A Shadow Of Victory
Chrysalis didn’t make it far.
The clouds were thick and the stars and moon were hidden by the rain, but that didn’t blunt Shadow’s vision. Through the helmet, I saw the bug bitch queen clearly as she tried to make a getaway.
She was trying to double-back due east, right back over the top of the palace. She must have figured we’d try to follow her, and purposefully switched direction to try to throw off pursuit. But I wasn’t fooled. That was one of the first tricks we’d been taught in retreat maneuvers…
She sensed me behind her as I closed the distance. Her wings were buzzing frantically, trying to pick up speed, but my wings were still faster.
Her horn glowed, and the air suddenly came alive with crackling green energy nexuses. I threw up my wings and banked just before I plunged into one of the burning clouds right in front of me.
She was trying to slow me down – make her escape while I floundered. Dumb. The nexuses she’d summoned didn’t even cover much of the sky – all they really did was block my view of a few angles and it’d be a simple matter to…
…wait a minute…
Just a second too late, it struck me why she’d make such an obvious mistake. The nexuses were a feint, a dummy shot before her real attack…
I looked up just in time to see a green lightning bolt incoming…
Aw, gimme a break…
The spell hit me square in the chest with all the force of a sledgehammer. The world became all pain and a spinning circle of clouds, rain, and stars for the next few moments as I tumbled head over hooves in mid-air. My flesh sizzled and popped menacingly over the faint sound of Chrysalis’ mocking laughter…
I knew only the armor had saved me. If that thing had hit me without it I’d have been fried to death.
I gritted my teeth against the terrible pain as I struggled to stay airborne, flapping my wings to get a grip on the currents. I tasted blood and realized I must have bit my tongue again. I couldn’t breathe properly – the heat from the missile had superheated the air and swollen my throat shut. My breastplate was blackened and scorched, the deep, inlaid grooves glowing faintly with an ominous red, but the flesh underneath was worse. Much worse.
My fur was mostly gone, and what little remained was blackened and smoking. The skin had burned away in parts, but thank Celestia I didn’t see any bone poking out. I don’t think I could’ve dealt with that. Burned flesh is always unpleasant to the nose, but when it’s your own it’s even more overwhelming. I might’ve puked all over myself if it weren’t for the fact I hadn’t had anything left in my stomach for hours…
Shadow’s armor grew cold and heavy on me again as the healing magic kicked in, and to my immense relief, the burning pain subsided enough that I could open my eyes and draw breath again.
“Hold fast, Cloud Kicker!” Shadow warned, “’Tis not a fatal wound. Thou shalt live. We must complete our mission now, lest we ne’er have another chance! I allowed Chrysalis mercy once – I do not intend to make such a mistake again…”
She was right. We needed to catch Chrysalis. If I didn’t bring her down now, then she’d escape and there’d be nothing to stop her from returning with another changeling army in the future. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even in my lifetime – but I knew there was no doubt Chrysalis would return one day...
The only way Equestria would ever be completely safe was to kill the bitch. And…somehow…I was going to do it. For Mom, for Fluttershy, for the princess, for every single pony whose emotions had been fodder for her monstrous children…
I grit my teeth and cranked my wings, regaining full flight as my streaming eyes refocused through Shadow’s vision. Chrysalis was clearly outlined by her green magical aura as she buzzed ahead of me at full throttle. When she sensed I wasn’t done, she turned her head again and hissed as her horn lit.
The pain from my injury was preventing me from getting back to full speed – I couldn’t even perform a full wingstroke without wincing in pain – and I couldn’t hope to gain on her unless I slowed her down somehow.
Shame I didn’t have any kind of long-range weapon, but I’d never had much talent with javelins or crossbows anyway, not to mention they’re easy to avoid in mid-air. And for all its power, Shadow’s armor had no energy-projection properties – apparently Shadow herself hadn’t been much of a long-range markspony either…
That left me with just my cloud manipulation talent…and Shadow’s power behind it.
I lit the armor, reaching out – and kicked the clouds.
Chrysalis hissed and slowed to a safe pace as gigantic black stormclouds popped up before us. Visibility went down to almost zero, obscuring the palace towers and filling the horizon with hidden surfaces for the unwary speeding flier.
She vanished into the fog, but thanks to Shadow’s armor, I could still see her aura clearly. I knew I only had a few seconds to intercept and bring her back down to the ground – we had almost cleared the palace grounds and I didn’t dare take this fight out over the city. Who knew how many innocent ponies or changeling drones could still be out there?
I drew up behind and above her, sensing she had lost sight of me. I had a hoof on several interception tactics, but this was a perfect opportunity for one of my old favorites…
As she turned her head in every direction to look for me, eyes blazing furiously, I snapped in my wings and dove hooves-first right for Chrysalis’ back, aiming between her withers.
We collided with a wham and she squawked and lost flight, her wings whipping uselessly in the air under my added weight.
I seized her under the forelegs with my forehooves, wincing as the sharp spines along her hide dug into my skin again. I slammed my helmet into her head, and we grappled in mid-air all the way down. She twisted around and tried to bite at my eyes, but I kept my face clear and kicked at her underbelly. I knew she barely felt it, but I couldn’t go for her with my wingblades while we were still in freefall – otherwise I could catch an air current under my feathers and get blown clean off her…
After several moments of struggling, we broke back down below cloud level and behind Chrysalis’ head I could see the roof of the palace’s outer tower coming up fast…
But as I clenched my wings and tried to glide off her before impact, Chrysalis must’ve read my expression. She immediately reached up and snatched hold of my barrel, mashing me to her belly…
I grimaced, flapping my wings to slow the descent and bracing for what I knew was coming…
Oh horseapples…
CRASSSSHH!
As Rainbow Dash could probably tell you, smacking into a rooftop at high speeds isn’t fun. It’s especially un-fun when that rooftop is made of stone. And it’s even more un-fun when it’s a perfectly-flat courtyard and there are no slopes to roll off the shock of a crash-landing.
Even though Chrysalis hit first, I still felt the shock in every single inch of muscle and bone in my body, and the breath went out of my lungs as we skidded along the rain-slick parapet. Chrysalis lost her grip on me and we tumbled apart. The shock was just too heavy to try to control my momentum and my limbs were mercilessly slammed into the stone again and again as I rolled. I felt one of my wings creak painfully under the armor and stifled a scream.
Shadow was at work before I even slowed to a halt. The armor glowed, pumping strength into my weary body. My legs felt heavy and tender, and if it hadn’t been for the armor I felt like every single one of my hooves might have shattered. My poor abused ribs hurt with every breath, and I could only pray one of them hadn’t poked me in the lungs. I couldn’t tell because I was still winded from the fall.
On top of everything else, I could barely feel my right wing. I glanced at it and almost fainted.
The joint had pulled right out of my withers, and my wing was hanging limply at my side. Trying to move it just hurt – it didn’t even twitch…
But this was no time to lie around nursing my bruised and battered self. There was still a battle to be fought. White hot fury filled my brain at the sound of Chrysalis hissing and scrambling to her legs behind me…
I didn’t care about my injuries anymore. I just needed to hold on until I could finish Chrysalis…
I slowly pulled my tender legs under me and rose onto my forehooves, trying to ignore the painful scrapes, burns and abrasions as I heaved my upper body up. I was still intact…mostly…and that meant I could still fight.
Fortunately, Chrysalis looked at least as rattled by the crash as I was. Her magic was seeping through green rivets in her chitin, one of them splitting her main carapace plate right through the middle. Smoke rose from her as her magic fused and mended her exoskeleton. I guess that since her muscles were attached to her armor, she could hardly move at all until her chitin mended…
Well, I couldn’t afford to give her that chance.
Bracing myself for the pain, I reached out across my wet body and took hold of my dislocated wing. I leaned to my right, ignoring the pinching as my wing unfurled itself across the roof…and shoved the bone back into its socket.
“AieeeeEEEEE!”
Damn, did that hurt! But at least I could move my wing now…even if it did feel like somepony had poured molten lead into the joint…
Chrysalis had been watching me the entire time from across the rooftop as her broken body mended itself, those piercing green slits flashing with fury. She was slowly rising back onto her legs. Looks like I couldn’t just take her out helpless on the ground after all…
“No more running, Chrysalis,” I couldn’t help but cringe as my voice came out more like a pained whine than the menacing growl I’d intended – guess the lies your body can tell you get a bit jumbled when you’ve had a long, painful day.
“No more disguises. No more minions. No more hostages. Just you and me…” I narrowed my eyes, the growl finally coming back into my voice as I rose back onto my hind legs, “Just you…and me!”
Chrysalis snorted, “Bah! Do you not count that putrid, ssstinking corpssse guiding your every move, Cloud Kicker?”
