The charred remains of the soldiers plastered the ashen walls energized in the wake of the explosion, as Phineas soon found after climbing out of the chute. A pile of deformed plates and shredded coupling created a short barrier a small distance down the corridor, the walls themselves bending outward, wrinkles spreading out from the dents. In a confined space, arcane explosives were a nightmare to behold!
But there was no time to marvel at the carnage. Though out of sight, the sound of a large group of enemies making their approach was unmistakable. Rapid thumping against a metal floor growing increasingly louder by the second. The whine of hover-platform rifles and the bellow of explosives did not fall upon deaf ears.
Phineas brought up the ship's layout, seeking refuge in its design. According to the projection, there was a maintenance entrance in front of him, buried by the rubble. "Of course!" he snarled. Would he have enough time to uncover the door? Would he even be able to open it, on the account of the whole hallway being warped?
He didn't leave finding out to chance. The pony charged forwards and threw himself down, taking cover behind the barricade of debris. The yellow eyes of his helmet peered over the blackened pile of metal, the ends of his rifles aimed down the length of the hallway. He pulled out his Harmonizer and a grenade and braced himself for what was sure to be a trial unlike any other.
***
The intersection at the end of the corridor formed a T. From either corner, pouring into the straight, came a flurry of inhibitors. They flew like darts down the hall and Phineas ducked down behind his cover, hearing them tink against the metal as they stuck on. Many more shot overhead, sinking into the far end of the elevator shaft.
"Didn't anyone tell you that it isn't polite to shoot blind!?" Phineas yelled to his assailants, chucking the grenade over the barricade of rubble. Its casing thumped against the rounded walls and the spiked orb embedded itself into the floor when it landed just short of the corners.
A flash of emerald washed over the scorched plating, the electricity racing outwards, ripping apart all that was in its way. The walls at the end of the passage way stood no longer, a jagged tear left where the entropic magics consumed them. Phineas screamed as he felt the fires himself; the electricity downing his shields without opposition and the concussive force of the blast throwing him and the pile backwards.
With his free hoof, Phineas held onto the edge of the shaft once again, dangling over the three-deck drop, bits of metal raining down beside and behind him. The front of his armor had been scorched by the arcane flames and a sickly vapor wafted off of him. His suit reported his life signs as erratic, his heart rate and breathing spiking and remaining as such as his body was racked with pain.
Trembling, he hauled himself back over the threshold, where he promptly fell onto his stomach and found himself in a coughing fit. "What kind of horrible magic is this...!?" He thought as he started willing himself to stand. It was as if his short exposure to the heat had sapped his energy, making it nearly impossible for him to carry on.
Through blurred vision, Phineas could see the survivors stalking towards him. This was it, he had evaded it time and time again; but now this was it, the final moments of his life. He was exhausted, in agony and on the floor, struggling despite his best efforts to stand up and meet his foes. The thought of his end being so... undignified made Phineas bare his teeth underneath his helm.
"To hell with that!" he snarled. His health monitors jumped a whole level. "A day will come when I close my eyes for good, but it won't be until long after you lot have been wiped clean from this galaxy!"
He started firing his rifles, the aiming reticle drifting about his dazed vision. The screaming of the guns was distant, a familiar sensation he felt before on the brink of death. "Not... until they have been wiped..."
All of his defiance came to bear on the Hoof-Talons closing in on him. He took sharpened rods and other bits of damaged plating and hurled them with the Harmonizer, missing outright or scoring the occasional glancing blow; though a few shrieks of pain at the peripherals of Phineas' consciousness told him he had done more critical damage by stroke of luck.
Like a wild animal backed into a corner, the stallion lashed out and triumphed. Yet more bodies lay strewn about the floor, stricken and slain. Their blood flowed into puddles creeping along grooves in the floor paneling like gutters of red. He continued to thrash for a while after the last soldier fell, striking out at enemies which were not there and enemies which were not even hybrids. Hallucinations of impossibly skinny ponies lingered in his muddled sights, twisted versions of ancient memories playing out all around him: his time at the academy and his eventual departure from Earth.
