//------------------------------// // Bug Hunt (52) // Story: Griffin the Griffin // by BlackWing //------------------------------// Bug Hunt We began closing in on the strange bug things that were slamming into the shield around the city. Just as we got within range, the shield shattered allowing the insect like ponies to enter. "OPEN FIRE!" A round of lasers came from the ship, the smaller guns firing quickly, and the mounted gun's intense beam heading out every ten seconds or so. Nadene's gun went off as well, and Trixie began firing a constant beam to sweep through the numerous black specks. As they were struck, they turned red, then fell from the sky on fire, many of them in half or missing limbs. I drew Hades and held it to my side, the cats and dogs putting their spears in jousting position while the griffins held their claws and beak forward, all ready to tear into whatever they hit. Most of the bugs had already entered the city, but a few, having noticed that we were killing them, (it's kind of hard to see a few die and fall when there's about a million or so just chilling there), and began to fly towards us to engage. Each shot from the rifles would take one down, lighting it on fire, causing it's gossamer wings to burn up and making it fall to it's death. Trixie's sweeping beam would slice them into bits and she randomly fired into the crowd, and the ship's main gun would rip through a dozen or so with each shot, mangled little bits and green ichor mist filling the air as they were vaporized. "Stay in formation! Don't veer off, don't get separated from the group! When we pass out of the flock, we'll come around for another pass!" I commanded. They were getting closer, closer, 20 meters, 10 meters, 5..... The sounds of shrieks filled the air as our blades ripped through the relatively weak exoskeleton and splattered their organs. My own blade sang with delight as it danced a brilliant waltz of death. We passed out of the cloud of foes and swooped around in formation to face them, only to find that they were headed towards the ship. Apparently, that was the priority target. Little did they know, they had just boxed themselves in. I smiled. Looking down at the town as we flew back towards our foes, I saw them surrounded by green fire, slamming into the ground, causing small craters and then pick themselves up to attack innocent ponies. I turned my attention back to the Possibility, which was still firing white hot lasers from on board. They tried scratching the hull and balloon, to no avail. They then landed on the deck, only to be stabbed, clawed, bitten, and all around ripped apart by the warrior cats on board as the rangers continued to pick them off with their rifles. "Everyone! Check your targets! We've got them boxed in, make sure you don't hit allies on accident!" Roaring to say they understood, we flew back to the crowd, shredding them from behind, but we did not fly into it. We wanted to keep them held here. They turned to face us as we were cutting them apart, only for the worst imaginable thing to happen. They changed. Into us. "What the hell! Break off! Back to the ship! Cease fire! Cease fire!" All did as I commanded. We landed on the deck, spinning around to see more of the black bug like ponies be surrounded by a whirl of green fire, then take the shape of one of us. They made a key mistake though. "They're unarmed! Stay on your mounts, and keep hold of your weapons! That's what's different between us! Raise the deck!" We fought off those that were on board as the deck began to raise, shooting a number of them that were trying hopelessly to chew through the support beams that connected the lower and upper halves of the ship as it began to raise. After thirty seconds, we were sealed in. We could still hear scratching on the hull, but it was hopeless. This thing withstood dragon claws, there's no way they could get in. "What the fuck! They're shapeshifters! I've never heard of that! Battles are chaotic enough, but how the hell are we supposed to tell friend from foe when they look exactly the same?" All the cats were glaring at Maria, who was standing in the middle of the crowd. Except that Maria was standing right next to me, and Nadene was riding her. Selma walked up and bopped it on the head, and it changed back into one of the bugs as it passed out. "They may look like us, they may sound like us, they may even act like us, but they do NOT smell like us." Etch replied. "You mean you can tell who's who by smell?" The dogs nodded, and the cats came forward. "We all can." "Well, that's something. Tie our little friend up. I have questions, and anyone who's wounded, get Nadene to look after it." "Nice to see you woke up, whatever you are." The bug like pony looked around for a moment, seemingly scared. It make a chittering