//------------------------------//
// The Boy Who Played with Green Fire 
// Story: The Girl with the Lyre Tattoo 
// by Dennis the Menace 
//------------------------------//

He eyed the revolver.

"What did she say?" 

Adrian let out a laugh.  "Bunch of empty threats. Typical bug bitch." He took a few steps. 

He saw them shift back slowly. Applejack's hand was already at her hip, reaching for her holster. Rainbow, as well. 

"And?" Twilight pressed. 

He moved slowly. He crouched down, lifting the Ruger .38 from the carpet. 

"What the hay are you doing," Rainbow said lowly. Her hand tensed around the grip of her Beretta Storm. 

"Nothing." 

"Put that down," Applejack commanded. 

"I'm not doing anythin—" 

Gilda pulled her Jericho, cocking the hammer back. "What did she say?" 

Their voices began struggling for volume, overlapping each other as they shouted at him, at each other. 

"Oh, please, put them away!" Fluttershy shrieked. 

"What did she say?!" Twilight screamed at him. 

"Can't we talk about this?" Rarity pleaded, pulling Fluttershy back from the conflict. 

Pinkie, surprisingly, was too stunned for words. 

"We pointing guns at each other now?" he snapped, ignoring her. The revolver was in his hands. 

"Put it down now!" Rainbow screamed, levelling a gun at him as well. 

Applejack held him at gunpoint with her .45, holding it with one hand in an intimidating stance. "Try me." 

Adrian flicked the cylinder out, tilting it. Five rounds clattered to the floor. He dropped the revolver and raised both his hands and finally said, 

"She said if I handed Twilight over, she'd let Lyra go." 

Silence. So tense that if it were a string, it would have snapped by now. He forgot to breathe a little. They were holding him at gunpoint. He could see down the barrel. 

"And what? You were gonna do it?" Rainbow accused. 

His eyes flashed. "I thought about it." 

"Now's not the time for jokes, dude," Gilda said lowly. She holstered her pistol.

Applejack reluctantly lowered her gun, still keeping a hand on her hip. 

Adrian scratched at his face. All that energy, that raging passion, that fire to mount a rescue, or some semblance of one, was sapped from his body. He turned around and the first thing he saw was the desk. He calmly swept off the contents of the desk, sending a lamp and bucket of ice and and a bottle of sparkling cider careening to the floor. He pressed his head against the wall, eyes squeezed shut, breathing slowly. 

No one moved. 

He muttered some things under his breath and grabbed the painting off the wall and broke its frame, holding its splintered remains in his heads. 

He was weary. He stumbled over to the bed, taking short, hobbled steps and sat down slowly, closing his eyes. He pressed his palms to his eyes, rubbing them. 

"What the hell are we gonna do," he muttered. 

Amidst the entire confrontation, Pinocchio had said nothing up until then. 

"I have an idea." 





Adrian turned right onto a winding narrow dirt path past a rusted chain link fence. The pristine white body of the BMW sedan was now splattered with mud. The location of the exchange was located a good ways away outside of Seattle past the outskirts of the city. It looked about as sparse and lifeless as you would expect from skeletons of buildings with exposed rebar and concrete. The Victorian-style warehouse was in a complete state of disrepair, overrun with weeds and foliage. Clearly the place had been abandoned long ago, as much of the warehouse district of Seattle had been back during the turn of the century. It was your typical warehouse, condemned but never taken down. The place was condemned in more ways than one now. Think five stories tall with a run-down brick foundation and large yellow grimy windows and an interior like Costco with towering, rusty steel shelves storing moldy wooden pallets, except much less spacious and more cramped and claustrophobic. A set of steel double-doors served as the only entrance, with any exits being fire escapes. 

Their little motorcade of cars entered the parking structure, at least five or six stories tall. There were only a few cars parked, scattered far and in between. It was three blocks away from the warehouse, and had a perfect view of the entire area. 

They parked their cars and began to unload their gear. Gilda lay on the roof of the BMW, aiming through the scope of her AR-15. Adrian took a look for himself through his camera lens. 

And there was the parking lot where they would meet. 

Twilight, who was spotting for Gilda (seeing as she wasn't much help in a gunfight). 

"They're here," Pino said, peering through her binoculars. "They've been here for a while now."

"Windows?" 

