The Crystal Vizier

by Lich-Lord Krosis

War Crimes

The lich grinned again as his subject screamed for him, the flayed flesh of the undead stallion's sides indicating the source of the excruciating pain he was experiencing. Fire Fight, or whatever his name ACTUALLY was, was little more than a stumped torso with half a head at this point. In a bit for panic-inducing immobility, Kel'Thuzad had severed his fore and hind legs at the shoulders, leaving him basically helpless.

"P-P-Please..." Fire Fight wheezed heavily, his lungs quite obviously damaged from the abuse the lich had dealt him within the past hours. The changeling hacked and coughed horribly, before spitting up a glob of partially congealed green mucus and blood.

At the changeling's plea, Kel'Thuzad unclasped his hand, a large, thin icicle forming into his palm. In a swift, merciless move, the icicle was buried in the stallion's remaining eye socket, a fountain of slush-like blood pouring from the now screaming stallion's eye.

With a grin, the mage twisted, half-formed pleas for mercy still pouring from his muzzle, intertwined with spurts of blood. Snarling in pent-up frustration and anger at his prisoner, he pushed forwards with his unholy strength, the dagger-like tip of the icicle penetrating into his brain cavity, silencing the strangled cries for mercy. With a mighty heave, the undead mage lifted the mangled corpse of Fire Fight, and promptly stuck him to the crystal wall of the cell, using the icicle as a nail.

With a snort of annoyance, Kel'Thuzad turned away from his prisoner's corpse.

This is the FIFTH DAMN TIME.

In the beginning, he had simply asked. But of course, whomever had sent this changeling was quite sure of their abilities to NOT talk.

So, the torturing began.

Now, nearly fifteen hours later, he had gotten next to nothing on the changeling's motives, even after severing his legs, tearing off his wings, literally unscrewing his horn, flaying several cubic feet of skin and chitin from his body, and nearly frying him with a half hour dose of cold-fire.

As much as he hated to admit it, the first torturing process that he had performed in nearly a millennia was sickeningly refreshing. His last personal prisoner was a captured Argent Knight-Paladin, whom had broken after only the second resurrection.

He was quite pitiful, considering their devotion and discipline...

*Knock Knock Knock*

"What?!" an impatient and annoyed Kel'Thuzad roared, a yelp sounding from the opposite side of the wooden door to the dungeon.

"S-S-Sir... Prince Shining Armor requests your presence..." a timid-sounding guard whimpered from the other side. The lich sighed.

Don't know what I'm exactly supposed to tell him...

"Very well. Tell him I will be there momentarily..." Kel'Thuzad muttered, his tone betraying his annoyance with Fire Fight's resistance.

"B-But s-s-sir... I didn't tell..." the stallion began.

"That will be all!" Kel'Thuzad snapped, the guard yelping at the Archlich's booming voice once more, before galloping away from the dungeon. With the last of the guard's hoofsteps fading away form earshot, the lich sighed, before looking back to his... prisoner.

"Stick around." the lich darkly joked, the destroyed, horribly scarred carcass predictably not responding. With a single slice from Bloodsurge, a portal was opened to his master's location.

The throne room...

Kel'Thuzad mentally prepared himself for the trying mental task of ignoring the incompetent requests and demands of the nobles of the Crystal Court, before floating through the portal, into throne room. There, he found his rulers sitting atop their thrones, with a changeling prostrated before them, pleading for her miserable life.

.........

Wait... HER!

In a move with speed that surprised even the archlich, he threw a single chain forwards, the blade-like tip shooting in and out of her hooves, the holes used to lighten their insect-like bodies providing excellent leverage and position for a hogtie.

He had no idea who she was, but yet the lich felt nothing but fury when he saw her before his king and queen. With a whipping motion, the oddly large changeling was upside-down before him. Her eyes were bloodshot and watering, the deep pools of green actually showing genuine fear and horror at the sight of the lich's nightmarish appearance.

