Jade - 4th of Solarus ‘15 EoH - AfternoonJade - 4th of Solarus ‘15 EoH - Afternoon
I came too under a pile of things. Ponies. Parts of ponies. Changelings. Bits of Changelings. Burning things. Unidentifiable burning things. Pretty much the most disgusting and horrifying thing possible to find yourself under.
A terrified scream started to build up in my throat, and then an eyeball fell onto my own eye.
My horrified shriek sent a wave of magic blasting outwards from myself, pushing everything back hard enough for me to hear things crack and snap. My breath came in huffing gasps as I stood, trembling in the center of a cleared ring of space, doing my best to not throw up.
“Oof… Thanks.” A mare’s voice groaned. “That was a heavy… uh… pile of gross. Ew...”
I saw a mint colored mare out of the corner of my eye. She had a harp for a cutiemark, or at least some sort of stringed instrument, and a short bushy mane half green and half white. She looked battered, but not badly hurt. The remains of some dull green plate armor were held to her by a ragged harness.
Her gold eyes lit up as she saw me, “Oh hey! Luna sent me to find you… Not that it matters now. That blast definitely took out the mage’s circle…”
“What?” I asked shakily.
“The plan was to lure them all in by making her frustrated at only being able to get a few changelings in at a time, break the shield, rush in, then we were going to fire off a huge spell Twilight spent a few days charging, and just fry them all with all of us safe in the inner shields.” The mare stated matter of factly. “But yeah, this hole definitely broke that circle… Unless…”
She trailed off and tapped a small gem held to her left hoof by a thin leather band.
“Twilight.” She grunted, “Twilight, it’s Lyra. Was that your spell just now?”
“No. I don’t know what that was!” Twilight’s voice came back immediately. “I’m in the air, whatever that was it took a lot of them with it… and us too… It looks like the Swarms’ picking itself back up- I see Chrysalis, she’s alive! Cadance, if we rush her now we have a chance.”
I looked up, wondering where the two princesses were that they could see Chrysalis. Fearing the mad Queen being anywhere near-
There she was. Just a dozen or so yards away. Standing over Lily. Horn glowing with eldritch fury.
Chrysalis reared up, a cruel smile splitting her face! A lavender and pink blur smashed into her from above! A flash of white light blinded me for an instant, vision clearing to reveal Twilight, Cadance, and Chrysalis squared off within spitting distance of me.
“Ohhh not good!” Lyra eeped. She pointed to Lily’s trembling body, “She’s with you, right?”
“Y-yes.” I managed to squeak.
Lyra’s horn shone gold, Lily’s rear hooves were gripped in her magic aura, and the girly-colt was quickly dragged to Lyra’s side “Hey there, cutie flanks!” Lyra teased, “How about you just not-die today so you can see my wife get all fake-angry at me for that flirt?”
“Ja! Okay!” Lily squeaked.
Lyra's horn blazed again, this time conjuring a few layers of hexagonal shaped blocks of what looked to be solid light to form a dome over us. “Okay. We hang behind this nice shield and hope to Luna we don't get directly hit!”
“We should run!” I protested.
“Yeah, no. This is gonna get Tirek ugly.” Lyra muttered. “That thing didn’t even blink when she took the Element right to the face… Cadance beat her last time, so we hang back and watch our best chance do it’s thing because that’s an elite mob that’s also way above our level, to use a gamer's term.”
I wanted to ask Lyra what the hay that all meant, but Twilight’s voice drifting across the hot sands interrupted me.
“I don’t get it. You have all this power, you even shook off the Elements of Harmony like they were nothing, but you only kill and destroy! Why?” Twilight demanded.
“Oh, you want to know how I beat your evil little weapon?” Chrysalis cackled, “Telling you wont let you use it on me. Why not? Your precious Elements find the good in someone and force it to the surface, blatantly violating their free will and agency to force them to rethink their moral code with a favorable bias towards your own desires. Your weapon undoes the base foundations of someone's very being. I learned this when I had yet to become the beautiful Queen I am now, back when your little toy was new.
“I refuse to allow my own will to be corrupted! I found a way to cut every last drop of that ‘goodness’ out of my soul and destroy it. There is nothing left for you to control me with Twilight. I am free of your control, of everyone’s control! Because I am the rightful heir to the Changeling Throne! I am the High Queen of all Hives! And we changelings own this planet, you are just over intelligent livestock we let get out of hoof!”
I winced. That was… wrong. By the Sun’s Light, we live on their love! “How can you even think that?” I said, jaw hanging open in shock.
