//------------------------------//
// And Carry a Big Torch (10) 
// Story: Super Pony Roomies 
// by TheManehattanite 
//------------------------------//


35


“Oxygen?” Twilight panted as they veered around another corner. 

“Maybe, but we’d need to contain him!” Crystal panted back. She was generating a mini whirlwind around her lower body to accelerate and provide a slipstream for Twilight to keep up. 

There was a violent burst of power behind them and cracks raced across the ceiling and floor. Twilight felt heat mounting behind them and grabbed Crystal’s foreleg, teleporting them into the doorway coming up on their right. They ducked behind some furniture as Black Bolt raced past their new hiding place, crashing through several walls.

“Sonics?” Twilight tried as they scurried through another archway. 

They could already hear the thundering sounds of Black Bolt coming back for them. The king lacked any sort of fine control in his fugue, but they couldn’t keep taking advantage of hairpin turns and overshoots forever. Not against a creature who couldn’t be slowed and could break through any cover. 

“Maximus uses them a lot,” Crystal agreed, “but…”

But HE'S a homicidal lunatic who wants to destroy your family, Twilight silently concluded as they galloped for a stairwell. Even if you could hurt Black Bolt badly enough to kill him, you just couldn’t. 

She winced as a distant booming made the entire floor shake. 

He, on the other hoof, barely even has to touch us to wind up with something like that time Pinkie forgot to clean her tapioca bowl and left it out in the sun. 

“Uh, banish him to a holding space?”

“What does that mean?!” 

“Only for a little bit! I’d bring him back!”

An archway loomed over them as they made it into daylight. 


***

The two panted outside the entrance to the Maze, scanning the deserted streets as they caught their breath. At least there wasn’t anyone around for Black Bolt to hurt. The ground shuddered under their hooves, nearby lights blowing out in bursts of Krackle. Oh, right, us, Twilight winced to herself. Us.

There was a hiss of hydraulics followed by a cheerful ping. Twilight realised there were elevators all along the walls of the prison entrance, because of course there would be when most of it was underground. “Oh,” Maximus said as he, not-Medusa and not-Triton stepped out, flanked by a contingent of guards, “well, that’s fortuitous. Did you really run the entire Maze?! And they call me insane!” 

“I can call him off you know,” Medusa taunted. “All you’d have to do is bow.” 

Her sneer became a frown as Crystal and Twilight looked at each other. 

Twilight smirked. “Beat the pucky out of her until she lets Black Bolt go?”  

“Now there’s an idea.” The advancing guards hesitated as the air around Crystal began to whistle and grow colder. 

“Out of the way!” Triton snapped, storming forward. “I’ll take ‘em both! Just as long as the pony’s mine!”

“I gave you no order!” Medusa screeched. Triton and the guards flinched. Maximus looked twice as besotted, but he was weird like that. 

He looked less happy as a purple glow lit up his collar, unleashing most of his cables and wrapping them around him. Medusa sprang backwards and into a feline crouch as he toppled to the marble, a spontaneous mini-tornado bursting into existence under the guards’ hooves and hurling most of her reinforcements across the courtyard. Twilight rose into the air, letting her eyes ignite with gathering magic. Crystal formed her static rings, making Triton reconsider lunging for them. 

Then the marble between them exploded. 

Twilight’s hasty field kept the worst of the wind, heat, and dust at bay, but the force was still like being run over by a train. She shook her head to clear it, then looked around frantically for Crystal. The Unknown struggled to pull herself up with the railings she’d crashed into. Twilight flapped to her side and helped her up, looking over at the clearing smoke and realising the only reason they were still alive was that Medusa had been knocked over, too. 

Black Bolt hovered above the small crater he’d made, bobbing ungainly. He was also facing the wrong way, his back to his targets. 

“Around, you fool!” Maximus coughed. “Turn around!” 

Black Bolt’s head drooped. 

“Agh, you never listen to meeeee!”

Medusa forced herself back to all fours, wiping her bangs out of her face and her eyes glowing a furious green. “Calm down, I’ve still got control!”

“Then tell the oaf to turn around!”

