Chapter 10
Dizziness, dizziness was all Shining could feel as he slowly opened his eyes. The world was spinning like a ferris wheel. He couldn’t tell what anything was because the world around him kept moving. He tried to collect his thoughts, but even they were a jumbled mess.
After a couple of minutes of doing nothing, his head eventually cleared up, and the world became less blurry. With the curtain of fog lifted from his mind, he began to take note of his surrounding.
The first thing that he realised upon waking up was that he was resting on a very dusty bed.
My coat feels so dirty now? He thought as he looked at how brown his snow white coat had become. Where the heck am I anyway?
After brushing some of the dirt off with his hoof, he decided to lean upward against the back of the bed so he could better examine the room he was in.
Judging from the grey stone wall and the dirty, yet fancy decor, he assumed that he was in a castle of some sort. A painting caked with dust hung on the walls, and cobwebs could be seen nestled between a good portion of the furniture like the hope chest on his right.
On said hope chest rested a candelabra, with three lit candles nestled on top.
If I didn’t know better, he thought deeply to himself, I’d say that nopony has lived in this place for centuries, yet those lit candles over there tell a different story.
He shook his head and bit and narrowed his eyes.
I can worry about where I am later, right now I need to find Shadow and Brea…
Suddenly the door on his right slid open to reveal somepony Shining never expected to see in a place like this.
“Cadence!” he said as his eyes widened with surprise.
The pink mare of his life chuckled and as she cantered slowly towards him. Immediately, Shining notice that she was making a conscious effort to make sure to sway her plot back and forth as she walked.
When she was close enough, she fluttered onto the bed, pressing the bewildered stallion onto his back.
Cadence licked her lips as she looked down at Shining with a lustful gleam in her eyes.
“How’s my sexy, sexy prince doing today?” she said seductively. “Are you ready to make sweet love to my…”
“Get off of me, witch!” Shining shouted as he violently got off and pushed cadence off the bed. Her rump landed on the hard stone floor as her head smashed into an old wooden dresser.
Cadence responded by breaking into a fit of laughter, seeming to ignore any pain she may or may not have felt.
“I see someone got a little smarter these past few years,” she said in a teasing tone as a menacing smirk crept onto her face. “Or maybe it’s just those stupid powers you inherited from your eccentric spirit friends? I bet if it weren’t for them, you would have fallen for the same trick again. I mean, how dense do you have to be to not realise your bride’s been replaced with an imposter?”
Shining got on all fours and hopped off the bed, while staring at the creature who resembled his wife with hate and disgust.
“If you really want to be honest, I thought something was off with your behavior during the wedding preparations, but I shrugged it off as me being on edge because of the threat you so cleverly sent. But luckily for me, a mare far smarter than I was able to see through your lies. Now thanks to the spirits of the elements, I can too. So you can drop your stupid disguise, Chrysalis. It won’t get you anything this time.
Cadence/Chrysalis laughed giddily to herself with a smile that reminded Shining too much of his real wife.
“No, I think this form is serving me well, even if you can see through it. You see, I didn’t send a squad of my genetically engineered offspring just to chat. I brought you here for revenge.”
Shining Armor backed away in disgust as a flash of green light Chrysalis took the form of Twilight.
“After I failed to drain Twilight's magic and make her my pawn,” she explained in Twilight's pragmatic tone of voice. “I realised that I needed a new target for which to exact vengeance. Twilight may have been the one who blew my cover, but it was you and your pathetic wife who defeated my army.”
The fake fluttered towards Shining and placed her front hooves on his cheeks. She stared down at him with seductive smile.
“Now BBBFF,” she said in an alluring tone, drawing her head ever closer to Shining’s muzzle. “Why don’t you show me how much you love your little sister?”
“I’ll kill you for this!” Shining snarled.
Without even thinking, Shining titled his head and slammed his head against the fake Twilight. Chrysalis staggered backwards as Shining tilted his head forward, ready to blast the queen into oblivion once and for all with every last bit of magic he had in him. Gritting his teeth with hatred, he began to channel magic into his horn, but found that something was stopping his magic from reaching the very tip.
