CH 33 (progress and loss)
Patchwork
Opening my eyes, I was greeted with my Velvet’s beautiful face. Raising my right arm, I gently ran a claw down her neck which caused her to stir but not wake up; she was always a bit of a heavy sleeper.
Pulling her closer to me, I winced at the pain in my back from my overused muscles.
The training with Shield Strike over the last couple of days has pushed me beyond my limits in every way possible, causing me to feel regular muscle cramps for the first time in a while.
On top of that, I had new studies added along with the academy ones, but Shield refused to explain why. The only thing she did tell me is that it’ll be clear later. How much this ‘later’ is I had no idea.
This was the first night in weeks that I was able to spend with Velvet, and I cherished every moment by sleeping for barely an hour. A bit creepy probably but I don’t care, and she is none the wiser.
Placing my head on top of hers, making sure I was careful with her horn, I took a look around the room we were in.
It was a guest bedroom in Celestia’s castle big enough for two and with a large bathroom with a bathtub that saw immediate use the moment we spotted it. The cleaning took a bit after we thoroughly soaked everything in it, but the fun was worth it.
“Patch?” Her soft voice made my ears twitch, “It’s four in the morning, did you even sleep?”
“How’d you know I’m awake?” I gave the top of her head a nuzzle which she gently returned.
“You breathe differently when you sleep,” She pushed herself even deeper into my arms.
“Hmm, I just woke up.”
“Liar.”
“I swear Vel… Vel?” I whispered pulling my head back only to see her fast asleep.
Chuckling to myself, I closed my eyes and let myself drift off until morning.
…
Entering the sparing area behind the castle I immediately noticed a massive grey bubble surrounding the entire thing with Celestia sitting in the middle.
After two weeks of sparing with her and going through the exercises she gave me I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I was the first time I did it.
“Today will be a bit special, my dear,” She spoke before I even reached her and I frowned at the golden full-body armour she wore, with red and orange accents that made her look like a phoenix.
“How so?” I sat down not far from her looking over the, again, flat area. I’m assuming she flattened it before I showed up.
“I wish to test your full abilities now that you have some experience with this kind of combat,” She stretched her wings fully revealing that even her wing joints were armoured. “However, there will be no holding on your side whatsoever.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she interrupted me, “And I mean it, Patchwork. Every time I see you holding back I will punish you severely.”
After thinking it over for a moment I sighed.
“Fine, what’s the catch? And what’s with the shield?” I pointed one claw up.
“The shield is here for you, which also includes the ‘catch’. When I say you will not be holding back, I meant it,” She stood up and started pacing in front of me, her armour clanking with every step. “I am aware, through thestrals that have been keeping an eye on you, that you are FAR more capable when it comes to your transformations.”
That got my heart to sink for a bit but I kept listening in silence.
“The shield will only allow the designated ponies to enter through it, and a second layer will prevent any outsiders to see inside. This will keep your full abilities a secret which means you have no reason to restrict yourself,” She sat back down in front of me. “I will also fight back this time, instead of waiting for you to attack. I wish to see your full capabilities in order to gauge your current level now that you have some experience under your horn.”
Thinking over everything she said I had a shiver run down my spine for a moment. Usually, when we sparred she held back significantly by only attacking after I made my move, but this time she will be active. I did not feel confident about my chances. She did tell me to not hold back at all, which got me frowning.
Taking a deep breath and sighing heavily I nodded my head.
Celestia nodded back and stood up, prompting me to do the same.
“We will begin in three…” I got into a fighting stance with only slight trepidation, “two…” I felt my body heat up as I saturated the area around me in my magic, “one.”
Ducking immediately to dodge a magic beam I dashed forward transforming into a hydralisk at the same time using the higher mobility to move between Celestia’s blasts. I couldn’t fire the spines but the mobility did allow me to get close enough.
Suddenly a wall of golden magic slammed into me pushing me back. Transforming into myself I managed to push myself off the wall noting that I ended up at the same place I started at.
Flying up into the air, I started dodging various beams and mana weapons Celestia was throwing at me, ignoring the small damage I started to accumulate.
Managing to manoeuvre myself above Celestia I transformed into the largest thing I could without wasting my resin or my magic, a manticore.
Before I was able to get the drop on her, she disappeared in a flash of light.
Quickly spotting her on my left before she struck me I used my own short-range teleport to get into a better position and, transforming into a triceratops mid dash, I managed to slam into her shield hissing at the pain from my horn; I was where I wanted to be though.
