CH 41 (confrontation, pt1)
Props to 'zoruatrainer66' for the name Husk, I HAD to implement it somehow. It felt too good to pass up, so thank you. 
Patchwork
‘Even if you don’t, always try to act as if you have all the right cards in hoof,’ With that little lecture from Celestia firmly bouncing around my head I straightened up and shook myself off.
Chrysalis and her guards just kept standing there, no one made a move, no one spoke... it was unnerving.
I expected her to sneer, to rage, to attack me flat out, or even laugh maniacally, but she just stood there, horn crackling and wings buzzing. The only thing that gave any indication of her emotional state was a thick, heavy cloud of hatred rolling off of her in waves.
Steeling myself and taking a step forward I opened my senses while being careful that I wasn’t absorbing anything.
I was immediately relieved that I sensed two distinct emotions, the parasite, and the warm glow of concern and relief of the real Queen. The emotions carried something like what a fingerprint is and I reminded myself of what Mantis said a while ago: anyone trying to get a sense of Chrysalis was punished.
At a glance I noticed that more and more guards were entering the area making our chances to escape drop every second but looking at them, I doubted they would attack without an order. All of them looked confused, shocked a combination of two, or on alert, but their stance wasn’t aggressive.
“Parasite,” I nodded my head in greeting making her frown and grit her teeth, while some of the guards I could see gaped at my brazenness.
I could see Scurry out of the corner of my eye; he was doing something with his wings catching the attention of the guards in front of him, but I wasn’t able to see their reaction.
“So, the traitor of his own kind finally shows himself,” She raised her head looking down at me. “You who work with ponies, dance to their whims, have you come to shackle us all with their chains of ‘peace’?” She started pacing in front of me like a predator, eyes on me and me alone.
I frowned, feeling unprepared for this kind of engagement, she was perfectly willing to attack me when we were alone, but now she is pulling this off? Was she… Ah, she is probably set this up so they see me as an interloper and a traitor rather than anything else. A feeling of gratefulness washed over me for Celestia and the dreadfully boring lectures she gave me. Hopefully, I won’t mess up too much.
“Yes, well, we wouldn’t be in this position if you led our race with any sort of decency and reason,” I shrugged sweeping my claws over the guards in front of me, “Look at them; starving, frustrated, trodden on and… is that armor even maintained? Surely if you have done such a bang-up job as a queen, you would - “
“You dare question my leadership? My rule? Have ponies enslaved you so fully?” She hissed at me. Glancing to the side I saw that Mantis has moved in my field of vision mouthing ‘stall her’ to me.
“I’m not dancing to anyo-ling’s tune, or enslaved for that matter… And honestly…” I swept my gaze over the guards surrounding us,” What have the ponies done that is so bad? Have they attacked you? Have they challenged your sovereignty? Do you see a pony stand here in front of you or do you see a changeling?”
She laughed, “Pointless questions from one that has so thoroughly betrayed his own kind.”
“I’m not talking to you here,” This time I sneered making her bare her teeth at me, “I asked them!” I pointed my claw at the guards all around me. I now saw Mantis repeat some of the positions of his wings that Scurry did the moment the Mad Queen looked away, and it dawned on me that it was a message.
My surprise must have been showing as Chrysalis finally looked at the two of them her eyes suddenly small like pinpricks.
“There is someling in there…” came a whisper from the guard behind me.
I swiftly looked at the guard that whispered and following him I looked around as murmurs slowly started rising in vocalized shock almost like a wave. I don’t know what those two said with their message, but I could make a guess and with a nod, I decided to do something bold and stupid… but probably just stupid.
“Long ago…” I took a step towards Chrysalis enjoying as her face went through a bevy of emotions, “There was a queen. She led her changelings with love and compassion.” Both Mantis and Scurry looked at me like I have lost my mind. “But she was young, she was inexperienced, the whole race of changelings was new so she was scared. Scared and worried that she might fail her lings.” I started building my speech, and some storytelling hoping that the magic of this world worked as it did in the cartoon and make them feel the truth.