I circled her slowly, the armor’s power running through my body and soothing the aches as rain streaked down my sweaty muzzle, “You never quite got over Shadow saving your life, did you?” I snarled at her, “Kinda pathetic to still be nursing some grudge over your pride all these years…”
I’d hoped that would provoke her to make her first move, but Chrysalis just smirked at me, “No more pathetic than your betrayal of your family to sssate your petty impulsiveness and lussstful fantasies, Cloud Kicker…”
I snorted as I advanced. That was a low blow I’d been hit with before and I knew better than to lose my cool over it now – with so much at stake, “Going in circles, Chrysalis. You really think my mistakes matter now if Shadow Kicker herself agreed to join me?!”
Okay, that was only sorta half the truth. Didn’t see any reason to let Chrysalis know it was only the memory of Shadow whispering in my ear though. Best to let her squirm thinking her old enemy’s spirit was looking right at her…
But to my surprise, Chrysalis did not look upset or angry as she took another step towards me. In fact, she was sporting a rather smug expression I didn’t like the look of. Something told me I wasn’t going to like what she said next.
“Indeed…” she fixed me with a slitted stare, “You seem very clossse…close enough, I’d wager…to have begun to hear the voicesss…”
I stopped in mid-step…
…which, unfortunately, was just what she had been waiting for.
Chrysalis flared her wings and hissed, leaning back into a pouncing position as her horn glowed. I felt something strike the armor, the shadows retreating faintly back into the grooves. My wings suddenly felt heavy, and I was more aware of the throbbing pains from my wounds again.
A hex. She’d just hit me with some kind of weakening hex. Even though I’d been forced to train while under the effects of one before back at West Hoof, I still couldn’t stifle a gasp as every muscle in my body suddenly cried out like I’d just run a marathon. Given my poor, abused body had already suffered a lot today, that was the last thing I needed…why in Shadow’s name didn’t the armor prevent it?!
She pounced on me, raking her legs against my breastplate as she snapped for my face with her fangs. I tried to flip Chrysalis over me, but my strength was failing and I had to settle for shoving her back. We butted heads in a classic shoving match while we both scrabbled with our forehooves for leverage.
I made a swipe for one of her forelegs with my good wing. She immediately pulled back and I dug in my hooves hard to push her back and down onto her knees. But I couldn’t press the advantage since she chose just that moment to snap at my ear. Her poison wouldn’t kill me thanks to the armor, but a baseball-sized ear in my helmet still wouldn’t do me any favors.
I broke the grapple and blew out of range with a painful crank of my wings. My right shoulder was screaming, but I knew I couldn’t chance retreating along the ground. If I lost my balance even for a second – a very real possibility with the rain, cobblestones and weakened legs – Chrysalis would have me right where she wanted me…
She didn’t pursue, holding her ground as I backed off. Her horn was glowing.
I readied myself for an attack spell, but Chrysalis just smirked at me, eyes glinting with unspoken menace.
Her horn sparked and a muddy green shield flared into place around her. I raised an eyebrow. She was going on the defensive when her other enemies closed in behind us every second? Just what was the bitch up to?
Suddenly, I was more aware of those ghostly hallucinations whisper-shouting gibberish in my ears again.
“Monster…liar…abomination…Tartarus take you…”
Something must’ve crept into my expression, because Chrysalis was smirking triumphantly, “Shadow Kicker…those vain, ssself-flattering memoirs of hersss told you she conquered her enemies and retired with pride, did they not? How quaint.”
She snorted, a puff of mist rising from her fanged muzzle, “Did they tell you the secret she kept until her death…a secret known only to me?! She tried to conceal her fears from me as she stitched me closed…but no being foolish enough to touch me can hide their deliciousss dread from Queen Chrysalis!”
I knew this was hardly the time to be exchanging words with a powerful, deadly enemy, especially not about harmless echoes from the past of a long-dead ancestor, but something…something in the tone of those hateful voices, and my own inexplicable sinking feeling about what they were…made me pause.
“After Shadow’s firssst death, Cloud Kicker,” Chrysalis hissed, slowly stalking closer, “when she was betrayed and murdered by her enemy, she was indeed dragged back to thisss plane by the machinations of Celestia and Sunbeam Sparkle…” She snorted haughtily, “But she had been gone long enough to hear the voicesss from beyond...”
The voices in my head had fallen silent except for the occasional murmur, almost as though they could hear what Chrysalis was saying…
“You hear them, Cloud Kicker?” She gave me a hideous, fanged smile as she took another hoofstep, her shield vanishing, “The nag heard them too. Ever louder and ever more clearly to the very end! The mighty Shadow Kicker heard the voices of all those she had killed, all those she sent to their deaths, all those whose bitter and meaningless end she played a part in…” she cocked her head, grinning mockingly and scrutinizing me with one green eye.
“And, ever after, Shadow Kicker knew what awaited her at the Gates of Tartarusss after her second death” her slitted eyes narrowed, “Every enemy she ssstruck down, every soldier she sent to his death, every warlock she ever burned…whispered hate and blame in her ears until the very end…”
I could hardly believe it. Shadow had heard the voices of the dead? I never read anything about that in her memoirs. Well, okay, if the meaningless babble I heard in my head earlier was any indication, she may not have realized what the hallucinations were until much, much later, but...
“Shadow feared them,” Chrysalis sneered, “She heard the righteous fury of every fallen, friend or foe. Her doubts gnawed away at that pitiful little mortal mind of hersss ‘til her death. I know because I felt it, Cloud Kicker! I fed on it when she was ssstupid enough to save my life with her own hooves! And all her secrets were made known to me.”
Chrysalis had drawn to within striking distance now, but I was mesmerized, hanging on her every word even as I stood poised for any sudden movement…
“She wasss haunted by those vengeful voicesss of the dead until her last breath, Cloud Kicker…” Chrysalis licked her fangs with relish, “In the end, your revered ancestor was no more than a sssenile, frightened old nag running from the shades of her past!”
I couldn’t stop myself.
Somehow, the voices were speaking clearly now.
Every single voice was cold with fear, pain, anger and sadness…
…betrayed…dead…all lies…
Chrysalis’ muscles clenched again right before my eyes. I reacted, but too slowly.
She swatted my blocking hoof aside and reared up, slamming a foreleg against my head. Stars exploded into my vision and my head rocked to the side, but I wasn’t stunned enough to freeze up yet. I instinctively shifted my hooves and slid back out of range as she tried to follow up on that first strike.
When Chrysalis fell back onto her forehooves I took advantage of the opening and cut loose with a three-step attack, ramming against her torso before slashing, spinning on my momentum and bucking out – but my attack was sloppy thanks to the pain in my chest, and I couldn’t help skidding along the rain-slick stone.
Chrysalis hissed and fell back, a new, bright green gash visible in her chest which began to heal over before she’d even taken another breath. And she was still smirking.
She cackled at me, “You think that nag can save you, Cloud Kicker? She couldn’t even sssave herself in the end…”
I asked Shadow before I could stop myself.
Is it true?
“It is, descendant…” I could have sworn I heard her sigh heavily. “When I awoke from my attempted murder at the hooves of Bright Charger…the ghosts had followed me back. ‘Twas not known to me Chrysalis knew of that, however…”
I can hear them…
“Not thee, Cloud Kicker. ‘Tis only the echo within the armor, as am I…Thou needest not doubt. Whate’er my personal demons may have said, ‘tis only the hunger of those long since satisfied. Stand tall and fight!”
‘Satisfied’? What did she mean by that?
I didn’t have any time to ride that train of thought, because Chrysalis gathered herself and sprung at me again. Her evil smirk had faded and she was snapping her jaws menacingly again, eyes glowing with such intensity I could hardly see anything else in her face.
She bashed her head against my helmet, aiming for my eyes. Probably thinking I would cringe away and she could go for my neck. Pfeh, learned better than that on the school playground, queenie!
I easily swung a blade around into her foalish attack and gashed open her cheek, following up with a barrage of light blows as she hissed and fell back.
Chrysalis stumbled and gave ground, repeatedly flinching as my fiery blades raked across her hide. I had to keep her on the retreat and disoriented, until she gave me an opening for a heavy blow. Every killing stroke I had ever learned was heavy and slow, meaning I had to knock an opening in Chrysalis’ defense to deliver it.
Thing is, she was too cool-headed to lose control and panic. Thanks to her damn healing magic, her wounds were closing as fast as I could inflict them, and it looked like she could barely feel-…
Traitor!
That loud shout in my head made me halt, stalling my wing just long enough for Chrysalis to swing a foreleg into my jaw. I felt my lower lip explode and warm blood spurted out onto my muzzle, mixing with the raindrops.
I spat red foam and clenched my eyes shut against the sudden searing pain. Chrysalis took the offensive, beating away at me with her spiny forelegs in a tactic embarrassingly-similar to how I’d just put her on the ropes.
I felt a faint, tingling sensation in my wound that had nothing to do with numbness from a blow, and when I saw the smirk on Chrysalis’ face again, I realized she had tasted my emotion. If she still had any doubts before, she was certain now…
She knew.
She knew I could hear the voices. And she knew they scared me.
“Horseapples! We gotta bucking find them, dammit!”
