• Published 14th Oct 2014
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How to be Cruel - Erisn



Tirek is alone in his cell in Tartarus when he recieves an unexpected visitor. She says she's going to kill him. It's Fluttershy.

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Chapter 11: Pyre

The fire roared, it’s fury in a language no creature ever understood. It was not mere sound, but heat, light, and pressure exploding outwards all at once, a deafening blast of fury that beat at any who felt it. But it was nothing compared to Chrysalis’s scream of fury as she hurled herself at Fluttershy.

Chrysalis was a queen changeling, equivalent to a pony alicorn and over twice Fluttershy’s size, with a body built for war and the reflexes that came from constant warfare. She didn’t bother with a spell, but merely ran at Fluttershy with the sole intent of breaking every bone in the pegasus’s body.

It didn’t turn out that way though, because Fluttershy turned and kicked the cloud in front of her and hard as she could. The cloud, already having been activated by Fluttershy’s earlier demonstration shot a much larger lightning bolt directly into the earth below.

Chrysalis was aware of a dull ringing first accompanied by a sharp pain in her head, and then she saw dirt flying sideways into the air. It took her brain a moment to wonder why dirt was flying sideways before she realized she was lying on the ground. Groggily, she pulled herself up and saw the crater.

Dirt showered down around Chrysalis like rain, but she ignored that because her attention was solely on the gaping wound in the earth, fully ten feet in diameter. The cloud was completely gone, but it had gouged out a huge chunk of earth. There had been other sticks and a fallen tree there too, but most of the debris had been completely vaporized.

Chrysalis’s heart pounded far more loudly than the pain in her head. If she had been two more hoofsteps closer to the blast, she wouldn’t have escaped with just a mild concussion. She realized that Fluttershy must have done something to the cloud to make it discharge all its lighting at once; only the pegasus’s miscalculation of the timing had saved Chrysalis.

The changeling race didn’t go in for expletives much, being fonder of just screaming in fury. Now Chrysalis really wished she knew a few choice words, because the only bad word in Equestrian she knew was ‘horse apples,’ and it wasn’t doing much for her here. She would have liked to gather her thoughts, but Chrysalis was a warrior, and her instincts told her that pausing now was death.

The changeling army was disarray, gazing wide-eyed at the raging fire around them but Chrysalis rallied them with a single order. It was a mark of their discipline that they were able to listen for Chrysalis’s orders even through the heat, both literal and figurative, of battle. The only problem was that Chrysalis had no idea what orders to give.

She looked around. The forest fire had ringed the clearing, but it was advancing more slowly out in the open, with less material to consume. Nevertheless, the ground was saturated with dry timber for the fire to feed on, and very shortly the clearing would be a deathtrap. Perhaps it was already.

Action was better than thought in a time of crisis. “Move towards the edge of the forest!” Chrysalis roared, and waved one hoof in the direction Fluttershy’s army had come. That was the closest exit out of the Everfree, and thought it might mean fighting through whatever traps and animals Fluttershy had positioned, it was better than fighting fire.

The changeling army moved at a trot, not a disorganized run that might have left them open for a counterattack, but at a speed that was quick yet left their ranks in reasonable order. There was a wall of flames blocking their exit of course, but Chrysalis was sure that she could blast enough debris out of the way to get most of her army through.

She briefly considered having her army fly over the flames, but changelings were not like birds and couldn’t ride thermals. Besides, the heat coming off the fire would be far too intense to survive in the precious few moments it took to get above the forest.

Chrysalis was about to let loose a blast of magical energy to clear the way for the front ranks when an explosion just to her left made her stumble. Chrysalis barely had time to regain her footing, before another blinding flash and tremor in the earth signaled another lightning strike. Instantly, she jumped to the side and heard a thump as something heavy hit the ground where she had been standing. Turning, she saw a large stone, embedded firmly in the ground.

A changeling hissed and pointed to the sky. Chrysalis looked up and saw Fluttershy hovering overhead. With her was a flock of birds, swooping and dropping stones, but what drew her attention were two grey clouds the pegasus held in each hoof.

Changelings roared in fury and leapt off the ground, flying for Fluttershy, but instead of running the pegasus calmly flew up a little and began to kick one of the clouds repeatedly.

“No! Get back to the ground!” Chrysalis screamed at her changelings, but it was too late.

The birds around Fluttershy scattered, flying high above her as the cloud Fluttershy had been kicked turned dark grey, and then lightning began to fall from the sky.

Lightning above, fire below. It was a scene right out of nightmares but far worse, because it was real. Changelings took to the air but fell seconds later, struck down by the bolts of lightning Fluttershy was calling from her clouds. She must have been able to aim the lightning, because bolts came down where the changelings were thickest, and they didn’t stop with one.

Clustered as they were, changelings were hit in groups as lightning bounced between them, striking them out of the air like flies. Even as Chrysalis watched in horror, a group of seventeen changelings flew at Fluttershy only to be hurled apart by four lightning bolts.

Chrysalis shrieked in anger and shot a blast of magic into the air aiming for Fluttershy. The pegasus saw the green lance of Chrysalis’s magic and dove sharply, letting the spell pass over her head and explode one of her clouds. Then she threw the lighting at Chrysalis.

