Ch. 12 - Queen
The Monster in the Twilight
Queen
If not for the need for concealment, the temporary changeling hive would have towered over the Everfree Forest. Thousands of trees for miles around had been chewed down by changeling drones and transported to the site, day and night for months in preparation for the invasion. Ground into a fine paste by changeling magic and jaws, imbued with carefully hoarded love mixed with liberally applied changeling secretions, the wooden paste dried into cells and chambers for the thousands of changelings Queen Chrysalis had summoned from the farthest reaches of the land. There would be no second chances for this invasion. It would require overwhelming force to break the pony princess who ruled the land as well as a deception that cut right to the heart of the ancient ruler.
This was the day the younger alicorn would travel on her yearly trip away from Canterlot to Cavillia to prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration. She would arrive, as usual, with her entourage of guards and overstiff husband. Then a few days later, after making the usual visits and ceremonies, she would return back to Canterlot. Only the real Princess Cadence would be tucked safely away into a pod in the base of the hive, while the queen took her place in order to feast on the love of the Cavillian ponies for their sweet princess. When she ‘returned’ to Canterlot, it would be with an advance force of disguised drones as well as a belly filled with powerful love. The infiltrators in Canterlot had relayed back delightful news about the ancient princess’ weakness, and Queen Chrysalis looked forward to the upcoming days when the pretentious lout who had stood in her way for so long would be nothing but food in a pod.
Then the true feasting would occur.
The rattle of chitin on the stairs cut short the wonderful thoughts Chrysalis was having about the love of thousands of ponies at her command, bringing her back to the sour reek of the new hive as well as the sweltering heat that even her open balcony could not dissipate. The changeling drone who simpered and bowed at the doorway was one of hundreds who had been out searching the immediate area for guilty bystanders.
Every effort had been made so that when Cadence and her guards were ambushed and dragged back to the hive, there would be no unfortunate witnesses. The drone reported the capture of seven ponies, five of them very young and two strange older ones, all of whom had been tucked into pods in the extraction chamber. Chrysalis took a deep breath to savor the feeling of young love filtering throughout the entire hive. There was nothing else like it on the planet. Perhaps when she took over Canterlot, she would have a special chamber built to hold only the small ones. They dreamed so vibrantly and spread their delicious love to the winds with wild abandon.
“Show me,” she commanded the drone. “Start with the little ones.”
It amused her that the drone took so much effort to change into a smaller form. The little unicorn filly looked most usable for the invasion. With her green eyes she would not be noticed casting changeling magic. Still, it was difficult for her drones to hold shapes smaller than themselves, and the possibility of them popping out of their disguise prematurely was not worth the risk. She stopped the drone, who was in the form of an orange pegasus filly and trying hopelessly to fly. “Enough with this. Show me the two older ones.”
The first form he changed into was hideous, even more so than the ponies were normally. Warped and twisted with interlocking patches of scars and burns, it must have been some unfortunate wretch who fled into the Everfree rather than endure the taunts and insults of their perfect pony society. It was nearly useless, because Chrysalis needed bodies who would pass unnoticed in Canterlot, not cause other ponies to flee in disgust. Still, it could be harvested for love over many weeks, so it was not a total loss, and there was one more captive to examine.
“Show me the last one.”
Once the green fire of transformation died out, Queen Chrysalis looked in astonishment. “A zebra?” she blurted out loud. “Here?”
* * *
The conversion chamber fairly glowed with power as the seven lumpy pods transferred their love through the hive. Five of them throbbed with brilliant light, their small inhabitants floating in the regenerative goo experiencing happy childish dreams that made the air of the small underground chamber feel filled with sunshine and laughter. Unfortunately, the two larger pods remained stubbornly dim, barely able to sustain their glow.
It really was not the supervising changeling’s fault that the contents were defective, but he was going to get blamed anyway. Out of spite, he gave one of the dim pods with the most active contents a poke with his hoof, in the age-old troubleshooting technique of minor physical violence. It did not help.
If he had been more observant and not distracted by Monster’s constant movement, he would have noticed the inhabitant of the other dim pod had twisted around when being stuffed inside, so all four hooves were placed firmly against the thick pod skin, as if she wanted to maximize her hoof pressure against the membrane that imprisoned her.
