"Here they come!" Josho shouted.
Seclorum gritted his teeth, concentrating on the plank of metal he was levitating in place as the middle of the "bridge." He glanced out the corner of his eyes as a solid line of pegasi swooped down at them. "The last ponies are hopping over now! We need cover!"
"On it!" Prowse shouted, running to the edge of the temple on the other side. "Propsicle, I hate to ask ya for it, lass, but—"
"All in the family, Unky Prowsy!" Props rushed over and braced his flank with her spine. "Fire away!"
Now with a firm hoofing, the stallion aimed his prosthetic at the thick of the undead flock, charged up the crystal batteries, and fired. A burning stream of mana flared through the hurricane winds, evaporating the rainwater as it traveled towards its targets.
Six pegasi melted instantly. The rest of them split on either side of the energy discharge and came swooping at opposite angles.
"Brace yourselves, everypony!" Josho exclaimed, firing pot-shots at the creatures on the left.
Two of them fell. The rest swooped low, biting and clawing at the heads of several equines.
The survivors ducked low while the winy air filled with criss-crossing projectiles from the ponies' makeshift weapons. In the meantime, a thick line of pegasi swooped down from the right. Josho pivoted to fire at them, but it was too late.
With a deep breath, Lasairfion rushed in and blasted a stream of energy from her horn. She erected a forcefield that succeeded in blocking the first line of winged undead. Several more seeped around the edges of the barrier and came soaring down at the platform.
"The last pony is through!" Seclorum shouted as Arcshod and the other unicorns began hopping along the remains of the bridge, carrying levitating platforms along with them. "Quick! We've gotta make it to the other side—"
"A little busy here, old friend!" Josho grunted, slamming his shotgun across the snout of a zombie and firing its barrels deep into its quivering gut.
"Watch it!" Seclorum shouted as he and Arcshod made it onto the platform. Puddles of purple muck was starting to form along the temple's surface. "We gotta off 'em in the air! Keep them away!"
"Tell them that!" Prowse growled as he spun and swung his prosthetic into the mangy face of one creature after another. "Come and get some, ya bloody sods!"
"We don't want to win the battle!" Aatxe stammered. "We want to avoid it!" He pointed to the far end of the platform. "Come on, everypony! Just one more bridge to the Tarkington!"
"Secchy!" Josho shouted. "You, Arcshod, and the others go! We'll hold them off!"
"This many of them?!" Seclorum wheezed as he galloped across the landscape with his heavy metal plank floating after him. He sweated from the constant telekinetic effort. "We won't last a minute!"
"Lasairfion's got her magic and Prowse's boomstick is recharging! We can do this—"
A pair of pegasi dove out of the clouds and coasted straight towards Josho.
Belle saw it. With a gasp, she let go of Elma and picked up a chunk of granite. "Josho! Watch it!" Grunting, she threw the rock with all her might.
It flew in a curved arc through the wind and ricocheted off one pegasi's skull. At the sound of the pained shriek, Josho turned and ducked before the creature could rake its teeth across his neck. Shouting, he swung the butt of his shotgun agains the skull of the second monster.
The battered pegasus veered left and right, bounced off a column, and partially dissolved in midair.
"Look out!" a Ledomaritan shouted as everypony ducked its careening body.
"My ship!" Aatxe shouted. "I can see it! Arcshod, over here—" The stallion grunted as the pegasus' corpse slammed into him.
"Aatxe!" Seclorum yelped.
Arcshod spun with wide eyes. Snarling, the large stallion marched over and swung his metal plank like a bludgeon, knocking the quivering mess of a creature off of Aatxe's shoulders.
Seclorum scampered over, standing by Arcshod's silent figure. He grimaced.
"Gnnngh... mmmfffnngh..." Aatxe curled up in a quivering ball, his eyes tearing. Purple muck oozed down the sides of his body, causing tiny columns of steam to rise. "It... it b-burns..." He looked up, muzzle quivering. "How... h-how bad is it?"
"Xon..." Arcshod exhaled.
Belle covered her gasping muzzle from afar.
For once, Seclorum was at a loss for words.
"I don't care how many minions she has at her command!" Pilate sputtered from where he lay in the grip of several changelings along the structure's balcony. "She's obsessed with agony! And that makes her as corrupt and short-sighted as every other thug we've run across, Rainbow Dash! Don't give into her despair—" One of the shape-shifters holding him down gave his chest a hard punch. "Aaaugh!"
"Stop it!" Rainbow hissed into the face of the changeling queen. "Don't hurt him! Or, I swear, I'll—"
"You'll what?" The face smiled with a flicker of green. "The only reason you've had friends these last few months is because I've allowed it."