"No sign of movement," Twilight answered. "Adjust for windage, five miles per hour, east."  

"Where did you find the time to learn about spotting?" Adrian inquired. 

"It's science and mathematics!" she chirped. 

"At this distance?" Gilda asked skeptically. 

"We're at least five-hundred meters away. Far enough that it could make a difference," she replied. 

There a long pregnant pause, as if to remind everyone of the gravity of the situation. The tension in the air was thick. Thick enough to cut with a knife. Thick enough to make you lose your life. 

"Some more info could be helpful, egghead," Gilda scowled. 

"Not until you shoot first. I can't tell you anything."  

"Can you even see in there?" Adrian bristled. 

"It's still light out. And this is a night vision scope." 

But they were there. This, he knew. They were hiding, waiting for them to approach.

Rarity had been especially helpful with their wardrobe (yes, really). Adrian's first choice would have been to wear all black to blend in with the night, but Rarity was far more knowledgeable than he about colors. Wearing all black would have been akin to wearing neon, apparently. Not that it mattered for Pino and Rainbow and Pinkie and Applejack and him. They were coming in a Trojan Horse. 

Fluttershy removed herself from the situation, staying in the car as she was told. Fluttershy's medical expertise would have been helpful in such a situation, but Adrian didn't see himself retreating from the battle and getting patched up only to run back in. 

Once he went in, there was no turning back. 

Rarity herself insisted that she join her friends, but they convinced her to stay put to watch Twilight and Gilda's backs. 

He slipped on a Kevlar vest over a white T-shirt. It was the kind meant to wear underneath your clothes. 

"You don't have to do this," Pino suddenly said. 

Adrian didn't even bother looking at her as he buttoned up a dress shirt. "What did you say?" 

"You said it yourself. You've got a future. Just back out now." 

If looks could kill, Pino would have been more dead than roadkill. He stared venomously at her, not liking at all what she was insinuating. 

"And what, watch Lyra die? Chrysalis wants me alone." 

"That's not going to happen." 

"Yeah," Adrian grunted. "Because I'm going in there with you." 

"You're not some hero." 

He tilted his H&K USP45 sideways and racked the slide. "Yeah. I'm not. I'm just some guy who's too dumb to know when to quit. They want me? They'll get me." 

Pino stared. "What are you trying to prove?" 

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm going in because Lyra is worth it," he said, a determined look in his eye. 

Pino chambered a round in her Walther PPQ. "If we die here...we die alone," she said cooly. 

"Figure I might as well die in the rain as die in the sunshine." 

"Promise not to shoot me in the back?" Adrian smirked. 

"Promise not to shoot yourself in the foot?" 





The skies were filled with a thick, inpenetrable field of clouds. 

I'm getting sick of the rain.

Adrian pulled up into the parking lot at the exact time Chrysalis asked for. The wipers slashed through the rain, providing clarity. The changelings covered their eyes from the headlights of his BMW. He gulped, switching the engine off. His chest felt stiff, but that was just the vest.  He took one breath and stepped outside the car. 

Chrysalis and her changeling goons were all smartly dressed for the occassion in all black suits. He himself looked like shit and felt like shit with a half-assed attempt at a suit with a ruined, untucked dress shirt and slacks and some sneakers. 

"Where is Twilight?" Chrysalis hissed. 

Adrian's throat clenched. He licked his lips. As steadily as he could he answered,

"She's in the trunk." 

On cue, there were several cries and thumps. 

"You managed to separate Sparkle from her friends?" Chrysalis asked. 

"It wasn't easy," Adrian said. 

She took the bait. But instead of approaching the car herself, she ordered one of her Praetorians to do it. Never before had his heart raced so fast that he almost thought it was going to burst out of his chest. He breathed slowly, feeling the sides of his face grow cold, then numb. His hands and fingers felt numb and he thought his legs would collapse. It was fear. Fear about what was about to come. 

"The trunk?" Chrysalis deadpanned. "Open it, boy." 

With a press of a button, all chaos would be unleashed. Adrian reached into his pocket with a shaky hand, another hand slowly inching its way toward where his gun was tucked. 

The BMW alarm chirped. The trunk popped open. 

The first thing the changeling guard saw was Twilight Sparkle, bound and gagged. He looked to his Queen and gave an affimative nod. 