Damnit, why can’t a cast this spell?
Chrysalis regained her balance and tilted her head upward at Shining, smiling pleasantly at the confused stallion.
“Hurting me wont help your situation,” she said in a teasing tone as she levitated a mirror in front of Shining. “But we can talk about your punishment later. Right now I want you take a look at what’s preventing you from killing me.”
Shining eyes widened as he stared into the mirror. Half of his horn was surrounded by a strange metallic ring with blinking red lights on the sides. He figured that whatever it was, was keeping his magic sealed up.
“My son, Gizmo,made this little device for me you know.” Stated the fake Twilight, who Shining noticed had a red bruise from when he slammed the front side his horn into her face. “As his name would suggests, his special talent is making very effective and unique gadgets. This is what he calls a magic inhibitor. So long as that’s on you, your magic won’t be able to reach the top of your horn and channel outward.”
“I’m guessing he’s another one of your mutant hybrids.” Shining said, scowling.
Shining watched as Chrysalis dropped her disguise and took on her true form.
“He might not be as combat efficient as our son, but he’s at least more resourceful than the worthless runt, Blank Canvas.”
Half of Shining’s horn flared with purple light as his face continued to tighten up with anger.
“That changeling with the bee on his flank is not my son.” Shining shouted defensively. “He said as much himself.”
“That’s because Wasp doesn’t see you as a father,” she gloated. “But that doesn’t mean you aren’t.”
Suddenly, her horn surged with magic.
The queen’s magic quickly enveloped all four of Shining’s hooves, locking them in place. Chrysalis eyes sparkled with excitement has she watched her captive struggle to break free of her grip.
“If you wanted to be technical they’re all your children.” continued the boastful queen as began to flutter and circle Shining. “It was your seed which fertilized them. You're the last person I slept with before I got pregnant. However, had I not spliced Wasp with your DNA as an egg, he wouldn’t have inherited any of your genetic traits. Just face it, he inherited genetic traits from both you and me. Ergo, he is and always will be, your first born child.”
“You disgust me!” Shining said sternly as he tried to regain his composure. So scornful was his gaze, that Chrysalis felt an involuntary shiver run across her spine.
“Are you really that malevolent?” continued Shining. “Cause quite frankly I’m baffled right now. You went through all this trouble of bringing me here, capturing me and my friends—which if you’ve harmed…”
“They're alive.” she interrupted. “They have an important role to play for what I have in store for you. Anyway, continue. I’m honestly quite curious as to what you are going to say.”
Shining sighed and shook his head as he tried to reorganise his thoughts. When he was done, he strained his head and narrowed his eyes with resentment.
“You captured my friends,” he continued, “replaced an entire town with changelings, sent a handful of your super soldiers after me, all so you could put on this little show and try to break me. Well, you know what? I’ve changed a lot since you infiltrated my wedding and replaced Cadence. Had I know I mated with you by mistake, or spawned an unknown number of superpowered changelings, I would have broken down into despair.”
“But I know better now. During my trials, the Spirtes of Harmony each taught me that making excuses for myself won’t erase my mistake. If I am to move forward, I need to embrace my mistakes, even if I’m ashamed of them. If I make it out of here alive, I will tell Cadence the truth about you, me, and Wasp! I know it might upset her, but I know she will still love me. Besides, she’s already pregnant with our own foal, so there’s really nothing you can say to make me feel like I’ve betrayed her in anyway. This whole revenge scheme of your’s is a colossal failure.”
Taken back by his words, Chrysalis let out a loud snarl and aimed her horn at Shining. “If I break your spirit right just yet” she said in annoyance, “then I’ll just have to break your body.”
Shining watched as Chrysalis charged her horn up with a powerful surge of magic.
“Mark my words my dearest Shining,” said Chrysalis. “You may feel confident now, but in time, your mind will suffer.”
With a high pitched laugh, a green arch shot from her horn and blasted Shining in the forehead.
