FireStarter

by Cereal-Killer

Chapter XVII: Red And Blue

"You really know how to test my patience, Spike." I said as the dragon in question, dropped another plus-four card on me. Twilight and Starlight were talking about teaming up in the background while I picked up my new cards.

Hoovo. A pony game similar to Uno and just as good at destroying friendships. Spike had made a fatal error by hitting me with the plus-four however, and revenge would be swift. Once my turn was over, Twilight and Starlight whispered among themselves.

"The wildcard is now a red." Spike told Twilight, who dropped down a red immediately, while Starlight threw a reverse, followed by Twilight dropping another normal red.

Revenge would be served, slow and painfully. I dropped a plus-four, making Spike grimace while I smugly grinned at him.

Once he was done picking up those cards, I dropped another and he looked at me with searing anger.

He finished, waiting for me to drop another, I sat still and he made to drop one of his down.

With lightning speed I slammed down the last plus-four, and he threw his arms up in the air, scattering his cards and then walking away in a huff. Twilight was openly guffawing, tears running down her face as her adoptive brother stalked off, while Starlight giggled at his expense.

"You're evil! He didn't deserve that!" Starlight grinned, magicking the cards back into the bottom of the pile.

"Maybe if he wasn't bad at it, he wouldnt of gotten hit." I talked loudly enough for Spike to hear in the other room. It was always funny to rub in a victory.

"Fuck off!" Spike yelled angrily.

Twilight gasped, "Spike! There is no need for that kind of language."

"HOW COME HE GETS TO SAY IT ALL THE TIME THEN!?" Twilight looked at me.

"Can you stop?" She asked.

"I mean, probably fucking not."

The fight against the egghead duo was tough, but eventually I won through, despite their meagre attempts at teamwork.

"You guys are just mad cause you got outplayed." I smugly taunted as Twilight pouted. "If only you were better at the game, maybe you could have won."

Twilight pouted even harder and then tried to bop me on the head with A history of Equestria, AKA the bopping book because that tome is thicker than a bowl of oatmeal, I mean, you could kill someone with it!

Around this time, Spike belched up a letter, Twilight grabbing it before it hit the Drake's palms. After a momentary scan, Twilight looked up. "John, you should get ready for a mission. We'll need to take the guard to reinforce the Changelings."

"Helix already got a war declaration? Man, he must be terrible at playing Civ." Twilight opened her mouth to ask what that was, but decided against letting me explain it now.

I make her do that a lot.

She passed me the scroll, the general situation was that there was some wack shit going on in the desert around the hive, and that reinforcements would be necessary.

"Are the guards even ready for this?" Twilight started to panic as usual before Spike and I scratched her ears, pacifying her. Spike had learned well under my tutelage as a master of scritch-fu.

"Chill out, they'll be fine, I prepared them to fight against the majority of problems we might face out there." During my time here I read up on basic biology of common pony enemies, a couple of monsters, Dragons, Diamond Dogs, etcetera. Teaching the majority to gun things down from afar while particular unicorns allocated to use barrier magic defend isn't too hard.

Thankfully, I got a group that was smarter than the lot Celestia had serving under her, and they were, the whole battalion of them were mares and stallions with quality insight and adaptive minds. They were all rather young as most had come from the newest year of recruits at Equestrian military academies. Apparently there had been a recent change in curriculum, as well as better financial support for the students. It was because of all this, the group was being hailed part of 'the new generation' of guards. Most of these reforms were actually brought in by Twilight, by the way.

"But what if somepony-" I booped Twilight, silencing her.

"They'll. Be. Fine. Trust me." She was still scrunching her nose up from the boop but she got the idea.

I went to get ready, walking into my room and finding my armour on a suprisingly well-made mannequin, courtesy of Rarity. She was a total wizard with most crafty stuff and if she didn't know something she was very quick to direct me towards those who did.

I was doing up the last clips off the armour before Twilight opened the door. "John, I'm going to put a spell on your armour to make it more bearable in the desert."

"Thanks, Sparkplug. You don't really need to thou-"

She interrupted me, "But I do. If you arent able to concentrate in the heat then you might die and then, and then, I-" I hushed her, walking to her and then crouching to meet her at eye level.

"Twilight."

"John?" Her ears flicked.

"Calm down. I already told you, we'll be completely fine." She sniffed, rubbing her snout into my shoulder.

