Of Heaven and Earth

by Garuda IV

Chapter 64- Retaking Equestria: Part IV

It had taken a while for Celestia and a contingent of her guards to fight through the swarm of changelings that had targeted them, but there was only so much that the changelings could do to them without getting close, especially once Luna and her thestrals entered the fray and provided cover for Celestia and her rescue team. Now, after roughly twenty minutes of fighting, they had clear away from the battle above and traversed the cave entrance leading deep into the mountain. Of course, while she wanted to save her little ponies from their captivity and return up above to help as soon as possible, she also didn't want to rush in and get herself captured by Chrysalis' changelings once more. As such, the speed in which she led her guards was a more cautious one that would let them keep an eye out for any traps or ambushes that may have been set for any who tried sneaking in.

As the minutes passed and the sounds of battle faded behind them, the cave began to transition from stone to crystal. Soon afterwards, they came across a group of six changelings that had been standing guard. While Celestia's guards leveled their spears towards the changelings, Celestia had a different plan. After quietly ordering her guards to shield their eyes, she then it her horn and created a bright flash of light that reflected off of the many crystalline surfaces, blinding the changelings as they held their faces from the pain emanating from their eyes before her guards knocked them out and hid their unconscious bodies.

Without a word, they continued forward deeper into the cave until it once again transitioned, this time from the crystals they were expecting to surfaces covered in hardened changeling resin that reminded Celestia of the interior of the Hive from what brief moments she saw of it during her capture.

"We're getting close now," Celestia quietly warned, looking back to see them all silently nod at her.

Moments later, they exited the tunnel and entered one of the many chambers of the crystal mine which, much like the last portion of the cave, was also covered in a layer of resin. Recalling the layout of the mine's tunnel systems, Celestia looked over the different caves that branched out from the chamber before motioning towards the direction of one specific tunnel. However, as they got half-way there, the sounds of buzzing wings echoed throughout the chamber. Unsure of which direction they were coming from, Celestia decided to play it safe and shrouded herself and her guards in a dome of invisibility, as well as a silencing spell to mask their hoofsteps and the clanking of their armor.

With the new spells in place, Celestia, still being able to see her guards and vice versa within the dome, motioned for them to follow her. Swiftly and silently, they exited the chamber and headed down the path she believed the captives to be held. As they traveled undetected down the tunnel, Celestia suddenly came to abrupt halt as her head jerked towards the south with worry and confusion as she felt a familiar spike in magic. A second later, she brought a hoof up to the side of her head as she felt a sudden pressure begin to form, almost as though something was exerting their will over her own. Though initially confused as to what had happened, Celestia's eyes quickly widened as she realized that she had, for the briefest moment, lost control of her sun.

---

Up in the skies of Canterlot, Luna flew with her thestral guards as they battled alongside the pegasi against the airborne changelings. Brief flashes of light from the eclipsed sun flickered off of her silvery sword as she danced and carved her way through scores of her enemies, while her guards, moving swiftly as ever, wasted no time as they engaged their target and finished them with a single, well-placed strike, before moving on to the next one unfortunate enough to catch their attention. But, even though she was enjoying herself, Luna made sure not to get carried away and charge ahead of the others. The last thing she needed right now was to rush in to the heart of the enemy without any backup and risk getting herself overwhelmed and captured.

Though it took them some time, they soon secured the entrance to the crystal mines. Having their foothold, Luna ordered some of the guards to protect the entrance, while she and the rest of her forces began pushing the changelings back and intercepting any that would try to slip past them.

As she fought through the swarm, swinging her sword through another changeling, Luna's attention was redirected away from the battle to the south where she felt a familiar spike in magic. Wondering what was going on, she was about to ponder it further before she winced and brought a hoof up to the side of her head as it began to ache, feeling as though something was trying to force their magic over her own. But, before she could figure out what was going on, she quickly found her answer as sunlight began to bathe the land once again. Confused, Luna looked up and stared with wide eyes as she saw that both Celestia's sun and her moon had both begun to move without their guidance.

"By the stars, Sol, just what are you thinking?" Luna muttered to herself.

Wincing from the sudden change of lighting, Luna and her guards had to fall back and take a moment to readjust to the sunlight. Though most of the other ponies, yaks, and changelings were momentarily blinded by it as well, she and her thestrals would need some extra time, forcing them to temporarily retreat and collect themselves while the others protected them.