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When Braeburn woke up from his drug induced slumber, he found himself dangling inside a wall of green. He was in a ball room of some sort, suspended on the ceiling in a an insectoid-like cocoon. As he stared down at the ground below, his breath began to get heavy. He began to shift his eyes elsewhere.
What he saw terrified him to his very core. His eyes widen with fear at the horror that surrounded him. Through his pod prison, he could make a out half a dozen other cocoons, all of which containing ponies he new.
“Sweet Princess Celestia!” he gasped, “These monsters got the whole damn town.”
“Braeburn, thank Luna you're awake!” called a voice from behind him.
Braeburn turned his head in the direction of the voice and felt a small bit of relief upon seeing another familiar face.”
“Shadow Wing!” he shouted happily. “I’m so glad you're alive, how long have we been here?”
The lunar captain shook his head. “I have know idea, I woke up about thirty minutes ago. Anyways, I think we found the town’s people. It looks like the changelings have been draining them non-stop. If we don’t get them medical attention, I think some of them might not make it.”
Braeburn cringed at the thought of losing the town’s folk.
Hopefully we can break out of here before that happens.
“Where’s Shining Armor?” asked Braeburn.
“I don’t know, I think their queen is handling him. I’m sure he’s alive at least. If they wanted him dead they would have done it back at Appleloosa. Anyways, there’s three conscious ponies back here who say they aren't from Appleloosa. They tell me they used to be close friends with Shining. I think they're going to use the five of us to get to him.”
“What are their names?” asked Braeburn.
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As Wasp strolled down the halls of the Castle, he could hear screaming coming from the room his mother and “clone father” were in. He tried desperately to leave the area, but some part of him compelled him to stay. His drone brethren gave him weird looks at the looks of discomfort he was expressing.
What’s wrong with me? he thought. Changelings are supposed to be indifferent to this. Why can’t I leave?
His bothersome looks only got worse as Shining’s screams of pain seemed to echo louder in his ears with every passing second.
I am a changeling for Volucris’ sake. Changelings are only meant to serve the queen without question. Love know one but the queen. Think nothing except what the queen tell you too think.
He lowered his head as a disturbing thought echoed throughout it.
I don’t even know this stallion. I only know that he fertilized me, and that mom gave me his DNA. I guess it would make sense that some of his filthy pony sentiment got into me at birth. I am changeling through and through. The day I start having feelings for anypony else will be the day I…
“Something troubling you brother?”
Wasp turned around in and stared loathingly at one of his fellow hybrid siblings.
“Hello Blitz, I thought you were supposed to be in Las Pegasus.”
Like his other 12 siblings, this changeling had both a mane, a cutie mark, and green emerald eyes. However, while most the thirteen hybrids had single colored hair, Bitz had a mane and tail that matched the colors of the rainbow. He bore a smug and confident look on his face, much like that of the pony whose DNA he shared. A katana rested in in a brown leather sheath, partially covering his grey lightning cloud cutie mark.
The hybrid chuckled as he strolled closer to younger brother and smiled.
“I was called back.” he replied. “Say, what are you doing passing around these halls little bro? You know Mom’s busy with an old friend.”
Wasp felt like stabbing himself with his own hooves as shame overcame him.
“The stallion she is torturing is Shining Armor, the stallion whose genes I share. Don’t tell the others, but I think some of those damn pony emotions are making me feel sorry for the bastard.”
Blitz laughed, “You’ll get over it. I’ll admit I bumped into my other mother while on a mission in Cloudsdale. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little weird. But you know what, If the queen ever told me to slice her wings off I’d do it in a heart beat. Sure, I probably wouldn’t feel good about it, but that’s the burden we hybrids must bare. We must use the ponies strength against them, without succumbing to their follies. You should go to his cell tonight and screw with him a bit. The only way you're going to break your attachment is if you train yourself to hate him.”
Wasp nodded.
As much of a prick Blitz can be, I’ve got to say, he does make a better soldier than me. Still, I’ll always be the better fighter.
