Things only got worse for the warrior-caste Changelings. Not a minute after, another one shot out, encased in a solid cube of ice. When it hit the ground, it shattered, removing two legs and a wing from the imprisoned shapeshifter. Then, another, this one choked to death with its own shadow.
Though things might have been going south in the bigger fight, the same couldn’t be said for the queen. With his guns rendered useless and his only options for hurting her reduced to punching, all she had to do was keep her distance and fling magic at him. Which she did.
Thomas dove to his left as another ball of green magic slammed into the ground. As the dust from the explosion settled, he yelled another taunt at the enraged queen. “That the best you got!?” His eyes went wide when he saw the glow on her horn was now enough to illuminate the whole room. “Uh oh.”
This time, instead of one great sphere, a stream of smaller ones came rocketing out. Chrysalis smirked as she saw the red-eyed demon throw his arms over his head in a futile gesture of self-preservation. Each impact kicked up an incredible amount of dust, completely obscuring him from sight in seconds.
It took nearly thirty seconds for the smoke to clear, and she was absolutely shocked to see him standing there, completely unscathed. He patted his body, as though checking for any holes. “How the fuck?” she heard him ask, just as shocked as she was.
Despite outward appearances, this magical barrage had actually done something to harm him. His geiger counter had leapt from just under four hundred rads to more than six hundred. The radiation poisoning was making standing a small challenge. To make matters worse, the area he now stood in was registering just over five rads a second. As quickly as he could, he moved, running for the other side of the room. Halfway across the room, he came to a stop when something crashed down in front of him, nearly taking his head off.
It was one of the Knights. A quick glance at the tail and flank, where there was a ball of flames, told him that it was Firebolt. His armour was coated in black soot, and parts of it seemed to have melted. Most disturbing, though, was the crack that ran down the length of his horn. Thomas didn’t know what that meant, but the fact that the body now seemed to be leaking radiation was enough to convince him to get away.
As he jumped over the unconscious unicorn, Chrysalis landed gracefully in front of him. “So, all you do is run,” she taunted. “Too scared to fight me?” she asked as she held a hoof to her barrel, feigning sadness.
“Fuck you,” he declared defiantly. There was a buzzing of wings behind him and he glanced to see that three of the Changelings had detached themselves from the melee. “Oh come on,” he muttered wearily. “Why don’t you just kill me?”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I will,” Chrysalis replied as she glared at him. “I think I’ll give you a few last words, though.” There was a brief silence as the three bugs moved, one of each side, the last one behind him. “Well?” she asked impatiently.
Thomas took a few deep breaths before standing up straight, fists balled up. What couldn’t be seen under his helmet was the proud smirk he wore. “Yea, though I may walk through the Valley of Death, I will fear no evil.” There was a pause, one that let the words sink in. Without any kind of warning his left hand shot out and grabbed the horn of the Changeling standing there. In that same instant his Displacer Glove slammed into its face, tearing the horn from its body and sending it rocketing across the room. “NAY!” he proclaimed loudly, ignoring the searing pain from the horn’s edges as they sliced through his glove. He brought his left hand up and let go of the broken horn, where he grabbed it with his right. In one smooth movement, he brought the point down, right into the eye of the Changeling to his right. He spun around as it screamed in agony and drew his Sequoia, pointing it at the third shapeshifter. At this range, there was no chance of missing. “Evil will fear me!” And then, for the Courier, time stopped.
“We lost Firebolt!” Shadow screamed. Normally, she would never do anything of the sort, but the sheer noise of the fight meant it was that or go unheard.
“I knew it!” Frost Lance responded as he blasted a Changeling with frost. “The armour’s too unstable, there’s no way my brother would lose control of a spell like that!”
“So you think the amplification is dangerous?” she asked, holding a Changeling at leg’s length to stop it from tearing through her armour.
“The last time Firebolt hurt himself slinging fire around, he got his cutie mark!” He slammed a metal hoof into a Changeling, shattering its disguise and sending it reeling. He shot it with a chunk of ice, but the bug managed to dodge at the last second, leaving the projectile to harmlessly shatter against the wall.