“I will if you give me a minute!” 

Both tyrants yelped as twin lights smacked into Black Bolt, rocking him forward. Medusa dived out of the way as Twilight’s amber and Crystal’s ice encased him, dropping a small meteor towards her. Maximus blinked at his brother’s face now inches from his own. 

“This way!” Crystal urged, leading Twilight towards the plaza across from the courtyard. They skidded to a halt as more guards swarmed in from both ends of the street. “Oh, shockin’ come on!” 

“Cousin!” boomed Gorgon, stomping through the pack. “Language! We have a guest! What in blazes is going on here?!” 

He spun as lightning surged out of the ice-amber, shattering Black Bolt’s prison. “Blackagar?! Maximus?!” 

“Yes, we know who we all are, thank you, cousin,” Maximus grunted, hopping to his hooves. The impact of his last landing triggered his cables, retracting them all back into his collar apart from two he used to smooth his mane. “You may all feel free to surrender.” 

“You must be joking!” Gorgon barked. 

“I admire a stallion with a sense of humour,” Medusa purred, dusting herself off as she joined Maximus. One of his cables affectionately draped around her waist. “Now, Black Bolt, bring those traitors over here. As many pieces as you can find!”

Twilight and Crystal braced as Black Bolt’s wings flared—

There was a flash and an airship the size of Applejack’s tractor slammed into him, both crashing through a guard tower, an elevator shaft, and presumably more walls.

Lockjaw cheerfully burst back into existence behind the staring crowd, dropping two superheroes face first into the street. 


36

“Twilight…?” Peter blinked through the mask. He wasn’t sure if the impact had messed up his right lens or whether that eye just wasn’t working. His ears were ringing but the grinding of his Spider-Sense was giving him weird bursts of lucidity. 

“Johnny?!” somepony cried. 

“…Crystal?!” The Torch flamed on and darted towards the yellow blur next to the purple Twilight blur. “What’s going on?! Your dog kidnapped me! Are you alright?! Is that a ponytail? It looks good on you!” 

“Thanks, listen, is the rest of the Family with you? Because this is one of those days!” 

Spidey cringed as Lockjaw picked him up by the tail, bounding through some armoured goons to drop him at Twilight’s hooves. “Are you alright?!” she asked, helping him up. 

“Maybe?” Peter decided. “What’s going on?!”

“Not sure.” Twilight blinked. “Did you follow me all the way out here?!”

“I don’t even know where here is!” 

“Attilan!” 

“Oh. Okay.” Spidey looked at the plumes of smoke and shattered glass, then caught sight of Medusa. 

His mouth suddenly tasted like battery acid and a creeping, clutching feeling spread across every hair and tendon in his body. Medusa looked back and they both sank into almost feral crouches. 

“Are you okay?” Crystal blinked at him, then looked between Johnny and Twilight. “Is he okay?” 

“What the shock is happening here?!” Gorgon demanded, stamping a hoof. It shook the entire street slightly but Spider-Pony and Medusa stayed locked in their stances, even as everyone who wasn’t in the air staggered. “Medusa! Explain yourself!”  

“That’s not Medusa…” said a guttural voice from under Spider-Pony’s mask. He could barely hear it over the pounding of whatever was happening with his biochemistry right now.

“Spider…” one of the guards said, tremulously. Twilight and the Torch blinked as guards who weren’t too terrified to move began to back away. 

“Spider!” The cry bounced between clusters, sending new ripples of itself among the whole group. Green bursts erupted here and there. “Spider!” Spider?!” “Spider!”

“Changelings?!” Twilight gasped. She’d have slapped herself for not figuring it out sooner if her brain wasn’t taken up with the chilling certainty of who was now in control of Black Bolt. 

“Invaders!” Gorgon bellowed, staring furiously at the panicking wave of insectoids trying to crawl over each other to get away from Spidey. “In my own army?! This shall not stand!” 

“Spider!” shrieked a hysterical changeling trying to climb up a shuttered kiosk. 

“Big deal!” Triton spat, bounding forward in a burst of green. His antlers evaporated into a crimson fin. “I’ll take ‘em all on! Nothing’s getting between me and the purple one!” 

