The Greatest Show of Kindness
Chapter Sixteen: Bumble’s Rage
Once the chariot arrived in Canterlot, Bumble was loaded off and immediately forced forward, his chitin scraping silently against the chains his hooves had been wrapped in. His legs were still sore from when they had broken previously, but they had healed for the most part. It was the same kind of pain that one gets after running at full speed for a while.
He had trouble moving without stumbling into the other changelings that were part of the group, due to his blindness. Luckily, the shackles prevented him from moving around as much.
The magnificent Canterlot Castle was right in front of him, glimmering in all of its royal glory. The giant shape of one of the spires cast a shadow over Bumble, chilling him. He shook his head to get over the cold. He may not have been able to see, but the atmosphere around him was very heavy - a crushing, anxiety-filled anticipation.
Suddenly, from one of the doors on the castle burst a large, metallic-silver unicorn stallion with a carbon-black mane and white hooves. The door shut itself with the help of a breeze, and he looked in an intensely intimidating manner over them. He had a very sneer-like narrowness to his eyebrows, but it seemed to be a bit grouchy as well, as if trying to say ‘Why do I have to be here?’
“Hm… looks like I’ve got some fresh meat on the bones… Let’s see what we’ve got here,” he mumbled to himself, putting on a menacing grin. He lit his horn up, teleporting with a flash to the ground level. “Filthy maggots,” he spat, taking a few steps forward. “All right. Guards, take them to the eastern wing. Put them in the tight cages,” he ordered, walking back into the castle.
The group of changelings was immediately escorted around the grassy lawn of the southern wing to the eastern wing. There wasn’t an immediately noticeable difference between the looks of the southern and eastern wings of the castle. That was until one of the guards lifted a trapdoor in the ground with their magic.
“All of you, get in!” the guard shouted.
The guards behind the changelings pushed them forward with their magic, forcing them down into the pit. There was a purple light coming from the hellish-looking hole, and the sound of dripping water and shouting faintly rung from within. One by one, the changelings jumped down.
Bumble didn’t know where he was going, so when he accidentally trotted around the hole, the guards mistook it as him trying to escape. They threw him down, causing him to land with full force on his sore front leg.
Tears flooded his eyes, and immediately his screech filled the entire cave. When the sound was gone, it echoed back from the other end of the crystalline cavern. All attention in the room was on him as he dropped to his stomach, bawling.
“Hey! Quiet down!” one guard said, not caring about the injury. Suddenly, the trap door slammed loudly above the changeling’s head.
“It hurts so-“ Bumble started, but was immediately smacked on the head.
“Be silent! Down here, you’re under our rules! You will oblige!” the guard yelled, causing Bumble to tremble underneath his voice.
“I-I’m s-s-sorry…” he trailed, shaking.
“You’d better be, you worthless maggot!”
Bumble said nothing to this, so he just lay there in his pain and tears. The guards all looked down in nothing but their own wicked smiles and laughter.
“Oh, is the little worm in pain?” one of them mocked, eliciting a laugh from the others.
“It looks like his puny foreleg broke. What a shame!” another joked, putting his hoof forcefully down on Bumble’s head. Bumble jolted under the sudden pressure, shuddering. “Oh, what? Can’t handle the pressure?” he continued, pressing harder.
“Please stop…” Bumble begged.
“Why should we? Didn’t you see what you did to our nation!? The lives you ruined!? We will not stop until you are completely exterminated from this world!” another shouted, gaining a cheer from the rest.
At that, Bumble inside started to burn. He felt that he specifically was being blamed for the entire invasion, and that struck him right at the core of his heart. He was blamed falsely for being a traitor, after all. He found resentment for those three rotten, disgusting changelings that completely ruined everything, and right then, he equated these guards to them. Hatred burned hellishly inside.
“Your kind are no longer welcome in this world, and the only way to fix that is to eliminate you permanently.”
Bumble’s shaking became more rapid, not out of sadness or fear, but out of the anger building up inside of him. He felt it, trying to hold it back as hard as he could.
“So now, it’s time for that dream to be realized into fruition, you maggots.”
Bumble’s anger finally exploded.
“Shut up!” he screeched, making the guards around him recoil. A light-green spark shot out from his horn as he gritted his fangs and growled.
“Silence!”
“No, you need to shut your mouth, you bigoted jerk! You think that I actually wanted to be in the stupid invasion!? Well, let me tell you, I didn’t! I was forced to do it by my Queen, who I never even liked in the first place! She called me a ‘traitor’ and blamed me and my mother for the entire invasion, just like you are!”
“Shut your-“
“And that’s not even the half of what happened! She killed my mother and one other changeling, and I don’t even know if that’s all she did! Just like you, as well! You call me a maggot and a worm, when in reality, it’s you who are those things!”
During his burning rant, he could feel a charging energy inside of his horn, screaming to be released. It was the collection of the massive pool of love energy that had congregated throughout his entire stay with Fluttershy trying to explode in one giant blast. He clenched his fangs even tighter, lowering his head and letting the energy consume his horn. Instantly, his first blast of magic erupted from the tip, shooting directly towards one of the guard’s horns.
In an instant, the guard started to charge his own horn, but it was far too late. The magical beam rammed straight into the center of the horn, and with the incredibly high concentration of magic in the beam, it ripped and sheared the entire upper half off and disintegrated it. A violent, light-blue tornado of magical energy surged outwards from the inside of his horn, causing the entire cave to glow cerulean. The guard’s eyes dilated as he dropped to his stomach, screaming. He started to breathe shallowly.
“Star Spinner!” one of the other guards shouted, immediately running over. “Star Spinner, are you all right?”
Bumble huffed and puffed out of the rage he was feeling, but was beginning to calm down. Suddenly, he felt a fierce pound against the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.
“Enough of you!” the guard that smashed Bumble’s head shouted, breathing heavily.
Star Spinner, who was poking at his horn with his fore hooves, was now being lifted onto a gurney and was being carted off to the right side of the cave to the healing ward.
The guard who hit Bumble lifted him with his magic, walking him over to the tightest cage he could find. He set Bumble down and opened the cage, and then picked Bumble back up and, as forcefully as he possibly could, threw him into the cage. He slammed the door on the cage, and with a dark scowl, clenched his eyes.
“I’m going to make you regret ever having been born!” he claimed, turning and walking away.