Through the Fire and Flames

by Rhodesm96

Chapter 9 - Soldiers of the Wastelands

Badlands, evening

"So, this is The Badlands?" Luke said. The thumping of his wings was the only sound piercing the chilled night air around them.

Indeed.

"Looks kinda... barren." He said. As far as he could see, all that existed before them was a desolate wasteland, sparsely populated save for the occasional cactus or small reptile.

I sense that the power source is northward of our current location. We should head onward.

"Right." Luke flew onward for a few more minutes, skimming close to the ground. He looked all around him, trying to find a clue as to what this power source was. Eventually, they happened across a large hole in the ground. It was well hidden, they had almost missed it on their flyover.

Down there. The Nightmare said. The power I'm sensing is down there.

Luke made to enter, when suddenly he heard a low buzzing noise from behind him.

"Halt!" Cried a voice. Luke turned around to find a creature behind him. It was roughly pony shaped, but instead of fur it had a black chitinous shell. It's horn and the bottom of its legs were dotted with small holes, making it look somewhat like Swiss cheese. Its wings also had holes in them, and were insect-like, rather than feathered, as pegasus' wings were. It held a spear in its telekinesis.

"Halt?" Luke said, allowing The Nightmare's power to seep into his voice, giving it the same tone that the Nightmare used when speaking. "On whose orders?"

"On the order of Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, I command you to halt!" The creature said.

Ah, Chrysalis. She must be the power I'm sensing. Well, it seems we should pay her a visit. Said The Nightmare. Luke grinned.

"Sorry, but I don't think I'm going to be doing that." Luke said. "Now, stand still and let me kill you." He whipped out his guitar and fired off a chord, which manifested as a fireball. The changeling yelled wordlessly in surprise, leaping to the side and only just managing to dodge the explosion emanating from where it impacted.

It sent a bright sphere of green energy into the sky, which burst in a flash of light.

That was a distress flare. The Nightmare said. It will not be long before we are beset by the rest of the hive.

"Well fuck you, then." Luke said, obliterating the offending changeling with another chord. He turned as a loud buzzing came from behind him, to witness about twenty changelings rising from the hole. He immediately leapt into action, selecting a song and beginning to blast it out of his guitar.

Shards of light began to whip around him in a frenzy, their shapes shifting wildly. The changelings drew back ever so slightly, wary of this new threat. Luke grinned, and intensified his playing as the shards span faster. Suddenly, they hardened into blades and flew at the changelings. The changelings scattered, some of them screaming occasionally as the shards sliced through chitin and wings.

As if acting on some unseen command, they regrouped and charged his position. Luke frantically called up a shield, only just blocking the attacks. He retaliated by forming a lance of the shards and hurling it through their ranks. The changelings scattered to either side, mostly avoiding the attack, although one of them was impaled. The lance split into the individual shards again, and flew back through the changelings toward Luke, felling a few more of them.

One of the changelings flew directly at Luke. He threw up a shield and sliced at it, only to be hit from behind by an energy blast from another changeling. Growling, he severed the offending changeling's head.

Suddenly, the changelings began to move back toward their hole as one. Luke gave chase, jumping into the hole after them and never ceasing his playing. As soon as he entered he was beset by a large swarm of them, numbering easily over one hundred, causing him to yelp in surprise.

Damn it, if you jump into their hive you should expect there to be more of them! The Nightmare chided him.

Luke grit his teeth and summoned up yet more shards, creating a whirlwind of blades around himself, and allowing a brief respite from their attacks as one or two of them were shredded and the rest failed to get through the storm, even as more of them arrived to back up the others.

There's just too many of them! He thought. Surely they have some kind of weakness we can exploit?

The changelings are a hive mind, which should be controlled primarily by one individual. The Nightmare said. In all likelihood, this will be Chrysalis. We get her, we should win.

Regicide it is then!

Luke shifted his storm of blades to actively attack the changelings, and began to try and move through their ranks. The changelings ducked and dodged around his whirlwind of death, desperate to avoid being shredded. He sliced through the bodies of a couple more of them as he moved forward, breaking out into a run. He dashed through several tunnels following the directions of The Nightmare, his blades making short work of any changelings who attacked him, before bursting into some kind of throne room. Upon the throne sat the largest changeling he had yet seen, surrounded by about ten guards.