I saw Cadance’s eyes narrow. “Twilight, Chrysalis, mind if I cast the first spell of our little showdown?”
Twilight nodded.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes, “Like it will matter. You only defeated me because I hadn’t fed properly in a month… So much positivity, everywhere! All the time! You ponies are just gross.”
Cadance’s wings snapped open, Her horn flashed blue, a sharp crack split the air, Chrysalis jumped, a blur passed under her, a series of small daggers peppered the ground where she had been standing like steel rain!
One whistled through the air, slamming into Lyra’s shield and penetrating into two of the layers, hanging in the air. I looked at it nervously, hovering just meters away from my eye. Stuck in the air.
“That’s why we have shields.” Lyra said with a relieved sigh.
“Ja! Shields are good! Let’s have more of them!” Lily exclaimed, quickly casting a defensive spell and adding a layer of blue to Lyra’s old barrier.
“Heh! I like you.” Lyra quipped.
I decided to focus on the fight. It felt a little bad to sit back and just watch the flurry of quick teleports, flashes of magic, and hissing of weapons. Chrysalis's destroyed my home. Killed my family. Hurt my friends… Should I do something?
Yes!
But, what could I actually do?
Cadance vanished in a flash of white light, appearing behind Chrysalis and swinging the spear-hammer-spike-thing straight down with both forehooves, slicing her sword in horizontally with her telekinesis! Chrysalis ducked left, avoiding the attack without even looking as she made the ground beneath Twilight erupt into a huge pillar of lightning!
Twilight suddenly slid out of the surging lighting, a pale shield glowing around her, throwing six separate spellbolts and a ray of ice at Chrysalis, who blocked them with a telekinetically thrown pair of ponies, spun, and fired a broiling bolt of fire at Cadance!
Cadance swept her sword up, the blade splitting the line of flames in two, which shot around her. “Not so easy when I have my gear, is it?” She barked angrily.
“Oh? You wanted a challenge?” Chrysalis smirked.
The sound of wings buzzing made me look up, the sky grew dark again, covered once more by changelings. Or at least, mostly covered. This time there were distinct holes in their wall, and it was only one layer thick.
The mass of changelings swarmed down in a tornado shape, heading right for Cadance! She vanished instantly behind a sea of spellbolts, only the occasional changeling falling to the sand, thrown weapon, or blue ray providing even a hint that she was still alive behind the wall of enemies.
Twilight gasped as Cadance vanished, a look of grim calculation taking over her face-
“All EUP Troops.” Lyra said grimly. “Everypony, Princess Cadance is pinned under that cloud of changelings. Fire everything you got at them!”
As bolts of magic began to scorch the air like an inverted rain, Chrysalis cackled. “Ahhaha! Half of my Swarm is not even here! But they will be… soon. Look how few of your ponies still stand Twilight! Celestia is bleeding out behind me, Luna unconscious, your element’s useless, and help from the Emeralds well… They have their hooves full. In truth this battle is down to you, and to me.”
“That may be true.” Twilight said, jumping and snapping her wings open to hover a dozen feet off the ground, “But you’re dead even with me! This fight could go either way, and you know it. I know you, you only taunt when your victory isn’t certain. You won’t get into my head again. Mind games will not work a third time!”
“Oh you silly pony! I taunt when victory is certain too!” Chrysalis’s horn burned green, violently ripping an orange colored stallion from the crater’s rim and holding him in the air above Chrysalis’s head, “Your coltfriend, if I’m not mistaken?”
The orange pony gurgled.
“Put him down!” Twilight shouted in a panicked tone. “This is between us! Your fight is with me, not him!”
“Yes.” She agreed, smiling in delight, “And to win, I must break you.”
Chrysalis's horn and eyes blazed a bright green. A savage grin split her cheeks. A loud wet ripping sound echoed off the crater walls. Two halves of a pony and a screaming Alicorn hit the ground at the same time.
Lyra gasped in horror. Lily heaved, vomiting to one side. I felt my entire body go numb.
The instant Twilight hit the ground in her heart shredded dive, Chrysalis fired! The pony wide spellbolt slammed into Twilight, throwing her across the ground where she lay, motionless.
“Silly pony!” Chrysalis chided. “This is why you never leave your opponent alive. They just get away, and then come to despise you. They learn all about you. They find your weakness, and then, if they are me, they aim for your weakness, something precious to you, and take it away!”
Something in me snapped. I clenched my teeth hard enough for them to crack. My shoulders shook as an all consuming rage started to rip apart the last shred of self preservation I had.
Lily’s ears flattened, her queasy face radiating fear, “Jade! Nein! We have to run! We can get away.”
