• Published 20th Jan 2013
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The Golden Armor - Comet Burst



Comet and Angel are two guard recruits who learn about life and love in Canterlot Castle.

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At The Gala (part 4)

It didn't take long for the ponies to reach the changelings.

Angel didn't seem to care what other ponies were doing. Her big golden eyes were locked on the only target she wanted to get; that large changeling who had almost kissed her coltfriend. As she ran, several shouts came from the ponies surrounding her.

"For the princess!" one rather weak shout came.

"Honor or death!" a scratchy voice shouted.

"Bugs!" a unicorn shouted next to her.

The two defining shouts, however, belonged to both Valyrie and Philomena, who let out piercing shrieks that seemed to paralyze several changelings. As the wave of ponies grew closer, Gorgon narrowed her eyes and growled. "Remember this day!" she shouted to her horde, "For today is the day you regain your honor as changelings!"

The sound of the collision was deafening. Bolts of magic flew everywhere, ranging in all sorts of colors from green to raspberry red to gold. Ponies and changelings alike shouted as they viciously began to attack each other. Philomena flew overhead, dodging the occasional bolt of green magic and raining down flames upon the mass of black. Several changelings screamed in panic and even ran around on fire, causing panic among them. However, since the changelings retained the Royal Guard armor, they seemed to have the edge in hoof to hoof combat. The ponies found their advance grind to a screeching halt as waves of changelings, some even on fire, returned their charge.

Angel, the only bat pony in full armor, did what she did best. Using her newly forged claws, she jabbed and swiped at the changelings, leaving long cuts on their hard shiny hides. Her whole focus was to get to that larger changeling, but if she had to wade through the weaklings first, then so be it. To her right, Valyrie was met with just as much success, having an almost feral look to her. Few things were as terrifying as an enraged gryffon clawing down three changelings in one swipe. She wreaked havoc on the horde trying to subdue the ponies.

Gorgon gritted her teeth as she fired off bolt after bolt of magic, attacking the ponies at random. One or two had managed to reach her, but if Princess Celestia was a match for her magic, these ponies were nothing. As one pegasus flew towards her, she locked her greedy green eyes with her. "Leeeeeroy Flankins!" the pony shouted as she dove to the changeling princess. Gorgon reared back, ready for the impact, but instead brought her hooves down on the pegasus, crushing it to the stone floor. As the pegasus shouted in pain, Gorgon delivered an over the top kick to the pony's face, silencing it instantly. Returning her gaze to the bat pony and gryffon, she fired off several more bolts of green magic at them, managing to only hit her own whelps who jumped in front of them. Screaming in frustration, Gorgon whipped around and pulled Comet over to her, who was somehow still in a daze from Gorgon.

As Gorgon neared him, a loud scream pierced the air and she looked up. She had only a split second to react to what was happening, but she could see a mass of fire descending upon her. Razor sharp claws met her face a second later, along with intense heat and the princess screamed. Philomena seemed to get a savage delight as she maimed the changeling's face, attempting to gouge out her eyes. Instead, her claws got mangled in her mane, ripping out parts with every movement. In full panic mode and now fearful for her life, Gorgon reared back, ignoring the searing heat with the intense pain coming from her scalp, and flailed in the direction of the mass of heat. Her hooves seemed to strike something and, with her eyes shut the whole time, felt the heat and claws try to pull away. It successfully managed to take another clump of her mane as well, making Gorgon howl in pain.

Recoiling from a shot to her wing, Philomena backed off slightly, knowing a wild animal is the most dangerous. Right now, that changeling was in survival mode and she would do whatever she had to. Her wing hurt, but she never backed away entirely. Instead, Philomena drew upon her own magical stores and shrieked again, unleashing a torrent of fire at the changeling. Unfortunately, that guard Angel, Valyrie and Philomena herself wanted to rescue, was in the blast radius. As the changeling screamed in fear, the pony seemed to wake up, panicking himself that he was catching on fire. His shout of terror caused Philomena to release the torrent, just as a bolt of green magic flew at her. It passed safely through her feathers as she flapped to gain altitude, but a body slammed into her, causing her to lose her balance. As the two plummeted to the ground, Philomena willed herself to erupt into more flames. At her command, she exploded into a huge fireball and crashed into the fray, fire exploding in all directions. Ponies and changelings alike had the fire wash over them, with only a lucky few dodging the massive wave of fire.