“I think I’ll do just that.” Wasp said with as he smiled confidently at his brother. “But first, me and you have a score to settle. Right now the score is four to six. I only need to duel with you one more time before we tie up. I hope that foreign sword of your’s is ready too clash with hooves of steel. I’ve learned how to sharpen the edges of my swords while you were away.”
Blitz flared his wings and sped past Wasp before he even had time to blink.
Time to show speedy who’s boss, Wasp thought as he flew towards one of the castle windows on the other side of the hall. However, he couldn’t help but look back as he heard another high-pitched scream from the stallion which gave him life almost a year ago.
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After several hours of excruciating pain and torture at the hands of the queen, Chrysalis ordered a small group of minions to carry Shining to the dining hall. As the changelings lifted Shining up on their backs like ants at a picnic, he let out a loud moan.
It stings, everything I touch stings.
He could feel blood dripping from his mouth where the queen had beaten him, and the sting of burnt marks from where she had zapped him. Several patches of his fur had turned black after being zapped so many times. From a distance, Shining imagined he looked like a large dalmatian.
He dozed off for a bit, he tried to distract his mind from the pain.
Finally, the changelings threw him off their backs onto the stone floor of the castle. As he winced in pain, he struggled to open his eyes. However, when he finally got them open, he could barely close them again.
There, standing on the stone floor, was a sapphire gem in the shape of a balloon.
The Gem of Laughter? But how is this…
“It’s a anniversary present, sweetie,” called the voice that sounded like Cadence.
Shining struggled to lift himself up and darted his eyes towards Chrysalis who had decided to play “housewife” with him again by taking on Cadences form. “I’ll try and find more for you but remember, you have to grant me whatever wish I want once you find them all.”
Shining felt himself stumble a bit as his lower leg started to kneel from all the pain he felt. To his dismay, his right foreleg was also giving him trouble. However, he fought this pain with all his might.
“After... everything you’ve... done to me.” he said as he began to pant from exhaustion. He found himself coughing a little bit of blood has he tried to continue. “I will… *cough*… never… grant you a wish. I can’t even imagine what kind of sick and demented thing you would bring into this world if I did. I’d die first before helping you. I know Twilight and Cadence would do the same in my horseshoes.”
The fake pink alicorn smirked evilly at her hostage and began to stroke his charred blue mane.
“Lower the pods.” she said in a voice that reminded Shining of Cadence’s foal-sitting days.
In a moment the changelings brought in five green pods before him, each one carrying a pony. Shining recognised two of them to be Shadow and Braeburn, but he could put his hoof on who the other three were. He studied them closing and saw that one of them was brown-maned earth pony with a robot cutie mark, a green maned unicorn with a D-8 cutie mark, and a grey-maned pegasus with a video game sprite cutie mark.
Poindexter? Gaffer? 8-Bit?
Shining turned around, staring at the the queen. “Your using my comrades and my high school friends as bargaining chips? And just when I thought I couldn’t hate you anymore than I already do.”
“You catch on quickly,” cackled the fake Cadence. “If you don’t pass the remaining four trials and grant me my wish, I will drain your friends of any and all emotions until they become a dry husk. Tomorrow, when you recover, you will take the trial of laughter, and you will pass, or so help me I will murder everypony you have ever held dear. And don’t think I’ll stop at these four. I will hunt and find anyone you've ever cared for and murder them personally.”
As Chrysalis broke into a fit of laughter, Shining felt utterly helpless. It seemed that fate was no longer on his side.
Special thanks to all the editors who were able to help during Chaotic Minds absence. ShootingStar159, Minette, and PyroCore Also, for those of you who read Wasp and are wondering who this Blitz character is, he actually the flash character from the ordinal. Since I'll be readoing the entire Wasp story eventually, and because Flash Sentrey exists now, I felt like this would be a good opportunity too change the name. Hey, Rule 63 RD Changleing Clone with a kantanna. What more can you ask for.
Also, I hope you like my tie in with the comics. Issue 12 comes out tomorrow and I can't wait get a copy. No updates till Christmas now guys. Sorry, I'm swamped and I can't keep doing this. But God is this so tempting. Anyway gonna go pass out now. Latter all.
Laughter will help Shining and his team escape I know she will.