Gathering a significant amount of material around me I quickly worked it over transforming into a Tyrranid Carnifex dwarfing her and causing Celestia’s mouth to drop.
With a swift and powerful swipe with the main talon, I slammed into the shield from the side nearly breaking it and tossing it and Celestia with it to the side. The golden orb along with Celestia smashed a fair distance away digging into the dirt, and cracking in it the process.
Seeing as Celestia was still shell-shocked I pushed the transformation a bit further into complexity transforming into a Hive Tyrant with four blades, unfortunately. Taking a deep breath and hoping this works, with a few modifications and a dash of magic, I screeched in her direction at the top of my lungs.
To my own surprise, the scream actually ripped at the ground making the air around me vibrate and making Celestia drop to her knees and the shield she summoned again shatter within seconds.
With wide terrified eyes, Celestia teleported away from me, and before I even knew what happened the whole area around me was flattened shoving me into the dirt with incredible force.
With a pained grunt, I barely managed to raise my head trying to find Celestia spotting her far away from me shaking her head. Hissing from pain at the force pushing me I opened my mouth and with some modification I blasted her with a lightning bolt that struck a hastily raised shield, detonating on impact, and removing the pressure off of me.
Transforming into myself I used the small respite from the thick dust cloud around Celestia to catch my breath.
It turned out to be a mistake as a magic blast cut through the dust cloud nearly hitting me, making me dodge to the side. It was all apparently a part of her plan because I just managed to see a flash of light from my periphery before I was launched into the air by something grunting in pain.
Using up some of my resin I fixed as much damage on my side as I could before reorienting myself in the air with a buzz of my wings. With a quick teleport, I was out of immediate danger but not out of trouble as Celestia zeroed in on me almost instantly.
After dodging various spells, I managed to find some time to get a few gulps of air in the crater I created when I transformed into a Carnifex. It did not last very long though as I had to dive out of it with a quick jump and a teleport after a beam of red magic started cutting the whole area up.
Noticing that I ended up fairly close to Celestia I quickly transformed into a Hell Knight dropping a heavy fist in an overhead strike. Missing by a few centimetres I decided to keep up the pressure by changing into a xenomorph and closing the distance between us.
Celestia tried to teleport but I managed to strike the side of her helmet with my long tail stunning her briefly only to nearly lose the same tail after a vicious stomp from her.
Jumping to the side I transformed into myself and spat a close-range lightning bolt which turned out to be a mistake as we both got caught in the explosion.
Landing on my back a few meters away I shook my head a quickly stood up to survey the damage wincing from the pain in my forelegs.
Looking down I saw several cracks along my forelegs and chest which I quickly repaired making me use up half of my current resin levels. Frowning I raised my head and looked through the dust cloud for Celestia.
Buzzing my wings, I got some distance away from my current location as a precaution and as the dust cloud settled I felt a swell of pride at the damage I did to her, even if I felt a pang of guilt from the pain I caused.
The entire right half of Celestia’s armour was twisted, warped, and torn in several places with a decent chunk of it missing from her shoulder. Underneath the ruined armour I noticed a scaled vest that was fastened to a few loosely hanging pieces. The vest itself was also damaged exposing the flesh underneath which was swiftly healing but still told me that the damage was extensive. Celestia herself had her eyes squeezed shut and her horn blazing with magic. When the glow stopped she was panting hard and loud enough that I could hear her.
Swallowing hard at the fact that I almost crippled Celestia I was about to call the sparring off when she spotted me in the sky. With a sigh and a grunt, she ripped the whole armour off of her with magic tossing the crumpled thing to the side and spreading out her stance along with her wings. After a flash of light, her body was momentarily glowing in various colours nearly immediately fixing any damage I made.
Spitting out another lightning bolt I was surprised when it struck a solid shield that didn’t even buckle or explode on contact with a smug Celestia looking at me underneath it.
Frowning I landed hard digging my claws into the dirt and with a flash of fire I transformed myself into a t-rex. With a roar, I sprinted at her only to snap my mouth into thin air after she teleported.
Roaring again, this time in pain after a blast of magic I quickly changed into myself, fixed the damage then got close to her in a series of swift teleports draining my low mana reserves but I still had enough for another shot at her.
Transforming into an ultralisk I smirked inwardly at her wide eyes but that hardly stopped the attack that was barrelling toward her and the heavy shield she put up.
Twisting my body to the side as much as the bulk allowed me to add more momentum, both of my right kaiser blades smashed into the shield easily shattering it, launching Celestia at incredible speeds.
