The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez


Chapter LII: One Threat Down, Another Rises

A cluster of bullets lazed past the three beings as they continued their fight. To these three and the tiny bubble of sped-up time, the battle had been raging for three days straight, and finally, it appeared as though a victor was about to be decided.

Michael’s arm rose as he panted heavily, digging deep inside himself for the strength to continue. Mars responded by side-stepping the barrel of the pistol in his hand and grabbing his former father’s wrist, snapping it with a simple jerk. Howling in more frustration than pain, Michael was was thrown helplessly against the cluster of bullets whistling lazily through the air, piercing his body as they passed. Cringing in pain, the man in the white T-shirt dropped, more silver goo spurting from the fresh wounds. At the same time, old ones from Mars’ spikes throbbed angrily, the goo over them now a dull gray with little black flecks of infection. If he just had a few moments to recover…

As Mars advanced, Chen leapt on his back and tried to grab him in a figure-four hold, limbs trembling with fatigue. It almost made Michael cry to see his brother in such a state: his once gleaming, silvery body now a dull gray, little black sprinkles of infection all over its surface. Mars laughed at the pathetic attempt to hold him and flipped, sending Chen flying into his brother with ease.

This battle is not going in our favor, brother, the silvery mass of goo grumbled as it rested heavily on the man in the white T-shirt.

No shit, Michael sighed, struggling just to lift his brother off. He cringed at the touch: where there should have been the smooth, solid feel of his brother’s body was instead a sickening, gooey touch, like sponge cake soaked in wine. His fingers left little dimples in the surface of his brother’s body. Michael panted and gazed up at Mars. His uniform was now torn and ragged, the undershirt just barely clinging on from exposure, and still, his body showed only a few scars and silvery wounds. Three days of battle, of wins and losses and minor victories and more cuts and broken parts than he cared to count, and still they’d barely put a mark on their enemy. A lesser man might have cried.

Okay, whatever, Michael gasped, teeth clenching at his freshest wounds. Just need a few moments, that’s all. A few moments, and we’re good to…

Of course, the moment that thought crossed his mind, Mars reared up over them and seized the pair: Michael by the back of his head, Chen by the blank space between his shoulders where a head would be. Then, one after the other, he took turns pounding each into the ground, first slamming Michael’s face into the dirt, then Chen’s body, then Michael again, alternating between the two at a faster and faster rate. Dirt and mulched grass sailed into the air from each impact, digging deeper and deeper as a look of pure rage grew on the fallen son’s face. After digging a five-foot deep crater with his fathers’ faces, he stood and simply began stomping each of them alternatively. It dragged on and on, the fallen demigod beating each man in turn until his body heaved with exhaustion from maintaining his pace. At last, he paused and straightened up. The demigods lay limp at his feet. He grinned and picked up the malformed, silvery masses that used to be his fathers’ faces, panting heavily from overwork and anticipation.

What’s the matter, daddy? Feeling a bit under the weather? A few chunks of liquid silver fell off Michael’s head as Mars released him and watched him fall as if he were falling through Jell-O. Sighing, Mars finally returned to normal speed. Instantly, a dozen shots rang out all around him, bullets whizzing by. A few dirt clods, sailing lazily into the air from the hundreds of beatings he’d forced on his fathers, sprang outwards. His ears filled with the cries of battle. A few yards to his side, his men charged the American lines, colliding full-force with nothing more than a few spades and blunt objects. He grinned with glee at the sounds and stretched. It was good to be back!

“Welcome back, daddy,” he whispered, his ears drinking in the sound of his own voice. The silvery masses shivered, struggling to reform their features. Even Chen struggled to maintain his simple form, his body rippling as it filled in the fist-sized holes on his body where Mars had gripped him.

