attempt to turn her ascent into a sudden dive for speed and distance. It had been a transparent strategy. Ocellus wasn't a fighter.
But she was an infiltrator, or at least she had been training to be one. And the number-one thing an infiltrator learned was divide and conquer. The pony hybrid was now hundreds of feet away from the griffon one. Ocellus' form rippled with blue fire again, returning to her true form - restoring her own horn. The hybrid had just enough time for his eyes to widen before a blast of energy struck him square in the chest. It didn't carry much force, but it did stop his ascent, allowing Ocellus to surge forward and past him before transforming into Rainbow Dash again, shooting off.
That left the griffon hybrid as the only one in front of her. She squawked and started ascending; Ocellus watched it happen, the speed the griffon was rising at, grimaced, and pushed everything she had into simulating pegasus magic, pouring love/magic into giving her every ounce of speed she could wring from her assumed form. It wouldn't be enough to avoid the griffon...but she didn't try to. Instead, as she closed in, she spread her front hooves wide as she collided with the hybrid and wrapped them around her, pinning the griffon's wings to her back even as the griffon did likewise.
Both were falling...but momentum was carrying them forward, too. The griffon glowed with pink magic and readied to spit ooze all over Ocellus, but she just flashed with fire and returned to her normal form, smiling at the hybrid. It gave her pause - just long enough for the arc of their fall to finally cause them to dip beneath the lip of a great hole on the top of a cliff. The griffon hybrid let out another squawk of surprise, flaring her wings - easily breaking them free of Ocellus' weak grip - but Ocellus grabbed the hybrid's hind legs before she could fly away, transforming herself into a bugbear, for the extra arms - and the weight. The love she'd use in maintaining the form would be replenished soon enough.
The griffon hybrid couldn't escape as Ocellus flared her bugbear wings, checking her descent and stopping while hovering just a few feet off the floor of the Nook's communal chamber. Changelings had noticed her arrival and flew all around her - hundreds of them, a tornado of colors that surrounded her. “It's me!” Ocellus called out quickly before she was swarmed. “It's Ocellus! We found the creatures attacking the Nook - the ones responsible for poisoning us!”
“Let me go!” The griffon cried out, realizing her predicament. “She's crazy! I haven't attacked any creature - ”
Ocellus was doing nothing to hide her emotions, however - the changelings could taste her sincerity. Several of them flew forward and to the griffon. “What's going on?” One asked. “Why was a griffon - ”
“She's not a griffon!” Ocellus insisted. Grimacing, she released one of the griffon's limbs, but only so that she could smack the griffon in the back of her head, as hard as she could without taking it off. The griffon let out a squak of pain and all the changelings in the room recoiled at the sudden burst of shock and fear - but then the griffon slumped in Ocellus' grip, and glowed with pink fire, revealing her true form.
Ocellus didn't even need to be in her own true form to taste the shock at the sight of the hybrid. She lay her down on the Nook's floor and then resumed her own true form, stumbling a little and letting out a gasp as she did as the rush of so many transformations so quickly - including maintaining such a big one - caught up with her, tearing holes open in her heart. A few changelings got over their shock and were beside her immediately, opening themselves up for her, allowing her to replenish herself, drink of their love in great gasps.
Ocellus looked around at the changelings, who were all looking down at her, every facet of every compound eye in the entire Nook focused on her. “Please, it'll take too long to explain!” She said. “Nonchalant and Smolder stayed behind to buy me time, they're fighting more of these hybrids - and one of them is, is powerful. As powerful as Chrysalis was!” She hoped that Cacophony was only that strong, anyway. “Please, they need the Nook, need a swarm, right now!”
In other creatures there might have been hesitation, uncertainty, doubt. But every single changeling could smell and taste Ocellus' sincerity and desperation - and the ones among them who in the Bad Old Days has been warriors for the Hive felt their training and emotions and determination to defend the Hive stirring, buoying the spirits of the other changelings around them further, the fires of righteous aggression that blazed through the Nook.
One of those warriors was next to Ocellus. He reached out, putting a hoof on her withers as his elytra opened wide. “Take us,” he said.
Ocellus wasted no time in getting her wings back under her. “Pegasus form for speed,” she said, turning back into Rainbow Dash once more. Dozens of changelings followed suit, taking on pegasus forms of their own - they weren’t as familiar with Rainbow Dash as Ocellus was - and following her into the sky.
Just hold on, Smolder...Ocellus thought as they shot off. You too, Chrysalis...
Chrysalis had dropped down into the jungle below. Flight and the maneuverability granted by the open air was useful; the cover afforded by the thick trees outside of Tiatarta was better, however, when Chrysalis was facing ten hybrids at once - one of them an alicorn hybrid.
Cacophony’s horn glowed bright pink, which was the only warning Chrysalis got to flare her wings and catapult herself into the sky. A beam of energy followed her, terminating when Chrysalis dove back down and ducked behind a rock which promptly had its entire top half gouged out and disintegrated. She had no time to contemplate that as a pair of hybrids zoomed in from either side. One was already busy spitting up ooze; Chrysalis avoided it, letting it hit the other hybrid and pin her wing to a tree, then grabbed the first one in her telekinesis and held him up so that he could take an incoming telekinetic blast from Cacophony. Air was blasted from his lungs and he went flying from Chrysalis’s grasp.