Chrysalis reared her head and laughed but to my ears it sounded like she was barely restraining herself, “Yes, and then I learned and grew, leading the powerful race of changelings out of the rut we were in. Honestly, what are you hoping to accomplish with this tale? Hmm?” That… backfired a bit…but I still had -
My ears perked as a steady, faint pulse reached me. A changeling ping with its origin being Chrysalis, but on a different frequency than her. It took a second to recognize it but I felt a grin forming when I did, and I had to quickly steady myself so my emotions do not draw attention to it. Chrysalis was so focused on me that she didn’t even notice but looking around I manage to spot a few guards who, with wide eyes and open mouths nodded their heads to every single beat.
“Lead them? When you, parasite, took over the real queen’s body you practically cut our population in half from the hatred you were leaking. Even now, you are pouring so much of it out that no changeling would be able to survive here if they tried to feed.” I raised my head as much as I could hoping my voice would reach everyone, “When did all of you get so blind, that a changeling stands in front of you practically oozing the one thing that is outright toxic to us and none of you question it?” Lowering my head I looked directly at her eyes, “Or have you all gone deaf as well that you cannot recognize the ping of the Queen when she begs to be heard?”
It started with Mantis and Scurry, first one then both of their ears perked up, twitching to the beat, and they looked at Chrysalis with wide eyes. Then I could see the guards around us focus on it, and lastly, Chrysalis looked down on herself.
I smirked seeing my victory slowly being written along the face of every guard in the room causing lings to point hooves, mutter, or in some cases shout questions hoping to get an answer from the one being that was currently looking at her chest with horror.
“Who are you?” Came a question behind me. It was just loud enough to be heard over the building cacophony with a frightened squeak coming from the ling when I turned to face him. He was the one that hid in the shadows before this whole mess started.
“Name is Patchwork. A pleasure to meet you,” I waved at him and he waved back with an unsure smile. “I’m just a changeling hoping to make things better. And you are?”
“My name is Keratin, and I am…” He looked behind me and his eyes widened with his ears splayed back and I cursed to myself.
I didn’t even see the flash of her horn (but I did hear the feral scream that came with it) before I was tackled by someone to the side. There was a massive explosion, launching us in every which direction (with my savior still clinging to me) followed by screams and shouts of panic and debris falling all around us with a thick smoke covering the area.
Raising my head all I could see through the smoke was a green glow and a crackle of energy coming from the center of the room along with two brightly glowing eyes that were focused solely on me.
A blast of energy struck her head from the right making her head jerk to the side with barely any discomfort from her face and that gave me a few precious seconds to teleport from under the ling that tackled me and into a better position. I felt my mouth drop and anger start to boil when I looked at the scene in front of me.
I was standing a few meters to her left and my eyes were glued to the huge hole she made and the pile of smoking bodies that surrounded it. I made note that it was Mantis that tackled me (and he was thankfully still breathing) and that Scurry was trying to get Chrysalis’s attention along with some other guard lings.
I took a deep breath, centered myself, exhaled, and turned to Chrysalis.
Scurry
She wasn’t even trying to fight us; it was more like she was trying to even comprehend that we were attacking her with everything we had. I was never a magic fighter; I was an infiltrator for a reason and I was cursing every second of it.
The room was still fairly full of changeling guards, some ran, some were just frozen wither fear of indecision, and some of them were making sure that the injured were moved from the battlefield, and that stupid idiot that was supposed to save us just stood there gawping!
There was a flash of light and a crack of magic on my left.
I found myself on my back, with my ears ringing and my brain trying to figure out what happened and why I couldn’t feel my left foreleg.
Moving my head side to side I saw that I was a few barrels away from my previous location (with a smoking crater next to it) and that there was a familiar-looking trail of green leading up to me.
Shaking my head of the dizziness, I cast a pony spell that would hopefully prevent me from keeling over in pain and started getting up on my three good legs grunting and panting all the while. I used a nearby stalagmite for balance bracing myself with my leftover shoulder.
I looked around trying to find Chrysalis when the explosions started flying for real.
