The improvised firebombs were rather effective against the insect-like changelings, especially when their internal organs expanded from the heat and overwhelm their shells' integrity. After a few seconds of direct burning they just went POP!, nothing much to it.
“Asshole, this used to be a good neighborhood!” Jay lobbed another bottle into an apartment building, thankfully evacuated of its tenants, and watched as flames exposed the hidden bugs. The flute-playing pyro laughed behind his mask as the shape-shifters scittered from cover seeking safety, only to be crushed by the rallying guardsponies. “Guards, fan out and search any uncleared build-”
“Ours is the sound of victory!” A white unicorn with a wild blue mane cried out, accompanied by a blaring line of heavy bass that shook all who heard to their physical core. Unknown to most, Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ-Pon3, was an avid lover of practical applications of sound, none more so than sonic weaponry. A number of ponies with similar hairstyles were wielding box-like firearms, literal bass cannons, that fire a concentrated pressure wave that matched the resonance frequency of changeling chitin. This meant that the matter comprising their shells would shake violently, much like and opera singer with a wineglass.
We all know what happens to the glass when the singer hits a certain note.
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Let's take a tally, shall we? Celestia is unconscious, Cadence is powerless, the Elements and Jay are fighting in the city below, Queen Chrysalis was sitting high on the throne she was likely to take. Oh, right, Shining Armor is staring at one of the walls, oblivious as to what was happening around him. In a sense, I suppose I envied him, if only because he was blissful unaware of the ruin that surrounded him. At least his part in this was almost over, the bitch would likely keep me around for amusement, before killing me sometime within the next few months, if she managed to keep me contained that long.
“Well, at least you tried.” Chrysalis increased the pressure, it felt like an elephant was holding me against the ground. To add insult to injury, she was dragging my own blade over the skin of my neck, but never actually digging in enough to cut me. All the while, an burning pain was suffusing through my brain, the changeling broodmother was rummaging through my memories again.
“Oh, that spike of anger was a bit too bitter, but your fear is so sweet.” I had the sinking feeling that she was taking pleasure in my resistance, perhaps her vile species fed off all passionate emotions. If so, she was able to parasitize on my all-encompassing disdain for her and her kind, which meant that even when I was giving Chrysalis no affection of any sort, I was still nourishing her. “No hard feelings, right?”
“You can burn.” The queen pouted, I think she was trying to be cute in a sarcastic way, she had certainly picked up a few personality traits from rooting through my noggin. She'd gone from being a stealthy seductress, to a cavalier mind-breaker.
“You're really taking all the fun out of this, you know that?” She dug the knife in a bit, she obviously drew blood, I could tell by the sting. The changeling cackled and tossed the blade aside with a flick of her head, I heard the steel clatter as it skid across the floor. The broodmother's magic lifted me by my shirt collar, and dangled me a few inches off the ground, keeping me at horn-level. “Maybe we should liven things up.” A smile spread across the hive queen's face, like she knew something I didn't. Actually, that might be correct, she shared a psychic link with her massive brood, so she understood how the battle for Canterlot was going. “How do you feel about playing a little game?”
I could tell this was going to be awful.
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Thanks to Vinyl and her weaponized DJ equipment, Jay and the others were able to move much faster than fire and brawn alone would have allowed. Sound blasts and Molotov cocktails presented an unstoppable wave of anti-changeling carnage, bits of chitin and gore were splattered across the battle-scarred streets whenever the bugs mounted an assault. The earlier fights had taken too long without the ranged weapons, and after only an hour since their first use, the majority of Canterlot was returning to Equestrian control.
“We can't afford to rest.” Jay's uniform jacket had been singed, an entire sleeve burned away from one of his blasts, nevertheless, the flautist was ready for more action. “We still have to take the castle back.”
“Can't the princess and your buddy handle the changelings there?” Vinyl meant no disrespect to either Celestia, she knew that the alicorn was able to do quite a bit, much more than the DJ was able to fully understand. She'd also seen the other human during Shining Armor's bachelor pub-crawl, he was a big guy, so there was the physical power he likely possessed.
