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Starlight in a Broken Vessel

by the-pieman

Chapter 22

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Chapter 22

It’s dark, my head pounding, much like my first day here in Equestria. How long has it been since I blacked out? I don’t know. I feel floaty, but tight. I realize I’m restricted. I hate being restricted. I Spark up and Ignite, flames engulfing me, fueled by my anger.

I don’t know what’s holding me, but I can feel it give. I push outward with my arms, pushing through... some kind of membrane? Strange. Anyway, the floaty feeling is explained as I start to fall. I was suspended. I fall to the ground. I can’t tell what material I’m standing on. It’s tough, but doesn’t quite feel like stone, and it’s not dirt or grass... how odd.

Suddenly I see a pair of blue glowing eyes staring at me. Then more eyes open. Ten, Twenty, Fifty, hundreds of glowing blue, pupiless eyes open all around me. I hear the creatures hissing, and then it lights up. There are thousands upon thousands of the strangest creatures I’ve seen thus far. They resemble ponies, but black chitinous armor replaces coats of fur and they have a strange frill as opposed to manes. Sharp, curved horns protrude from their foreheads, and insectoid wings sprout from their backs. They have long, menacing fangs, and they hiss at me like reptiles.

“What the hell?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, they all swarm me.

I feel pain as their fangs sink into my skin, cutting me. I’m probably bleeding. I’m not going to go down like this. I swing at one of the creatures, knocking it back. I summon some coal from my pouch and make myself a buckler like before. I block a creature as it lunges at me, and use the buckler to knock back a pair who were advancing from the left. I decide to pull a Captain America and toss the shield, using my manipulative power to control it’s flight. I then change it to a spiked ball and set it ablaze, spinning it around me, making the monsters back off. Unfortunately I leave my top open, and I’m tackled by a diving strike. I lose focus and I mentally drop the coal. I don’t know where it went. Shit.

“Fine, you wanna be that way!?” I shout as I Spark up. I decide now would be a good chance to try something new. I focus on increasing my speed, but not in my legs. My fists are blue blurs as I throw punch after punch after punch. I leap from creature to creature, hardly pausing as I smash my fists into their heads, hearing cracks as I break their chitin. I pick up one of them and start swinging it around like a weapon, ending it by smashing it’s spine over my knee.

Another tries to divebomb me, but I turn intangible. He flies straight through my body, headfirst into the ground, where I curbstomp his neck, snapping it in two. I ignite and surround myself in a blazing inferno, making the creatures hiss at the bright light. I kick the head of my latest victim like a soccer ball at another, knocking my target over, slamming it into two more behind it.

Nobody takes me down without a serious fight.

Then they bunch up into a wall and all charge at me at once. I do the same, my body becoming a flaming meteor as I rush forward, my charging strike smashing through a chunk of the living wall. I continue my freeflow, blazing fists and feet smashing bodies and launching creatures in every direction. After a while, there’s one left. It tries to scamper away. No. Nobody runs. Nobody makes it out alive.

I blaze forward, running through him and grabbing him by his midsection. With an angry shout, I tear the thing’s body in half and hold his head in my hand, immolating it in fire until it crumbles to ash.

I stand above thousands of them, all dead, littering the ground. I can see a blurry reflection of myself in a piece of shiny chitin. I look like a flaming warlord, standing on the burning, smashed bodies of my enemies, covered in a mixture of my blood and theirs, red and green combining to make a sick, soupy brown mixture.

I hear a sound. It’s... clapping?

“Impressive. Very impressive.” The voice is feminine and a bit melodic, but has a noticeable hint of malevolence in it. “Not only did you manage to break free, but also take out a remarkable portion of my swarm.”

I see her. She resembles the creatures from earlier, but she is about as big as Princess Celestia. Maybe a bit taller. Her hair is long and a dark green. A gnarled, twisted black horn rising between her eyes, stunning pools of green, with pupils like a cat. I black out again.


I’m resting on something soft. Too tired to open my eyes. Oh well, I’m comfortable and warm. I can rest easy. Wait... I feel a strange sensation in my head. A tingling. Like... magic. I sit up in an instant and look around. I see the large mare-creature from before.

“Who are you?”

“Hmmm, you are quite demanding, aren’t you? I suppose there’s no harm in obliging you. I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.”

“Changelings? You mean those things from earlier.” She nods serenely.

“I hate to disappoint you, but your subjects are pathetic.”

“Oh, don’t underestimate them. They were hungry. They haven’t eaten in weeks.”

“Eaten?”

“Our species feeds on emotions. Love specifically.”

“And I’m here because...?”

“Normally we capture ponies and use them to feed, but you are... special. You are quite powerful.”

“Yeah, I know, so why am I here? Where is this anyway?”

She chuckles. The melodic tone of her voice is... rather soothing. “You are in my private chambers. You are here because I have a proposal for you.”

“Would your proposal have to do with that spell you were using on me earlier?”

“Oh no, not at all. I was just searching your mind. It’s quite the interesting place.”

“What were you searching for?” My eyes narrow in anger.

“Oh, I just wanted to get to know what and who you were, and you were in a practically comatose state.”

I am too tired for a fight. “So.” I flop down onto the bed, hands behind my head. “Why’d you bring me here?”

“I’ve never met anyone quite like you. You fascinate me.”

“And?”

“I was hoping you could... help us. You see, my subjects are starving to death. Without love to feed on, we will all surely perish.”

“How could I help you?”

“Well, normally we rely on espionage- Is something funny?”

I stop laughing after a few moments. “I’m sorry but... spying? your subjects don’t blend in too well with the general public.”

She grins. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that...”

In a flash of green flames, suddenly I’m laying in front of Princess Celestia! Another wave of fire, now it’s Luna. Then Twilight. Then a whole bunch of ponies I’ve never seen. Mares, stallions, colts, fillies, unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies. Suddenly the name struck me. “Changelings.”

Chrysalis returned to her normal form and nodded with a smile. “You understand now. We cannot be accepted because of the way we look, so in order to be loved, we need to take the guise of others.”

I’ve never been a fan of racism, and this does seem unfair to make them starve...

“So what would I do if I were to help?”

“You would be a leader. No more would we have to sneak around like thieving rats, we could be ourselves out in the open. A living formed from lies and deceit is not an honorable one, but it is the one we are forced to continue upholding.”

“I see. And what would I gain from this?”

“...follow me.”

She takes me out to a balcony. I see a mass of the changelings. far too many to count. As soon as Chrysalis shows herself, they all stand up straight, frozen, waiting for a declaration. “They seem to respect you.”

“Unfortunately they are brainless, mere pawns, sentries. I lead them as their queen and they obey without question.”

“Hmmm...”

“So, I would like to appoint you as another leader. To give them direction. Give them orders as you see fit.”

“You want to make me a general for your troops?”

She chuckles again. I swear, that laugh is so... enticing, yet imposing. “Oh no my dear. Nothing like that.”

“Then what-”

“I want to make you my king.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 23 Estimated time remaining: 31 Hours, 56 Minutes

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