The Royal Wedding Pt. III (Battle of Canterlot Pt. I)
Sin pressed his lips and conceited defeat. There was no point in going on anymore, the jig was up, the ghost gotten and the game all but lost. It was so perfect, such a perfect set of circumstances to happen. Alas, his down fall was that which he prided himself most. How could he be so foolish as to not see he'd forgotten? He was usually so careful about such things...
But the bet was lost, Fatchitaz was not responsible for the running, crying and screaming. This round went to Uppity.
"Good, now that that's settled, can we please get away from the demented changeling?"
Sin's eyes widened, he'd been so consumed with the bet that he'd completely forgotten about a very important and very dangerous fact about changelings.
Immediately, he ran right towards Chrysilis. "Oh please." The tall bug pony scoffed, the stallion felt her magic surround him, but it instantly dissipated on contact. "WHAT?" She cried just as he leapt forward and slammed himself directly into her chest.
With a grunt, the queen fell backwards, too caught off guard to catch herself.
'Oh, so now you decide to do something. Little late for that.'
"Uppity! Cadance! A little help would be appreciated!" The Federalist barked. The former immediately ran to his side, her horn glowing orange and wrapping Chrysilis in an orange aura. The latter attempted to summon her magic, but quickly explained that too much of her magic had been drained.
Cursing under his breath, Sin questioned yet again where the guards were. He turned his head just in time to see the queen break free of Uppity's hold and snarl at him. Apparently not learning the first time, she charged up her horn and shot a concentrated beam of magic directly at the stallion, it made contact with his chest, but failed to do any damage.
"Magical immunity?" Chrysalis pondered, her eyes shifting for a moment before coming to rest on a pair of comically long, royal purple drapes. Shooting another beam directly at his feet made the stallion jump left to avoid the magical induced explosion, placing him exactly where she wanted him. A green glow gripped the very bottom of the curtain and stretched out, grabbing the stallion before he could figure out what she was planning.
To Sin's surprise, her magical hold on the curtain wasn't rendurd null when it touched him. "The hell?"
Chuckling, Chrysalis explained that he wasn't the first enemy she'd encountered who was resilient to magic. All it took was a little creativity in the placement of the aura's grip in order to maintain manipulation capabilities.
'Clever girl.'
"Sin!"
"Uppity! Get out of here, now!"
His words went unheaded. Uppity charged the queen, though unlike him, was easily caught in the changeling's magical gasp and forced to the ground under her powerful grip.
'You see, all of this could have been avoided if only yo-
Oh will you shut up!? I get it already.
"Mmmm, I must say, you're love for him is quite delicious." Chrysalis cooed, licking her lips. Her gaze turned to Sin. "But I'm afraid that your time together has come to an end."
"Now I know what you're thinking, and please don-" His breath was stolen from his lungs as the tension against the curtain tightened. Sin struggled to get free, but the velvet light block was too strong. No matter how he squirmed or struggled, the constricting pull between the wall on which it hang and Chrysalis magical grip held his body in place. "Why does... everyone always try to... squeeze me to death!?" He wheezed.
Well, at least it wasn't a dragon this time.
An ungodly loud crash followed by the sound of shattering glass thundered from outside, breaking Chrysalis' concentration and releasing her hold giving Sin just enough slack so he could suck in some much needed oxygen.
"Yes! My changeling army has broken through!" The giddy queen declared, looking out the window and watching as the pink bubble outside broke apart. "So sorry dear Princess, but your precious city is mine now!"
Sin snarled, they may have been useless in here, but the army of guards that littered the city would surely put up a better fight, right?
'Absolutely... Fucking... Useless!
There was bad, and then there was inexcusably bad. In the span of no more than thirty minutes, not only had Twilight and her friends been capture, but the entire city fell under the changeling assault. The Federalist would have called Chrysalis a liar, he saw how many protectors there were outside, there was no way they'd have lost the entire city in such a short amount of time!
