Forbidden Deeper

by SaltyJustice

Chapter 20

The creature backed up suddenly and bucked Chrysalis right in the face. Surprised, she staggered backwards and collided with an egg sac, knocking out its prisoner as well. She stood up as quickly as she had fallen and hissed something in language I couldn't understand. Changeling speak, I guessed.

The creature that spoke like Gabby looked at her, puzzled.

"Did you make out any of that? I didn't," she said.

"You are mine, submit!" Chrysalis screamed.

"No thanks. I've got a better idea, bitch," Gabby said, and threw herself at Chrysalis.

The two collided and Gabby, being the bigger, knocked her down and sat on her. She forced her weight onto Chrysalis' chest and squeezed.

"Hurry up Cadence!" Gabby shouted.

I grabbed my sword and dashed forward, shoving aside the half-finished changelings who were trying to stand up. Before I made it there, Chrysalis stood up and threw Gabby off her, sending her careening into the egg sacs.

"This was not how it was supposed to happen! Why won't you submit!?" Chrysalis screamed at Gabby.

"You didn't do your research, moron. And now you're gonna pay the price," Gabby said, struggling to stand up amongst the slippery cocoons.

"Gah!" Chrysalis grunted as I leaped at her, swinging. She blocked my sword with her leg and saw it get carved off before her very eyes. I loved it, I loved every millisecond of it. I wanted to memorize this and replay it over and over in my head a million times every day.

Grinning, I took the edge of my blade and quickly traced out a profanity I intended to carve on her back, slowly. It'd be so much fun, watching her writhe in incredible pain. I could torture her for days down here, if I could get Gabby to keep the other changelings back. Really I'd only have a few minutes, but I'd make it feel like days. A dark smile took over my face.

Profanity? So blase. Maybe I should carve something else on her back, my own personal canvas. I wanted something for everyone who saw her corpse to remember, to mock, to spit on. Fillies would take photos next to it with their parents consent, they'd make mocking poses and stick out their tongues. I'd charge for admission.

"Cadence?" somepony asked.

No no, carve off her legs first. That way she can't run away, can't fight back. You'll need to make sure she doesn't bleed out, so cauterize the wounds with fire. Oh that will be a joy.

"Cadence? Hello?" somepony asked again.

I could tear off her wings too, just pull them right out like those of a fly. Oh she'd scream when I did that, tears would pour down her face. It'd be worse than a whipping.

"What are you waiting for!? Finish her off!" somepony shouted.

"What!? And let this fun go to waste?" I demanded. Gabby, still in the shape of a large changeling, nonetheless adopted a terrified look.

"Fun? Just kill her so we can get out of here!" she said.

"I want her to suffer. I want her pain to be a legend told to keep colts from being bad or staying up past bedtime. I want to pay back a thousand times what she did to me," I snarled. I grabbed Chrysalis by her disgusting puke-green, mottled hair and held her head up. She was crying at the loss of her hoof, sniveling and whimpering. Pathetic.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gabby asked.

"You don't know what it's like!" I shouted.

"Yes I do! It's because of you that I'm here at all! Isn't that your code? Give life when possible, death when necessary. Where are pain and humiliation in that mantra?" she asked.

"Screw the mantra, screw everything. She represents everything that is evil in the world, and nothing but nothing is too awful to do to her," I said.

"No, not screw everything! Cadence, you're supposed to be the picture of good and right and all that crap. You gave me a part of your soul to save my life and expected no reward at all. I refuse to believe that you'd ever torture someone, no matter what they did, no matter what they represent," she said.

The whole world was gone. We weren't in the throne room any more. Gabby no longer looked like a changeling. It had come down to just us three. The game was almost over, and all that remained was the last move. Chrysalis made a whimpering noise as I ruminated on Gabby's words.

"You're right. Damn it, you're right," I said.

"No! Hate me! Hate me! I'd rape your corpse! I'd make your sister my slave, and force her to kiss my hooves! Hate me!" Chrysalis screamed. Begging. That was what was truly pathetic.

"No. I don't hate you," I said.

I shoved my sword into her chest, and pulled it out in one swift motion. The world returned to what I knew it truly was, a cave made of black carapace. This was the bottom of the Abyss, where the game had taken place. Next to me lay the body of General, still in the shape of Chrysalis, both my most hated enemies fused into one. She coughed and sputtered, black fluid leaking out of the hole in her chest. She didn't have long left.

"Heh, I guess I was right all along, and so wrong," she said. With each word, she coughed and a little more fluid escaped.

"Are these to be your final words, General? I will listen to them," I said.

"I thank you, Amoria. You know, we are different, so different. I see that now," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You were made to fulfill a purpose, but you were given the choice to reject it. Did you know that I was made for a purpose? I was, my master sent me to destroy you, but it was not something I was given a say in," she said. She coughed again.

"You cannot know what it is like to have intelligence but not choice. My hate for you was burnt into my very being, even though I realized it was not rational. But you? You hated me, and you could overcome that hate. We're so alike, but so different. We could have been friends, were the situation different," she said.

"Really? You and me?" I asked.