Spidey’s head swivelled to glare at the changeling. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Pharynx?!” the Torch squealed with delight, squeezing his bunched hooves together and flaring even brighter. “You didn’t die in that wind tunnel explosion! Hallelujah!”

Crystal squinted. “You know this guy?”

“He’s Pharynx and he’s great!” Johnny nodded like a Lockjaw bobblehead. “He’s, like, my top favourite henchman ever and we have a blood feud and everything!” 

“No we don’t, stop telling people that!” Pharynx cringed. 

“You’re not going near Twilight!” Spidey growled. 

“Seriously?!” Twilight snapped. “In the middle of a warzone?! Sombra wasn’t bad enough?!”

“Wait.” Johnny’s glowing eyes widened to one overjoyed Sonic eye as he pointed at a green glow where Medusa had been standing. “If this is a changeling thing then that means…”

“Hello, Johnnycake,” Queen Chrysalis smiled coolly as a few last green sparks fell from her shoulders. “How have you been?”

“Eh, I like to live in the moment,” Johnny grinned. He flexed, an arsenal of flame construct weapons manifesting around him. “And right now, this is shaping up to be a great moment!”

“That’s about all it should take to be rid of you, yes.” Chrysalis’ fangs were showing. 

“Alright, I call dibs!” Johnny began whirling a pair of flame nunchucks in excitement, forcing everyone in his party, except the still hunched Spidey, to duck. “Twilight, I know you’ve had a lot of time to bond but there is some serious chemistry here, and you should know I don’t intend to give her back!”

Twilight stared at the Unknowns, then in concern at Spidey. This was happening too fast, too many questions. She looked at Crystal, who was looking up at Johnny with…was that a smile? She wished the swarm behind them would stop screaming “SPIDER!” so she could focus. 

Maximus trotted up beside Chrysalis, two collar cables producing a crown from somewhere and slipping it onto his head. Chrysalis chuckled as they held hooves and that seemed to calm her minions slightly. 

“You and Maximus?” the Torch asked, squinting.  

“Indeed!” The Mad Unknown buffed his chest. “My venomous Venus introduced herself shortly after her infiltration! You wouldn’t believe how far along she was! She just needed someknown who knew the colony to put the finishing touches on her plan!” 

“And then it became our plan,” Chrysalis simpered, nuzzling him. 

“Huh.” The Torch’s enthusiasm visibly dampened. “Well, you're the bad guy, shouldn’t expect your standards to be that high…”

Maximus’ cables reared up but Chrysalis simply patted his shoulder before taking a step forward, teleporting across the gap Black Bolt had created and reappearing only a few paces from the group. Pharynx stepped aside to let his queen take centre stage, but his narrowed eyes kept focusing on Twilight before tracking to Spider-Pony’s own. 

“Well?” Chrysalis asked, feigning boredom. “Who’s first?” 

“TREACHERY!” Gorgon roared, launching himself towards her. 

Twilight was seconds behind Crystal shouting a warning, but it was drowned by the impact of his hooves crashing down on…where Chrysalis had been standing. 

It was like watching stop motion played on two screens at once, at different speeds. Twilight watched helplessly as Chrysalis sidestepped Gorgon’s lunge, skipped into the air to avoid the shock waves, then almost playfully boxed his ear before landing like a facetious cat. 

Gorgon snarled, swinging his bulk around and kicking backwards so hard the air rippled, but Chrysalis wasn’t there anymore. The Unknown let out an indignant cry as he felt her hoof on his back, effortlessly pivoting over him, landing in front of him, smacking him across the eyes with a wing. 

Gorgon howled, rearing back in shock. Chrysalis blocked his blind swipe with one hoof, not even flinching as the ground under them cracked, then wrapped her willowy forelegs around her opponent’s leonine own and hauled as casually as lifting a cart’s tarp to load groceries. 

All 485 lbs of Gorgon staggered backwards, struggling for balance and leaving his torso wide open. Chrysalis shrank almost bonelessly low then sprang up like a piston, driving an elbow into the Unknown’s belly. 