Wow, Chrysalis is sending all her anger at Shining when it's basically a 50/50 chance of Shining to get the power or forever be in a dream state. I wonder how Chrysalis did not remember that detail?
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i wish you could do another i stayed up for 3 extra hours and find out this. i need to find out what happens to shining and such
i agree about the laughter trial
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i wonder that now that i think about it
3419631
For all the spies she has and having info on the elements themselves, Chrysalis sure did not think about the chances of Shining to win/lose the element.
3419855 exactly!
I hope laughter gives him the ability to enter and exit the 4th wall he could then escape like a boss.
I guess I am not as smart as I thought I was ... I can't quite figure out if Chrissy is helping or hurting Shining's chances fulfilling his quest ...
on one side there is the whole "succeed or I kill your friends" as motivation but ... If Chrissy thinks that torturing him is a good way to endure him to the element of laughter then she is on some serious drugs ...
Generosity? Loyalty? Heck, Chrissy can't help but corrupt anything that she touches. Her interfearence could make it impossible to complete the quest.
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I think Chrysalsis is counting on Shining failing or winning. If Shining passes, fine, she gets one more gem on her side and will have some more tools for her disposal. If he fails, well...then there will be at least two princesses out there who will be too broken hearted to put up muuch of a fight. One of those said princesses being the former most powerful unicorn on the planet, now probably third or second depending on Luna's skill in magic. The most sensible plan would be to attack Twilight when she is at that vunerable spot, take her over, and boom! Instant win and free love energy trip.
Also, EEEEE! I love seeing Shining's high school friends.
3420251
Chrysalis threatens Shining in killing all of Shining's love ones as blackmail to get the element without any other mention of Shining to lose. All her lines were filled with Shining succeeding and killing the ponies when he tries to back stab her.
3420266 Think of it this way, if Shining does fail the trial, the changeling are going to drain them too death anyway. Can't let all the demolitions emotion go too waist, especially their grief for Shining. It's a catch 22. Succeed: and Chrysalis steals his wish, Fails: His friends as well as an entire town will most likely be drained to death in addition too what Alchemy already stated. And if he tries too double cross her, Chrysalis will start killing the hostages.
This was a very dark chapter, but hopefully the spirit of Laughter will be able to provide some much needed comic realife (And a deus ex Machina). I still haven't come up with a name for the Spirit or even a gender or race yet. But you can expect this trial too be the most "meta" the story will get.
minuette.net/Pony/torrents/Ponibooru-Select-Safe/10033%20-%20Metal_Gear_Solid%20Artist%3AOttanta%20parody%20Psycho_Mantis%20pinkie_pie.jpg
Never played this game, but I've seen the memory card video. Hopefully laughter won't read your favorites list.
Laughter: You have a lot of clop in your favorites, you must be quite the pervert. It seems your favorite pairing is AppleDash.
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Lies! AppleDash pairing is not my favorite nor is it valid for me to read this story till the end. For me to continue reading this is Shining/Cadence and Shining/Chrysalis.
Best make Laughter a Draconequus or for added insult an alicorn. But whatever you come up, I'm sure you will execute it with style AND awesomeness as the Dark chapter needs a well timed PLOT twist.
3420479
I am still convinced that the spirit o laughter is going to be Surprise the while and blond pegasus. However, despite being modeled after her, the name of the spirit is going to be mirth, Joy or Hope. All of these are causes to smile even in the darkest of times, and laughter is something that's special because it's occasional and a sign of the good times.
Still, this is a pretty nasty chapter. And you know, part of me supposed that Grace was preventing him from firing on Crysalis since murder is far from a kind gesture. But it's just technology. It seems that self defense is still on the books for now. Then again, this only makes the story darker. Was Crysalis the real mastermind behind the quest for the septre? Or was it still Sombra as I suspect? Regardless, you've turned crysalis from an evil overlord into a psychopathic maniac in the course of this chapter. I'd love to see Shining buck her face in for all this.