"Maybe, when you tire of this world, I will meet you in the next one, if I am allowed there. But before I go there, I must tell you one thing," she said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"My master no longer cares for me, only now am I truly freed. I can tell you that your sister is not beyond saving. She waits for you, to liberate her," she said.

"Wait, how!? How do I save Celestia!?" I asked.

"Heh, and spoil the fun? No, I think you'll find that out yourself," she said. She smiled at me, a truly warm, generous smile, even if it was the face of Chrysalis.

"Good luck," she said.

She stopped holding herself together, and let her form dissolve. Chrysalis disappeared into the black tar that had formed General's body, and that too leaked into a mush on the floor. It seeped down and spread thin, until it was nothing, indistinguishable from the carapace.

I heard the sounds of ponies trotting up behind me, but I didn't care. It was just the same as all those ponies I had slain on the fields of battle, those whose minds had been forfeit. They were victims of a power far greater than their own, and the only way to gain peace was death. Was General any different? Were any of these Faceless creatures different? Were they not just innocent pawns in a game so large and grand that none living could even comprehend its scope?

Even after everything it had done, I could not hate General. I forgave it. It pained me to do it, but I did, because that's what I had chosen to do and will continue to choose to do. The choice made freely, regardless of what choice it was, was what made me different, and that was something I cherished.

I left a single tear staining the ground where General had lay. My duties come with a cost.

I turned around to see my friends gathered behind me. Gabby, Luna, Inkie, and a changeling. Wait.

A changeling?

The four of us, having finally noticed him, spun around and drew weapons to face him. He laughed at us before shifting himself back into the form of captain Wedge Antares. I relaxed, but everypony else didn't.

"Wedge, you were a changeling all along? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked him. I strode up and hugged him, and my friends, especially Luna, were baffled by the exchange.

"Orders from above," he said.

"I'm a Princess! Luna's a Princess! Who's above us!?" I demanded.

"Princess Celestia. If you want to know why she outranks you, it's because she said she does," he said, winking at me.

"Captain, you are a changeling?" Luna asked, lowering her spear. At her cue, Inkie backed up and Gabby relaxed herself.

"Sorry to deceive you ma'am. I wanted to tell you, but Princess Celestia ordered me not to," he said.

"But why?" she asked.

"I'm head of our intelligence division, specifically, I was hired to flush out any changelings who may have been undercover in the administration," he said.

"Surely you did not need to be a guard captain to accomplish this," she said.

"Of course not, but I had seen how it had worked for captain Sparkle, and wished to duplicate his success. Your sister did give me her blessing for it," he said.

"Duplicate his success..." I said, trailing off. Luna took a moment to realize what he had meant, then she blushed harder than ever before.

"All this just for me?" she asked. He nodded.

"I'm so sorry for not telling you sooner," he said. I didn't know if he was referring to his feelings, or being a changeling.

"Wait wait wait, don't changelings, like, feed off of your love? Isn't that what they do?" Gabby asked me.

"Yes, we do. But it's not a bad thing, I am quite taken with you, Princess," Wedge said, and Luna looked at the ground to try to hide her rosy cheeks.

"I return the love to her, and both of us are stronger for it. This is how we have lived since the beginning of time," Wedge said.

"Then what was with that attack at your wedding, Cadence?" Gabby asked.

"Chrysalis wanted to take love without returning it, through force and deception. I see now that she was just desperate, fearful of her own extinction, and willing to try anything to stave it off," I said.

"This is too weird," Inkie said. Gabby nodded in agreement.

"This place is just a graveyard now. We're almost out of here. Luna, do you remember the way?" I asked.

"No, but we will find it regardless," she said.

"Gabby?" I asked, as we walked through the empty caverns. Luna was leading us, guided by some unseen force, or just wandering. Either way, we were following her.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Thanks," I said, "You saved me back there."

"Just evening up the score," she said.

"But, what happened to you? Why did you look like a changeling?" I asked.

"I was just playing along with the game. I guess General thought I was under her spell, but I wasn't. Because I've got you in here," she said. She poked herself in the head with her hoof.

"Did my immunity really transfer over?" I wondered aloud.

"Hey! If you're gonna try to claim under some technicality that you saved you then you can just forget it. I would have saved the day even if I didn't have any weird psychic imprints," she said.

"Okay okay," I said.

"I'm not kidding. We are even, get me? Even!" she said.

"I get you!" I said.

"Good," she said.

I now walked with a bounce in my step. We had done it, we might even pull this off! If I could somehow save Celestia, if we really were ahead of the bearers, if all of us had pulled through that calamity, then maybe there was hope for us all. I was now prepared, I thought, to do what I had to do. If General was wrong, then I knew I could deal with my sister. I knew that even if we failed down here, that we had given it everything we had. No pony could have hoped for a better showing than the one my friends had given here. Maybe I had wished I could have sent them back to the surface before, but now, these four were the only ones I'd want at my side when we faced down the puppet-master behind all of this. At last, everything that had begun so long ago would end, the cycle of death would be broken at last.

I looked forward with true confidence and surety. With these ponies at my side, I could not fail.