A wasteland. A blasted, dry, cracked wasteland, with a thousand flames burning in front of me. Some on the ground, some in the sky. All of them green. And then a voice came from behind me.
"Who and what are you?!"
I turned and saw her. Far larger. Far more powerful. She looked like she could stand hoof-to-hoof with Celestia for at least a minute.
It started to fall into place, then. She was the progenitor of the rest. She was the direct link between me and them.
And judging from the way the Slayer was reacting, we were related quite closely. In fact, he'd only acted this way around...
Oh hell, Loaded Dice. A Greater Spawn.
"Hello, sister."
At that, she jerked her head back in shock. She clearly hadn't been expecting that sort of response! "What? Are you...we share his blood? Impossible! I scoured the lands ages ago of any who did!"
At that, I growled. No, it was me, I checked. Though the Slayer showing up behind her wasn't a bad thing, either. Fortunately, he had the sense of mind to keep silent. I, on the other hand, was pissed.
"You gave in to temptation? You slaughtered our brothers and sisters in blood? You took their divinity for your own?"
I began to pace as I puzzled the situation out.
"It makes sense, now that I think about it. That line I saw in the patterns, that was you, all those years ago, learning your powers, killing any that were related. But then, when you vanished, when I got to find and stop one of our brothers...you learned how to make...them."
I waved my arm at the flames in the distance that represented her 'army.' "And then you sent them across the lands, seeking your relatives, taking their divinity for your own so you could live just a bit longer. And whenever I got close to one, you'd find out about it, and I ended up failing. Again and again."
She started to preen a bit at that, but the Slayer talking behind her caused her to freeze. "Only one problem, insect. Your father shared his divinity with all his children, giving them a spark of his own, cutting away at his life every time he conceived another. In the end, he died alone, powerless."
I leaned in and smiled at her. It was not a pleasant smile. "What makes you think your children don't obey the same rules, or that you won't share his fate?"
She blinked at that, then when she realized what I was insinuating, she screamed an unholy scream, and the mindscape broke...
-----
Okay, so, pop quiz. You've got a demon inside of you that grows stronger the more of your relatives you murder. The city you're in is under attack by a literal horde of your technical nieces and nephews. The one responsible for it all is ungodly powerful, your sister by blood, and sitting pretty...somewhere in the city, directing said invasion. You have at your disposal a lifetime of stealth and sneaking skills, along with aforementioned demon and his insatiable thirst for spilling blood, and a few swords and throwing knives. Lying in front of you is one of your nephews.
What do you do?
If your answer was not 'Secure the nephew, get to a safe place, interrogate him, and figure out where your sister is so you can at least try to end this as quickly as possible,' then sorry. You lose.
I sheathed my blades, made sure all my throwing knives were secure, bodily heaved the creature up and over my shoulders (thanking whatever gods existed that I would admit to that he was still out), and went directly to the tunnel into the dungeons.
...Yeah, we were gonna use it for evacuating the populace. But I needed somewhere to interrogate him. And afterwards, I could lock him into the dungeon. Perfect plan!
I should stop giving the universe openings like that.
But I digress.
We'd just entered the dungeons and I was picking out a lovely cell for my nephew when I felt him begin to stir. Guess he wasn't going to stay out for long. I took an open cell, bodily tossed the creature onto the ground, slammed the door shut behind me (not caring that it would probably lock or that I didn't have any keys, I knew how to pick locks, thank you), and confronted the now-groggy creature.
I held a sword to its neck as it began to hiss and pressed just hard enough to make him feel it through the carapace. "I'm going to ask you questions. I'm pretty sure you can understand me. Whether or not you're intelligent remains to be seen. Answer correctly, and you are, and will live through this. Fail, and I will slice you open like half of me wants to."
He got real quiet then. Good, he had a brain connected to those ears. "First question. What are you?"
There was a flash of green around his throat, and he coughed a few times before answering. "Changeling. I am a changeling drone. Simple things, simple tasks. I cannot do much more. Not smart enough."
I nodded, storing the information away. "Why are you here?"
"The queen commanded us to attack the city, take the ponies, drain them of their love. We obey."
Emotional vampires? Interesting. Wonder if they Level-drain like the Forgotten Realm's version... "Who is your queen?"
"She is Queen Chrysalis. All in the Hive hear her and obey."
Iiiiinteresting. "Where is she?"
"In the castle. She has taken the place of the alicorn of love and disrupted the marriage. We fight now to secure the capital and her."
Physical incarnation of what amounts to a goddess of love in front of a group of insects that drain love...yeah, I can see that. "Final question. Why do you obey me?"
Here he looked me in the eye. I think. Hard to tell. "You share her blood. I can sense it. Any changeling could."
I blinked at that, then did a mental ping to my worse half. You hearin' him?
Indeed. Perhaps allowing a bit of my nature to spill forth from you will allow you to avert conflict with the chaff on your way to our estranged sister?
Just what I was thinkin'. I'ma go with three loose.
There was the sound of chains snapping in my mind, and I could feel the changes come over my body. My breathing became deeper, my eyesight grew sharper, and the veins in my arms bulged slightly. I also began to emanate this...aura of malice. It was almost visible as a black haze around me. The changeling below me shuddered a bit. "Hey, little one?"
