//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 - Boss Fight: Queen Bee Pt: 2 // Story: Terraria: Friendship Is Magic // by Pomp-Neigh //------------------------------// -TERRARIA, UNDERGROUND JUNGLE BIOME- The war between hornets and ponies waged on as they contend for the possession of The Blade Of Grass. Most of Queen Beezma’s hornets were slain by Applejack’s mighty blade in addition to the cowmare’s allies’ various attacks. In a nearby bush Fluttershy was slowly coming to and rises back on to her hooves, she suddenly gasps as she says: “Oh no!, everypony is still fighting. Oh dear, um, I need to summon my friends again!”, The pegasus then re-summons her animal/creature allies with their respective staves to which she then sends back to her inventory: A Snow Flinx, Green Slime, and a Finch. Fluttershy looks towards the slime with a confused expression as she asks: “Why is there only one of you now?, Applejack and the others told me I summoned a whole army of you but, um, I don’t remember doing that...”, The shy pegasus sighs sadly however she quickly narrows her features in determination as she conjures her silver bow equipped with fire arrows and looks towards the battle taking place nearby as she says: “This isn’t the time for that, everypony needs me. Come my animal friends!” Zecora, Ritsu, and Gex were surrounded by a swarm of hornets as the trio stood back to back in a triangular formation. Suddenly, an arrow punctures one of the hornets heads killing them instantly followed by a finch who plucked out another hornet’s eyes. “I’m here everypony!”, Fluttershy shouts as she trots over to the group and joins their ranks which causes them all to nod happily. Fluttershy points a front hoof towards the swarm and says: “Go Mr. Slime and Miss. Flinx, support Sir. Finch in his attack!”, upon hearing her orders The Flinx and Slime get to work. The flinx freezes some of the hornets solid upon which the slime comes and shatters the frozen forms of said hornets killing them in the process. This causes the others to comment: “Talk about calling in the Calvary, nice to have you back to the world of the living Fluttershy!” - Ritsu, The Zoologist. “Your abilities as a summoner are truly great, with our increased numbers these hornets shall meet their fates!” - Zecora. “I never met a snow Flinx in my life, I’m proud to have one by my side in this fight.” - Gex. The group continues to face off against the swarm of hornets however, in the background, Pinkie Pie and Applejack can be seen fighting together against Queen Beezma. “Give me the blade peasants!”, Queen Beezma exclaims as she attempts to ram into her foes. “Not on yer’ life, ya overgrown varmint!. ‘Sides, this blade is nothin but a hindrance to yer’ hive. Why the blazes do you want it so badly?!”, Applejack exclaims as she and Pinkie Pie dodges Beezma’s attack. Pinkie Pie takes advantage of the opportunity and takes a swing at the queen bee with her silver broadsword as Beezma flies over the party pony. “GRAUGH!”, Queen Beezma exclaims as Pinkie Pie lands a successful blow onto the queen of the hornets, green blood starts to leak out drip from the wound. “Hehehe, that was fun. Come and get me, fatty!”, Pinkie antagonizes as she teases The Queen Bee by putting her front hooves to both of her cheeks and says: “Nananana boo boo, ppffffft”, Pinkie sticks out her tongue in a mocking gesture. “I will mount your bones on the walls of my royal chambers you pink abomination!”, Queen Beezma antagonizes. “Oooooh, back it up then, fatty!”, Pinkie retorts as she turns around and shakes her flank towards Queen Beezma. This further angers The Queen Bee however before she could go any further a sudden surge of immense pain engulfs her body which causes The Queen to once again roar out in pain: “GRAUGH!", Beezma turns her head to her lower abdomen only to discover that a smirking Applejack has impaled her with The Blade Of Grass, the cowmare using her rocket boots to get aloft. Green blood leaks down the queen’s abdomen, in retaliation, she uses one of her back legs to strike Applejack. “ARGH!”, Applejack cries out as she’s sent flying towards the jungle floor, however, her silver armor is able to absorb some of The Queen Bee’s attack and as such the cowmare regains her composure in time and lands onto her hooves before she collides with the earth causing her to ski across the landscape leaving behind a small crater from her legs. Pinkie runs over to Applejack as the two stand side by side ready to attack their foe once more however Applejack’s eyes widen in horrific shock as she says: “Ah dagnammit, I dropped the blade when she struck me!” Suddenly, the world around Pinkie, Applejack, and Queen Beezma slows down as they all focus their gaze on the blade of grass that sat just between them. The two ponies on one side, The Queen Bee on the other. The moment almost felt similar to a western showdown as both sides knew that whoever is quicker will be the one to claim the blade. Coincidently, a leaf flies by acting as a metaphorical, ‘tumble