Pinning my ears to my head to drown the shouting and the noise I saw a ling run up to me with a frown and tackle me making the pain flare up to the point where I almost lost consciousness. I did manage to see that a large boulder landed where I was standing a moment ago.
I could feel someling drag me out of the line of fire and then I saw Chrysalis fly through one of the walls with Patchwork in hot pursuit. If my eyes still worked correctly, she didn’t look too good and that made me happy.
Patchwork
I had Luna’s bracelet on my right arm and it was projecting a shimmering shield absorbing one of Chrysalis’s magic blasts. It was interesting how different she was from Celestia.
While the current monarch of ponykind liked to solidify her magic into weapons more than beam fire, Chrysalis was completely the opposite preferring to just throw magic in the forms of beams, bullets, and occasionally aimed detonation. She did pack a punch though.
‘Focus…’
I could feel the bracelet heating up swiftly and I jumped to the side to avoid another blast giving it time to cool down.
I never put in the effort (or never found the actual time) to get more familiar with it, and while it did frustrate me, right now it didn’t matter.
‘Focus!’
Ducking under a spell beam and using my magic to modify my left claw I buzzed close to Chrysalis while she was charging up and threw a wide swipe. She ducked to the side making me rip off some of the hive wall behind her but it placed her in a wonderful position for an uppercut with my unmodified right making her stagger.
While I had the bracelet on, I was limited in what I could do in terms of shapeshifting as it was too dangerous to roll it around while I did so… I did not know if I could keep it on me mid transformation or even after.
Spinning around I capitalized on her stagger and kicked out with a hind leg to her chest pushing her back making her grunt in pain and stumble. She managed to stay on her legs though and, as I was trying to continue my attack, she shook her head and with a flash of light, she was gone through a portal that closed before I was able to grab her fully by the tail.
Looking at the strands of green hair in my claws I ground my teeth, a good opportunity wasted! I could feel a shout of frustration building up but I was able to hold it down.
I did manage to do some decent damage to her with a surprise attack while she was focused on other lings, and the scuffle that came after it kept her off her footing, but with the bracelet on it didn’t amount to much. The fact that she was so full of openings and that her face was constantly contorted like she was waging another battle told me that the true queen made herself a nuisance to the parasite.
‘Which meant I just managed to fuck up both of our efforts!’ I fumed making the air around me ripple.
“The throne!” It finally dawned on me what I missed and I turned around galloping towards the nearest hole. I had the perfect opportunity to tear it down and I screwed up… again!
Galloping and buzzing my wings as fast as possible I passed by some changelings that were covered in green splotches and I slowed down making my gut twist.
I tried not to think about how many lives were lost when she started blasting at me but I took solace at the fact that I was able to get her away before she hurt more of them. She would pay for every changeling she injured…
‘Focus Patch, you are trying to save the other one, remember?’ With that thought I tried to remember how to get to the throne.
…
Slowly, and finally, entering the throne room for the second time, I first made sure that Chrysalis wasn’t there, and then I looked around.
The throne room was empty, with splashes of green blood and smoking craters being the only indicators of the clash, and by the look of it, as the blood was slowly absorbed and the craters were repaired, it wouldn’t be long until this ever-shifting castle looked good as new… it was rather creepy.
My ears twitched at the orders to evacuate reached me through the hole I entered before it closed and a new one opened right next to it. Shaking my head morosely I made my way forward.
I think I got maybe ten steps in when a portal opened in front of me and Chrysalis stepped out.
She looked even skinnier than she already was, with green energy crackling through her entire body. Her horn was vibrating with power and held in her magic, next to her horn, was a pitch-black crystal the size of my head.
There was a barely perceptible glow coming off of the crystal for another few seconds and then the whole thing crumbled into dust.
Her eyes followed the falling debris for a moment before looking at me and a malicious grin split her muzzle as all the chips and cracks I made on her body started to heal. Her chitin also started to create a sheen of green energy on it like a shield of sorts.