---

Within the throne room, Twilight and her friends struggled to fight against an enraged Chrysalis. They knew going in that it would be a tough enough fight thanks to the multiple shard necklaces protecting her from their pony magic, but they didn't quite expect it to be this difficult.

As predicted, Chrysalis had her eyes set on Starlight and went straight for her, firing a beam of magic at the unicorn while flying straight towards her. Though it was blocked by the barrier erected by the multiple unicorns and alicorn, she didn't let up and dove straight into the barrier, nullifying it with the power of her stones upon contact and aiming to tackle Starlight to the floor. Upon breaking through the barrier, she ran into Applejack, who used her shield and raw strength to stop her dead in her tracks. While initially surprised by her strength, it was only for a brief moment before Chrysalis hissed and flipped over the top of the shield and fired a blast of magic in to her armored back that caused Applejack to stumble forward.

Now only a few feet away from her prey, Chrysalis chuckled and was about to lunge at Starlight, but quickly found herself being tackled from the side by a light-blue body. Having a brief flashback to what Celestia did to her, Chrysalis was temporarily stunned by the memory as she and her attacker rolled across the floor. Though stunned, she noted that the scent and color were not Celestia's, and proceeded to sink her fangs into the foreleg of whomever this pony was, causing them to lose their grip on her before she kicked off whoever it was that had attacked her. When she did, however, she was taken by surprise when the pony she threw tossed several small balls over near her hooves, all of which burst upon contact into a dense cloud of orange smoke that made her simultaneously clench her stinging eyes, wail from the burning on her tongue and mouth, and threw her into a coughing fit.

Landing clumsily and rolling to a stop, the pony shook off the slight dizziness with a smug look on her face.

"Trixie!" Hearing her name, Trixie looked around to see Starlight beside her as she helped her get back up on her hooves and looking at the two puncture marks. "Are you alright?"

"Never fear, for The Great and Powerful Trixie is perfectly fine," she said, dusting off her cape with a wince from her foreleg. "Bug bite not withstanding."

"What did you just throw at her?" Twilight asked, having never seen that smoke bomb before.

"Oh, nothing much. Just one of Trixie's chili pepper smoke bombs."

Starlight raised a curious eyebrow. "Since when did you have those?"

"Since forever. I always keep some on hoof incase I run into a giant animal that may want to eat me."

"Really? Then why didn't you have any the last time we went to face Chrysalis?"

Trixie's brow flattened. "You can blame Discord for that. He didn't send any with me when he teleported us all there."

"ENOUGH!"

Hearing the enraged shout, everypony leaped away when the saw a large green beam of magic shoot past them, dispersing the smoke cloud to reveal Chrysalis, who's eyes were now bloodshot and tearing up from what they could only imagine to be a painful, lingering stinging sensation.

"I should have eliminated you two when I had the chance back in the Hive."

"Yeah, you probably should have," Starlight smugly said. "But you didn't."

Hissing, Chrysalis flew up and fired multiple beams of magic at each of the ponies, forcing them all to either throw up barriers, or in the case of Rainbow, to dodge out of the way, while Applejack raised her shield in front of her to protect herself and Pinkie from the oncoming assault. As it continued, Applejack pushed forward with her shield held firm, with Pinkie following up behind her with her party cannon. Once the pair were almost directly underneath Chrysalis, Pinkie tilted her party cannon upward, pushed it off to the side from beneath Applejack's shield, and fired a concussive blast of streamers and goop.

Seeing the two coming closer and later the cannon aimed at her, Chrysalis flew off to the side and dodged the cannon, but quickly found herself being assaulted from behind as her back felt the sting of what felt like multiple spikes. Without looking, she swung a hoof around to swipe at whatever had hit her, but missed as her hoof passed through a rainbow trail. Seeing Rainbow with her spiked leather gauntlets dotted with her green changeling blood, Chrysalis used her magic to grab Rainbow by the tail and slam her down on the floor. Feeling a sense of satisfactory from seeing the pegasus groaning from the impact, Chrysalis began to cackle before firing a concentrated beam at the ceiling above the ponies, causing the stonework to crumble and collapse down on top of them.

Seeing what was about to happen, Twilight teleported herself over to Rainbow and threw up a barrier around them, protecting them from the falling debris while Trixie and Starlight did the same for themselves and Applejack and Pinkie. As the stone fell and broke upon the stone floor, Sunset, seeing a unique chance, engulfed a number of stones in her magic and forcefully crushed them down into smaller, sharper fragments. Armed with sharpened stones, she then levitated them up, surrounded Chrysalis with them, and launched them all at Chrysalis from multiple angles, only to watch as she threw up another barrier, causing the stone to fracture upon collision.

