Chapter 30
Chapter 66
Rick lowered into an attack stance, squaring off with the insect-like queen of the Changelings. He remembered how it went last time he faced her and was determined to not let it happen again. What’s more, his family was being held captive and this bitch would have to pay for that.
“Let them go! NOW!!”
“Why in Equestria would I do that? I’ve been looking forward to making these ponies pay for what they’ve done to me for too long to simply release them now.”
“Let them go or I swear I will kill you.”
Chrysalis laughed again, “oh you will, will you? I suppose you’ve figured out how to do better without your magic? Last time we saw each other, you only survived because these ponies,” she indicated the Elements, “saved your tail before I could finish the job. You won’t be so lucky this time.” Chrysalis walked over the cocoon containing Shining Armor and Cadence, “but how about this instead? I will give you a choice. Choice A: I let the royal couple go free and keep these fillies. Choice B: I keep Cadence and Shining Armor and let the others go. Choice C: I release all of them and send my minions to destroy the Crystal Empire. Before you decide, let me make one thing clear, you will not survive the day. Now, which do you choose?”
Rick didn’t even hesitate, “I choose D: I kick your ass and leave you in a puddle of your own filth!”
“My, my, such language. Do you kiss these ponies with that mouth?”
“Every chance I get. Why, you jealous?” Rick brandished a smirk. He only just managed to deflect a blast of magic with a shield. “Guess I got my answer.”
Rick charged in, he dodged a magic shot then deflected another. He was gaining ground, but it wasn’t quick. For every yard he closed in, it cost thirty yards of lateral moving just to keep from being blasted. Several times he dove into craters and even made use of the debris to avoid being hit.
His shields were small but effective. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case. After just a few minutes, he had gotten only five yards closer and was covered in patches of singed fur, but so far, no real wounds to speak of.
He dove into yet another crater, just narrowly avoiding yet another blast. “I guess this is as close as I’m gonna get.” Rick peaked over the edge of his hole and gauged the distance between himself and her.
“What’s wrong? Giving up already? I will once again offer you the same choices from before,” Chrysalis asked, completely confident in her own abilities.
“I still chose option D!” Rick leapt out of his crater and charged straight for her at full speed. Chrysalis fired another shot, which Rick jumped over. Then, when Rick thought he was close enough, he jumped again. He brought his head down and started a roll in mid-air. At the crest of his arch, he reached down and grabbed Chrysalis’ horn. He then flicked his back end to complete the roll. The momentum caused Chrysalis to be slung around her own arch and slammed into the ground. Rick took the opportunity to straddle the queen and unleash his own torrent of punches to her jaw and anything else he could hit.
Rick was starting to feel like he was going to win, but he was soon corrected. A blast of magic hit him in the chest, launching him back several yards. Luckily, He had managed to raise a shield just in time. It wasn’t enough to injure him, but it didn’t help his stamina or confidence any.
“Is that the best you have to offer?” Chrysalis leered.
“I sure hope not.”
“Then I guess that means it’s my turn.”
Her jagged horn started glowing. Rick went to charge in again, but couldn’t. His legs had been enveloped in a green slime, similar to the cocoons the others were trapped in. Chrysalis charged in herself, swinging a haymaker. The blow connected with his chin. The impact ripped Rick out of the slime he had been held by and sent him cartwheeling through the air. If it hadn’t been for a previously unseen bush to catch his fall, Rick would have been in very bad shape.
“Hahaha, you are faring even worse than when we last met. Tell you what, I’ll allow you to witness the destruction of your precious pony loves before I eliminate you.” Chrysalis’ horn glowed again, one of the cocoons opened and Twilight floated out, landing motionless on the ground in front of her. “Don’t ever say I never gave you anything.”
“Don’t you touch her!” Rick tried to get back up, he tried to stop this nightmare, he tried with everything he had, but the fresh slime that had been wrapped around his legs held firm.