“No!” I growled, “She isn’t going to hurt one more family!”
I felt my wings snap open.
“Breathe, Jade! You’re a leaf! You’re a leaf in a calm stream!” Lily pleaded.
“Buck the stream!” I screamed, launching forward, using my telekinesis to smash through the shields in a shower of sparks.
“Stupid pony…” Chrysalis muttered stepping forward, horn glowing, ready to finish Twilight off.
“Murderer!” I screamed, drawing a hoof back to strike, putting my full speed into-
Chrysalis wheeled and caught me by the throat with a hoof!
“Urk!” I gurgled.
“Ah, you. Your death is a bit overdue, isn't it?” Chrysalis giggled holding me up by my neck.
A crushing blow slammed into my stomach! The ground shot away from me! Air whistled past my ears! A crackling ray of emerald fire lanced up and seared my right shoulder, leaving a blistering line as Chiten boiled away, then reformed.
I twisted, stretching both my rear hooves out like a spear, and rammed myself down with my magic as hard as I could! The ground screamed back towards me!
“Chrysalis!” I barked, wanting to see her eyes as I stabbed my hooves into them!
She looked up. Her eyes widened, her horn glowed, preparing another shot. I slammed into the side of her head with a vengeful scream, throwing Chrysalis into the ground with a snapping crunch!
An instant later Chrysalis climbed to her hooves, sand flowing off her as she pulled her way out of the shallow crater. She twisted her neck, a loud pop crossing the distance as I lowered my head wings flared, ready to charge again.
“Fearless… Untapped power…” Chrysalis mused. “You remind me of myself at your age. I’d best ensure you never become a threat!”
Her horn burned green, charging a spell.
“Take your best shot!” I growled.
She fired! I jumped left, the beam lanced over my shoulder! I buzzed my wings, racing forwards, pulling up and over the beam as she adjusted. I dove, falling under the beam again, surged up, pushed myself off the ground with my rear hooves and jackknifed my right hoof into Chrysalis's throat!
She sailed through the air, then twisted as she landed on her hooves, and skidded across the sand. I jumped, wings buzzing for altitude, to send another kick right into her black heart! A green flash sailed past me, a second grazing my left wing! A wall of green flames suddenly filled my vision, smashing into me and throwing me back!
I smashed through the crater wall, causing a flood of sand to rush to the crater’s base! I rolled violently across the ground, skidding to a stop next to a moaning pegasus mare in a blood stained helmet. Pain exploded in my chest as Chrysalis slammed down atop me with a violent shriek!
Enraged, I threw a spellbolt, catching her in the barrel, blasting a few shards of chitin into dust! She grunted, lifted me in her magical grip, slammed me repeatedly into the ground then threw me violently over her shoulder, back into the crater. A second wall of green filled my vision! Burning pain hit every part of my body as I was flung back into the opposite crater wall with a dull crunch!
I moaned picking myself up from the shifting, crumbling sand wall. Chrysalis's appeared, walking through the dust my flight had kicked up, eyes burning emerald with a sadistic grin plastered on her face.
Her horn flashed, I jumped, a spellbolt streaking underneath me. My wings snapped open, magic racing along them as the battered limbs repaired themselves, then buzzed furiously as I arced through the air, a frenzied volley of bolts singing my tail!
I twisted, brought my horn to bear on Chrysalis and pushed every ounce of magic I had into it! Raw, undirected, with only rage to guide it! A bolt of neon green lightning exploded from the tip of my horn, connecting with Chrysalis instantly! She screamed, the bolt throwing her back into the wall opposite where I had just been.
My horn throbbed, pounded, and stung. I felt almost completely drained. But rage kept me moving!
I threw myself forward with my magic, blazing through the air to slam both hooves squarely into Chrysalis barrel, aiming for her second and third hearts! I twisted, slamming my forehooves into the ground and aiming a double kick under her chin! My hooves slammed home, I threw as much of my telekinesis as I could into the strike and she went sailing up into the sky with a sickening crack!
I had to press the advantage! Keep beating her until she was mush under my hooves! She would die this bucking hour!
I launched myself after her. A heartbeat later I caught up, then passed turned around, and threw myself down with my magic, slamming my rear hooves squarely into her back! She jerked midair, instantly reversing direction, shooting down and away from me.
“You’re not going to land!” I growled, gripping her left wing with my magic and ripping back as hard as I could.
It came free with a sound like tearing lace. Chrysalis's spun towards the ground, trying to slow herself with the one wing while the other regenerated.
