17: Battle and Proto-Queens Don't Mix
Sorry about the odd notification folks, I published the chapter prematurely, but it's all fixed now. Enjoy!
Today was shaping up to be a momentous day. Revealing Light stood with his PCE brethren at the lip of an eel tunnel in Ghastly Gorge. Though he was technically the one in charge, his command was quite loose by military standards. Such as it is, his chief scout was the one who would ultimately give the signal to attack.
The anticipation was almost too much to bear as the changeling warship hung overhead. I can’t believe it’s a warship. What luck! He licked his dry lips, and felt his heart racing at the fight to come. His wings quivered with barely restrained excitement. Today wasn’t going to be just a blow to the parasites. It was going to be a crippling blow.
He looked back towards the hundred-strong group of ponies, griffin mercenaries, and sphinx warriors concealed in his tunnel alone. He found many of them were losing their initial fervent energy once word of the type of ship they were about to attack was intended for war spread. Almost everyone present had studied the changeling navy, and knew their guns were murderous. It was only the knowledge that freshly launched ships lacked munitions that kept them from fleeing into the more inviting maws of the eels lurking deeper below.
Seeing that he might need to give a few words, Revealing Light cast one last look at the retreating gunship to roughly gauge how much time he had. Satisfied he had a minute at least, he turned to his insurgents. “Brethren. What stands before us is the very thing that threatens Equestria, and by extension, all of our lands,” he added to the griffins and sphinxes. “This ship is proof that the parasites are only using the princesses to gain power. How long would it take for them to build a navy that could enslave us all?”
Most of the ponies grumbled in agreement with a few sphinxes doing the same. The griffins remained impassive, simply waiting to get paid. “Twilight Sparkle has been completely consumed by that monster Cadista, and is doing what Chrysalis failed to do. We must destroy the parasites’ symbol of power: their navy.”
The growling note of the signal horn grabbed Revealing’s ear making him turn towards the cave entrance. He picked up his void stone helmet, and agony-enchanted spear. A weapon designed to cause the pain from strikes with it to be spread throughout the body. “In the name of Equestria, purge the parasites!”
Backed by a deafening roar, Revealing Light charged skyward backed by close to seven hundred warriors. The wind tore past his face and wings as he sprinted towards the hapless ship. As they closed the distance, it was clear to Revealing Light that they had caught the parasites completely off guard. The guns didn’t turn to face them, the smaller defense turrets weren’t even manned, and not a single parasite was charging out of the ship to meet them. A short two-note blast of the horn forced Revealing Light to look north where the gunship had altered course far faster than hoped, and was charging full steam to the Steamrunner's defense. Damn, with that hive mind they’re reacting even faster than I thought they would.
Revealing Light was within spitting distance of the Steamrunner when he spotted the nearest entry hatch. He waved at his troops to follow him over. However, before he could grab the latch, a golden shield pushed him back and fully enveloped the queen-sized entry hatch.
“What?” He quickly recovered from the push and tried to ram the barrier with his voidstone armor. Yet instead of collapsing, the golden shield remained steadfast. “That won’t work, boss,” a pegasus from behind called out as she pulled on Revealing’s tail. “Void stone doesn’t work on holy magic, but that stuff’s weaker than normal shields.”
“Then let’s bash it down!” a sphinx growled as he hefted a war mace that crackled with electricity.
A single long note on the horn caused Revealing’s adrenaline to kick into even higher gear. “That gunship will get here long before you break the shield, let alone the hatch too. Spread out and see if you can find any other way inside!”
When everyone spread out from top to bottom of the ship, while Revealing Light raced to the stern. He passed by dozens of others, each of them searching for a way inside, but every hatch, every porthole, even the extremely rare window had that same golden shield. The crew may just be trying to hold us off until the gunship gets back.
The cacophony of his brethren trying to force their way through the shields put a heavy pit of doubt in his stomach. For every second the PCE remained outside, the more of a risk that gunship posed. Revealing Light soared towards the surface deck of the ship, scanning for even a single overlooked entryway. To think those parasites could even use holy magic at all.
A burst of three short and one long noted horn from further astern drew everyone’s attention. Revealing joined his fellows towards a series of large bay doors that was four decks high and fifteen meters across that ran along in separate groups on the port and starboard side of the stern. Each door could easily allow an armored clockwerk through, with each door separated from the last with a foot or two of solid steel. Revealing Light, along with most others, were ecstatic to see the complete lack of defensive barriers around any of the doors.
Any other time, caution would have made Revealing Light call for a slow and methodical breach, but he could already hear the whine of the approaching gunship's engines. Several of the larger griffins and sphinxes were already bashing their way into the doors with shaped metal battering rams or enchanted warhammers. Revealing watched as most of the PCE rushed over to the series of doors before flying over to a quartet of sphinxes over by what looked like an exterior walkway with a reinforced defensive wall for rifle fire. The group was off loading a large cannon that had been broken down into four pieces. With practiced ease, the group deftly assembled the heavily modified spark cannon behind the defensive wall which granted a sweeping field of fire across the upper bow.
Revealing Light flew over to join the craggiest of the four. “Teldarlor, are you sure that thing can take out a warship?”
Teldarlor was not the gunner, so he let his kin ready the weapon. “Something as big as this?” he stamped his paw on the deck of the Steamrunner. “Not a chance in hell. But those little gnats?” he waved at the approaching gunship, which was distressingly close now. “As sure as the sun rises in the east.”
As if insulted by the slur, the gunship fired its two pairs of quad flak cannons. Though barely in range, the hailstorm of exploding shrapnel rained down on all of them, making Revealing and most others dive for what little cover they could find. The cries of dozens of insurgents filled the skies as many fell helplessly down into the gorge below. Teldarlor started singing with a spell orb held up in his hand. A soft blue glow radiated around the crew and Revealing Light.