The changeling chittered in irritation. The goo that filled the pods was difficult to create, using critically needed love that should properly be circulating through the hive and feeding the hunger of thousands of changeling drones, so they would be strong for the upcoming invasion. At least the other five were making up for these two stubborn old ponies.
He gave the dim pod another poke, watching the scarred pony inside continue to writhe in pain. Obviously defective. No doubt about it. The only sensation a creature should feel once they were placed in a pod was pleasurable dreams as they relived their favorite memories of loved ones and happy times. This one must have been defective before it arrived at the podding chambers, even though that excuse would not hold a drop of nectar to the Queen’s anger.
The creature certainly looked weird and twisted enough to be sick or born strange. The pod goo was a powerful healing substance capable of accepting even mortally wounded ponies and keeping them healthy for many years of their captivity until they became too exhausted to be productive. Unfortunately it gave a slimy texture to the flesh after a few years, making an expended pony unsuitable for the larder. If this one was sick, it would not be healthy to eat either.
The scarred pony in the pod gave a convulsive heave, jamming hooves against the tough skin of the pod before thrashing about in what looked like death throes. His jagged horn was sharp enough and he knew the counterspell to penetrate the pod with one quick thrust and kill the stupid pony, but that would spoil the goo and the queen would undoubtedly be upset.
There was another way, a trick he had heard of once, called ‘priming the pump’ for some reason. If the pony would not release the love inside, sometimes a little jolt of love into them would unjam whatever was holding the precious substance back. There was certainly enough love coursing through the chamber, so noling would miss just a little bit. He focused a thin thread of love from each of the little pods and began to channel it into the spasming creature, unaware of the deadly mistake he had just made.
* * *
The world around Monster was very large, and she felt strange to be inside it. Her entire body was a uniform purple, with no scars or pains, and when she felt her head, her horn felt almost like a nub. There was a familiarity to the room she was in, with a square soft lumpy thing to sleep on, and along the wall were boxy things filled with weird objects that opened at the touch of a hoof. The windows to the outside were covered in what looked like shiny solid air, and thick cloths blocked the sun.
Most importantly, there were shelves. With books. Lots of books. From the floor to the ceiling. Next to the sleeping pillow. On all the walls. Scattered across the floor. Monster even looked at the ceiling to make sure there were none there.
“Buks!” she cried, diving to the floor and rolling around with glee, unaware of the sounds of hoofsteps on the stairs outside her door. “Buks! Buks! Buks!”
* * *
Darkness roiled about the moon, coiling in whorls and eddies like a wine-dark sea about the shoals and rocks of a dangerous coast. The Nightmare was impatient, despite the nearness of her release that coursed through every fiber of her being. Something new had been added to her long-planned revenge, a taste of fear that enlivened her dark soul.
A new tiny prey to torture.
Long had Nightmare toyed with the simpering princess who previously owned this body, holding out the possibility of escape, only to consume more of the weak-minded fool’s power as she would rise to the bait. Over the centuries, she had grown bored with the game. Luna had embedded herself far too deeply in this body. Every time she could be lured into the open, another bit of her spirit would be consumed, true. But with each defeat, the scattered remains of the alicorn princess had constantly became more wary, more guarded. She remained silent for decades at a time while gathering her will, and less inclined to rise to the lure, let alone provoke into foolishly striking out.
The nearness of her release made the Nightmare consider her plans for the future. This body had been weak even before suffering a thousand years of imprisonment. It was time to dispose of it. It would be foal’s play to lure the Sister of the Sun into attempting to sacrifice herself in order to save her precious little ponies, and with that sacrifice, the Nightmare would gain a new body, even more powerful than this one. Although it would have its own stubborn resident to evict.
Plans change.
“Tell me, my little princess,” purred the Nightmare, pulling back the cloak of darkness from the Dreamscape just enough to show the young unicorn rolling among her precious books. “Do you think this one will do me even better as a vessel than your beloved sister? The power is there, just waiting my guidance. And no troublesome mind of any consequence to bother with. How delicious it will be to use the very tool your sister planned to use on me, to instead destroy the both of you. And soon. So very soon.”
* * *
Monster looked up from her book-bath at an unexpected noise. It sounded a little like a familiar voice, just barely on the edge of hearing. She listened intently, both ears perked up and hardly breathing, but the word did not repeat. She had just begun to relax and return to her books when the door to the room swung open, revealing a white unicorn colt with a disturbing smile.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle. My dear sister,” he purred. “So glad you feel at ease.”
run
“I just have one little thing we need to do before you can relax in your books forever. It won’t take long,” he promised, moving closer in a sinuous fashion that was very un-colt like.
thou shouldst run now!