That's Chrysalis, I assume. The Nightmare said.

Luke charged at her, shards whirling in front of him. Chrysalis leapt over them and fired a flurry of energy blasts at him. He deflected most of them, but one of them struck him in the shoulder. Luke managed to keep playing, and sent a flurry of shards after her. She dodged all but one of them, which struck her wings, causing her to fall to the ground.

Luke saw this, and capitalised on it by slamming more shards into her, only for her body to erupt in green fire, revealing a normal changeling.

A decoy! Shit. Luke thought. Can you sense where the real one is?

Give me a moment... The Nightmare said. ..Got her. Head that way.

Luke dashed through tunnel after tunnel fending off the changelings that pursued him, following the directions of The Nightmare. After a short time, they emerged into a smaller chamber, in which were six Chrysalis look-alikes.

Second from the left. The Nightmare said. Luke directed a volley of shards her way, only for her to block them with a shield. The other five leapt at him, causing him to hastily erect a barrier of shards, slicing one of them in half. He ducked under the swipe of another and sliced her front legs off, dispatching her with a shard through her head.

He span around as one of them tried to bite at him, dodging her lunge and kicking her in the throat, then beheading her with the shards as she recovered. One of them grabbed him from behind, only for him to flare his wings, knocking her back against the wall, and sending a shard into her head. The next one tried to attack him from above, only for him to gore her with his horn.

Finally only the real Chrysalis was left. She aimed her horn at him and let loose a vibrant green beam of energy. Luke brought his shards together in front of him, forming a shield, and began to push back against it. Chrysalis snarled, and applied more force to her beam. Luke pushed harder still, and took a step forward, forcing her back. He continued to walk forward slowly, until he suddenly dashed forward and out of the path of the beam, and slashed the axe blade of his guitar into her head. He ceased his playing as he watched her bleeding profusely from the gaping wound.

Extending his hand, a tendril of shadow extended and wrapped around her neck. Slowly, she melted into a puddle and flowed into him. He let out a choked cry as he bent double, feeling his body shift and change. His horn bent into a crooked shape, as a second pair of insectile wings sprouted behind his first. Panting heavily, he rose to his feet.

Interesting. It seems that we have taken control of the hive mind. The Nightmare said. These are our changelings now.

"Interesting." Luke said. "What else did we gain from her?"

Aside from the aesthetic changes, we've gotten a significant power boost, and we should be able to shapeshift.

"Shapeshifting? Now that's awesome." Luke said. He concentrated, and in a burst of black fire his form changed to that of Chrysalis. Another burst, and he was replaced by Luna. Another, and Jason stood in his place. He chuckled, reverting to his own form.

"Oh yeah. This will come in handy." He said.

Author's Note:

So, fun fact, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" was improvised for this scene. I had a completely different song in mind for this, but when it came to writing it I just wasn't really feeling it. Because of this scrapping and rewriting, this chapter took longer to write than it should have.

If anyone's interested, the original song was going to be "This Means War" by Avenged Sevenfold.

Comments

[Rhodesm96]

4804734 'Kay

[JarheadHME]

So you DID end up using a Megadeth song. I still wish it were Sudden Death, but I know you said it wasn't what you were looking for. Loving the story, I hope you use a Dragonforce song at some point since the story and quite a few of the chapters are named after their songs (SotW is my fav ). Anyway, good luck with the rest, I'm enjoying it

[Rhodesm96]

4807409 Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Dragonforce by a long shot.

[Quantum_Shift]

this is someone going around and slaughtering ponies/changelings, and someone going around trying to stop them. I got enough of this from the earlier 'humans get powers in equestria' stories. Sorry, but you've lost my interest.

[Rhodesm96]

4850777 What do you mean by 'link the song directly'?

And 'someone slaughtering people while someone tries to stop them' is the basic premise of any story with a hero and villain. Sorry, but what else would you expect?

[The Dankest Meme]

4878657
Nice one, Rikku.

[Rhodesm96]

4878657 I prefer the evil ending tbh.