"Ok, this is starting to get really annoying," Sunset growled. "Every time we attack, she shields herself. But every time she attacks, we all have to run and defend ourselves. And our magic is completely useless against her."

"You're right. We're not gonna get anywhere at this rate," Starlight agreed. "But, on the bright side, at least she can't fire her magic through her barrier."

"If only we could get those stupid necklaces off of her, then this fight would be a piece of cake for us," Trixie commented.

As the sounds of magic blasts and cannon fire sounded in the background, Sunset glanced over at Starlight as a plan formed.

"I'd kinda hate to suggest this, but what if you were to distract her, Starlight?" Sunset wondered, earning her a look from both Starlight and Trixie before the latter blurted out.

"Are you being serious right now?" she questioned. "You want to use my fillyfriend as bait for that bug?!"

"Actually, Trixie, it's not really that bad of an idea," Starlight said, earning her a shocked look from Trixie.

"... I'm sorry, but would you mind running that by Trixie again? I think I might've got my head knocked around a bit harder than I thought, because it sounded like you said it was a good idea."

"No, it's not a good idea, but at the same time, it's also not a bad one, either." Starlight held up a hoof to stop Trixie from arguing. "Just hear me out for a moment. If Chrysalis focuses her attention on me, she'll be less likely to notice anypony else attacking her."

Sunset nodded. "She does seem like she's got quite the hate-boner for you. If you can taunt her and get her angry enough, she'll essentially tunnel vision you."

"Exactly." Starlight looked away from the two back up to Chrysalis with a smirk. "And I think I know just how to push her buttons."

Walking from the safety of the barrier, Starlight strolled up towards where Chrysalis was flying and firing magic at the others.

"You know, you really are pathetic, Chrysalis."

Freezing from hearing the voice, Chrysalis slowly turned her attention down to the source of the insult.

"Excuse me?" she seethed.

"You heard me," Starlight smugly said. "I mean, honestly, what kind of a leader are you?"

"HOW DARE YOU-"

"I mean, yeah, you were a leader of the changelings just like I was the leader of my village. And yeah, we were both defeated by the power of friendship and essentially dethroned from our seats of power... but I have to ask; what exactly is your excuse? After all, I lost to Twilight Sparkle and her friends, a.k.a. the Elements of Harmony and Heroes of Equestria, so I kinda have a reason for losing. But what about you? Sure, you captured all the Element Bearers and the royals, but even with them out of the way, the entire hive at your disposal, and Equestria all but under your control, you still managed to be defeated. And what's worse, is that it wasn't by Twilight and her friends, but by a B-team of three magicless creatures, and a deserted changeling drone."

Seething at the string of insults, Chrysalis' horn crackled with magic so fierce that it's glow filled the entire chamber in a shade of green light. Intent of disintegrating the purple pain in her flank, Chrysalis reared her head back, ready to fire a powerful beam that she was sure would blast from the floor down through to the base of Canterlot. But, as she leaned her horn forward to aim and fire, she felt something graze her neck, throwing off her aim and instead impacting a few feet to the side of her target, destroying the stone floors and creating a deep hole in the ground.

"What the-"

"Looking for something?" Hearing the taunting voice, Chrysalis looked over to her immediate right and saw Rainbow casually tossing one of her stone necklaces in her hoof. Fearing the worst, she reached a hoof up to her neck and felt that one of her three necklace shards had been stolen, which Rainbow proceeded to toss down to the waiting hooves of Twilight before crushing it. "Heh. That was way too easy. Ok, AJ, your turn."

Before she could react, Chrysalis then felt something rough wrap around her rear left hoof. A second later, what ever it was tightened its grip on her and yanked her down with surprising strength, forcing her out of the air and to the ground with a heavy thud. Grunting, she looked at the cause of her fall and saw a lasso had snared her hoof, and on the other end of that rope was the armored earth pony in the cowboy hat.

"Now! Get her!"

Hearing Starlight's shout, Chrysalis instinctually threw up another barrier around herself, saving her from being shot by Pinkie's party cannon and being tackled by Twilight and a few of her friends. Though safe for the moment, Chrysalis yelped in surprise from the lasso that still had a hold of her, which drug her back up against the side of her barrier as Applejack pulled back from the other end. Completely done, she zapped the lasso around her hoof and reduced it to ash before turning her attention back to Starlight with the intent of finishing her off, but stopped when she felt a familiar spike of magic coming from the south. And, judging by her reaction, Twilight had not only felt it as well, but also seemed to have recognized it, too.