“Bad!” blurted Monster, backing into a bookcase and lighting her horn.
“You wouldn't strike your own brother, now. Would you?” Dark fires burned in his eyes as he leaned in close, lighting his own horn with an indigo hue of magic in response.
no! run twilight!
Dark magic skittered across her purple coat and to the tip of her horn in one flash, bringing a frosty chill to the room as she lowered her horn — then turned to one side to blow a hole in the wall. Before the resulting dust had even settled, Monster darted through the hole and away as fast as her little filly hooves could carry her.
“Wait up, you impetuous brat!” The form of Shining Armor dissolved into black smoke and vanished out the hole in pursuit.
Monster kept her head down and ran like she had never run before. She was used to running in the forest, but here, her small hooves tore up divots in the grassy paths of the frightening town, and she constantly had to dodge around smiling ponies, every one of them adding another spike of terror surging through her tiny body. Their familiar faces seemed to tug at her memories, every look or call to her throwing her thoughts into chaos. Behind, the calls of the strangely familiar white colt continued, making her heart fling itself in two different directions.
brother. brother is good. why run? no, that thing is not brother!
A familiar pink dome of force slammed down from above, dropping a wall right in front of her. With an animalistic snarl and a flare of her magic, Monster turned around, ripping nearby trees and paving stones into the air to fight the pursuing creature.
no! thou must not fight her! she will consume you as she did me!
The white colt walked deliberately towards Monster, with measured steps and a cruel smile.
“Fight!” she growled weakly, glaring at the smiling white colt through a pink haze of pain.
no! please don’t. she will devour you too. i have killed far too many with my hate.
The clash and whirl of thoughts in her mind were too much for Monster. She whined and collapsed flat onto the ground, beating the full length of her restored tail against the ground in agony. Torturous pain ripped through her head like something had torn her skull open and was pouring salt into the wound, but the pain of memory was far worse.
Blurred images of the white colt flashed before her, all of them smiling, but none of them with cruelty. It had to be a lie. They were all lies. All of the white and pink ponies flying through her mind shattered into pieces and were smashed back together again, stealing a precious fragment of herself with every cycle. She was deaf to the sounds of the rocks and trees flung away in her torment, and unable to see the look of pure pleasure on the white colt as she thrashed out her life on the grass.
The familiar sharp tang of blood filled her mouth and nose, strangling her, flooding her lungs in a gurgling sentence of death. Monster was going to die. Helpless. The normal low buzz of pain from her horn was gone, replaced by a white-hot spike that seemingly had been hammered into her skull in its place. Every minor ache or pain in her abused hide was slowly fizzing away in an acidic burning which covered her entire body with pain, a worse agony than the big white pony with wings had ever inflicted. To be wrapped again into the fiery embrace of the sun would have been a blessed respite, but even that was beyond her reach as the ball of fire seemed as distant as if it were hiding from her.
don’t give up!
On some level, she was aware of the colt drawing even closer, wearing that same cruel smile as he luxuriated in her pain and impotence. With every step, the last sparks of resistance in her heart spluttered and faded until they were gone, lost in the sea of endless agony that had swallowed her up. She had lost. Even mom and bloom and twitht and the rest of her friends were gone from her, abandoned and forgotten. The hammering of her panicked heart slowed when the false colt leaned over to look into her eyes.
she lies!
A black fire burned inside him, a cold blaze that shed no light or heat, only consumed into a heartless darkness and demanded more. An insatiable thirst for something it could not have, but was willing to destroy the whole world to prevent any others from having. Monster knew that hunger well, having bathed in its light ever so briefly years ago, and never having known a moment’s peace ever since. Perhaps now she would finally—
A hammerblow of force pinned Monster to the ground as a coruscating blast of light smashed down from the sky. The colt fell backwards in shock, but the light did not hurt Monster. Instead, it purged the pain from her soul while filling every part of her being with a familiar peace. The sensation of being around bloom and the others. The swelling sense of pride when bloom stood up for her. The smile that feather could bring to her face, even when she didn’t feel like it. The touch to her heart when scoots brought her precious treasures, and how she was always there for her. The melting of her insides with the love wrapped up inside every candy twitht made. And the solid intransigence of sweetie who could not be distracted from telling things exactly the way she saw them.
