“Got anything?” asked Pinkie.
Twilight knitted her brow, straining her focus on the dull stone in front of her. It glimmered a tan color for a brief moment, but quickly returned to a dull grey hue. Twilight gasped for breath while a few drops of sweat dripped from her muzzle. “Ugh, it’s like there’s been something blocking the stone, but it feels like Celestia is near Luffy…” Twilight’s face slightly tightened. “... and the changeling queen.”
“It’s like a story you know is being told but you can’t see or hear it!” Pinkie said with a grin. She spun around and trotted over to the door. “Booorrrrinnngggg! Time for an intermission!”
She left Twilight behind and happily skipped through the halls of the castle. Bathroom, bathroom, bath—“Oof!”
In the midst of her quest, Pinkie had failed to notice that she was on a collision path with another pony. Both of them wound up in a tangle of limbs, but quickly helped each other up. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I was just looking for the little filly’s room and the castle is really big and confusing and I—”
“Quite alright,” the other pony chuckled while he dusted off his cloak with his right foreleg. “You are right about this place being big, speaking of which, would you happen to know where Princess Celestia is?”
“Oh…” Pinkie’s lips curled up in an anxious expression. “She’s a bit busy right now… but I’m a super duper friend of hers, so I can take a message!”
“Hmmm, how about…” The pony scratched at his head. “Princess Luan, was it? So hard to get the names right.”
“Sure!” Pinkie replied. “It’s Princess Luna, by the way, but everypony makes mistakes. Mind me asking what you’re here for?”
“Catching up, spreading the news, asking for favors. The usual things visitors do with royalty.”
“You’re funny! Hmmm, it’s a little weird though…” Pinkie scratched her head. “You’re the first non-guard pony I’ve seen for a while.”
~~~
“W-what the hell is this?” a man stuttered. His sentiments echoed in the murmurs and expressions of thousands of people around them. Pirates and marines clashed across massive screens in front of the crowd. That much had been expected with the execution of Portgas D. Ace, even though Whitebeard’s ferocity still caused the inhabitants of the Shabondy Archipelago to shake in fear.
The arrival of a battleship from above the war drew surprised reactions, and the hardened faces of criminals, terrorists, and pirates thought forever locked up made those watching events play out collectively gasp. Then, the black creatures were spotted. Unknown to the likes of man, their hybrid form of pony and bug brought disgust and confusion to the viewers, which quickly turned to a crippling fear when the beasts descended on the war, sinking their fangs into pirate and marine alike. All the was left of their victims were emaciated bodies with blank eyes that stared out into nothing.
“I heard Impel Down was Hell, but not literally!”
“What monster would free those things?”
“Why are they attacking both sides?”
“It’s retribution for angering Whitebeard! He’s summoned an army of demons!”
“It’s the marine’s secret weapon!”
Suddenly, the screens at the Archipelago went black and the roar of confusion, anger, and fear turned deafening. A new cry went up along with fingers pointing at a single screen. The grand battle still played out in the background, but the camera’s focus was on an individual with his back to the camera.
“Trixie cannot believe she is doing this,” said a voice from the lone screen.
“Damn it!” The man spun around, revealing his bulbous nose and facial paintings. “That was gonna be a great shot! You saw how they turned off the rest of the snails!”
“Eh?” everyone watching cried out.
~~~
“Ha!” A balding man yelled as he brought down a lengthy blade on a marine. The man took the brief pause in between fights to look back. Behind him, a pirate with a face and teeth akin to a walrus’s was approaching. “Islewan? I thought you were with your men.”
Islewan suddenly rushed Squard, opening up his mouth to show that all his teeth were now razor sharp fangs. Squard raised up his sword, but not fast enough to fully block the fangs. However, a massive fist, glowing blazing red, slammed into the imposter Islewan. First, its disguise peeled off, revealing the jet shell underneath and then the fist swallowed it up, leaving nothing behind but intense heat.
The fist pulled back, shrunk to a normal size, and returned to a normal human color. Its owner stepped forward to Squard. “Traitors everywhere today it seems.”
~~~
“Kikiki!” Chrysalis continued to cackle. She raised her blood-soaked arm up and licked the tips of her new hand. “Oh, this is more fun than just beating you in one blast!”
“Hrmph,” Celestia grunted. Her bleeding torso shifted back to a pony’s barrel for an instant and then back to human form, minus the puncture wound. “Discord liked to warm up with attacks like that. You should have saved a surprise move like that.” She pointed her sword’s tip at Chrysalis. “Example: Sunspot!”
A medium sized yellow ball that convulsed and turned brown and black in certain areas raced out of the sword at Chrysalis. She raised up her jagged blade and readied herself to parry the attack. “Ha! Yes, Celestia, the glowing ball really is a surpri—”
A great force wrenched Chrysalis’s weapon out of her hands and into the tiny ball, which was now pure white. The blade sizzled upon impact and Chrysalis choked down a gasp before she too was pulled into the ball. Her dress caught aflame where it came into contact and she let out a piercing scream.