"It's her." 

He looked back down. 

The last thing the changeling guard saw was the barrel of a gun being shoved in its face, the owner being Pino, the sister who betrayed them. 

Bang. 

Dead. 

There was no last final speech for the poor changeling. Bang, dead. The suited Praetorian dropped instantly. 

And in that moment, time seemed to freeze. As if everyone was struggling to comprehend what had just taken place. And for a full second, nobody moved. Then, muscles tensed. Hands shot to weapons. Pino jumped out of the car, swinging her legs out with her HK416 ready, a tactical vest strapped around her torso. 

Adrian almost forgot to draw his gun. But he did. 

His gun came out in his right hand and he emptied half his magazine into the closest Praetorian who was reaching for its rifle, a textbook example of what it looked like when an amateur civilian with no weapons training literally sprayed and prayed with his eyes half-shut. Adrian didn't see the aftermath. What he saw wasn't what he expected. He expected more of...anything. But there was nothing. No blood, nothing. He thought he saw a spray of green mist, but he was already taking cover behind the car. 

Two down. 

I think.

There was the angry roar of a muscle car approaching. The cavalry was coming. 

The stolen black Ford Mustang, in the skilled hands of Dash, spun around in a sloppily-executed J-turn that turned the car around so that the trunk was facing the conflict. Keeping their heads low, bullets slammed into the back of the car. The rear windshield was taken out. Applejack was firing out the window like some gangster. 

The car turned sideways with a screech. Applejack and Rainbow Dash popped the door open, opening fire. Applejack seemed to do a squat as she fired her Remington 870 shotgun, ejecting a smoking shell. Rainbow blazed away with an H&K MP7A1. 

Applejack popped a flashbang, pulling the pin and hurling it towards the changelings. 

Do you know how hard it is to hit a moving target? A stationary target? How heavy the gun recoils when you shoot quickly? There was no time to take aim; there was no time at all. Spray and pray. They aimed in the general direction of one changeling and fired off plenty. 

Three down. 

War. Is this war? 

And then the Praetorians fired back. 

This is war.

He heard an enraged scream. 

"YOU MORON!" 

Then he ducked, hiding behind the BMW, using it as cover. Chrysalis held an H&K G36C carbine with the stock folded with one hand, haphazardly emptying her entire magazine with wanton disregard. Bullets whizzed overhead. Adrian heard the sound of loud metal thunkthunkthunks as rounds slammed into the side of the car. A round ripped through the windows, cracks spreading across the glass like spiderwebs before it completely shattered, raining glass on him. The airbags deployed with a loud pop. One of the wheels was shot, the car's suspension quaking. 

Adrian reached out and shoved the car door shut with a thunk, sliding closer to the trunk. 

"Your fate was sealed the day you laid eyes upon us, boy!" 

Her guard grabbed at his charge and pulled Chrysalis away. 

It wasn't on a large enough scale to be a war. But in a way, wasn't it? He was fighting against insurmountable odds against a force that outnumbered him and his friends. 

Their reports sounded like the angry chatter of a hornet, loud and relentless. Like loud, piercing cracks. Chrysalis wasn't dumb. At least he hoped she was a little dumb, but she was smart enough to have her changelings carry suppressed rifles. He had been hoping the police were going to show up, but there wasn't any chance of that. Not if he wanted Lyra alive in one piece. 

It was horrendous idea taking cover behind a car, especially knowing that a stray bullet could slip through the underside and hit him in the leg. Adrian crouched, hiding. 

It was then that he heard the true sound of a rifle being fired from long distance. Bullets traveled faster than sound. He first heard the sound of a .308 round slamming into the hood of the Mercedes-Benz. Next came the thunderous echoing sound, and then a screech straight out of an old Western flick. 

"They're going in the warehouse!" 

Pino fired in bursts, dropping back down to a knee and cringing as another one of the wheels exploded with a hiss. They were retreating inside the warehouse. 

"Adrian!" Pino shouted. 

He nodded, slinking over to the trunk and retrieving a Heckler & Koch HK416 carbine meant for close quarters combat modified with an EOTech holographic sight, SureFire tactical flashlight, and silencer.