For that elusive moment, she was whole. The pain was swept away, shoved onto the white colt with trivial ease while a ripple of ecstasy swept through her. She stood up in one long motion, ripping away the false image of a filly to feel the ground under her own warped hooves and the wind across her patchy coat.
“No.” Monster stood up to face the stunned colt, finally recognizing the dream world around her for what it was. “Liar.”
don’t fight her. escape while you can!
The colt flared into indigo light, reappearing as a dark winged unicorn wrapped in armor, with the glowing slit eyes of a dragon. “You pitiful fool. Now you shall truly face the power of Night—”
Rearing up on her hind legs, Monster brought her horn down in one long swipe, making the Dreamscape peel away to both sides. Inertia carried her forward out of the changeling pod, to the raw earth of the underground chamber where she flailed in a puddle of green goo. The corpse of the changeling caretaker sliced nearly in half cushioned her landing, allowing her to hack and gag to get the rest of the goop out of her lungs.
“Bad,” she gasped, poking at the dead changeling. Looking around revealed no more of the creatures, and the one doorway into the room seemed empty for the moment. The underground world was painfully sharp in her vision, with the pains and the clouds fogging her brain much farther away, although not totally missing.
The remaining green pods hanging from the ceiling immediately caught her attention. Five small pods and one larger pod were just translucent enough to allow Monster to see the contents, and the sight of her trapped friends was both relieving and infuriating. The instinct to rage and destroy began to grow within her chest, a pleasurable feeling of having things to destroy in all directions as far as she could sense.
They will pay.
There was power wrapped in the walls of this place, just waiting to be tapped. She drank it in hungrily after her long starvation, exalting with the feeling of power once again coursing through her veins, filling every speck of her being with fury and revenge. The green of changeling magic wrapped her in its embrace, flaring every color of the rainbow as she stepped forward — with a crunching noise when her hoof crushed something on the floor.
She glanced down, irritated at the distraction only to recoil as she saw the fragmented bits of a broken camera under her hoof.
Bugs hurt friends on purpose. Monster hurt friends by accident. Friends still hurt.
The force of destruction in her soul that screamed for release fought viciously as Monster began to force it down. Bit by bit, she wrapped the hatred in iron bands, forcing it to her will as she had never resisted it before. Erratic bursts of power slipped from her grasp and splattered fire across the chamber, setting the rugged cellulose of the walls smoldering in places and recoiling like a striking snake against one hapless changeling who decided to poke his nose into the chamber to find out what all the commotion was about. The fire ate him into nothingness, leaving only a few smoking limbs spasming in the doorway.
Monster clung desperately to the small frightened voice she had heard in the pod. To release her fury on the creatures who attacked her friends would certainly kill both the bugs and her friends. The glare of white power from her eyes slowly faded while she regained control, wrestling the changeling power under her will. The love of the changelings was powerful, but far too easy to convert to hatred, and impossible to change back.
Nobody told Monster.
One tiny fragment at a time, she scourged her cached power, twisting the hatred and fear back into the original love stolen from the hive. It still itched at every hair on her hide for release, but the raving song of destruction no longer sang in her soul. Instead, there was something new. Something she had not felt for so long, she had forgotten what it felt like, or even what it was called.
Almost absent-mindedly, she lifted the broken camera to her eyes while shoving a massive plug of hive material through the only doorway into the conversion chamber. This was too important to be allowed to be interrupted. Screws, bolts, and housings unwound and unbent, while fragments of glass hovered as the broken camera turned into a floating cloud of parts, every single part marked and noted as to its form and function. The broken glass was first, as she brought the shattered fragments back together and allowed them to flow. There was a near-invisible coating on the lens that had to be duplicated exactly, as well as the shape and size that took all of her concentration until it was just perfect. Reassembling the camera and bending the rest of the parts to their correct dimensions was anticlimactic, much like assembling a puzzle. She slipped the rebuilt camera back into Featherweight’s saddlebag, which had been thrown on the floor with the rest of their possessions when the changelings had prepared her friends before putting them in the pods.