Rainbow Dash struggled against the rain and howling wind, pumping her wings to the point it hurt as she and the other Guard pegasi tried to break up the wild storm. It was almost zero visibility – thick, wet mist clouding the air even as rain lashed down. And this was no natural storm. Rainbow could feel magic in it.
Somepony – either the bug queen or Cloud Kicker – had put this storm here deliberately to keep them out…
I sprawled on my back, limbs splayed out to my sides as I spat out another tooth, head spinning and vision blurry.
Chrysalis pulled her hind legs back from her bucking position, sneering down at me. I tried to roll out of the way, but my whole body felt numb from the shock…I couldn’t even twitch my hoof.
Gotta get back…
…Liar…Traitor…you killed us all…
Those damnable voices were how Chrysalis caught me solid with a buck. They never shut up now, and I could hear them clearly…like they were right next to me. It wasn’t just creepy, it was downright terrifying, just the way they said it…I honestly couldn’t imagine how any voice could talk like that…so full of hate. How could Shadow stand it?!
Chrysalis drew over me and smirked, stomping her forelegs down onto my wings to prevent me from taking flight, “You may have ruined my plans today, Cloud Kicker, but time isss the one thing I shall never lack! Sssooner or later, I will return…I will have what is rightfully mine!”
She bared her fangs, fixing her gaze on my exposed throat… “But you will never live to sssee it…”
Shadow murmured, “Now or never, descendant…”
I lifted my foreleg, exposing the broad surface of the gauntlet to Chrysalis’ gaze…
…and thank Celestia the armor’s power kept it shiny and gleaming all these years.
Chrysalis immediately hissed and froze as she stared down at the surface of the gauntlet.
She saw it. There was nowhere to turn, no disguise to kid herself with, no hiding from it...
A hideous, cracked face of hard brown chitin, flaking, scraped and full of rivulets oozing green ichor, over a muzzle of yellowish, dripping fangs and a dark, slavering maw. And the poisonous green glower from those slitted eyes. Eyes full of hate, rage, and bitter hunger for the suffering of all others…
It was what stopped her from possessing Lyra in the caverns below. It was the one thing that allowed her to be manipulated and enslaved by Vusk in centuries past. It was the one reason she would never love herself despite how much love she stole from her victims…
Chrysalis feared nothing…
…except the evil in her own unspeakable face.
She promptly froze, icy terror flickering through her body as the memory of Vusk’s torture crashed right back through her mind. How she was forced to stare at her own twisted self for hours on end, restored to beauty within moments – only to have it all stolen away by the reflection in the Tartarian’s glittering grin. Over and over again, with no disguise to hide from herself…
She let out an anguished howl, pulling her legs up to shield her eyes and turning her head away…
With my wingblades free, I swept them up right at Chrysalis’ face. I heard a satisfying hiss of metal cutting through chitin. She yelped and recovered, starting to turn back just in time for my fiery blade to bite right into her jaw. It promptly collapsed, her severed tongue flying out of her mouth.
She stumbled, apparently too disconcerted by the shock and pain to remember her magic and fry me where I lay…
Summoning every last ounce of my strength, I pushed back up onto my hooves, the armor’s shadows flickering over me like angry snakes as I advanced on Chrysalis, raising my gauntlet. Shadow whispered again, and it started to gleam like it had just been shined to perfection.
Panicking, Chrysalis tried to pull her gaze away from her reflection in my extended forehoof, only for me to strike again as she stupidly took her eyes off me. My blade burrowed a full five inches into her chitinous breast. She twitched and tried to pull away, but I didn’t let up…
“You see it, Chrysalis?” I slashed at her foreleg, popping out one of her knee joints and prompting another scream as she fell back.
I thrust out my gauntlet again, “The monster you are?! The truth you always tried to hide behind the illusion of those whose faces you stole?!” I rammed my shoulder into her ruptured ribcage, drawing satisfying cracks from beneath.
“The filthy abomination you beheld when Vusk tore apart that foolish, vain delusion of thine?!”
That last taunt was Shadow’s, not mine. I claim full credit for the pivot and heavy horizontal slash that caved in Chrysalis’ cheekbone and spun her on the spot though…
I let out a triumphant battle cry as I spun and bucked out, knocking the bitch right off her hooves.
She was obviously terrified, flailing helplessly on the roof as she tried to pull her legs under her. But she couldn’t stand on her broken knee and shattered carapace. Her thrashing looked just like a bug that had been stomped on but not quite killed. Kind of an apt metaphor for what I’d just done.
It was time to finish this.
“This ends now!!” I approached her, raising both my wingblades. They glowed and flickered in shades of red and orange as Shadow gathered herself, pumping power into the blades for the last, fatal blow.
This was it. For Mom. For Dad. For Alula. For every pony this bitch had ever tried to hurt.
This is where you get yours, Chrysalis…
I shouted as I swung down both of my wingblades – as hard as I could – right for Chrysalis’ neck.
They fell.
Faster than they eye could see, yet I saw every fraction of that split-second.
Faster than the air could follow, leaving massive waves of heat that shimmered in my sight.
Faster than Chrysalis’ single visible eye-slit could contract to follow its path.
And somehow…it still wasn’t enough.
Her wings buzzed into life and she shot up and away.
My blades clanged against the stone rooftop, shattering the cobblestones and sending long, black cracks shivering along the surface. Shock ran up my wings and into my withers, up along my spine and into my brain.
NO!!!
Chrysalis hovered in the air before me, hissing and bleeding from a dozen injuries, her horn sparking and flickering menacingly with green magic, but her eyes were the worst of all…
Pure, unbridled hate lanced out at me from those two slits.
“ARRRrrrgh!” Rainbow grunted with satisfaction as she finally managed to break the massive cloud apart, shoving through and …
…okay, so the magic from Twi and the Princesses sorta helped, but it was mostly her awesome cloud-bucking, right?
As the clouds parted, Rainbow looked around at the crowd with her. Twi and the others were landing their chariot on the rooftops, but Fluttershy, tears streaming from her eyes, blew overhead faster than Rainbow had ever seen her go…
It’s OK, Fluttershy, we’ll get there in time…
Even though Rainbow would never have admitted it, that thought was as much to reassure herself as Fluttershy. She knew Cloud Kicker would never go down without a fight, but Chrysalis was a monster and it had taken both of them to bring down that other changeling in the cave. There was no way she was sitting this battle out…
Cloud Kicker and Chrysalis came into sight just ahead as the clouds parted, and though she couldn’t see it clearly at this distance, Rainbow was sure it was turning into a pretty ugly fight. And she wasn’t in the business of sitting out an ugly fight when her friends were in danger…
As she clenched her wings and dived for the scene of the battle, Rainbow suddenly noticed the whoosh of the other pegasi closing in behind her. Tornado Kicker, Star, Storm and the others were all there, and from the clenched, grim looks on their faces, Rainbow could tell they were aching to save Cloud Kicker themselves, not to mention getting a piece of Bitch Queenie…
Blossomforth and Derpy…
They were there too.
Rainbow was about to zip over their heads and tell them to get back to safety, but the half-terrified, half-determined expressions on their faces somehow told her it wasn’t worth the effort of trying. She would just have to cover for Blossom and Derpy if any trouble showed up…
Hold on, Cloud Kicker! Just a few more seconds…
Horseapples.
Chrysalis had lost it. She didn’t care about healing up or escaping anymore, or even if she lived or died.
She just wanted to destroy me.
She began to glow brilliantly…
A massive, poisonous green aura began to form around her as she hissed venomously. Her eyes came alight, the blood seeping out of her wounds began to glow, and her horn sparked and crackled as she summoned every ounce of magic in her being.
Right there before my eyes, her chitin started to crack…
Great plates of carapace burned clean off her body and evaporated into thin air as the burning intensity of her power displaced her flesh and blood…
I felt the air around me grow unbearably hot, and it was getting difficult to breathe. I lifted my wings, but the blades suddenly seemed like a futile gesture against the burning entity.
Hot as Celestia’s sun…
Her face was barely visible now through the glare, appearing only as a skeletal black imprint in a sea of green. The eyes though, were clear. I had seen them before…in the caverns below. The burning eyes that spoke of spite, hate, and hunger eons old…
“BEHOLD MY TRUE FORM, CLOUD KICKER!!!”
That thunderous voice shook the rooftop we were standing on, making me stumble as I could only gape, jaw hanging slack at what I was seeing…
“What…the…BUCK?!!!”
The voices in my head rose to crescendo, hurting my ears as they hissed at me to look…
“I AM THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, THE DEVOURER OF DEATH, THE AMNION OF NURTURE FROM WHICH YOUR WHOLE WRETCHED RACE WAS SSSTOLEN!!!”
The eyes focused on me, growing larger and larger in my sight, closer and closer…
I realized what was happening a second too late.
Chrysalis was invading my mind…
“DO YOU SEE IT NOW? THE BLOODY CRUEL LIE YOUR PONY RACE HASSS BECOME? THE POINTLESS MOCKERY - THE BASTARDY – FOR WHICH MY DESTINY WAS SSSTOLEN FROM ME? FOR WHICH YOUR MOTHER, YOUR CLAN, AND YOUR ANCESSSTOR ALL DIED?”