Adrian shouldered the rifle and aimed down the holographic sight. It wasn't steady like Call of Duty. The gun weighed a ton. It quivered and shook. He felt like a goddamn Navy SEAL rushing in to put one between Osama's eyes. He thumbed the safety off and put it in SINGLE mode. After all, thirty rounds was nothing. He had to conserve what little ammo he had. 

"They're not making this easy for us, are they?" Adrian panted. 

"Not a chance." 

Oh my God, I just survived a firefight.

Pino reloaded her HK416, dropping a magazine and inserting a new one, slapping the bolt catch. She nodded and led the way. Applejack brought up the rear, shouldering her Remington. Rainbow was on her six. 

Pretend it's paintball, pretend it's paintball.

He had a fast trigger finger from snapping photos and playing paintball, and it translated well. The butt of the rifle was pressed firmly against his shoulder, pointed at the ground as he moved forward in tandem with Pinocchio, Rainbow and Applejack bringing up the rear. 

"This way," Pino said.

All four of them sidled up against the door. The changeling silently tested it, shaking her head. Dash readied a flashbang, while Applejack readied her shotgun. 

Adrian was tense. He waited. 

The blonde fired into one of the hinges. She cycled a shell and jammed her barrel into where the second hinge would be. Applejack's leg lashed out with enough brute force to tear down the door and send it flying off its hinges. 

Rainbow hollered and tossed the flashbang in with an underhanded toss into the darkness. Three seconds later, there was a loud explosion and a flash, and all four swarmed inside. 

Adrian stumbled as he fired two shots from his rifle down the hallway of steel shelves, falling forward onto his stomach. Pino grabbed onto his collar, dragging him behind the safety of the numerous wooden pallets. There was a set of stairs in the far end that led to the next floor. 

"I'll cover you, go!" 

This was a real gunfight.  Nothing felt orchestrated. There was no music, save for maybe the gunfire. The world wasn't moving in slow-motion. In fact, it felt like everything was happening in fast-forward. How many times had Adrian fantasized of being some sort of commando, taking down scores of terrorists like in a game? Now they were struggling to take down a squad of changelings. The funniest thing was the way everybody moved. They were like toddlers, practically crawling on their bellies, ducking and weaving and diving through the air just to get behind a piece of cover and catch their breath. There were no triumphant poses. His back hurt. His legs were on fire. He was wearing the wrong kind of shoes. 

The changelings fired back. 

Rainbow popped a smoke and tossed it into the fray. She tossed another flashbang. 

BANG!

In the cramped building, his ears rang. Smoke hissed from the cylinder in the darkness, giving them brief respite. There were the sounds of footfalls rising. 

"They're going up," Adrian breathed. 

Pino pointed at another piece of cover just up ahead. "AJ, help me push forward." 

"I'll cover you," Adrian said. 

Rainbow nodded, reloading her MP7. 

"Shoot on two, move on three?" 

"Got it," Rainbow said. 

Pino held up her fingers, counting off, mouthing the numbers. Adrian popped out, dropping to a knee and unloading ten rounds into the wall across the warehouse. Applejack took the front. She fired twice, racking her shotgun, ejecting two shells. AJ and Pino slid into cover. They gestured for them to approach. 

Pino glanced around the shelf. "Clear?" 

AJ paused. "Clear." 

Adrian and Rainbow sprinted, joining them. 

Pino pointed again. "There are two flights of stairs up to the next floor. Split up in teams of two." 

They split. Pino went up the right set of stairs with Adrian. They shuffled up to the door and peeked out from the doorway. 

"Brothers!" Pino screamed. 

"What the hell are you doing, Pino," Adrian hissed. 

"Sisters! Don't waste the life you have!" Pino shouted desperately. 

"Shut the fuck up, Pino!" he hissed. 

Darkness answered her. 

"Please! I don't want to kill you! You can still win this!" she sniffed. 

Adrian clenched his jaw. 

"Just walk away. You can start over." 

His finger was set against the side of the gun, but with the way things were going, he was ready to shoot his own shadow. 

"We can start over," Pino whispered. 

It wasn't happening. Not on their lives. If any one of them dared to abandon their duty they'd be shot by the others. 

Adrian stumbled forward. He saw a flash of black and instinctively squeezed the trigger. A burst erupted from the gun, and in his poorly trained hands, hosed down the area in a line. They fired back and he felt into cover again behind another line of shelves. His head felt hot. He touched it. 