Behind them came a crunch and a scream. They turned to see their captain raise a gore-coated hoof and slam it through a Changeling’s head.
It wasn’t only Shining Armor’s hoof that was covered in bits of dead shapeshifter. Here and there chitin clung to him, stuck there by ichor. His tail was stained green and, if one were to look under the helmet, they would’ve seen a manic glint in his eyes and a twisted smile on his muzzle.
“Is it just me, or is he having too much fun?” Frost muttered, distracted by this worrying sight.
Before Shadow could answer, something leapt onto her back and pushed her to the ground. The same thing happened to Frost Lance, and before either of them could retaliate a flurry of blows slammed into the back of their heads.
Shining Armor was so embroiled in his own fight that he failed to notice that he was now the last pony standing. He looked up from the Changeling whose face he was currently rearranging when he heard Thomas yelling. “Evil will fear me!” he saw the man claim, one of his weapons pointed right a Changeling’s face. Two titanic bangs and the shapeshifter fell, a bullet through each eye. Then, Chrysalis pivoted and bucked the Courier in the back of the head, sending him flying.
“You call me a monster, when all I aimed to do was feed my children!” She stomped towards the prone human. “You label me a villain, when I took the only option open to me!” She placed a hoof on the Courier’s spine and pressed down hard, keeping him down. “My children are starving! How wrong is it for a mother to do whatever she must to protect them!?” she asked, tears flowing freely and her voice a little choked. “And you kill them, as though they are nothing but mindless animals!”
“M-mother?” Thomas croaked.
“Yes, their mother! Every Changeling you’ve killed, I felt their deaths! I am not the evil one! You! You and those who sent you!”
A lot of what she said was lost to the ringing in his ears, the symptom of his latest concussion. It didn’t help that he had what he suspected to be a major skull fracture, either. He still managed to get the general feel of what she meant, though that may have been the hoof pressing down into his spine.
On the other side of the room, Shining Armor and Shadow Dancer, who had somehow managed to stay conscious, were trying to fight off the remaining warrior-Changelings. With their numbers dwindled, the shapeshifters’ efficiency seemed to have increased ten-fold, and it was taking everything the ponies had to hold them at bay. Without warning, the captain’s Knight armour shimmered and his shield went from a small bubble to an explosive shockwave.
The four remaining Changelings were sent flying, as were Chrysalis and Thomas. Being on the ground, he didn’t go far, though he did end up with some fresh bruising when he collided with the wall. One of the Changelings was pushed into it so hard it looked as though it needed to be scraped off.
Thomas pulled himself up, using the wall to help him. He groaned as he put his head into his hands. “Oh god that hurts,” he groaned, referring to nothing in particular.
Chrysalis picked herself up, her ears ringing from her recent high-speed impact with the wall. Before she could get her bearings, another shield slammed into her, sending her across the room. Another one appeared and came down with the force of a vengeful god on her left foreleg. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”
Her scream threatened to rupture the eardrums of everyone still conscious, but Shining Armor didn’t care. All that mattered to him, the only thing that mattered at all, was that she suffer.
The metal-clad stallion trudged towards the queen, each step sending pain through his body as his Knight armour rubbed against his bruises. When he saw her try to stand, he grabbed her with his magic and, using a shield to add momentum, flung her against a wall.
Thomas had managed to walk across the room, his carbine in his hands. He stood between Shining and Chrysalis before speaking. “Shining.”
“Out of my way,” he growled.
“You’re gonna kill her.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
“Of course I’m gonna kill her,” the captain snarled. “Now get out of my way!”
Thomas stood there silently for a moment before looking down his carbine’s scope. Calmly, he pulled the trigger.
Author’s Notes:
Evil cliffhanger is evil!
I’ve been waiting for a chance to use that “Evil will fear me!” bit since I thought up of it about the same time I decided to have Thomas mount Luna.