Her friends were all still there, each bobbing along in their own pod and releasing waves of power that she could not help but feel, even though she dared not touch them with the heady roar of power that already filled her every pore. Fragile. They would not be so easily fixed as a camera. Brother’s shield spell could protect them, but it could only be cast from the inside, and even Monster could not hold the spell up forever. Eventually, it would fail, and then the bugs would attack them again. She could destroy the bad bugs, but mom and her friends would certainly get hurt. The small, frightened voice she heard inside the pod wanted her to run, but her teleportation spell was far too dangerous to use on others. Monster would be free, but her friends would still be trapped.
There had to be another way.
“tink twilight tink,” she mumbled, resting her horn against the wall, which gave softly under her pressure. A roar of fire filled her chest, exploding out along all of her nerve endings while an avalanche of facts clicked into place.
Monster had a name. Twilight.
This place was made out of wood, or cellulose.
There was a transformation spell to change that substance into a different form, which would be much more appropriate for the creatures who wanted to hurt mom and her friends. The pink shield spell brother used became stronger the more power it was fed. This place was just filled with power, waiting to be used. The chain of facts all bloomed across her mind in one beautiful equation, and Monster… that is Twilight, began to act.
* * *
High in the top of the hive, the drone looked back at Queen Chrysalis with zebra eyes and spoke:
You are the changeling queen, I do presume
You locked us away, our love to consume
When you sealed us in this tiny room
Your time was set, I see your doom
Queen Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and glared at the drone. “This is not funny. You’ve proven you can hold that form correctly, but we do not need a zebra when we invade Canterlot.”
The disguised drone did not seem to notice at first, looking around the room with a deep calm that brought a chill up Chrysalis’ carapace. It was almost as if the zebra had actually — no, that was quite impossible. No magic of unicorn or changeling could control a transformation.
But… this was a zebra.
“Who are you?” she asked carefully while circling the ‘zebra’ and trying to figure out what was going on.
The zebra turned as if listening to some unheard noise, then said with a sly smile:
My name is not needed, if I shall be so rude
Your life is now over. Oh queen, you are scr—
The entire hive trembled as an incandescent bolt of pure energy punched up from the depths of the hive, vaporizing the disguised drone, the floor for several yards around him, and expending the rest of its fury upon the open sky. Chrysalis stumbled backwards, her mane smoking as she turned and flew blindly off the balcony in a vain attempt to escape.
She was too late.
* * *
One: Ventilation
Drawing on the power of the hive, Twilight fired an incandescent blast of power straight up, blowing through the entire structure until the sun was revealed.
Two: Transformation
“Cee Six Ach Ten Oh Five plus En Two plus Oh Two equals Cee Six Ach Eight Two En Oh Two Oh Five plus Ach Two,” muttered Twilight with horn jammed into the wall of the hive as the brilliant radiance of love-powered magic flowed through her. The transformation spell was fairly easy on a small scale, but now the thick walls of the entire hive began to change in color and composition to a very much more dangerous substance. Without a good source of nitric acid, she drew upon the love supply of the hive to ruthlessly strip oxygen and nitrogen straight out of the surrounding air and humidity, making the forest air roar through the entire hive in a frigid blast. Frost formed on all of the exposed surfaces of the hive as her magic drew energy for the endothermic reaction, quenching the smoldering fires her initial blast had ignited even as it left the atmosphere billowing above the upper hive mostly hydrogen. For a few moments.
Three: Fuse
Ignoring the ripping noises of the changelings tearing at the blocked conversion chamber doorway, Twilight ignited a small floating ball of fire in midair, which slowly began to drift downwards to a section of transformed floor.
Four: Shield
Every scrap of additional power was channeled into brother’s shield spell, wrapping Twilight and the six remaining pods in magic. It left the changelings who broke into the room puzzled to find only a giant pink bubble, and a small burning ball falling slowly to the ground.
Until it touched wood, now transformed to nitrocellulose.
* * *
“What in heaven’s name?”
Every eye of every pony in the Canterlot castle who were attending Royal Court turned to the south-west, where the double-flash a few moments ago preceded a distant cloud of smoke, climbing into the sky. Princess Celestia watched in slack-jawed amazement as the roiling pillar of smoke billowed and flared with secondary explosions in bursts of purple light until it began to spread out at the top, looking very much like a mushroom.
“That has to be Twilight,” she whispered under her breath, still counting seconds until the stentorian bass rumble of far-off lightning rattled the windows of the Royal Court. “She’s alive.”