Maybe he’d be down for the count. She didn’t have time to find out, instead launching herself away and into the branches of a tree. A hybrid was waiting for her and launched ooze at her. She let it hit her hoof and wrap around it, then used her other hoof to smack the hybrid away. She spared a moment to vomit forth dissolving fluid into her leg, and the moment cost her as two more hybrids climbed the opposite tree, took on unicorn forms, and blasted her with rays at once, sending her flying from the tree. She landed on her three free hooves and started running.
“I - just had - to make a stand...” Chrysalis groused to the shadow, which she assumed was listening even if it wasn’t in sight, its home buried within shapeshifted flesh for protection. “Couldn’t trick Cacophony into the mirror first...no, I had to have my shouting match...”
There was movement from Chrysalis' left; she did the last thing the advancing hybrids probably expected and turned towards them, running headlong into the first one and sending him flying, then grabbing both of the other two in her hooves and crashing their heads together - but that was a mistake, as while both fell unconscious, the dissolving fluid Chrysalis had spat out had not yet had time to eat through the ooze stuck to her hoof. She now had a hybrid passenger.
It worked out in the short term; another hybrid jumped at her, the griffon one with tallons raised. Chrysalis ensured the unconscious hybrid stuck to her got new scars instead of her and then smacked the griffon with her erstwhile passenger. But when she tried to run again, the hybrid made it difficult. And now Cacophony was here again, horn glowing angrily.
“You've ruined EVERYTHING!” Cacophony shouted, lashing out with a wave of magic. Chrysalis lifted the hybrid stuck to her, and he took the brunt of it - but the force was still enough to send her flying. It did, at least, cause the hybrid to come loose from her, taking most of the still-sticky ooze with it. Chrysalis met the next magical blast with one of her own, the two beams struggling against one another.
“I'm going to make you pay,” Cacophony hissed as she redoubled her efforts. “You will suffer, shadow-of-my-mother!”
“Trust me, listening to you whine is suffering enough!” Chrysalis countered, pushing her own magic forward. Pink and blue power lit up the jungle - and let Chrysalis see that she was surrounded by four hybrids. Once they noticed, they all dove for her; she waited for the last possible second, then ended her struggle with Cacophony and ducked. The beam hit all four hybrids squarely, sending them flying into the jungle. Chrysalis rose quickly, elytra opening as she pushed herself into the air. Cacophony followed, stronger wings allowing her to close in on Chrysalis rapidly - but Chrysalis was more agile, and she dove away from an attempted buck from Cacophony with ease and get in a buck of her own straight to Cacophony's chest. The princess when flying away, and Chrysalis laughed - or started to, but then a hybrid flew up in front of her, shifted into unicorn form in mid-air, and let loose a blast that hit Chrysalis straight in her face.
She saw stars and was vaguely aware of a sensation of falling. By the time she'd recovered the ground was dangerously close. She managed to get her wings working again quickly enough to slow her descent, but not stop it - that was accomplished when she found herself skidding along the ground trying to get her hooves under her, but failing because a certain annoyance orange dragon ran into her. She knocked over Smolder even as her own legs failed, and the two fell to the ground, finding themselves on their backs and staring up at the sky.
“Hi Chryssy,” Smolder groaned. She didn't look great, missing scales in a few places, a tear in the membrane of one wing. A constant fire and stream of smoke came from her mouth and nostils - her internal fires were an inferno at the moment.
“I hate you - ” Chrysalis began, but her words transitioned into a cry of pain as she heard the crunch of the carapace covering her stomach cracking - Cacophony had landed on her with all four hooves. Chrysalis struggled to take in air, dimly aware of other hybrids surrounding Smolder and spitting forth ooze onto the dragon, cocooning her faster than she could exhale fire, making certain to seal the dragon's mouth.
Chrysalis rolled onto her side, trying to spread her wings and fly away, but the remaining hybrids were too fast for the stunned, agonized changeling queen, leaping into action and spitting out ooze across the length of her elytra, sealing them shut. Cacophony's hoof came down again, kicking Chrysalis in the stomach once more, making her cry out. “This...” the hybrid princess said, breathing heavily, brushing her mane from her wide eyes, “this is a start, shadow-of-my-mother! A start to your suffering! You ruined my plans!”
Chrysalis took in a breath, breathing throguh her nose since any air through her mouth would have only turned into a moan of pain, and she didn't want to give Cacophony the satisfaction. She smelled fury and loathing from Cacophony, anger and desperation from Smolder. The hybrids were full of aggression mixed with blind adoration for their princess. And further out she smelled...determination? And love?
She blinked, then closed her eyes, form glowing blue - taking on her common Reformed changeling form, the one she wore as Nonchalant. Cacophony had begun to strike at Chrysalis when the morph began, but checked herself when it ended, staring without comprehension. “What?” She asked. “Why - why are you...why would you want to look like a drone?”
Chrysalis sucked in breath, opening her eyes and looking at Cacophony. She smiled. “Mine's bigger,” she said.
Cacophony's mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to process that - and by the time she started to make a sound again, they arrived in the night sky overhead. At first it was in the form of a flock of pegasi, but the flock moved as one and started plumming towards the ground - and blue fire tore across each and every one of them as they fell. Becasue they weren't a flock of pegasi - they were a swarm. Dozens of Reformed changelings let out war-hisses as they impacted the ground all around Cacophony and her hybrids, quickly getting to their hooves with elytra and wings spread wide and horns glowing bright blue.
The hybrids reacted with hisses of their own, falling in around their princess, who was looking at the arrival of the changelings with stunned shock. “What...?” Cacophony demaded. “But - but...how?! Why? Why - ?!”
She didn't get any further than that when the changelings charged.