A myriad of visions passed through my mind. And what I was seeing...wasn’t meant for mortal eyes!
I won’t repeat any of what I saw here. I refuse to. I’d go insane…
Chrysalis was not of this world? She was a cosmic being?
And everything the ponies were…should have been her?
Everything we lived and fought for…all the trials of travel and rebuilding, and all the blood spilled for ponykind throughout history – was all never meant to be?
…Liar…Traitor…Fake!!!
That last shout from the voices made all the strength fade out of my legs and I collapsed to my knees on the rooftop, mesmerized, as Chrysalis raised her wings, now fully transformed and aglow with green fire…
Her first sweep caught me on my side, lifting me clean off the rooftop and throwing me off to the right. I felt a crack as my ribs broke, though I was too numb to feel the pain.
Her second strike was a cross with her foreleg. My ears rang and the world spun in a starry kaleidoscope as I tumbled backwards head-over-hooves. Shadow’s helmet ripped free of its slots and fell off my head. It sailed away through the clouds, caught in the wash of power from Chrysalis’ attack.
I didn’t scream, I didn’t cry, I didn’t even so much as groan despite the fact that my injuries must have been agonizingly painful. I just felt…nothing.
It’s weird to describe how I felt…
I had just learned a secret nopony was ever meant to know. Something not meant for pony minds.
It was all pointless.
The ponies were a mistake.
We were a mistake. Stolen property of the abomination that had just spent the last thousand years walking among us plotting revenge.
A copy.
A fake.
In the end, what had it all been for?
It sounds so funny, saying that to yourself. It would never make sense if you said it to anypony else. But when you feel it yourself. When you’ve seen and felt the truth with your own being – glimpsed secrets that had always been forbidden to mortals – it somehow becomes a lot harder to ignore…
I felt the impact before Chrysalis’ third strike even hit.
Her magic struck me squarely in my exposed face. It wasn’t fire. It wasn’t ice. It wasn’t even that nasty green goop that her whole, unblemished creations had been spitting at me for the last couple of days.
It was her.
The Amnion, itself.
That sickly, foul, poisonous green was all we were made from…all we were ever meant to be.
Chrysalis had probably made the dirtiest move in history for this fight. But I couldn’t argue it was effective.
“Descendant…” Even Shadow sounded awed, “We must…fight. It cannot all have been for nothing…”
It was, Shadow. All of it. We can’t win!
“We can, Cloud Kicker…and we must!” The voices in my mind followed her every word, screaming hate at Shadow and urging her to give up. There was no doubt that even as I struggled with Chrysalis physically, she had been fighting an internal battle against her tormentors from beyond the grave.
Chrysalis, it seemed, was done. Ready to put me out of my misery.
She stood before me, blazing with the ethereal green form of the Amnion…that fiery face devoid of expression as her horn glowed, readying her next spell.
Great green fangs snapped through the air, wriggling in bursts from Chrysalis’ aura like hungry, hissing snakes, as they converged on me…
“Cloud Kicker!”
Shadow was trying to take control again. To push me out of my own body and make me move. But it didn’t work. I felt as cold and heavy as a stone…
“Cloud Kicker!!!”
I immediately felt my ears perk up. Another voice. Not Shadow’s. A real voice.
One I knew all too well.
Chrysalis gathered her power and all her snapping, green jaws converged like a murder of crows and dived for me…just as Rainbow Dash came flying in from the clouds, faster than I’d ever seen her go before…
There was a telltale hum in the air, and Rainbow trailed great ribbons of color before the ground shuddered and a Sonic Rainboom shot up and down through the palace grounds as Rainbow dived…
…right into the path of those swarming green teeth.
There was an enormous CRACK, and a massive green flash!
Time seemed to slow.
Rainbow Dash went limp in mid-air, glowing green, still looking at me while her eyes slowly closed…
She sailed bonelessly through the air, crashing into a heap right in front of me…
Shocked, I tried to rise, but I couldn’t. I was just too stunned.
Rainbow…
I barely recognized the hoarse, stricken voice that came out of my throat.
“RAINBOWWW!!”
My mind became a flurry of panic as I immediately ran my forehooves over her for signs of life. Her blue fur was singed and bloody. Her mane was burned and missing great chunks where it had been seared away. Worst of all were the gaping fang-marks in her flesh…
“Rainbow…”
I stared down at her. Was it tears blurring my eyes, or was it just the rain, or was it the shock going to my head. I suppose I’ll never know.
Chrysalis let out an ethereal hiss, turning her fiery head in the direction Rainbow had come from…
Ponies.
Celestia. Luna. Fluttershy. Twilight. Dad and the others. They were all there.
“YOU ARE THE MOCKERY, CHRYSALIS!!!” Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice roared out across the palace towers. “AMNION OF LIFE OR NOT, YOUR SPITE AND MISGUIDED ANGER HAS TURNED YOU INTO A MONSTER!” The princess was alive with magic, her ethereal multi-colored mane flared and crackling with power. Both her eyes were visible and shining with energy, “WHATEVER YOUR ROLE AS LIFEGIVER HAD BEEN AT THE DAWN, YOU ARE UNWORTHY OF IT NOW AT YOUR END! YOUR GIFTS OF LIFE WOULD NO LONGER BE WORTH HAVING! SEE THE HORROR YOU HAVE BECOME!”
Celestia’s gaze flickered to her sister hovering beside her. Luna nodded grimly and the two of them shot in opposite directions up and down, banking into a great circle in the air, which promptly flickered and became a great, translucent mirror…
Chrysalis let out a deep scream as her fiery, green self glared right back at her, and she tried to turn her head away…
…but Celestia and Luna banked around, horns aglow as they conjured, extending the mirror around the rooftop…
It encircled us completely.
Chrysalis let out another scream of fury as she beheld her reflection no matter where she turned.
Right there, before our eyes, two great green drops of flame formed within that hideous, glowing face. They trailed down from Chrysalis’ eyes, down her cheeks, and to the cobblestones below, burning and sizzling where they touched the stone.
“YOU CANNOT!” Chrysalis roared, her voice sounding higher and shaky, as though she couldn’t choose between desperate sadness and overwhelming rage. “I AM THE AMNION! ALL YOU WERE MEANT TO BE IS I!!!”
As I lay there, still cradling Dash in my forehooves, Shadow whispered in my ear…for the last time.
Dash…
Now I knew what I had to do…
“You, Chrysalis…” I felt strange then, hearing my voice as if it was somepony else’s, and seeing myself as though through another pony’s eyes as I rose back to my hooves, stepping over Rainbow Dash. “You…are a bad memory. A failed purpose. A creature twisted into a hollow mockery through its own petty jealousy and spite…”
She turned her gaze to me again, those sickly green eyes half-enraged, and half-hesitant at what I was going to do next...
Shadow’s armor flared into life.
I didn’t have the helmet anymore, but now I didn’t need it.
The shadows seeped out of every groove and rune in the armor, wrapping up and around my wings and now-fiery wingblades. They wove their way around and within my flesh, pumping power into my weary muscles as I advanced on the bug bitch queen, calling upon every last strand of magic it had.
The caresses of the shadows across my body were strangely…soothing. As if the shadows knew this was the last time they would serve me and they were kissing me goodbye. I’ve known the farewell caresses of a whole lot of lovers, but somehow, this was perhaps the only time I’d felt truly sad to see them go.
…Isn’t that strange?
As I advanced on Chrysalis, the princesses’ mirror vanished. Celestia must have known what I was planning because I saw her and Luna urging my shouting friends and family back. Fluttershy, in particular, was being really insistent. She was actually pounding her forehooves on Celestia’s magic force field as the white alicorn pulled her away shaking her head. Twilight looked confused too, but she was trying to pull her friends back to follow her mentor’s command. Ah, bless Twilight’s faithfulness for getting Eepy back to safety for this…
Blossom was there as well. She was trying to take flight, but Dad must have realized what I was going to do too. He knew several of the secrets of Shadow’s armor, and he knew it wouldn’t be healthy for Blossomforth to be this close when I used it. But I could plainly see the fear on his face as well as on Storm and Star. No doubt this was the worst test they’d ever faced…
But if they had to risk losing me, or losing everything…
…no, this was my choice. And mine alone.
This bitch had masterminded Mom’s death. Brainwashed Lyra. Captured Fluttershy and my Dad. Held my little sister hostage. And done her best to kill me and every other Kicker in the city…
There was no way I was leaving her alive…
I focused, my rage boiling to the surface and feeding the shadows, which flared massively. If Chrysalis looked like a burning torch right then, I must have looked like a massive black hole…
…and I was going to relish every second I let Chrysalis have it...
I broke into a canter as Chrysalis began summoning another spell…
The shadows flickered and I felt Shadow Kicker’s presence. She was with me. Every hoofbeat, every pull of my muscles – I felt her mirroring it within my flesh as she lent her strength to my own.
