//------------------------------// // Freeminds and Empty Ones // Story: Total Burnout // by Riften //------------------------------// "Urgh, my aching......everything. What the hell happened?" You did what you were born to do man, crash and burn. Take a look next to you. "What? Look at wh-WHAT THE HELL!" What did you think was going to happen? You essentially just piledrived her from the stratosphere. "We-we-well can we fix her?!" What do mean fix her? You can't just fix a person like that. It dosn't work that way. "What the hell are you talking about? I do that all the time! Can't we just like....Heal her or something? Just like, throw our magic stuff and use it on her?" What? No, we can't just throw magic....Can we do that? "Why the hell are you asking me! Your supposed to be the expert on this stuff!" Well....um, ok. We're going to try something. I need you to walk over to her. "Um.....Which part? It's kind of a mess out here..." I guess the biggest part you can find, the less regeneration I gotta do the better. "Regenerate? Can you...Actually do that? Can we do that?" Kid listen, You're not just here to balance Death, at least not anymore. You're here to add another line of defense to this world. Help who ever needs it, whether that be an individual or an entire civilization. You're practically built to die and just keep coming back, you're built to do anything that is needed to make sure everyone is saved, even at the cost of your life. Which you conveniently have a never ending supply of. So to say that we can't bring one lost pony back, that dosn't sound like to far of a stretch to me. "So you can do it? We can actually save her!" No promises. Keep in mind we aren't regenerating a bruise or broken bone. We're practically going to be building an entire body from scratch. "You don't sound very confident in this plan." I've only ever healed you, even then it's only happened like 4 or 5 times. That's not that much practice, mind you I got it right every time. But this is another person, you know, one im not already inside of. "You were just rambling on about how im built to save lives, and now you're doubting that we can even do it?!.....Ok, hear me out here, What If you wereinside, could you do it then?" Inside what? That torso? Im not like a flash drive kid, you cant just plug me into whatever you want and move me... "I can do that can't I?" If I say no will you drop this and stop trying to shove me into a dead body? "No. Probably not." Ugh, just, put your hoof on the biggest chuck of her you can find. "Dude. That's terrible. Why'd you have to say it like that?" It just came out that way, get over it. Now hurry up and transfer me over. "Fine, here. It'll be nice to get you out of my head for a little bit anyway. Urk, this is kinda gross. Ew god, just get out, hurry up." Get over it baby. One last thing, DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT, TAKE YOUR HOOF OFF AT ANY TIME. "Any specific reasons why?" If your hoof stops touching at all, I'll lose my bridge back, I won't be able to find my way back to you. This is serious, DO NOT MOVE. "Why would I possibly move? My hoof's on a dead torso, it's not like it's going to be fighting back." Yeah, right. Ok so Im going in now. Oh yeah, by the way this may take a while. Maybe a few hours. So you know, don't move. "Ok what the hell! Sampson! Sampson! Well...Nothing left to do but wait..." MEANWHILE ON THE VOLCANO "What in the Queen's name is going on here! Who let the prisoners out!" Chaos had completely broken out on the peak of the volcano. Changelings scatter in every direction pursuing the newly released prisoners. "Heh, good idea with the prisoner cover. Definitely a good distraction." With a last minute decision to let all the other prisoners out the plan had begun. Every captive in the entire ward had been set free, some ran and others were staying to have a little fun. "You! Pegasus pony, why have you let my sisters and I free?" A group of figures stood out amongst the chaos. "Are we not your enemies?" The four previously imprisoned princesses stood together trying to make sense of confusion going on all around. "Listen sister, I hated being stuck here, I decided to leave and figured none of you like it here either. You're all free to go, but I got some royalty to overthrow." "If you plan to overthrow mother you will need our help, each one of my sisters and I have magic as capable as her's. Now, one last thing before we are willing to assist you. Where is our final sister?" "Her? She's out living a life she stole from me, she destroyed my house and tipped the entire changeling army that I was the escapee! Now because of HER I have to deal with all of this! So you know what, she's probably out there having the time of her life right now!" "I apologize for what our sister has caused you. We will gladly assist you in your cause." The four step forward and all of their horns begin to glow different colors. " We have an idea, that is unless you already have one?" "Um...you know what, let's go with your plan." "Good, now we will descend into the volcano, when you hear us call out to you we will need you to coax mother over the mouth of the pit, we will handle the rest." "Well, that definitely sounds a lot more effective than my plan...Ok let's do this." "We will contact you shortly, godspeed and good luck." The four descended into mouth of the volcano, now all that's left to do is locate the queen. A short look around revealed blasts of a familiar green magic. Chrysalis. It was the same magic from the Canterlot invasion, no mistaking it. Another short moment later and the queen came into sight, she was indiscriminately blasting changelings, she didn't seem to care what was a released prisoner and a guard. "Hey Chrissie! How are you liking the volcano? I figured this place needed to lighten up a bit, I guess all the prisoners agreed with me." "You...You are the one from Canterlot. And now you're here, causing me even more trouble. You shall perish with the rest of these drones." The queen turns begins to fire blasts of magic, each one flying wildly with no apparent aim. "Not one for precision are you?" "Where would the fun in killing you right away be? It's fun to watch you dance about in fear of your life." Another volley of blasts rocket forward still lacking any form of aim. "Dose it look like Im in any kind of fear right now? What could I possibly be afraid of, you cant hit me even if you tried! Heh, loser!" A small laugh and a taunt is enough to set off the now enraged queen. "I will slay you were you stand! *RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE* What was that? What have you done?" "No idea what you're talking about Chrissie." The entire volcano shook, whatever the princesses are doing inside must be working. "You ever consider not being so bad at everything? You know, just saying." "Aaargh, I will destroy you!" Another even larger barrage of magic is fired into the air. Orbs of green fly by missing only by chance and a tad of finesse. *RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE* The plan is nearly ready, bring her over the pit. Wow hey, are you talking in my head? Yes, now please hurry. There is not much time before it erupts. Erupts! Is that what you're doing down there?! Yes now please hurry! "Hey Queeny! Maybe if you got a little closer you could actually hit something!" "Grr, insolent little beast, talk all you want, I will kill you in time." The queen took the bait, she lifted herself off of the ground and flew towards the center of the volcano, stopping only a few inches before before making contact. "You call me forward, tell me, do you beckon death?" "Me and death don't get along to well, Im thinking you two are about to get a lot closer. Now tell me, does it feel hot out here, or is it just you?" "Excuse me? We changelings have no perception of temperature. Quite a useful trait we've acquired isn't it?" "You know, not really. Otherwise you would of felt this coming." *RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE* "W-What have you done?!" "Not much, you just set off a volcano." A powerful flap forward into the queen knocks her off balance and leaves her disorientated. "And this is for making them blow up my house." The volcano shakes one last time and with that jets of lava shoot straight up consuming the queen in molten fire. Her figure disappears into the mess of lava and smoke, soon everything nearby is taken over by the lava. Everyone is flying away now, every single changeling scatters into the air. With the hive-mind now gone the changeling army is left leaderless, for once in every changelings life there is no voice in their head telling them every move to make... BACK TO BURNOUT "...Ho-ly shit..."