Celestia flapped up to Chrysalis’s side in the air, but cautiously kept her distance. “The surprise was that that’s a miniature white dwarf. Did you think I would just call out my attack?”
“Rah!” Chrysalis snatched up the sphere and brought all her strength down on it. It cracked and dissipated in a blaze of heat. She coughed up some smoke and fell to the ground with her sword clattering next to her.
Celestia glided down and paced over to Chrysalis, while slowly raising her blade. “That sword is still a part of your body. I would have thought a changeling would know the risks of taking on a different appearance.”
“Yes, we do…” Chrysalis muttered. Her left hand shot up and fired a blast of magic at Celestia, sending her flying some distance away. With a fanged grin, Chrysalis attempted to get up, but shuddered and collapsed to the ground. Her arms and stomach smoked and showed off their original black forms. “I need energy.”
She breathed deeply and sucked in the residual emotions in the air, repeatedly coughing as she choked down bloodlust. Her “skin” and dress slowly crept back over her chitin, but this only made her huff in frustration. “No, I need more.”
A sniff of the air made her eyes light up. Massive anxiety emanated from the execution platform, intense camaraderie littered the battlefield, and a powerful fraternal bond came from the great ship in the middle of the icy field. Chrysalis cursed that she couldn’t devour the final emotion immediately, but was impressed by the equally strong affection standing right next to her future feast. Switching back to the visual spectrum, the source of the affection matched its emotional depth in physical size.
~~~
On the other side of the ice, Celestia found herself in a small crater with the frozen turf piled up around her. Green flames danced over her barrier and a few parts of her were sore from the impact, but she was relatively unscathed. She quickly got back to her feet and braced herself for another attack by Chrysalis.
“Enjoying the war?”
Celestia spun around with her sword ready to strike and the slimy voice. A puff of dense cigar smoke struck her in the face which she quickly dissipated with a flap of one of her wings. She sharpened her eyes at the sight of her former colleague, noting the bleeding wound on his head. “Crocodile. With Chrysalis free, I shouldn’t be surprised Straw Hat let you out too.”
“You’d be impressed at his ability to screw up plans.” Crocodile paused to inhale some more smoke from his cigar. “First Alabasta for me and now taking out Whitebeard.”
“Wait…” Celestia’s eyes veered over to the Moby Dick, where two figures prominently stood at the masthead. Her pupils shrank at the sight of a winged object flying right at Whitebeard. “Tartarus!”
She took off at blinding speeds, showering Crocodile with ice and extinguishing his cigar, much to his annoyance. Celestia left him behind and raced up to the Moby Dick’s masthead and raised her blade. Golden magic and emerald flames flew off her and Chrysalis’s blades as they crossed.
“Every time!” Chrysalis roared and pushed down harder with her sword. “You deny me my food every ti—”
A punch to the face silenced Chrysalis and sent her careening to some other part of the war. Luffy retracted his fist and shook his slightly reddened hand. “Man, she’s tough for a bug.”
“I’ll berate your idiocy later,” Celestia grumbled. Her right hand glowed and her weapon shrunk down into a tiny orb of light, which in turn gave way to a small iron key. She chucked it out Luffy, who caught it in midair. “That should get the cuffs off Fire Fist. Now, go.”
“Thanks!” Luffy gripped the edge of the boat and flung himself into the fray, leaving Celestia alone with Whitebeard.
“Gurara, glad I waited before smashing you and that other thing,” Whitebeard chuckled. “Now, what will you do?”
“Hope either your crew or Straw Hat get to Fire Fist and get out of here, but, for now…” Celestia re-summoned her claymore and casually swung it at Whitebeard, who easily dodged. “I need you to knock me off this ship.”
Whitebeard gave a hearty laugh and picked up his bisento. “Ah, if only the other Warlords were this easy to deal with! Once this is over, we’ll drink to celebrate Ace’s freedom!”
“Just hurry and hi—” Chrysalis tackled Celestia from the side, knocking her claymore out of her hands and sending both of them barreling into the heat of the fight. Marines and pirates were blown away, some were hit by Celestia’s residual magic while others were consumed by Chrysalis’s supernatural flame.
Chrysalis continued driving into Celestia’s side and grinned when the latter’s dress shifted back to fur and a sickening crack filled her ears. “Mmm, one rib down, now for the rest!”
Celestia gasped for air and focused on her magic into her torso, healing it and strengthening the shield around it. However, the glow faded from the rest of her body. Chrysalis still continued her attack and raised her sword in preparation for a vicious blow. In return, Celestia angled her hand and it turned bright red rather than golden. A titanic sphere erupted out of her palm and collided with Chrysalis’s face, tearing off most of her human disguise.
Howling in pain, Chrysalis relented her blitz on Celestia. They landed down on the ice and squared off against each other. Celestia’s right hand glimmered and her sword reappeared in it. At the same time, Chrysalis kept her grip on her blade while her other hand went to her disfigured face. Gasps for air escaped out of both their mouths.
“Ki… kiki,” Chrysalis huffed, while her face slowly reformed. “Feeling a little winded, Celestia?”
