//------------------------------//
// Chapter 76: Ryan 
// Story: Forbidden Places 
// by Starscribe 
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Ryan swung with all his might. But for as confident as he was, unicorn magic was still totally new to him. He could barely move objects along, let alone do so with any force. How much did it take to kill a powerful old unicorn, anyway?

Too much, as it turned out. The sword deflected off nothing as it got close. Maybe it was the force of the impact, or maybe it was a directed attack by the unicorn he was fighting. Either way, he felt a wave of sudden force, powerful enough to throw him back through the air. Not that far, though—Ryan had been watching everything. 

He might not know unicorn magic, but he knew what to expect, and he was ready to fight. Not me! He caught himself, digging in his hooves. His horn flared with light, deflecting the attack, and he landed. He slid to a stop, bearing down on Morningtide.

"You cannot be Sturdy Anvil," Morningtide said. She gestured with one hoof, tossing Kaelynn and the nameless seapony to the far wall. Vesper and Blake followed, before something shimmering blue appeared between them, a wall of force as thick as an aquarium.

Kaelynn rolled over, crawling over to the barrier to watch. She smacked one hoof weakly against it, but it didn't budge. None of the others even had the strength to sit up.

"Sturdy Anvil would know those weapons are enchanted, just like the household. If he wanted to assassinate me, he would've done it using the proud unicorn tradition. Poison in a meal, or an iron dagger by moonlight."

Light flashed, coming straight for him. Ryan reacted, rolling out of the way. The force was meant to kill him. He reacted again, focusing his intention as powerfully as he could to one simple end. He had to survive. He was Kaelynn's last hope now. If he failed, they would all die.

His shield came slower this time, though. Without Kaelynn around, Ryan just wasn't getting as much food as he needed. His magic was running out. He was protected, but still the power ripped through him. While it didn't hit hard enough to damage his body, it did rip the disguise right off him. The unicorn guard dissolved in a sparkle of green light, along with the copied uniform. The sword remained on the ground, because that was real. But every other vestige of it was gone. 

"Ah. The seapony told the truth about you too. There really are insects implicated in all this."

They were fighting for their lives, and yet this mare still sounded amused? Each one of them had used their strongest weapons against her, and she hardy even seemed to notice! 

"You're not even one of them. Have you been crawling around under a stone since the invasion, insect? I would like to know where to find the others, so I can extinguish them as well. You’ve threatened the good ponies of Canterlot one too many times."

Ryan hovered in the air, wings holding him there in a steady buzz. He wasn't exactly sure when he'd taken off, but it felt like where he belonged. At least he wouldn't have to use any magic to stay disguised. He had so little left.

"I come from another world," he whispered, dangerously. "So do all of them. All of us are here to save our friend from you. Kaelynn isn't going to be your slave."

"No," she agreed. "A slave implies a meaningful relationship is possible between us. She's rejected every gift I tried to give her. A life of plenty and peace would have been hers, if only she obeyed. Is there something about you creatures that has trouble with instructions? Sail on, forget her, you could've continued your lives in peace. Pity."

She turned her horn on him, and he could feel her focusing on something. Her next attack wouldn't just throw him around, or grab him the way she'd done to the others. She saw him as an actual threat, she would end this before it got any further.

I don't know what to do. His eyes wandered, searching for anything he'd missed, anything he could use against this terrible pony. Maybe one of her other guards would take issue with wanton murder in the house? Maybe Princess Twilight would show up to save them? There was nopony down the hall, either mysterious princess or guard with a bleeding heart. So much the better—this pony would probably just kill them anyway.

"I hear my granddaughter went to such a place. Worldgates, as though anything beyond Equestria could ever be of significance. Yet you have provided another specimen for the collection, so maybe. Perhaps there was some merit to her interest. I will ask her for you, next time she visits."

He didn't see so much as feel the spell coming, a force of terrible intent meant to shred his body in a dozen different ways. She felt no hesitation, no remorse—she intended this to be swift and decisive. 

And there, on the other side of the room, was Kaelynn, still pressed against the glass. She had legs again, so at least she wasn't suffocating over there. Some friends they'd turned out to be. Instead of saving her, their gift would be a chance to watch their murders. She could live with that in the dark corner of her tank.

The force of her attack blasted him back again, deflected only slightly to either side by the force of his nascent defense. Rock splintered into shards where the spell struck, hissing and dissolving and filling the air with smoke.

The spell manifested when it struck his shield, a cone of darkness with writhing tentacles. Each one wrapping around to try and grab him was another way the magic was trying to kill him. A sphere appeared around him, far smaller than her own, shrinking in a matter of seconds. She'd trained her whole life. His will was unfocused, childish.

It wasn't a spell—Ryan knew no spells, really. His magic depleted in an eyeblink, draining from his body to buy him another second or so. He smacked into the stone wall, held there by the pressure of magic. Her spell closed in around him, and he could feel a dozen different tendrils of death reaching for him.