He shuddered worse and raised his head a bit. "Yes?" he squeaked out.
"I wouldn't leave the cell if I were you."
He blinked and began to ask me something, but I turned around and kicked the cell door so hard, the locking mechanism snapped in half. I then turned around and returned my glare to him.
"After all, someone might think you were trying to join the fight. And then someone might have to deal with you."
As I began to stalk up the stairs to the rest of the castle, I could hear the cell behind me being slammed again, and snickered. Too bad, he would really need that lock when the refugees showed up...
-----
Finding the wedding was an exercise in annoyance.
No, seriously, it was. No sign of it anywhere on the first floor. Plenty of hallways, though. I swear, some of them looped back on themselves or were just plain non-Euclidean.
It was only when I made it to the second floor that I saw signs detailing where the wedding was. Which was apparently on the third floor, in a room with a view overlooking the city. So I groaned and made my way up one more flight of stairs.
This time, the signs all had arrows painted on them, in a cheery pink color. I perked a little bit at that, thinking that perhaps Pinkie had had a hoof in this. When I got to the reception, however, good feelings were gone.
Chrysalis was staring into the city that had once been Canterlot. Celestia was in some sort of green...cocoon on the ceiling. The six I had met in Ponyville, along with a child drake and Cadence, were off to one side, bound in similar slime. Standing near the queen bug was the captain that had tried to arrest me earlier.
Once they caught sight of me, reactions were...mixed. Some groaned out a 'Oh now we have him to worry about?' Some waved. Some were confused. And Cadence plead with me.
"Marketh, if you can do anything..."
Then she noticed that I wasn't quite all me, and gasped. I merely nodded to her and cleared my throat. Chrysalis slowly turned around and looked at me, her eyes not widening an inch. "So. You're real, and you came. I must admit, I'm surprised my changelings didn't stop you."
I snorted a laugh at that. "Puh-lease. We share the same blood of a dead god. They'd bow to me for the same reason they bow to you."
She let out a little tisk at that. "We may share his blood, but I have a greater reserve. I've only been adding to it for so long. Let me show you what I can do."
With that, she fired off a bolt of green at me. Or rather, where I was. I was now standing a few feet away, idly inspecting my fingernails. "You were saying?"
She blinked at that, but shot again. Once again, I was not there, but under Celestia's cocoon. "Hey sun-flank. Doin' alright in there?"
...I should point out that normally, I would never say those things to an alicorn ruler, but at the time, sorta fueled up on demonic powers. It seemed like the correct thing to do. Nonetheless, I got a weak smile from Celestia for that, while Chrysalis growled at me. "Hold still, curse you!"
She fired again, and I was over in front of the prisoners not in cocoons. "Oh, is that all you want? Fine, go ahead, take your best shot, dear. I'll not move."
She blinked before slowly bringing her horn around and firing a significantly larger blast at me. Once again, it missed, but this time, it impacted the goo that was keeping the prisoners stuck where they were. Thus, freeing some of them. I was now ten feet in front of Chrysalis, whistling softly.
"Guess what, dear? I lied. But then again, that's not something we're unfamiliar with, is it?"
She snarled at that. "How?! How do you keep dodging my blasts?"
I shrugged and motioned to the outside. "You seem to forget that while yes, you're the queen, and technically more of a monster than me, you siphoned off bits and pieces of your divinity to give life to them out there. Now, with what dregs of you remain, even my demon, even when I'm only letting him run free for a bit is more than enough to handle the likes of you."
I didn't notice Cadence sneak over and grab the Guard-Captain. My eyes were focused on Chrysalis' horn, which had begun to glow a very familiar shade of green. Similar beacons appeared all over Canterlot, and my eyes widened, even as she began speaking again.
"Then let us see you face me at the apex of my power, insignificant worm!"
Lances of green streamed into her from the town, each one connecting with her and giving her a gradually increasing fearsome aura. By the time the last one connected, she was laughing manically.
"FOOLISH, PITIFUL CREATURE! BEHOLD, MY TRUE FORM, A GODDESS AMONG MORT-"
Rule 1 of Big Bad engagements: yes, it's unsporting, but when the Big Bad is spouting off a speech and you have a shot, fucking take the shot!
This explained why Chrysalis and I were suddenly a lot closer than we had been a moment ago. Or why my sword was in her neck.
Her aura flickered, faded, died, just as the light in her eyes began to do the same. She had time for one question, though. "H...how?"
It was too perfect. "Puny goddess."
...And then...everything irises out...
-----
(POV shift - Shining)
Shining shook his head clear for the first time in days and saw a sight he had hoped never to see, especially on his wedding day.
The creature, Marketh Shadeblade, standing over the corpse of another creature, his sword dripping with green blood. Cadence reached out with one hoof and said in a very shaky voice, "M...Marketh? Marketh, is everything..."
And then he growled and gained a fearsome dark aura around himself. And when he replied, it was not in his normal voice.
"I...am Murder..."
'Marketh' turned himself around and glared at the ponies gathered there with a blackness in his eyes that was darker than a spot without stars in Luna's sky. When he opened his mouth, it was all sharp teeth, and Shining could swear that tongue of his was far too long.
"I...am Death."