Gorgon managed to weakly cast a spell to protect both her and Comet as the wall of fire approached. The spell shielded them easily before dissipating, leaving the two on the ground. Comet's back was to the changeling princess, whimpering and nursing a whole side of his body as his armor glowed a dull red. Gorgon was in worse shape, though, weak and bleeding from the phoenix's assault. Burned strands of her mane lay on the floor next to her head, but the changeling managed to pick herself up, moaning weakly from the pain and numbness in her limbs. She bared her teeth, but cast a numbing spell on herself to ease the pain. She staggered over to Comet, collapsing on top of him as his watery red eyes turned with fear to her. Luckily, Gorgon's spell worked well, because she could hear her carapace sizzle as she lay on top of his faintly glowing armor.

Forcing herself to concentrate through her spinning head and cloudy vision, Gorgon shot a bolt of magic at Comet, muddling his mind. His gaze went slack and Gorgon dove at him. She felt her lips meet his and a surge of emotions washed over her like healing water. Drawing upon her newest reserves of magic, she felt her carapace begin to itch as she healed herself of the burns and quelled the bleeding from her scalp. Her head stopped spinning and soon, she got the feeling back in her legs. She broke for a split second to breathe and looked up at the fight. Her whelps didn't do so well at the fire wave, many of them lying weakly on the floor. The ponies now had the advantage since some of the unicorns had enough time to shield themselves and others. Her more intelligent changelings had also shielded themselves and were now engaged with the non burned ponies.

Returning her gaze to the pegasus below her, Gorgon dove in again. His breathing was weak and she could feel his heart racing. She knew unless she healed him quickly, he was bound to die. Feeling a sense of concern for him, she worked the same healing magic on him, soothing the burns and restoring his blood flow. She kept herself locked to him and felt a twinge of his thoughts. Normally, when under a spell, ponies thoughts were non existant since they had to have their minds blank to be controlled. However, Gorgon realized he wasn't under her control as she healed him. Instead, she felt his mind find an image that was connected to what seemed to be a deeper pool of love and regret. As she remained connected to him, an image of a tall golden pony mare with a green mane pulled around to one side and sparkling tangerine eyes manifested in her mind. Why he was thinking about whoever this was, Gorgon didn't know, but she welcomed the torrential flood of emotions from him.

Once she was sure he wasn't going to die, she released her lips from his and backed away. It was faint, but she could hear him moan, "No...va..."

Feeling an immense amount of an emotion she had hardly known existed, Gorgon reached over and rubbed Comet's forehead and shushed him. "Shh," she whispered, "It'll be alright, Comet. It will be alright."

As she comforted him, though, a swift kick was delivered to her face from a black claw. Gorgon howled in pain as she rolled away, bringing her hooves up to her face. Peeking through a hole in her hoof, Gorgon saw a rather angry looking gryffon glaring daggers at her.

"Don't you ever touch him again!" Valyrie shouted. Enraged, Gorgon leaped up at the gryffon, wrapping her hooves around her. Using her two big front teeth, Gorgon buried them into Valyrie's wing, snapping the joint. The gryffon shrieked in pain as she fell to the ground, on top of Gorgon. With her hooves still wrapped around her, Gorgon spun on over to get on top of Valyrie. Releasing her, Gorgon glared directly into Valyrie's eyes, ready to shoot lasers from them. Valyrie hesitated for a second in fear and Gorgon let her predator instinct take over. Hoof blow after blow pounded into Valyrie's face as the gryffon tried to claw at the changeling. Lost in her rage, Gorgon used her magic to pick up Valyrie and lifted her into the air. Unable to move because of the green magic, Valyrie had a second to react as she was thrown into the ground. Gorgon cackled gleefully as the gryffon shouted in pain and repeated it, a savage grin on her face.