“I’m going to her, Aunt Celestia. You can’t stop me.” Princess Cadence glared at her from inches away, her position at her side in the Royal Court abandoned as she finished peeling off her court dress right in front of the scandalized court.
There were so many things Celestia wanted to say to her niece, knowing she would never see her again. Tears welled up inside her, pouring out of her burning eyes as she swept the young alicorn in for a loving hug.
“Be careful,” sobbed Celestia. “After you are done in the forest, I want you to promise me you will keep right on going to Cavillia for the Summer Sun Celebration and not look back. No matter what, you must be in Cavillia tonight!”
“Aunt Celestia, what…” Cadence hesitated in her own hug, before returning her aunt’s embrace wholeheartedly, holding the older alicorn as if she knew she would never see her again. Finally, she broke their embrace to look deep into Celestia’s streaming eyes. “I’ve spoken with your student. I know about the Elements. Let me—”
“No, Mi Amore. The Elements will never open to the touch of an alicorn again because of my foolishness. Only a mortal could use them to destroy the empty shell of that monster.” Celestia clenched her niece long enough to take one shuddering breath before backing up to look into her eyes again. “I have destroyed too many lives for my mistake. Twilight. Sunset. Even Trixie. She was my last hope. She could control the power, but she cannot make friends even now, when the world depends on it. The task belongs with me. It shall be my last.”
“There must be another way,” whispered Cadence. “Another pony. Shining Armor is strong, perhaps—”
“You have never touched the Elements. They would consume him like a match. I could not do that to you, even to save my…” Princess Celestia trailed off, caught in memories a thousand years old.
“Sister. I know, Aunt Celestia. I know.” Cadence brought a hoof gently to her aunt’s cheek to wipe away tears while the Royal Court in the background murmured among themselves loudly enough to drown out any attempt at eavesdropping on the two princesses’ moment together.
“It is my fault Luna is dead.” Celestia blinked back her tears and swallowed hard. “If I fail, all of Equestria will follow. You must be strong when I am gone.”
“Please, Aunt Celestia. Allow me to stand with you.”
“No.”
The tear-filled gazes of two princesses clashed, but the youngest blinked first. Cadence turned her head to look at the floor while tears of her own joined those of her aunt. “You be careful, please. I don’t know what you are planning, but… I will always love you, Aunt Celestia. No matter what happens. Remember that.”
The flutter of pegasus wings outside the window made the two alicorns realize their moment was over. Cadence galloped over to the air chariot with her husband, her mottled armor sitting inside and ready to be put on while in flight. She hesitated at the edge of the chariot, before leaping onboard, sparing her aunt a quick, tense smile before the guards flung themselves into the sky.
Behind her, Princess Celestia motioned the Captain of the Guard to her side. “I want every pegasus you have in the air to follow Princess Cadence and assist her in whatever she commands. Every one of them, on duty or off, and I want them in the air now, for however long it takes. I will fly myself to the Summer Sun Festival in Ponyville tomorrow morning.”
“Your Highness,” he gasped. “I can’t possibly allow—” Whatever he had to say was cut off abruptly in his throat as Princess Celestia met his eyes, and he was suddenly reminded just why she was the Princess of the Sun. “Yes, Your Highness. Immediately.”
* * *
“I think my sis has been taking it easy on us,” quipped Shining Armor, looking down into the giant crater in the middle of the Everfree Forest. For about a half-mile circle, there was nothing but bare earth scrubbed as clean and as flat as if a giant razor had descended from the heavens and swept across the ground. Beyond that were the beginnings of a jumble of smoldering trees, building in density as the distance from the center increased to form a fuzzy bowl with a thick rim around the crater. Even the most towering trees near the explosion had been flung deeply into the woods and knocked down dozens of their own kind. Shining Armor and his unusually silent wife had passed more than a few that had to be older than the age of their entire entourage combined, tossed aside and broken like charred matchsticks.
Then there were the bodies. Very few of the black chitin-covered insects were intact, mostly missing limbs or heads, if not smashed into nearly unrecognizable goo. Cadance had tersely identified them as members of the changeling race, not normally found this far into the kingdom. The sky fairly bustled with pegasi, both armored and not, as they busied themselves with the mostly futile effort to find survivors among the strange creatures.
A Royal Guard in his golden armor flapped up to their chariot, and saluted. “Princess Cadence. Captain Shining Armor, Sir. We’ve found something in the center of the crater.”