Three lightning bolts curved. The dynamics of lightning, even aimed lighting meant that they were poorly directed, and fried a group of changelings and earthed themselves in a large tree rather than hit Chrysalis. But two flashes of lightning struck home.

Chrysalis shielded her eyes and face as the lightning struck, but she remained standing. A shield glowing with emerald magic had surrounded the changeling queen at the last moment. She fired blindly at where Fluttershy had been, but by the time her vision cleared the pegasus was already assaulting another part of the changeling army.

Chrysalis tried to raise her voice above the din of battle, but the incessant boom of lighting as it touched the ground and the screams of her changelings – not to mention the omnipresent roar of the fire – meant that few changelings heard her. There were other ways to rally her troops though.

Chrysalis flapped into the air. The heat grew more intense as she climbed, but she was tougher than her subjects. While she couldn’t ride the heat like the birds and Fluttershy could, she wouldn’t die from overheating either. Below her, Chrysalis’s army was scattering in every direction, trying to get out of the killing field that was the clearing. Chrysalis took in a deep breath, ready to shout her commands to her army.

Something struck Chrysalis from the side. She didn’t even bother to turn to see what it was, but instantly dived with wings folded before turning and firing a magic burst of energy. A raven dropped out of the sky, or rather, the bottom half of a raven fell from the sky.

Chrysalis stared at it in surprise, but another small impact hit the back of her head, and she found a robin dancing around her head, trying to peck at her eyes. Chrysalis’s head darted out, and she felt the bird’s bones crack and she crunched it between her teeth, but before she could even swallow, another bird had struck her from the side, and another and another.

They were everywhere. From out of the sky, the birds that had been dropping rocks on the changelings flew at Chrysalis. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, probably because the air above the forest was close to becoming unsurvivable even for Chrysalis. But the birds still came at Chrysalis, shrieking in fury as they fought.

They couldn’t really harm Chrysalis, not with their small beaks. The biggest of them, an eagle, wouldn’t be able to do more than scratch her, but they kept slamming into Chrysalis, obscuring her vision, trying to peck out her eyes, and making it impossible for her to cry out to her troops below.

Chrysalis threw spells even as she bit and kicked, snapping birds in two or breaking their wings and sending them crashing to the ground, but there was just too many. How many was it? A hundred? Two hundred? More than that; they swarmed Chrysalis, pecking and slamming into her with their fragile bodies. They bore her down with their sheer weight of numbers, until Chrysalis was forced to dive into the forest below.

The heat here was…the fire was at its hottest, consuming the trees and leaving only embers behind. It wasn’t just the flames that were deadly; the atmosphere it was so hot that Chrysalis’s mane nearly burst into flame before she used her magic to cool herself down. The birds had no such protection, and they tumbled to the ground, screeching as they caught fire.

But still they came on. Chrysalis stomped a mockingbird that was trying to peck her even as it burned, and blasted a score of starlings out of the sky. But even that wasn’t enough to stop them. A hummingbird dived Chrysalis, but fell to the forest floor, dead of the heat before it could reach her. The birds circled and dove at Chrysalis, and thought she shot them out of the sky with magic and crushed them under her hooves by the dozens they kept coming.

They kept coming.

It was over in a few minutes, and Chrysalis stood surrounded by bodies already starting to catch flame. Wings and feathers lay strewn across the ground, and bird blood painted the ground. Like most blood, it was red. Chrysalis was panting, her lungs burning from the smoke and the heat. It had taken a few minutes, but it had felt like a lifetime.

Chrysalis knew she should move; try to get out of the forest, but all she could do for the moment was stare at the carnage around her. She had fought in some of the bloodiest battles across the world, watched zebras fight to the death even when outnumbered ten to one, watched lone minotaurs being pulled down after killing scores of changelings, but she had never seen this. Hundreds of birds, just to try to kill one being. It was…it chilled Chrysalis because it was…it was…

It was the way changelings fought. Sacrifice many to achieve on objective. They would swarm dragons and die by the hundreds to bring one down. It was their way of defeating more powerful enemies. Chrysalis would have used that very tactic to weaken or kill Celestia when they took Canterlot. But she had never dreamed it would be used on her.

Chrysalis looked at the dead birds, the sea of carnage and could only wonder one thing. Had Fluttershy ordered this? Had she sent the birds to their deaths just to kill her? Or had they chosen to do this themselves? What had they bought? A few minutes of distraction, or perhaps they’d prevented her from commanding her army for a moment. But Fluttershy would have known they would never be able to kill Chrysalis, or even hurt her badly. If she had ordered the attack, knowing that, if she had done that in cold blood…

Chrysalis shook off her thoughts and tried to focus. The heat was making her lightheaded, but she had to concentrate now. She spread her wings and stopped. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder. The bird attack had been effective after all.

Her wings were in tatters. Changeling wings had holes in them of course, as did their legs, but that was part of their appearance. Chrysalis’s wings had been shredded by the talons and beaks of the birds, the only part of her they could damage. Parts of her wings had been ripped away, and what was left was not nearly enough to get her airborne.