Chrysalis simply laughed at his struggles again as her horn glowed brightly, preparing to unleash some new hell upon Rick’s beloved princess. But what she didn’t notice, was that Rick’s horn was glowing too.
The black coated queen was taking her time, relishing in Rick’s struggles, screams and pleading for the release of Twilight. Because she was spending so much time enjoying herself, she didn’t see the two tiny stars the came to life at the end of the nub that was once a horn on Rick’s head.
Because Rick was fighting so hard with his physical strength, he didn’t feel the magic being renewed slowly inside himself as the two tiny stars began to float upwards, spiraling around like the fluting that once adorned his horn.
It wasn’t until a huge, orange fist flew into Chrysalis, knocking her across the battle field grunting, that anyone realized Rick’s horn had regrown itself. Rick had no time to relish its return, however, there was a fight to win.
Using force field blades to free himself, Rick hurried over to Twilight’s side. Using a magic hand, he gingerly lifted her and placed off to the side where he hoped she would be safe. “I be right back, Twilight. I have to deal with something first, then we’ll go back home to Ponyville with all our friends.” Rick wanted to promise her, but he refused to make a promise he might not be able to keep.
Turning back to the fray, he saw Chrysalis had regained her footing and she was pissed. Rick readied his magic for another attack, he didn’t know how long it would hold out, he had been using it since the battle began and it was running low.
“So, you’re determined to make this interesting I see. Good, I was starting to get bored.” Chrysalis charged in again. She lowered her head to both fire another volley and to attempt to skewer Rick.
Rick deflected the blast with yet another shield and rolled to the side, giving the queen a clear path to run right past him. As she charged past, Rick formed a blade and took advantage of her lowered head. He didn’t kill her, he gave her the eye-for-an-eye treatment. Completely removing her horn and most of her tattered wings.
Chrysalis was enraged, she screamed a primal roar. She picked up her severed horn, “you dare?! You dare to desecrate your queen!?”
“I answer to no queen! I only answer to the princesses!”
Chrysalis roared again and used her horn as a club and smashed Rick across his jaw. He didn’t get a shield up in time. His magic was dangerously low and his world turned red from the blow.
“No more mercy! No more games! I will destroy you here and now!!”
Jagged horn in hoof, Chrysalis leapt through the air fully intent on pinning Rick forever onto the training grounds. Rick rolled onto his back and raised both his forelegs and poured all his remaining magic into one, creating a dagger for her to fall on. Chrysalis spotted it just in time to stop herself form being impaled on it.
Rick was lying on his back with his magic dagger pressed to the throat of the changeling queen. The queen was straddling him, her severed horn pressed against the flesh above Rick’s heart.
“Well what do you propose now? If you kill me, then I fall and kill you. If I strike you, then you will no doubt kill me. We are at a stalemate it would seem.”
“Not quite, Chrysalis. As long as the ponies of this country are free of you, I will be satisfied.”
“Are you really willing to die for them?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” he growled in her face.
“You would leave the ones you love to grieve?” She was starting to sound desperate.
“They will have each other.”
The two stared each other down. Neither one willing to surrender, neither wanting to die either. Rick’s only concern was that those eight ponies stay safe. Equestria being rid of this parasite would merely be a bonus.
“STOP!!”
The sound of Fluttershy’s scream was a surprise to say the least, especially when he looked at the cocoons to find she was still inside and unconscious. So when she threw herself across his barrel, it came as quite a shock.
“Fluttershy?! Get out of here! You have to run!”
“No! I won’t leave you to sacrifice yourself for me!”
“Calm yourself, my dear Fluttershy. I wouldn’t allow your brave stallion to come to any harm,” Chrysalis said in a suddenly very masculine voice that sounded both jovial and confidant that the owner could never be defeated. Her eyes turned yellow with red irises and a single fang protruded from the upper lip. She floated up off the ground and started to change rapidly. Her… or rather his whole body stretched. The four legs each became the leg of a different creature. A lion’s paw, an eagle’s talon, a goat’s hoof and a dragon’s leg. The wings became one of a bat and one of a bird. The tail turned reptilian and red with a white tuft at the end. The body was brown and the head was gray and topped with a stag antler and a sheep's horn.