“I just wanted to slow things down a bit so you could see,” the fallen son hissed, scooping the brothers’ heads back up, forcing them to look at the battle building to a crescendo before them. “Equestria has all but fallen. Soon, my reinforcements will pour into this village, and they will march on Canterlot unopposed. And after that: the Dog mines, the Changeling Badlands, Cloudsdale…not even the sky’s the limit here! I love that about Equestria; it’s almost a shame you won’t be allowed to witness as it rises to become a new and profitable province of the Reich.”

Spitting a bit of gray goo out of his freshly reformed mouth, Michael craned his neck to look back at his son with a still-forming face. “I still say you talk too much.”

And I would concur, Chen added just as a terrific explosion filled the sky. Mars looked up, eyes widening as the Elements of Harmony hovered over him. Just then, Chen and Michael twisted, wrapping their bodies around his, holding him in place.

“WHAT IS THIS!?” The fallen demigod screamed.

Checkmate, Chen replied as the air hummed with energy, magic circling the six ponies as a beam of light finally rocketed out of the center of their group. The stormtroopers’ advance on the American lines halted just a few yards short of the ridge, stunned by the sight as the beam engulfed Mars. Instantly, a hard, rocky shell began to form around his body. The fallen demigod stopped struggling, gazed down at his hardening skin, then threw back his head and laughed.

“This is it!?” He cackled, throwing the brothers off his body. “Matter transformation? As in, the EASIEST THING FOR OUR KIND TO COUNTER!? That’s your final play!?”

Clapping his hands, he halted the transformation, the rock shimmering with traces of chrome. “Please! I can counter this for hours on end, more than long enough for your precious ‘Elements’ to run out of juice!”

The Elements’ attack is not meant to imprison you, little one, Chen replied, rising to his chrome, nubby feet.

“Oh?”

Michael shook his head, actual pity in his eyes. “It’s meant to slow ya down.”

Mars’ eyes widened. “No,” he gasped, immediately attempting to jump back to supersonic speed, only to find himself dragged back by the magic stone encasing his body. “NO!”

Without another word, the brothers winked out of sight. Mars looked around, panic in his eyes as he summoned his spikes again and waved them around wildly, desperately trying to hit something. Suddenly, a silvery blur appeared from the sky and smashed into the back of his head, pile-driving him into the ground before rushing off again. He rose, coughing, just in time to be blasted back by the ultra-sped-up whir of a Gatling cannon, a near-constant flare of shots echoing from the Everfree riddling his body.

“No, I was so close…so close…” he groaned as yet another roundhouse kick smashed against his jaw, followed by a cacophony of bullets from right over his head. He looked up at the Elements and sneered as his body buckled. “Magic. I fucking hate magic.” A pair of fists smashed into his throat, two blurs rocketing up into the night sky. He dropped to his knees.

“I really, really do,” he rasped before the blurs came back down on his body, exploding with the impact. The humans along the line gazed in pure awe as the dust settled and three figures became visible: two on their feet, one on the ground. The Elements of Harmony finally descended, the six ponies gazing along with the humans at the sight: Chen was back in his human form, the business suit still as impeccably well-pressed as it was before. Michael glared down at his son, who glared right back.

“It’s over.”

“Yeah, I know,” Mars coughed, his body reeling. He could barely hold to his form anymore as he tried to force himself to his feet, only for Chen to press him back down again with the leather sole of one luxurious business shoe. Michael gave him a gentle push to the side, shaking his head. Chen arched an eyebrow, but nodded and backed off.

“You know what I hafta do now,” the man in the leather jacket said, leaning down to eye level with his fallen son.

“I know, it’s over,” a demonic glint entered Mars’s eye, a syringe appearing in his hand. “For BOTH OF US!”

Before anyone could react, he plunged the syringe into Michael’s neck and slammed the plunger home. Screaming with rage, the demigod smashed a fist into his lost son’s nose, slamming him back into the Earth. Mars just grinned. “You really must be tired, daddy: your reaction time was piss-poor there!”