weed’. [CLOP] [CLOP] [CLOP] [BZZ] [BZZ] [BZZ] The sounds of clopping hooves and intense buzzing roars out as both sides rapidly makes their way towards the blade, Queen Beezma seems to have the lead until Applejack smirks and shouts: “Now Pinkie!” “Okie dokily yokily!”, The party mare replies as she then pulls out a tray of cupcakes from her mane and shouts: “Here you go!, honey flavored cupcakes for your eyes!” [BLOINK] [BLOINK] [BLOINK] “You wretched trickster!”, Queen Beezma exclaims as she was blinded by the cupcakes splattered onto her eyes. The two ponies smirked as they had assumed the blind Queen Bee would relent however, to their utter shock, Queen Beezma still rapidly makes her way towards the blade as they both cry out: “NO!”, The ponies come to a sudden stop and to their horror the worst case scenario played out before them, Queen Beezma has won the race and to the victor goes The Blade. “Fools, we bees don’t rely entirely on our eyes to navigate. Even if you were to gush my eyes out I’d still find you thanks to my senses. Finally, The Blade is right where it belongs. Now perish you worthless ponies, behold the blade’s power!”, Queen Beezma proclaims as she raises the blade over her head. A dark green aura emanates from The Blade Of Grass as she says: “Come forth creatures of vines, consume my enemies!”, In mere seconds, the very same vine creatures that had appeared in the groups first conflict with the swarm of hornets erupts from the jungle floor: Snatchers. (Image belongs to its respective owner) “We’ve got ta’ get to the others Pinkie!”, Applejack exclaims as she and the party pony run over to the rest of the group who were now being surrounded by the vine creatures and the hornets. The entire group now stands back to back, including Fluttershy’s three summoned allies, in a large circle formation and braced themselves to fight off their foes. The swarm of hornets were about to start mocking them but everyone was shocked to see what happened next. The Snatcher’s began to eat the hornets as they cry out: “My Queen, why?!” “Why are they attacking us?!, they follow the commands of the blade’s wielder.” “Mother, please!” “How could you?!” Everyone stared on in horror at the gruesome scene before them, the entire swarm of hornets were being casually devoured by The Snatchers and most disturbingly, it was by Queen Beezma’s command. Fluttershy had tears going down her face as the animal lover couldn’t help but to say: “B-but t-they are h-her children...”, Zecora sees this and leans against the weeping pegasus as does her summoned Slime, Flinx, and Finch who could sense their summoner's emotional state. “This Queen is nothing but a brute, to sacrifice ones own children, shame on you!”, Zecora shouts as she stares daggers towards the Queen Bee who was laughing manically throughout the whole massacre. “Ya no good heartless insect!, not even Chrysalis ev’r done something this bad to her own children!”, - Applejack. “You are such a meanie!” - Pinkie Pie. “She is the main reason why I always avoided the hornets' nest, she’s willing to sacrifice her own brood just for that stupid blade!” - Ritsu. “She is unworthy of life, let us end her and this strife!” - Gex. A whole hour goes by as the group start to feel the fatigue of their current predicament, for every Snatcher they slayed another would quickly regrow and replace it. These creatures literally had to be taken out by their roots which sadly no one in attendance had an effective way of doing. During this time even Pinkie Pie had changed her appearance as her mane deflated and her fur grayed out. All the while, Queen Beezma monologues and taunts the group saying: “Oh how I enjoy watching you all squirm, to fight for your meaningless life!. I am Queen Of The Jungle, none have any authority over me. I decide on who lives and who dies!. I am- AURGH!”, Suddenly, Queen Beezma roars out in pain and is in utter shock as green blood starts to spill onto the jungle ground beneath her and to the shock of everyone present the queen’s leg that had once held the blade was amputated as it fell to the floor. The vine creatures noticeably stopped their assault and to the delight of the ponies, Zebra, Lihzahrd, and Kitsune, the creatures retreated underground never to be seen again. For now it would seem. “You are unworthy of being The Hive’s Queen for any longer, mother!”, 626 shouts in anger as it is revealed the hornet was responsible for cutting off Beezma’s front leg and, held in 626’s own leg, was the blade of grass. “For my fellow siblings that you murdered!” [SHLINK] The battle has finally been won as Queen Beezma’s decapitated head falls to the earth below and after a few moments a loud crashing sound engulfs the area as the rest of her body followed soon after. Everyone watched on with their mouth’s agape, aside from Pinkamena who casually says: ”Queen Bitch got what she deserved...” “That she did partner, good riddance to ya. No good rotten apple.”, Applejack says as she spits onto the floor. Suddenly, two things happens next: The first, various items begins