"Ok." She steeled herself, scrunching up her face all cutely. She was freaking adorable when she did that. "I-I'll get to work on a friendship problem, something is bound to come up today."

"Hold up a second, can you do the teleport spell to make this quicker? It'll make things much easier."

She nodded, teleporting away, making me release a breath. She worries too much, although with good reason. I don't exactly have a good reputation when it comes to avoiding injury.

Once I was all kitted out and ready to go, I opened the door to find Spike about to knock.

"Hey Spike." I looked around. "I thought you'd be with Twilight?"

"Nah. She's doing another friendship thing with some of the others. I find them kinda boring sometimes. You off somewhere?" He leaned on the door frame.

"Yeah, Changeling troubles again. I'll try a bit harder not to die this time." He chuckled, scratching at his head.

"I hope they dont have to wheel you back home like last time. Twilight was having a panic attack." He paused, "Anyway! See ya when you get back." He waved as he ran down the halls, his dragon feet pattering along the floor as he went.

Next on the agenda was the barracks, in order to pick up the correct team for this job. A couple specialized in shield and defense magic, who can support those who are the effective D.P.S of the team, who should be putting out as many attack spells as possible in quick succession.

It turns out that most of Equestrian military history was lost when Discord went nuts a while back, along with pretty much all other Pre-Discordian history.

I decided to only take a few guards with me to begin with, then call for more if the situation demanded it., including Rocky Arids, the earthbending Camel. I imagined that being surrounded by sand, he would be completely in his element.

Twilight had us step outside so she could prepare a mass teleportation spell. Massively taxing spells like those usually required a couple minutes to activate as a group, or almost half an hour for most individuals, but because of Twilight's raw magical strength, it only took her a few seconds to move us several hundred miles. She is truly awe-inspiring at times.

----

Once she let loose the spell, we landed right next to Helix, who was clearly not expecting us, as he daydreamed from the top of the throne, humming.

"One of you, hand me something to throw at him." One stallion hesitantly passed me an empty can from some generic pony soft drink. "YAYEET!" I cried, flinging it at the Changeling 'king'. He barely flinched, looking at me while smirking.

"I see your sense of humour hasn't developed at all in the time since we fought Chrysalis." Helix threw the can back at me, considerably harder, but he missed because he's not cool like me.

"My humour has doubled since we last met. Good to see you again too, ya dickhead." I looked around the throne room, "so uh, whats the problem Bug Brain?" The changeling guards were completely stock still, but for some reason one of them wasn't emitting body heat.

"I believe an attack is imminent. I found traces of necromancy in the desert. A large part seems to be moving towards the hive."

"Gimme a second." I walked over to the odd guard from before. He was dead cold. "Check him for necromantic magic." Helix's horn glowed and the guard collapsed.

"A corpse. It seems we have been infiltrated already." He lit his horn, presumably checking everyone else in the room. "John, can you sense the magic as well?"

"I can sense heat. The corpses give off nothing. Even normal Changelings are at least somewhat warm."

"Good. Take your group and begin weeding out any infiltrators." He chuckled. "It is ironic that the Changelings, of all species, could be infiltrated."

----

Walking out of the throne room, we were immediately blasted by the hot, arid air outside.

I split the group up into smaller fireteams of three, making sure one of them could weed out any corpselings. This left me alone with the Camel.

"You reckon you could wall off any exits?" I asked.

He nodded, "yes, although I would need to get down to the desert floor before we tried such a thing."

"Fair enough, you get on that. I'll catch up." He stood still for a moment or two, before a dust devil appeared, carrying him down from the throne room's tower. I sighed looking at the staircase menacingly. "We meet once again, my nemesis."

After a loooong while of walking followed by teleporting a short distance multiple times, I was finally at ground level.

One group was checking changelings nearby. "Hey! Find anything yet?"

While one of them, the one checking, I believe, was fixated on his task one of his guards responded, "Nothing yet, sir. Nopony else seems to have found one either."

The other teammate piped up. "Maybe the one before was a fluke? They could've just had one to keep an eye on the throne room."

"Possible, but I'd like to be thorough. I dont want any surprise attacks on the first mission."

A flash of light behind me signalled the arrival of extra reinforcements, a couple day and night guards from the castle. I filled them in on the situation and suggested they patrol the area.