So that's where he's at, but what is he doing that far south? Chrysalis wondered, not noticing as the sunlight shining through the resin-covered windows began to grow brighter with the revealing of the sun.

---

Earlier

With a custom-sized saddlebag and crimson cape billowing in the breeze, Tirek strode confidently across the grassy field towards the first of many cities to drain the ponies of their magic, basking in the feeling of the amount of magic that had been returned to him. While he wasn't as strong as he was when he had possessed all the magic in Equestria like last time, if all went as planned, then it wouldn't be too long before he would reach that level of power once again. Thanks to this new method of draining most of the ponies' magic instead of all of it, at this point in time, he had drained enough magic that his form had changed again, this time to how it was before he drained Discord of his chaos magic.

Though he was perfectly content with traveling on his own, Chrysalis had insisted that he be accompanied by an escort of thirty changeling guards. While he found it amusing that Chrysalis thought they would be enough to stop him if he tried something, he knew that he would gain more in the long run if he just played along. After all, ever since he drained that poor changeling of some of its magic, he no longer had to concern himself with those bothersome stone shards. Thanks to him, as well as the number of ponies he'd already drained, he could effortlessly drain all thirty of these guards if he so pleased. Such thought caused him to remember what was contained in the saddlebags beneath his cloak. After all, his body would change depending on how much magic he had drained, so it wouldn't do for him to get caught having a larger form than what the ponies' magic would've given him.

Chuckling to himself for his cunning, he continued forward with the changelings, but soon came to a stop when he noticed that the moon began to eclipse the sun and later maintain it. Having an uneasy feeling about this, he looked around to see if anything was approaching, while the changelings flew up and did the same thing. After a few moments of seeing nothing, the group continued their travel, albeit at a faster pace.

Just what are those two sisters thinking? he thought to himself. Not that I really mind. After all, the darkness from this eclipse will just make it harder for other creatures to see us. Besides, it is so rare that I get to see something like this, what with the Princesses controlling the sun and moon.

As he idly wondered about the solar eclipse, he and his guards continued onward. He didn't know how much time had passed now since the eclipse started with the sun being frozen in place behind the moon, but if he had to guess, it had to have been between twenty to thirty minutes by now, maybe even more.

This is very odd. There's no reason why an eclipse should last for this long, let alone have happened to-

Tirek was drawn out of his thoughts by the sudden yelp from multiple changelings. Wondering what was going on, he looked back to see that each of the changelings behind him each had been struck in the head by small rocks and plummeted to the ground. A second later, he heard the same commotion from behind him and looked, only to see that they too had fallen. A moment later, he watched as stone claws rose up around each changeling and curl inward, causing the changelings to be immobilized by thick stone cages.

Having a very good idea what was happening, Tirek let out a snort as he crossed his arms.

"I figured something was going on when I first saw that eclipse. Tell me, boy, was it your mother and aunt who came up with this, or you?"

Several dozen feet in front of him, Tirek watched as Sol slowly emerged from the ground with his hammer and shield drawn.

"I don't believe that really matters right now, does it?" Sol asked, eliciting a chuckle from Tirek.

"No. I suppose it doesn't."

Comments

[Bronyshot2020]

HERE WE GO

[Little_Draco]

Yo, Big CGI fight coming up!!!

[Akira Dragonborne]

[Asolem2]

But what about you? Sure, you captured all the Element Bearers and the royals, but even with them out of the way, the entire hive at your disposal, and Equestria all but under your control, you still managed to be defeated. And what's worse, is that it wasn't by Twilight and her friends, but by a B-team of three magicless creatures, and a deserted changeling drone."

Oof, right in the ego

Tirek was drawn out of his thoughts by the sudden yelp from multiple changelings. Wondering what was going on, he looked back to see that each of the changelings behind him each had been struck in the head by small rocks and plummeted to the ground. A second later, he heard the same commotion from behind him and looked, only to see that they too had fallen. A moment later, he watched as stone claws rose up around each changeling and curl inward, causing the changelings to be immobilized by thick stone cages.

Ah yes, here we have a few examples of how easy it is to exploit the weaknesses of an anti-magic field and the false sense of security it gives the one "protected" by it

[Garuda IV]

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