But there was denying what was right infront of him. Celestia lay suspended in a cocoon right above the alter, Twilight and her friends had been rounded up in the middle of the hall -to their credit, he could hear the hell those six were raising- , Spike, Uppity and Cadance were held in place by some green slime the Changeling's created and he was still suspended in the curtain, and not a single golden clad stallion coming to aid them.
It hurt Sin to admit this, it really did, but he desperately wished some Triple M. agents were here. From what he'd witnessed today, a handful of CCC's were worth more than the entire Equestrian Royal Guard.
'Meh, you've gotten out of worse.'
Yes he had, but this would just be one hell of an embarrassing way to go. Six weeks of dire winter exposure, a cult of fire worshipers, skirmishes with Triple M, fighting a pack of diamond dogs, a pack of timberwolves, and surviving two dragons. Death by a common palace curtain wasn't in the cards today.
But it was enough to hold him in place, though.
In hind site, maybe leading that charge against the queen before all of this happened would have been a good idea. Especially since it was a moot point to the little gamble he had going.
'Yea, ya think?' Yea, hind site was a bitch.
"You'll never get away with this!" Twilight declared, as she and her friends merely stood, free to wander as they pleased. "Even if you take Canterlot, more ponies will come, Equestria has allies!"
'Yea, and once they get here, then they're gonna charge in and kick the crap out of all the bugs who can shape shift to look like the very ponies who they're here to help! Better hope Chrysalis doesn't give a speech though, seems to be the big weakness when it comes to government protection services.
Not that it mattered. Canterlot must be running full of parasites by now. Unless the Queen herself had to administer them, that is. But if she was able to infiltrate the Royal Family, than it was reasonable to assume that she had more than enough time and proximity to infect at least the guard staff. Especially Shining Armor.
Thinking through everything he remembered in school, it suddenly hit Sin just how little he really knew about them. The Orvailian Changeling Massacre was the only record of Federal involvement with the insectoids. He knew they infected their hosts, fed off of their emotions, and eventually grew large enough to rip said host open and kill them. However, their queen was killed before any data collected or observation could be done. Though, theories were always passed around.
If the theory of the "head bug" was correct, than killing her would hopefully sever all connection and coordination between her brood, turning all of her drones into mindless and faril beasts of burden. Hopefully Equestria had the technology or knowledge on how to remove the parasites from those already infected. If not, he'd at least make it a point to save those who were still free of them.
That, of course, was on the assumption he'd be getting down from his velvet lined prison at some point.
"Filth and lies!" Shade barked at the minty green unicorn infront of him. Her fellow mares coward behind her, but the lead stood firm in her convictions, unafraid by the constant show of force the bat pony had demonstrated.
"It's not lies! Foals come from mares! Not some... foal factory and eggs and whatever nonsense you're going on about!"
Shade's eye twitched. These mares were talking now, Minty green was the first to speak after a particularly hard slam into the cave walls. Her once green eyes turned golden and she did something with her magic and made the other two talk as well. All three of them were confused about something or another, but Shade figured they'd finally realized they couldn't beat him.
He demanded they take him to the foal factory, it was his knowledge by rite of combat. But mares didn't have honor, they simply looked at him in skeptical bewilderment, playing dumb as to his request. He knew they knew, after all, Candy told him they knew, and Candy wouldn't lie to him.
The other two coward, but Minty stepped forward and demanded to know what he was talking about. He humored her and explained it, to which the mare made the mistake of getting an attitude with him and went into a long winded speech about the conspiracy theories and official stories of foal birth.
Idiots, if they only knew how much of their alleged 'knowledge' was nothing more than government propaganda.
"I'll say this one more time, where. Is. The Foal Factory?" The irritated night pony growled with a small shifting of his wings. If he didn't start getting answers soon, there was going to be some very nice red and pink cave drawing on the wall depicting what happens to ponies who stood in his way!
"I'm telling you there is no such thin, you idiot!" Minty yelled back.
That's it! She dies!
Lowering himself, Shade furrowed his wings and prepared to launch himself forward. Just as he was about to rush forth and use Minty's skull as an improvised cave painting utensil, a flash of pink winked infront of him, bringing Discord to stand between he and his prisoners. "Discord?"