* * *
Twilight grinned with savage joy while the ground bucked and heaved beneath her hooves. They hurt mom. They hurt friends. Now they hurt. The pink bubble surrounding them trembled as her ears popped, then popped again, but the power she poured into the spell kept all the bad things away until the rumbling beneath her hooves died down to a deathly silence. Finally, she relaxed, and heaved a deep breath. It was over.
It took only a slight motion with her horn to peel away the green pod from mom, her stripes looking pale in the reflected pink light of the dome while she hacked and coughed the green goo away. There was a haunted look about the zebra, and she seemed to be much more cryptic than even normal.
“My child who I love, I have doubts to confess. While I was trapped in there, I felt great duress. I must thank you for setting me free, but outside are things the little ones must not see.”
Mom looked upset at Twilight’s attempt to open one of her friend’s pods anyway, and batted aside her horn with a strong hoof, something she had never done before. Instead she pointed at the pink bubble surrounding them all and stomped one hoof in anger.
Twilight had been looking forward to showing all of her friends how she had saved them, but mom looked very determined, and Twilight knew better than to fight the older zebra. With a wave of her horn, Twilight banished the pink bubble.
And felt her stomach twist in agony.
All around her, the forest soil had been scoured down to bare rock, with only the area protected by the bubble remaining intact. A sharp slope led down to the scrubbed ground, the strong breeze allowing her to see off into the distance where the surrounding trees had been heaped up all around the crater in smoking and smoldering rings, covered in thousands of little black dots.
Bodies.
Or at least parts of bodies. Twilight staggered to the edge of the slope they would have to traverse to escape the crater and threw up violently. Every single one of those little black specks was a living being, or had been a living creature just like bloom and mom and twist and feather. Now they were dead.
“Not Twilight,” she muttered. “Monster. Monster kill. Animal.”
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;_;
Oh Celestia. That last line.
Better killing through chemistry. Epic. Win. Now, let's hope Twilight's faith in herself can be restored to the point where the world doesn't freeze to death...
Ouch Twilight :(, you just massacred a entire hive. Let's see what happens when Cadance and Shining shows up, the real ones.
Not Monster! You Twilight! Twilight have friends, Twilight protect friends! mom and Brother will help with scoots, twith, feather and sweetie! Go to ponytown to stop Fake Brother from taking over the world!
Oooo, Proper enunciation for that final line
Did she just nuke them?
dont worry twilight, you're not a monster. a monster wouldnt feel regret about killing and you did and you did it whilst protecting others. poor poor twilight
Loyalty!
Laughter!
Generosity!
Kindness!
Honesty!
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TWILIGHT SMASH!!!
Yay for purple rage monsters!!!
My feels... Longer post when I get home ,but I want to say I liked that bit of foreshadowing about how the changeling goo has the power to heal. I think twilight,yes twilight, not monster, is going to start looking more healthy instead of how she used to look
Dang... now that's a slaughter. I wonder if Chrysalis survived?
it would be funny having her as the last changeling to survive and have to apologize her actions to Twilight. oh and discord is thoroughly screwed.
2157431 They ARE the real ones.
2157450
Not exactly.
Basic knowledge of chemistry here, so forgive me if this is wrong.
She transformed the entirety of the hive into nitrocellulose, or flash paper.
The entire hive was then a basic propellant. So "gun powder".
And then she lit it.
2157450 nukes aren't the only ones that make mushroom clouds, you just need a very powerful explosion to make one
2157486 ah i see my knowledge lies in history so i had no clue but as the old saying goes you lern somting new evreyday
why do i see the elements of harmony transfering to the younglings and zecora instead of the oiginal main 6.
At first it was like
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But next it was doing
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Then it was all
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And at the end, it was
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But it was never a jarring transition, it was all believable, and it was awesome. I loved this chapter. Tenouttaten.
Twilight nooo
wow, still gets better. And wait to not waste any time. I love the progression
2157486 HindenHive!
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Damn Twilight, turning a hive into pyroxlin and setting it on fire while you are still there?
The Nightmare just demolished Twilight's happy memories of her brother and possibly her babysitter.
That hapless changeling saved Twilight from the Nightmare, and was promptly bisected for his troubles.
Celestia has resigned herself and Luna to death.
Twilight regained her senses just in time to realize that she committed mass genocide.