Though the flak tore many from the skies, those that managed to flee into the blue barriers escaped unharmed. Teldarlor sneered at the bulbous gunship as it maintained its distance while its guns reloaded. “Bastard thinks he’s safe does he? Cladaya, prove him otherwise.”
Revealing covered his ears as the cannon started giving a high pitched whine that grated the ears before firing off a dense orb of raw mana at such blinding speed it looked like a rod of light. The shot missed the gunship, and detonated in a blast of lightning that danced harmlessly over the gunship’s hull.
Emboldened by that, the pilot pushed the gunship closer, and that was exactly what Kladaya wanted. Her next few shots either missed entirely or exploded harmlessly against the gunship. Three more volleys of flak tore at the PCE taking what little cover they could find. However, once the gunship was close enough, Kladaya fired a shot that punched through the thin aluminium starboard gunner’s pod. Even from here, Revealing could see the explosion of electricity sparking all over the gunship’s interior. Black smoke started pouring out of the gunship’s starboard side, but it stubbornly remained aloft.
The port gunner fired off a salvo of flak while the now fearful pilot hastily pulled back, dodging two more shots from the spark cannon. “Think you’re getting away do you?” Kladaya sneered as she adjusted her aim. Her next shot went wild when the Steamrunner listed to port.
The spark cannon started sliding away from the crew who either tried to hold onto the wall or took to the air. Without a unicorn present, no one could stop the heavy spark cannon from sliding right off the side of the ship. Teldarlor roared angrily at the loss of his precious cannon. “Damn psykers! That cost me a fortune!”
Revealing Light shared his brethren’s ire, yet the arrival of a fellow pegasus stayed his tongue. “Sir, we did it! We broke through the doors and our troops are already flooding inside!”
“Good, get a move on before that gunship thinks to return,” Revealing Light pounced on the news and pulled Teldarlor away from the walls. “Forget the gunship, think of how much money the parasites will lose when we destroy this boat.”
Teldarlor bared his teeth at the prospect of revenge and nodded curtly at the pegasus. Revealing Light raced after the informant. Now that they had made it inside, the PCE were opening all of the exterior doors they could get to in order to help move everyone inside quickly. Revealing Light waited impatiently by the closest open door as his troops poured inside.
Revealing started to wonder why his soldiers were filing in non-stop, but his answer came when the door next to him opened up. Within was a large open chamber wholly alien to his expectations for a warship. The chamber mirrored the four decks worth of exterior doors with a wide catwalk ringing an open area that had support pillars crammed with empty slots and cubby holes. Lastly, there was a single large tube off center that transported shot and powder to the dorsal deck gun.
“This place could easily fit hundreds if not over a thousand souls,” Revealing Light thought aloud. “Just what kind of ship is this?”
Casting such concerns aside he grabbed the nearest warrior, a griffin. “You, get a team together and find your way to the engine room. I’ll head for the bridge.”
After giving a curt acknowledgement the griffin wormed his way through the growing crowd of bodies trying to cram inside the ship. The coughing chug of the damaged gunship and a spray of flak from outside was all the incentive the PCE needed to pile inside.
Revealing Light yelled as he threaded his way towards the front where the same griffins and sphinxes who were bashing their way into the hull in the first place were now trying to tear their way past the various hatches leading to the rest of the ship. A few brave souls tore open the deck gun's tube for a possible entry point, but no one could fit. It didn’t take Revealing Light long to find out that all of the exit points were sealed tight.
More stalling. They know time is against us. We might have to settle for just destroying the engine room before the parasites’ reinforcements arrive. “Hunter Vardance, how long until you’re through?”
The sphinx in question had a warhammer sheathed in violet energy that made each blow against the door dent the steel several inches. “Not long now,” Vardance grunted. “Cowards are hiding behind their walls like mewling babes. We didn’t even find a single defender in this... marshaling chamber.”
Several more ear stabbing bangs of steel on steel spoke of their effort as at least a dozen other sphinxes and griffins trying to breach the doors. Revealing Light scanned the dense gathering of his army, packed like sardines along the catwalks. “If I was the crew, I wouldn’t try to defend this chamber either. Far too many entry ways and not enough cover.”
Another slam of Vardance’s warhammer tore one of the hinges off the door, but the lock remained in place. “Aye. If they have any kind of warrior spirit, what little crew they have will be waiting in ambush.”
Vardance readied the final swing when the whole chamber resonated with a bone chilling dirge. The magic heavy song weighted upon the mind with a drumming that threatened to sap the will to fight from even the most battle hardened among them. It was quickly joined in by a choir singing in a language unrecognized by Revealing Light, but it was no less effective at worming its way into his head, filling him with an intangible terror and riddling him with doubt. Seperately, Revealing had the mental discipline to resist either piece, but the choir and drums together seemed to pull up every regret, every moment of doubt he ever had, and brought back the intense guilt he suffered from watching the two Equestrian troop ships being destroyed when the Deception crashed into them.
Some small part of him realized that the soul-weaking song wasn’t coming from a PA system, but from the very air itself as it permeated his mind.
“Psykira!” Vardance screamed in fresh rage. “We need a counter-song now!”
Revealing Light was sluggish in trying to fight the effects of the mind-bending dirge when he saw a runic array flash to life directly under Vardance. Dozens more of these arrays lit up all over the marshalling area.
Flashes of orange laced lavender light started popping up all over the chamber with people getting pushed away from the source. The one under Vardance shoved him aside like a ragdoll. Revealing Light barely managed to avoid the sailing sphinx and caught sight of the being who had materialized from the summoning circle. In that brief instant, where time seemed to slow to a crawl, Revealing Light witnessed a winged sphinx clothed in the drab blue armored uniform of the Phoenix Roost Navy scanning his surroundings for a target. The moment the sphinx locked eyes with Revealing Light, the pegasus saw the crimson brand of a stylized open eye on the tom’s forehead. The mark of a Psykira.
