Loveless

by Kyllerflynn13

Prologue: Bad Blood

A lone warrior stood injured, a broken blade clenched in his teeth, surrounded by countless of his insectoid brethren. The cavernous battleground was littered with the dead or unconscious, but more and more continued to swarm him. The warrior, clad in scratched, cracked, and broken armor, stood defiant against the oppressive force of hundreds led by a single tall, slender figure. She commanded them as both a general and a mother. They were her hive.

Queen Chrysalis observed as changeling after changeling were batted aside or struck down at the hooves of the traitor. Before her stood a disgusting hybrid of Changeling and Dragon; a creature with the overall appearance of a lesser changeling, but sprouting veined, leather-like wings as opposed to insect wings and a pony-length tail covered in scales. The fin on the top of his head stretched from his curved horn to the top of his neck. His eyes, green rather than the natural changeling blue, darted around in every direction tracking every movement around him and adjusting accordingly to keep from taking any more blows. Toxic Haze was a smear in her swarm of pure-blooded changeling children, an unsightly grease-stain on an otherwise flawless tablecloth, and one that she would be sure to rub out come Tartarus or high water.

Her hive numbers, however, were beginning to dwindle. Haze's dragon blood gave him incredible endurance even after all the punishment his body had taken, and his raw strength was greater than that of a pure-bred changeling. Soon he would completely exterminate the hive, decimating the entire population of the only known changeling hive in Equestria. Thinking drastically, Chrysalis decided that it was time to act, if only to retain the few children she had left. She waved a commanding, perforated hoof through the air signaling the hive to stand down. Hesitantly and with confused expressions, they complied.

"You are more difficult to rub out than I had anticipated, Stain." the Queen spoke down to him as she approached. Haze didn't budge, keeping his glare on her tall form. "You have fought through all of my changelings and still you stand before me, defiant as when my gaze was first soiled by your image. Your father was much more simple to be rid of, cowering in his cave while we hunted him down to his last shaking breath." She smirked as the hybrid's eyes shot daggers at her.

"As much as I'd like to see my swarm pull you to pieces, though," she continued, stepping forward. "You've cut down their numbers more than enough. It's time to finish this."

The Changeling Queen reared up on her hind legs, preparing to pummel the life out of Haze once and for all. The changelings began to swarm around them, flying in close to the changeling-dragon to distract his attention at the main threat. He stood as still as a statue, his broken sword still clenched in his teeth, waiting for the Hivemother to strike. He knew that, in his current state of injury and exhaustion, he didn't have the strength to repel the brunt of the attack. He'd be knocked to the ground with relatively little force and beaten into a bloody sludge. Knowing that, Haze stared down his opponent with the full intent of going down fighting.

Chrysalis began her powerful descent on his head, her chitinous hooves ready for bloodshed. Today would be the day that Toxic Haze, disgrace of the changelings, would be no more. She smiled at the thought, quickly turning it into a grimace of hatred. Haze prepared himself for what would most definitely come next, accepting his fate as defiantly as ever.

Time seemed to slow down after that. Before the Queen had even come close to connecting, the far wall of the cavern exploded inward sending chunks of shattered stone in all directions. Several changelings were caught by the flying debris, knocked unconscious from the impact, while the blinding glare of the sun shone through the newly created hole in the wall, disorienting all those out of the line of fire of the large chunks of rock and stone. Inside the glare, casting a shadow upon the scene, were two pony-shaped silhouettes. Toxic Haze squinted, trying to make out the identities of the two, but the bright light against his eyes made it impossible.

The Queen, distracted by the explosion, turned to glare at the two figures masked by the blinding light. Haze took the opportunity to strike and rushed forward, quickly closing the distance between himself and his Hivequeen. He raised his head, preparing to cut through the chitinous exoskeleton of his opponent with the dulled edge of his broken sword and finally finish the battle. Before he could bring his blade down he was struck in the head by a large piece of rocky debris. His helmet absorbed most of the impact, but it was still enough to send his mind reeling.

Toxic Haze crumpled to the ground, his balance failing and his vision darkening. The last thing he heard before it all went black was the sound of raw magic being cast and the pained yelp of the bug queen.

Then, nothing.

-----

Pain greeted Haze as he awoke. His wings ached, his head throbbed, his limbs were sore, and he was pretty sure that at least one of his teeth had been chipped. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a clean, lightly decorated room. The walls were plain white with golden swirls surrounding the large windows, a small bookshelf sat in one corner and a table and two chairs in another. Examining his more immediate area, the Dragon-ling discovered that he was sitting in a mildly sizable bed. A light puffy pillow was situated behind his head and a sheet and comforter were draped over his lower half.

"What the..." Haze mumbled, picking himself up from the bed. A sharp pain leapt up his right foreleg as he tried to move it. Looking down, he saw that it was hanging from a sling around his neck. Great, he thought. Glancing around the room again, he wondered aloud to himself.

"Where am I?"

Comments

[TheLightning]

This Story leads to one word.... AWESOME!

[nodamnbrakes]

Lovely

[Fallen Prime]

That's... new?

[Kyllerflynn13]

4881722 Let's hope I can keep it that way

4881806 Wonderful

4881816 You expected different?

[gsrsesgs]

...this...
i rarely get attached to new stories, but this...
this has my attention.

[AndersJager]

i may or may not be able to read/see alot of the grammatical errors but i can't really see why so many people dislike the story ?? or maby it is that changeling/dragon OC. .......... anyway i will keep looking out to see where this story is going

[The Cosmic Consciousness]

Interesting start to a story. Excited for more.