Chrysalis looked around now at the burning forest, and she was suddenly afraid. Her magic kept the heat at bay for the moment, but keeping up that spell was an enormous strain. All around her was a burning forest. She had no idea where she was and without the ability to fly, she would have to travel through the fire. For the first time, Chrysalis began to feel true fear.

She could die here.

Chrysalis began to run. She ran, crashing through the burning forest, leaping over embers and trying to avoid being burned as the world around her blurred into a hell of moving flames and fire. But all the time she could only think back to Fluttershy’s words. ‘I can be crueler than you.’ They echoed in Chrysalis’s mind, and their presence stirred something small in her heart, something she thought she had forgotten. But it grew, and as the flames rose, so did it.

And the fire was all around Chrysalis, crackling, burning. But all she could hear were the screams.

----

The forest burned. Every tree and twig was ablaze, and the conflagration only grew by the minute. It was not all of the Everfree that burned of course; such a wildfire would easily destroy Ponyville and the landscape for hundreds of miles if it was allowed to grow that large. Only a portion of the Everfree burned. A swathe of forest perhaps ten miles wide had been separated away from the rest by a long ditch, not so much deep as wide. It was nearly twenty feet across, long enough to make it impossible for flames to jump the gap.

Even so, flying embers and sparks could still travel far on the wind, and some did land on the other side. They might have started fires on their own, but they were quickly stamped out by those who gathered at the edges of that fire. They stood, waiting as they watched the orange red glow coming from the forest. They watched, and waited, and listened.

Changelings burst from the edges of the forest, screaming. They were on fire, or covered in fire, fallen tree branches and burning embers stuck to their carapaces. Some tried to drop to the ground as soon as they left the flames, but the intense heat radiating from the forest’s blaze forced them onwards.

Bugs are not like ponies. This is a fact so simple that no pony would even stop to consider it. But changelings are like bugs. And bugs are not like ponies. Therefore, changelings might not be exactly like ponies.

This was the mental logic Fluttershy had used, and it had presented her with a thought no other pony had had before. If changelings were more like bugs than ponies, then perhaps they shared some of the same weaknesses bugs had, rather than pony weaknesses. She had thought about this quietly, and thought of how changelings didn’t have skin, but carapace, and different internal organs, and she had had a thought.

Perhaps changelings had a weakness. Perhaps that weakness wasn’t magic, or some kind of fancy poison, or even being hit by a gigantic force-field powered by love, as good and useful as all those things were. Perhaps, just maybe, changelings were weak against fire.

Not just fire, but rather, temperature. Heat. Cold. Fluttershy was the leading expert on animals in all of Equestria, and that also meant she knew more about insects than most ponies. Aside from a pony with a bug-collecting cutie mark, if one existed, Fluttershy might well be the leading insectologist as well. And what she knew of insects was that they could not regulate their body temperatures.

It was a very trivial fact for many. It probably wouldn’t bring any pony to riches, or impress another pony if they heard it. Possibly only someone like Twilight Sparkle would have cared for such information. But it was useful, to Fluttershy especially. It could help her destroy an army.

Changelings ran out of the forest. They ran for the ditch, trying to cross it to safety. But they stumbled and fell as they ran. Many changelings collapsed even as they left the forest. Only a few out of each hundred even made it to the ditch, and more barely left the forest. Some lay still, curled up, while others had simply…melted, green bubbling out of cracks between their armor as their corpses smoked.

Changelings cannot regulate their temperature. Ponies could, to some degree. They could sweat, regulate their internal blood flow, which gave them enough protection from heat and cold to survive different weather. But changelings? When a changeling’s internal organs got too hot, it could do nothing. At a certain point, a changeling’s body would simply shut down and it would die. That was what Fluttershy had realized, and what she had based her plan around. The one things the changelings could not fight: themselves.

A fraction of the changelings made it to the ditch, out of reach of the worst of the fire’s heat. They scrambled across the rough dirt, still running, trying to put as much distance from themselves and the death behind them as possible. The first changeling was just climbing the opposite slope when it tumbled back down to the bottom of the ditch. A knife was stuck in its eye.

The other changelings looked up. Instead of the empty, inviting sight of the forest they expected, they saw animals. Fluttershy’s animals. The same ones who had run away earlier. They didn’t run this time, instead they fell upon the changelings. They were still carrying weapons.

----

She walked among the dead, weeping. They lay around her, lifeless dolls, puppets with cut strings. Their empty eyes stared at her. Their expressions begged for mercy, relief that never came. They looked at her, the origin of their suffering.

She stumbled as she walked. The heat was intense. The fire had consumed the forest around her. Even now, the inferno was reaching its peak, and soon it would kill everything caught within. What few lives remained, at least. All around her was death.

Except for her. She was still moving, still alive. She felt she shouldn’t be. Around her was the dead. All those she had killed. Their deaths weighed on her like a real thing, pressing down on her, flattening her. She had thought their lives meant nothing. She had watched them die with no remorse, and even satisfaction at times. But now the horror caught up with her, enveloped her. They were all dying. Not just one or two, but the entire swarm, not just a fraction of her army, but all of Changeling itself.

