Queen of Equestria

by BlackWater

13 - Teleport

Twilight Sparkle stepped over a mossy rock and finally saw enough over the crest of the shaded forest hill to see beyond it. She then knew this was the moment. Everything had to go to plan. Especially because Sombra had apparently recovered enough to turn back.

ZRRP!

An angry red bolt of energy shot only a hoof past Twilight’s face. She ducked to the other side as Chrysalis leaped ahead of her. Sombra was here only a dozen hooves past the decline of the hill’s opposite side they would now traverse. For him to have plagued Equestria for what felt like an eternity...it was both relieving and heart-thumping to arrive at this moment.

A dark gray coat. Black mane and tail. Equally black armor that shined with every bead of sunlight that poked through the forest canopy. His eyes trailed a purple haze and glowed with the same angry red that he had shot past Twilight. But he hadn’t been aiming for her. He had turned back and engaged the changeling scouts that had kept on his tail. His face was twisted in a horrific rage – death was on his mind.

“I’ll rid my world of you vile worms!” he bellowed, voice deep and vibrating the very ground beneath their hooves.

One of the three other changelings that had been the scouts, all equipped with special armor of their own, was enveloped in a black whirlwind and thrown hard against a pine. There was a sickening crunch as he hit and then fell to the ground. Cell Weaver flew to him, slight movement giving the hope that he was not yet dead.

This part of the forest felt damper than the earlier sections and more dew could be seen on the foliage, yet the cold remained. It was even colder around Sombra, but the power Twilight could feel emanating from the stallion made her sweat. It was now or never. Smarts and not strength would defeat him.

“Sombra!” Twilight shouted out and flew down the hill on her own wings. She landed with a soft crunch of pine needles beneath her changeling horseshoes. “Leave them alone. I’m the one you want!”

The madness behind Sombra’s eyes turned to her. All at once she could feel his gaze pierce into her very core. If her magic didn’t hold then this could be over quickly and very badly. But an upturn at one corner of his mouth told her that it had worked.

Sombra smirked and laughed in that certain way that tended to give foals nightmares. “You foal! You’re idiotic tricks won’t work on me!”

Twilight breathed in when a dark lance of magic shot from the stallion’s horn and raced right into her chest. She let it happen. It was a dark magic changeling reveal spell just as she anticipated. The lance triggered the spell she had prepared earlier to jump her back into her Chrysalis illusion spell, which activated right on cue.

The changelings around them gasped as Twilight morphed into Chrysalis in a flash of green flame.

“The princess I want is right there!” Sombra shot another lance at Chrysalis, who had hovered up beside her queen.

Twilight began to panic. He was supposed to use a dark teleport spell for the trap to work, but this one could activate it prematurely. She hadn’t anticipated him casting a second reveal spell on Chrysalis. The changeling adjusted brilliantly, however, and kept Twilight’s panic from ruining the trap.

Sombra’s spell dissipated to nothing since it was designed to reveal a disguised changeling. Of course, this was the real Chrysalis in her already revealed state. So right when the bolt struck her in the chest, she faked an impact and morphed herself into Twilight’s form. At the same time, her horn was lighting with a trigger suppression spell to hold the trap spell from activating. The timing meant that Sombra had no chance to detect either had occurred.

Flawless.

Now it was Twilight’s turn again to lead Sombra into the final act. “Nooo!” she screamed in Chrysalis’ form and voice. She jumped to get between the real Chrysalis and Sombra. In her tone and movements she injected the panic she hid before – giving realism to it she had not planned before.

Sombra demonstrated his expected triumphalism in a single move. “Too late, you pathetic grub,” he sneered with a wicked grin as he short-range teleported right up to Not-Twilight.

Chrysalis, as Not-Twilight, kept the act. She reared back in fake horror, pretending to be unprepared. The stallion grabbed her around her midsection and bellowed a final hysterical laugh as a massive teleportation spell ignited around them.

Twilight, in Chrysalis form, was blasted back with the other changelings as the teleportation spell exploded in an enormous dark sphere surrounding Sombra and his captured prey. Tendrils of red and black energy arched in every direction, igniting foliage and cutting trees they happened to glide through. This was no ordinary teleportation spell. It was the medium-complex massive-range teleport that Twilight had counted on.

He was taking himself and the one he believed to be Twilight straight to a special place. The place of immortality. Just as the sphere was about to become solid and complete teleportation, Twilight saw her own form in Sombra’s hooves wink at her.

“Eternity is mine at last!” Sombra shouted in crazed fulfillment.

BOOM!

The sphere became solid and ignited in a blinding red light. Rock and soil spewed up from the ground nanoseconds after Twilight dropped her illusion spell to cover herself and the changelings in physical barrier spells. They were protected from the fallout even if the center of the blast had become a new crater in the forest floor.

The air was thick and it was hard to see through the fog of smoke and airborne dirt. Twilight could hear the changelings coughing nearby. They would be alright. Twilight could only hope the next part had worked as well as her barriers had. Chrysalis had been fully charged, so a lack of energy on her part was not a concern. If the trap spell did not collapse Sombra’s dark magic core during teleportation then she could only trust Chrysalis’ raw strength to overpower him after transport completed. That was not a gamble that Twilight wanted to count on.

A roar could be heard overhead once more. She couldn’t see anything because of the smoke, but it sounded like the bizarre flying machine from before. It was louder and deeper than the sound of Pinkie’s turbines.

Teleportation was typically not experienced in transit. One merely was at one place and then suddenly another. This, however, was not normal teleportation. There was no magic known that could achieve massive-range multiple-entity teleportation crossing such spaces as continents or worlds. Clearly, Sombra’s tampering and invention of dark magic had overcome this shortcoming.

Chrysalis felt sick. Not because she had been overpowered. Not at all. She was clearly the one in control here. But Sombra’s teleportation was something she could actually feel the transit thereof. It was nauseating. Especially the jarring feeling when they popped back out. They didn’t arrive standing calmly in some place. Rather, they were thrown back into real space and fell a good twenty hooves before plowing into the ground.

Chrysalis didn’t know what she wanted to do first. Cry out at the pain of the impact and her starched up body or rather throw up at the gut-wrenching exit from forbidden teleportation. So she did the former.

And then the latter.

Sombra was worse off. As soon as Chrysalis finished her unsightly activity and collected herself, she could see him on the other side of the mossy cobblestone road that separated them. He was very different from how he had looked before. He no longer looked like a strong and powerful king. His armor was gone, his body thin and ragged, and he trembled limp upon the ground.

“It worked,” Chrysalis remarked to herself and straightened before walking over to him. “I guess complicated plans have to work once in a while.”

“Urgh,” Sombra croaked unintelligibly. His sunken eyes widened in horror as he saw Chrysalis lean over him. He was finished and he knew it. “N-no...“”

“No, what?” Chrysalis gave a mocking pout. “You only got to kill ten thousand before meeting your match? What’s your immortality worth, you filthy grub? Admittedly I care less about random ponies but you’ve put my queen through a lot of misery. And nopony makes me revisit my pony lunches.”

“Egh,” Sombra gurgled and trembled more. He was clearly struggling to stay conscious.

Chrysalis could see his horn throb with red light. It was faint but holding. The trap spell succeeded in collapsing the core of dark magic that existed in the center of his lifeforce. Just as the spell had been placed upon Chrysalis’ magic sphere – her core lifeforce – so had it attached to his and done its job. He should have lost his artificial horn and magic already. Clearly, the smarts that had let him invent the dark magic medium had let him find some feedback loop to hold the magic a little longer.

“Let’s fix that, shall we?” Chrysalis smirked. She raised a holey rear hoof and kicked hard at the horn on Sombra’s head. It instantly shattered.

The dark stallion made a cry that could have been a high-pitched grunt before losing consciousness. Chrysalis did a quick analysis of his still body. Alive. Completely powerless but alive. Good. Twilight had ordered him be kept living if at all possible so he could face judgment in Equestria for his actions. Chrysalis didn’t care much but she did want to make Twilight happy so she smiled at accomplishing the first half of the job.

As for the other half…

The tall changeling post-queen looked around her – more interested. It was not the cold forest from before. The air was much thicker with humidity. It was hot. Old jungle surrounded her. The cobblestone road looked like it was built thousands of years ago and maintained little since then.

It was difficult to see where the remaining stones led but it seemed to meander only a short distance into the trees where it ended in a massive rock. Vines hung down over it, but the side facing the leftovers of the road seemed to be a dark entrance that led both into the rock and down into the ground. The vines hung over this as well and Chrysalis might have missed it as being an entrance at all if not for two statues on either side of the opening.

Both were stone replicas of bizarre creatures and were somewhat broken and eroded. However, Chrysalis guessed from the general look that the lower section was meant to be an insect of some kind – perhaps a spider – and the upper portion looked suspiciously like a pony. Though the pony face had a somewhat longer and sharper angle to it like that of a changeling’s.

Then it hit Chrysalis and she realized. Grandmother’s tales. The arachnes that Sombra got part of his dark magic invention from. This was the Far West. She looked up to the sky, then back to the unconscious and broken Sombra, and finally to the entrance again. In her head she did the calculations to determine where she was in relation to Equestria. The absence of the hivemind to assist her in this gave her a pang of discomfort and anxiety.

It would be best if she were not separated from Twilight for long. Having Twilight mute connections in the hivemind temporarily was not the same as being cut off altogether. With that in mind, Chrysalis executed her queen’s second order. Chrysalis’ horn ignited in a vibrant green explosion which sent a thick beam of green light soaring into the sky. It was sizable, stayed glowing where she had cast it, and did not fade off until it was at least as high as the middle clouds.

The beacon would last plenty long enough for Twilight to see. The Far West was largely unexplored, but pony sailors had mapped oceans farther from Equestria’s western border. That meant that no matter how far west she was right now, it would not be too far away to see. She really hoped that Equestria’s best lighter-than-air craft did not take too long because going back on her own wings wasn’t an option.

Chrysalis sat down. They hadn’t discussed what she would do other than wait. She looked to the entrance and wondered. Perhaps she should find out about this Vine herself. Then she looked at the statues again.

Nope.

It wasn’t that she was scared. No, she was Chrysalis. Former Queen of the Changelings. It was just that she would need backup if they were hostile and there were a thousand of them. Yes, that was it. Being around ponies for so long hadn’t made her soft.

Not at all.

Storm Sword glided through the haze of the fallout. It was unusual to say the least. Strapped to the unicorn guard’s back was some sort of stretched canvas in the shape of wings. They didn’t move but did allow the mare to glide down smoothly from the sky. The sound of the flight machine passed overhead.

The female guard had clearly seen better days, but her focus and determination was clear upon her face. Her speed forced her to hit the ground running and the glider on her back popped off as she did so. With an almost artful movement, she leaped over a fallen tree and ran right up to Twilight. The purple pony was the first of those present she could make out in the haze.

“What’s the situation, my queen?!” Storm asked in a hurry, eyes darting about in case the enemy was nearby.

“As far as I know, very good, thank you,” Twilight gave an unsure grin. And walked around so she could find the changelings.

“What happened here?!” Storm asked again, her accent even more pointed at the loud volume she was using.

“No need to shout, Captain,” Twilight winced as they came across all of the changelings at once. The group was lifting up their immobile scout. She put a hoof in front of Storm Sword when the mare got ready for a fight. “Allies,” she assured and ignited a simple healing spell to the wounded changeling. It would not completely heal him but she did what she could.

“Apologies, my queen,” Storm tried to lower her voice but kept it a bit louder than usual. “The engines on the windcutter are still in my ears. What of my unit? Enemy status?”

“The enemy is taken care of. The changelings are on our side and, if I understand correctly, your unit is mostly recovering in Vanhoover’s out-of-city basecamp. The members that were captured have been agreed for release.”

“So...that’s it?” Storm stopped as Twilight continued walking forward with the changelings, who were heading back towards their own camp.

Twilight looked back with a grim look and shook her head. “No, Chrysalis is still out there – somewhere far away. I need to make sure she is alright. Sombra took her in a long-range teleport. It should have triggered a trap spell but there’s no way to know for sure until I get a beacon-”

“That was your plan?!” Storm Sword shouted louder than she intended to.

“It was the only thing we could come up with that could actually work. I calculated a very high probability of success,” Twilight defended with a frown. “You think I’d put my own changeling in so much danger if I thought it wouldn’t work? Sombra’s spells could counter any pony magic, so we had to get creative.”

“Still,” Storm grimaced. “How do we know she succeeded? Or even where they went?”

“As I said, a beacon. Chrysalis can create one visible from practically anywhere,” Twilight looked back up to the sky and began flapping her wings. She rose higher and higher. It took some time to breach the forest canopy since the pines were exceptionally old and tall.

She saw nothing at first as she spun carefully in a full circle. It had crossed her mind that this teleport might not be instantaneous as typical ones were. Then, just as she was looking again and turning clockwise, she saw a green pillar shoot up into the sky in her peripheral vision. She turned back to it. That was southwest of her current location. The Far West beyond Equestria’s western border. The queen winced. Even the royal blimp would take days. She couldn’t replicate Sombra’s long-range teleport and node-to-node teleport required keys at both ends even if it was more than merely theoretical.

The only good news about it was that the light was solid. If it was pulsing then Chrysalis was in danger and nonexistent meant she might be dead. So their trap had worked. If luck held out, Chrysalis was near this mysterious “place of immortality.” In truth, this affair with Sombra was only half about subduing him. The other half involved attaining something special for her friends. And if not her friends then at least her lovers.

“What are your orders?!” Storm Sword shouted up to the flying alicorn.

Twilight pressed her lips together tight in thought. She gradually hovered back down as she considered it. She needed to get there as soon as she could. It had always been likely that the distance would be at least that far but it was a detail Twilight had let slide on account of her limited options. Perhaps…

“Storm Sword,” Twilight regained a somewhat regal tone as she stepped hoof back on the ground. Twigs and bark crunch beneath her horseshoes once again, only this time charred. “What was that machine you came here on? I assume you were on that flying thing.”

“Yeah,” the mare glanced back to the glider she had discarded. She walked back over to it and started pressing joints that made it begin folding up. “They call it a windcutter. This model was a GRZ-805. The cutter, not this glider.”

Twilight had followed her and noted the symbols on the glider. “Pony’s Union of Marescow-Stalliongrad. You crossed the border?”

“More like I was taken there,” Storm gave a raspberry. “Sold off to some slavers, but I escaped and got lucky. General Stratosphere of the Union took me here on account of a few past favors. I told him it’d be okay since I was Captain of the Guard. Wants to meet you too, but it’ll have to be back in Vanhoover.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight rose a brow.

Storm hefted the folded glider onto her back. A pair of straps made it easy for her to secure with her unicorn magic. “The 805 is their fastest but needs a runway. That’s why I had to bail with this thing. Closest flat open space is around Vanhoover,” she explained. Seeing the pony sigh, she decided to add. “You know, we got lucky. Might not have found you in this forest if it weren’t for seeing that explosion.”

“I’ll count my silver linings,” Twilight frowned. As much as she was looking forward to getting back to Chrysalis, she knew that negotiating for immortality and then returning Sombra to Equestria would be anything but simple.

Comments

[Razzy]

Owned.

Look on the bright side, Sombra, at least it wasn't a real horn.

... Yeah, I'd stay away from spider ponies too, especially if I am probably their food.

[shadow wolf1573]

Good....good....I'm told sombra was a female earth pony changed by dark magic. Use this knowledge how you see fit.

[tsaukpaetra]

Wait a second, isn't that where Cadance and Shining were going? Do you think timing could coincidence itself into them joining up with Chrysalis just as Twilight arrives? And what about Pinkie? Her destination obviously wasn't Twilight's confrontation... Hmmm....
Keep going! ;)

[TheGreatEater]

8218725

I think the “Shrubbery of Fate” teamed up with the “Vine of Life” to make sure they all arrive there pretty much at the same time. Just so that the “Mangrove of Death” (or whatever Death’s plant thingie is ... personally I think Mangrove’s can be creepy enough to be Death) can get a good thrashing, rather than the unballanced super-murder race it created to murder off several entire species. Before starting in on round 4 of Genocide For Fun and Profit (Dinosaurs; Alicorns; Magic Dragons; and now their up and coming documentary (Life Destroying Event 2.0. Kill Everything Harder).

[Prysmkitsune]

8219191
not all the origins take the form of plants, technicly speaking discord is one though hes a second generation born from the vine of life, so death may not be a plant at all he could be something else entirly.