“You are in… no position to talk,” Celestia said between breaths. “Not quite so easy to use your magic here is it?”
“On the contrary...” Green flames raced over Chrysalis’s muzzle and reformed it back into a nose and pale skin. “It’s easier than ever. You keep those stupid ponies so docile they don’t know real emotion. Here? Ohhh, all the feelings here run deep.”
“This is war, I don’t expect love in high quantities here,” Celestia replied.
Chrysalis let out wave of cackles. “Why do you think my hive is in the Badlands? Do you know how rich love is when a creature is so close to death that the sight of a loved one makes them a feast? This war… this world has these human things fighting to the death for a single other human. Oh, there’s putrid emotions that leave a bad taste in my mouth, but love is at the core of almost all of it! The whole of Equestria couldn’t equal this!”
“Here I thought you were foul enough stealing romance, but now you profit off of war?” Celestia slashed her sword in front of her, sending off a wave of sunset hued sparks. “Few beings have disgusted me as much as you.”
“Go on preaching, Celestia,” Chrysalis spat. “It wo— urp!”
Chrysalis’s face reddened and she clamped a hand around her stomach Parts of her disguise flickered while she coughed. “W-what?”
“Pops!” Ace screamed, followed by multiple other pirates yelling the same thing. Chrysalis snapped her head to the execution platform and then to the Moby Dick. Her eyes widened at the sight of a massive sword jutting straight through Whitebeard’s chest. Its hilt rested in the hands of one of the pirates her drones had tried to drain.
“No!” Chrysalis screamed. “He’s spoiling foo—”
The rest of the complaint was silenced with a flurry of blows from the pommel of Celestia’s weapon and a mix of hooves and fists. The attack slowly stripped away parts of Chrysalis’s unstable form until she was back on four legs with only parts of her face and torso still looking human. Celestia whipped the flat of her blade down and sent Chrysalis’s sword skittering over the ice.
Breathing deeply, Celestia relinquished her barrier while her hands started to glow a faint pinkish hue. She raised up her sword, but a pair of fangs sunk into her right arm followed by another pair sinking into her left arm. Two more changelings flew out of the chaos and bit into her legs. Finally, a fifth divebombed her in the chest and all five pushed with all their strength and carried her off.
Chrysalis clenched her teeth and managed to summon her weapon back to her side. She tried to take a step forward, but her left foreleg’s exoskeleton gave a sharp crack and fissures streamed up it while a bit a ichor dripped from the wounds.
A familiar buzzing alerted her to three more drones that landed at her side. One stepped forward and bowed his head. “Your highness, forgive us. We tried to get here as fast as possible.”
“Good, good.” Chrysalis shot out a hoof and managed to turn it into a hand, straggling the drone’s neck. “But make sure the killing blow is mine.”
“Y-yes,” the drone choked.
“Do you require sustenance, your highness?” another drone asked while Chrysalis unclenched her hand and reconstructed her human form. Its horn glowed and small glowing pink ball materialized out of it. Picking it up, Chrysalis analyzed the wisps of other colors swirling around the edges of the sphere and frowned at the dark red and yellow hues. She glanced up and saw that Whitebeard had now brought Squard into an embrace and sighed. “I don’t know what madness took that fool, but he cost us energy and time.”
She scarfed down the energy, but upon finishing it realized shadow had fallen upon her and her drones. Looming over them was a massive figure with its eyes hidden behind thick glasses. “Target identified as changeling queen, Chrysalis. Target marked for immediate execution.”
“I was still hungry.” Chrysalis flew up in a blur and sunk her teeth into “Kuma’s” left shoulder. Her fangs only managed to poke through his black and white shirt. She jumped back an instant before Kuma’s hand came down.
“Why can’t I feel anything? Chrysalis roared. “What mockery is this?”
“Target identified as changeling queen, Chrysalis,” Kuma repeated, except the creature in front of Chrysalis wasn’t talking. The voice instead from her left, right, and behind. She spun around and was greeted with three more Kumas. She hissed at them and her drones did the same as the Kumas advanced on them.
~~~
Celestia attempted to move her limbs, but the changelings had wrapped their entire bodies around them. Restrained, she slowly felt herself getting colder and her eyelids getting heavier. She realized that they were carrying her high above the battle and felt the rush of air as they flung her back down. Ice shattered under her and she let out a gasp. Yet, the changelings still didn’t let go and the world was growing darker and darker.
“Darn…” Celestia heaved. Her eyes closed and her breathing ceased. The changelings all unclenched their jaws and buzzed their wings, but were then thrown back by a massive blast.
The changelings stumbled up from the ice, heads pounding and a feeling akin to a live wire running through their exoskeletons. Celestia glided out of the sea, enshrouded in a blinding fuchsia aura that flared up around her. Her form blurred and the changelings all felt a burn far harsher than anything flame could produce and collapsed to the ground with glowing pink dents stretched across their barrels. Celestia’s aura dimmed slightly, but still pulsated around her. “I’ll have to thank Shining and Cadence when I return.”