The breath had barely been driven out of Gorgon’s mouth before she flipped backwards and locked her hind legs around his throat, actually trapping some of it. Chrysalis didn’t even grunt as she dragged him into the air, hurling him across the street to slam through the shuttered doors of a building. Halfway through her graceful tumble upright she teleported, now back where she’d been standing as if nothing had happened, beyond needing to adjust a strand of her mane. 

Chrysalis had just beaten one of the strongest Unknowns and it had taken seconds. Without magic. No, Twilight chided herself, she was running on…

Chrysalis’ swarm seemed to be settling down, excited hissing rising here and there. Crystal was gaping at the shattered shutters, then rounded on the queen with glowing eyes, rising into the air on a conjured thundercloud. 

“Wait!” Twilight and Johnny cried in synch. They blinked at each other. 

The Torch indicated with his flaming head. “Uh, you wanna…?”

“They steal love!” Twilight called. “We have to be careful, she’s multiplied her magic at least tenfold!”

“At least?!” Maximus huffed. “I can lavish my new queen with far more than that!” 

“…yes,” Chrysalis murmured distantly, before putting a bit more simper into her grin, “of course my Maxie Waxie can! But I’ll only need about a fraction to--”

She cried out, just managing to form a force field against three concentrated beams of magic, lightning, and fire. Johnny and the princesses managed to push her back, but nothing else. Chrysalis flared her wings, stopping herself completely. 

As the other two backed off, Crystal slammed her hooves hard against the marble, sending a rumbling barrage of localised quakes straight towards Chrysalis. The changeling dropped her field, sneering as her horn glowed and somehow redirected the waves around her. 

Maximus’ jeering laughter was cut short as they knocked him off his hooves. “Perhaps we should just teleport them into the Maze, my little Batteley Axely?” 

“Oh, but I have an example to set!” Chrysalis cooed, her eyes glowing green. “Besides, there’s plenty of us all over the colony. We can simply make more of them.”

A violet flash on her right! Chrysalis sprang sideways as a hovering Twilight fired shards of amber towards her but jumped right into a fire hose blast from Crystal. 

Twilight was caught completely off guard by a savage hiss, whirling in mid-air as Pharynx lunged for her—

A roaring red and blue blur torpedoed into the changeling’s side, sending them crashing into the middle of the horde. They chittered and screeched, climbing over each other to get out of the way as Spider-Pony furiously suplexed Pharynx so hard they bounced back into the air. 

Pharynx twisted, spinning them so his hind hooves connected with a wall in their path first and grabbed his opponent’s nearest foreleg in his jaws, slamming him into the space under them. Spider-Pony scrabbled for purchase as his tail swatted into the changeling’s eyes, following it with a headbutt that sent Pharynx skidding further up the side of the building. Cries of “Get it, Phrankie!” and “Yeah, howzat!” rose over hysterical shrieks of “Spider!” 

Spidey lunged up the wall, punching a web of cracks into where the darting changeling had been. The windows on either side of them burst, scattering the swarm as glass tumbled towards them. Pharynx hissed down at his opponent and Twilight could swear she heard Peter hissing back. 

She looked around, wings keeping her aloft even in a daze. Chrysalis was teleporting to different perch points, laughing as the Horseshoe Torch flitted after her, hurling fireballs seconds too late. Maximus was wrestling to pull his cape out of Lockjaw’s teeth as two of his collar cables, armed with miniature buzz saws, kept Crystal back. 

Twilight made a decision and used her telekensis to tie Maximus’ cables together. The Unknown let out a surprised yelp, loosing his footing. Lockjaw snarled and bounded towards an escalator, bouncing his prey’s head off every third step. 

“Good boy,” Crystal panted as Twilight landed beside her. “Only a whole shape changing army to go.” 

“We need a plan.” Twilight wrapped her hooves around the Unknown’s waist and urged her into the air as some of the horde lunged for them. “Whatever Chrysalis has tapped into she’s more than we can handle. We need to find the boys and regroup somewhere.” 

“But Johnny’s--” Crystal began as she formed a cloud. 