His body was shriveled, wrung dry of magic. His stomach groaned, twisting in agony. He had no more magic left to give.

I won't let you keep Kaelynn in a tank.

His feeble shield of green light became a magnesium torch. Ryan was momentarily overwhelmed, a conduit for power he had never imagined. A lifetime of hunger passed before his eyes, a need to blood that would wither him and a thousand other changelings besides. He had no more magic left to give, yet... there was magic anyway.

It doesn't matter if she kills me, so long as you get out of here.

Power burned through him, lighting his whole body aflame. Chitin shriveled and transformed, his wings were seared until they crystalized. But Ryan felt no pain—he was far too focused on this final goal. "No." He took one step forward, and the light of his shield became an answering spell. 

Morningtide's eyes widened, staring up into the air between them, then back at Ryan. But she didn't even have the chance to scream.

Light filled the hall, so bright that Ryan was blinded. Something was trying to drown out this new source of power, grounding it out into the walls and floors of ancient stone. There was just too much. The faster it ran out, the more magic came. His body burned, like a cheap power strip with a whole house plugged into it. But Ryan didn't care.

Something smacked into the far wall, and the tunnel was filled with the sound of shattering glass. 

As quickly as it came, the magic fled. His body stopped glowing, the spotlight from his horn went out. The force pushing him backward stopped.

His eyes adjusted quickly, and he dropped roughly down to all fours. He'd been hovering there the whole time, without even realizing he was flying. Even stranger, the pain was already fading. It felt like his whole body had been burned to a crisp, but when he looked down, he didn't see black anymore. 

Instead he saw blues, not that different from Kaelynn's. There was a slight sparkle to it, but it was still chitin, his body didn't have skin or fur or scales. I'm still a bug.

But he was still alive, that was more than could be said for Morningtide.

Huge gouges had been ripped from the wall nearby, opening holes bigger than his whole body. One had even struck the fallen sword, crumbling it to a pile of silvery powder ending in a wrapped handle. 

The unicorn was completely gone. Instead, the other side of the room had a... sculpture? It looked like it had been an orange crystal figure, reclining in shock maybe. But something had smashed it against the far wall, cracking it in a dozen different places. A pile of shattered glass lay there now, still sparkling with magic.

That was what she was trying to do to me, he realized. I turned it back against her. Somehow.

Ryan couldn't muster any compassion for Morningtide's death. She had planned on murdering his friends in front of Kaelynn, then confining her to a life of sexual slavery. The changelings were right after all. There is still some evil here, even if it's well hidden. 

Now there was a little less.

The glowing wall trapping his friends was completely gone now, without a trace. He approached slowly, his own body still feeling a little strange. Certainly wouldn't look as badass in pastel blue when they finally made the movie.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked. His voice was different again—less strange than he was used to, but still not normal. "Please tell me there wasn't any friendly fire. I have... no idea what just happened."

Kaelynn and the seapony were in better shape than the others—Morningtide hadn't wanted to throw around her prized specimens, probably. She stood up, glancing between him and the shards of broken glass that had been the evil unicorn. "What just happened?" She touched against his chest with one hoof.

There was something there on his neck, like three little gemstones set into his coat. They were the same color as the shattered unicorn. "I love you."

She stared back a few seconds, wings opening in confusion. She had those now, apparently. Then she embraced him, in the tightest hug their awkward bodies could manage. For a few seconds, nothing else mattered. Not the distant screams, not the pounding hoofsteps. It didn't matter that they were still trapped, essentially at the scene of the crime.

They would get out. He wouldn't spend the rest of his life guilty about failing her.

"I don't have a bucking clue what that was..." said a voice. Vesper, hobbling past them. Her coat was singed, and she had a slight limp in one foreleg. But she walked anyway. "But time to get scarce." 

Ryan finally let go, opening his eyes. The others were all standing again, even the unknown male seapony. His emotional state was an absolute wreck, a mixture of so many conflicting powerful emotions that he was near to collapse. But Ryan didn't try to understand him. He'd suffered through even more than Kaelynn.

"Won't shed any tears about someone like that." Blake walked past the corpse, catching Vesper with one hoof around her neck to help her forward. He was recovering more quickly—not surprising, considering he was half dragon, and didn't have hollow flight bones. "But yeah, time to go. Don't think we'll get a slap on the wrist for trespassing after all this. Let's go."

"Why did she do that?" asked the strange seapony. "I don't understand."

"I told you," Kaelynn replied. "She was evil. I'm sorry you had to learn it that way." They walked, stumbled, and dragged their way to the hallway. From there it would be a quick trip down the steps, then through Canterlot Caverns. 

"Maybe we'll go straight down, lay low for a few days in Bydska," Blake said. "Crew's only a few days out. You think your new friend can handle that, Kaelynn?"

"No," she said flatly. "But it's a good idea anyway."

"I have an alternate suggestion," someone said, stepping out from the hallway. A bright purple pony, so tall her horn practically scraped against the ceiling. She opened a pair of huge wings, blocking off the hall on either side. "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"