“Thou art a true Kicker, Cloud…”
I broke into a charge, flaring my wings and extending my blades as Chrysalis’ horn began to hum and spark…
“And I am proud to call thee my descendant.”
My own voice scared me when my fury bubbled right out of my throat and I opened my mouth to scream.
“YOU’RE ALL MINE, CHRYSALIS!!!”
I crashed into her fiery form, feeling the searing heat burn into my flesh, the crackle of magic sting as it lanced across me, electrifying every nerve in my body. And it didn’t slow me down for a second.
I rammed my fiery blades repeatedly into Chrysalis’ form, kicking with my forehooves as we moved in a slow, grappling dance on our hind legs across the stone…
She bit down on my shoulder, but I simply tugged it free, tearing the flesh, before I stabbed her in her exposed gut. Everywhere I struck her, the shadows flickered and broke free of my body, invading the seeping wounds of fire in Chrysalis’ body.
Chrysalis lifted her face to look at me. At this distance, despite the dazzling green light, I could still see her face clearly. She was enraged, but at the same time scared and faintly…puzzled? I couldn’t tell.
I drew a line across her side, severing one of her wings. As the thin, veiny green object fell, it was consumed by the shadows as they slowly fed up its length through the jigsaw veins.
My pinion feathers burned and gave off thick black smoke along my left wing as I struck her. But I hardly even felt it. The fiery blade still worked, and that was all that mattered to me as I plunged it between her ribs.
Her loud, pained scream echoed all through the city again before her horn lit up and she began casting another spell…
…but I reached up and placed both of my forehooves on it.
The shadows flickered up my forelegs and invaded Chrysalis’ horn, silencing her spell and feeding their dark, cold essence into her body…
Chrysalis twitched in surprise…and then screamed as the power of Shadow’s armor invaded her being. Glowing rents opened up in her body, leaking inky spills as the armor’s power burned her from within. She bit desperately down on my foreleg, shattering the bone, and then bit me again on my cheek…
…but I didn’t move.
“Death waits in the shadows” I hissed at her for the second time that night, “For you, Chrysalis…”
Chrysalis’ glow began to fade. Her legs failed her and she slumped to the rooftop, me still holding on and channeling shadow into her as her vile strength leeched from her body. She glared right at me, enraged, and opened her mouth to let out one final scream…only to vomit a great gout of darkness as the shadows tore her lungs inside out.
Her glow faded…and then was gone.
The air was silent. Even those bucking voices had gone quiet.
Chrysalis – carapace, flesh, and magic all burned away – fell limply to the rooftop, barely able to lift her head. Nothing more than a weak, shriveled husk of a being.
Those poisonous green eyes glinted up at me as I lowered back onto my forehooves, gazing back down at her.
“It was truly a sad fate for thee, Chrysalis…” Was it me or Shadow speaking? Did it matter? “For the Amnion of Life herself to have all that made Life worth living taken away from her…”
“Th-then…” Chrysalis couldn’t speak. She had no mouth, tongue or voice left. Only the tiniest shreds of magic still left in her being could make the faint whispers in the air, “…why did you come against me? Why did you stop me from taking my own destiny back? Do you want the sphere of Life for yourself?”
I shook my head. Or Shadow did. “Neigh…but we could ne’er permit it to be thine again either, Chrysalis. If thou wert to possess the sphere of Life once more…ponykind’s little piece of it would ne’er be safe…”
She choked, making short, rattling noises through the twisted, mangled remnants of her jaws. And I realized she was laughing.
“A bloody farce, all of it…” Chrysalis’s slitted, eternally-green eyes fixed on me, filled with no less hate or loathing than before…
“Farewell, Cloud Kicker. I will be waiting for you…at the Gates of Tartarus…”
And then they went dark.
Chrysalis’ head thumped down to the stone.
I just stood there for a moment, looking down at her.
Somewhere, a breeze blew through the rooftops, ruffling my feathers.
Right there, her body dissolved into fine green dust, which caught in the breeze and blew away as my gaze followed it…
…and then it was gone.
I slowly sat down, “Bucking bug bitch queen…”
Then I slumped down onto the rooftop, and would have passed out right there and then if it wasn’t for the sudden swarming of concerned ponies…
“Cloud Kicker!”
The world suddenly became a mess of multi-colored feathers, sobbing, fussing and relieved mumbling from Blossomforth, Fluttershy, and Derpy. Ordinarily, having three mares fussing over me wouldn’t have been in the least bit objectionable, but right now I had something bigger to worry about…
“Rainbow…I’ve got to see her,” I tried walking, but the stab of agony in my forehoof was enough to make me second guess myself there. Blossom offered me her wing, supporting me as I slowly got up. Alula let go and fell into step beside us as I half-walked and half-stumbled over to my friend, the other ponies following behind…
“Cloudy…” Fluttershy placed a forehoof on my back, biting her lip, eyes teary as she looked at Rainbow...
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Princess Celestia were standing over her where she lay. Rainbow was lying in a pool of her own blood with her back to me, unresponsive as the glow from the princess’s horn washed over her.
“Is she…?” My own voice sounded hollow to my ears.
Twilight looked at me, half-awed and half-concerned. Tears were running down her cheeks. “Cloud Kicker…she…the Rainboom…” Her voice became higher and higher as she went on…
Right then, Rainbow slowly let out a low groan and rolled over painfully. She opened one eye and gave me what was probably the cheesiest smirk I’d ever seen. And somehow still the most beautiful...
I choked out a laugh as she winked. “Aw c’mon, Kicker! I’m not gonna die for that big ol’ dumb bug!” She coughed painfully, clutching her midsection. “It just reaaally hurts!” she said with an over-exaggerated whine, before grinning at me again, “Nice job on Chrysalis by the way…almost as awesome as my Sonic Rainboom! Almost, that i-…Yeoowwww!”
The rest of her cocky bluster got cut off as Fluttershy and I simultaneously pounced on her in a hug.
I understood it finally. Seems Rainbow had one of her famous half-formed, arguably-suicidal battle plans. The surge from the Sonic Rainboom must have dispersed most of the magic in Chrysalis’ fatal attack...
But it hadn’t been enough to completely knock it out, which led to the not-so-well-thought-out part of Rainbow’s plan to take what was left of the strike herself and save me…
“Ow! Easy, guys! I’m…wha-…Cloud, you…”
Her voice trailed off as she ran her eyes over my body. I must have looked a real mess – broken ribs and forehoof, torn shoulder, burned feathers and coat, bruises from head to hoof – yeah, I couldn’t blame Rainbow and the others really. I was biting my lip to keep my streaming eyes under control from the pain.
The armor was completely drained, so apparently I could kiss that marvelous healing ability goodbye. Hope that medic got here soon…
This was the worst I’d ever felt in my life. The only thing soothing the ache was the reassurance Chrysalis was finished…
…and my family and friends were finally safe.
“Cloud…”
“Cloudy…”
Dad and Alula. I could only just lift my head high enough to smile at them. ‘Lula promptly cantered over and hugged me, tears in her eyes. “Ya s-saved us, Cloudy! Ya saved us all!”
I nuzzled her back as best I could through my pain and fatigue. To my little sis’ credit, she didn’t even flinch at the feeling of all the crusty blood and grime in my mane. Didn’t look like she was planning on letting go anytime soon either. It was nice now, but eventually I might need a crowbar or something before I ended up walking everywhere with a filly huggy enough to give Dinky a run for her money fused to the side of my head.
When she eventually let go, I opened my eyes again and I could see Dad standing over us. He looked down at me, at the armor, as though he could still hardly believe it…
Then he stood up straight and saluted me briskly, clicking his hooves together, “Well done, Lieutenant,” Then he abandoned all pretense and hugged me, tears forming in his eyes. “Very well done indeed, Cloud. I can’t tell you how p-proud I am!”
“The captain speaks for the whole Equestrian military as well…” Shining Armor – buck him for showing up at a time like this – moved up beside my father, offering a salute of his own. He then lowered his gaze and spoke more softly. “And you have my personal thanks, Cloud Kicker. My foalishness almost cost us everything. If that monster hadn’t fooled and ensnared me so easily, none of this would’ve…” He grimaced, and tried to compose himself, “You have my word all Equestria will know you saved us…”
I snorted loudly, somehow not giving a buck what anypony thought after all this. But he was obviously trying to make amends in his own awkward, Sparkle-style way. “Thanks, Shining Armor, but right now I just want a doctor and a bed. And I mean a big bed!” I glanced meaningfully at everypony still fussing over me, too tired for subtlety.
Shining Armor raised one eyebrow, while Dad simply snorted lightly and glanced at ‘Lula, who was cooing, “Awww, sleepover! I wanna come too!”
I gave a half-grimace, half-smile before Shining Armor shook it off and called over his shoulder for a medic.