Aegis materialized at the very center of the marshalling chamber’s lowest deck with Burny held lovingly in her hands. Three clockwerks covered her back as she gazed upon the disoriented mass of PCE before her. Calling upon the Silver City, Aegis wrapped herself in the golden light of holy magic. With a malicious toothy grin, Aegis activated Burny's pilot light and aimed at the closest PCE, a pegasus stallion who was trying to fight the magical-dirge clawing in his head. “Need a light?”
The sphinxes were the first to recover from the dirge, and turned to face her with crackling gauntlets at the ready. With the clockwerks starting to wade into the PCE behind her, Aegis unleashed a gout of burning oil across everyone in front of her, cackling madly all the while.
More and more changelings and Psykira materialized from summoning arrays, adding more confusion and death. With the gunship driving off the PCE from the exterior, more Airborne swarmed over the surface and blocked the exits so no one could flee.
A pegasus darted at Aegis’ right side, away from her flamethrower arm, with arcane wings glowing a hot orange. Knowing she was too slow, Aegis let him strike her body-shield on her right leg, causing a stabbing pain in her horn and pushing her back. However, he had expected to slice clean through and stumbled askew when Aegis’ body remained in his wing’s way. Aegis twisted on her hooves and physically grabbed him by the neck, and threw his face into the steel floor.
Aegis kicked the pegasus away, far enough to roast him with a gout of flame. She kept firing while sweeping her flames across the PCE behind her who were starting to fend off the Clockwerks, with one of the automatones being smashed against two warhammers. The burning oil cooked them all, but left the clockwerks more or less intact.
Between the defending clockwerks and the fires surrounding her, Aegis gazed around to get her bearings. A fifth of the Airborne had managed to be summoned and were cutting their way through the enemy, but Aegis noticed the PCE were not panicking like they should have been. A changeling tried to stab a griffin with a bayonet, but the blow was parried by a pegasus while a second griffin came in from behind and skewered the drone.
Joining the din caused by the dirge was a new song in near perfect contrast to the first. The dirge's effect destabilized as the trio of sphinxes singing it were rendered mute for the next several hours. The dirge's collapse caused the battle to teeter as the PCE rallied. Many of the Airborne who were summoned in were either getting cornered, corralled towards their brethren, or being overwhelmed. It’s almost as if they don’t care their escape routes’ve been cut off.
Aegis felt the floor vibrate heavily with a loud clash of metal behind her. She spun around to find a massive Grecian tom with an equally huge hammer embedded in one of her clockwerk guards. He yanked his hammer free of the sputtering mound of twisted metal to face off against the remaining clockwerk and Aegis herself. “To think I get the honor of killing one of the queens personally. Know that your killer’s name is Hunter Teldarlor.”
“I’d tell you my name, but you already know. But I haven’t met my killer yet,” Aegis sneered as she readied Burny. The moment of inaction gave her time to bring her shield back to full strength. With Teldarlor standing between her and the remaining Clockwerk, Aegis quickly thought up a plan. “Clockwerk unit: Gamma Five Oh. Attack pattern theta!”
“Commencing.”
Teldarlor immediately spun around to slam his hammer into the charging Clockwerk, but the robot jumped over the blow while Aegis fired off a stream of burning oil. Teldarlor tumbled under the clockwerk and grabbed a spell orb. “By winter’s touch I shall not burn!”
The stream of oil froze in mid air as a cloak of bitingly cold frost surrounded Teldarlor in a whirling barrier. Aegis scowled, but noticed the cloak wavered as Teldarlor passed over a few of burning bodies. “You honestly think to use fire, parasite!
“Aaayup!” Aegis snarked back as she poured on the flaming oil. The clockwerk charged in from the left side of the ribbon of fire. Teldarlor’s hammer swung down at it, but the clockwerk vered to the side far before it would have reached him. Teldarlor tried to get back into a proper stance, but the unburnt oil was starting pool at his paws and soak into his fur and clothes. The oily reek alone threatened to curse him with dizziness. He tried to fly up and off the slippery floor, but the clockwerk dove in, pushing him back onto the floor, causing them to slid into a mound of cooked bodies.
“Let’s see your cloak defend you now!” Dropping her shield, Aegis conjured a fireball bigger than her head. The clockwerk kept Teldarlor pinned. Having no other resort, he let go of his hammer and grab a spell orb from his belt. “Rebuked!”
Aegis’ fireball fell apart while a slice of mana shot back into her horn, making her cry out and stumble in agony. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the stabbing pain, Aegis prepared a second fireball to spite Teldarlor’s instinctual fear of it.
“Censored!” he cried out, before the clockwerk could smack the orb out of his hand. Aegis nearly let go of Burny at the vice-like headache caused by the counterspell. She stumbled back with black spots forming before her eyes and the hive mind distorted from the agony.
The dizzy spell lingered, but it wasn’t enough to cause Aegis to take her eye off of Teldarlor. “Do that again, and I’ll have my buddy there turn you into a hoof puppet!”
Teldarlor grunted with effort in trying to keep the clockwerk from snapping his bones, yet he chanced a glance at Aegis who was recovering with agonizing slowness. “You’re not the only one with buddies, parasite.”
Clarity sliced through Aegis’ haze and she blindly dove aside barely a second before an arcane wing could cleave her skull. Revealing Light sailed past his intended target and opted to decapitate the clockwerk. The machine locked up, but not so much that Teldarlor was unable to pry it off of himself.