Familiar faces were distorted and horrendous to look at. His nightmares crawled up from the depths of his mind, dragging him back to rest with claws so sharp. Phineas tore his helmet off of his head and vomited, heaving violently and spewing bile onto the singed metal. Promptly after, everything slowed down for him. The pain faded away with the color... everything fading to an immaculate blackness.
***
He groaned loudly and his eyes flickered open, though he winced immediately because of a bright light shining directly on to him.
Bright light.
"Damn... I failed..." Phineas thought with the cold sting of defeat being a new pain to add to the dull aches he felt all over his body. In the time he was unconscious the Spell-core must have been reactivated; the Hoof-Talons had their ship back and-
Phineas tried moving but quickly realized he had been restrained. His forelegs were bound together, chains of blue energy circulating around his wrists. His upper and mid-torso were also tied up in the ethereal binding, forcing him to sit upright in a seat not designed with equines in mind. He was sitting with his tail sheath sticking in between his rear legs and his back uncomfortably rigid against the cushiony material the brace was made of, ironically enough. After a moment, Phineas' eyes adapted to the light and he saw that he was in what he assumed to be the ship's bridge. It was a quite spacious room with all sorts of intricate devices and machinery integrated with the walls, though such details were overshadowed by what was immediately in front of him.
Several bodies of the ship's original crew -ranging from Yithith, Ghanax and even a few Shu'badi- were stacked in front of him, bloodied corpses slashed and desecrated, their wounds so deep that Phineas could see into their bodies. On the back of the poor individual topping off the stack of bodies was his helmet, its impassive yellow eyes staring into Phineas' blue ones. It was a sight which twisted him up inside and that was reflected on his face, a disgusted scowl; his brows contorted in an expression of utter anger.
At the base of the morbid display was his utility pack and toolboxes, meaning he didn't have his hover rifles -as if he could have used them without his helmet- or his Magi-Flux Harmonizer. "Took away my tools? Fine, then. I'll just find another way to make you pay for this!"
Phineas felt a strong shove from behind. The seat he was in swiveled around and sure enough, he went from facing the back of the bridge to facing the front, the large angular viewing screen surrounded by all manner of displays and computers.
There was a gentle slope leading down from the command terminal and at the bottom, staring up and out of the viewing screen was a single being unlike any other Hoof-Talon. For one, it stood on two burly, saurian legs. It had a long reptilian tail that ended with a tuft of hair at the end, like a minotaur's. Their body was visibly muscular in spite of the chitinous armor it wore, with two large arms on broad shoulders, clawed hands, leathery wings and a head situated on a serpentine neck... the head that belonged to an ancient enemy of Celestia's Equestria. A jagged-horned changeling...
***
"... Ah...ha... ha ha!"
Phineas narrowed his eyes.
The figure turned around, first its neck then the rest of its body. "You're awake. Good," he said.
The stallion did not reply; what could he have said? He knew the voice but... it did not match this chimera's form. He expected a hybrid... but he got much more than he bargained for in meeting the Hoof-Talon leader. Hearing a hiss to his right, Phineas turned his head to look at a Hoof-Talon with heavily damaged armor. He heard another hiss to his left and as he turned to face the sound, another Hoof-Talon stepped forward from behind the seat. It brandished a set of claws, holding them high above the pony's head so that they were silhouetted by the white light shining down on him and then brought them to bear on his neck.
The silver stallion spat onto the Hoof-Talon's visor defiantly, glaring at it all the while as he felt its claws dig into his throat, its grip strangling. He was blacking out again when the chimera's voice echoed: "Cease."
Phineas pulled in deep breaths when he was released, tears flowing from his eyes as he stared hatefully at the Hoof-Talon.
"... We would not want him to die so soon. That would be a mercy, would it not? Especially after all of the crimes this one has committed against the Polymerization."
"So... is that... what you call yourself?" Phineas snarled in between breaths. "Because I've come to know you all as Hoof-Talons... just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?"
"I suppose, it is only logical that the lessers devise a simpler name in order to comprehend the presence of their superiors."
"Not so superior, now are you?"
For a moment, the chimera had no response to that. He only looked up at Phineas with an even, calculating stare. "Quite. You've done well to reduce my followers to just these two. Excellent work, I must say," he said.
"I've had lots of practice."