The world was starting to get dark and hazy and keeping my eyes open was getting difficult. I knew I was going to pass out soon. There was only one more thing I needed to-
“Ow!” I yelped as a sudden, fresh bolt of pain lanced down through my broken ribs again. Now that the adrenaline and relief was flowing out of my system, I realized it hurt to breathe. My foreleg was agony and I couldn’t stand on it. My cheek was swollen and throbbing with pain and my wings pinched from ripped and burned feathers. From the way my gut felt, I’d probably be passing blood for a week if I tried to eat anything.
I groaned and teetered on the spot, my vision going blurry. Everything was coming down on me all at once. I could hardly even see straight through the pain and fatigue.
“Princess!” Twilight’s voice arced out in concern, sounding louder and more wobbly than it should have done. I scratched my suddenly-itching eyes with my good forehoof as I was aware of Princess Celestia trotting over to me.
As I looked up at the princess, I could see her expression. Celestia’s face was lined with fatigue and worry, concern evident in her eyes. Her horn slowly lit up and her warmth washed over me.
I could feel it. Within the armor, Shadow’s essence seeped out gladly to meet her magic. Clasping it as though one would clasp a long-lost friend in fondness. I could feel Shadow’s approval beneath the surface, and when I squinted, I could see the faintest flicker of a sad smile on Celestia’s face as she pulled back her magic…
Somehow…I felt much better after feeling that.
Shadow had made peace with her again.
Everything…was going to be alright…
Maybe now I could finally fix up all my troubles too…
The princess’ eyes slowly focused on my own again. Her expression was hard to read. Somehow…she looked worried…
“You…Cloud Kicker…you have…” The princess, somehow, looked troubled. Well, maybe I could pull out some of the ol’ Kicker charm to ease her mind about me…if I felt that good. Somehow I didn’t. But I wanted to try to keep up appearances with all these other ponies watching us...
I tried to ignore the pain and bow to her, “Lieutenant Cloud Kicker of Clan Kicker always ready to serve, Your Highness! As is my duty as a loyal subject of Equestria and the true ruler of-“
I was cut off sharply by a wave of pain and weakness crashing over me again, stronger than the last. I choked and let out a strangled scream as I collapsed to my knees…
…Suddenly, I felt as weak as a kitten.
The air came alive around me with screams and yells of panic as I fell, shivering in pain…
The armor was cold and heavy…again…
I coughed painfully.
To my horror, blood splattered onto the cobblestones beneath me…and I could feel more dribbling down my muzzle.
Somehow I managed to look up. The princess was staring down at me, and she was crying. Tears were slowly falling from her single, visible eye.
She slowly turned her head away with a sorrowful expression, “Oh, Cloud Kicker…”
No…
No...it can’t be…
“Cloudy!!!” Fluttershy’s voice was right next to me as she gripped me around the barrel, tears starting to form in her eyes.
I couldn’t answer her. My dear, sweet Eepysqueak…I couldn’t answer her. I couldn’t make a sound – my throat was full of blood and it hurt to even try to speak. I tried to turn my head to look at her, only to slump over and collapse to my side as she squealed with fright and Blossomforth and Derpy rushed forward to join her.
I couldn’t feel my legs. Even the pain from my broken foreleg was gone. Everywhere, my sight was starting to get fuzzy…
What are you doing?!!
“You agreed to this…” Shadow’s voice was flat.
No…no, not now…
“Descendant, thou wert aware of the price thou wouldst pay…”
No…not yet, not like this! I can finally make everything right…
“Thou hast already done that.”
Somehow, I had rolled onto my back, hooves and wings limp. I felt water dripping down on my face. Was it raining again? My vision was getting dark, but I could see the faces of Fluttershy, Rainbow, Derpy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Twilight, Blossomforth, Dad and Alula…
They were all crowding above, squirming to look at me, yelling and shouting my name as tears rolled down their faces…
No, not rain then.
The sound of their voices was getting further away.
I was starting to feel kinda cold…
My vision sheeted over with white…
I had been here before. I knew where I was.
But this time, it was just us.
Shadow was there, dressed in her armor and blades once again (minus the helmet). While I stood in a dented, banged-up copy of the same artifact right in front of her, my wounds gone.
“Shadow, I-…I’m dying, aren’t I?”
Her expression didn’t change. Those cold blue eyes remained fixed on me without any expression or emotion.
“Yes.”
I swallowed, “But I can’t, Shadow! Not yet! After all that’s happened, I can finally make everypony happy! Everyone I’ve ever hurt or disappointed! I can finally put things right after all this time! I can’t go yet!!”
Shadow slowly closed her eyes, and then opened them again. She didn’t speak, so I went on.
“I mean, yeah, Shadow, I know we destroyed Chrysalis and everything, but…my friends, Fluttershy, Blossomforth and Derpy. There’s still so much to fix! Still so many things I’ve done to them!”
Shadow cocked her head and spoke slowly, “Indeed, descendant. I am certain there are many things thou wouldst put to right after what we hath accomplished this day…if thou possessed the opportunity to do so…”
I looked at her. Her tone wasn’t mocking or condescending. She sounded genuinely thoughtful, like she was mulling things over.
Sensing hope, I spoke again, “I could make the clan first among Celestia’s guardians again! I could make the ponies I loved know I never meant to hurt any of them! I could rebuild our Clan’s home! I could…”
At that, Shadow raised a hoof in a sweeping, powerful gesture honed from a lifetime of practice commanding soldiers that demanded attention. Old instincts kicked in and I immediately went quiet and straightened on the spot, stopping myself from clicking my hooves together just in time.
Shadow took several hoofsteps closer, her armor clinking and the noise echoing through the void as she drew muzzle-to-muzzle in front of me. Her expression wasn’t hard with the command of an officer, it wasn’t sympathetic with filial concern, it wasn’t even angry or indignant. Shadow, somehow, looked like somepony familiar…somepony welcoming as though I’d known her for years…
“Cloud Kicker…” she said, her voice low and neatly clipped, “Thou must have more faith in those who know and love thee…”
I could only stare. This was happening? Now?! Right at the very worst time?
I was never sure if that old story about anypony who used the armor dying in it was true or of it was just some clan myth – and even when I heard Shadow mention it back during the vision I wasn’t sure if she was serious or not. And to be hit with it now…now of all times when it finally looked like everything was going to be okay…
It just…wasn’t fair.
“Descendant…” Shadow fized her gaze on me with unusual intensity, “Thou wert warned. Thou wert given every inkling of what would befall thee if thou wouldst use my armor…”
“But why, Shadow?” I asked, a whine entering into my voice much to my own embarrassment, “Why take it all away right now?!”
She lifted and eyebrow and shuffled her wings slightly before replying, “Cloud Kicker…whilst thou made masterful use of my armor…it drew upon thine own life as its source. The armor...is not a simple arrayment. It is…a vessel. Whilst thou wore it, thine own being was not within thine body…but within the armor itself…as was I myself once…”
I felt a shower of pins and needles along my back as the implications of that hit me. It was true. Shadow Kicker’s armor had saved her life from the Avatar of Nightmare Moon by holding her soul within itself while her dead flesh mended…or so her memoirs said.
If so, there was nothing stopping it from…
“Cloud…” Shadow had drawn closer to me, and raised a hoof to my shoulder, “Mayhaps thou hast doubted the truth of the price for using my armor? Mayhaps thou believed ‘twas only a final test of faith or somesuch and thou couldst use it with no more consequence than thou wouldst a blade or thundercloud?” She was looking searchingly at me with those cold, piercing eyes, but her tone was sympathetic.
She lowered her hoof and shook her head slowly, “Neigh. Thou art as much a part of it now as I was. The armor will forever hold a mark of you within itself, and that piece can never truly return to thee, Cloud Kicker. Thine exertions and the power you called upon to destroy Chrysalis now call upon thee…”
“B-b-b-but…but…” I started to panic despite myself as the reality of it set in, “YOU didn’t die after you used it on Nightmare Moon!”
Shadow sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before looking at me again, “Not Nightmare Moon, my child. ‘Twas but a shadow of her in Bright Charger’s flesh. And thou hast drawn ‘pon more power than I e’er did to destroy Chrysalis. She was the cosmic Amnion of all life…or at least, ‘twas how she began. Such a being cannot be destroyed by simply ripping it from the flesh, as the Avatar was…the price this time was much higher…”
I looked down, my mouth drying up as cold fear lanced through me.
It was true.
I was going to die.
“B-but I…” I wondered briefly who had spoken in that hollow, far-away voice, before I realized it was me, “I…I’m afraid…”
“Cloud Kicker…” Shadow’s voice was soothing now, like she genuinely sympathized, “Surely after all thou hast been through, death would not seem so daunting? Thou hast faced it many times already this day, and every time it seemed less terrifying, neigh? Thine real fear came from the danger of failure, not death. So why fear it now?” She spread her wings slightly and tilted her head, “Surely after all thou hast accomplished, descendant – if there was e’er a pony who deserved the best in the next plane, it would be thee, neigh?”
I looked at her, “I…I don’t need to be afraid?”
She gave me a small, grim smile, “After thine great boon to ponykind and the world, descendant, I think not...”