Aegis wavered as the aftereffects of the spell-feedback lingered. Trying to ignore the growing instability of her arcane magic, she launched a torrent of fire before her opponents could act against her. Teldarlor’s weakened cloak of frost couldn’t take the heat any longer and collapsed after barely a second. Revealing Light used Teldarlor as a distraction to close in on Aegis once more with his arcane wing and bloodied spear at the ready, confident his void armor would make any counterattack impossible.
Before Aegis could even think to redirect Burny, a Psykira tom intercepted him with an electrified wrist blade meeting Revealing’s left wing, edge to edge,and striking the haft of his spear. The magic on Revealing’s wing and spat against the blade’s electricity as the two forces vied for superiority. The spear however was broken completely in two, with the point flying away.
Yet it was the angle of attack that forced Revealing off balance. The Psykira’s second wrist blade would have lacerated the pegasus’ foreleg as well had Revealing not kicked the Psykira away and retreated to Teldarlor’s side.
The Psykira flapped his wings to fall back and shield Aegis. “Are you alright, your highness?”
Aegis twisted off the spent fuel canister and replaced it with her lone spare. “Nothing worse than a rough night at the pub. Thanks, Atomosal.”
Teldarlor and Revealing Light were hardly idle as Aegis recovered. Teldarlor reclaimed his warhammer while Revealing begrudgingly tossed his useless spear away and tried to think of an arcane wing pattern that could counter Atomosal's enchantment.
As the Airborne started to make progress in pushing the PCE away from the doors, Aegis’ patch of ground was getting ever more crowded with members of the PCE. The majority of the Airborne had either been killed or had joined with their siblings at the exits.
“Proto-Queen, I highly suggest we get out from the center before we have too many blades to contend with,” Atomosal warned as he saw the PCE was taking notice of them en masse.
If I try to burn them this close, some of them might run right at me and spread the oil on me. Remembering the layout of the ship, Aegis quickly found an unobtrusive hatch leading below deck. “Then let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
Meanwhile, Teldarlor could see the tide of battle turn once more, as the PCE could no longer keep any of the breaching teams at the doors leading further into the ship. It was obvious that the PCE were being herded towards the center of the marshalling chamber. He fished out the last of his intact spell orbs. “Damn it, Revealing, next time you better verify whether or not we’re assaulting a warship. I’m pulling us out of here!”
Revealing Light growled with impotent rage. “We’re not leaving until she dies!” Without waiting for a reply, Revealing charged headlong at Aegis.
Teldarlor spat a curse and pocketed the spell orb to chase after him with his hammer. “Stupid galkof!”
Aegis had just popped the hatch only to feel one of the last things she wanted at that moment: her eggs moving to be laid. She buckled over and clutched her abdomen. Not now! Movement to the side and above caught her eye. She fired off a sheet of flames to fend off the approaching threats.
Revealing Light’s warcry was barely enough to draw Aegis’ attention away from her imminent laying. “Arrgg, Atomosal, get in!” The aftereffects of two counterspells forced Aegis to fall to a knee as her body acted against her will.
Atomosal threw his bayoneted rifle at Revealing, forcing the pegasus to vear off and smack into one of the nearby pillars. “You first, your highness. You-” Atomosal risked looking back at Aegis only to see her lay an egg. Damn! Without asking, Atomosal unceremoniously shoved Aegis down the hatch, who was in no shape to stop him, while grabbing the first egg off the floor and barely snatching the second in his hand as the egg left Aegis on her way down.
Teldarlor caught Atomosal dead to rights with the Psykira in such an awkward position, hanging over the lip of the hatch, and sneered while swinging down with his warhammer to crush Atomosal’s spine. With no other recourse, Atomosal kicked off to fall into the room below, but the hammer struck a heavy hit on his left wing, crushing the bones within.
Aegis landed hard on her back at the bottom of the short ladder and was too busy trying to recover from the wind getting knocked out of her to even secure her growing collection of eggs, let alone check Atomosal. Atomosal himself yelped in pain as he crashed painfully on the hard metal floor beside Aegis. They found themselves in one of the small empty cubical armories that were barely larger than a doctor’s office.
Aegis stared daggers at Atomosal as she wheezed breathlessly. “Stop trying - to play - the hero.”
“Says the royal bug fighting on the front lines,” Atomosal shot back with a pained smirk, “while she can’t stop from laying eggs, no less!” With what tenderness he could muster, Atomosal handed over the two eggs he had rescued.
Aegis breathed a sigh of relief as she tried to collect the eggs that were still coming. However, neither of them had any opportunity to even think to call for help when three devices were dropped down the ladder with the hatch slamming shut behind them. Terror dawned on them after realizing what they were.
Grenades.
Aegis reacted in an instant to telekinetically fling them away, only to realize she tossed them at the only other exit, and nowhere nearly far enough to be safe.
Seeing only one recourse, Atomosal threw himself onto the devices, much to Aegis’ horror as the mare was telekinetically pushed open the lone exitway. Barely a moment later, the grenades exploded in a shower of hot shrapnel. Atomosal’s armor took the brunt of the explosion, yet the rest of him was blown apart in a hail of visceral. What was left of him was blasted back towards Aegis who was curled up in a fetal position. His armor slammed against the walls around her, with one piece slicing her left hind leg. Aegis was showered in blood and bone, with some of that shrapnel and bone digging into Aegis’ flesh, lacerating her in multiple places, and shredding her wings to tatters.
Aegis’ ears were ringing badly, but the last second shield around her head had kept the concussive force from killing her. She uncurled shakily with each piece of shrapnel ripping at her as she moved. The blast had destroyed the lights in the armory, casting her into complete darkness. Ignoring the digging pains, Aegis hastily unfolded herself to inspect her clutch. What she saw pushed the rest of the world out of focus. In her haste to protect herself, she had only gathered two of her eggs properly. The others had been exposed and were now little more than broken puddles of shell and yolk. Out of all of them, only those two eggs remained intact.