“Out of his league.” Twilight looked down at a now familiar glow coming from further up the block. “Because I think I know who’s love she’s running on…”


37


This was so much cooler in my head…

The Horseshoe Torch twisted to fly between a gap in the railings of a bridge connecting two buildings. Chrysalis was teleporting further up, and he was still seconds behind her, still only able to pull off his most basic move. 

“What’s the matter, your highness?” he called as another fireball burst on an empty balcony. “Too high and mighty to spend some time with your adoring public?” 

Chrysalis materialised casually balanced on the bridge now behind him. “Aren’t you having fun, little Torch? The youngest are usually so easy to entertain!” 

“Ooh, psychology!” Johnny darted back and forth in the air, trailing flame to make it even harder to pin him down. “See, it’s little things like that! I mean, I’m too studley and secure for it to work, but it’s the thought that counts! Literally!”

“You have no idea,” Chrysalis chuckled to herself. “Are you sure you want to do this? I’ve all this new power I’m just itching to use!” 

“You said the same thing in Subterrania that one time,” Johnny shot back, forelegs folded, “and how’d that work out? Besides, you’re not the only one who’s picked up a few tricks!”

“Stage magicians do tricks, dear. I’m a queen.” 

Chrysalis’ head shot back suddenly, her mouth gaping horrifically to fire a wave of ichor. Johnny yelped as he shot upward, instinctively firing off a jet of flames. Chrysalis sprang backwards seconds before it struck the bridge, twisting disconcertingly so she could scuttle down the railings and into the shadows of its underside.  

Johnny marvelled at the gross green net the mucus stuff had formed between buildings. He’d forgotten. Now he thought about it, fighting Chrysalis was like when he and Pete used to—

Peter. He’d make a trap like this so he could…

Smirking, the Torch rocketed downward, thickening his contrail to leave a vertical wall of flame. Chrysalis materialised behind where he would have been and gasped in shock, managing to halt her sweeping kick before she plunged her leg into molten agony.

She cried out as two more fireballs hurtled towards her, twisting her shoulders to avoid having her wings scythed off, preparing a green bolt for…nothing. Her head whipped around as a portal opened in the still blazing contrail and an epidermal basketball bounced off her nose.

“Swish!” the Torch grinned as she toppled backwards. He dived after her through the contrail, absorbing it. He conjured a giant burning fly swatter as Chrysalis crashed into some high-tech roof fixtures on the building below them. “Followed by a hoooooome ruuuu—NGH!” 

Chrysalis’ green telekinetic field surrounded him, yanking his forelegs and head back sharply. She’d completely killed his momentum too, which added to the strain of being bent over an invisible knee. Made of adamantium. The pressure was so much he almost flamed off. 

“Impudent brat!” Chrysalis hissed, buzzing into view. 

Johnny desperately increased his flames but the field didn’t even flicker. He’d seen her pull rusted mechanisms apart once, but this much power…! That smile and the glow around her horn probably weren’t good, if she didn’t break his back first!

A thundercloud formed behind Chrysalis and electrocuted her. The queen yelped as if somepony had pinched her somewhere inappropriate, then stared at purple crystal weights that suddenly sprang around her hooves. Johnny gasped as they dragged her down and through a skylight, releasing the field. 

“You guys teamin’ up now?” he wheezed as Crystal and Twilight raced across the sky towards him. “Cool! Guess more than just your colour schemes go together, huh?” 

“Not now!” Crystal insisted, using her powers to grab some of his flames like reins and pull him after them as they shot towards the horizon. 

“Uh, yeah now! We’ve got her on the ropes!” 

“What universe are you living in?” Twilight snapped. “Chrysalis is at least skilled enough to go horn to horn with Princess Celestia, Johnny! And that’s before she absorbed enough love to shield against all our magic at once!”

“You know magic?!” Johnny grinned at Crystal. 

“No! What?” Crystal stared at him, laughing incredulously as they looped around a tower. “C’mon, focus!” 

“She’s been toying with us!” Twilight snapped. “And Black Bolt could be back any second! We’ve got to grab Gorgon and…and Spider-Pony and get off the colony before--”

A green burst blinded them. Chrysalis hovered in the air before them, giving them time to recover and see her smiling, forelegs folded. 