Rick stood up off the ground and held Fluttershy tightly, afraid he might lose her if he didn’t. “No harm? Seriously?” He looked around and was stunned to see the training grounds suddenly revert to their pristine appearance. He was even more stunned to find he had no pain or marks on his body at all. He then saw the rest of his six friends, the three princesses and Shining approaching him. “Would someone like to explain to me what the hell is going on here?”
“Why, this was your final test, my boy,” the new creature informed.
“Alright, we’ll come back to that, for now, I might simply ask, who are you?”
“Oh, don’t you know? Why, I am Discord, the agent of chaos.”
“The one defeated by the Elements of Harmony?”
“One in the same.”
“Then why are you helping now?”
“It’s all thanks to this little pony you are clutching onto right now.”
Rick looked down at Fluttershy, who looked into his eyes. He saw sorrow in her eyes. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, it’s all over now.”
“B-but, you were going to let yourself be killed again.” Fluttershy buried her face back into Rick’s barrel and began to soak his fur with tears.
“I’m so sorry I scared you. I couldn’t let you get hurt.” Rick gently rocked with her in his embrace.
“You scared all of us,” Celestia said over his shoulder while the rest of his herd came forth to join in the hug. “I knew you were protective of my little ponies, but I never realized you were willing to go this far to ensure their safety. I appreciate that, but I wish you wouldn’t be so eager to throw your life away.”
Rick looked up at the solar princess, “I’m only willing to go that far, because I know any of them would do the same for me and you would do it for any one of them.”
“I would endeavor to find another method first, but you are correct. I would do anything to protect my subjects.”
“And I would do anything for the ones I love,” Rick added in summation.
“It would also appear that you have regrown your horn. I’m very happy to see that. Hopefully that means you won’t have to risk your life again.”
“I concur,” Rarity added.
“I think your training is done here,” Shining Armor said, “I guess that means you can go back to Ponyville with your family… tomorrow. I believe you’ve earned yourself a bit of rest. But first, I need to thank you, Discord, for helping me today.”
“Think nothing of it. Rick here,” Discord smiled and slapped Rick on the back, which made a loud noise, but failed to move the large stallion, “is slated to serve as protector of my best friend. It’s only right that I help make him proficient in that aspect.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Twilight said, “but it was quite a bit darker than it needed to be.”
“I was simply trying to make the experience as realistic as possible, my dear Twilight.”
“I understand, I just don’t like it.”
“Twilight, what’s done is done. Now c’mon,” Rick kissed her forehead,” let’s head inside, I’m tired and need some rest.”
They all went inside and spent the rest of the night talking, dining and just enjoying each other’s company. It took some time for Rick to get used to Discord, but he grew to like him. The whole time, Fluttershy clung to Rick, she had been quite shaken by what she had witnessed. Thankfully, by the end of the night, she had started to return to her normal, bashful self, she still clung to Rick, but simply because she didn’t want to separate from her love. She even refused to leave his side when he went to bed. Rick certainly wasn’t complaining, but he hoped she would let him go soon so he could walk uninhibited to the Ponyville express in the morning.
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I would have punched them all in the face for doing that
3382119 maybe, but that's what makes Rick the better person.
Of course, he still might, the story isn't over yet.
3382157
I'm a good person I just don't like it when I am messed with
3382166 I didn't mean he was brtter than you, just a good person. Remember how he dealt with Rainbow hitting him in the first story?
3383197
yeah I suppose
WOO, I knew it had to be a trick of some kind, I just didn't expect it to be discord, that threw me for a loop.
Great chapter.
the fuck was that!?
is he not pissed! not at all!?
i would have punched discord and celestia!
3385267 It threw me through a few, too.
30# wow
A great way to see his potential while not holding back against guards. There is a big difference between a sparring match and fighting with your, or anypony else's, life on the line.