The draconaquees merely stared at him disapprovingly before turning to the mares and snapping his fingers, blinking them away from the catacombs.
"Discoooord!" Shade whined, trotting up and down in place anxiously. "I was going to use them to find th-"
"I'm well aware of what you were trying to do, dear Star Shade, but going around hurting innocent ponies is no way to do it." The god of Chaos reprimanded.
Eyes widening with pain and shock, Shade took a step back. Not hurting others to get the information he wanted? But... how was he supposed to get it then? Everyone denied the existence of the pony creation center! How was he...
"Besides, you're under the wrong Castle." Discord looked around and made a motion with his arms. "What you're looking for is in the old castle in the Everfree forest, not here."
"Oooohh, my bad." Said the batpony with a sheepish grin.
Rolling his eyes, the god of chaos folded his arms. "Honestly, why you never come to me about the conspiracies that Celestia and her ilk feed the masses, I'll never know."
Shade immediately threw himself at his lord's feet and begged for forgiveness, promising to make amends and never commit to exposing government lies without consulting Discord ever again. The draconequus slowly twirled his beard in thought, considering the insane pegasus' words. "Very well, if you want to make it up to me, than go help your friends up on the surface."
"Surface?" Shade tilted his head. Apparently there was buckary afoot in Canterlot, something about an invasion of some kind with his friends all being captured and held hostage in the main hall. In order to appease his god, Shade would need to free his friends and return control of the city back to it's rightful rulers.
"I'm afraid Celestia's incompetence has reared it's ugly head once again. This will surely put a damper on Fluttershy's tea time, and I can't have that. Dispose of the changeling threat, and you'll have earned my forgiveness."
Shade bowed his head, "yes my lord, is shall slaughter them all."
"Quick go to Shining while you have the chance." Twilight urged, using her magic to free Cadance. Spike and Uppity came next, the latter of which came to try to help her coltfriend down while the former gave Twilight a hug.
"Are you alright?" The drake asked, looking his mother over for any injury. Twilight smiled and dismissed his concern with proud claims of needing more than a few changelings to hurt her. He turned his attention to the rest of her friends to see them all looking down quietly. "How about you guys?"
They each gave a short answer of affirmation, but it was clear that each of them were bothered by something. If they weren't, than the six of them would have acted to stop Chrysalis. Spike looked to see Uppity struggling to get Sin down, the changeling Queen paying little to no mind to the activity going on behind her.
Cadance was busy looking at Shining Armor, the stallion still stood at the Alter, the mind control in full effect. She hugged him, begging for him to come back to her before casting a small spell and breaking the stallion from his trance. "Wha- what happened? Is the wedding over?"
Spike's heart soard. He was back! They had a chance now!
"Valiar!" Chrysalis barked as two drones lifted to the window and dropped a red unicorn stallion with two belts over laping him onto the windowsill. "How fare my forces?"
Valiar bowed, his green eyes closing for a moment. "My Queen, the city is almost yours, a few stragglers are held up in the west and east towers, but they'll be dealt with soon enough."
"Mmmm, who says a girl can't really have it all?" The queen cooed and chuckled. "Would you like to see your former captain?" She turned an eye to the disoriented unicorn. "I've heard he's been quite worried about you."
"Of course, my queen." The stallion bowed again and leapt through the window, staring blankly around the chamber.
"What'sah, uh, Valiar? You're alive!" Shining shouted, happy that his pupil was alive, but confused about his actions. There was nothing to be confused about, the stallion was under the changeling's control. He didn't reply, just regarded the Captain with curious disinterest. "Valiar?"
"Ooh, did I forget to mention that your little friend here is under my direct control?" Chrysalis laughed, waltzing up beside the red unicorn and placing a leg around him. She leaned her head down to his cheek, her eye fixed firmly on Shining. "It was cowardly of you to send him Los Pegasus in your stead, but I have to admit he is quite dashing."
Spike cringed in disgust as the queen stuck out her tongue, giving the hypnotized stallion's cheek a small lick.
'Dude, that's just wrong.'