Aegis’ mind threatened to shut down at the sudden loss of her clutch. Yet Aegis didn’t get a chance to have a breakdown when a shaft of light appeared from above. Revealing Light dropped down with his wings burning with mana. He wasn’t facing Aegis immediately and feared she had made it through the blackened exit and into the curved and narrow hallway beyond. However, Aegis’ hard breathing drew his attention towards the proto-queen in the other side of the darkened room.
Aegis ignored the dozens of cutting pains as she shakily lifted Burny right as Revealing Light saw her. “That fire won’t kill me before I separate your wretched head from your shoulders.”
Rage. Hot burning rage rattled through Aegis like a demon. Aegis’ common sense warred with her fury. Burny rattled in her grip as she placed the last two remaining eggs into a wall-slot meant for a rifle. “You better hope you’re right,” Aegis replied with poisonous hate. “Because I assure you, your death will be drawn out for weeks.” She grabbed at the wall behind her to climb to her two legs.
“That won’t be happening,” Revealing said darkly. “Even if you burn me, I’ll only cover you with the same oil when I tackle you. I’ll gladly trade my life to take yours.” The dialogue had given Aegis enough time to remember the pegasus was wearing leather armor embedded with void stone. “For Equestria!” Revealing shouted as he charged her.
Aegis let go of Burny while bringing up a holy shield. She balled her right fist and punched him with all of her mounting fury in the face. The blow threw Revealing off course, but not enough to keep his wing from raking Aegis’ shield. The impact lanced pain all through Aegis’ injuries, but it also forced her to turn with Revealing Light as he collided with the far wall. That gave Aegis a chance to grab onto his wings at the root. Her shield fought with his arcane wing, sending sparking mana everywhere. She roared with indignant rage while Revealing screamed with intense pain as he strained to free his wings.
“I don’t know how you managed to smuggle so many of you bastards into the gorge.” Aegis twisted his wings, dislocating them at the shoulder. The act made Revealing shriek in unbridled pain with his magic cutting out. “But you’re going to tell us one way or another.”
In a moment of clarity, Revealing lashed out with his hind legs and blindly bucked Aegis in the right leg, crashing through her weakened shield and throwing her to the floor. Aegis yelled as knives of burning agony lanced through her after falling on her shredded wings. She instinctively tried to grab Burny in her magic, but Revealing’s proximity with his void stones made her efforts slip around her weapon like water over a rock.
“Damn you, Teldarlor, get down here!” Revealing demanded up at the ceiling hatch as he tried to fight back the pain in his wings to finish Aegis off. The proto-queen was bleeding from dozens of cuts all over her body, and she was staggering badly in an attempt to crawl over to her fallen weapon. Unfortunately for him, his dislocated wings shot crippling pain into him at every movement he made, thanks to the feathery appendages hanging limply around his body. The most he could muster was climbing to three hooves.
“Sorry, boss, but the parasites are closing in. We’re bugging out before they can block our exit strategy.”
“Don’t you dare!” Revealing roared with shocked anger. “She’s not dead yet!” He looked back at Aegis to finish her off. Bearing the full fury of his hell-storm of pain, Revealing jumped at Aegis intending to crush her neck if that's what it took.
However, Aegis had finally grabbed Burny with her hands. Using what was left of her strength, she swung its armored side at Revealing’s face, clocking him in the side of the head, and knocking him back towards the far wall. She propped herself up on one hoof, while the other arm shakily raised Burny. However, the sheer scope of her injuries was taking its toll.
Aegis was breathing heavily to stave off the drowsiness from bloodloss. The stench of Atomosal’s charred remains and the reek of her broken eggs made her trigger finger tighten around Bruny. “I should kill you.”
Revealing Light tried to kick her good leg out from under her, but Aegis stumbled backwards to prop herself against a wall, but still plenty close for the flamethrower. Having failed in his assassination, Revealing Light simply glared at Aegis from his prone position on the floor. His pain was so intense he was starting to blackout. “Then do it, parasite!” Revealing goaded.
Ragged breathing and her heart pounding in her ears was all Aegis could hear at that moment. Revealing Light spawned a twin as her vision started swimming from the blood loss. Burny rattled in her shaky hands. Aegis couldn’t even use her magic which had been badly destabilized by the corrosive counterspells and the proximity of the void stones. Burny only stayed on target every few seconds or so. Even in her anger, Aegis couldn’t summon enough strength to pull the trigger. She was too drained to bother thinking about the risk of burning herself this time. The stench of broken bone and sinew was almost overpowering now that her blood loss and full body pain were taking the edge of her adrenaline-fueled hate away.
A massive wave of mana from above heralded a collective gasp of surprise from the hive mind. Aegis heard an echoing sound of hoofsteps from the side passage at the far side of the armory. The moment she saw they were drones, the last of her strength fell away. Aegis let go of Burny and both she and the weapon fell to the floor unconscious.
Some time later, Aegis awoke to a blinding light and leaden limbs. For the longest time, she couldn’t summon the will to bother going further than that. She had a soft bed, warm sheets, and the gentle song of the hive mind; what more could a changeling want?
“Ah, so you’re finally coming around,” said a brusk feminine voice off to the side. “I thought you might.”
Lazyitis reigned a little while longer, resulting in Aegis trying to pass off as still being asleep. Awake or not, she still felt exhausted.
“I hope you don’t plan on letting this clutch go without a love feeding too I hope.”
It took a few seconds, but Aegis’ brain finally synapsed. Her eyes shot open and she bolted to a sitting position. At least that was the plan. Her muscles cramped, making her yelp and fall over.