“Before I…stop toying with you, little princess?”

“Dunno, pretty sure we’re not even into overtime yet,” The Torch smirked, cracking his hooves and sending out sparks. All three mares rolled their eyes, though Crystal did it with a smile. 

Chrysalis’ horn spat three green lightning bolts, forcing them to scatter before realising they hadn’t been the targets. Nothing had. 

“No!” Crystal cried as they swirled down among the building, igniting three green explosions. The windows of a high tower blew out. Acrid green smoke billowed up at them. 

She began to dive her cloud towards the sounds of sirens before a green glow enveloped them all. 


***

The three flinched to find themselves in the air over a park, the battered Maze courtyard in the distance. Chrysalis smirked, eyes glowing, and Lockjaw and Maximus appeared in a burst of green sparks too. 

Maximus took advantage of the dog’s surprise to buck him in the face and staged free of his jaws. “Chrysaliiiiis!” he sing-songed irritably. “I’m not having fun anymooore!”

“There there, dearest,” Chrysalis sighed, “mommy’s almost done.” 

She glanced at two wrestling shadows on the rooftops, not even looking as she formed a field to absorb a twin flame attack from Crystal and Johnny. A ring of surprised changelings, some still disguised, appeared among the grass, Pharynx and Spider-Pony tumbling out of the air to crash into a fountain. 

Lockjaw grunted in confusion, turning away from the sight as one of Maximus’ cables waved for his attention. It squirted a yellow gas in his face. The great beast whined and champed, staggering here and there before collapsing. 

“Go!” Johnny called to Crystal as Chrysalis dived towards the fountain. The Unknown looked uncertainly at him but shot towards her pet, forcing Maximus back with waterjets. 

Chrysalis glanced irritably over her shoulder to see the Torch and Twilight swooping after her. She stopped suddenly, forcing them to pull up and around to avoid smacking into her. “Alright, enough is enough. You want to save somepony, little princess? Catch him.”

Johnny squinted. “Catch who?” 

“Johnnycake?” Chrysalis said sweetly. She turned to him, her eyes gently pulsing green. “Ultracrepidarian.” 

“Yes, your highness,” Johnny smiled and flamed off. 

Wait, what? 

Johnny was too surprised to cry out as he began to drop. 

Twilight stared at Chrysalis, who nodded down at the flailing Earth Pony expectantly. She shot downwards, wrapping her forelegs around his still warm torso as she swooped almost half the length of the park to keep from ploughing both of them into the asphalt. Changelings ducked and yelped as she shot over them. 

“Are you crazy?!” she snapped at Johnny, braking over some trees. 

“No?! I mean…” Johnny stared at his hooves. “Flame on!” Twilight flinched but…nothing. “Flame on! Flame on!” 

They stared at each other as Twilight landed, gently laying him against a trunk. 

“She turned off my powers…” Johnny said to no one. 



***

Chrysalis landed effortlessly by the fountain as her swarm cheered. It became screams as Spider-Pony erupted from the water, aiming a punch right at—

Chrysalis swatted it aside, sending him spinning over the edge of the fountain and to the cobbles. Spidey rolled with it and sprang at her again. Just like Pharynx, no banter, just a savage blur of punches and kicks with maybe the occasional snarl. 

Chrysalis danced around each blow, grinning. “Yes, I’m excited too! But more experienced, I think. You’ve never been around a warrior class before, have you? Much too incautious!”

She began to use her elbows to block each attack as Spidey doubled his frantic pace. 

“I’ve been half expecting something like this, you know,” she chuckled, not even breathing hard. “You’re much more public than any of your predecessors! But then, a lower profile didn’t protect any of them either!”

She sidestepped as Spider-Pony lashed out with a wild kick, shattering the base of the fountain. A stunned and sopping Pharynx sloshed onto the grass as water rushed out, backing the cheering swarm up. 

“What are you?” Spidey snarled as he managed to turn a failed charge into locking shoulders with Chrysalis. That didn’t budge her either. 