Blood. 

They had grazed the side of his head. He was in shock from seeing crimson stain his hands. It ran down his face. His right eye was blinded by blood. He hissed, blinking it away. 

"You okay?" a voice came through in his earpiece. 

Adrian closed his eyes, breathing hard. Each exhale was drawn out slowly. 

"Adrian," Pino barked from a location he was unable to determine. She was up ahead, somewhere.  

He slid lower until he was sitting behind the pillar. "I'm o-okay," he murmured. 

His words were inaudible. Pino's voice broke the silence. He wanted to scream at her to shut up. 

"Ross? You still there?" 

The sound of his magazine dropping to the floor was his answer. He reached into his pockets and found his last rifle magazine. He inserted it and thumbed the bolt catch. His USP45 was still loaded. 

He snarled through gritted teeth, his eyes still screwed shut, "I-I'm still h-here..." 

"ROSS!" 

He licked his lips. "I'M STILL HERE!" 

Gunfire erupted. Dust blinded up as rounds stripped away at his cover. 

"You guys okay?" Gilda's voice came over the earpiece. 

"Alive," Adrian said dryly. He swallowed. His throat was dry. "Y-you see anything?" 

"No movement from any of the windows. Watching for any cars leaving." 

He was talking too loudly. He wasn't paying attention. He thought Pino had cleared the area, but she missed one. 

The changeling kicked him in the chest and was ready to blow his brains out until Applejack charged forward from out of nowhere, catching the changeling by surprise. She grabbed it by the lapels of its suit and—

Slam!

—its skull connected against the wall with a sickening crunch. She slammed its head against the metal wall twice more and hurled it to the catwalk. She kicked it while it was down. She grabbed onto the railing, starting to curb stomp it in the head. She unleashed all of her fury in her, holding onto the railing even harder as she stomped its head in.  

Stomp.

"Go ta—" 

Stompstompstomp. Her boot was stained with green blood. 

"—Tartarus you—" 

STOMPSTOMPSTOMPSTOMPSTOMP—

Bang. 

Applejack's leg suddenly collapsed. She let out a cry as a bullet tore through her upper thigh, another catching her right in the vest. 

"APPLEJACK!" Rainbow screamed in desperation up ahead. 

Pino and Rainbow were keeping them at bay. 

"L-looks like I'm out for the rest of the rodeo," Applejack shakily lamented. She wheezed. 

"Hey, hey, stay with me AJ." 

She rasped. "Get this stupid vest off. Ah can't breathe." 

He reached up from under her shirt and pulled the white Kevlar out. Her face was pale. 

Applejack reached into her waistband and held out her 1911. "You're almost out, aren't ya?" 

He nodded, taking the pistol. 

She pulled him close. "You make every shot count, you hear?" 

Rainbow had retreated back. "Ohmygod, AJ!" she cried. 

"Ah'm fine." 

She wasn't. Rainbow pressed down on the gaping wound on her thigh, tears in her eyes. 

"Get up there and back Pino up," AJ told him weakly. 

Rainbow had to stay with her. Of course he understood. They were best friends. And maybe they could have used the extra gun, but it would have been all for naught to rescue Lyra and have one of them die. 

They were retreating from the rodeo. After all, there wasn't really much point, was there?

There wasn't really much a point to anything, unless you wanted there to be. 





Third floor. Two more to go. Pino was cutting down the changelings left and right. He had forgotten how many bodies he'd passed, but Pino was determined to keep pushing on. 

He fired off the last of his rifle magazine at the downed changeling. He unslung the HK416 and tossed it aside. 

He wondered how she felt. There had to be some kind of aversion to killing your own kind, wasn't there? 

They sprinted to the next flight of stairs to the fourth floor. 

Stupidly, blindly, he jumped right in, arm outstretched with only his H&K .45. The pallets and boxes surrounding him seemed to explode and splinter with dust and wood. He blew off an entire magazine moving deeper into cover. He dropped the empty one and slipped a new mag in, racking the slide. 

"On your left!" 

Adrian swung out and shot the changeling that was exposed in its cover. It collapsed, laying prone on its back, twitching. The last one had come out, but he made sure to spray it down. 

His pistol locked back. 

Just like an operator he kept the empty gun pointed downrange towards his target with his right hand, while his left hand furiously reached for his pockets. He patted himself down, finding nothing. 

