The Show - Part 7
It was poetry. Sombra's shade swung at the little pony, his attacks all deflected, but he could taste the slow creep of fatigue seeping into her. She was fast as ever, but each wall she made was a little less distinct and was similar to the previous one.
When he detected the pattern she used, Sombra built a special attack tailored to ripping through the defense. He struck with it, just like he had hundreds of times, but now his attack shattered the wall and sped toward the shadow-clone Sombra's magic had made of the mare.
"Puppet. Marionette. Come to me. Be mine." At the last second before his power sank into the clone, however, Sombra watched in surprise when it hit the mare herself. "Interesting. But my magic works as well on you as it does on it."
"She's not an it! She's Fire Dancer!"
The strings were attached, Sombra didn't care what the mare thought. He pulled, yanked hard, and jerked the shocked mare toward him. "If you beg, I will let you survive within me. Honor me with your will and you will survive this."
"No! I—"
Sombra cut short her cries by turning the strings to fire. "That's your final answer?"
Trembling, the mare went very still. The fire still wound around her limbs, and it was clearly eating its way to her core, but she seemed beyond pain. "I will never join y—"
"Gooood." Sombra drew the word out, and poured more heat into the bindings. "I would have been disappointed in you if you had. This is going to hurt you, a lot, and if you find yourself enjoying it, just relax and let it happen."
The representation of the mare was the literal core of her being, and Sombra slowly inched into it. Behind her, the clone he'd made stared in shock as Sombra slowly won.
A blue flash of light, followed by a rainbow, shot through the dreamscape. It swung around in an arc and tore through the space between Sombra and his target. Magic lines of power sizzled and fell asunder. "What is this?!" Sombra's bellow chased after the gray-pelted mare as something pulled her away from him.
"Silly. This is the bit where you lose!" Pinkie Pie, having pulled her friend back to where their little group, stood in front of Derpy. "And I don't mean small change, because seriously, who has time for half-bit-pieces?"
With Twilight and her friends taking care of Derpy, Luna stepped forward—and was pleased that Sweet stepped up beside her. "You are but a ghost of a monster. Begone, Sombra. Find your rest." She stomped a hoof, and like a ripple in a pond, a wave of the dreamscape itself radiated out and toward Sombra.
The force slammed into Sombra, but even as his own clones—still besieging Derpy's mind-castle—were destroyed, he merely laughed. "Foolish princess, you think you can expel me from that which I own?"
Luna smiled, her blood practically boiling with the excitement of battle. It had been far too long since she'd unleashed herself fully. "Not on my own."
"Oh! Uh—" Sweet Dreams fumbled for a cool thing to say. He knew he should have one, everyling did after all, but in the end he shrugged. "We're Derpy's friends. We won't let you do this!" He risked a glance at Luna, and saw the princess smiling still.
Derpy still hurt all over from the spell that'd bound her, but being free of it made the pain tolerable. She looked up at the smiling faces around her. "Thanks!"
"We can handle him now." Twilight Sparkle with her five friends at her side, stepped forward, even further so than Princess Luna. "Your time is over, Sombra. We banished you once, now we'll do it again."
The power of the Elements of Harmony burned bright. Twilight's element—worn on her head—poured raw energy down into her body, even as the other five invested her friends with similar power. But it wasn't each pony that held the true power of Harmony.
Friendship was the key to the Elements. As each—Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity—linked their power to Twilight Sparkle, through friendship, the Element of Magic hummed more. Becoming whole in intent, the combined Elements seethed within Twilight Sparkle.
There was evil nearby—disharmony—and the Elements of Harmony directed their current host to aim them.
Twilight Sparkle aimed the Elements of Harmony at Sombra.
White magic boiled around inside Twilight, and it poured out toward where she aimed. Behind that little streamer, the full majesty of Harmony flowed.
The guiding streamer struck Sombra, then the rainbow rushed along the established line and into its target. A blinding flash of white light engulfed the dreamscape, dazzling everypony present.
Sweet Dreams was the first to see the result of the strike. He gasped.
"I told you. You cannot evict me from my property," Sombra said.
Where the Rainbow of Harmony had struck, Sombra was burned and missing, but as seconds passed, his body rebuilt itself. "This is MY PONY! My new vessel. Nothing can stop me from taking full control of it!"
"Uh. Twilight? Shouldn't that have, well, rainbowed him?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I can stop you!" Fire Dancer stepped up beside Twilight and her friends.