Still, It's a shame you won't be writing until christmas. Can't wait to see the trial of laughter. That'll be a different sort of trial. How much do you want to bet that the trial's just gonna be a game of hide and seek or something?
Shining Armor had quite a weird group of friends!
It sucks that you won't be updating until Christmas. You left us with a really big cliffhanger!
3429064 They may or may not. Wile there not true alicorns like the Sissters, who's to say they that they might not live longer. Personally I think Celesta wouldn't have given Twight the book if it would have put that burden on her. Then again, maybe she loves Twight that much.
3445827 That quote is hilariously appropriate.
3445920 thanks
BEST SHINNING ARMOR STORY EVER!!!
Is is okay if I can write a story similar to this, but with a lot of differences, but somewhat same story line.
3448882 So long has you don't barrow too much from the original and change the characters around, I wouldn't have a problem. There are lot of people who barrow the "My Little Dashie" concept, but add interesting twists so that it's not a carbon copy. PM me your idea and I'll tell you what I think .
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just to let you know the antagonist in my version is not Discord's brother, but a former friend of Shining Armor and Cadence.
Crazy story!
Well told so far and I can't wait to see where this goes.
Great story so far. Your doing good.
3526571>>3531086 Thank you both. I feel like I got really lucky with the fic, so I've been trying too make worthy of all the praise it's gotten. Even went as far as too rewrite parts of it too boost my EQD chances. It feels wonderful too know poeple like my interpretation of Shining Armor, and are eagerly waiting what kind of hell I'll put him though next.
Since my editor is going on a leave, the next few chapters might have a'lot of my patterned grammar derps. In complete sentences, "has" in stead of "as", and lot's of typos. My struggles with grammar do take away from the my stories, and often are the only things people talk about in the comments. I still trying to find a replacement who is as thorough. Until then, I hope my story telling is good enough to over shadow any of these derps.
3531883 I like the idea, because I've thought about the mortality issue too. Here's a tip because I already saw an error with your comment.
To: Towards. Defines a destination.
Too: Also. In excess of. As well (when talking about yourself or others).
Hey there Dash Attack, it's me again. I finally got around to checking this story out and I am very much impressed with it. Shinning Armor in this story is totally badass! I also love Shadow Wing as well, very cool OC. Anyway, I will be following this story from now on. And to be honest, I could care less if I have to wait until around Christmas time before this story is updated. That will just make the wait all the more satisfying.
As for Chrysalis, yikes man. You've turned her into one psychotic, bucked up villain. This version of her really scares me, so I hope that Shinning kicks her flank when he gets the chance.
Good story thus far, and I look forward to future updates.
~ Super-Brony12
3567684 My take Chysails come from the way she was portrayed in the IDW comics. In there, she is found she's portrayed as petty, obsessive, abusive, and a complete psychopath. On more than one occasions, they put her in seems that mimic the Wicked Witch. She enslaved a village of hug gable kittens shortly after the wedding (possibly draining them too death). I'm not kidding, they did that.
(spoilers)
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And she even ate one right in front of the CMC
(Spoilers and nightmare fuel)
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The comics do a great job of taking everything the fans love about the show and taking it too the next level. But dear God this was horrifying.
3567684 Also, I'm glad you think Shining and my OC are badass. This means that this story is succeeding in it's purpose.
l.wigflip.com/qCeEhZpr/roflbot.jpg
3619974 Unfortunately fake I did a terrible job at hiding fake Gaia's identity, There's a big give away coming up, even though I have yet too make the reveal officialism. But here's a clue...
Very interesting story. Looking foreward to seeing just how 4th wall breaking the laughter spirit is.
Also, geeze we have Sombra and Chrysallis running around? Certainly not makeing it easy on Shining. Good thing he's a badass.
I'm getting Castlevania: Lords of Shadow vibes from this story.....
I need more
3704842 Unfortunately errors do tend to slip by. I'll correct those when I can. What's most important is that the story is clear, vivid, and structured.
Welp, that got very dark very quickly...
Also, thanks for the image, it's appreciated.
Great story so far, however you rrally need to get an editor to go through the entire thing. Seriously
i love the comic book references!