Her people were dying.

Chrysalis choked back a scream as she felt more lives disappearing. Her eyes were reddened with tears, but they dried on her face as soon as they fell from her eyes. Her horn glowed, keeping the heat at bay, but even her magic couldn’t protect her entirely. Parts of her carapace had cracked; rivulets of green ran down to her hooves and burned away. But that wasn’t what hurt her.

She could feel her people dying. She was their queen, and like inescts, she had a mental link to all of her subjects. She could sense where they were, roughly. They fled to the edges of the forest, but they were falling, dying before they escaped. She saw images, disjointed flashes of sight and sound as her changelings fell to Fluttershys’ army, which had encircled the burning part of the Everfree. They were few, and individually far weaker than the changelings, but they were positioned along the dirt ditch that prevented the fire from spreading. They had the higher ground, were uninjured, and attacked the changeling stragglers in groups. It wasn’t a battle taking place now, it was a massacre.

Chrysalis concentrated, letting the roaring flames around her die away as she searched the minds of her subjects.

There.

It was a moving figure, flying where the fighting was thickest, but where it went, changelings died. Chrysalis watched as a pale shape swooped down into one changeling’s view before a flash of light severed her connection. It was enough.

Chrysalis reached out to her subjects and screamed an order into the mind of every living changeling. It wasn’t a complex idea; the mental link Chrysalis had with her subjects was limited at best, but it was just a location. A place. A weakness.

She felt her subjects pause, then redirect themselves. Even disorganized as they were, dying from the heat or burning alive they still obeyed their queen. Changelings stopped their blind flight and began to congregate at one point in the forest. They still fell in droves from the head and flame, but when they made for the forest line, they came in groups, fighting the animals rather than being picked off. Forcing them back, back…

Fluttershy was killing them by the dozen. Chrysalis snarled as she felt another blast of lightning take eight changelings with it. She was the center of the enemy army. She was an army by herself with that lightning. So long as she remained in the skies, no changeling could break through. No common soldier could hope to stop her. That remained up to Chrysalis.

But she had taken too long.

Had her pace slowed while she ordered her subjects, or had the forest fire reached its peak? Whichever the case, Chrysalis was suddenly aware of a terrible heat, and felt her magic fail her as the heat stripped away the last of her magical protections. The fire engulfed Chrysalis, and she screamed as it started to burn her. Fallen trees had created a sea of embers, and that alone was enough to ignite Chrysalis’s mane. Around her was fire. Fire and pain.

What reason was there to keep moving? The fire burned her. Why was she still up, fighting for every step? She felt the darkness tugging at the corners of her eyes. Why was she doing this? What reason could she possibly have?

Chrysalis closed her eyes, feeling the fire burn her, hearing her carapace crack, and looked deep in her heart for strength, for a reason, for that terrible force that always kept her moving. She thought of Fluttershy, and she found it.

Hatred.

----

“They’re coming again, Angel.” Fluttershy landed on a rock beside her rabbit, but Angel didn’t seem to notice her. He was holding another rabbit’s paw.

Swift Foot was thumping the ground softly with his other paw, but he made no sound as he lay there. He was missing his right foot, and half of his body was a blackened mess. It hadn’t been a changeling that had stuck him, but a falling tree, on fire from a stray spark.

His lower body was just a mess of blackened skin now – there wasn’t much left that could be called a body. But he didn’t cry out, or even make a sound. The only expression of his pain was just his rhythmic thumping of the ground with his paw, as if that contained all the agony of his being.

Slowly, the thumping slowed, and then stopped. Swift Foot lay still. Angel stood holding his paw for a few seconds longer, and then let it drop. When he turned, his eyes were dry, his expression set. He didn’t try to bury Swift Foot, but just let the rabbit’s corpse lie on the ground. There was no time.

“They’re coming, Angel,” Fluttershy repeated, and her rabbit nodded, once. “They’re massing, and it looks like this might be their big push. The fire’s getting to hot for any of them to survive more than ten more minutes, so if there’s any time, it’s going to be now.”

Angel pointed to Fluttershy’s side, where the pegasus clutched a dark storm cloud.

“This is the last one, I’m afraid,” Fluttershy said. “It’s only got two or three charges left as well. Look, Angel, I’ll try to hit as many changelings as I can with it, but I think they’re all there. All that’s left of the army will attack at once, and what’s worse, I think she’s with them.”

Angel and looked out over towards the burning part of the Everfree where dark shapes moved in front of the flames. He turned back to Fluttershy and tilted his head.

“It’s the only explanation,” Fluttershy replied. “Someone’s rallied them, and she’s the only one who could have done that. We saw her go down, but she must have survived the forest fire. Angel, she’s going to be leading the assault.”

Angel nodded, once. He picked up the kitchen knife he used and grimly began to sharpen it with a whetstone.

“I’ll take care of her. You know the plan, but keep our forces out of her path. She’ll tear a hole through our defenses otherwise.”