Struggling to her hooves, Derpy got to her feet and walked up beside Fire Dancer. "We can stop you. This is my mind and you're not welcome!" She began building new things. The first was a set of bladed claws to strap onto Fire Dancer's hooves. Then a sword for Rainbow Dash, a party cannon for Pinkie Pie, a rapier that resembled a seam ripper for Rarity, Fluttershy got a small swarm of assorted angry animals, Applejack's rear hooves gained a pair of heavy horseshoes, and finally Twilight Sparkle got a robe and a hat.
With all her focus invested in the weapons—weapons Derpy believed would hurt Sombra—she stretched out a wing on Fire Dancer's withers to steady herself. She just leveled her wandering-eyes-smile at Sombra. "You can't win."
Rainbow Dash tossed the sword from one hoof to the other. The blade crackled in the air, little sparks of blue dancing along it. "Yeah. I think we got this now. Come on!"
For a heartbeat, Fluttershy worried about the little animals around her. They were tiny, but they all seemed so alive. "Uh. I-If you could help me and go—" She was cut short by each of the little animals, one by one, turning into much larger versions of themselves. "… stop him, please?"
"Imagination is real in here?" Rarity looked around at all their various weapons. "Well, I'm not going into battle like this." Light shimmered around Rarity, and the most elaborate and flowing armor wrapped around her body. Looking nothing so much as a traditional neighketeer, she jumped onto the back of one of the bigger mice and kicked it into motion.
"Oh no. You're not beating me!" Rainbow Dash spread her wings and shot forward until she was shoulder-to-shoulder with Rarity. "You take one side and I'll take the other!"
Bored already of the ponies standing before him, Sombra lashed out at them with a whip of magic. Moments before it struck, Rainbow Dash manifested a shield on her foreleg and slapped it aside. The first edge of worry started in Sombra's shade. He swung the whip around and brought it about, cracking repeatedly, to lash before the first two ponies.
Twilight, following Rainbow's example, vaulted onto another of the animals. With Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack beside her, she formed the lead of a charging V formation. A spell lanced out at them, and when Twilight built her own magic defense, the hat and robe seemed to thrum. The shield didn't just hold the magic, it absorbed it and became stronger. "This doesn't make sense, but I think this makes us able to fight him!"
Applejack nodded and leaned further forward over her rampaging mongoose-mount's neck. "Jus' get me close enough t' give 'im what-for!"
A blast of thunder sounded, and then another. Pinkie Pie reloaded her cannon and fired it into the air. The barrel was almost tilted straight up, but she was sure it would hit exactly where she wanted to. Another shot, and another. "We got this!" She loaded the weapon with another cake.
"Mmm!" Fluttershy nodded her head and pointed a hoof to where Sombra was using his whip to keep Rainbow Dash and Rarity away. "C-Could you please go and help them?"
The deafening patter of giant-tiny feet catapulted a wave of critters to one flank. They swarmed up on Sombra and caused him to change his focus.
"Gotcha!" Rainbow Dash wheeled about in the air and brought her sword down on Sombra's whip just as Rarity brought the blindingly sharp fork of her weapon in from the other direction.
Rarity jumped down from her steed's back and galloped to confront Sombra head-on. "Darling! Great shot! Now, as for you—en garde!" To back her words, Rarity used her magic to jab at Sombra with the fork-bladed rapier.
With the rest of the six friends joining the fray, Sombra was hard-pressed to keep any one of them from inflicting a wound, and he was pressed beyond that. A cake hit him in the side, only rather than the soft splat of sponge, it felt like a cannonball had hit him. "You'll pay for that!"
Luna galloped with Sweet Dreams at her side. In this place—a dreamscape—her power was second only to that of the dreamer themselves. She built layer upon layer of heavy armor on her body, and when she glanced to her side, so too did Sweet Dreams. "Weapons!" she called.
Derpy's head shot up from where she rested. She saw her princess and her friend galloping along like a pair of locomotives, and imagined huge lances for each. Long, dark poles of steel and wood that both ponies bore forward with great velocity. "I need to lie down, Fire."
"What's wrong?" Fire Dancer guided her twin to the ground and settled beside her. "Is it too much?"
"No. Yes. I need to go over there." Derpy lifted a hoof to point at the fight. "Can you help me?"
Nuzzling her way under Derpy's belly, Fire Dancer pushed and then stood. "Come on, it's not far." Lifting her hooves one at a time, she started to walk, then trot, then she lengthened her stride into a canter.