She slammed into the center of the crater, crumpling over a pony sized ball of sandstone with a sickening crunch! An odd low whine began to pierce the air. I dropped from the sky, landing a second drop-kick into her back! I felt her chest give way between my kick and the sandstone orb with a satisfying crack!
Chrysalis gurgled. Her eyes burned emerald, out of the corner of my eye I saw a thousand changelings drop out of the thinned cloud around Cadance, collapsing lifeless to the earth as Chrysalis reared up, whole again, and smashed the back of her head into my face!
“Would you just die already!?” Chrysalis screamed.
She threw a bolt of green-blue flames, it sliced along my left side, burning away fluff and chitin alike, leaving a two hoof sized hole in my side! I felt my organs rush towards the gap, pressure trying to force them out!
No! I’d used too much power. I couldn’t regenerate!
“Gah! Stay in your home organs! Mommy needs you!” I whimpered, falling to the ground in a heap.
“There!” Chrysalis spat, “You’re finished… With only time to punish you appropriately for being a traitor to my crown left before your delightful painful demise.”
Her horn glowed. The sky darkened. The sound of countless buzzing wings filling the air once more.
“Ah, the rest of my Swarm.” Chrysalis cooed in a sadistic twist of a mother’s voice, “Right on time! It took quite a lot of them to replenish my stren-”
A lavender blur smashed into Chrysalis’s side with the sound of a thunder clap! A heartbroken primal scream of rage shattered my eardrums, muting the world as I watched a badly burnt Twilight rip Chrysalis’s forelegs clean off, toss them aside, and then pummel the evil Queen with all four of her own hooves!
The enraged Alicorn was struck by spellbolt, after spellbolt, each one burning and ripping away fur, skin, and muscle! Twilight didn’t have a buck left to give, her magic’s aura rushing over her body, knitting together wounds faster than they could be inflicted!
My hearing came back in time for one last enraged scream as Twilight lifted Chrysalis in her telekinetic grip, smashing her several times into the ground with sickening crunches before throwing Chrysalis's rag dolled body into the sandstone sphere! As her battered form struck the orb, a loud crackling filled the air before the whole thing exploded in a bright flash of pure white light!
A column of that pure white raced up through the sky, a rain of sliced up changelings falling down from the swarm above before the flash finally dissipated, Twilight collapsing to the ground as it ended, moaning and sobbing over the rear half of Chrysalis’s corpse.
I felt a rush of joy run through my hearts! She was gone! Dead!
“Oh… praise… the sun!” I gasped, my left side starting to burn in agony.
A healer would be amazing… right about… no-
“No!” I gasped, watching as Chrysalis’s remains were engulfed in the dark emerald flames of a shape change!
The fire raced over the rear legs, transforming them into that of a regular, ordinary, nothing of a drone.
“Silly pony!” Chrysalis’s voice echoed a million times from overhead. “I transcended having but one body long ago. I am the Swarm, I am your death, I am your suffering. I am Chrysalis!”
I felt a million needles of fear sink into my mind. How could anyling do that to their hive!? What did she even do?!
She’s taken full direct control in the same method as the Overmind once did. Clover’s memories supplied. If only those fragments of information could provide an answer to how to survive th-
Overload an avatar with telepathic noise. The thought exploded into my mind the second I asked for it. I even understood why! I would be able to confine her to one body by bombarding it with so much telepathic nonsense that there was no room left for her to jump to another body!
Not that it mattered much. I could barely move. Twilight was sobbing her brains out over there. I could see an exhausted Cadance out of the corner of my eye, gasping for breath atop a pile of changeling corpses, too exhausted to move. Who knows where anyone else was.
This was it… The end.
The Swarm fell over us like a blanket. Changelings landing everywhere one could stand. The others flew overhead in large clusters. They didn’t fire a shot. Not one spellbolt. Nopony had any fight left in them anymore. It was clear who won this battle.
Green flames enveloped a bright strawberry red shelled scout who was close to me, her features twisting and contorting into the savage vestige of Chrysalis amid delighted laughter.
“Hahaha! Ah Twilight! That was beautiful! I’ll remember just how deeply I broke you until the end of time.” The monster said, savoring the moment. “I think I’ll dine on your misery just a while longer… It’s such a lovely taste. A shame you’re about to die Jade. Negative emotions are so delightful to taste once you build up an immunity to their poison. They are just so… perfect. Much like this day!”
The changelings around us cleared out a large area as Chrysalis walked forward towards me. “Now, where were we? Ah yes, I was watching you slowly bleed to death, while offering additional torment. Just a moment.”