“Deadlier than the male,” the queen chuckled. “It’s part of why your instincts are… You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?” 

Spidey took a step forward that cracked the asphalt. Behind them Crystal was knocked off her hooves by a sweeping cable but slapped a hoof against the water, freezing Maximus in place. 

“Thought not!” Chrysalis sneered. “Well, for what it’s worth I don’t put much stock in those old totem feuds. A waste of energy, not that I don’t have enough to spare. But I do have an example to set to my subjects, so I want you to understand this is strictly professional.” 

She broke the lock with an effortless flex, ducking under Spidey’s follow up headbutt. The Web-Slinger flipped back onto his forelegs, aiming a forward mule kick that glanced off a green shield. The swarm hissed and cheered as the force flipped him face first to the ground. 

Twilight and Johnny watched, mesmerised, as Chrysalis blocked his next two roundhouse swings with her forelegs, then clenched her left hoof and swung the flat of it into Spidey’s chin. He staggered back, half turned by the force. Chrysalis lit up her horn and rammed the flat of it into his side. Spidey cried out as green lightning raced all over his body. 

Chrysalis spun as Twilight charged her, stopping her in her tracks as that same lightning blasted a ragged, smoking curve between them.

Johnny tried to shake off the shock and pull himself to all fours as Spidey launched another fruitless kick. Chrysalis deflected it with a foreleg and actually grabbed his leg, using it to pull his stomach into her other elbow. She finished by letting a gasping Spider-Pony curl around it, his head lolling on her shoulders, then screeched with triumph, launching them both into and through the remains of the fountain. Masonry shattered as she slammed her opponent into it and stomped down.

Spider-Pony sprawled beneath her. And didn’t get up. 

“Bravo!” Maximus called from a staring Crystal’s headlock as screeches and cheers rose up from the changelings. Pharynx resentfully pulled himself to all fours, glaring at the prone hero. Twilight’s heart was pounding hard enough to shake her apart. 

“This is what you’re afraid of?!” Chrysalis bellowed at her horde. Her horn glowed, hoisting Spidey up by his shirt. “This?!” 

The crowd cheered as she dropped him, ramming a leg into his side. They became less enthusiastic as he skidded towards them. Crystal tossed Maximus aside and raced over to him. 

“Back off!” she snapped, holding up a burning hoof. Some of the changelings had been cautiously creeping towards them but even they seemed grateful for the excuse. 

Chrysalis basked in her subjects’ adoration then hesitated, turning to see Twilight. Her eyes were fully alight, a wind was whipping up and nearby metal crackled with purple sparks. 

Chrysalis frowned, confused. Was the child preparing for some kind of last desperate stand or something? That look in the little upstart’s eye though…how much magic had she exerted humiliating these fools? Twilight was a student of Celestia, not an Avatar of the sun, but a student who had achieved Alicornhood, and the queen’s source wasn’t here to keep her fully charged. 

“Oh poo!” Maximus muttered, craning his neck at a glint in the sky. “And just as we were having fun too. Typical!” 

“What?” Chrysalis blinked at him then looked up. The glow faded from Twilight’s eyes as she realised what it was. 

A silver streak was weaving towards them across the sky, angling down sharply. The shadow at its centre was becoming too defined for comfort. Black Bolt was coming for them, still under Chrysalis’ control and completely lacking any over his own powers. 

“Oh no,” Chrysalis said distantly. She reared up waving her hooves. “No, nonono, stop! Not while I’m down here! You’re going to--”

Twilight looked at Crystal trying to haul Spider-Pony onto her back then behind her at Johnny, frozen at the sight of Black Bolt reduced to a brick through a cosmic window, and knew she didn’t have a choice. She galloped over to him, tackling him to the ground and throwing up a force field, praying it was enough for whatever came next. 

It almost wasn’t. 

Black Bolt crashed into the middle of the park. Lightning poured out of the impact site, carving the quaking ground into jagged fragments. Twilight felt the one she and Johnny were now stranded on pitching backwards, looked over to see Crystal clinging onto Spidey with one foreleg and the edge of theirs with another…

And then everything went white. 


To be Continued