‘So that’s what the hatred crystals were for…’
Deciding that it was a liability for now I took off the bracelet and placed it around a stalagmite next to me. The a-m ring was hidden away in one of the alcoves that Mantis assured me was safe and I had a plan about getting it around her horn, but first…
Time for round two… And this time there would be no surprise attack to give me an edge. She looked to be in complete control this time.
“So, ‘Chrysalis’, what’s the plan after all of this?” I started circling her slowly saturating the room with my magic. It wasn’t easy, and there was some resistance but I managed. It did give me an idea though.
“She put on a thoughtful look while tapping her chin with a hoof, “Hmm, after I dispose of you? I intend to parade your corpse in front of Celestia as I finally move to take over Equestria.”
“Do you honestly think that changelings would follow you? After all of this?” I snorted waving my claw at the leftover damage that is slowly being repaired.
“They won’t know it,” she lowered her stance along with her horn. An unhinged grin split her face, “After all, I’ll make sure that noling would tell the tale of what happened here.”
There was barely a warning before a beam of concentrated magic aimed at me was fired.
Shifting into a xenomorph and pushing more magic into boosting my reflexes and reaction time I managed to dodge (the beam cut through the walls like it was made of paper), and, using my agility, I managed to swiftly close the distance by jumping from rock to rock. I had to change course a few times as she tried to pre-empt me, but I was faster like this.
I managed to get close enough to her to send a quick swipe with my tail but it was stopped by a green shield she put up. Ignoring my momentary panic at the fact that she can cast shields (‘why wouldn’t she!?’) I shifted into a hell knight and brought both fists down creating a web of cracks and making her grunt in exertion.
Pushing more energy and resin into it, I increased my size and weight slightly and pounded on the shield again cracking it only for her to dip through a portal under her.
There was a faint ping from the true queen behind me and I shifted into a black owl dodging the mana bullets that were sent after me. While it wasn’t dark here it still gave me a small advantage.
Pinging back as a thank you, I smiled when a frustrated scream was followed up by a reckless blast of magic. My joy was short-lived.
I shifted into myself trying to gain more maneuverability but something heavy, covered with a green glow, landed on my back, pushing me down and cracking my elytra. The pain made my head swim, but I was still able to feel my wings which was good. Before I reached the ground I managed to roll just enough to the side to clear the boulder before it crushed me underneath, but my lungs were still painfully emptied when I bounced off the floor causing me to wheeze.
Propping myself with my right claw on the rock that nearly crushed me and trying to catch my breath I stood up coming to the conclusion that I may need a top-up as well if I was to continue this. Following up on the previous train of thought if the castle is made out of material that constantly fixes itself and seemingly regenerates, what would it do if I turned it into resin? After all, I was almost empty. I started pulling my magic back into myself and focusing it entirely on the rock next to me, I need to mold it a little bit before I can use it.
“Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis…” She was approaching me at a leisurely pace, kicking away at a few pebbles at me that were in her way with malicious glee, “I carried that name for centuries. It never felt like it… fit.”
“So what now? You will rename yourself now?” I grunted, ignoring the pebbles, taking a deep breath, and settling my rising panic before it could take root. It won't do me any good if I lost myself to fear.
“Why not? Maybe it’s high time I did…” I was suddenly yanked by my neck to her snarling muzzle, "I am Queen Husk, for that is all I will leave of you and this world once I am done here!” She smashed me into the ground making me yelp as my cheek cracked, and then threw me back into the rock I saturated to the point where it was glowing blue. One of my elytra fell off with a sickening crack but at that point… well I wasn’t thinking right now otherwise I’m sure I would be quaking in fear.
I picked up the elytra that fell off and fixed it back to myself along with the rest of the damage. I still had plenty of magic left thanks to all the training, but I was out of resin now, and I couldn’t waste the mana on transformations.
I was far from defeated, but I needed something extra to even things out as it was becoming fairly obvious that I was just as much out of my depth as I was with Celestia... and this would, hopefully, even the odds. Thankfully shifting my claws into something stronger took a negligible amount of mana and I shoved my clawed hoof as deep as I could into the shifting material.