Adrian crouched down behind a piece of metal railing. 

"You got any clips?" he whispered harshly. He waved his empty gun. 

Pino glared at him, holding up her Walther. "They are not interchangeable!" 

With a growl he tossed the gun aside. He pulled out Applejack's .45. With these changelings a .45 wouldn't be enough to punch through their body armor and chitin exoskeleton. Perhaps an FN Five-seveN loaded with armor-piercing rounds would have been more appropriate in this situation. 

He gulped, afraid to touch the bug corpse. He realized that it wasn't the time to be picky. 

As he searched the body for more magazines he wondered where it all had gone wrong. How he had gone from shooting pictures to shooting changelings and looting corpses. 

He checked one of their SIG rifles. He tested the trigger and got a click in response. He picked up another rifle and ejected the magazine. There was one bullet left. He angrily set aside their guns. He didn't have time to dawdle around. They weren't wearing vests or any sort of thing like that and it seemed like they'd all but used up all their ammunition. He wondered if he could unscrew the silencer on their rifle and use it for himself. 

As it turned out, there were more pests. 

The wall behind him exploded with dust as rounds slammed into it. 

"GO! JUST GO!" 

He growled and dodged the ricocheting rounds on the metal stars and kicked the door open. 

Fifth floor. Last one. 

"CHRYSALIS!" he roared. "COME OUT!" 

"YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME?!" Chrysalis roared. Her voice echoed. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that, you little shit!" 

Adrian swallowed, taking a step forward, his .45 raised. 

"I DO THIS FOR A LIVING, BOY!" 

He squeezed off one shot, missing her and hitting a wooden pallet as Chrysalis slunk off into the shadows. 

"You make every shot count, you hear?"

"Bitch!" 

He checked his corners. He took slow, shuffling steps, readjusting his grip. Beads of sweat slid down his face. The blood had stopped running after a while. His sleeve was bloody from where he'd been wiping his face. 

Adrian threw himself up the last set of stairs, throwing his shoulder into the rooftop door. It was filled with places to hide, not at all what he had been expecting. Although he wasn't sure what he had been expecting. There were exposed rusty pipes and at least a dozen concrete air conditioning units scattered across the entire rooftop. There was a small jump across to another part of the rooftop to a much less stable sheet metal roof. 

A figure stood in front of him. 

"Chrysalis!" 

He lined up his sights, his finger on the trigger. 

A flash of lightning. 

He fired. 

Gone. Was he just seeing things?

He froze. He heard several shuffling steps and wheeled around. A piece of plywood connected with the slide of his head, breaking and splintering into pieces. 

Chrysalis towered over him. He raised his gun, jamming it into her throat. She slapped the gun aside, firing off his third shot. With one hand she clawed at his throat, the other redirecting the barrel away from her face. Adrian gurgled, emptying his magazine into the air, his trigger finger squeezing again and again to no avail, the slide locking back as he felt his face go numb and his vision began to black out. 

"You insolent...brat!" Chrysalis snarled, her face close to his. 

She wrenched the empty gun from his grip and smacked him with the butt. His nose was broken. She hurled it over the edge. Adrian's hands grasped at anything, trying to breathe with blood in his throat. His hands closed around a brick. 

"Get up!" she screamed. 

Adrian was lifted by his collar, his feet off the ground. There was a crack in the distance, distracting Chrysalis for a second long enough for him to try and smack her with the brick. He stumbled back, weakly putting his fists up. The changeling queen did not even humor him, lunging in and knocking the wind out of him with a fist to the gut. 

"GILDA!" he rasped. 

"I can't get a clean shot!"

"JUST SHOOT HER!" 

"I can't!"

She ripped his earpiece from his ear and crushed it underfoot. 

So this is what James Bond felt like in Skyfall. 

Another shot. 

Chrysalis ducked, dropping to the ground so that Gilda couldn't see. Adrian tried to escape only for her to grab him by his ankles. He reached out in desperation and grabbed a sizeable piece of glass, blood staining his hand as he tried to stab her with it. Chrysalis disarmed him, pulling him to the ground with her beneath him, his back facing her, and her arms wrapped around his throat in a chokehold. He could feel her icy breath on his neck as she used his body as cover. 