After about the seventh time, Valyrie's shoulder gave a loud crack and she screamed in more pain than ever before. Her left arm and claw went limp and she felt herself fly at Gorgon, unable to do anything. The changeling reared back and impacted her hooves into the gryffon, cracking a couple ribs and knocking the breath out of her. Grinning like a mad pony, Gorgon stood over the gryffon, intoxicated with power over the weaker being. As she formed another spell, a small metal object struck her in the eye. Screaming in pain, she closed both and rubbed her face as a hoof collided with her cheek, knocking her off balance. She spun with the hoof, but bucked with her rear legs.

"Ha!" came a voice with a strong foreign accent, "You'll have to do better than that!" Opening her eyes, Gorgon saw a light blue pony with a wavy white mane in a red coat grin slyly at her. Growling, Gorgon brought her front hoof around to try and smack him out of the air, but he nimbly dodged it. Concentrating, she tried to trap him in her magical grip, but a sparkling blue aura shimmered around him.

"I already thought of that!" he replied confidently, but as he spoke, a changeling grabbed him from behind and his eyes went wide. "Didn't think of that," he said with a hint of fear in his voice and he was pulled backwards into a group of changelings. Gorgon grunted and turned around to finish the job with the gryffon, but her eyes shrunk in fear as a bat pony in full armor, minus her helmet, stood over her toy. Her big golden eyes were locked on the weak pony and Gorgon shouted in frustration. She had everything planned, everything! She had taken over the Royal Guard, subdued the princesses and the Captain of the Guard and even had her source of power completely within her grasp. Why did everything go wrong?!

The bat pony's head whipped up and locked with Gorgon. Suddenly, Gorgon knew why it had all gone wrong. She didn't kill this pony when she had the chance. Not willing to make the same mistake twice, she screamed angrily and began to charge the pony. Angel's eyes shrunk as she saw the rampaging changeling drawing closer and pushed Comet away. Bracing herself, she stared down the changeling and, just before she reached her, Angel ducked and rolled between her hooves, slashing at the hole ridden hooves that thundered around her. It wasn't much more than a scratch, but hopefully it would make her pause for a second. As she came out of the roll, Angel darted over to Comet, but before she could reach him, several changelings in armor jumped on her. She easily bucked off a couple, still weak from Philomena's fireball, which Angel and Valyrie had avoided by jumping into the fountain.

One, however, clung to her and grinned wickedly out of the corner of her right eye. Reacting based on pure instinct, Angel let her right legs give out and slammed down on the changeling as he fired off a bolt of green magic. It collided with her as her weight pressed down on the changeling. Instantly, Angel's vision blurred and her legs felt heavy, but she didn't pass out. The changeling, who hadn't finished casting the spell, rolled off of her, losing its grip. Staggering back to her hooves, Angel tried to find Comet in the mess of colors of her vision. As she looked around, she knew she couldn't find him. Behind her, Gorgon was pounding another pony into the floor angrily with her magic, a green unicorn. Unaware Angel was still up, Gorgon paused as she heard the bat pony shout, "Comet!"

The word rang out loudly around the ballroom as the white pegasus twitched. His thoughts were slow to return to him, but as he tried to think, they came back much quicker. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling unusually groggy. Comet tried to remember what had happened, recalling he was underneath a changeling, then felt like he was on fire. Pushing himself to his hooves, Comet shook his head, wondering if it was all a dream. Instead, he felt his stomach curl as he looked around. Ponies and changelings were laying on the floor while others still fought or were tending to their wounded comrades. Spinning around, Comet saw Angel in armor staggering around, right next to a weeping and clearly hurt Valyrie. Behind them, the large changeling roared in anger and began to run to them.

"Comet!" came an unfamiliar voice from behind him, "You have to choose now!" He spun to see a blue unicorn in a red coat grappling with a changeling. "Do it!" he shouted, "Choose one of them now!"