I did the only thing I could do. I gave her the harshest glare I could muster. I don’t think she noticed it at all as her horn glowed with magic.
“You know, it worked well with Twilight. Maybe, I can get a similar flavor from you!” Chrysalis remarked.
David’s unconscious body floated into my field of view. Held in Chrysalis’s telekinetic grip.
“No! Please no!” I begged, eyes instantly widening, hearts pounding in pure fear.
“Mmm… I might have, but that look on your face… Sorry, but I like it!” She hissed.
She jerked David’s body up further, a second green aura drifting into my vision as Chrysalis mocked, “But a simple ripping apart is just so… Well, unfitting. I have this lovely gun here, a simple, crude weapon, but rather appealing in what it can do up close, don't you think?”
Chrysalis plucked the familiar sunrise colored weapon from the air and moved it to point at David’s head, never breaking eye contact with me while she did it.
“Please! You’ll get the book! I’m the last Diamond, I’m dying. You have what you want, let him go!” I sobbed.
She erupted into genuine laughter, spending several minutes shaking. As she finished and wiped a tear from one eye, David’s eyes slowly peeled open.
No! Why?! Why couldn’t he go out unconscious?
“You forgot something important.” Chrysalis sang, “I also want to see you suffer horribly for daring to inconvenience me. Now, I think killing your mate with his own treasured weapon before your eyes is quite the fitting punishment, wouldn’t you agree?”
David’s eyes blinked fully open at her words, focused immediately on boomsticks four barrels hovering in front of his nose, then flicked up to Chrysalis’s face, then over to me. He looked into my eyes for a full second, nodded to himself, then slowly reached out with one hand, gently gripping the guns handle, and winked.
Oh! Well then…
“W-well what if there’s something that would make me feel even worse? If I told you would you let him go?” I pleaded, putting as much emotion into my voice as I could.
“Mmm… perhaps. Or I might just do both.” Chrysalis confessed, “You’ve done a remarkable job of making me hate every last fiber of your being.”
Her eyes narrowed with a pure blind hatred that literally hurt to look at. David winced as he maneuvered Boomstick’s barrels around, and squared them to her head. His finger slowly crept up to the trigger…
“My family… You killed them. You have to know how much they meant to me…” I said, trying not to look at David too much.
“Quite so. I know the minds of all Changelings in my Swarm.” She commented, “But that’s irrelevant, killing them in front of you is not that appealing sounding to me. I kill parents in front of children far too often it’s grown… flavorless.”
“Hey…” David grunted.
“Oh! The lover boy is awake!” Chrysalis cooed mockingly, turning to face the gun barrels.
Her eyes flew open in alarm! I quickly reached out with my telepathy, throwing every single random thought, feeling, emotion, memory, and even random nonsense I could think of through the link, funneling it towards Chrysalis’s mind.
She immediately froze, joints locking up! I felt her mind panic, trying to make sense of the huge blast of information I was throwing at her! Sun’s Light! Her Swarm was helping her sort it all out! I could only hold her for a few sec-
“Gotcha, bitch!” David shouted, finger tightening around the trigger.
Boomstick’s thunderous roar split the air! Chrysalis’s head blossomed into a bright blue flame! Instantly her entire body disintegrated, ashes falling into the wind, glowing a bright cobalt blue! A line of flame shot towards the next nearest changeling, incinerating it as the thing’s mouth opened, screaming in Chrysalis’s voice!
The fire spread, streaking through the entirety of the Swarm! A million shrieking screams of complete agony rippled through the air, overlapping and mixing in ways I knew would haunt me until my dying day. The Firestorm raged, burning with the fury of an angry god who wanted nothing more than to paint the desert with the ashes of it’s victims.
I saw the fire skip over several changelings. They dropped over onto the sand as if dead, just as the fires burst into a million flashes of bright blue light with a final hissing roar of fury!
Then it was still. Unnaturally still. Absolutely still.
David lay on the sand moaning. Everyone in my fading vision was unconscious, or laying on the ground moaning in pain. But I couldn’t help but feel a sense of grim satisfaction. This quest was at last over. No one would suffer my fate. I could go in peace, if that’s what the world wanted in exchange for the Queen’s death.
Suddenly the ground in front of me trembled! Grains of sand started to heave and slide as something forced it’s way through the earth!
No! No! No! No! No! N-
A battered, bloody, and bruised Princess Luna heaved herself out from under the sand with a loud gasp for air!
-Oh. Okay. Good.
The last thing I saw before the world faded away was a shocked Luna look around herself then ask, “The buck did I miss?”