Rarity's armor was taking a beating. Sombra kept lashing out with spells and weapons—each left its mark on her beautiful protective wear. "You really—huff—really should have let the—huff—rainbow do its—huff—thing." Parrying more and more, Rarity was losing her momentum.
On the other side, Sombra was using magic to keep Twilight and Rainbow Dash busy. He hurled deadly spells at each, over and over, forcing them to keep on the defensive. Knowing he was not gaining ground, Sombra settled for wearing the ponies down with the duration of the fight.
The sound of thunder met Sombra's ears, and he turned to face the new threat. Too late he saw a pair of dark forms in black armor part the milling crowd around him. "No—"
At the last moment, Princess Luna lifted her forehooves and kept them up so her whole weight bore down through the lance. Beside her, Sweet Dreams hadn't been quite so knowledgeable on the finer points of getting his point across, though he seemed to do well enough.
King Sombra's scream shook the ground. One of the dark lances was buried in his lower flank, while the other had spitted him completely from one shoulder to the other. With only one leg still obeying his command, his knees bent and limbs folded under him. "No!"
Thanks to the wonders of dreams and movement within them, Derpy and Fire reached Sombra only a few moments later. Climbing off Fire Dancer's back, Derpy struggled to keep her hooves under her. Walking up to Sombra, the giant animals winked out one by one, and even the various weapons the six champions of Ponyville carried vanished.
With each release of her focus, Derpy found strength returning. She maintained her focus on the lances, though. "Why weren't you a nice pony?"
"What?" Sombra shook his head and laughed. "You simpleton! I needed power!"
"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would have helped. Why didn't you ask them?" Walking all the way up to Sombra, Derpy stopped not even half a pony length from him. "Why didn't you ask a friend?"
Drawing in a painful gasp of breath, Sombra shouted, "I have no friends!"
Turning her head to Princess Luna, Derpy let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She hated having to ask the question, but Luna was the best one to answer it. "Can we help him, princess?"
"Sombra cannot survive without a body, now that he has left the confines of the amulet, and there is far too much to him to live in your head. He would eventually grow and take all of you." Seeing where Derpy wanted to take the conversation didn't take much work. Luna had seen Derpy befriend a nightmare version of herself, and believed that if anypony could pity Sombra, it would be her. "The kindest thing you can do, is—"
"Boop." Derpy said, lifting her hoof and shoving it—with every ounce of her will behind it—against King Sombra's nose. "I'm sorry."
Thrown out of the dreamscape, Luna shook her head at the impending headache that was accruing. In doing so, however, she spotted a tiny form curled up against her belly. Leaning toward Sweet Dreams' ear, she nuzzled him. "We'll speak later."
The town square of Ponyville was full of ponies waking from nightmares, but none more so than Derpy Hooves. She lifted her head from the ground and pulled a funny face. "Um. Can somepony help get this thing off me?"
Chrysalis, having to watch over the nightmare-bound ponies, rushed to Derpy Hooves' side. "What of him?" she asked, using her magic to tear the straps of the bridle around Derpy's head.
Sadness filled Derpy. She looked down and let her Queen remove the nasty thing from around her head. "I couldn't help him. If I let Sombra have my body, it would have meant Fire Dancer would have been hurt!"
Pulling the last of the bridle—the horn—from Derpy's head, Queen Chrysalis was acutely aware of just how much of a pony attitude Derpy had. Holding the horn up in her magic, she pushed as much energy as she could into it. The horn launched into the air where a blue spear of cobalt light struck it.
Chrysalis turned to Princess Luna. "Thank you."
"I live to serve Equestria, Your Majesty." The words felt strange at first, but Luna could well recognize how much better it was to be Chrysalis' weapon, rather than Celestia's. A weapon was useless if it was always sheathed.
"Unless you know of some other threat your sister swept under a rug for a thousand years?" Sarcasm wasn't Chrysalis' favorite weapon, but right now she was getting sick of surprises.
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It's a good place to leave this off. The story started strong, had a lot of ideas behind it, and I enjoyed writing it a lot. I still enjoy writing it, but this was as far as I'd plotted out, and at this point I don't have further story for it (and from experience I know it's bad to just wing it and hope a new plot idea hits).
So thank you, everypony, for reading this little story. I hope you have a great day!
I remember this! Someone's mind control spell got quite out of hand yes?
I do recall being quite proud of Derpy, and I see that my pride is vindicated. That was very well done. It takes a great heart to try to save the one who just attacked you, that right there is why she's always been one of my favorite characters.