"Okay, now I know you're just spewing bullcrap," Rainbow grumbled.
"Do you seriously think that all I've ever known of you has been gathered from leeching your emotions alone?" Chrysalis' eyes flashed, and her face took on a white sheen with a mane of rippling pastel hues. "Your kingdom is home to more than the average mortals," she said in Celestia's voice. In a flash of green, Luna's face loomed. "The night doth belong to creatures far more cunning than all that thou hath allied with." The face went pale again, accompanied by eyes brimming with eternal wisdom. "My children are everywhere," the vision of Whitemane said. "And they all have eyes. My eyes. When I sensed opportunity in the Ancient Homeland fading, I sent the bulk of the brood to investigate. I found a world nearly sundered by a chaotic rift, and then there was one survivor—one miserable, miserable survivor heading east. I didn't realize it at first, but she was bringing the delectable chaos to me." The air filled with nauseating laughter as Whitemane vanished and Chrysalis' visage returned full-force. "And that is why I ultimately decided to keep my station in Xona and turn my focus on Val Roa. You see, an inexplicable agent of chaos would soon be in my grasp. So long as I led her to the Sentinel, there was no backtracking required."
"I... am not an agent of chaos," Rainbow Dash snarled. "I am the last Element of Harmony! I am—"
"The divine 'Spark' or some other such nonsense, yes?" Chrysalis' face morphed into a contemptuous scowl. "I believe in the style of the runic prophecies my brood have discovered in the Sentinel and beyond. I don't take quite as much stock in the substance. You are destined to make your trip east, yes. Hmmmmm—But there's simply been no declaration set in stone over who you were making this trip for."
"I am not going to be your device to make horrible things happen in Val Roa or anywhere!" Rainbow's voice cracked.
"And yet you're so good at it," Chrysalis said with a resonating chuckle. "From kingdom to kingdom, you leave death and destruction in your wake. I sometimes think to myself that I don't need the Sentinel and its black heart at all."
"It's... it's n-not true..." Rainbow Dash seethed, avoiding the image's gigantic gaze. "I'm not a monster. I'm the Element of Loyalty. I'm... I'm awesome..."
"Oh, admittedly, you did need... a boost from time to time. Misery is like sheep; it has to be herded and managed to properly graze on the living. That's why I had my children intercede in little ways to make sure you arrived in this city..."
Rainbow Dash sneered. "Prowse..."
"And, of course, why not feed on those unfortunate enough to be herded along with you? Honestly, I couldn't help myself. The thirst for anguish made it too much to pass up. All it took was putting some of my children in the right places at the right times."
"What..." Rainbow squinted. "What are you even trying to say?"
"Are you really so blind, Rainbow Dash?" Chrysalis fanged teeth showed. "Are you so pathetically loyal to the idea of your own lonely plight that you can't see through pure coincidence and see it for the masterfully constructed mechanization it really was?"
Rainbow's muzzle hung agape in confusion.
"He was blind too. His tenacity and determination made him a great deal like you. But madness had dissolved his resolve, and—unlike you—he was so... so very easy to manipulate. This should be no surprise to you, since one of your best friends had manipulated him before."
Rainbow's eyes quivered. "Shell..."
Pilate glanced up, breathless.
"You... y-your broodlings guided Shell... to Lerris...?" Rainbow murmured.
"To a feast, Rainbow," Chrysalis thundered. "And you, the Austraeoh, shall bring the Sentinel to the greatest banquet of all in Val Roa..."
I guess that kinda explains how Shell kept at it for so long... I guess.
Of course. Explains how he so easily found them. New person who I want to greet someone with the business end of a flamethrower.
Chrissy, you are so bucked...
Well, Chrysalis is going to be murdered ten ways to Sunday.
In other news, we need to get a Lightbringer's sword to Aatxe, ASAP.
That's it, someone bring out the gods be damned flyswatter cause this bitch about to get smacked.
No. Not Aatxe!
[eye twitching intensifies]
I...I just...what...but...Chryssy....responsible...for Shell...to Lerris...?
You. BITCH.
Why Aatxe, why?
... Fuck!
So Chrysalis is responsible for the worst part of the story?
Now she HAS to die. Explosively.
Kill her! Kill her with fire!
Well she is about to get the beating of a life time. Burn the bug alive Dash.
This actually makes a lot of sense...on the other hand, she still has yet to prove she has a way of surviving, let alone ending, the smooze.
it seems to be a general consensus that chrysy needs to be burned alive (or just killed at the very least)
i completely agree......
SHHHHEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!
...meh. We've had more hateable things.