With them out of the way, I continued looking for anything out of the ordinary. The main hive entrances had been sealed off by Rocky Arids by shifting the sands into seals for the gates, completely blocking them off and making escape more difficult in case whoever was controlling them tried pulling them back.

----

Some time later, I heard a commotion from the main plaza underneath the tower. An argument between one of the new recruits from my detail and an old bugger of a stallion from the day guard.

"We have to follow orders, you can't just ignore him because he rubs you the wrong way!" The young stallion in purple was defending me.

"I'll take no orders but those from the princesses themselves or the captain of MY guard! I don't trust the ape, he's been a hassle since he got here, and now he's suddenly at the head of a new branch of our military. Seems suspect to me." The Earth Pony noticed me walking up to him, hitting me with a glare that really didn't do much for him.

"Sir." The unicorn who was arguing put his hood up in a salute, causing me to chuckle.

"Easy, man." He put his hoof down. I turned to the older stallion. "I don't appreciate insubordination. Neither do the princesses." I pulled out a scroll, something that Twilight gave me unless I had some troublemakers in the group. "This is a royal edict from Princess Twilight herself. Give it a look over." I levitated the scroll to him, unfurling it.

"He gave it a cursory scan before looking at it more carefully. "hmmhmm- princess Twilight decrees that -hmmmhmm." He mumbled under his breath. When he finished, he snorted in frustration. "I'll go back to my patrol then." He trotted away grumbling.

Fucking hated those kinds of ponies. The low-key racism was always there, but Ponyville was always a bit more accepting than most places. That means instead of trying to beat you half to death, they just get scared if you show up. Thats enough frustration venting for now, I don't feel like having to use quills instead of pen if I break this thing.

Not very much went on overall. It was eerily quiet in the hive, no changelings ever spoke to each other in the open so the most you'd hear was the clop of hooves or the clacking of chitin while the wind blew through the city.

After a while the wind stopped blowing and all was utterly silent. No hooves. No guards talking. Nothing.

I made to get up and a tremendous crack came through the ground, swallowing the street I was on, and dropping me into the abyss with it. I immediately clutched my leg, which was burning painfully as it violently twisted when I landed. Once the initial pain died down I checked for any particularly severe injuries. I took a few knocks on the way down but nothing seemed broken.

Standing up, I could see changelings in front of me, different from normal. These ones were almost bleached white, with cyan and maroon barrels unlike any other changelings I had seen, which all had green bands or nothing at all on them.

Correspondingly coloured magic glows lit up on their horns and I dodged a volley of spells that blasted away in the distance, causing a minor rumble. I checked to see them in the darkness but they weren't giving off any heat.

Corpses. Shit, the attack is happening now? Where did the rest of the group go?

The Corpselings didnt give me time to react, barraging me with more shots of magic. I summoned up as much fire as I could tossing a blast of flame at them, taking down one immediately and setting the rest on fire. I hid, waiting for them to burn away, as they didn't seem to be smart enough to care about the fire burning away their faces, forelegs and wings. The coast was clear now, all that was left were embers and a couple bits of pale plating on the floor, each cracked under foot as I ran past, the light filtering in from above paving the way forward. Further on another rumble occurred and I could hear rounds of spells hitting a shield. It must be one of my group. I could hear the noticable Zing of the incapacitating spell I tought them.

Rounding a corner, I could see the fight now, they were surrounded by the zombie changelings and a large undead scorpion, about as big as a Great Dane, no doubt plucked from the desert. I rushed them firing off a spell again, leaving me magically drained. I wouldn't be able to cast another one for a while, but there were a few 'lings left and that scorpion.

With a couple of them down, I made use of the bodies, tearing off a changeling horn and using it to stab a couple of the leftover enemies.

"Oi! You lot in the bubble, blast away that scorpion, I've got these things under control!" I kicked down on one of the zombies causing its fragile old chitin to crack.

The shielding unicorn nodded, pulling the shield off the group and using it as a way to contain the scorpion and then collapsed it inwards, squishing the poor arachnid.

"Sir, have you heard from the other teams?" One of the trio asked, walking over the broken up zombies, grimacing.

"No, when's the last time you saw anyone?" I tried pulling off a larger part of the chitin to use as a shield

"Approximately five or six minutes ago."

"Right." I took a moment to think. "There'll probably be a necromancer or some kind of stronger undead keeping the rest up. That's what it's like usually."