Angel nodded again, and held up the knife. It shone red in the firelight. He nodded at Fluttershy, and together, the pegasus and rabbit made their way to the front.

----

The ditch that had been dug to contain the fire had been wide, but shallow. It was only a few feet deep, but its width was far more important, to prevent the fire from jumping the gap. Yet now, the ditch was filled nearly to the brim with bodies.

Changeling bodies, mostly. That is, the majority of the mass that lay still in the ditch was from changelings, but animals made up their share as well. For every six changelings there was an animal that lay crushed or broken among the piles of black chitin.

But despite the dead, despite the many changelings that had burned in the forest or fallen here, the tide of black bodies that had assembled at the edge of the burning Everfree still seemed endless. And what was more, this time they were not scattered, but led. At the head of the changeling army was Chrysalis.

----

The queen of the changelings stood alone, while surrounded by her army. That is, she was standing among her changelings, those soldiers that had survived both fire and battle with Fluttershy’s forces. But she stood alone among them, for no changeling dared to approach her.

Chrysalis had been burned by the fire. Her dark green mane and tail were wisps of hair burned to a cinder, and her carapace was scorched and black. Parts of her chitin had cracked from the intense heat, and green ichor oozed from her open wounds. But her eyes were open, and in their emerald depths burned something far darker and stronger than any flame ever seen.

Chrysalis stood straight and tall, ignoring her wounds as she watched her changelings assemble. Her entire body was filled with pain; she could feel every burn, and the smoke-filled air stung her vulnerable insides as it passed through her broken exoskeleton. But she ignored the pain, and looked at her changeling instead.

They were scorched and injured, all of them. Not a changeling had made it through the fire without a few wounds, and many were disoriented still from the smoke and heat. For all that, they were still strong enough to fight, every one. But they were too few, far too few. For every changeling that had made it out of the forest, three more had perished in the flames. What was worse perhaps, was that Fluttershy’s had secured the high ground and had reinforced their numbers with more animals the pegasus must have held in reserve. The animals outnumbered the changelings almost two to one now, but Chrysalis didn’t waste time worrying about the odds.

Her forces were ready. They assembled behind her, ranks of changelings, their faces grimly set, their teeth bared. They were ragged, wounded, weary, diminished from the great and terrible horde they had once been. She had never been prouder of them.

Chrysalis turned and faced her changelings. The watched her, both fearful and trusting. They were not worried, merely expectant. Their trust in her was something else Chrysalis had never before considered, never appreciated. She raised her voice so they could all hear – not just her soldiers, but the animals and Fluttershy as well.

“My changelings, this battle has taken its toll. We have suffered greatly, but though many of us have fallen, the swarm yet lives. Ahead of us is a great battle, and it is one we will win.”

The changeling warriors nodded and stomped their hooves in approval, but Chrysalis raised one hoof before they could begin to cheer.

“But I must apologize to you all, for I have made a terrible mistake.” The changelings muttered at this, and shuffled uneasily. Never before had Chrysalis apologized for anything, and this, more than the forest fire trap or enemy army unnerved them the most.

“I made a truly terrible mistake,” Chrysalis said, bowing her head and looking at the ground. “I tried to play games, to outmaneuver an enemy and win with superior tactics and strategy. I assumed my opponent had honor, and led you all into this trap. For this, and only this I apologize. Not for failing to spot the trap, but for forgetting who we are.”

Chrysalis’s head came up, and every changeling’s eye was on her. “Our nature is to hide, to disguise ourselves, and then strike! We do not play games of war. When we attack, we attack our enemy’s weakest point and we attack as one swarm! We are a single body, a single army, and we will cover our enemies until their bones are all that remain!”

Chrysalis pointed to the waiting animals on the ridgeline. “There is our foe. It has hurt us badly, and tricked us, led us into traps. But we have forgotten what they are, and what we are. They are soft creatures, and we are predators. Our bodies are our armor, and our teeth and hooves the only weapons we need. We are changelings, and we will not stop until they lie rotting in the earth. No more games! No more tricks! Changelings! Prepare to attack!

A roar like thunder came from her changelings, and Chrysalis wheeled to face Fluttershy and her army. The animals looked frightened, but they held their ground on the upraised ground above the ditch. Fluttershy herself was standing at the front of her forces, holding a cloud in one hoof. Beside her was a small rabbit, carrying a large knife.

Chrysalis, the Writhing Queen, Evershifter, Sovereign of Lies, der Verschlinger, and Queen of the Changelings raised one hoof. She pointed it at Fluttershy, at the army in front of her. She screamed one word.

CHARGE!

The changelings came at the animals in a wave, order forgotten as they charged in one dark mass, like the tide rolling in. They screamed in fury as they ran, and the sound they made was fury given voice.

The animals on the slope cringed backwards, but two shapes refused to step back. The rabbit next to Fluttershy raised his knife and shouted orders at the animals, but Fluttershy calmly stepped forward to meet the changeling attack.

Chrysalis knew what was coming as Fluttershy began to kick the cloud, and a green shield of emerald magic sprang up to protect her. But Fluttershy wasn’t aiming at her, but the changelings to either side of Chrysalis, who were unprotected by any magic.