Oh hay, I was just looking up some notes on a trick I call shield crush, where you use a personal high energy shield, apparently plasma reflects energy blasts up to a given strength, then they break through, and a secondary projected shield. If the enemy doesnt realise whats happening, the outer shield is slowly pulled in, strengthening all the while, until the enemy is crushed between the two shields, becoming one with the plasma, making it stronger.
Its just a pity that even Dashs Element, and the sword combined, cant form the secondary shield around the eyewall interface, then drag in using the rain to strengthen it.
It wouldve cooked the Smooze good as well.
I know what I would so like to do to those who sustained Shell. Ill get in the queue.
So Shell was a freaking Agahnim all this time.
And now, here comes the Ganon.
can we activate chaos mode and kill everything? I mean, RD is due for an attack...
or Axan could stop being an ass and maybe lend a hand... unless she is a changeling too...
Well... That was a revelation.
I'd always wondered how Shell tracked them down to Lerris... Chrysalis has definitely gotta go.
And someone get that goddamned sword to Aatxe! He deserves better than to become this story's Abbé Faria.
4456539
Inb4 Chrysalis is someone else's Agahnim.
Chrysalis is a giant monster ... but that doesn't excuse Shell's kill-em-all attitude.
4456150 Sword of Solstice and similar commodities would probably work. But that's impossible. An item can't work. It has no energy. No will. Well, this sword has energy. So does it have a will?
Definitions are fun.
4457692
So you have one sword against an undead horde you purposely propagated to huge numbers...yah. Then again, this is true to canon. Chrysalis never did seem to consider the long term problems, like removing Celestia means no moving sun and whatnot.
Now that I have finally caught up, I have entered at a cliffhanger and I have no idea how The Dash is going to get out of this but I am positive that it will be EPIC, GLORIOUS, AND AWESOME!
Plus I fully expect Dash to unleash the Hulk sometime soon and completely destroy with merciless violence and death.
...
I may regret this, but I'm calling that Aatxe will die for real this time.
I love how at least half of this comments section is just "aww, Chryssy, now you fucked up!"
I really want RD to get out of this by taking off the pendant and taking Chryssy's plan to its logical conclusion. The problem is, it might only make her stronger...
And sorry, Aatxe, but I don't think you're gonna make it out of this place.
But...but my head hasn't exploded.
Shell's skeleton is doing backflips right now.
Sunova bitch.
This makes Shell no less evil.
Chrysalis, you are so bucked now. Rainbow has even more of a reason to kick your flank.
Aatxe!
Also Chrysalis is going to die horribly by the hooves of Dash.
-Spirit
This evil monologue isn't going to end well....
Shell was just the unwitting Dragon to Bug-face's Big Bad all along.... absolute bitch
hohoooooo boy....the amount of shit about to hit the fan...
Well . . . this explains quite a bit. And it makes nothing better. Now I have even more reason to hate these Changelings.
Sooo...what now?
...seriously? No one decided to comment on this? I know that the Chrysalis is actually the one who manipulated Shell the whole time thing was taking precedent, but that is no excuse to just let this slide. Dammit... now that I think about it... did Shell's head actually explode? RD just showed up after raising the spear with blood on it, but we never actually saw Shell get all exploded. So...brbrbrbrbrbrbbr.....
Oh lawd. What if... The mane 5 that attempted to defeat Discord were actually changelings who didn't know they were changelings, so when they attempted to use the elemnts of harmony, they all died instead. Spike didn't die because he wasn't a changeling. Maybe. Or maybe he was too. Celestia is a changeling. Luna is a changeling. EVERYPONY IS A CHANGELING! What if this whole time... Rainbow Dash herself is actually a changeling? We already saw that changelings can make their blood look red. So..... this whole story could actually be about a changeling who thinks she is Rainbow Dash, but isn't. Then again... I'm pretty sure Chrysalis would have known if RD was a changeling or not. Never mind then...
FUCKER
Well, I still don't hate shell any less, but I'm hating Chrysalis more and more.
Chrissaluminati confirmed
7462444
Yea IC's plots are as three dimensional as his paper.
Still though can't deny the problematic nature of a continent spanning changeling army.
No doubt they can do that too.
Aatxe
Chryssi's weakness always was gloating.
7462444
Why do you bother reading?
BASTARD. Lerris was an emotional tragedy that hit us all like a trainwreck. All of our anger towards Shell got closure with his death, but now that we know who was TRULY behind it, SPILL CHANGELING BLOOD RAINBOW DASH!!
Que heavy metal, cause I don't see this not-quite-accidental tragedy slipping by her rage radar without tripping a few alarms
Oh. Well. That just made me unspeakably furious.
Now it makes sense...
Remember that thing I posted on a fate to make one wish for hell? Got a new target. Also Wakfu did this in S3.