Blinking, Aegis looked around to get her bearings. She was in her chambers at the hive’s palace. The morning sun was angled perfectly through the sweeping window to jab her in the eyes. Although that was mostly because the bed had been moved. Resta was the only other person in the room, and she was currently glancing between Aegis and a clip board hovering in her magic.
“Well, at least your subconscious priorities are still intact, that’s a good sign.” Resta gave Aegis a bemused frown. “Shocking, given how the royals of our family are such danger junkies.”
The cramps in Aegis’ back and legs went from paralyzing to a throbbing ache. “My eggs! Are they okay?!”
Resta huffed and exaggeratingly rolled her eyes. “You haven’t laid today’s clutch. I merely said that to get you up.”
The very mention of eggs brought the last few minutes of the battle back to her mind’s eye. Aegis shrank into herself as her loss returned in full clarity. “I - I.” A sorrow that surpassed even what she’d felt at Riposte’s death clung to Aegis like a leech. “I was so stupid going out there like that.”
“We all make mistakes,” Resta replied gruffly. Aegis looked at her with reddened eyes and disbelief. Resta grumbled irritably. “I’m not going to elaborate, but there’s been more siblings who died under my knife than I care to admit.”
“At least they got a chance at life…”
“Sure doesn’t make them dying on me any better you know,” Resta stated bluntly. Aegis shot her a death glare, not that it stopped Resta from continuing in the least. “Like I keep telling our mothers,” Resta chastised while poking Aegis’ bandaged abdomen, making the proto-queen fume even harder. “You royals have countless changelings inside each of you, waiting their turn at a chance at life. Yes, you lost ten, sad loss to be sure, but if you die going off on some fool’s errand on a battlefield, all those changelings just die with you.”
“Probably died ‘cause of your horrible bedside manner,” Aegis retorted spitefully.
“And yet she’s completely right,” said a new voice from the door.
Aegis rolled her head over to see Cadista standing in the doorway. Aegis tried to sit up and look presentable, but that only served to agitate all the wounds along her right side, resulting in them reminding her of their presence. “Acg!” Aegis rolled back over to lay on her left side.
The various bandages along her right side developed spots of bright crimson when the wounds beneath them reopened. Resta was quick to act and weaved a spell to keep Aegis from thrashing around and making things worse. “Hold still. Damn PCE made healing magic useless.”
“Useless!?” Aegis asked incredulously through clenched teeth.
“Aye,” Cadista answered as she waited for Resta to do her part in ensuring Aegis would recover. When Aegis settled down, she continued while Resta changed the soiled bandages. “Those grenades they used on you were heavily laced with the same toxin that originally forced me to rebirth your mother.”
Aegis searched her memories at the mention. “Wait, you mean ghast spider venom? How did the PCE get ahold of that?”
Cadista considered telling her the source of her information, but thought better of it for the moment. “The black market. Once word got out about how Twilight couldn’t be healed by magic, criminals and assassins alike wanted that spider. It took a few years, but they’ve clearly succeeded in their efforts.
“It’s because of this exact sort of thing that Yumia and I starting going down the path of technology with limited reliance on magic.”
Resta applied some salve on Aegis’ opened wounds. “Don't want all your eggs in one basket, and all that?”
Aegis shot the doctor a scathing glare at the mention of eggs. “Fine, whatever. I messed up, bad.”
Cadista walked over so she could affix a grandmotherly soft grin at Aegis. She gently scratched Aegis’s mane. “It takes a lot to admit such things to one’s self, especially for royals.”
Aegis hissed in pain as Resta inspected her patient's back. The wings are a total loss. The venom’s saturated everything. It’d take months to purge. Better to cut them off and let the roots regrow naturally from there. “Please keep it brief, your highnesses, but I have to prep her for one last surgery.”
Aegis slackened, sinking into her bed. “I was at least hoping I wouldn’t have to face this until after my kids were adults at least.”
“It’s always a risk we must endure.” Cadista knew Aegis was strong enough to bottle those sorrows until the next Day of Mourning. “But it is ultimately worth it in the long run. Provided you stay off the field of battle. It’s no place for a queen.”
Aegis somehow found the will to give her grandmother a weak smile. “I am my mother’s daughter.”
Cadista huffed disapprovingly. “Yes, and with all the faults that come with it.” When Aegis’ grin didn’t waver Cadista shook her head, but had no real ill will in it. “There are worse faults to have, I suppose.”
Resta moved on to inspect Aegis’ hind legs, and had a bed-pulley prop one leg up for ease of access. “You mean like lacking common sense half the time?”
“Well if I had your level of common sense,” Aegis grumbled, “I’d be just as fun as you are at funerals.” Resta didn’t remark, however she moved away when a nurse arrived with surgical tools. Aegis looked back at Cadista. “We won though at least, right?”
At last, Cadista matched Aegis’ smile. “Aye, that you did. The Steamrunner ultimately suffered only minor damage. Nothing a few days back in port can't fix if we work around the clock. The Airborne didn’t fair so well. Although I’d like to attribute that due to the lack of ammunition.
“As for the PCE, those we didn’t kill were whisked away, likely with the same method the archmage used to abduct Twilight in Canterlot.”
“And the pegasus who was next to me?”
“Intel ‘La ‘Gence is interrogating him now,” Cadista replied with a dark smirk. “But she’s only doing that until I return.”
Aegis dropped eye contact to stare off in the distance. She could only imagine how unpleasant that would prove. “...Good.”
When Cadista didn’t elaborate further, Aegis decided not to press. “They’ll still be ready on time right? The Airborne, I mean.”
“Don’t worry, Blitz is making sure of that.” Cadista looked to Resta who wordlessly gestured to the nurses that she wanted to begin. “Take care, Aegis.”