She must have heavily enchanted her body as she managed to swiftly slow down and right herself, teleporting away before I even managed to reach her.
Transforming into myself I was grunting and groaning at the feeling of being so massively stretched out, and even though a decent amount of absorbed material still stayed with me, I was done. Slowly but surely my body started sending me signals of overexertion and I started shivering prompting me to sit down and breathe heavily for a few moments trying to settle myself.
“Much, much better, my dear,” Her praise shook me out of my daze, “I have to say, you had me genuinely scared there for a few moments.” Raising my head slightly I spotted her on my right slowly approaching me. There was a massive bruise on her left side but it was swiftly disappearing with every shaky step she took. Soon her fur looked just as pristine as it always was, without even a speck of dust on it.
“Yeah, well, it still wasn’t enough,” Letting myself drop on my stomach I rolled to my side and closed my eyes.
“Patchwork don’t put yourself down like that. Today was a fantastic showing of your abilities and I am truly impressed by what kind of resistance you can put out.”
“Yea, well, you are still holding back,” I muttered with my ears twitching at her steps. She stopped right next to me and I could feel her breath on my chitin. She was breathing fairly heavily.
“That may be so, but do not let it distract you from the fact that you, by yourself mind you, managed to nearly push me to my limits. And that is after only a few weeks of training.”
Snorting softly, I let her words wash over me making me feel slightly better about myself. I still hoped my full abilities would be able to take her down, but that was still beyond me.
“Honestly, what even are these monstrosities you transformed into? The human mind is a terrifying thing indeed,” She muttered and that caused me to chuckle.
Opening my eyes, I slowly got back up on my claws sitting down.
“You have no idea,” Looking around the landscape was completely trashed missing large chunks of land with giant swaths of it looking like a titan ran its fingers through it.
“Do tell, I am curious,” Celestia sat down next to me.
With a pop, the shield around us disappeared removing the grey filter that covered everything. Looking at the big blue sky above me I decided to regale her first with the tale that is the 40k universe and the Tyranids. Glory to the Emperor of Mankind.
Spine
I watched as Carrion’s face rapidly switched between expressions the longer he read through the letter the pony Princess sent us. I have already read through it twice memorising the whole thing top to bottom. The sun would set in a few minutes but there was still enough light to read.
“So that’s it,” He snorted igniting the letter with his magic and leaving only ashes, “we just wait until this ascended arrives to clean up the mess?”
“If the hive lasts that long,” I muttered.
Dragging his hooves down his face in exasperation Carrion got up to pace, something I haven’t seen in a long, long time.
“What about the changelings that they are, supposedly protecting?” He asked and I shrugged.
“They have been open with us since the get-go, from what I’m seeing.”
“How can you just trust them like that?” Carrion shook his head.
“I’m not, Carrion, but what can I do at this point? Our Queen is apparently possessed, and even if she isn’t right now she all but gave up on us. Our citizens are fleeing to protect their families, we can’t even feed ourselves within the castle walls anymore and the only ones that are doing something right now, the only ones that are helping us are the ones I have been taught to hate my whole life!” I didn’t even notice when Carrion got close to me and placed his hoof on my shoulder. Taking a deep breath and unclenching my jaw I felt my shoulder slump, “Even those crystals that the ‘true’ Queen told us about, what are we supposed to do with them?”
Patting my shoulders Carrion moved away from me and sat on the ridge overlooking the beginning of the Badlands desert.
We were outside of the Shifting Castle in a place where the verdant fields of Equestria end and the Badlands begin. In a straight flight path, it would take us roughly twenty minutes to get back to the castle at a lazy pace.
The whole area looked like some nymph took a quill and made an invisible line on the ground separating the green from the brown. The green was lush and colourful with pleasant scents and a soft feeling under the hoof, while the brown was jagged, sharp, and full of shapes under which one could hide to avoid the blasted sun.
“So, what do we do?” I asked out loud hoping for an answer out of the blue.
“We do what the changelings always did,” Carrion spoke up, “we change and adapt.”
“Even if that means accepting an enemy as an ally?” I approached and sat down next to him.
“Are they an enemy at this point?” He looked at me and I shrugged, scratching under my jaw with my hoof.
“Bah, I’ll start making plans in case the worse comes to worst,” Shaking myself of in an attempt to shake away the thoughts I jumped up to my hooves and started stretching.
“Am I included in them?” Carrion asked with a hint of mirth in his voice.
“You?” I barked a laugh, “Your plan was to blow yourself up along with the throne, if you are lucky I will task you with toilet duty after all this blows over.”