One, two, three, four, five…six bolts of lightning lanced out from Fluttershy’s cloud and struck the front rank of changelings in a barrage that deafened even their war cry for a second. Changelings stumbled and fell, smoking as the lightning bounced between the tightly-packed bodies and left their smoking corpses littering the ground. But despite the damage the lighting wrought, it was not enough to even slow the mass of changelings running at Fluttershy’s forces.

The changelings struck the defender’s lines with a crash that made the very trees shake. Perhaps the animals could have held them off if only part of the changelings attacked, or if they had only remained in ranks, but this wasn’t an army they fought now. It was a breaking wave, a tumbling earthquake, a raging fire and a typhoon made up of bodies. It was a force of nature, and it swept through the animal line with Chrysalis at its head.

Fluttershy!” Chrysalis screamed. “Face me!

The animals around her pulled back as Chrysalis swept through their lines wielding death with hoof and magic. While changelings were small and could be brought down by smaller animals in groups, Chrysalis was far larger. She was a giant, and rampaged through the defenders, leaving only the dead behind her.

Fluttershy was far smaller, but she waited with the same infuriating and terrifying patience as before, in a center of calm among the fighting. She was carrying no weapons, and Chrysalis noted her front hooves and hair were scorched from where she must have held the clouds. She smiled politely as Chrysalis approached, but her eyes followed Chrysalis the entire time, never straying. She watched Chrysalis approach, not in terrified paralysis, but like a predator watches its prey. She waited and watched even as animals and changelings died around her. There was something cold in her eyes, something dark that stared at Chrysalis. Chrysalis swore to herself that no matter what happened this day, she would crush that look.

“It seems queens are far tougher than regular changelings,” Fluttershy said as Chrysalis approached. “And I admire your skill as a general and leader as well.”

“Spare me your false praise,” Chrysalis said. “Your words are worse than lies, because they are truth and deception at the same time. I am not here to play games with you, Fluttershy. We are at war, and we fight here for only one reason: to kill.”

“We have fought battle here,” Fluttershy agreed, “but we are two different kinds of creature, in the end. You fight because war and conquest is in your nature, but I have fought to protect.”

“No.” Chrysalis shook her head slowly. She looked Fluttershy straight in her eyes. “You do not.” She gestured at the battle around her, where animals assailed changelings from their higher ground and changelings who ripped and tore at the animals. “This war was unnecessary. Had you but told Twilight and Celestia of my presence, they would have pushed back my army with few casualties, rallied other nations against me, and forced my surrender. That would have been the truly peaceful solution.”

Chrysalis stepped forward, and Fluttershy tensed, but Chrysalis didn’t attack. “I understand,” she said very quietly, so no being outside the two of them could hear her. “You didn’t want the peaceful solution, did you? That would leave the changelings alive, just prisoners, or forced into peaceful co-existence. But you can’t accept that. You want to kill us all. Every last one. This is no war to defend. This is a war of vengeance.”

Fluttershy bowed her head for a moment, and then looked up. “Maybe,” she said simply. “You may be right. But the reason matters little now, doesn’t it? We are here.”

“We are here,” Chrysalis agreed. “And this war shall not end until one of us lies dead.”

“True.” Fluttershy lowered her stance and flared her wings out as Chrysalis did the same. “Shall we begin?”

Chrysalis didn’t bother to respond, but fired a burst of magic at Fluttershy. The pegasus didn’t duck or dive as Chrysalis had expected though, and run under the magic, charging at Chrysalis in a flash. At the last moment, she jumped into the air and winged away, just avoiding being skewered as Chrysalis tried to impale her with her horn.

Chrysalis roared in fury and started blasting away at Fluttershy as she dodged in the air, but the smaller pegasus was far more maneuverable and landed several meters away for Chrysalis.

“Stand still and fight you coward!” Chrysalis roared, and began firing rapid shots of magic which the pegasus had to avoid with every scrap of agility she possessed. “Stop running and die with some pride!”

“I’d love to oblige you Chrysalis, but there’s someone I’d like you to meet first,” Fluttershy said. She dove to one side as Chrysalis missed again with a blast of magic. “He’s been waiting to see you for such an awful long time, and I’d hate to disappoint him.”

Chrysalis screamed in frustration and shoulder-charged Fluttershy, sending the pony tumbling to the ground. “No more lies. No more games,” she snarled, and raised her horn to end Fluttershy once and for all.

Something tapped Chrysalis on the shoulder. Reflexively she turned, and saw only brown. Then she saw the brown was not the brown of say, and tree, but the brown of fur. And that the brown belonged to something standing above her.

For the first time, Chrysalis looked up. She saw a bear towering over her. It was brown, and had all the right features for a bear, but that would be doing his appearance injustice. This bear was big, but not fat. He might have been called lean, were it not for the rippling muscle that covered every inch of his body. Parts of his fur seemed to have been dissolved away, and he was covered in half-healed wounds and scars, but that only made him more menacing. He stood on two massive legs and was taller than even Chrysalis. He also looked mad.

“Chrysalis, meet Harry.” Fluttershy said.