“The changeling queen took Celestia down, not sure about the other guy, though.” Feather Brawl was a pegasus from Cloudsdale, even he wasn't sure why he'd been invited to the wedding, but it wasn't the sort of thing you turned down. Actually, he was somewhat sure Derpy had mixed up the invitation with something else somewhere along her delivery route. “Last I saw, he was being dangled in the air, so I'm not betting in his favor.”
A pregnant pause fell on the group as the reality of the situation sank in, if Celestia's magic was unable to defend Canterlot, then hope was a luxury. Jay was the first to do anything, an inspirational act that was sure to rally the motley crew. Like a man walking to the gallows, he started chuckling to himself, and swapped his mask's filter for a cleaner one. Vinyl changed her bass cannon's battery pack, the sonic weapon hummer to life with the new power supply. The royal guards readied their spears, and the remaining noise troopers followed their leader's example. The uniformed human glared through his mask's lenses, a wave of contempt washed over him, and an equally powerful hit excitement followed suit.
“Let's do this.”
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Queen Chrysalis knew the battle was lost, she felt every end her children met at the hooves of Canterlot ponies, but she had already done what she came to do. The Grand Matron had sent her hive on this suicide mission to fulfill the next part of the Deceiver’s last prophecy, and she held up her end of the mission flawlessly. Her children wouldn't kill any of the ponies, changelings only killed when absolutely necessary, and they were under orders to leave the equines as unharmed as possible for all the pieces to fall into place properly. Her people, and the entire changeling species, had plenty of food, and emotions only made them stronger, so it made the best cover story.
The Deceiver had spoken of a day when the shadows would be revealed, and the secrets welcomed into the light, and this attack was meant to get the ball rolling. Humans were smart like that, even the tens of thousands of years ago when the Deceiver had appeared before the tribe that would become the changelings. With the myths surrounding the apes, it was Chrysalis' greatest surprise when she saw two humans serving under Celestia as security personnel, and it was only compounded when her pseudo-fiance had spent a night partying with them.
The sting of her honor guard's annihilation awoke the queen from her thoughts. The disguised changeling looked about the crystal caverns, trying to search out her prey. A slight beacon tugged at her mind, she knew exactly where Taylor was, but it was more entertaining to use her other senses to hunt him out. The unmasked teen was following the same path that had led to freedom the first time he'd been imprisoned the caverns, which should show Chrysalis where he had found Leviathan.
A decrepit, rusted door awaited the hive queen, even she could see the tripwire that led to a small pile of disks. With a bit of magic, the changeling cut the line, the pull-trigger for the cave-collapsing bombs was rendered useless by its obviousness. While she had to admit the human crafty, this made twice he had sneaked an attack on her life, he had no real way of competing with a creature whose entire life was based on deception. A few more stings of death fired through Chrysalis' brain, it would take the reclaiming squad a few minutes to free Celestia and Cadence, plus a few more to return Shining Armor to full lucidity. If things went well, the queen could enjoy her final game for an hour, before being killed like every other changeling they had come across.
Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, the broodmother flung the door open, and was greeted by a single bullet impacting the wall next to her head.
“Fuck.” The human ducked behind a piece of machinery, some sort of rod was in his hands, quite similar to the first weapon used against the queen. After Chrysalis took her next step, Taylor opted to simply fling his firearm at her rather than fix the jam, which the hive mother caught without effort.
“You really are all talk, I've presented you with ample opportunity.” The insect-like equine smiled at her own joke, though he hadn't said fuck you, her meaning be understood.
“I can only imagine how beat to hell that thing must be.” Was that a comment on her maternal status? If so, it wasn't exactly clever, but it would have stung, had she cared at all for his opinion. The human darted from his cover, knocking over several barrels as he went, their contents splashing over the cement floor and leaving shallow puddles of foul-smelling liquid everywhere. As the uniformed teen ran, Chrysalis kept at her leisurely walk, splashing in the acrid fluid as she went.
At the room's far end, she saw Taylor flick a lighter.