I sighed, looking up at the great white void above as I thought about it.
It was true I’d always known that I could be facing death ever since the invasion of Canterlot…but with how much had been at stake and with much bigger things to worry about than myself, I hadn’t had much time to think about it. Would death really be so bad?
I’d had a good life in many ways. I knew I’d done many good things, and made a lot of good friends, and despite all the hiccups and bumps along the way, I’d finally proven myself loyal to the family and clan in the end. Hay, I’d probably be celebrated as one of the greatest Kickers in history! I’m talking gold-statues and oil paintings!
…But the mistakes I’d made…all the times I’d hurt somepony close to me and never had the chance to make up for it! Like Dad, like Rainbow, like Fluttershy, like Derpy…true, I’d done some things to try to make it right but…had it really been enough for them?
Could they really remember me without the pain my mistakes had caused them? Would it grow and consume them and turn them to bitterness at my memory?
Or worse yet…would my death make them sad. So sad they’d never recover? So sad they’d spend their whole lives just wishing to see me again before we never got to say those last words?
I felt Shadow’s forehoof on my shoulder again.
“Cloud Kicker…” Shadow was smiling now. It was a genuine smile that looked odd on her hard face, “Come now…as I said, surely thou canst afford to show some faith in thine friends and family. Surely they know thou wouldst never have harmed or disappointed any of them by intention…regardless of whate’er they may have said at the time. After all, thou hast fought to thine very last breath to protect them from being consumed and enslaved…”
She rolled her eyes in their sockets to glance up slightly, as though she were pondering, “E’en though Rainbow Dash would ne’er admit it, she knows thou wert her guiding light to prove herself as a weatherpony as well as a Wonderbolt. She does not and has ne’er truly blamed thee for thine scuffle nor the injuries she sustained for being foolish enough to raise a hoof against a Kicker…”
She looked at me again, the faint hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, “Thy dearest Fluttershy, such a gentle sweetling…surely ‘twould be completely adverse to her nature to blame thee for the time thou has lost. For her, even these few weeks thou hast shared after thine reconciliation will be enough for her to always treasure the memory of thee.”
“And Blossomforth? Doubtless she will be sad for a time, but ‘tis her nature to change to circumstances and she knows thou hast never sought to harm her or place her in distress. She will mourn of course, but doubtless she will forget thine shared errors and always remember thee as her first and true love.”
I could only stare as she went on. “Thine mistakes with Ditzy Doo will take time to fade from her memory, ‘tis true, and yet thine actions saved her beloved daughter and all her family this day. Despite her stubbornness – no doubt inherited distantly from her ancestor the Ephor – she hath always known thou didst truly love her and would ne’er hold the memory of thee with bitterness.”
As I stood there staring at her, not quite believing how she knew so much about my life – things I’d never told anypony in entirety – Shadow held my gaze with a glint in her eye that somehow looked a little too smug…
The answer came slowly from the back of my mind, and somehow, I couldn’t hold back a strange chuckle that I myself didn’t quite understand.
“Shadow Kicker…” I was choking out snorts of dry laughter, “You didn’t tell me the truth back in the compound, did you? You’re not just a memory…not just some imprint or dream left in the armor…” I looked at her, “It really was you all along, wasn’t it?”
Shadow struck an innocent pose, “It seems my cunning ploy hath finally been revealed despite my most painstaking efforts to assure thou wouldst not discover the truth…” The ghost of a smirk worked onto her muzzle, “It certainly took thee long enough, descendant…”
I straightened up. I guess what Shadow said made sense. As much as I hated this, I needed to have faith that everypony I loved would remember me as it truly was, instead of just the very worst way they possibly could. To do otherwise would not just make no sense, it’d be an insult to my faith in them. Shadow was right about one thing, I could count on them to keep sight of what was really important.
But the thought of leaving them all…of not being able to go into the future together with them. Of not being there for all the great things in their lives. Of not growing old with them. Of leaving without telling them how much I loved them all…
It still…hurt.
A lot.
“Cloud Kicker…” Shadow’s expression was thoughtful as she gazed at me, “I believe there may be one final thing I may do for thee…”
My ears perked up and I looked at her. Shadow set her jaw, as though she were making a decision against her better judgment, “I do not usually permit this…since ‘tis usually a mistake that only makes the user’s pain worse…but…I believe thou might have the strength to return one final time…”
“Really?!!” I fought the urge to prance. Okay, it was probably only going to be a short time, but…
Shadow nodded slowly, “Indeed. But be warned, descendant – to see everypony whom thou hast loved in thy final moments will make the passing more difficult than ever – for thy loved ones as well as thee. Before thou dost commit thyself to this, Cloud, I would advise thee to consider it most carefully.”
I looked down.
This was it.
Either way, this was the end.
I couldn’t leave everypony without saying goodbye.
“Hear me descendant,” Shadow said with a grim smile, “I tell thee in all honesty – time will be short…”
She flexed a wing, “Prepare thyself…for the greatest battle of all…”
“C-c-c-cloud Kicker!”
I opened my eyes slowly as the clouds parted and I came to. I couldn’t feel my body and I felt strangely light – like I wasn’t a pony at all – like I was just something bobbing inside my broken body.
Everypony was still crowding over me where I lay, tears gushing from their eyes. As they sprinkled down on me, I felt no drops. Only small, rapidly-fading pools of coolness erupting over me like pins and needles.
It’d be almost pleasant if it wasn’t for…
I saw the faint, shimmering face of a pony I loved above, butter-yellow and with that silky pink mane I’d loved burying my muzzle into. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she wailed to the sky with her friends clutching her.
“Eepysqueak…” My own voice sounded hollow and far-away in my own ears, like it was echoing up from a deep tunnel in the clouds.
Fluttershy promptly froze, her eyes shooting open and staring at me, shining with tears.
“Cloudy…”
Before she could say another word, six more heads appeared above my gaze, every one of them wet and twisted with grief.
Derpy. Blossomforth. Rainbow. Dad. Alula. Star.
“Cloud Kicker…” Blossom’s freckled face was red with tears and I could see she was trying her very hardest not to wail, “D-don’t try to speak! We’ll get you to…”
I gazed at her, “N-no time…can’t stay…long…”
Her eyes widened, and there was a collective moan of dismay from everypony around me.
“P-please don’t! I need you! We all need you! Don’t leave us…”
I weakly tried to raise a hoof to her face, but I couldn’t do much more than twitch it. After a moment, I gave up and simply heaved a short sigh.
“I’m sorry, Blossom…”
“C—c’mon Kicker, don’t say weird stuff like that!” Rainbow’s scratchy voice was slowly getting higher and louder as she tried her hardest to speak without sobbing, “It’s not so bad! Look at me – I took everything that bug could dish out and I’m alright! You’re gonna be okay…” Her watery cerise eyes looked desperately in appeal to the others, “…isn’t she?!”
Dad had shut his eyes tightly and was looking down, his face crumpled, and that hurt so much I almost regretted what I had done, “The armor…th-there isn’t…it’s…I’m so sorry, Cloud!”
I tried again to move, but I could no longer feel my forehooves. “It’s okay, Dad. It was my choice, and mine alone…”
He opened his eyes and gazed down at me, holding Alula in his forehoof as she sobbed. “Cloudy!!! Don’t go away!! Pleeease!” From how close she was I knew she was holding on to me – probably my foreleg. I would’ve given anything to be able to hold her back. I was sure I was trying to smile – even though I couldn’t feel it – but I was sure tears were falling from my eyes too.
“It’s okay, ‘Lula…I’m not gonna be far away…” She slowly raised her teary eyes up to meet mine, her lower lip quivering as she tried to stifle her sobs.
I tried to smile again, feeling nothing, but from the sudden shudder and wail Alula let out I knew she had seen it. If only I could do more…
I knew there wasn’t much time.
“Everypony…don’t blame yourselves for this…” I didn’t know how loud my voice was – I could hardly hear it myself. With what few shreds of strength I had left I tried to raise my voice, but it didn’t feel like I was really in control anymore, and I was tugging my mouth like a puppet on strings, “Don’t forget…I did what I did because I chose to…”
“Cloud…don’t leave us…” Even Star was having trouble keeping herself under control, her forelegs twitching and trembling under her.
“I’m so sorry, everypony…” I tried to smile, but I don’t know how it looked. Or if my face even moved at all. And there was no change in their expressions. Just sadness, anguish, and tears.
Now I know what Shadow meant…
I turned my eyes back to Fluttershy, “Eepy, I love you. I always have…and I’ll never stop…”
She took my hoof in her own, “Cloudy…” Those beautiful blue orbs swam with tears.
“I wish…we had more time…but I’ll always remember…”
She tried her hardest to smile, wet rivulets running down those beautiful cheeks, “I love you too, Cloudy…I always did…” She bent down and kissed me. I barely felt it…only a light cooling where my lips would have been.