Chrysalis backed up a step. The changelings around her closed ranks, protecting their queen but the animals attacked with the bear called Harry, forcing her soldiers back. Chrysalis snarled, and broke out of the ranks of her warriors. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as Chrysalis threw a white cat out of her way and then aimed her horn at the pegasus.

Chrysalis fired a blast of magic at Fluttershy, but she dodged again and the magic instead struck a group of beavers, vaporizing two and removing another’s arm. Chrysalis let her warriors shield her from Harry as she tried to angle for a better shot at Fluttershy.

But she had forgotten how long Harry’s reach was. The bear lunged forwards, and hit Chrysalis with a blow that smashed her to the ground. She screamed with rage and surged to her hooves. A changeling warrior leapt at Harry, but he contemptuously threw it down to the ground and crushed it with one paw. He charged towards Chrysalis, but she dodged to one side and then blasted him point blank with all her strength.

The back blast from Chrysalis’s spell nearly threw her off her hooves again, but she regained her posture. The spell had kicked up the ashes and in the cloud Chrysalis couldn’t see Fluttershy. She fanned her broken wings and the draft managed to clear the air enough for her to see Fluttershy, struggling with a changeling.

Fluttershy threw the changeling back and then turned to kick it with her back hooves, sending the changeling flying back with its head bent at a wrong angle. She saw Chrysalis too late, and the changeling queen’s horn glowed green.

A paw reached out of the ashes and grabbed Chrysalis’s horn, causing her magic to fizzle, and then another paw appeared, followed by an arm, and Chrysalis felt her chitin crack as Harry punched her twelve feet into a boulder.

Chrysalis staggered upright, just in time to see Harry charging at her again. She braced herself against the rock and began firing bursts of magic at him. She saw her green magic burst over the bear, causing him to stagger, ripping away parts of his flesh, but she was too weakened, or perhaps the bear had simply passed beyond caring because he kept on coming.

As Harry reached her, Chrysalis lashed out with a hoof. It was a blow from a changeling queen, and was quick and strong, with enough force to crack a pony’s skull. Harry caught her hoof with one paw and then grabbed her leg in his mouth, biting hard enough to crack her carapace.

Chrysalis braced herself for the pain of his crushing jaws, but instead he started to move with her leg still clutched between his teeth, dragging her along the rough ground. She struggled, but his grip on her leg was a vise.

Dragged along the ground as she was, Chrysalis couldn’t tell what direction Harry was moving, but the sounds of battle were dying away in the distance. Only the orange-red glow getting brighter and brighter told her anything, but it was a flickering light, and she felt the heat rising. It was only then that she realized what he was doing, where he was taking her.

The fire.

Chrysalis struggled madly and stuck at Harry with her hooves, but his fur and skin absorbed the blows like rain. Her horn flashed and Harry stumbled as her spells struck him, but he continued dragging her with his powerful jaws, lumbering slowly, and then faster and faster, back towards the burning forest.

She hit him with spells, deadly spells that cut into his side and left his blood coating the ground but the bear didn’t even slow. He seemed to have forgotten pain, and Chrysalis couldn’t make him let go, no matter how many times she struck his face or hit him with spells.

And then the fire was in front of her. It hadn’t died down, merely reduced all the forest to embers. That was worse than the flames. Hotter. More deadly. Chrysalis flinched away from the killing heat, and she could smell the bear’s fur burning. But he kept going, dragging her into the hell she had escaped from once.

The bear paused once, at the edge of the flames, and Chrysalis dared to hope for one second that he wasn’t going to do it. But then Harry lowered his heads, and dragged her into the heart of the burning forest.

She screamed once, and then then the fire was all around her, burning, scorching, searing. She looked for aid, for help, a way out, but the inferno was all around her, and there was no hope, no escape.

There was only Harry.

----

Fluttershy saw Harry look back before he entered the forest. Just once, just a glance backwards. He didn’t have time to search for her in the milling bodies, but somehow his gaze found her right away.

Just a look, and then he disappeared into the flames. He had agreed to do it at once when she had asked. Without question, without hesitation. And he had left in the same way, without pausing, fighting only to help his friends by eliminating the greatest friend. All he left behind was a glance. She didn’t know, she couldn’t see that well, but she thought – she thought he might have been smiling.

A changeling leapt at Fluttershy. She stepped back and let it fall heavily to the ground. Before the changeling could recover, Fluttershy had grabbed its head and was turning, turning…

The changeling’s neck snapped and Fluttershy let it fall to the ground. As the changeling dropped, Fluttershy pivoted and struck the changeling behind her with a hoof to the face. Fluttershy was no Chrysalis, but the changeling still reared back in agony. Fluttershy lunged forward, but she didn’t need to strike twice. The changeling convulsed as, still standing on two legs it then toppled forwards. A knife was sticking out of its back, buried hilt-deep in the changeling’s body.

Angel hopped over the changeling and tugged at the knife. Fluttershy pulled it out for him. She wondered where her rabbit had found the strength to push the knife through layers of changeling armor, until she saw the other two squirrels guarding Angel’s back. One set of paws might not be able to do more than lift a knife, but three bodies had enough strength to thrust it through a changeling.