“What are you doing?” She asked quirking her head to the side. Her obvious confusion stopped her advance.
“Doing something stupid,” I grinned focusing my magic on the chunk I pulled out with my claws before I shoved it in my mouth. It was still solid enough that I couldn’t chew it, but I did manage to swallow it. I had an inkling of an idea of what might happen but the pain that followed wasn’t it.
“This is your plan?” I heard her, but the tears of pain and heavy nausea made the world around me swim. “To poison yourself before I could kill you?” A large hoof was placed on the side of my head and began applying pressure to it, “If nothing else it brings me some joy knowing that you suffered before your demise. Your stupidity does take some bite out of it though.”
Raising my claw I sharpened one of the talons and jabbed into her leg on my head piercing the chitin on the second try. There was a shout of pain and a kick that launched me away but with the way I felt right now, I almost didn’t feel it. I didn’t even know where I landed as I tried to get to my hooves frantically.
There was some hope though, it was agonizingly slow, but I was able to feel my magic adapting, changing to process the lump I shoved into myself. It made my stomach curl in on itself, I wanted to vomit and the cramps were excruciating but it was working. It did dawn on me now though that this whole damn area was swimming in hatred and that it might have tainted my magic.
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…’
Another flash of green magic pulled from the rubble and threw me to the side smashing into the wall and sliding down to the ground with the bracelet and the stalagmite I placed it one landing close enough for me to reach it.
‘That might work,’ I took the bracelet, stood up, and with a buzz I launched myself into the nearest tunnel I could see through my teary eyes. She is playing with me, but that meant that I still had some time before she got tired of it.
“You know, Endo was a greater challenge than you are,” I heard her leering voice on my right. Using the bracelet I shielded the attack thrown my way but instead of dissipating the impact like it did the first few times, this time I was shoved into the wall by the force of the spell. The bracelet was drained, however, the last of the shield absorbed the impact. I couldn't waste any more time, I had to do this now.
‘Isolate the hatred, remember emotions are energy with a frequency saturated in magic,’ I thought as a burp bubbled out and I almost threw up but I managed to keep the chunk of the castle inside me. I did end up curling up when my whole body convulsed as it tried to remove the foul emotion. Using the bracelet’s absorbing ability to remove the hatred I tried to keep the only thing that was of value
“Pathetic,” came the mocking voice in front of me.
It was when the haze started lifting from my mind and when Chysa – Husk was visible again that I noticed my gambit worked. The cramps slowly receded, the pain ebbed away and the bracelet in my claws was glowing sickly green magic.
I blinked, teleporting to the side and dodging a blast of magic, and another blind teleport got me further away to give me some time to figure out what happened and if it truly worked.
“I am tired of these games, whelp!” She yelled loudly enough for me to hear. I prayed that I was far enough to give me enough time to sort myself out… again.
Looking around me I was in a small room now with four changeling guards huddled in a corner looking at me with wide eyes. Ignoring them I focused on myself.
In my stomach was now a lump of resin swishing and twisting like a snake making my stomach churn uncomfortably but not painfully. Using some of that resin to make myself taller I was pleasantly surprised when the small chunk I took started regenerating very slowly, and fully reform when I shifted back to my original size. Honestly, I could live with the discomfort… for now. The ramifications of what I just did would probably catch up to me later, right now this was gold.
“It worked! Fuck yes!” I whooped causing the four guards to flinch and move further away from me as far as the room allowed making me squeak out a sheepish apology.
I smiled, then frowned when I noticed that my mana reserves were half full and I was feeling tired and hungry which meant that I was on the back hoof and needed some love if I was to actually do what I was supposed to do.
A random hole opened to my right and I stepped out leaving the changelings to mutter to themselves as I made my way to the throne, again, with my mind calm and collected… again, only to run into a limping Mantis of all lings, along with two others I didn’t recognize.
“Patch, what in the name of all things insane is going on?” He shouted at me. I noticed that half of his indigo-colored elytra is missing (with a pink glow coming out of the hole for some reason) and that his right side was severely cracked oozing blood in several places.