"As we speak, my changelings ravage your city, and plunder your houses, soon all of Equestria's delicious love will be used to feed my minions. Cattle to-"
"No!" Shining cried. "I have to stop this!" He charged up his horn in an attempt to resummon his spell.
"Did- did you just interrupt me?" Chrysalis asked in acute surprise. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, small conclusions beginning to form in her mind before the finally widened in realization. "Valiar, take Shining Armor's life NOW!"
The red pony's horn began to glow and five stones that were hidden within the belts around his chest began to levitate outwards.
"Don't let him use those!" Spike turned to Sin. "Ms. Sparkle! Those stone enhanced his power enough to take on Shining Armor, don't let him use them!"
The warning came to late, and a beam of magic blasted forth from a small circle the pony had formed with the stones right at the bride and groom. A purple light flashed and the magic destroyed their position, sending dust and debries flying every which way, clouding the room in a thick smoke screen.
Spike fell backwards from the force of the impact, small bits of rock and marble littering his face. "Shining!" He cried, standing up and rushing blindly to where the duo were standing. Suddenly, a purple bolt of magic shot past him, clearing a large tunnel through the fog and directly at Valiar, who's stones circled, generating a red, pattern filled shield that intercepted Twilight's attack.
Much to the drakes relief, both Cadance and Shining were safely behind Twilight and her friends.
"Don't you dare hurt my brother!" The unicorn snarled, launching another spell. The magical attack was much more powerful than the first, but ended with almost the same result upon impact of Valiar's shield. The difference being it pushed the stallion back a few feet, despite his unmoving legs.
"Fool!" Valiar scoffed, dropping the shield and preparing yet another attack. The blast fired, and another flash of lavander shined right before the spell hit home.
Spike tightened his fists, feeling utterly useless. He needed to do something. He didn't have his bow, he didn't have his more adult form, so he wasn't immune to magic. He looked around for something he could use as a weapon, though nothing could be seen through the new wall of dust.
His fists clenched tighter, before he ran through the smoke, determined to find a way to help. He came across a few well sized rocks he could throw, and started gathering them in his arms. If nothing else, he could place for a well timed detraction.
"Valiar! Don't let them escape!" He heard the changeling cry. They didn't have much time, it would only be a matter of moments before she grew a brain and either entered the frey herself or called in a couple of her minions to help. Another spell of lavander shot forth, clearing the dust through it's force. The beam hit Valiar's shield once more, but this time held it in place with a constant stream of magic, slowly pushing the turn coat backwards
Seeing his opportunity, Spike dashed behind the pony. He could feel the mixed emotions of courage and fear coursing through him as he approached. His enemy was destracted, but the thought of his magic being turned against him gave Spike pause. His love and desire to protect his friends, however, destroyed any semblance of hesitation he had.
He'd just made things right between he and Twilight, and he'd be damned before he let this bastard hurt her.
Emerging from the cave, Shade was immediately surrounded by dozens upon dozens of... flying bug ponies.
"Bucking gross." He spat, eyeing the changelings as they began to wrap around him. The bat pony snarled in disgust and shot straight up, his pursuers giving chase and giggling like crazy. "Hey! That's my thing!" He immediately stopped his assent and shot back down, jealousy superseding his disgust and slammed into the pillar, knocking one bug after another senseless as he passed.
He grabbed the final on in his hooves and dive bombed straight downwards, Discord bent on showing this thing what happened to those who dared try to steal his shtick. The changeling's eyes grew wide with horror as it looked back and saw the closly approaching ground, it summoned green magic into it's horn and shot Shade directly in the face... before meeting the ground with a soul shattering splat.
Shaking over his newest kill, the bat pony brought a hoof up to his eye. He could still see out of it, but his vision was blurry. "Mother bucker!" He screamed, slamming his hooves down onto the splattered remains of his assailant, making damned sure that the dead horse was a well beaten and bloody pulp.
Today was just full of ponies who didn't know who they were messing with.