sound. "Yeah, can't hear ya peach, ya might wanna speak up." It tilted it's head to the side and gave a huff and a sigh, then transformed into me. "That's a neat little trick you have there." "What do you want with me." It said in my voice. "Answers." "I'll never talk!" "Oh, but I think you will." I gave a devils glare and grin. It shuddered and curled up. "Geez, I haven't even started torturing you yet, and you already look like you're gonna break. So, first, I think I'll cut off your leg, and then I'll put some cinderfruit juice on it. If you think lemons are bad, you're in for a surprise." I held my claw forward, and made a slight scratch along it's leg. It hissed and spat, so I drove my claw in. It screamed and screamed and screamed as I twisted my little knife finger around in the wound. "Ready to talk?" It was breathing heavily between it's screams. "What.... do.... you want.... to know.....NNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG" "That's more like it, first, what are you?" "I am a changeling. One of many." It replied. "Yeah, I could see there were quite a lot of you out there. I wonder how many of you I cut down on my own? 20, 30 maybe?" "You bastard...NNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG" I twisted my claw again. "Next question, and this is an easy one, do you have a name?" "*Huff* No...... *huff* only the queen and her guards have names. I am just a drone." "Okay, then I'll call you Drone. Drone the drone. I'm Griffin the griffin. We're both named after what we are. Life is kind of funny like that... "Your point?" It winced, but the pain did not come, as I held my claw still. "Oh, none. I guess I'm just rambling. What is your queen's name?" "My queen's name, the name you will one day say when you bow.... is Chrysalis....NNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG *hiss*" "Let's get one thing straight, I bow to no one, and I am the one who's gonna be king, but I'll discuss that with 'Chrysalis' when I meet her. Why did you come to Canterlot?" "To feed." "So, you're going to eat ponies?" I tilted my head. "No, we feed on positive emotion. Joy, love, bliss." It explained. "I get it, so, Equestria is all full of happy happy joy joy ponies, so you come in, change into one of them and feed off them, then go on your way. Makes sense. So then, why the frontal assault?" "We need more. The queen wants more power, more food for the swarm. First we take Canterlot, and then all of Equestria." "You know, that has to be THE worst thought out plan I have ever heard of. You are natural masters of disguise, yet you're going for a full frontal assault. Wouldn't it have been better to slowly but surely replace the ponies in the city, then attack when their backs are turned? Or better yet, just take on a unique identity and live out your lives as functioning members of society?" "That is what we have done, up till now. The queen wishes to rule this land of love, and we must obey her." "One more thing, you a boy or a girl?" "I am female, all drones are. The reavers are the males, and are the queen's guard. However, all bow to her will." "Well, that sucks. Anyway, I can't let you go, because you know too much about us, but, I'm not just gonna kill ya, so, here's the deal, you're gonna stay here on the ship until this whole thing blows over, which it will, considering I've seen the future and I know for a fact you fail, and once your tyrant queen is out of the picture, we'll see how you feel. Steelhorn, seal the room. Lock her in, and have someone keep an eye on her through the window at all times. If she tries to escape, kill her. Oh! I almost forgot. Forma versus." I watched as the changeling turned back to it's regular, insectoid self. "Try and turn into me again." It sat there for a moment, then shut it's eyes. It's face screwed up in concentration. A flick of green flame, but no change. It opened it's eyes and a look of sheer horror appeared on it's face. "Nice to know that works. You may as well just sit tight. Relax a bit, make yourself comfortable. There's no point in trying to escape, you can't get out and your friends can't get in, and if any try, they'll die." I looked to see the hole I had poked in it's leg with my claw was already starting to heal up. 