to form around Queen Beezma’s corpse and shortly after each item floats into the air and duplicates itself into eight identical items, one for everyone present including 626. Ritsu and Gex smirk as they say in unison: “Here comes the loot!” (Revealed in Author’s Notes) The second, 626 made everyone flinch, aside from Pinkamena who simply looked on carelessly, as the hornet tosses The Blade Of Grass towards the direction of the ponies and begins to burrow into Queen Beezma’s dead corpse. Shock and a sense of disgust was present on Applejack, Zecora, and Fluttershy’s expression however Gex and Ritsu looked onto the spectacle as if they knew what was going to happen next. “Prepare yourselves friends, we are about to witness something remarkable by this nights end, the scene before us may seem disturbing and grotesque, but watch as a new Queen Bee arises from the corpse of the dead.”, Gex says as sure enough 626 exits the corpse of the deceased Queen Bee with some sort of gel like substance in the hornet's mandibles. “Royal jelly huh?, no wonder that hornet burrowed into her. Doubt she’d give it up willingly soooo...”, Ritsu says as she shrugs her shoulders. Suddenly, a yellow glow surrounds 626 which causes the hornet to slowly grow in size. No one could see the hornet as 626’s body was completely consumed by the yellow energy but judging by the outline of the yellow energy consumed figure everyone could tell instantly, a new Queen Bee was being born. Shortly, the yellow energy disperses and a large figure similar in size and appearance to former Queen Beezma hovered in the air above the group. “You have my gratitude Ponies, Zebra, Lihzahrd, and Kitsune. Now, fulfill your part of the bargain and take the blade. From this day forward I am Queen 626, I must admit I’ve grown attached to that name.”, Queen 626 declares. “Oh my, I must say, you look so beautiful.”, Fluttershy compliments. “Fer what it’s worth, we couldn’t have gotten the blade without your help, Yer’ Majesty.”, Applejack says as she nods her head. “Oh, oh, oh, maybe we can throw you a congratulations-for-helping-us-kill-Queen-Beezma-and-becoming-a-Queen party!”, Pinkie pie congratulates as she returns to her normal party pony self. “So what happens now?, you’d better not follow your mother’s example...”, Ritsu says as she narrows her eyes. “My mother was a fool, murdering her own children just to satiate that blade’s power was the last straw. As Queen I shall never commit her sins against The Hive, I shall find a new home beyond this place and construct a new nest, farewell.”, Queen 626 says as she turns around and takes to the skies however she suddenly stops and looks back to the group. “Heed my warning, the hornets from my old hive may no longer dwell in this jungle but know that there are greater dangers here. Dangers that not even The Blade Of Grass can combat, like what lurks within that large temple in the distance.", The moment Queen 626 mentioned The Temple, Gex noticeably winces. "I can say this for certain, none of you are prepared... Leave this place and get stronger. Only then can you possibly face greater foes.”, With those final words Queen 626 takes their leave and disappears into the distance. The entire group of friends were waving their hands and hooves as Queen 626 flew away to say their good bye's. Applejack sighs with a content smile and says: "Well y'all, I'd say we got ourselves a successful mission. Come on everybody, let's go home.", Everyone begins to cheer for their success in retrieving the blade as they make their way towards the surface. However, unknown to them all something was watching them nearby as it remained hidden amongst the greenery: "So you're with the surface dwellers now... you traitorous fool." Some time has passed and the group find themselves on the surface of The Jungle once more. Coincidently, morning has just arrived as the group starts to part ways in order to return home. “Thanks fer’ helping us Gex, ye’r always welcome to Home Town. Watch over Zecora fer’ us ya hear?”, Applejack asks. “Fret not dear friends for that is what I intend to do, by my honor as a Witchdoctor this I assure you.”, Gex replies. “Fare well for now my friends, I shall stop by Home Town later to purchase goods from Lucan.” - Zecora “See you later Gex and Zecora, I can’t wait to meet those other ponies you guys told me about!, eek!”, Ritsu The Zoologist says as she jumps happily. “You can even stay with me Ritsu, my house has lots of room and animals. If that’s ok with you?”, Fluttershy asks with a content smile. “We are throwing so many parties!”, Pinkie exclaims as she hops around merrily. The two groups depart as Zecora and Gex enters the zebra’s home while everyone else summons their newly acquired bee mounts thanks to their Honeyed Goggles item. They take to the skies and head towards Home Town, everyone is celebrating their accomplishment in addition to enjoying their new flying mounts. Applejack looks into the morning sky and says: “Mission accomplished everypony... and Rainbow Dash, ah’m so sorry...”