A sharp pain in his side accompanied by force pushed Shade hard left. He used the momentum and spread his wings to take flight, looking back to the fifth pony of the day who'd earned his ire. Another squad of blue eyed insectoids was behind him, a few shooting off green spells in an attempt to bring him down. "Tonight I dine on bug-eye soup."
Banking hard, Shade circled around and went to charge the enemy head on. It was a useful tactic that served him very well in the past. The first Changeling to make contact became his battering ram and shield against the multiple spells and horns meant to impale him. He slammed the drone into one of the buildings, splattering it into pulp.
"On second thought, bug-eye soup doesn't sound so good anymore." He guaffed, taking in the repulsive innards of the thing.
Leaping off, the bat pony growled at seeing the growing number of flying changelings slowly encroaching around him. How many was he going to have before they figured out the should just beg forgiveness and pledge their undying loyalty? One charged forward, alone to meet the stallion in areal combat. Shade lifted his hoof and swatted the enemy as it came into reach, sending it flying out of sky and into one of the buildings.
"Is Shade gonna have to smack a bitch?" Shade yelled, aggressively shooting forward a few feet. Two more changelings approached him, glowing green horns ready to strike. "I think Shade's gonna have to smack two bitchs." The spells loosed, easily dodged by the bat pony's agility before he dashed forward. "One!" Smack, "Two!" Smack. Both of the foolish insectoids went spinning down to their deaths.
"Two bitch smacks! Ahahaha!" He cackled. His adrenaline was hot now, the tension he'd built up from remaining so calm for so long finally easing itself. Violence and destruction, chaos and war. These were the things he knew, and he was finally free to share his knowledge. No Stripes to calm him down, no Sin or Magical Horse Lady to tell him to stop, he was free. And he was going to enjoy giving these pultry bugs an education on what true violence was.
He'd taken on the beast he could handle a few hundred changelings.
Spike threw the stone right at Valiar's head, his arm giving everything he had. He didn't want to kill the pony, it wasn't his fault he was being mind controlled, but he also couldn't risk the attack doing nothing.
Another rock shot forth from Valiar's pocket and intercepted the projectile before it made contact, much to Spike's surprise. Seeing Twilight's spell begin to weaken, Spike charged forward. Thinking about his next move wasn't a priority, all he knew was that once Twilight ran out of energy, they were all in big trouble.
As expected, the rune intercepted his leap at Valiar, hitting the dragon in the stomach. With one last desperate attempt, the dragon lifted his right arm and threw his last rock point blank at the pony's face. The attack worked like a charm, and Valiar's concentration, and spell, broke just in time to catch the tail end of Twilight's spell. Catching the stallion off guard and flying back into into the wall with a crash powerful enough to crack the marble. Unfortunately, his close proximity gave promise of his own injuries, and Spike too felt the fury of Twilight's magic slam into him, the force sending the dragon flying into another wall.
Disorientated, Spike slowly pushed past the growing pain and sat up. Twilight called to him, asking if he was okay. The drake wasn't in top condition, what with the burning in his arm and face where the spell made contact, and the tail and back that broke his fall, but he was in better shape than Valiar was.
"You brat!"
Another spell slammed into him, though, this one wasn't the awesome force and heat of unicorn magic, but a cold, sickly green that made his body burn in frozen fury. "Ahhhh" Spike screamed as he was sent skidding through the hall, the pain of dry ice pressing against his skin was overpowering.
Once at a stop, he slowly pushed himself to a stand, his good eye forming tears of pain as he tried to hold in the screaming. A large portion of his shoulder was missing scales now, the cold sting of air hitting his raw skin almost driving him to unconsciousness.
"You monster!" He heard Twilight yell before turning her attention back to Chrysalis and unleashing yet another attack. Though, the Changeling queen simply dodged the spell with a lazy wall of green fire. The queen leapt through the fire with a screech and tackled Twilight, ending the unicorn's assault.
"You little tramp!" She was going to say more, but a pair of white legs slammed into the queens muzzle, sending her flying out the window.
"Twily' are you alright?" Shining gasped, pulling his sister up.
"I'm fine, Shining, go check on Spike. I need to figure out a way to finish this once and for all."