'High speed regeneration? So, just wounding them won't do anything. That seems like trouble.' "Well, now that you've entertained our guest, don't you think we should do something about that. He pointed out the front window towards the city, still under siege. "Yeah, open the deck again. We'll fly over the city and help where we can. Everybody but my team stay on ship, and keep them off of it. Shoot any changelings you see, but don't hit any ponies. You guys won't be able to tell who's a changeling and who's not from up here, so only shoot the black, flying things. I'll do what I can to clean them out from below." The ship opened up again, changelings beginning to crawl in through the crack, immediately being shot or stabbed to death. My tribe was all parked in the middle of the deck, Tiras on the gun ripping through masses of them, the rangers shooting down any who went high, and the cats and griffins shredding any who tried to get in low. Now they were boxed in, but they had a huge defensive advantage. The line would hold. My crew flew out, and the ship once again closed. After a few moments, the cannon ports opened up and they began firing lasers (and poisoned arrows for those without guns) out of them instead of cannons, not wanting to destroy the city below or harm innocents. My group sliced, slashed, clawed, shot, and burned through the cluster like a hot knife through butter, leaving tattered corpses to fall to the earth below. "THERE! There's a large number of them holed up there, that's where we'll find the queen! Watch my back!" We went to ground, finding a large number of changelings in our way, as well as many ponies. "Forma Versus!" A purple wave went out, revealing that they were almost entirely changelings. I got the evil grin again as I held my sword to the side. "Ignis!" As I swung, a wave of fire went out, incinerating them, with the dogs casting protego on the few ponies among them so they wouldn't get scorched. "You, get underground! Into the sewers!" "But it smells...." "So do the ashes of ponies too stupid to listen to reason, now GET!" I flipped the manhole cover, (ponyhole?) and booted the pair of high class looking ponies in, smiling as I heard a splash and a shriek. I really am as ass aren't I? We flew around some more, ripping changelings apart wherever we found them. I found a fairly large mass trying to dog pile something, when I had the most brilliant idea ever. 'Hold on, I've killed dragons, quite a few, and I know magic for amplifying my voice to the point that it becomes actual force. Why the HELL haven't I done this before? Oh well, it's time to see what physics engine Equestria runs on.' "Sonor. SONOR. SONOR. FUS RO DAH!" I watched with glee as the mass of ponies were thrown away by my voice, slamming into walls and turning into black bugs when they did so. In the middle of the dog pile was a scratched up, beaten, bleeding, Princess Luna. "Go clean up, I'll deal with her." I ordered, my crew spreading out to finish off the changelings that had been knocked away and were starting to recover. Luna was conscious, and as I noticed, there were several hundred changeling bodies lying around that I had nothing to do with, as well as two VERY large ones. "Aww, da widdew pony pwincess faw down?" I chided. "Canterlot has fallen. My sister is trapped within with the changeling queen, the element bearers are fighting their way to the elements, but are being over run, even I could not stand against their numbers." She replied, too tired to be upset at me mocking her. "Nadene, Maria, get her back to the Possibility, knock on the window three times fast and twice slow to get Steelhorn to open up. Get her patched up. Don't worry, we'll handle the rest." "Thank you...." She closed her eyes to sleep. I knew it wouldn't be that easy to kill her, but she certainly couldn't fight anymore. She had magic exhaustion. She uses a lot of energy in each of her spells, and doesn't know how to tone it down, so fighting so many small, weak enemies was a waste of her strength, because it was mostly overkill. She burned herself out. "Alright, let's get in that chapel." The rest of us began our march towards the building in which the changeling queen, as well as Princess Celestia were holed up. That's when I noticed movement behind us. The two big corpses, well, they weren't corpses. They were still alive. They had cuts, gouges, burns, and they were healing over like wolverine. And two more of them crashed through a nearby wall. I cracked my next and smiled. "Well well, look what we have here. Light em up!" I dove, dodging the swipe of a clawed hoof that was far faster than what should be found on a lumbering giant like that. Still, I dodged, and sliced the arm off. Trixie stuffed a thermite vial in the wound. Instead of using water and sodium, she just shot it with the laser. You ever have a wasp go in an empty pop can, then put one of those electric bug zappers on top of it? You know, the ones that look like tennis rackets? Here's what happens, the bee fucking MELTS. This was pretty much the same thing, except there was fire too. It shrieked at the portable lava turned all it's vitals to goo. Etch and Growl were double teaming one of them, as I headed to face another and Gilda the last one. Their spears ripped through it's chitinous armor, but the wounds just healed over, barely causing