Aegis watched Cadista stand protectively over her as Resta’s sleep spell started to take hold. “I… will...”
Cadista patted Aegis’ head before stepping away to let Resta move Aegis onto a portable operating table. Without further preamble, Cadista departed Aegis’ quarters only to find Twilight Sparkle puppeting one of the nearby Queen’s Guard.
“Looks like I was too late to speak with her.”
Making sure to close the door behind her, Cadista spotted a small nook to sit down. “She’s fine, my daughter. Though she won’t be flying for a couple of months.”
Twilight cantered over to join Cadista on the uncomfortable bench. It was one of the few that was still a holdover from when Phoenix Castle was still a colony ship. “You may not care for it, mother, but the Steamrunner might very well have been lost if Aegis hadn’t been there.”
All Twilight got out of Cadista with that point was a mild frown conceding the point. “Her paranoia was partially correct at least. The griffin freighter had been paid off to distract the gunship, but-” Cadista remembered that Twilight and Rainbow were both right in harm’s way in the middle of the war torn jungle. “Forget it. I speak to deaf ears.”
It took Twilight a few seconds to realize what her mother was referring to. “It’s the pony in us.”
“So I feared.” Cadista couldn’t help but to huff at Twilight's knowing grin. She loves to test me every now and then. “Seeing how the hive mind isn’t in turmoil, I assume your assault against Polybia was successful.”
Twilight tilted her head and shrugged. “Yes and no. We stopped Polybia’s advance, but her feral undead are proving difficult to root out and eliminate. It’s costing us time since the Long Shot is too exposed to continue on its own.”
Cadista nodded sagely. She brooded until a new drone cantered by and delivered some soda for Twilight. “Sorry, mother, but he asked for this, and I didn’t realize you were borrowing him.”
Chuckling, Twilight took the soda and waved off any discomfort. “Don’t worry about it, Candy Cane.” She took the tall glass complete with a bendy straw into her magic, before sending Candy Cane on her way. Twilight loosened her control enough for her puppet to take some long drags on the soda while Cadista silently communed with the Link to get a clearer picture on the battle’s aftermath. Wow, this cherry soda’s not bad.
Cadista was still going over the carrier’s battle, highly enjoying that her intuition about the carrier was being vindicated. Twilight was doing the same with the soda, when Rolled Scroll contacted her. <My queen, I have news from Princess Celestia.> Twilight hesitated before taking another drink. <In an hour, she’s going to make a public announcement where she’s committing several Equestrian warships to the fight against Polybia and Grogar>
<“She what!?”> Twilight yelled bugged eyed. Cadista gave her a worried look, prompting Twilight to include her on the conversation. <But this is a changeling matter. The public won’t accept it!>
<Not to mention that those ponies have no idea what they’d be getting into,> Cadista added in agreement.
<I thought the same,> Rolled Scroll added worriedly. <Though I didn’t think it my place to voice such objections.>
Twilight looked to her mother who ultimately shook her head. “Do what you think is best, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded slowly. <Scroll, let me borrow you. I need to speak with Celestia about this before she goes public.>
<My body is yours, as always, my queen.>
In her haste, Twilight departed the guard's body without thinking, leaving him in a very embarrassing position next to Cadista. She watched the poor guard run off to recompose himself. The empty drinking glass nearly rolled off the bench, forcing Cadista to catch it. So many unexpected side effects in Twilight’s bloodline. None of my drones ever had such a… compromising reaction to puppeting.
She sniffed the syrupy scent coming from the glass with curiosity. It wasn’t unpleasant, yet hardly appealing to her. So many side effects. I trust Twilight can set things right with Celestia’s daft plan.
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Is the name of the chapter 'New Chapter'?
6703379
Curses!!!
It's fixed now. Thanks for the heads up, or that might have lasted far too long.
6703415
Glad to be of help, even a lil bit
Fitting Punishment for Revealing Light.
REBIRTH
They seriously need to put a NMM emote on here.
Yay new chaper. More give me more.
6703471 agreed
6703471
They did say they needed more testing to make it safe en mass...
Life as a lab rat isn't so bad...
...at least not when your alternative is public execution for genocide and regicide.
6703471 I LIKE IT!
And then shown to the public!
And yes, we need villain emotes
Update did not show up for me. I only saw it because it was featured.
Wow that was awesome.
6703718 That's only if they learn about it. They could keep it a secret.
Found an error while reading
the first "the" should be removed.
Will now continue to enjoy the chapter.
as always, a very nice chapter. The story is gaining tempo.
I like how you are starting to let Aegis learn the lessons RD is still learning at not even half RD's age.
Also I'd really like to see just HOW Intel La'Gence and Cady are going to interrogate him.
I'm looking forward to the next chapter
I didn't get any update notification for this. Had I not spotted it in the feature boy by pure luck I would have missed this chapter.
Good chapter.
Since the hive mind is not a hindrance here, it should be:
6703748
What no what what are you doing stop
Please delete your comment it is more cringeworthy than a dozen black and red alicorn OC's
Please
6703748
I just read your story you posted what the WHY GOD WHY DID I READ IT
WHY ARE YOU SPAMMING YOUR OWN STORY IDEA IN ANOTHER PERSON'S ESTABLISHED STORY
IT IS AWFUL
YOU ARE AWFUL
I CANT GET IT OUT OF MY GEAD ASAGGHG
My question is, why isn't there a portal between Canterlot and PR? If Twi can make one with some scrap and a toaster from one end of the world to the other, wouldn't it be fairly trivial to keep a link between the two capitals? For that matter, wouldn't Celestia be capable of multi-jump teleports, even if she couldn't cover a lengthy distance all at once? Exhaustion may be a concern for normal unicorns, but I doubt Sunbutt would have that problem.