"Usually?" The guard narrowed his eyes questioningly.

"Yeah, like in the movies, I guess? We should get moving, by the way." I started walking down the cavern.

"Movies? Which ones?" I could hear them trotting behind me.

"Human ones. You guys aren't quite there yet."

"Sir. With all due respect, we've got no bucking idea what you're talking about."

"Well we're rolling with it, unless anything anyone has a better idea?" I turned around looking at them.

They didn't.

----

Wandering through the caverns for so long meant that my eyes had adjusted to the relative darkness, and along the floor you could see faint trails of magic. It was faded but you could still tell the colour of it. A sickening yellow, like someone had puked up.

I could hear rummaging in the dark, the guards behind me lit their horns, while i lifted an arm, small embers crackling. The obscured figure put his forelegs up in the air.

"WAIT! I'M NOT ONE OF THEM!" The quadruped yelled, he seemed to be male by his voice. "I was hiding from those...things."

"Got a name?" I said, leering into the darkness, he was a changeling, one of the sentients if i was correct.

"Thorax." The changeling smiled.

"Nice to meet ya, I'm John. We need help navigating the tunnels, you up for that?" He wasn't some sort of trap zombie, his body heat seemed normal.

"I'm sorry, I'm not really sure either. The layout if the caves have changed thanks to the two queens coming back."

"Wait, queens? As in plural? Chrysalis is dead, so who..." i mumbled, thinking back to anything Helix had told me about changelings, I wasn't sure, but I think I remembered a passing mention of red and blue queens? "Are they by any chance not Chrysalis?"

"I'm sorry, it was before I was around, so I don't know their names." He looked at the guards nervously.

"Oh well, you should go get somewhere safe, we can handle the rest." I had a strange feeling about that Changeling. With a buzz he zipped away, up out of one of the cracks further along. We traced the residue towards a large, brightly lit hall.

The source of light was a singular concentrated beam hitting a green crystalline prism in the centre, directing it all over the room. I'd say it was beautiful if I couldn't see the walls. They were decorated with ponies encased in sludgy cocoons, lining the walls until the stone was barely visible underneath the bodies. Lying on the floor, also encapsulated in cocoons, was the rest of the group.

Evil cackles resonated from the centre of the room. The point from which we entered was elevated, a staircase on either side of me leading down to the floor, following the curvature of the hall.

"We are to wait, then? The master told us we were to lure out this 'Avatar' character, and then send for him." The blue queen buzzed out.

"Yes, then we shall take this hive and restore glory to the changelings!" The red queen yelled out, jeez these bugs were cheesy.

"Sir, what's going on?" One of the guards whispered.

"I think we might've just walked into an exposition dump." I peeked over the landing of the stairs. "They're talking about their evil plan, I think." I raised an eyebrow, "The one pulling the strings doesn't seem to be here right now."

While they were cackling and doing other nefarious things, I was devising a cunning plan to deal with them.

Unfortunately, my cunning plan never came to light as Helix burst in through the ceiling magic blasting away at the queens, one of them, the wingless blue one, seemed to have some kind of frills on her neck, which flared out as Helix's spells hit, defending the both of them. The red one fired off a spell, before using her magic to fly and engaging him in the sky. They tussled in the air, before the queen had him outmaneveured and bit his wing, lashing out, he hit her in the chest breaking past her ribcage and destroying the useless organs inside. She dropped him to the floor, knocking him out and pinning him by his wing, while the other one repaired the red queen's abdomen.

"We must preserve ourselves sister, it would not do well for you to lose your stomach before we are made whole again." The ribs slotted back into place and the carapace was sealed up once again.

"Thank you, sister. I shall endeavour to not spill my guts along the floor again." She turned to Helix, who was still pinned. "Now, what shall we do with you, worm?"

I was sat at the top of the stairs, mustering as much mana as I could. One of the ponies piped up, "How long is left? He seems to be in a rather critical condition."

"Gimme a min." I lined up the shot. I tried to condense as much fire into a single spot as possible, giving me a single grape sized ball of fire, glowing intensely enough that it obscured my heat sensing ability. After making sure I was on target, I let it loose, a small ping echoing through the room.

The room was silent for a second, the red one pinning Helix down slackened before dropping onto her side.

The blue one whispered, "Marzen-cahb? Sister? Are you alright?" She poked the red queen, noticing a small grape sized hole going straight through her head.

