"Gah, what just happened?" I mentally asked myself, I could feel pain. Just sheer amounts of agony riddled across my body. This sort of inconvenience seems to occur rather frequently for me.

Ah yes, I shot Cadance, that pink alicorn bastard, in the leg, which in turn, caused the Crystal Heart replica to promptly explode, which resulted in both of us getting rendered unconscious due to the blast itself.

The blast that the Heart discharged was immensely powerful, I'm surprised that I'm still breathing. Albeit reluctant, I arose from the floor. Of course, the tower's interior was almost completely decimated. I was half expecting this place to be reduced to cinders.

I looked around my surroundings, feebly trying to rise up, my two roaches, or at least their burning corpses, were charred to death by the blast, how the explosion didn't kill me is a mystery.

To the left of the room was the pink bastard, who was she again? Oh of course, Cadance. Her usually bright pink fur was charred black slightly, ashes are visibly scattered across her body.

She laid on the floor, unconscious, her horn was shattered; a jagged stump replaced it. She was still alive and breathing,
so she was still relatively fine, although, I can't exactly say something similar to her appearance.

Her usually bright pink coat was slightly charred, spots of it was blackened due to the explosion. Her mane as well was disheveled to a very extreme degree.

Oh, and the bolt that struck her leg was still there, of course it's still there, where the hell would it go?

There was an alarming out of blood gushing out of the wound in her leg, courtesy of the bolt of course.

The more I examined the room further, the more I question on how that blast didn't manage to liquidate me entirely. Hm, I do believe now is the appropriate time for a certain checklist, the checklist for a flawlessly annihilated room-and-slash-or-building, specifically.

The walls? Thoroughly obliterated, areas of the walls were charred just by the intense heat of the blast, most likely. There were even tears scattered throughout the walls, I'm surprised that this tower is still capable of existing.

The ceiling? It was almost entirely non-existent, almost the entire half of the ceiling was absent. Honestly, I have not a single clue why the ceiling is half-way to utter obliteration.

The Crystal Heart imitation was no longer present, it probably disintegrated subsequently to the explosion. Not really much of a surprise really.

I limped around the ravaged flooring of the tower, it took much effort, considering that I'm in utter agony right now. In order to compensate the lack of mobility due to my current state of pure agony, I placed my left hand on the wall for support.

Thankfully, the pain was starting to diminish, in terms of intensity of anguish. With a pained ground, I began walking towards the window, you know, for a breathe of fresh air.

Mid-way to the window, I could hear it, the familiar, yet still foreign and horrifying sounds of agonized screams and shrieks of zerg. Peculiarly, I was unable to hear any equine screams.

I shambled my way to the nearest window to take a glance on what the hell is exactly is happening outside of the walls of this tower. Finally, I made my way to the window.

What I am currently seeing is overwhelming me with astonishment and confusion.

My own zerg forces are clashing with each other. Yes, my own army is killing it self, "Dammit, whatever that blast did must have... I dunno, made my zerg pissed off." I bitterly muttered.

With angst, I withdrew the book from my robes, "That shock-wave must have disrupted the psionic link me and the zerg shares..." I thought before flipping to the page detailing the Zerg.

Of course, with the psionic link absent, the Hive located within the Everfree would be leaderless as well, simply feral. And of course, the book's un-summon range doesn't reach all the way to the Hive.

Dammit, only way to resolve this is to tear the page out. I thought.

This is really a shame, to just rip the page from this book. But if they're killing themselves, I'm quite certain that they'd kill me as well.

Reluctantly, I gripped the page documenting the zerg, and pulled it apart from the book, severing the particular page. A feeling of slight guilt lingered within my mind for a short amount of time.

Through the window, I could see the zerg entities being engulfed by a red light, they then proceed to emit a bright, red flash, after the bright light dissipated, they are nowhere to be seen.

I'm not certain about the captured equines, they were probably massacred by the frenzied zerg forces. I highly doubt if there were any survivors in this... massacre.

Ponyville, or at the very least, the remnants of Ponyville was now completely abandoned. I assumed that the equines retreated, considering that the tower containing the Heart exploded violently.

Much to my disgust, the whole town was littered with corpses, equines and gryphons alike, something like this would've made me feel extreme amounts of contempt towards myself, but this time, I didn't really feel it, it was still present, but it wasn't as potent.

Oh hell, am I getting accustomed to this already?

I shrugged at the thought as I turned towards the unconscious body of the pink alicorn. Unnecessary to point out, but the bolt lodged into her foreleg is something that is quite... problematic.

This is quite the predicament that I've involved myself in. Of course, I can't just simply remove the bolt from her leg, she would probably regain consciousness, obviously. But then again, I can't simply leave the bolt lodged within her leg.

And if she does manage to recover her consciousness, she will most likely assault me, with probably the intention of murdering me. Hm, so if that happens, then so be it, I have this cross-bow after all-

"Oh wait, I don't actually have it with me right now," I said to myself mentally as I noticed that the aforementioned ranged weapon was not within my possession.

I scanned the room completely, and there was nothing here, save for the exception of debris and the glistening fragments of the destroyed Heart.

"Dammit, I must have lost it when the explosion occurred," I thought to myself with agitation, "No matter, I still have this damned book," I said to myself.

With a sigh, I opened the book to a blank page... just to close it almost immediately, "Dammit, this room is way too confined, it's definitely unwise to open a rift here." I said to myself. I'd have to go outside to summon, there's just not a sufficient amount of space in here.