"I do not doubt it," said the chimera. "Being almost four hundred years old, I would expect your prowess in combat to be derived from much experience. It is a shame that the Federation did not breed more warriors the likes of you."
It was Phineas' turn to be quiet this time. He said nothing to the chimera and he could have sworn he saw the Hoof-Talon leader smile, revealing glistening fangs and a glint in his sapphire eyes. The chimera started walking up the incline, a slow leisurely approach. When he neared, he arced his neck over so that his face was leveled with Phineas over the ship's controls.
"Indeed... this is the warrior who has rallied the galaxy against us and has depleted our once great number... to three..."
"And you without any test tubes to grow your young!" Phineas said spitefully.
"Oh, I am sure this vessel will have more than enough resources to rebuild the collective. It will be most... humble beginnings, though, using such an inferior vessel. But I am confident that the Polymerization will rise again... but you needn't worry about that, pony. It will be after your time... but fear not. Your deeds won't... go to waste." The chimera's smile shrunk somewhat and their gaze turned malicious.
"What you should be concerned with is your... retribution. After all, your attempted genocide of the galaxy's rightful heirs cannot be forgiven!"
"Genocide?" Phineas spat indignantly. "And what do you call the mass murdering your kind did on a regular basis? The abductions... experiments... rape and torture!?"
"A means to an end."
"You horrid bastard."
"I would not expect you to understand. You would not know the implications... the responsibility that comes with my position. My kind were... chosen to be great... to dominate all others... by powers you could not dream of, pony."
Phineas snorted. "Who the fuck chose you to be anything!?"
"A creature the lessers call a Star Terror... but the Polymerization only knows it as God."
"... Are you kidding me?" Phineas deadpanned.
The chimera sighed. "The greatest warrior I have ever known... with a less than stellar intellect."
Phineas was now fuming. A Star Terror destroyed Earth... and the Hoof-Talons believed they were entitled to the galaxy because of one? It was just another case where it did not take brilliant deduction skills to grasp what he was just told. And it was something that made the stallion's blood boil.
"You listen here; you abomination of all that Celestia's sun ever shone upon," Phineas growled, "you were not chosen by any fucking god when your planet was obliterated! If anything, you and your kind were nothing more than a cruel joke, the punchline of which being so cosmic in scale and so sick in execution that I dare not think about it for too long!"
His head jerked to the side, the stinging backhand sending his vision spinning.
"Before we kill you, I think we will teach you humility, pony."
"Fat-fucking-chance!"
***
His mind was racing, an insatiable drive to act overtaking him. Almost instinctually, he activated the tail-blade because it was the only weapon he still had on him, the manifestation of energy taking the chimera and his Hoof-Talon subordinates by surprise. The chimera raised an arm to shield his eyes from it as he backed off, while the others lunged to pacify Phineas.
He bashed his bound forelimbs into the closest of the two, his formidable strength stopping the hybrid dead in its attack. He used it to swivel the seat around, running the blade across the other Hoof-Talon and taking off their front limbs in the process. They tumbled to the floor and came to a stop a few feet away, flailing its stubs in a panic. Phineas swiveled around again, slicing the first one in two right across the belly, warranting a disgusting gurgling squawk as it died then and there.
Phineas then put his wrists to the blade, overpowering the energy which restrained his forelimbs "Ha, that worked!"
"Detestable whelp!" the chimera roared. He beat his wings powerfully, launching himself up and over the terminals.
"Oh shit!" Phineas blurted out. He was able to undo the binding which kept his forelegs together, but there was still the matter of the energy which kept him glued to the seat! He pulled his tail blade up, hoping that it'd be a deterrent to the chimera and the proximity of the energy would weaken the remaining restraints.
It did one of those things.
The bindings which kept his torso locked in place shattered with a burst of light but not before the chimera came down on top of Phineas, snapping the seat from its base and sending the stallion tumbling towards the bodies of the crew. He hit the pile and sent it toppling over with many fleshy thuds and metallic bangs being audible thereafter.
The chimera rose from a crouched position in front of the silver stallion, splaying his claws threateningly. In response, Phineas reached behind him, grabbed his helmet, put it on and then assumed a combat stance, flicking his tail and making the blade buzz threateningly...