“Hmm, toilet duty would be a nice change of pace,” the bucker had the audacity to even think about it.
“Whatever,” I sighed but I couldn’t remove the grin from my muzzle, “I’ll go on ahead. I need to start looking into who I can trust and who I can’t. Do you need me to send someling to help ya back?”
“No need, I’ll take my time,” He smiled looking at the sunset.
Nodding my head, I opened up my wings and took the longer route by weaving between the rocks keeping low to the ground. Making sure that my eyes were always up for any lookouts or flyers I nearly collided with a few boulders, but I managed.
I was nearly at the castle while managing to avoid the housing area around when one of the walls suddenly got blasted outward and the Queen launched herself through the hole.
Shocked at her current behaviour, I nearly missed the direction she was flying at but the moment I put the pieces together my gut dropped.
Turning around and pushing magic into my wings I buzzed them for all they were worth hoping to catch up to her. The worst kinds of scenarios were playing through my head and I was praying to whatever gods listened that I was wrong.
There was no way to catch up to her though, and even at my top speed, it would still take me at least five minutes to reach the location we were in.
I saw a green comet land near Carrion’s location, and a few minutes later there were two flashes of green followed by a detonation.
I did not wish to think of the implications, but somehow I knew, my friend was gone.
I don’t know how long I was just flying in place, just lazily buzzing my wings, slowly floating down to the ground.
Stealing my nerves I flew the last bit of distance to the ridge, spotting Chrysalis looking over a large smoking crater where I left Carrion.
“My Queen,” I landed behind her with a bow, but I could not muster any sort of reverence I used to greet her with.
She turned her head to look at me and for a moment I felt less like a changeling and more like an insect, an ant, being looked upon by something much greater than it; there was nothing but pure hatred in those eyes.
“Carrion betrayed us,” She spoke, but there was no emotion in her voice, “do you know anything about it?” My mind was going wild with speculations, but someling telling her something was at the top of them.
“No, my queen I do not. We have not spoken in weeks,” I slowly raised my head lying for my life, but I did not approach her.
“Hmm,” She turned and walked past me, “Your face tells me you are grieving… Grieve, for now, he was your friend last I remember.”
I did not turn around, opting to keep looking at the… grave.
Before she flew away I could feel her gaze on me. With a loud buzz of her wings, she left me there and made her merry way back to the castle. I could even hear her humming to herself making my blood boil.
‘First I will find the bastard that did this to Carrion,’ I grit my teeth feeling them grind under pressure, ‘Then I will make sure that the bitch pays for it!’
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Good chapter, epic sparring session.
40k man, not even once. you risk tearing a hole in space-time and inviting that evil into your house
awesome chapter right to the point.
this story is just amazing.
That was sudden
Good thing that Patchwork is improving this rapidly with the training, he probably could give Chrysalis quite the run for her money at this point, though I am a little concerned about how capable he may be in sustained battle, rather than an intense blitz like here, where both parties start fully rested. Hopefully she can't just immediately copy his more complex transformations though, or things might go quite badly.
So he goes with the fictional 40K instead of the ancient history of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
I would have told her about them and then told her we improved it
patch really is warming up to his abilities, and my, what abilities they are, I could only imagine seeing any of those in real life, good lord no
resin
...and then, sensing he was injured, patchwork ate seven entire raisins in the middle of battle.
Very cool chapter. Too bad about Carrion :(
Noticed two typos.
off
resin
Aww man carrion didn't even become proper carrion... Interesting, she knew exactly where he was, but wasn't aware Spine was also in that direction. Looks like spy work is in store!
Wonder if our Prince is limited to organic-based transformations, or if imagination is truly the only limit. Would be interesting if he could emulate, say, an Ironman suit or the Meta...
Let him tell Celestia about the Philosopher's Stone from the Steel Alchemist! And then, as a joke, he will draw a transformation circle.... which might work
I wonder who else the nightmare managed to get to? Sombra looks like the most obvious option, Tirek may also be in question
One of two Changelings trying to save the Hive are gone... Things looked grim before. Ling genoside looks very likely at this point....
11276356
One of many, just one problem so far. They Spar and than they heal up. In a real battle things are not that cut and dry...
11276417
The parasite is after all a creature of action and not planning. A smart one would have started a interigation, this one just blows shit up...
11276477
Even if, not knowing how a creature can move and what its abilitys are will making Imitation rather ineffective.
11276540
Raw damage output is there, but subduing Chrysalis body will be difficult... Taking prisoners is always harder than going for the kill...