"What!? Where..?" She noticed me, blasting me before I could fire off another shot.

"Shit," I turned to the 3 Unicorns. "Get everyone out of here. I'll handle the bug."
She blasted me again, destroying the short wall we had been hiding behind and knocking me away. "Go!" I told them, thry teleported to the centre of the room, charging up a mass teleport spell, the three of them would need a while, but I could hold her off.

"Filth, I shall destroy you for harming her!" She charged up her horn, so i used one of the bigger pieces of rubble as cover, the shot skimmed me, injuring my leg. She fired off more shots in quick succession, reducing my cover to rubble. Mustering up dregs of energy, I blinked across the room, she gave chase while I limped away down one of the corridors.

"You cannot run, worm! You stole my only sister, and I will have you begging for death by my hoof!"

"Lady, I don't even know who you are, let alone who your sister is." She grabbed me in telekinesis, trying to pull me back, so I tried to fire off a hotshot again (Yeah, I thought up a name for it just now, fight me), now that she was stationary.

With a quiet pew! I hit her in the chest, crippling her momentarily. While she recovered, I hobbled away as fast as I could.

----

She was still hit on my tracks, I had hid from her a couple of times, using small alcoves in walls to misdirect her for a couple seconds, giving me time to get some mana back in my tiny pool of it. I fucking wish Twilight or someone was here, they'd fucking clap that bitch in a single spell.

A particularly well aimed shot punctured my shoulder, making me double over in pain. The queen snorted grabbing me by my foot in her magical grip. I was too tired to resist, so she started ragdolling me around, before tossing me into the darkness, my body was in agony, she jad broken a lot of things in quick succession and escape didnt seem possible. She grabbed me again throwing me backwards again as the cave opened up into an entrance, I could see the desert past the mouth of the cavern. Jagged stalactites and stalagmites scattered the entrance, appearing like misshapen teeth. I coughed, spluttering up a couple drops of blood.

"You know, you changeling queens aren't very creative. Your other sister, Chrysalis did the exact same thing to me before."

Walking out of the shadows, cyan eyes glowing bright, the blue queen spoke, "Truly? Is she still among the living?" I grimaced.

"Sorry, killed her a while ago. She made quite a nice splat when she hit the ground though."

"Hmph. Irritating vermin, I wanted to do her in myself. Although, it is good to know that she did not pass peacefully." She sauntered up to me, reveling in her assumed victory.

"You three are all as dumb as each other. Look behind you." She looked, so I fired the last bit of mana I had left, hitting her square in the horn, shattering the magical implement.

I was utterly exhausted now, completely unable to move and stuck with a splitting headache.

"It shall take more than that to take me down." The changeling had arisen, eyes full of anger. "I shall destroy you as painfully as is possible. For the hHve! For my sisters! DIE!" She rose on her hindlegs, attempting to trample me underhoof. I clenched my eyes shut, waiting for a blow that never came.

"My oh my, John. You seem to be in trouble." Opening my eyes, I could see the outline of a smug changeling, his left wing torn, but sporting a grin all the same.

A hit of adrenaline coursed through me, allowing me to stand up and fight for the last minite. I yelled out, "Helix, Kill that sket, you fucking melt! She just fucked up my everything." The mare shook her head, recovering from Helix's full body tackle. "I'll fuck you up, bitch! Let's fucking go!" I was fucking pissed.

"This wing will heal, but my pride demands you die." Helix turned to me, "John, I will be without magic for this battle, one of them fractured it while we fought."

The bitch screamed out, "Usurper! Intruder! I will make you pay for what you have done!" She scowled angrily

So, the brawl began.

Immediately the blue queen rushed Helix, trying to take him out. I took up the broken horn like a knife and grabbed onto her rodeo style, driving the horn into her. She growled, throwing me off and leaving her horn embedded in her back. Helix fought back with a buck and she used that frill thing from earlier again, blocking the tremendous blow.

I was trying to see if I could muster a shot up, but my hands lit up with pain when I tried.

I had to get outside and absorb some heat. The cave was still somewhat damp, making it hard to extract anything. My attempt to retreat had her chase after me, Helix was too slow to catch up without his wings so she bit me in the right foot. I yanked my foot free, one of her fangs got pulled off as well. The weak bodies that whoever revived them had conjured weren't helping her in the slightest. I yanked it out, throwing it to the side as Helix held her down. A couple moments was all I needed to charge myself.