"I'm going to kill you..." 

Her voice had become less of a purr and more unstable, more uneasy. Her breaths were labored. 

"You...and the Elements are dead," Chrysalis hissed. "Stop...resisting!" 

He gasped. 

"Just take it!" she hissed. "Shhh. Yessss." 

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Adrian struggled against his captor. There was only one way out of this. He didn't dare try anything. He let himself pass out, and he hoped that he would wake up from this coma. 





In reality, if you were in a coma for as long as anyone was in Hollywood, you would be brain dead. His coma hadn't lasted long at all. He faded in and out of consciousness, quite aware that he was being dragged by his shirt collar. His vision went black, then refocused into clarity. 

They were in the courtyard. He tried to swallow and felt Chrysalis' arm crushing his throat. He rasped. 

"Put your guns down! Do you hear me?!" Chrysalis roared into his ear.

They were giving their guns up. 

"Throw them over there! To me!" 

They were tossing guns toward Chrysalis. She kicked them as far away as she could behind her, burying some of them with the heel of her foot in the mud. 

Adrian's hand trailed down and slid into his pocket. This was his chance. She was distracted. 

He slipped a hand into his pocket. His fingers curled around cold metal: the hilt of Pino's switchblade. He drew it quickly, the blade flicking open with a solid clack. He slammed his fist backwards and felt the blade sink into Chrysalis' chitin.  

"AAAAAAUGH!" 

She dropped like a fly, clutching at her leg. He whirled round and backhanded her with the back of his fist, connecting solidly with the side of her head. 

He nearly strangled her by her collar as he clambered on top of her, striking her in the face. He reeled her in like a fish by her blazer and punched her again, hoping to break one of her fangs to ruin her smug smile. 

"Where is she?" he roared. 

He didn't really give her much of a chance to answer when he introduced his fist to her jaw again. 

"Where is she?" he gasped. 

She cackled, wheezing slowly. Her mouth was filled with blood. "Lyra...was never here, boy," Chrysalis spat, green slime trailing from the corner of her mouth. "I-if y-you kill me, you'll never find her!" 

Adrian clenched his teeth, his body quaking. "You freak." 

"Never! You never see your love again!" she cackled. "Unless..." 

"Unless?" he began. "Unless what?" He shook her by her collar. "WHAT!" 

She gestured for him to come in closer. He did so. Her lips moved and only he heard her words.  

He let her fall onto the ground, his eyes wide with fury. "Fuck you. This is over," Adrian hissed, raising a fist. "I won't." 

There was a click. He felt the cold barrel of Pino's gun on the back of his neck. 

"Back off, Adrian." 

He didn't turn around. He murmured, "What the hell are you doing, Pinocchio."   

"I said, back off." 

He turned around, fixing her with a look filled with hate. She kept the Walther PPQ trained on him. 

"That's enough." 

Suddenly, Pino offered to him, holding it by the barrel. 

She knew! She knew what Chrysalis asked of him! 

Adrian reluctantly took the gun. 

Chrysalis' eyes lit up with glee. She smiled a toothy smile like a shark. Her body began to shiver, and for a second Adrian thought she was sobbing.  Her claws scraped against wet mud as she pulled, dragging herself away from the scene, unable to stand with the blade hilted in her flesh. 

"Perfect! Absolutely perfect!" She squealed with delight. "If you ever want to see Lyra again...do as I say. Now."

Pino gave him a nod. "You know what you have to do." 

"Adrian, what the hay is she talking about?" Rainbow asked. 

He whirled around and aimed Pino's Walther right at Twilight. Even from there, he could hear Fluttershy let out a squeak. Rarity and Fluttershy hid as far as they could behind a crate. Applejack was probably with them. 

Twilight was slow to grasp the situation. "What?" It was a breathless gasp. 

"What the hay!" Rainbow screamed at him. 

"Red light, Sparkle," Adrian commanded. 

"What are you doing?!" Gilda roared. 

"Don't even move." 

Twilight sputtered, "Adrian, what are you doing?!" 

"If I let her live," Adrian stammered, "i-if I let her go, I can find Lyra. It's the only way—" 

"There is always a choice, Adrian!" Twilight screamed. 

He shot her in the chest. She fell. There was a scream of anguish. 

"No. Sometimes there's really not."