Fluttershy pulled the knife out and wiped it on the ground before handing it back to Angel. He took it solemnly, and gestured at the squirrels behind him. From nowhere, six more squirrels materialized and encircled both pony and rabbit. They might have appeared laughable, small as they were compared to the changelings, but their paws and the small knives they carried were stained green with changeling blood. One of the squirrels still had an eye stuck on his butter knife.

For the moment though, there was no fighting. Fluttershy looked around and saw the changelings drawing back, retreating to the edge of the still-blazing forest as the animals did likewise, reoccupying the high ground. They left more of their number behind, though. Both changeling and animals lay still locked in combat, the orange light of the fire glowing off blood-encrusted fur and broken chitin.

Fluttershy watched the changelings as Angel organized her animals into a line. She watched their faces as they looked for their queen, and realized that she was not standing among them. A ripple of uncertainty ran through the line of changelings, but they still formed up with the fire at their backs. There was nowhere for them to run.

They were leaderless, wounded, and afraid. Fluttershy knew how they felt. She knew their fear. Behind her, her animals formed ranks once more. They were wounded and tired as well, but still they followed her, trusted her to lead them to victory. Fluttershy knew she was not worthy of their trust in her.

The changelings began to run. They were no longer a swarm, nor an orderly army, but a ragged line of darkness, screaming and shrieking as they ran. Fluttershy didn’t bother with an order, but ran forwards. She didn’t need to turn to know that Angel was right behind her. The changelings were coming at her, but they faltered. The animals charged just as the changelings did, but silently, in a slow rumble that promised only death.

Fluttershy charged, and her friends charged with her. They met the changelings in a clash that echoed. For one last time.

----

The battle ended before dawn, but the few survivors only left once the sun broke the horizon line. They stumbled about, and it may well have been that these living envied the dead, for they were as close to it as any beings could be. Their wounds gaped redly in the dark night, and more than one still bled, leaving rivulets of blood in their wake.

Fluttershy walked among her animals, bandaging, wrapping limbs or fastening tourniquets mechanically. Despite her efforts, her patients closed their eyes or rolled over even as she tended to them. She didn’t cry, though, but merely moved on to the next, trying to save what few lives she could. She didn’t cry; all her tears had been shed long since.

Less than forty of them survived, all told. They staggered or flew, hopped, walked, crawled, or dragged themselves away from the carnage. They left behind over two hundred changelings, their bodies slowly burning to ash as the fire consumed them. With that pyre of the enemy dead lay the rest of the animals. The entire Everfree Forest’s population and many of the animals from around Ponyville burned quietly as well. As the morning dawned, the last of the forest’s fire died out, extinguished by the simple expedient of having nothing left to burn. The weather patrol that arrived later in the day found only ashes. Ashes, and dust.

Fluttershy and Angel limped back towards Ponyville. In point of fact, it was Angel who walked, and Fluttershy who limped along, leaning heavily on him for support. Somehow, her rabbit had survived the battle with no more that superficial injuries, despite being in the thick of combat. His squirrel guard had all perished, but Angel had fought on, and though changelings had strove to kill one of the two leaders on the battlefield, they could never catch him, and fell with his knife in their bodies. Now though, he sagged, and it was all he could do to help support Fluttershy as they trudged through the forest.

The cottage came into view as the sky started to lighten, and Fluttershy knew it was only an hour or two before dawn. The small dirt path up to Fluttershys’ cottage had never been so tough to climb, but never had it seemed so welcome to her.

Both rabbit and pony walked in silence to the cottege. They might have said something, but both were too tired to speak. They stumbled along, but Fluttershy paused before opening the door to her cottage. She turned to Angel.

“When it’s light out, I’ll go to Twilight,” she said. “I’ll tell her everything.”

Angel looked like he wanted to object, but all he managed as a half-hearted shake of the head.

“It has to be done, Angel. I’ve told too many lies. I’ve killed, destroyed…I sacrificed the Everfree and my friends to kill the changelings. I don’t deserve to be called the Element of Kindness, not for what I’ve done. I’ll let Twilight and Celestia and my friends judge me, and then I’ll go to Tartarus if they tell me to, or be exiled or…I don’t know. But I have to do it.”

Angel met Fluttershy’s gaze for a moment, and then nodded. Slowly, he hopped up the stairs and opened the door a crack. Warm light spilled out, and Fluttershy wavered for a second. Angel smiled as well, and beckoned her up the stairs. She hesitated though.

“I shouldn’t sleep now – it’s already dawn, and Twilight will be up soon, especially if she’s seen the smoke from the fire. I’ll go to her now, and if she doesn’t send me to Canterlot to await trial right away, I’ll come back and sleep here, alright?”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea. But would you accept my alternative suggestion?”

The voice came from inside, making Fluttershy and Angel jerk in surprise. Before either could react, a dark, chitinous leg reached out and grabbed both pony and rabbit and dragged them inside the hut.

“Do sit down,” Chrysalis said, grinning at both with a face that was a ruined mask. “We have so much to talk about.”