God dang you to the fires of hell for not sating the picture of Luna and sweet dreams romantically ❤
Good job, Derpy!
The battle was won, and for now the war stayed.
A fitting end to an arc, if not the story. The timeline is fully established and well on its own path.
Until next time! ;)
ending are sad, and I wish this story did not have to end but it end on good point,
would be fun to read side story of this like sweet dream and luna on a date, or something like the queen and twilight have argument over something dumb about which book is better.
is this it for this story or will there be another that follows?
Sorry to see it end, but glad it ended strong.
9185732 I don't really foresee any further. If I had more plot, this wouldn't be marked complete. I could launch into a slice-of-life fest, but that isn't the kind of story this is, it wouldn't have fit.
9185813
Any objections to another author (not me as I can't write worth more than vague outlines) making a sequel or spin off?
9185883 I have none, but would ask any to link back to this in their description.
9185886
Seems reasonable, I hope someone continues this world
Oh hey, I misread title as "shaving equestria" today. :P
another lovely little chapter, great job as always.
so thats really it...
i feel mildly disapointed, im gonna take a wild guess and asume that the muse for this one just died on you didnt it, i cant say im surprised but at least you mostly finished it it leaves off in a satsifing enough place, i always say its beter to be left wanting more then to have something wear out its welcome.
The only question left for me is; what became of tirek?
9187897 Call me crazy, but I doubt he would have found a throneroom full of ponies who had already surrendered. One bite from the right bug and he would have been learning exciting new things about the leadership of Equestria.
Derpyyyyyyy why are you so pure and wonderfuuuuul
Oh? Are we getting early Tirek, mayhaps?
9189746 The story is stopping here.
That said (minor spoiler for S8 finale) we know that Tartarus held Tirek, and just a bunch of rando-monsters. Given that most of those monsters are recent additions, that means all it held for a long time was just Tirek. Was it explicitly built for him? I think it's a fair bet that Celestia would reluctantly agree that she has swept all her problems under the rug and tell Chrysalis all her little secrets.
9189815
Aww, darn. I didn't see the completed status when I checked back on this. Oh well. T'was a fun read!
9189823 Thanks!
Aww, sad that it ended.
Sombra be triple deluxe dead.
Score, Sweet!
Nailed on?
9244873 Or magicked on.
That was a fun ride. This version of Chrysalis is certainly in my top three, and I very much enjoyed what you did with the changelings as a people. Is there going to be a sequel to this one?
9252423 At this point in time I have no plans to continue this, but who knows when inspiration may strike?
"Say, you guys got a warrior caste?"
"Uh, not really?"
"Be a lot cooler if you did."
9245003
Aw
Oh, I did not know this is complete until now.
Yeah this gave me a fairly fun ride. Upvoted.
9496531 Thanks!
Aww man, I just felt a random urge read this story again and just noticed it was marked as done. I really thought there would be more to it, things seemed to be building up to even to the very end. Makes me wish there was an epilogue that wound things back down.
Oh well. You write what ya wanna write. Still gonna reread it.
You know it's good when there is "prologue part four"
You can has review!
9807456 Thanks for the feedback and review!
9878713
Since this was written, it HAS been revealed that non Changeling magic doesn’t work in the Changeling hive.
9878743 That had more to do with Chrysalis' throne than the hive itself.
9878713
Stalinium?
Any chance of a sequel as we see how Queen Chrysalis go with Tirek, Sunset Shimmer, Tantabus, Starlight Glimmer (x2), etc.
9917435 I have no plans to continue this at the moment.
Will, there more of this story as your patreon votes for them or no?
10096897 This is now completed.
I'm kinda sad there's no sequel/epilogue but congrats on writing a universe where I'm glad Chrysallis took over.
10137833 Thanks! It was part of a whole mess of stories where I was trying to write as many different aspects of Chrysalis as I could. This one was obviously the good/altruistic Chrysalis.
10170408
its to perfect to not do it every single time XD
Sorry for the spamming by the way, but Eye Spy has me you know
10172890 It's all good :)
I'm a Luna x Chrysalis fan. All im saying.
Huh, it seems that my 'next chapter' button is broken : )
Interesting story though, thanks : )
10511396 Thanks for the comment!
Whew, what a journey. Amazing read.
10793115 Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I didn't know how much I needed to read a story where Chrysalis was the good guy until I read this story.
Now I just want to cuddle a changeling so it doesn't go hungry.