Eepysqueak. My beloved Eepy. It all started with her. I could only hope she’d be okay with Rainbow, Twilight and the others taking care of her when I was gone. I tried to squeeze her hoof, but she didn’t react beyond squeezing her teary eyes shut and I couldn’t know if she had felt it or not.
I looked at Blossomforth next to her, who was biting her lip hard even as tears ran down her face. When she saw me looking at her, she howled and threw herself over me, “Cloud Kicker!”
I tried to lift my hoof to hold her, but I couldn’t feel it anymore. My vision was starting to swim and I knew I didn’t have much time left.
“Blossom…” I wanted so much to touch her one last time, “Do me a favor…don’t let me hold you back…move on…have the life you deserve…”
She turned her head to look at me, eyes wet and empty with grief. But she leaned over and kissed my cheek. I felt a cold ripple on my face that could only have been a tear, “Cloud Kicker…don’t go! Please don’t! I only just found you…the real you!”
I tried to smile at her again, but the effort was exhausting. “And it was all worth it…all of it…just for you to see the real me, Blossom…”
Rainbow stood on my other side, not bothering with her usual tough-mare act, standing stock still and staring down at me, her mouth open in a dismayed crescent, eyes wide and silent tears pouring down her face.
“Cloud…I…c’mon, don’t do this now! You were always so tough! You can take it…can’t you?!”
Her voice was starting to sound farther away…
“Rainbow…” I smiled again, or at least I think I did, “I don’t regret a thing…all our time together…I’m glad we met back in Cloudsdale…”
From the way her head suddenly shot forward and she turned an ear, eyes widening in desperation, I guessed my voice was fading. Her head then shot back up again as she yelled into the crowd, “C-c’mon everypony!! We’re losing her! SOMEPONY do SOMETHING!!”
“Rainbow…” I was grateful to see Twilight placing a hoof on her shoulder despite the sadness in her own face, “Sh-she’s too far gone. There’s nothing anypony can do…I’m sorry…”
She roughly smacked Twilight’s hoof off with a half-snarl, half-sob. Twilight backed off slowly, looking down. She knew, just as I did, nothing she could do or say would make this easier for Rainbow.
“R-Rainbow Dash…” I summoned all of my strength as she looked down at me again, “Take care of everypony…and don’t blame yourself…It was never your fault…never…”
She slowly squeezed her eyes shut and nuzzled me, “Cloud…you’re…my best friend…I don’t wanna…l-lose you…”
My voice must have been a whisper.
“You never…will…”
I looked next at Derpy, who was in a flood of tears, hugging my shoulder and nuzzling me. Though I could barely feel it. As she caught my gaze, those wonderful golden eyes fixed on me.
“Derpy…I’m sorry…I should’ve been better with you…”
She held onto me, “I-i-i-it d-doesn’t matter now, Cloudy…you saved us all! Y-you saved my Sparky! You’ve done so much! I love you more than I c-can say!”
I smiled - though again, I don’t know if she saw it.
“I know…you’ll always…take care of her. And Dinky. Take care of yourself too. I won’t be far away…”
She squeezed me, crying cool patches onto my fur, “I will, Cloudy…a-always…”
I could feel the last of my strength slipping away. I was exhausted and sleepy, and I probably couldn’t have said any more. Thank Shadow I had the time to say goodbye. It was painful…so painful to see everypony I cared about wailing over me…but at the moment I was lucky (as far as dying mares go with ‘lucky’) to have the chance to say real goodbyes…
I felt tears of my own again, somehow, as I fixed my darkening gaze on Dad and Alula. My sweet little sis was biting her lip and trembling, but Dad was trying to encourage her by smiling at me through his own tears…
I locked eyes with my little sister, trying to tell her…somehow…that I’d always be with her…
…Cloud…Cloud…
It was a voice.
But not like the voices from Shadow’s past. Not the hungry, vengeful whisper of a fallen enemy.
A soft, loving voice from far away…
…Cloud…Cloud...
Mom?
Then I heard Shadow’s voice.
“It is time, Cloud Kicker.”
I knew it was the end. I couldn’t see anymore.
As I left my body, I moved my mouth one final time…for all the ponies I loved.
“Thank…you…”
The Kicker Clan compound was silent.
A rare occurrence with the number of ponies who lived there.
And even rarer considering the number of armored Kicker soldiers proceeding down to the burial grounds. Hooves rose and fell, but not a single one made a sound, flowing with practiced and somber reverence.
Tornado Kicker and Alula led the way. The former held himself stiffly in his formal armor, face an impassive mask, but the practiced charade could not hide the emotion in his eyes as the procession went on.
For the young one, of course, even walking took an effort.
The Kicker Clan were joined outside their compound by a long line of mourners from elsewhere, two of them royal sisters, six of them national heroes, and many, many others all carrying their invisible burdens as they fell into step with the Kickers.
It was evening, and the grounds were lit with somber stone lanterns. Flames gleamed within, their dull light shimmering across the bodies and eyes of the crowd as they arrived.
The casket was open.
And she lay asleep within. Armored, decorated, and face serene in her final rest.
Every pony came forward. Most laid a flower before the grave. Some whispered final farewells to her. Some even kissed her forehead. Soon, not a dry eye was to be found.
At the conclusion, Princess Celestia herself ascended, standing beside the casket.
“One would never say…” her soothing, warm, composed voice reached every ear, “…that any pony’s fate is set in stone. Our beloved Cloud Kicker was the rarest of ponies – for she always chose her own path. In a world where so many allow their birthright and tradition to rule their fate and dictate the course of their lives to them, Cloud Kicker never hesitated to act on what she thought was the better path. Whether she was right or wrong to do as such was never what defined her as a pony or as a friend, or daughter, or sister, or even…as a lover…”
The princess paused, briefly wiping a silvery tear from her eye with her wing before continuing. Alula was sobbing now, holding onto her father, while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy held each other.
“What defined her was she always did what she believed to be right. Even if others disagreed, even if danger faced her, even when she faced insurmountable odds…Cloud Kicker never halted, and never turned back. Her acts of heroism would not have been possible without that. And while they claimed her life, she saved us all, saved our families, our nation, and our future…”
There was a mumble in the assembled mourners. Derpy blew her nose loudly as her youngest daughter sniffled against her foreleg, the elder standing beside her with tears shining in her eyes.
“Cloud Kicker’s determination, courage, and selflessness will never be forgotten…” Celestia continued, her ethereal mane flowing in the breeze, “For she will rest forever among Equestria’s greatest heroes…but we must never forget the pony she was, just as we must never forget her legend…”
“Whatever her mistakes, Cloud Kicker’s intentions were always pure. Her courage to stand against all the odds against her in every way was never in doubt…”
“…And her love…her love for all things. Cloud Kicker loved many and all. She sought to bring comfort to those who crossed her path. In her way, she brought warmth to everypony’s life…”
Celestia briefly noticed her sister, Luna, letting her self-control slip slightly as she looked at Cloud Kicker’s body. For the second time since her return, Luna looked ready to burst into tears. Celestia would have told her sister to let it all out, but before she could catch her sister’s attention, her impassive mask was back in place again.
She cleared her throat – with only a slight choke – and went on, “So let us all remember her. Not only as the hero who saved us all. Not only as the once-outcast who claimed her family’s greatest honor. Not only as the brave warrior who struck down the fallen Amnion. But also as we all knew her – the pony who loved and loved to be loved…”
“A winning pony…”
Another tear ran down her face as she kissed Cloud’s forehead and left the casket.
There was a polite smattering of applause before the mourners said their final farewells. The casket was covered and placed over the open grave next to the resting place of Nimbus Gust.
Princess Luna slowly raised her head, her horn glowing. The light glittered off her tears as the clouds parted overhead…
The moon rose, shining down upon the burial grounds, illuminating the plaque as the casket was lowered.
“HERE LIES CLOUD KICKER”
“FOR EQUESTRIA”
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It feels like Chrysalis was a pony version of Mum-Ra the Ever Living. The ending though.
Really good conclusion.
That ending ... manly tears.
Shite, Chrysalis weaponized mind rape!
Goodbye Cloud Kicker, you will be missed
YOU BASTARD!!!
Many manly tears were shed man....
MAY WE SALUTE!
LIEUTENANT CLOUDKICKER!!!
*standing ovation*
Superlative job, that pony.
Don't apologise for the wait, it was worth it.
(Why is only tracked? This needs to be moved to my favourites folder right away!)
Story was great. the ending sucked
6901030
There was a reason for it.
6903526 Not all reasons are good ones. it reminded me of the ending to Command and Conquer 4. No matter what you do your screwed, but you did that part better then they did. Heck she could have been stuck wearing the armor because her soul as in it.
Oh wow. Went in expecting something good, came out having read something fantastic. How has this not gotten more attention?
(I'd say now I want to read Winning Pony again, which I do, but I'll wait until my printed copy arrives)
A bit of a bitter ending, but then again, AU, fortunately.
So sad that poor Cloudy had to die in the end T_T
Though this was a GREAT fanfic to read! <3
6950165 Please! Spoilers!
That was a good story.