Turning back to the cave, the other two were still tearing each other apart. Helix was doing it more literally, as small parts of her body would fall away in response to his kicks. Taking aim, I blasted her with three shots, just as she hit Helix with a full force buck, sending him flying into a stalagmite.

"Your aim is terrible." She rushed me down, tackling me into a wall. I disappeared. The illusion collapsing. "Wha-"

I tapped her on the back of the head, hitting her with a hotshot in the same instant.

"Fuck off." She dropped like a pile of rocks, her eyes dimming and the magic sustaining her wafted out of her body, leaving the cave in silence.

I collapsed, panting and slowly dropping away.

----

"So this is him?" A voice called out, rough and full of anger. He paused for a minute. "He barely even won against those things, pathetic. And I thought you told me he'd be at least somewhat strong?" Again, he paused, as if a conversation was going on that I couldn't hear. "Fine! I'll kill him quickly. Fighting with those two right now isn't in our best interests."

I peeked up, and could see a hooded pony above me. He was gaunt, like he hadn't eaten in years, and his eyes were filled with a soulless yellow glow.

"Stop. I cannot let you do that." Helix called out from across the room, still slumped over the stalagmite.

"Oh? You're still alive. I thought you had done me a favour and already went on to the next life." His horn glowed as he walked towards him. "Don't worry, I won't be keeping you." I opened my eyes fully now that he had turned away, and could see he was stood directly below one of the protrusions from the ceiling. I knew I couldn't accurately hit him in the head yet, but I could certainly drop that on him.

I fired the tiny sound causing his ears to flick. Just as the jagged stone was to hit him, he stopped it, enveloping it in the same rancid yellow glow as before. His horn was still completely dark. How was he using magic?

"Almost got me there, if only I didn't have one of these wonderful little concepts in my head."

"Concepts?"

"Were you ever sharing your head with someone?" My eyes widened. "By that look, I'm guessing I'm on the mark." How did he know? "He was a concept: Destruction. Very old. One of the origins. Along with Creation, they were the first." A black glow, emanated from him, not unlike how Lavan could seep out of me. "This is..."

"Death." A woman's voice, sweet like honey oozed out of the mist.

"She's also quite old. You wouldn't know it, but she was always very fond of humans. It is a shame she could not have talked with you." He frowned. "No matter."

The stalactite was ground into pebbles in short order. A yellow light shone in front of me and it all went white.

Is...is this how it ends?

I looked around, still seeing white.

"John." A voice quietly told me.

"Yes, Who are you? Because if this is God, you've got some fucking explaining to do."

"Look up."

I looked up to see Celestia smiling down on me.

"Celestia? How the fuck did you die?" I asked.

"Enough!" Luna exclaimed to the side of me. "Let us destroy this fiend." She's here as well?

"This was exactly what I was trying to avoid." The necromancer admonished himself. "I take one minute too long and both the fucking princesses AND Destruction show up."

Lavan was sat on top of Celestia, still in a gooey form, but in the shape of a humanoid. "Yo." He waved. "We're gonna have a lot to talk about when this is over, but for now just enjoy the show.

He jumped onto me, healing my wounds and then sitting next to me, his molten appearance causing the rocks to glow red hot. It was pleasantly warm thanks to my resistance to the heat.

"Let us get you out of here, Human John, and King Helix. You have done enough for now." Luna's horn glowed and we were at the Changeling throne room tower. A tremendous blast echoed across the desert as searing flame and light turned a section of the desert into glass. Then a sickly yellow bolt of similar size screamed out as it travelled towards the Hive, dissipating as it was blocked by a massive navy blue shield of magic.

"It seems the princesses have arrived." The Changeling coughed, limping into the throne room. "Tell me when they are done pummeling that irritating little abomination."

I leaned forward on the hand rail and watched the battle properly unfold.

Comments

[Detsella Morningdew]

Chapter is fun as always, and didn't play out how I thought, which is nice. This story always has a habit of surprising me.

[Classy Fox]

one of them, the wingless blue one, seemed to have some kind of frills on her neck, which flared out as Helix's spells hit

I’m now imagining a dilophosaurus changeling.

[Gravity012]

9786321
Yes

Just shove meat in her mouth until she is tamed John!!!