Cadance stepped forward. "Shining, between the two of us, could we make a surge that would give you the magic you need to push all of the changelings out of the city?"
The stallion immediately shot the idea down, defaming such a plan as suicide. "There's no way we could predict or control that kind of power, a surge between the two of us could destroy the city!"
Chrysalis screamed as she jumped back in through the window, her cool and calm persona all but gone, now. Worst of all, she wasn't alone.
Spike felt his stomach drop as a wave of her minions began spilling in through the window. He tried to take a step, but a sharp pain in his back put him on the floor. Grunting, he tried again, pushing past the growing surges of agony that shot through his spine. "Twilight..." He groaned, taking a step.
Suddenly a red aura surrounded him and slammed the dragon back to the floor. Spike tried to scream from the pressure hitting in just the wrong place on his back, but all that came out of his throat was a painfully pathetic wheeze.
"That wasn't very smart, sir." His eyes trailed and the pain in his back was accompanied by ice as his eyes found Valiar standing behind him. No, no this couldn't be happening. There was no way! How could he get back up after being hit with that kind of spell?!
Valiar picked up Spike in his magic and tossed the limp drake across the room. "SPIKE!" Twilight called, catching her son in her own magic and gently placing him down besides her. "Spike, Spike speak to me!" She demanded softly.
The drake coughed in reply, small droplets of blood spilling out of the corner of his mouth. He tried to move, but nothing would respond. He felt his legs and arms shake, but that was it. "Hey..." he wheezed, offering a weak smile before succumbing to yet another coughing fit.
Twilight shushed him, telling him that he'd done enough today. "You were great Spike, why do you rest for a bit. Okay?" The drake chuckled in reply. He could feel unconsciousness coming to claim him and took pride in what he'd done. He may not have been able to fight, but at least he wasn't useless when his friends needed him.
Sin hit the ground with a thud, the curtains gripping in a ll the right places to leave his legs asleep and unresponsive.
Things were not looking good. Chrysalis was placing her mind control spell back on Shining Armor, Spike and Celestia were down and out, Twilight looked on the verge of collapse, Cadance was drained, and the rest of Twilight's friends had been as useful as the guards were. This left three problems very much unchecked. The Changeling Queen, her swarming drones, and the red mage.
Things were not looking good at all.
Uppity pulled him upright, asking if he was alright. "I'm fine." He replied, trying to force feeling back into his legs. He needed to figure something out, he over heard Shining Armor's plan, but he was captured. He could work with that as the ultimate goal, but between the mass of changelings and Valiar, such a goal was almost impossible to achieve.
"Girls." Twilight said, turning to her friends. "I know your angry at yourselves right now, but I need your help!"
Pinkie and Rarity were the only two who could bear to look at her, the other three just cringed at her words. "We can settle what happened later, right now, I need you to help me fight"
The five mares looked between themselves, each nodding their approval before any traces of doubt and shame faded away, leaving only a determination and fight that made Sin smile. "Uppity, you saw what the queen did to me, right? How she used her magic to manipulate only part of the curtain?" The unicorn nodded. "Use the curtain like a catapult and launch me at Valiar."
"What?" The unicorn whispered. Sin harshly repeated the instructions, the moment Twilight and her friends acted, Valiar would make his move, he needed to be airborne before that happened.
Reluctantly, Uppity obeyed the command and drew the curtain, concentrating to keep her aura just on the corner. Sin placed himself on the edge and smirked. "Throw me as hard as you can."
"Are you sure about this?" She asked hesitantly, she'd never done anything like this before, what if she missed? What if she wasn't strong enough? What if-
Sin placed a hoof on her mouth and smiled, leaning in he gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "You'll do fine." He looked back to find Twilight's friends charging the incoming changelings and the lavender mare herself casting a spell at her brother's Captor. "Now do it!"
Turning, Uppity eyed her target and put a little strain on the drape to check its weight. Summoning every last bit of magical strength she had, she pulled the curtain back and slammed it forward, propelling her coltfriend out like rock and shooting him at the red stallion, preying that Sin knew what he was doing.