“I’m making my way to the throne room…” I looked at him as an idea burst into my head like a lightbulb, “And I have a plan.” I grinned.
“Are you out of your buzzing mind!?” He screeched wincing when his wings tried to buzz. One of the diaphanous wings had a hole in it.
One of the lings huffed, “Mantis we are wasting time, we need to get out of here before we are caught up in this nonsense,” moving forward he ignited his horn and opened a hole in the wall making my jaw drop.
‘Okay, the first point on the list after this: learn how to do that!’
My injured friend looked after the ling that left making a motion to the other to leave as well before he turned to me.
“Patch, this whole thing has gone beyond control,” He pleaded, “we need to get out, sort it out because otherwise - “ I shut him by grabbing his mouth and keeping it closed, he wasn’t pleased with me.
“Mantis, I dug myself too deep to just run away. I cannot and will not, let her do this any longer,” I removed my claw off his mouth and he opened it to protest, “I won’t hear It. Either hear me out, or I’m doing this alone.”
“What do you want?” He growled through grit teeth after a moment of thought.
“You can still contact Silent Drop from here, right?” He nodded his head, “Good, I need you to tell her to send a message to Celestia the moment the throne is down, got it?” He nodded again.
There was a shockwave of a ping that ran through both of us causing me to shiver and Mantis to start shaking, ‘No more time!’
“Tell Celestia to come the moment the field is down; I’ll take care of the rest!” I got up to move but he grabbed me with a hoof.
“What the buzz are you talking about, can’t you defeat her!?”
“Not sure, but we are running out of time… By the way,” I shook of his hoof, “do you know where I can recharge on love?”
He looked at me for a second before opening his ruined elytra with a hiss of pain pulling out a pink love pill covered in green blood.
“The only one that survived. The others lost the safety enchantment and got spoiled with hatred when she tried to blast you.”
Smiling and swiping the pill from his hoof I threw it in my maw before pointing at a hole that was open for the past two minutes. The taste of ling blood made me shiver in disgust but I had bigger fish to fry.
“Get out of here Mantis, right now she was just playing with me.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence,” He snorted limping away.
“Don’t worry, I got this.” I gave him a thumbs up before I turned around and sprinted forward.
I could feel myself getting invigorated with energy, my thoughts clear up completely and the bruises I didn’t even know I had healed up.
‘Okay, round three bitch!’
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And so the parasite finally reveals herself.
Hope patch is able to abosrb hatred now and if he can then, my boy is about to go super saiyen
11325101
"Mantis, love pill."
"Love pill?"
"Love pill."
"LOVE PILL!"
whelp*
You go Patch I know you can do it
11325036
He used the bracelet to absorb the hatred from the chunk of the castle, so no, Patchwork can't do much about hatred, since the bracelet is basically maxed out for now.
11325036
I think it is more the fact that he now has a regening source of resin (or it's going to let him control the hive structure)
ok this is going to get bloody really fast.
Go Patch! Kick her flank!
One Tarterus of a showdown. Wonder what they do to stop Husk and save Chrysalis...
But was everybody kung fu fighting?
One with the Hive! Time to go Zerg!
Rather surprised she's letting him stalk around like that, or maybe she's doing some recovering herself?
Patch is only one with stupid thoughts, are there other lings that will come try and save their true Queen?
Time for a Soul Song, let's get Harmony working!
11325105
Goddess above YES! LOVE PILL!
Look's like I think like a mad...changeling? Break the thrown and call mom to deal with the bully
So... Does this mean he became the hive?
Here's hoping the throne gets destroyed.
up
11325395
Maybe? From the sound of it, they were moving as fast as lightning.
I just found this story this week and I'm starved for more!!! Amazing story!!! I can't wait for the next chapter!!
Mm, good. Looking forward to the consequences of that resin.
I gotta imagine that wall was not designed with eating in mind...
I feel like feeding her love is the answer. Power up the real queen while awakening the imposter. But if the love would just be made useless from her hate... I don't know.