At closer inspection, her complexion was scarred and beaten, bruises of green matting her blackened, chitin-like skin. A patch of raw skin decorated the top of her head, near the middle of her mane. She whimpered, and the lich grinned evilly at her predicament, a low chuckle issuing from deep within his metaphorical chest.

"Kel'Thuzad!"

Kel'Thuzad turned to look at his queen, her firm address catching him off-guard. Lady Cadence had a look of sadness and concern decorating her face, yet his king seemed impassive to the changeling's plight, almost as if he wished the archlich to continue with his actions.

"Yes, my lady?" Kel'Thuzad asked, silencing the squirming changeling with a tighter grip.

"Let. Her. Go." Cadence droned, sternly. Shining turned to her, a look of utter disbelief plastering his face.

"Cady! This is the... the... BITCH that locked you up for two weeks! You would have DIED if you weren't an alicorn, Cadence!" Shining argued, a whimper of fear coming from the Archlich's prisoner, her form writhing desperately. "She brainwashed me, fooled everyone in Canterlot, and attempted to use me as a food source! And you want to just let her GO?!" Shining continued, his voice becoming deeper the further he went on.

"YES!" Cadence screeched. "She is not a threat to us, especially now that Kel is here... I at least want to hear her plea, Shiny..." Cadence looked to the changeling, who's form was now being relinquished to the ground with a dull thud, Kel'Thuzad dropping her beaten and bruised form to the crystal flooring with a *thud*.

"If I may, your highness, I wish to have a few words with her, first..." Kel'Thuzad requested, Cadence nodding hesitantly at the question. "Thank you." Kel'Thuzad smiled, before turning with a speed faster than he knew he could move, directly into the changeling's face.

"Know this, worm..."

"If you attempt ANY trickery on my watch, I will make sure you will never walk, talk, fly, or breathe again." Kel'Thuzad sternly voiced his thoughts, the changeling backing into the pillar he had her pinned up against as far as she could. She nodded, quickly, a few tears of fear coming from her eyes as the lich withdrew, floating back up to his impressive height.

"She's all yours..." Kel'Thuzad sneered, his form moving to float next to his master's throne. As he did, he noticed a barely perceptible smirk coming from his king's muzzle, the stallion obviously pleased with his intimidations.

"I... I... I... I cannot say I am sorry for what I have done..." Chrysalis droned plainly, a few tears of pain falling from her eyes as the heavy beating she had received continued to burn her body's energy. "I did it for my children. Nothing more, nothing less." Chrysalis took a few, shaky breaths. "But... I am sorry for what pains I have caused. I wished only to find a reliable source of food for my little ones..." Chrysalis looked carefully to Shining, who's massive wings were now flared in anger. "I never meant for anypony to die..."

"Well, they did. And their blood is on your hooves, Chrysalis." Shining glared daggers at the changeling queen, his eyes starting to glow light blue as his anger and fury continued to boil. "Fifty-eight stallions died defending their homeland from YOUR kind, parasite!" Shining barked, Chrysalis wincing at his insults before returning to her steadfast state.

"And how many changelings do you think DIED trying to take Canterlot, Shining Armor?" Chrysalis spat, the lich across the room a hair away from disintegrating her face with a blast of necromantic energies.

"Not enough, obviously..." Shining muttered, Cadence gasping at his animosity.

"SHINING!" Cadence gasped, her husband's animalistic attitude and behavior starting to worry the princess.

"Seven hundred thirty-three. I can recite each and every one of their names and ranks, if you wish." Chrysalis frowned, new tears starting to bud at the corners of her double-lidded eyes.

"That wont be necessary, Chrysalis." Cadence stopped her husband by interjecting before he provoked a fight that the changeling queen would obviously lose. "I believe in peace, in all ways, is superior to violence. I don't wish for our cultures and species to suffer needlessly from a personal vendetta between their rulers."

"I... I couldn't agree more." Chrysalis stated, still wary of the fuming prince across the room, the lich next to him eyeing her, but not showing any emotions whatsoever. "Which is why I have a proposition."

"Please."