Just then, I heard hoof-steps originating from the stairway leading into this room. Panic surged through my mind, I'm completely vulnerable here, I've not a single method of defense, currently.

My eyes darted through the room, perhaps I can possibly conceal myself? After thoroughly examining room for somewhere to hide myself in, I was disappointed when the ruined room didn't exactly offered any viable spots to hide in.

Finally, the being emerged from the staircases, and it wasn't exactly an equine, it was something that I dreaded much more; Queen Chrysalis.

"Chrysalis? How did you possibly avoid all of those marauding, frenzied zerg forces?" I asked in genuine bewilderment.

"Ha, as if your little legion of monstrosities can possibly scathe a changeling well-versed in stealth in the slightest." she boasted, "I actually assumed that my capabilities in stealth were diminishing due to entropy."

I rolled my eyes in bemusement, "Hm, the fact that my zerg were far too extremely occupied fighting themselves might also have contributed to your success of slipping pass through them."

"Believe whatever you deem believable, but, it seems that you're now susceptible to actually being dispatched, considering you have no guardians around you to protect your frail limbs," she notified in a smug manner.

"Frail? Well, in my defense, I managed to fend off my assailant, Princess Luna, in a fair, one-on-one battle. And if I may remark, it is a milestone that I am quite prideful of." I responded.

But of course, I am aware that she was not in her most threatening during our encounter in those ghastly caves. If she was in her most devastating state, I would have not been able to flee from that certain plight alive.

I can only imagine what she would've done, should she possess the zenith of her power during our little bout. I assume she would've caused complete ruination on the cave, thus, collapsing the damn thing on me, which in turn, entails my death.

"Hm, the concept of you lasting a duel between her, and avoiding death for more than ten seconds alone is inconceivable," she turns her attention to the unconscious Cadance with a sly grin, "But, it seems that you are capable of actually surviving combat after all."

"Oh, right, her. It was more of an instinctive reaction that caused me to lodge that bolt into her leg," I pointed at the aforementioned bolt skewered within her leg.

"Mind lending me your aid? I'm in a confounding predicament right now, I'm not certain if I should just wrench the accursed thing out or I should just-"

Despite Chrysalis merely a few steps away from me, I failed to noticed that her horn, along with the bolt impaled into the alicorn's leg was glowing a familiar, distinct green aura. For further details, it was Chrysalis' aura.

With a telekinetic pull, the bolt was dislodged from the alicorn's leg. Apparently, the alicorn was fortunately not in a coma, as she woke up, most likely from the incomprehensible amounts of agony she must be feeling right now, from her slumbering state with an impressively deafening scream.

To precisely describe my reaction at the sudden predicament that I was just flung into, it harbored much resemblance to seeing someone falling off a cliff, while bursting into flames.

For simplicity's sake, I simply recoiled back in bitter disbelief.

Of course, once the alicorn ceased her glass-shattering shrieking, she attempted to nurse the offending wound by applying pressure on it with her hooves. I'm quite certain that this was unneeded to be spoken, but she appears to be in immense anguish.

I would've most likely said something along the lines of "Holy shit, the hell bloody hell were you thinking!" but I was simply too fazed at the moment.

With nothing more than a triumphant smirk, Chrysalis turned to face me, "So, will you be the one who finishes her off, or will I do it for you?" She said, barely audible, which is quite pointless; I doubt that the alicorn currently in mind-numbing pain on the floor is capable of hearing this conversation.

I simply don't know what is more unbelievable, the question she is inquiring me, or the fact that she just yanked that bolt out of her leg with little, or none at all, hesitation.

"What! Are you insane? What you're suggesting is probably going to result poorly for the both of us, and by that I mean that the death of one of their royalties will prompt the locals here to be even more enraged at me!" I replied.

She looks at me with a disconcerted look, "Oh, so what now? You can't possibly be suggesting of allowing her to live. That will just simply increase, if not multiply, the probability of them attempting to hunt you down out of vengeance for their comrades you just slaughtered."

I shrugged, "That is irrelevant, if they discover that we killed her, the chance of a relentless pursuit for my head will still be alarmingly high." I stated.

Without even a single warning, the pink alicorn limped as fast as possible after the stairs. Chrysalis responded with a ray of her magic, or possibly her love-energy, or whatever, I'm not exactly certain what changelings use as a method of assault.

However, the bolt missed its intentional target as it simply struck the already weakened wall behind the alicorn, the beam pierced through the wall, which surprisingly, left a very large imprint on the wall in the form of a really sizable hole.

Chrysalis muttered an inaudible curse due to her failure to strike her quarry down, but before she bolted down the stairs to hunt down her prey, I prevented her from doing such.

"Stop, let's allow her to keep breathing for now," I said as I retrieved the book from my singed robes, "I really don't want to piss off the ponies further."

Before she could protest, I added, "Yes, I am being quite lenient, but, the next time we see her in a battle, we'll kill her. I think I'm done being constantly hunted down."

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the slight delay of this chapter, I've been occupied with certain things, and the fact that there was a six hour long power outage, and another power outage the following day, didn't really help the development of this chapter.

And yes, I am deprived for clever names for chapters, how did you know?

Oh, and of course, the highly demanded merciless killing is arriving soon...

---

Pre-readers: