Sundered Universes

by Super Ponyman

Chapter 11: Bend, Don't Break

Author's Note:

Brady wrote this too... get ready for greatness.

So yeah, Burning Star isn't feeling all too great right now... Time to crap on him some more by getting him kidnapped! Mwah-hahaha!

And only the Guardians and Star Hunters can save him! Mwah-hahaha!

Don't worry our old friend Burning Star will be back to his badass self soon... but for now, enjoy the chapter.

(Black Thunder Bar, Canterlot)

The noises, the lights, and the close proximity of ponies close together made Freedom Fighter uncomfortable.

It had all been Firestorm’s idea. After he and the others had gotten out of Burning Star’s mind, Firestorm had shaken his head woozily and suggested they take some time to relax from all of the events going on around them and head to a nightclub, leaving Twilight and Luna to stay in Canterlot Castle.

“It’ll be a guy’s night out,” he had said jovially in the castle in Canterlot. “I mean, look, so far we’ve seen all of these power-hungry overlords like Midnight Sparkle, this weird copy of Nightmare Moon I missed in the throne room, and a dark energy spike in Manehatten that just disappeared all of a sudden. Then we traveled to this universe you all came from and fought a dark copy of Burning Star here in his own mind. Not to mention all of the times we’ve, like, tried to hurt each other.” He patted the top of his head, where a significant portion of his mane had been cut off, and shot an apologetic look at Quickfire. “We’ve been through a lot, and I, personally, am pooped. So let’s do some of those hearty guy bonding activities. It’ll bond us all together, right?”

Well, the intention, at least, was good. But for Freedom Fighter, being surrounded by ponies that were doing really uncomfortable things in a dark, stuffy room wasn’t his idea of doing something fun. It was a blasting loud, epileptic room with multicolored lights in the center of the room, a DJ stand in the corner, and was filled almost to the brim with other ponies who were using their wages for a thing as trivial as dancing and watching strippers. Freedom Fighter didn’t care about things like that. Dancing, drinking, sex--they were all so stupid to spend your money on. There were better things, right? But what even were they? And why wasn’t anypony paying attention to them, and was neglecting the good things for the sake of things like stimulation and bodily friction?

He casually glanced over at the center of the room, where a long, lithe half-undressed unicorn mare was lifting her hind leg slowly, slowly up along the vertical rise of a metal pole, to the enthusiastic enjoyment of the stallions in the vicinity. Freedom Fighter gritted his teeth. Why did they all take such strange pleasure in that? Ponies were all normally unclothed anyway, so why should stripping suddenly be erotic? Freedom Fighter certainly took no pleasure in it.

Then again, he normally didn’t take pleasure in most things, so why should sex be the exception?

He turned back around. He was sitting at the side bar alongside Quickfire, Hiller, Noble Blade, and Firestorm. Freedom Fighter circled his hoof on the table and imagined a way to kill everyone else in the room if it came down to a fight. He imagined ejecting a knife blade from a hidden compartment in his hoof and hurling it across the room at the DJ if she played one more of those cliche bass-drop songs and another repetitive rhythm that did nothing interesting. It annoyed him more than anything else.

Why was it that most songs in these kinds of situations played music that talked about either parties or sex or both? Could you play something that actually brings good feelings and makes me feel happy and whole, please? Sorry about that, Freedom Fighter, it appears that there’s no such thing like that in Canterlot backstreet culture. Guess you’re going to have to grit your teeth and bear it like you do with everything else in your miserable little life.

Beside him, Quickfire, still in his combat uniform and orange mask, was talking to the others, which Freedom Fighter tried to listen to more than the annoying music in the background. Freedom Fighter also had his combat uniform still on to protect his identity. Maybe they were more alike than he thought.

“You mean to tell me that you’ve never been to a bar before?” he asked incredulously.

“Nay, sir,” Noble replied. “We have simply had all of those annoying personal details we have to take care of for only the good of all Equestria, so we never had the casual opportunity to visit one of these…” He looked over his shoulder, where a patron had fainted with a loud thud and was now lying at the foot of his stool in a puddle of spilled alcohol. “...charming places.”

“I’m telling you, you’re missing out, Guardians.” Quickfire said. “These places are great for having fun and dancing. ESPECIALLY the "Private" Dancing”

Freedom Fighter disagreed. He revised his original statement of being similar to Quickfire.

“What about getting hammered?” Firestorm asked. “I’ve never drank pure alcohol before--just a chemical we have back on our world that recreates the rush of alcohol without the nasty side effects. I don’t want to end up addicted to the stuff.”

Quickfire looked at Firestorm over Hiller’s head with a stare of hilarious disbelief, “You? Out of everypony here, I would have thought you would be the one most likely to be knocked up for fun on the weekends."

“Nah.” Firestorm shrugged a hoof near his head. “I’m okay with Sweet Apple Acres cider. I raid it out of the princess’s private cider cellar--with her permission, of course.”

“Hold up, How can you raid someone with the other’s consent?” Hiller asked curiously. “That’s not how it works. Those aren’t the rules for it. I should know, I've drained the place dry numerous times.”

Firestorm caught a glint in his eye. “I think you’ll find that I’m accustomed to bending the rules here and there.”

“Well, Sweet Apple Acres cider may be fine for you,” Quickfire said, signaling the bartender with a hoof, “but that "secret cider" pales next to some of the stuff you can find here.” He called to the bartender, “Hey, Barkeep." The barkeep pointed at himself, "Yes you! could I get a sample of some of that Manticore Pincher stuff?” He pointed at a bright turquoise bottle on display behind the bartender with the label displaying its name in large capital letters.

“I’ll get some of that too,” Hiller added to his request.

The bartender, after a questioning, incredulous look at them, reluctantly agreed, and a moment later Quickfire had in front of him a small shot glass of turquoise liquid. Quickfire threw his head back as he picked it up with his magic, and in an instant the glass was empty. Quickfire’s eye drooped to the side, and his voice was a little more muddled than usual. “See? Isss totally fine!" *hic

Noble eyed him. “Are you okay?”

“What?” Quickfire sounded lost. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fffiiine.”

Hiller’s glass was empty as well, but he wasn’t as muddled as Quickfire was. On the contrary, he looked completely normal.

“Did you even drink that?” Noble asked him. “Or did you dump it out after seeing him?”

“You doubting me? ‘Course I drank it.” Hiller smiled. “I’m the Protopony, man. I’m immune to the effects of alcohol."

“Well isn't that Convenient.”

“I know, right? Especially for this drink in particular. It’s apparently 50 percent proof alcohol with the diluted venom of manticores in them. I don’t think any mortal being was meant to consume this stuff.”

“I’ll pay for your drinks as well,” Quickfire told the others, though his voice was slow and slurred. “Jussssss... pick the ones you want. Get that strong stuff in yer system.” He hiccupped. “Oh, by Luna's mane, what was in that stuff?”

And he keeled over forwards and bashed his head into the counter.

Noble Blade, after checking his pulse, motioned the bartender, who was watching with detached amusement. “On second thought, k don't want to end up like that, I’ll have a cream soda.”

“Apple juice,” Firestorm added for himself.

Freedom Fighter made a few gestures.

“He says he wants milk,” Firestorm translated.

(Canterlot Backstreets)

Burning Star was leaning against the wall outside the nightclub. Canterlot was dark and posed little threat to him, but he still felt antsy and anxious. He wasn’t aware of why exactly he didn’t feel all that good, but when they had all initially entered the nightclub, he suddenly felt sick to the stomach by just looking inside and, leaning against the wall, he had asked for everyone else to go inside and he’d wait outside and catch up later.

Despite his "uncultured" upbringing, Burning Star wasn't stupid. He had street smarts and that club smelt of something disgusting.

Burning Star was now on his hind legs, his back pressed against the wall, his breathing slow as he tried to regain his stamina. He was an alicorn, yes, but even he needed to rest from time to time after multiple life-changing events.

For example, the events of traveling to another universe to track down Midnight Sparkle, meeting with the guardians of that universe, seeing his fate spelled out for him when he looked into the imitation Nightmare’s eyes, fighting another escaped red-skinned centaur demon from Tartarus (for the fifth time!), realizing that his ancient grudge towards Celestia and Luna needed to end on his own part, trying to find a dark energy spike in a populous city, having the uncomfortable truth spelled out for him again and receiving the ugly truth about himself when he talked with the most honorable--albeit blunt--knight he had ever met, traveling back to his own universe, and collapsing on the ground and fainting after being haunted by his own dark, evil, unleashed demons that even now were rushing around in his mind and chasing each other like dogs chasing their tails.

Despite the hatred he had for him, He wished that Sombra was still around. He was an expert on these things, not him...

He had found out later that it was the Guardians that had entered his mind, with the help of his wife, and had taken out the evil there with the help of Princess Luna, whom, last he had seen, had been sighted escaping into the Everfree Forest in shame. How had she managed to enter his mind, Burning Star had no idea. He had locked his mind's boarders down tighter than a drum. But regardless of his grudge against the princesses, he was at least tolerant of Luna, and the fact that she had saved his life now left him grateful to her.

Upon thinking this he groaned and slammed his head against the wall. He was angry all of a sudden.

“Why?” he growled. Why was it that he was growling nearly everything he spoke now? “Why did she help me? Why do I have to be indebted to her? I mean... not that I hate Luna, she is a lot more likable than... ugh, the prissy Celestia. I just don't recall that I was the one who needed saving, I usually was the hero."

And then he heard a voice that he was surprised to hear. It jolted his position.

“Burning Star?”

On the sidewalk outside the nightclub, where muffled music thumped in his ears, was his wife, Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh, um, hey, Twilight,” Star nervously said, ruffling his mane. “Wh-what are you doing here? I thought you were home with the kids.”

“I left a babysitter,” Twilight said, coming over next to him. “Burning Star, why is is that this always happens? You always go off and you leave no time for us…”

“Twilight, look...I would love to spend some time with you someday. But now...now’s not the time.”

“Now’s the perfect time,” Twilight responded. “Look at yourself! You look exhausted and terrible! Don’t you want to be home in bed? Next to me?”

Burning Star shook his head and raised an eyebrow, “I’m...no, Twily. I’m here right now. With my friends. They’re inside.”

“It doesn’t look like you’re inside,” Twilight pointed out.

Burning Star didn’t answer.

“Star,” Twilight said in all seriousness, “look at me. Something’s wrong with you.”

Burning Star almost erupted into flame right then and there.

Another person saying to him that something was wrong with him? First it was Midnight’s copy of Nightmare Moon, then his talk with Celestia atop her balcony before Tirek came along, then Noble Blade’s blunt but effective talk in the coffee shop! And now his own wife?

And then he remembered Noble’s talk with him. He needed to have control of his emotions and not lash out at every single little thing that offended him, right? Otherwise, he was weak, and he was proving Noble’s point even further.

“Star, I know that other ponies have tried to get you to change before, but if nopony else will get through your head, then at least listen to your own wife!” She sounded on the verge of tears.

It broke Burning Star’s heart to hear the desperateness in her voice. So he calmed himself down with a bit of sustained effort. And he looked into Twilight’s eyes. “All right, Twilight. What’s eating at you?”

“It’s you, Star,” she said, snuggling up next to him. “You...it’s like I don’t matter to you anymore. You...you ignore me and you go off and you do your own thing whenever and on whatever you want. You don’t pay any attention to our family. You don’t stay by my side. It’s always me looking after the kids because you...you don’t put me first. Your own wife! I...I don’t know if you truly love me anymore…”

Burning Star blinked. Had he really been so inattentive to his own family? Was he really not putting his wife first before anything else in his life? Like his desire to hurt everyone that didn’t acquiesce to his wishes...or his own quest for greater power? He was missing out on more things than he thought.

Granted when you have a bunch of monstrous voices running around in your head, you tend to lose track of things.

It was disconcerting and a little threatening to him to have all of this sudden advice thrust upon him. He had gone through life thinking he was already perfect, and that because he had power to harm others he needed no improvement. True, he had gone through trials and tribulations--more than most others--but he had always assumed that he had grown stronger and closer to perfection because of them. And now he needed to improve even more?

“Please, Star...stay with me. Stay by my side and love me. I don’t know what to do without you, but...I need you.”

Burning Star’s soul ached for his wife. She was right. Husbands should do better than what he was doing at the moment. So he draped a wing over her and drew her in close. “Never,” he whispered. “I’ll never leave your side, Twilight.” And he kissed her on the lips.

Twilight gave a strange smile when he was done. “I’m counting on it.”

Burning Star opened his eyes a little wider than before upon hearing that ominous statement. He rubbed his mouth. It seemed a little numb. That same numb feeling spread across his head soon enough, and his head soon felt woozy. “Twilight...what did you…”

Twilight grinned. “I’m trying something new, Burning Star.”

It was toxin! It was a kind of solution that was making him feel like he was going to faint! Quickly, Burning Star called upon his fire powers and directed them to his bloodstream. Inside of his body, shining against his body, fire raged in his veins, burning out the toxins in his blood. Twilight watched him with a disinterested look.

After a few seconds, Burning Star’s illuminated veins died down and Burning Star stopped gritting his teeth. He faced Twilight with a terribly betrayed expression. “Twilight...how could you?"

Twilight, instead of answering, ignited her horn and slammed Burning Star against the outside wall of the nightclub, leaving a cracked crater mark. Taken by surprise, weakened by the diluted toxin, and emotionally drained by his inner torments, Burning Star was barely left with the power to ignite into flame. The top of his head sparked, but it fizzled and went out like a torch in a downpour of rain.

“I can do this, Star, simply because I can,” Twilight said, but it wasn’t Twilight’s voice. “And because you were weak...and because I want your...services.”

His head was spinning. He tried to summon his strength, but she was too strong. She could keep his powers in check like she was a metal vise, tightening and squeezing and weakening them in his brain until his brain shut down eventually as well. And he collapsed to the ground, his eyes at ground level.

Before he blacked out, he saw a flash of green where Twilight was and he saw holes in her black hoof as she let out a dark cackle.

(Canterlot Backstreets)

After the end of the nightclub’s activities, the other five warriors, each clad in their combat garb, walked out, blinking after spending their time inside for so long. Each of them had had a different perception of the event of the nightclub after it than before. Before, some of them were feeling anticipatory of a fun time. But after Quickfire getting hammered after a single shot of heavy alcohol, Noble Blade stammeringly refusing the physical advances of a promiscuous, scantily-clad mare, Firestorm getting squished together so tightly by the crowd that he had flown out of the building itself for a few minutes before shakily coming back in, and Freedom Fighter almost drawing a blade on a drunk mare that had encouraged him to try out the stripping pole, Hiller had determined that maybe nightclubs were overrated for warriors of their caliber.

As they came out, Hiller dragging Quickfire’s inert body behind them with fleshy tentacles coming out of his flank, Noble Blade looked around with a concerned expression. Exhausted by the nightclub, but alert by the fear that now gripped his stomach like an iron fist, he called out, “Burning Star? Art thou aware of our presence?”

“Is he even here?” Hiller asked, looking to the side at Noble Blade. “I don’t see him.”

“Where’d he go?” Firestorm asked, instinctively reaching up over his shoulder to where his two twin blades were. “What happened?”

A tap on Noble’s armor-covered shoulder made him turn his head, and he saw Freedom Fighter gesturing at a dent on the wall that certainly hadn’t been there before. Seeing Noble turn his head, the others turned their heads to look where he was pointing.

In the wall, where there certainly wasn’t anything before, was a cracked, indented crater.

“Holy Crap!” Hiller ran over to the crater. “You don’t think…”

“What else could happen?” Noble asked. He looked down at his hooves. Then he drew his head up. “Hiller.”

Hiller turned around. “Yes?”

“Can you track others as part of your abilities as a protopony? Whatever a protopony is?”

“I…” Hiller hesitated, then shrugged. “I dunno. I never tried it on an Alicorn."

“Do it anyway,” he commanded. “If Burning Star was somehow overpowered and taken away, Find him. His life depends on us.”

Noble’s voice had taken a change. Instead of the soft, reserved, respectful voice, his voice was now deeper. More hard. It had a commanding tone to it. Hiller, who had never heard it before, was taken aback for just a second. “Dgah, um, I...I really don’t know if I can!”

Noble turned to Freedom Fighter, almost invisible in the dark. “Examine it, Freedom. Get a lock on his position.”

Freedom Fighter crawled over to the indented crater, running his right hoof along the side of the wall, around the outside of the crater’s edge. He narrowed his eyes at the crater then, and sniffed the air. After a few deep sniffs, he picked out a stray red hair in a crack of the crater. It was blisteringly hot, but Freedom's hoof covers protected him.

Freedom Fighter narrowed his eyes even more, then sniffed it. His head then rotated on his shoulders to point south, past the streets and past the tops of the lower roofs of the far-off buildings and at the faraway plains away from Canterlot mountain and eventually into the badlands, deep south of Equestria. And he made a small growling noise in the back of his throat, straining his badly damaged vocal chords to the limit and almost making them burst and having him cough up blood.

“What is it?” Firestorm asked. It wasn’t often that Freedom Fighter growled, so for him to do it meant something serious was about to happen with him and his enemies.

Freedom Fighter pointed at Firestorm, indicating that it had something to do with him, then dipped his hoof into something invisible and mimicked putting his hoof in his mouth.

“Changeling dust?” Firestorm asked in confusion. Then he widened his eyes. “Changelings attacked him?”

Freedom Fighter nodded, grabbing at his throat as he made a deeper snarl, then he hacked and coughed and spat a viscous wad of a vile dark red liquid on the ground.

Quickfire was now starting to stir. He got up out of his fleshy entanglements and stood up on the cobblestone streets woozily. “Wh--what’d I miss?”

“Burning Star hath been abducted,” Noble said deeply, instinctively reaching a hoof over his shoulder at the sword hilt there. “And we suspect Changelings hath done it.”

“Shoot! Changelings!” Quickfire’s stance became much straighter. “Do we know where he went?”

“South.” Noble’s expression was unreadable, but his voice told much more than his face ever could. “Muster thy courage, everypony. To the badlands we must go to rescue our friend. We will find him. We will fight them. And we. Will. Get. Him. Back.”

Hiller stepped back. It wasn’t often that he got scared, in fact he thought that he was immune to fear, he has torn ponies in half and had their guts spill over him, he was pretty hard to unnerve...

But Noble’s tone was deeper and more aggressive than before, and the change from a calm and understanding tone to a deathly serious and coolly restrained preparedness to destroy was frightening.

“Lead the way,” Noble told Freedom fighter as he drew his head up. “Lead us to Burning Star.” His mouth thinned and his voice grew more tight and cold. “And to the fiends of the infernal pit that kidnapped him.”

(The Badlands, Chrysalis's Hive)

As Burning Star slowly, weakly, opened his eyes, sticky with eye crud, he was able to be perceptive enough to be aware of his surroundings, weakened as he was and tired as he was.

He was pinned up against a wall, actually. His entire body, with the exception of his head, was covered with some kind of green sticky coating plastering him to the black, craggled wall. There was a sort of sinister buzzing in his ears that he couldn’t explain right away, and the space he was in was enclosed but large, and dark enough that he couldn’t see to the end of it. A green tint covered everything in his field of vision.

“Ah, Burning Star. He finally awakes.”

And he recognized the voice. It was another one of the ones he had hoped to never hear again in all of the years he had spent fighting, and flying, and fighting again.

Queen Chrysalis.

“I wouldn’t recommend moving around much, Burning Star. You’ve been unconscious for almost three days, and that would seem to take a toll on your body. No food, water, or excrement. So be careful. I would prefer to keep you intact and unspoiled.”

But then the thought struck him; wasn’t she dead? Hadn’t he made sure of that when they had faced down Midnight Sparkle before they came to the alternate universe, where the Guardians were?

He came to consciousness better, and the details around him became clearer. Indeed, accounting for the green tint were crystals in the walls, green and pulsating, giving off little light to the chamber, which allowed him to see better. His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dark as well as the other changelings there, however, so he wasn’t as able to see in the dark as them. For there were, in fact, more changelings in the dark cave. Burning Star’s first glance told him there were about two dozen spread out and milling around in the cave, but he knew there was obviously many more hidden and out of sight. That accounted for the buzzing sound in his ears.

And in front of him was the hive queen of them all. Tall, black, riddled with holes, and with bared fangs, with a strand of her stringy green mane in her victorious face, was Queen Chrysalis.

“Chrysalis… the bitch of the badlands..." he whispered with all of the power he could muster in his voice. His weakness gave way to anger, and that in turn gave way to power. He struggled against the green ooze sticking him to the wall, trying to ignite on fire, spread his burning wings to burst out of the ooze, and burn every last changeling to the ground. But as he tried, no matter how hard, he could not produce even an ember to fly out of his head. “Guh... Chrysalis, you bug-eyed piece of yak dung! Get me out of here now, or you’ll regret it once I break free!”

Chrysalis laughed. “Try all you want, Burning Star. We changelings aren’t so terrible at planning that we fall to the same tricks twice. We adapt. We grow stronger. We come back with a newfound plan, eager to destroy and corrupt. And that means we needed to pick up a few tricks along the way.” She ignited her serrated black horn, and it glowed a deep shade of green.

And all of a sudden Burning Star’s strength dropped out from under him like a building without any support, and he went limp and his will to ignite on fire went out. He started to breathe heavily as he limped in his sticky prison.

“Impressed?” Chrysalis asked smugly. She came closer to him. “It’s a strength draining spell we picked up after we were driven away from your power when you were fighting Midnight Sparkle--but of course you wouldn’t know that, would you?” She smiled. “And you would have known that if you had been there for your friends when they needed you, instead of chasing midnights and shadows in another universe.”

Burning Star said nothing. He was genuinely interested to see how she and her vile hive had survived. Last he had checked, in the final battle against Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker some time before (about three months ago to be exact), Chrysalis was being pursued and assaulted by Midnight Sparkle into leaving for some indeterminable location. What had happened to her?

“Oh yes, we know about your journeys, Burning Star. But you know nothing about us--how we developed a strength in the times of our weakness, rather than giving off the illusion of being strong all the time and therefore not realizing our weakness until it was too late.”

She was baiting him. She was using those flaws about him that he now had exposed like a fresh wound to the biting air. So he gritted his teeth and said nothing else.

“After you left for this other universe,” Chrysalis began, pacing back and forth in front of him slowly, “me and the other changelings I had under my control had managed to return to our own hive and rebuild our influence.”

Now was the time for the big question. “Alright, enough with your hive's backstory, Chrysalis... But what about when you were being followed and hunted by Midnight while I was fighting--”

“Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon?” Chrysalis finished. She snorted. “Pity. I thought you were smarter than that, Star. I thought you had known by now that Midnight can create hollow images of others to be used as puppets. The image your precious Midnight followed was a mirage, a puppet, a false figure. I was in disguise during those confusing events as Starlight Glimmer.”

Burning Star bit his lip and tried not to focus on the feeling in his arm leaving him as he was unable to move or wiggle under the restraints that he was in.

“And after you left, because you weren’t there for your friends, we knew it was the time to strike permanently. We kidnapped the princesses, Twilight, and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. And we brought them to our hive for us to suck all the love from.” She leaned into his face. “Imagine that, Star. Imagine Twilight not loving you anymore. Imagine trying to gain her attention only to give you a cold, icy glare as she tells you exactly what she thinks of you. She’ll tell you how you were never there for her. About how every time she tried to hold out for you and be a good wife to you, you abandon her and put your own wants and needs above her own. Losing control, contrary to her wishes, and destroying everything in your path. Being a bad example to your own children, because they only take in what they see out of you. They’ll know only how to despise you, because you despise everyone else.” She cackled. “Who do you think you are, calling yourself a good husband to the Element of Magic? Who do you think you are, thinking that others will love you for how you abandoned your wife and children, and how you left them to fend for themselves? While you went and killed monsters in the most savage, brutal manner possible to try to give off the illusion that you’re a good husband. You are weak,Star. Weak.”

She had gone too far. Burning Star leaned forward as far as the webbing holding him to the wall would allow him to, and he bellowed, “DON’T YOU DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!”

Chrysalis tilted her head. “Why shouldn’t I?” she asked in an amused tone. “What can you do to stop me? What power do you have?”

Burning Star strained against the green webbing even more, but it was to no avail. It was so tight that he couldn’t even stretch it out three inches. After a while of this he ignited his horn with the intent to crush the inside of her skull, but Chrysalis grinned malevolently, ignited her own horn, and smothered his intent with a single pulse of her own magic. Burning Star dropped back to his confines and was still.

“Weakling.” Chrysalis spat on his face. The viscous pale green liquid drooped over his eye and ran down the side of his face, making Burning Star teeter precipitously on the verge of despair. “Why shouldn’t I make you feel this way? Why shouldn’t I leave barriers uncrossed? For I am in control of you, and that means I can do anything I want to you. So shut up, you pathetic limp piece of lint, and let me talk.”

Chrysalis resumed her pace in front of him and resumed her story as well. “But because of my pride, there was another I chose not to abduct...a complication in the plans I had. Starlight Glimmer.” Her voice chomped down on the name. “She, along with a few of her other friends...and a traitor...infiltrated the hive and destroyed the source of preventing outside power from coming to the hive. But in doing so, the pony in question used her entire life energy to destroy the hive’s throne, teleport all of my hostages to safety, turn most of my subjects into turncoats, and blow my original hive to ruins.”

“Well. Good for her, seems like ponies continue to best you Queen Chrysalis.” Burning Star muttered, impressed at the remarkable magical capacity of a single unicorn. The saliva was still on his face, warm and soggy.

Chrysalis smiled. “Would you care to repeat that?” Her horn ignited again.

There was no further reply.

“I barely survived the catastrophe, but I siphoned the life energy off of my traitorous subjects to sustain me to my proper health. I took a few of my unchanged drones with me, escaped into the badlands south of Equestria, and took refuge here. And from here on, I’ve been expanding and building, laying eggs and giving birth to dozens and dozens of warriors ready to raze Equestria when the time comes.”

“What I’m wondering is why anypony would mate with you in the first place,” Burning Star snapped, still spread cross-eagle on the wall by the ooze. “And that’s assuming they can figure out how they can do it in the first place, cheese-legs. I mean, I've had a relationship with your kind in the past, and it is HARD to please a Changeling."

Chrysalis's smile disappeared into a thin line of disapproval. “Please, keep talking so I can have an excuse to hurt you more.”

“Gladly.”

Chrysalis ignited her horn again, and Burning Star felt invisible needles stick themselves into his brain and puncture his mind and stick themselves all over his head. He let loose a torn shriek of pain and anguish and hatred. Hatred at Chrysalis, and hatred at himself for being unable to do anything about it. He desperately tried to ignite into flame, trying above all else to burn away the ooze holding him to the wall. His body grew progressively warmer.

Chrysalis made the needles twist back and forth in his mind.

And Burning Star’s will dropped from the terrible pain and his body became cold again. The screaming became more hoarse and awful.

And finally Chrysalis dropped the enchantment and Burning Star slumped his head down while still being pinned to the wall by the green slime.

Chrysalis put her head close to his. “I need you, Star.” She hissed it between her teeth. “But you are putting me in a position I don’t want to be in!”

“What…” Burning Star could barely summon the strength to talk. “What...do you...need me...for?”

Chrysalis grinned. “I need your knowledge. I need you to take me and my subjects and take us to a higher state of being than we were before. I need your strength to make it so we don’t need to be dependant on love for us to be sustained. I need you to make us free, but without the pesky business of accepting and giving love.”

Burning Star looked up. His face was slumped and tired and had bags under his eyes, but within them was a fresh fire. “Never,” he promised with a wrathful glare. “I’ll never give my word to help you! You kidnap me and expect me to bend the knee to somepony who has genitalia for brains? Hah!"

“I did not ask you for your word, Burning Star,” she replied coldly. “Especially because you’ve got camel bladders where your brains should be, which is why I know that your word is nothing but hot piss in the sand.”

The simple comment made Burning Star pick his head up and made a scowl appear on his face. “You insect, Care to repeat that?” he growled.

“For such a powerful pony, you sure do have a lot of buttons for me to press.” Chrysalis shook her head. “I think you heard me well enough, Star. Your honor is nothing. Your resolve has been obliterated. Your friends are gone for good. Celestia and Luna won’t go after somepony they despise. They will not go after you, Star, the traitor, the usurper of power, the pony that spends no time with the princess of friendship, even though you’re her husband. Why bring a danger back to Equestria?”

A jolt ran through Burning Star. She was right. What reason would Celestia have to search for a pony like him? No search parties would be sent. Nopony would come for help. Except...

“Your other friends, Hiller and Quickfire...neither of them possess the ability to follow me either. You’ll stay here, rotting in this cave, until you can help me attain a higher form than this rotting, dead...cheese body.” She looked at the holes in her legs distastefully.

“But I don’t need Hiller or Quickfire to track me down,” Burning Star breathed. He knew who would come. “I’ve got other friends that can follow me. The Guardians of the Sun.”

Chrysalis tilted her head to the side. “Now who in this universe is the Guardians of the Sun?” she asked, putting on an air of suspicion.

“They aren’t in this universe at all,” Burning Star said triumphantly. “They’re new to you. You haven’t met them yet. And you will fall before them. A knight--Noble Blade. A super soldier--Freedom Fighter. And...whatever Firestorm’s supposed to be.”

Chrysalis nodded. “Thank you for allowing me the privilege of letting me know who’s coming. Congratulations, Burning Star. You betrayed your friends yet again.”

Burning Star opened his eyes a little wider. “What? No! No, I…”

Chrysalis ignited her horn with a sizzle, and she spoke in a distorted voice to all the other mindless drones in the cave in her hive mind. “Prepare for entry. Outside forces approaching from an undetermined direction at an undetermined time. Arm yourselves, and raise the alertness of the cave sentries.” Her horn stopped glowing, and she looked back at Burning Star with a triumphant grin. “You just can’t do it right, Star. Never. Haven’t you realized that by now? Everything you do, no matter what you do, every adversary you face always returns stronger and more determined to kill you.” She leaned in close to his face. “Ever since Firebrand.” She smiled cruelly. “What power have you ever had? The power to kill? The power to hate? Those mean nothing; everypony has those feelings. But learning how to harness your strength, to prevent others from hurting you back, to plan against others to lead them to their eternal destruction...that is the only power that really matters. I have power, but I don’t have to flaunt it about like you have to in order to have others fear me. And that makes you a child with a temper tantrum that erupts into flame every time somepony mocks him or makes fun of him.”

Burning Star narrowed his eyes. “Stop it,” he snarled. “Or I swear to Celestia I will kill you where you stand.”

“With what power?” Chrysalis mocked. “All the power you thought you had is now irrelevant. What’s the power you think you have that will stop me from saying whatever I want to you--my prisoner, my property, mine to do with as I see fit?” She flicked a hoof nonchalantly. “And here I was, thinking that youmatteredto others--that you had power. You have nothing now to reassure you that you are powerful and mighty. And once I gain what I want from you, Star--willingly or not--I will come after the rest of your friends and reveal the news to them, and they’ll be overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. Their love for you will dissipate from their bodies and will become mine, and they will take revenge on me, proving that their love has left them completely. And then, in that knowledge, I will obliterate them from off the face of the earth.”

She turned around to two of her red-tinted superior officers, in tight black armor and horned helmets. “Keep an eye on him. Do whatever you want to him, but remember, I want him alive.” She glared at the one on the right. “That means no maiming.”

“Of course, your majesty,” he replied, a hungry look in his eyes. “I promise not to hurt our quarry.” A green jagged pillar appeared on the underside of him, and in place of him appeared Twilight Sparkle’s innocent image. Twilight’s image grinned. “But that doesn’t mean Twilight can’t hurt him.”

Chrysalis nodded, smiling so her fangs showed. “Good. You have the right idea.”

(Badlands)

The desert was hot, and the journey was long, and the five warriors wanted nothing to do with the sand and the sun and the rocks anymore. For the space of three days, they had went into the desert to try and locate the location of Burning Star. They had brought along camping supplies, food and water, and explosives to use once they had found out where the location of him was. Freedom Fighter, being the best at tracking, led them.

But so far, the trail was empty. Hour after miserable hour they spent walking and trudging through the hot grainy sand. The sun had scoured their manes, their outfits had made them sweaty and hot, and the loads they carried were heavy. The thought was never spoken aloud, but some of them doubted if they could ever get back with Burning Star--or if they even wanted to be there.

Noble Blade didn’t care about any of that. The problems were still there, of course, but they simply bothered him less than the others because his mind was fixated on only finding and rescuing the alicorn he hadn’t even known about a few weeks prior. Even though his appearance was abrupt and hasty, it was the trials and the common goal they shared that bonded him with the alicorn. They didn’t get along very well--that much was obvious. But Noble Blade had been with worse ponies in his long career of being a member of the royal guard.

Noble would do anything to get him back, but he also knew that this would make him stronger than before, and make him easier to get along with; he could see the truth of his circumstances in his captivity, and then know what to do if something like this ever happened again.

Ahead of him, Freedom Fighter stopped abruptly, holding a hoof up in the air, and the rest of the group, taken aback by the sudden stop, halted.

“What is it, Freedom Fighter?” Quickfire asked, grabbing the hilt of his katana warily.

Freedom Fighter bent so his nose was to the ground. He circled around the spot like he was a dog, sniffing and swishing the short black tail that stuck out of his tail, then he drew his head up and tapped the spot of sand with his hoof assuredly.

“It’s underground,” Firestorm announced. He looked at Freedom Fighter. “Is there another entrance somewhere?”

Freedom Fighter shook his head yes, but then shook his head no.

“There is, but Chrysalis probably has the entrance covered there. We need to sneak in,” Firestorm said.

Freedom Fighter then mimicked a digging action.

“We have to dig,” Hiller interpreted. He morphed one of his arms into a wide-bladed shovel and sunk it in the sand with a crunch.

“I have a better idea,” Noble said. He turned to Quickfire. “Help me out here.” He ignited his horn and a large section of the ground was illuminated by a dark blue aura.

Quickfire, seeing where he was going, ignited his own horn and another portion of the ground was illuminated by his own light blue aura. “Stand back,” he warned. “It’s going to be a sandstorm here.”

The rest of them obediently stepped back and closed their eyes.

Noble and Quickfire churned the sand like it was in a windstorm. And with a roar and a whirl of tan-colored sand, a depression opened up right there in the desert, revealing a large rock covering an opening into some subterranean landscape. It was colder now, and wind whistled through the cracks in between the rock cover and the mouth of the cave.

The horns of the two unicorns stopped abruptly, and the sand in the air was dispersed all around them. The group observed the remarkable occurence with a collective fascination.

“Now. Into the cave.” Noble’s sharp voice cut through the thoughts of everyone there. He lifted the rock with his magic and indicated the direction down.

One by one, they all lowered themselves into the cold cave. When the last of them came down, Noble settled the rock back into place and the light was cut off, save only for the dark blue glow of Noble’s horn.

They were on a ledge overlooking a large black expanse some thirty feet down. Their ears were filled with a humming and buzzing sound and the clicking of pincers, confirming that they were where they needed to be. There were no changelings that they could see on the ground below, but that didn’t stop the fact that they were still there, attached to the ceiling and the walls only a few meters away, dozing in a state of rest.

“You brought the changeling dust?” Noble asked of Quickfire quietly, so as to not wake the changelings.

Quickfire nodded accordingly.

“I will go in first,” Noble said in his commanding, hard tone that left no room open to interjection. “I’ll distract them, and that’ll allow you to settle into positions to fight them.”

“Aren’t we going to do an infiltration mission?” Hiller asked quizzically.

“That was never the intent.” Noble furrowed his brow. “This shall be an extermination mission.”

“What?” Quickfire jolted back. “Waltzing into a changeling nest? That’s the height of stupidity!”

“No. I can think of something much worse,” Firestorm said.

“Well then, what’s the height of stupidity?”

“How tall are you?”

Quickfire, hidden beneath the orange mask, flushed a sudden red and did not say anything.

Hiller hissed through his teeth. “One for his side.”

Noble was still talking, drawing the attention of all who were near. “No seed or root shall escape this cleansing. I do not like killing en mass, but I also don’t want to leave a threat open to growth and regeneration for later on. If we don’t destroy them all now, we’ll only face them down in the future, killing more changelings collectively in that option, rather than wiping them all out now.”

“He makes a good point,” Hiller said. Freedom Fighter pointed at Noble and nodded his approval as well.

“So what will we do again?” Firestorm asked.

“You will disguise yourselves as changelings with the dust you have and try to act like them. Hide amongst them. Follow them. Whatever they do, do yourself. As for me…” His face showed resolution. “I shall go down myself and deal with Chrysalis. I can distract her for quite some time. That should allow you to go and get into positions to destroy them all. No matter what I do--no matter what--you will not engage the enemy until I say you can.”

“Are you going to be safe?” Hiller asked.

“I’m going to be better off in open combat than at any other point in this operation,” Noble said calmly. “I’ll sneak off to the center of the room. You take care of your disguises. When you’re ready, signal me, and we’ll begin.” And he turned around and followed the ledge to a spot right above the center of the room. It took him a few minutes to get there because the single room that made up the cave was so big.

The ledge was narrow and thin, but it was sturdy enough for Noble’s weight. He stood there, looking behind the way he had came, searching for a signal.

And below him he heard a tortured scream. It was unfamiliar because he had never heard the pain and anguish present that was now there, but Noble knew exactly who it was.

Noble gritted his teeth so hard together he was sure some of his molars would be ground into a fine powder on the edges. Burning Star was disagreeable, rude, thick headed...

but he was a friend of his regardless. And the very thought that any soul should endure prolonged anguish and torment made his heart ache.

Behind him, a small flicker of sparks illuminated the passageway, signaling that they were done and they were all in the form of changelings.

Noble responded by igniting his horn for them to see in the dark. Then he looked below him.

And he jumped down in a graceful front flip, his brown cape fluttering out behind him.

His impact on his two bent hind legs, even with a suit of armor, was so soft that the three changelings in the room initially didn’t notice the noise behind him. Noble could see the form of the poor alicorn practically bolted to the wall by a green layer of slime, leaving only his head exposed. All the muscles that covered his face had gone limp and Noble was struck with horror.

Across Burning Star's eyes were two vertical reddish scars that pulsed with energy. The rest of his chin was covered in reddish lines that also pulsed and throbbed like blood-carrying veins.

Disappointed with the reactions, Noble cleared his throat.

And that got their attentions. The two changelings off on the sides wheeled around and jolted their heads back in initial surprise, then hurriedly went to either side of him to cut him off from escaping. The center one, larger and more dangerous than the others, slowly turned around. Noble could see her thin, shredded mane and her round black face and her long jagged horn, and knew instantly that it was Chrysalis. Across the room, plastered to the wall, Burning Star looked up and saw, to his utmost astonishment, Noble Blade.

“Queen Chrysalis,” Noble announced, sitting on his hind legs in a peaceful manner. “Thou art under arrest.”

Queen Chrysalis strode forward without the slightest hint of reluctance. “Noble Blade, I’m guessing. Don’t tell me, let me guess: This is the part where you offer me the chance to surrender.”

“It could be the part where I offer you the chance to surrender,” Noble allowed equably. “Or, if you like, it can be the part where I dismantle your exoskeleton and send you back to Canterlot in a matchbox.” He pointed a hoof over his shoulder.

“How about I’ll take option three,” Chrysalis said, and with a single gesture, the two guards encircling Noble were joined by six more from side corridors, totaling eight that were now in an octagonal shape around the knight. “That’s the one where I watch you die.”

A sudden pulse of her horn, and the changelings in the nest above his head came to life.

It was a slow clicking and a muttering at first as the first ones awoke. The hive above came alive with green and turquoise lights as eye after green eye opened and started to drop. Only a few came at first, like the opening drops of a summer rainstorm, then came many more to join them, then finally it opened in a downpour that shook the floor and left Noble’s ears ringing. Changeling after changeling fell to the ground, rolled, and stood up with bared fangs. A few of them carried spears in their front legs, and some had daggers in their teeth. Many more stayed to the ceiling with their sights set on the lone knight in the center of the room so Noble now was at the focus of a dome of changelings. Sticking to the ceiling was the four other warriors, hidden and silent amongst the other changelings.

Through it all, Noble Blade never moved a muscle.

“I’m sorry, was I not clear?” he asked mildly. “There is no option three.” He made quotation marks with his hooves as he spoke.

Chrysalis shook her head and sighed, “Do you ever tire of this pathetic banter?”

“I rarely tire at all,” Noble replied evenly. “And I honestly have no better way to pass the time while I just sit here and wait for you to either decide to surrender, or choose to die.”

“That decision was made long before I ever even met you.” Chrysalis stepped back boredly. “Kill him.”

“NO!” Burning Star cried, from on the wall.

Instantly, the octagonal box surrounding Noble Blade closed in on him--which was more trouble than it was worth, for Noble was even faster.

He had dropped to the ground like he had suddenly fainted, bringing his arm up to his sword hilt, and rolled to an upright position on his hind legs and had, with a swift swing, swiped the sword out of its scabbard and swept it in a wide arc, slicing through the changelings that had rushed him in one single action. Inside of two seconds, eight changeling bodies had slumped to the ground, and Noble Blade, entirely untouched, was there with a blazing blue sword in his right hoof and his left hoof in front of his face.

And instantly every changeling morphed into a blue or purple or red or orange unicorn and opened fire on him with their magic and rushed at him.

Noble’s horn glowed a dark blue color, and a dark blue shield erupted around his body, absorbing all of the magic blasts. At the same time, his sword suddenly flew out of his hooves of its own accord and sheared its way through all the nearest changelings. It spun around him like he had it on the end of a string, cutting through flesh and shearing through bone effortlessly. The noise it made as it cut was a sizzling sound, and pieces of changelings, some still alive, fell to the ground in cauterized pieces. It flew around the room like a missile, seeking out its targets and erupting through them and moving on to the next one. By the time his sword stopped in midair and returned to his hoof, nearly half of the changelings in the room had been torn apart by the impromptu seeking sword, and Noble Blade, entirely untouched, was standing directly in front of Queen Chrysalis.

“Chrysalis,” he said, as if unexpectedly meeting a secretly-despised friend on the street, “my offer is still open.”

The charging of magic horns stopped at once; Noble was so close to the queen she was in the line of fire.

Chrysalis snorted, though her face displayed a hidden impressive look. “Do you really think I would ever accept your offer? I've waited to annihilate this flaming demon for a long time! You will DIE!”

“I am still willing to take you in alive.” Noble’s hoof behind him took in the bloody, smoking wreckage of nearly half of her army lying on the ground. “So far, nopony has been hurt.”

Chrysalis advanced forward, trying to tower over him, even though Noble was on his hind legs. “Oh Please, I have hundreds of troops. You cannot defeat them all.”

“I don’t have to.”

“This is your chance to surrender,” Chrysalis said, indicating the trapped alicorn on the wall behind her. “Burning Star is in my grip; lay down your blade, or I will squeeze... until this cave brims over with his blood.”

“It’s not his blood that’ll brim the cave,” Noble said, narrowing his eyes. “I’m not alone.” He raised his voice. “NOW!”

And from the ceiling dropped four other warriors, landing one at a time on the cave floor. As they landed, they morphed from changelings into their normal selves. And they drew their weapons.

“NONE SHALL LIVE!” Noble thundered in the most terrible, challenging voice any of them had ever heard him use. It was deep, and it was powerful, and it shook every changeling in the cave to their core with fear as it reverberated in the souls of all who heard it. Even Chrysalis froze in a brief moment of fear.

And one second later the cave erupted into a storm of clashing metal and cries of pain.

It could barely be called a fight. While the changelings had the advantage in numbers, the Guardians of the Sun and the Star Hunters combined had significantly more training in both weaponry and in arms. So it was more like a controlled slaughter.

Hiller was spiked all over like a pufferfish. Whenever a changeling came near the spikes instantly elongated until they impaled him through like some grotesque kabob. He would raise his hooves and lances of hardened flesh shot out and ran into those in front of him, then branch off and hit others in the chests and heads and thorax. They then retracted and he absorbed the skewed bodies of the changelings into his.

Quickfire and Firestorm, despite their initial distrust and dislike of each other, were back-to-back with their own katanas. They would parry on their own side and then thrust behind them on the other side to get one the other had missed. They would swipe and cut and slash in front of them, and then one of them would crouch and the other would leap over and pierce through a changeling. Their coordination was impeccable, their timing never off, their destruction efficient, and their brotherhood solid.

Freedom Fighter was alone, but that was exactly the way he preferred it in a fight. With his two-meter long Bo Staff in his hooves, he fought with a fury that rivaled that of Burning Star’s. He was sprinting in a heavy charge to where the captive alicorn was, and if any changeling came near, he would floor them with a single blow from the staff. One time a changeling had morphed into an earth pony and leaped in front of him, but Freedom fighter met him midair in the leap and slammed his staff down on his head so hard he hit the floor in a pile of goo and did not move again. But his path was blocked by many more changelings, making it harder for him to advance further. Freedom Fighter was surrounded by them, surrounded on every side by changelings thirsty for his death. But as he began to thrust and pierce and twirl and leap and swipe and bludgeon and kill, the perimeter around him grew significantly wider as they were forced to back down from his horrific, bloody onslaught.

Noble Blade just walked forward, inexorably closing in on Chrysalis, not turning his head to the side at all. His eyes were narrowed and his upward gait was straight as he held his sword in front of his head. He wasn’t bothered by the carnage happening around him. It wasn’t distracting him in the least from his goal.

A changeling jumped from the side, intent on sinking his fangs into a gap in Noble’s armor. But he was stopped in midair by a dark blue aura as Noble caught him with his magic. With nary a look to the side Noble pulsed his horn, the changeling snapped over backwards the wrong way, and he cut off the magic and he dropped to the ground with a thud.

Four changelings with spears in the holes of their forearms appeared in a line between him and the queen and formed a barrier which no normal pony could dare to cross.

But Noble Blade wasn’t a normal pony.

With a single contemptuous swipe of his sword the changeling’s heads dropped to the floor and bounced away, and the bodies collapsed on themselves, the length of their spears sheared off.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the fall of her soldiers. “I will never surrender to a pony like you. You're just like Shining Armor, naive and righteous.”

Noble smiled. “Good.”

Chrysalis ignited her horn with a mighty roar and a beam of green energy shot out, intent on vaporizing the knight where he stood and making him roast to death in his own armor. But Noble caught the beam with the edge of his sword, deflecting the laser off to the side and cutting an erratic path through the cave. After cutting through the sides of the cave, making a shower of debris and rubble avalanche down the sides and crush several changelings, Noble deflected the beam back at Chrysalis’s hooves, making her stumble back and cut off the magic.

She roared in frustration and a shower of magical green spears erupted out of her horn and came at Noble in several different directions. But like with Midnight Sparkle in her throne room, Noble Blade deflected the spears with his sword, whipping the thing around like it was weightless and catching all of the attacks with the edge of his sword and deflecting them off into the fray, where they exploded into the ground with a shower of rocks and severed limbs.

And also like with Midnight, Chrysalis was so preoccupied with the attacks she wasn’t focused enough on her defense.

Noble fired a blast of dark blue magic into her torso, throwing her back against the rock wall and eliciting a groan from her as she slumped to the ground. As she hit the floor she felt a tugging at her horn, and she tried to ignite it to gain control back, but to no effect. Noble had Chrysalis’s horn in his own magic aura, and was tugging and tugging and tugging on it and forcing it to bend and was pulling on her horn with all the force a unicorn trained in combat could possibly muster.

With a terrible cracking noise, Queen Chrysalis’s horn snapped in half.

Chrysalis grasped the top of her head and gasped loudly. Green energy crackled off the half connected to her head, and the piece that was now clinking away simply had a green mist evaporating off of it. All around her, she could not sense the contours of the room, could not sense as well the hive connection she shared with all of the unindividualized changelings that now were all littering the floor in death poses. She looked up and saw Noble Blade, his face expressionless and yet at the same time full of a terrible wrath.

Chrysalis, incredibly, chuckled and raised her hooves. “Oh, come now, Noble Blade." she managed to get out through the pain. “You’re a knight! You wouldn’t harm an unarmed mare, would you?” She stepped forward, keeping one hoof in the air as she walked with three. She felt a slight piercing feeling as she saw all of her subjects lying dead on the ground and the bloodied weapons of the warriors that had done it, but all that mattered to her was that she stay alive.

Noble nodded. “Thou art correct. I cannot bring myself to strike down an unarmed pony.”

Chrysalis grew a smile of relief as she heard the comforting words coming from the foolish and gullible knight.

Noble then suddenly ignited his horn and a dagger suddenly glowed blue and flew across the room at Chrysalis like he had thrown it underhooved. It was slow enough for her to see, but only at the last minute, and Chrysalis, instantly and instinctively, caught it in her hoof.

And then she belatedly realized the trick and looked down at the knife in shock.

Noble nodded matter-of-factly. “But now thou art armed.”

And with all the unerring skill, speed, and accuracy of a warrior, he raised himself up and hurled his chrome sword at the queen.

It was a sick squelching noise as Chrysalis was impaled to the hilt by the sword and the sword sunk deep into the cave floor, pinning her upright like a bug put on display. The six warriors left alive in the room all looked at the queen in complete surprise, who was even now allowing small gasping noises to gargle through her throat. The sword had gone through her lower torso, allowing her some moments now at the end for her to live a little longer.

Noble looked upon the queen with utter distaste for a few moments more, then turned away and walked to Burning Star.

Burning Star breathed a sigh of relief as Noble came near. “Oh, thank you! Thank you all for coming! I didn’t know if I was going to get out again!” It was strange for Burning Star to be thankful and admit his own helplessness, but he wasn’t focused on that at the moment.

Noble, however, stopped and looked directly at Burning Star. It confused him. “...Noble? Aren’t you going to...to get me out?”

“Do it yourself.”

Burning Star blinked back a jolt of surprise. “What?”

“Do it yourself.” Noble looked stern. “Prove it. Crush me. Crush me and my “selfless ideals” you apparently think I have. If your definition of power is brute physical force, prove to me that you have power, and break your bonds.”

“I…” Burning Star wasn’t sure what to say. Where was this coming from? “I...I can’t...I tried to, but I couldn’t! This stuff is impervious to fire! Please! Get me out!”

Noble only looked at him. “Why should I? Why should I release you? The world would be better off without you if you intend to keep on hurting others and make excuses and blame it on the dark force inside of you that you don’t have the power to tame. I came after you to rescue you, but if you think that being selfless is stupid and weak, then apparently I have no power to rescue you.”

Burning Star felt tears well up from behind his eyes. What was happening? Why was he doing this? Noble was his friend! What was he doing? “Noble! Noble, please! Listen to me! I...I was…” He sniffed. “I WAS WRONG! I...I...I was wrong…”

Noble listened intently, while Quickfire and Hiller stared in shock.

Had Burning Star said he was wrong?

“You were right. You...you were right all along. I was wrong about everything I said to you. I was selfish, and I was weak, and I…” He sniffed in despair. Tears were streaming down his face and collecting at his chin and dripping on the cold floor. “I didn’t have control of myself, and that made me weak. The power to hurt others...it isn’t real power. That’s weak power. You hurt others when you lose control of your own power to restrain yourself. And because of that, you’re the most powerful guard--warrior--I ever saw.” The words were pouring out of his mouth now. “You show restraint. You love others. You have compassion for your friends. You care. You...you want to be humble, and you want to improve yourself no matter how powerful you are. I need to become like you.” He sniffed again. “I...I want to become like you again…”

Noble was silent for a moment.

Then he said, “Who do you take me for, Burning Star? A pony that can be won over by words and tears and false promises? Are you saying this because you only want to be free? Or are you willing to apply what we’ve been trying to tell you to your life and earnestly become a pony that is humble, reluctant to fight, and powerful?”

“PLEASE!” Burning Star screamed, struggling against the ooze pinning him to the wall. “PLEASE, GET ME OUT! I’M BEGGING YOU! I’LL DO ANYTHING!” Why was Noble so insensitive? Why was he refusing?

“I see the flaws in you, Burning Star.” Noble was seemingly ignoring him. “I see the many, many things you need fixing with in your life. I see the dark forces you have and that you choose to use, and I see that you are bad at so much more than I can even see.”

Noble outstretched his hoof, his horn glowing, and the sword pinning Chrysalis to the ground jolted and flew back to his hoof with a resounding noise. Chrysalis, from far away, collapsed to the ground, finally dead, and Noble twisted the hilt, the sword buzzed blue, and he cut through the ooze, awfully close to Burning Star’s skin. Burning Star, wearily realizing that Noble was not intending on killing him, collapsed into Noble Blade’s hooves, his sword clattering to the floor, and Noble held and hugged the weakened prisoner tightly.

“But do you know why I released you?” Noble whispered softly in his ear. “Because I had the power to look at your flaws, and at your imperfections, and still love you anyway.”

Burning Star felt a fresh flood of tears rush out of his eyes at the significant words. That was power. That was all that really mattered.

I will become a wiser and stronger pony because of you. I will follow you to the ends of the world and back. I will do it because I know that I can do better than how I am now.

And upon hearing that, the inner demons in his head fell silent and watched with shock at his change.

All except one... one little piece of light lept out and said.

"I will be free. Dawn Star will rise..."

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[Super Ponyman]

8748777
Burning Star would sound gruff and blunt.

Noble Blade would probably be British

Firestorm would probably be voiced in a sarcastic tone.

Hiller is ghetto, so imagine what he would be voiced like.

Quickfire is Shining Armor From the Future. His voice is deeper and more gasp like.

Freedom Fighter is mute, so we are not talking about that.