And now Shining Armor and Cadance are closing in on her, when she's possibly more unstable than ever before.
Stop living up to that Sad tag.
Because when Twilight flips her shit, everyone's screwed.
Great job on this
Oh, Twilight.....
Don't worry, fighting the Nightmare will make it all better.
And then potato chips for all!
2157481
There is that and the sort-of implied healing effects of using the Elements of Harmony themselves. Twilight may look mostly normal at the end of this. Hell, she may even recover from the brain damage... Maybe.
Relevant:
EXTERMINATION
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Ooooohh, I already know what's coming, and it's not going to be pretty.
Shining and Cadance are going to find them, a raggedy unicorn and a zebra (one can assume the ponies are still afraid of her), with evil-looking green pods containing sleeping foals.
Assumptions will be made.
2157450
Nope. She turned the whole hive into gunpowder.
Wait...Luna is dead?? LUNA IS DEAD?? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! WHY MUST LUNA HAVE DIED?!?!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY?!?!?!?!
Oh and I guess Twilight did something this chapter...but still...
LLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my, that was......just...awesome! Great use of simple chemestry to level the hive. Can't wait for the next chapter!
Twilight just committed exterminatus on the changlings!
Twilight's mind was partially mended... by the magic, or by the changelings?
Nice! But I have a minor quibble:
Ummm.... C6-H10-O5 + 2HNO3 = C6-H10-O5 + H2O? Lolwut? What about the nitrogen?
2157763 Nitrocellulose actually, although I probably made a hash of the chemical formula.
2157510 Just a few kilo-tons ...
2157450 Pray that Monster never gets to cracking subatomic bonds.
2157633 Don't forget the "and live" part, something that the Jackass group doesn't always remember.
2157815 Yes, your sister is dead. Now give into the rage and anger that I feel smoldering in your heart....
2157898 She must be avenged! I WILL KILL THEM ALL!!!
But on a serious note is Luna actually dead? Or "dead"?
On the upside the Healing Goo and/or a spot of Harmony and/or the concentrated love seems to have helped Twilight a bit.
She can pronounce "Animal" now.
poor twilight.
2157853
OH MY GOD
...
Twilight is a space marine.
2157510 Like a FOAB? Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power AKA Father Of All Bombs.
It is called the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world or something like that.
2157763
Considering the size of the hive and when it went off, you might as well just have called it a nuke.
“Buks! Buks! Buks!”
Know that feel sister.
Otherwise
GUN COTTON!
SO damned cool, but unstable as the Joker.
safe enough when THOROUGHLY saturated with water (IF you know how to handle HIGH explosives) but once it gets dry enough, she over did it with that spark. flick it with your finger and you'll pull back a stump of an arm
to say the least
so does this mean that Twilight and the kids are to be this universe's Elements?
2158003
Ultra powerful Psyker space marine? I'm thinking she's this one
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Admittedly, I was reading this at work, but I don't think Luna is dead dead. She's been having bits and pieces of her killed off by The Nightmare, but she's still somewhat in there. I imagine it is similar to how Twilight is. Deep down Twilight is still in there, but they both have been very damaged. Between the healing goo for the physical aspects and the eventual Elements of Harmony I'd predict that both Luna and Twilight would be healed. Still some psychological scarring and such, but they will be "fixed" for lack of a better term.
As for the big boom to beat the changelings...
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2157884 Oops. And I took Accelerated Chem too. "Cee Six Ach Ten Oh Five plus Two Ach En Oh Three equals Cee Six Ach Eight Two En Oh Two Oh Five plus water " How's that look? Mind you it's not a perfectly balanced equation because she's stealing nitrogen from the air and hydrogen from water vapor, plus Nitrocellulose has several chemical compositions listed (although you were perfectly right, I forgot a bunch of nitrogen in there)
2157934 Yes, she's dead have faith, tia Completely and totally dead, consumed by the Nightmare. Now unleash your hatred! no! Strike me down!
Shit has certainly has gone down in this chapter.
2158008 yep
Twilight just did Genoside, and I think I loved it.
And dear Shing Armor THANK CAPTAIN OF TEH OBVIOUS!
I wish i could make a joke on Nightmare Moon but...I liked her method of speaking.
2158091 yeah, read up on the explosive power of guncotton, seems to be as powerful as nitroglycerin
2158146v and your'll return stonger than ever am sure.