11276598
Upside, his retirement is no longer a problems
Downside, we lost 1 of only 2 Changelings working to stop the Changeling extinction...
11276676
Maybe the Messages are not quite as uninspected as believed? Or she just followed a weak evidence she was shown off, just for the fun of it?
11276695
Every major Villain a Dream/Night-parasite pretending to help and stealing the body in the end... I can picture it already! Examples:
- Chrysalis, because they can sence there kind
- Sombra, because the Crystal Empire was a force multipler for Harmony through love
- Tirek, a brave 'Kight/Royal familie member' fearing for his Kingdom
- Storm King, by chance literally the only non infected Villain. Go figure Warrior and Conquest culture...
- Starlight Glimmer, because she was promised her friend back...
- Cozy Glow, because who would suspect a Foal?
- Possible made up villain like a Diamond Dog Alpha
Or
A Griffon Noble... Could explain why the Griffon Domain /Empire is in a drastic decay like the Changelings!
11276728
You also forgot about a few characters:
Pony of Shadows! In the series they don't tell us where this parody of Venom came from
Sunset Shimmer. Her demonic side will do
Midnight Sparkle
Sirens
I wonder if they will show us how someone is consumed by a nightmare? And then there are several characters who can fall in front of a Nightmare in some delicate situations
Griffinstone, the Settlement of Hippogriffs, the Settlement of Kiryans can completely fall before a Nightmare
The amulet of the Alicorn also looks suspicious, oh, and the book that Spike found in the castle of the Two Sisters
And of course don't forget about the minor characters!
Trixie, Brothers Flim and Flam, Tempest Shadow
Well, you can always get someone out of the old guard! That is, the villains of the first generation
11276812
Indeed, i missed a lot. Should really rewatch the show
11276841
Yeah... It's a pity that in the show some things appear only for a couple of minutes and then disappear...
For example, the Amulet of Alicorn! Who created it? What is the full list of his abilities? He has always been a dark artifact or someone once spoiled it or..
Or is he actually part of the Alicorn's super-magical battle armor, which turns the wearer into a terrible alicorn-like creature the size of a dragon, giving incredible power, but instead turning the wearer into a true Dark Lord, whose goal is to conquer the whole world!
Prostrate mortals before the might of the Amulet of Alicorn!
Bow down before your true Master!
One Amulet to rule them all, one Amulet to find the, One Amulet to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
11276904
Lord of the Rings fan? I dig it ♤
11276918
After all, we need a really big evil, and where to get inspiration if not there?
Although one Melkor was already here, and his name was Grogar! Well, instead of rings, Bells, and all we know about him is that he was and his Bell is now under the strict supervision of the forces of good.. in the animated series, there are still 20~30 years before that.
Who knows, perhaps very soon the Bell of the End of Time will thunder again, the sky will darken and HIS dark abode will return from the darkness. Tambelon will return with its ruler
11276480
"Really? Is that all? Then you never heard of the megaspells that created the Badlands we know of today..." (That and most xeno-Celestia fics have the evil princess becoming the initiator of a fusion bomb effect for "fun")
Huh. Guess changeling names tell of their destinies too.
11277172
"Sounds like a magical Chernobyl. Been there done that. One word: antimatter!"
11277188
We're still fumbling around with the tiniest amounts of the stuff so I wouldn't be worried about weaponizing it just yet.
11277249
You are right. We are still fumbling around with the tiniest amounts of the stuff... not to use it as a weapon. Any matter that antimatter touches is reduced to pure energy in a massive explosion with no fallout. The perfect WMD if I ever heard of one.... But Celestia doesn't know that
Dang...was hoping he'd show Celestia a Dimacheron
Now my only question is what Hive Fleet color scheme he uses.
11277593
I can't find it and it kinda bugs me. The gist was NMM won and had to become the "hero" when random portals started popping up and dumping nasty monsters all over the place. While this wasn't too bad, humans also jumped out, grabbed unicorns, and escaped with them (the dark tag comes into play here as the unicorns were fatality used up to power the human's stuff to keep themselves alive on a dying Earth). The girls manage to free Celestia while this is going on and everypony fights the alt-universe humans back. Then the two alicorns go at it as well in quite a smackdown of OP magic-- hence the OP regenerative powers too.
Not knowing what Carnifex was I had to look it up.
He turned into an American Deathcore heavy metal band???
No, wait?!
OH, OK, one of them things. OK, but the band would have been 20% cooler.
That was pretty cool.
I am doing so much googling during this chapter, I know none of these creatures XD