“Michael!” Chen gasped, rushing to secure Mars. “Are you…”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I’m…” Michael pulled the needle out of his neck, and his eyes widened. He knew the build and design of this syringe. He knew what it could be used to hold. His fingers raced over the injection site. The skin was clammy and growing numb, already losing its consistency. He pulled his fingers back and looked them over. They were coated with chrome goo, quivering in the light. “You maniac…”

“Please do not tell me that is what I think it is,” Chen said fearfully.

“A tachyon disruption serum!” Mars said proudly, leaning back in the dirt. “Took a while to develop it, but worth it. It’s the perfect final shot. It should have completely inundated your system by now, daddy. And give it another few minutes…”

“You maniac!” Michael pounced on Mars, the numbness spreading throughout his body. “You’ve killed us all!”

“I figured it’d be worth it to let your pretty little pony princess see you as you really are: the REAL Swarm.” Mars grinned wickedly, then tilted his head up in a mocking imitation of his father’s voice: “’In the event that my main form loses cohesion, you need to get your men out as soon as possible. My body will have nothing keeping it under control, and if that happens, it could destroy worlds before I can reign it in.’ That was part of the briefing you gave the Joint Chiefs, was it not?”

“It’s spreading!” Chen gasped, more chrome fluid seeping out from Michael’s neck. The pair watched in horror as a dribbling of gray goo dropped from his body, sizzling on the ground. It slowly dissipated, evaporating into the air and leaving behind a small crater where there once was grass.

“Murderer!” He screamed, futilely closing his hands around his own neck, literally trying to hold himself together. More of the goo spurted between his fingers, bubbling and sizzling in the air.

“If I can’t have Equestria,” Mars sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes in anticipation. “No one can.”

“CHEN!” Michael screamed, stumbling backwards as more of the goo bubbled up in his mouth.

“You’re losing complete cohesion!” The man in the business suit gasped, shaking his head. “A total material breakdown! What do we do!?”

“You know,” Michael coughed, a dark look in his eye.

Chen’s eyes widened. “I am not killing you.”

“You have to! I’m dead anyway!” Michael leaned over and vomited, a stream of slurry hissing into the ground. He watched in horror as the dirt around the puddle of goo slowly decayed, cracking and losing its form, the puddle growing around it. “At least this way I won’t take the whole planet with me!”

“I am not destroying one of my own siblings’ offshoots! The lives you contain…” he shook his head. “Hundreds of thousands of lives would be erased, and you’d be weakened forever!”

“I KNOW THAT! JUST DO IT! IT’D BE BETTER THAN DESTROYING EQUESTRIA!”

“Running outta time, Chen!” Mars’s voice cooed, a contented smile replacing the wicked grin on his face. “You might wanna hurry!”

“I-I can contain you! Just until Dietrich or Nasreen or someone gets here! Then they can…”

“There’s no time,” Michael moaned, dropping to his knees as the goo spread to his hands, eating away at his fingertips. “You’d never hold me for that long. Not as I’m gonna be. You know that. Please…just do it.”

Chen knelt beside his brother, smiling as he cradled his chin in his hands, ignoring the searing pain from the goo pouring out of his brother’s pores. “You know I have to try.”

“Idiot,” Michael coughed. “Good luck. For all of us.”

Chen sighed and closed his eyes as the cheek beneath his hand lost form and faded away, a gray puff of gas appearing in its place. As the cloud billowed out, it ate away at everything: plants, trees, rocks, leaves, dirt, it coated them all in a shimmering layer of goo as it advanced. Only Chen and Mars remained whole in the field. Inhaling, the man in the business suit leapt into the sky, his hands splayed out as a chrome wall burst from his body, surrounding a chunk of the field in a massive dome.

Mars watched the sight as he too faded away, the goo eating away at his skin. “Fool,” he grumbled as he looked up at his father, suspended in the apex of the shield, before the goo inundated him and burnt him away.