any blood to come out at all. "Fast healing!" Growl barked. "I call hax!" Etch, using my term for when something is naturally unfair. "Guys, burn em!" I yelled over my shoulder as my sword was taken in the changling's mouth. He started thrashing, trying to get me to let go of it, while Trixie tried to hit him anywhere she could with the laser. "Rrrrraaaaaaahhhhh, for Captain Griffin!" Etch jumped from his mount, smashing it in the face with a kind of spike ball he had affixed to his tail before shouting ignis and jamming his spear into it's eye. He put it on right before we left for Canterlot. I told him it was pointless, that it had no practical purpose and would just weigh him down. He told me it definitely would be useful and it looked badass. I guess I owe him fifteen bits. He jumped back to his mount as the reaver changeling died. "Come on, let go of my sword you overgrown mosquito!" He did as I asked, Trixie finally getting stable enough to get a shot on his face. He began thrashing wildly, swinging his claws all over the place, smashing Trixie's gun, and severing her front left hoof at the elbow with it. "Trixie! I called over my shoulder to my screaming rider, blocking yet another quick slash from the deadly claws. I don't know what it was about my guy, he was just so much faster than his three brethren. Same size, same crazy weaponry, but he was just faster. So much so that even I could barely keep up. "I could use a little help here!" "Little busy!" Gilda shouted as she peppered her foe with thermite arrows. They were doing permanent damage, as the flames burned the wounds shut before they could bleed out and heal, but it just wouldn't go down. It tackled her, sending her into a wall. If not for her armor, that would have killed her. "Got it!" Growl yelled as he threw his spear from atop his mount, shouting 'Lacero'. It passed right through my opponent's head, dropping him. I tossed the dog's spear back to him. Trixie was still on my back screaming. "Take her back to the ship! Get her hoof looked after." I passed the dog the detached stump, then reached behind to undo my rider's straps so Growl and his mount could air lift her back to the ship, which was still shooting at the airborne changelings. Gilda's opponent was standing right above her, fangs presented clearly, salivating. He was going to enjoy killing the one who had wounded him so much, except that my sword went through his spine while he was distracted. "Die!" He flailed around before dropping to the ground dead. I was sweating. This was a much tougher fight than I expected it to be. 'Duh, I'm used to spamming spells. I can't do that here, no dragons..... Shimmer!' "You two okay?" The young dragon popped out of the backpack. She had a bit of blood running down her forehead, but she looked like she'd be fine. I put the blood on my claw and ate it, then used 'medico' to restore both their scrapes and bruises. "Why didn't you just do that to Trixie?" "I don't think it can reattach limbs. I've only ever used it for minor damage. If it will work, then Selma and Nadene will do it. They know how. THIS is why we need a doctor." So Gilda, Shimmer, Etch and his mount, as well as myself, were all that remained on the battlefield. Surrounded by a swarm of changelings. "He got leader!" One shouted, reminding me of a grunt from halo. Cracking my bones again I brought my sword up. "Run cowards! I'm coming for you!" They flew off. I passed Gilda my amulet. "I'm going to go deal with the changelings inside, you'll need this to take away the disguises of the ones outside. Just, fly around and pick em apart, but fight defensively. Don't let yourself get hurt. Etch, you go with her. I'm going in. I'll be fine, just don't let the swarm get in." "Got it." I walked towards to door to the church, thinking to myself that I really needed to calm down. Luna got taken down by sheer numbers, Trixie got hurt, I'm a nervous wreck, and tired as hell. If I didn't get my nerves under control, it would be the end of me. What I would do for some classy music right now. Oh, right. I have a load of gem wands here in my pack. Couldn't hurt to use one. "Put her in the pod!" The changeling queen ordered several of her drones, who hefted the sun princess into a big green, gooey thing. "Where are they, they should have captured those six ponies by now....... what's that music?" She demanded. "I don't hear anything." Celestia said from within her goop prison. "No, there's definitely music." The queen retorted. Cadence and her's eyes opened wide as the front doors were cut off their hinges, just as the song hit the 37 second mark and the music dropped. A griffin with a massive black sword, wearing rainbow armor and a pair of sunglasses slid in on the tile floor, then began to do a kind of side shuffle dance. "Groovy."