"I humbly request safety and asylum for the shattered remnants of my hive. We number only in the few hundred. Our home in the badlands is obscured and disfigured and destroyed by civil war between hives after the failed invasion..." Chrysalis half-asked half-pleaded. "In return, I will do whatever you wish of me, whether that be execution or imprisonment." The changeling queen bowed slowly, her bruised body shaking horribly as she attempted to keep her balance.

.........

"I accept, on one condition." Cadence responded, after several minutes of silence. The princess stepped down from her throne, marching regally up to the injured queen. Kel'Thuzad's body grew tense as he prepared a frostbolt, the lich FAR from ready to trust the queen just yet.

"Anything!" Chrysalis pleaded, her eyes showing genuine, not faked concern for her children and subjects.

"We look at eachother as equals, not enemies." Cadence smiled gently. Chrysalis recoiled at the gentle touch of the goddess, her hooves helping her up to her full height.

"I... I accept." Chrysalis choked.

"Excellent. You will be given a small area in the northern district of the city to settle. If you, or any of your kind attempt to hurt or trick anypony, our deal is revoked, and you will be pushed back out into the snow." Cadence said, dead seriousness poisoning her voice.

"Also, I want to know why you sent an assassin to kill me if you sought peace, not war..."

.........

"Assassin? I sent no assassin."

Comments

[wlam]

Shiny is really turning into a major asshole. Kind of a departure in tone from how this story started out.

[Rammy]

uh oh...

[Arcane Howitzer]

6961973
Yeah, we lose more Lich Kings that way. They're usually fine for the first few weeks, but before you know it they're all, "WORLD DOMINATION!" this and "ALL WILL SERVE!" that.

It's probably just the stress that comes with the position.

[Lich-Lord Krosis]

6961973
6961996
To be fair, she did basically enslave him, imprison his fiancé, and attempt a hostile takeover of Canterlot. I'd be pretty pissed at her to.

[wlam]

6961996
Nicely put.

6961999
Be that as it may, sending Kelly out to torture information from the dead changeling may have been a bit much. It kind of goes against the things you've been trying to establish about both of their characters so far. The sheer sadistic glee Kelly feels in this chapter kind of makes that whole "I was just enslaved and never wanted to do any of this" sentiment feel pretty hollow.

[Arcane Howitzer]

6961999
Are you saying he's not cracking from the weight of his new crown? Like I said, give it a few weeks...

[Lich-Lord Krosis]

6962007
There was a comment I made a while back about that. As long as everyone plays nice with Kel'Thuzad and his buddies, no shit goes down. He is a cold and calculating wizard, battle hardened and warforged. He knows what needs to be done, and he might as well use his previous knowledge to do this. Also, think about the Helm of Domination, still waiting to be purified and repurposed. Kel hasn't had the time to tinker with it as of late, for obvious reasons. By what we've learned about it so far, the previous Lich Kings may be quite salty about being trapped inside of it.

The point is, there is a reason they are acting this way, and why Kel is starting to revert suddenly back into his trademark viciousness and sadism.

So yes, in short, Shining is definitely starting to crack...

[wlam]

6962025
Fair enough, I suppose. It would help if you hinted at this kind of thing a bit more strongly in-story. The helmet hasn't really even come up since the very beginning, so giving people no real clues to its responsibility here can understandably be enough make the characterization feel kind of inconsistent.

[Dipti]

Well things got complicated some one else wants Candence dead.

[Gobeman]

Assassin? I sent no assassin."

*scene where our Lich pulls the ehhh undead? changeling's "corpse" into the room*

[lolitsjack]

6963279
Make it happen author.

[Lich-Lord Krosis]

6964058
There's not much left to him to drag...
And it might not be good for political standing to bring a filleted and butchered undead changeling into the room with the former queen of the race...

[Bazing]

6964105 So? If it was an assassin then that's not good for political negotiations either.

[Sigmacipher]

6964105 Or she might be able to figure out who sent him/her and why...

Him/her shorthand for "Shapeshifter, so we have no reliable way to tell if there is a gender let alone which one."