6703748 Go away.
While I read the fight, I listened to the Kongos Come With Me Now. It went REALLY well with it.
6703748 buddy, delete this. this is really bad form to be doing something like this when its not asked.
in the comments at that.
6704049the same thing happened to me
6704594
On the off-chance that they might actually have a weapon that can put her out of commission, royalty is never allowed on the front lines unless the kingdom can ONLY be saved by them. What happens if Celestia and/or Luna dies?
static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutie_remark_part_2.png
There may still be Luna, but Celestia's the most experienced and recognized of the diarchs until the last generation dies out. If she goes down, Equestria is not only vastly weakened and vulnerable physically and politically, but the day/night cycle that the planet requires to stay alive may not even run if one of them is -dead- rather than just imprisoned like Luna was. Do you want to risk the whole world on something like that?
6707199 Yet she personally intervened during the attack on Twi's pony family.
6707719
She was in Canterlot, her home base and the seat of her power. I also think it was a bit impulsive. This Celestia seems consumed by the need to do what's right - very different from chessmaster Celestia or Godlestia that I usually like.
Running out into a battle away from home = asking for something to go wrong.
Doom hovers ever closer...
6707748 I'd agree with you were we discussing anyone else, but given what we saw in her last appearance, I suspect she can take care of herself.. and she knows it.
The triumphant return of Burny!!!
With Celestia going public we think it might draw out the PCE or cause them to redirect fully into a criminal organization. Before at least they had the guise that perhaps Celestia couldn't outright come out against changelings, but now they have no such wall. Won't stop them, but now we can be fully justified in our hate for them.
Keep going! ;)
Poor Aegis, having to lay eggs in the middle of battle and then immediately having most of them destroyed? I hope she'll be more careful when it comes to keeping out of danger.
For some reason this chapter decided to not show up in my update list. Great chapter though, I was worried about Aegis there for a while.
Pretty irrelevant for me to talk about, but here I go anyway
:
I like to think of teleportation as two spells in one:
The first being a spatial awareness spell, that expands from the caster in the form of a bubble, however, its speed is determined by the amount of information it has to take in, which increases exponentially, meaning that as it gets larger, it very quickly slows down, making long distance teleports very very time consuming to do in one go - it can be sped up linearly with magic, but as it's a linear increase versus an exponential decrease, it still limits the spell's distance severely relative to the time it takes.
The second is the actual bending on time space, think of the line between the caster and the destination as a line, to traverse that distance you have to bend the line so that it forms a circle, with the start and end points overlapping, the longer the line, the larger the circle, and the magic used is described by the circle's area, which increases exponentially with circumference, making long teleports very very energy consuming.
The time and energy consumption can be brought down a lot through short teleports in rapid succession, but using spells is also mentally taxing, and using that many of them very quickly is extremely hard and takes incredible concentration.
My thoughts were that it wouldn't do too much good since the remaining PCE are zealots and would see Celestia as an impostor or as being controlled.
Granted it could have caused some confusion, hesitation and served as a distraction.
Hey is there a PayPal or something I can send you money on or support you. Its not much but I want to give you something in return for this awesome story you have written
6711794
As terrible as it was to see her lose the potential of those eggs it was a lesson she desperately needed. Though Aegis has been in battle more than once, "War is Hell" never really clawed into her soul. Sure, she's lost siblings and that hurts, but as any parent can attest, siblings are nothing compared to a mother's Child. Up to this point Aegis has seen battle as only a soldier and commander- the lustful thrill of the hunt, joyful destruction of one's foe, righteous pleasure in avenging the fallen. She now must face that most shattering reality, the true cost. She must accept that she is too big to fill the singular role of soldier, her childhood exploded with the grenade that claimed Atomosal as well as her progeny.
Thus our Aegis begins the most poignant and painful aspect of her growth into Queen.
6728590 I agree completely.
welp here is the funny bit, the sphinxs have played there card, the psykira know they where involved and it well spread through the hives and equestria, the alliance may as well be over because the sphinxes have commited an act of war with no possible way of shielding themselves from it, and no psykira to protect them.
It's the pigasus!
i.imgur.com/nv7ihh3.jpg
6743463
That pic looked like the tastiest food ever. I wonder what bacon wings taste like, or whatever flying pig wings are called?
Can we have one of Twilight's drones say, "My body is ready" when she asks to take over them?
I don't understand what happens to drones after the queen puppets them.
6781656 They get aroused. Very Aroused.
6785365
Or maybe theyre easily aroused that would answer a question twilight in the book before last "Why are all my children always thinking about sex" may have gotten that quote wrong its been a awhile.
Please tell me that when the 24 hour grace period is over, Celestia is going to strip the remaining PCE members of their citizenship, declaring them enemy combatants unlawfully operating within her Nation, and will be dealt with accordingly.
...also, that comment Resta made... The last two eggs didn't make it either, did they.
Make Light a changling with faulty disguise magic then I would say exile him but then he'll either kill himself or somehow through plot convenience find Polyibia. So I say we give him to Ageis to play with when she gets bored...! Better idea give him to R&D for live fire experimentation make him useful until he starves of love deprivation.
7072651
Better, make him a Quasi (going full Ling would be too good for him), then use him for experimentation. That or give him to Schadenfreude with the stipulation that he lives to see the end of his natural life ... if not kept around for longer than natural. I'm sure a Fel Weaver will be able to make it last a long, long, long time before Light dies.
Corrections offered without malice.
automata
Your Highness (all five times)
viscera.
fare
Grogar.>
bug-eyed
know where Celestia
Counterpoint: reaching (sun/moon) or back takes minutes at best. Celesti and Lūn probably can do so even if no others can. Also:ley-line transit.
automatons
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