The announcer continued talking. “We are lucky tonight and will have over seventy fights for you all to enjoy. And now what you have all been waiting for the fights shall begin. Release the first two competitors.”

“Well good luck out there. Don’t strain yourself too much you will have to survive until the very end of this. Your wing will be dropped in about fifty fights in. Watch your back a lot of these ponies were promised freedom if they won.” Thorax pushed me into the arena.

“Alright fifty fights using nothing but my hooves and empatha. I’ve been trained to fight like this. Kill them quickly and with no mercy.” I was really not looking forward to killing all of these innocent ponies.

A gate opened on the other side of the arena and a large stallion trotted in. He was covered in scars that I could only guess were caused by multiple stab wounds. He spotted me and dragged a hoof across his throat.

“Well it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t have to test my strength on a few of them.” I began galloping full speed at the stallion.

The stallion stood there watching as I approached. He took a battle stance a few seconds before I was on top of him. The stallion threw one of his hooves at me and missed just barely as I jumped over it.

I landed on his back and unleashed a single hoof into his skull. The stallion toppled below me collapsing into a heaving mess. I jumped away from him and looked to the crowd.

All of the changelings focused on me waiting for me to put an end to the miserable stallion. A few hooves were raised and as I watched on they were slammed to the stands.

I nodded and turned back to the stallion. “I’m sorry about this friend, but in the end only one of us can make it out of here alive.” I reared back and brought both of my front hooves down onto the stallion's skull.

The crowded roared for me to continue. I knew I had to keep this all interesting if I wanted to escape this place and live. I brought my hooves down upon the stallion’s skull until the only thing left was a puddle of brains, blood, and little bone fragments.

A hush slowly fell over the crowd.

The announcer returned. “Well folks that was entertaining but how about we turn up the challenge. An alicorn will find no challenge in defeating one worthless opponent. So how about we try two?”

Two gates swung open and two more ponies charged me. To my right a pegasus mare and to my left a unicorn stallion. Fortunately the unicorns were being regulated and I wasn’t the only one without my magic.

The two stopped well out of reach and started circling me. It was obvious that they had a plan to deal with me. This maneuver had been practiced many times before. They both stopped and the pegasus jumped at me first.

I ducked under her and threw one of my hooves into her gut sending her towards the ceiling. I spun around just in time to catch the unicorn's hoof with my side. I faltered a few steps before throwing a small fireball at the stallion.

The stallion caught fire and started rolling around to put himself out. I trotted over and gave one quick stomp to his skull to cease his movements. I heard him moan. I planted another hoof down on his skull to put him out of his misery.

“You son of a bitch.” The mare dragged me off the ground and into the air.

She had a much stronger grasp than I had anticipated. I struggled for a few seconds before I broke free of the mare’s grasp.

I remembered about halfway to the ground that my left wing was not going to allow me to fly easily. I looked to the ground and started flapping my wings. My efforts slowed my descent but wouldn’t allow me to land without injury.

The mare hit me from the side trying to throw me into the air. This time I rammed one of my hooves into her wing shattering a few of the bones. I waited for a few seconds before breaking free.

The ground was much closer now and as I flapped my wings I knew I would escape this unscathed. I watched the mare hit the ground below my hooves. The impact shattered a few of her bones and left her in complete agony.

With what little time I had in the air I maneuvered over her. I pulled my wings back to my sides and dropped down with one hoof onto the mare’s skull. Her skull did not complete evaporate but it did cave in enough that I knew she was dead.

The crowd did not erupt with joy. I looked around as many stared at me. A look of hatred filled their eyes.

“Well I half expected Silver to take a bit more damage than that. I suppose that we will just have to raise the stakes and make this a lot more interesting.” The announcer himself sounded pissed.

Five gates opened and five new challengers trotted into the arena. I looked up as barrels descended from the roof and were held twenty feet above the arena floor. I looked back down to the ponies who were already at eachothers throats.

I watched as one of mares ripped out the throat of the stallion on top of her. Blood splattered across the ground and onto her face. I watched as she returned to her hooves. I would have been scared if she weren't clutching at her side.

The other group had fought until the stallion crushed the windpipe of the mare he was fighting. Both of the remaining ponies looked at me knowing that I was their number one priority.

I looked up to the barrels and waited. The stallion was the first to step under a barrel. I threw a fireball at the barrel.

The stallion laughed. “If that is the best you can do with your aim then I might as well stand still and let you try again.”

I smiled and threw a fireball at the barrel nearest the mare. The barrel above the stallion exploded in fire. The stallion watched as the barrel fell apart and acid dropped in a sheet down towards him.

“Shit.” The stallion took the full force of the acid. He fell to the floor screaming in agony.

The mare had taken advantage of my distraction to grab the gear dropped by the other barrel. I turned to her just as she finished loading a small pistol. I galloped towards her.

I rolled to my right as the hammer on the gun fell firing a bullet at me. I jumped to my hooves and continued forward. I cast glances towards the hanging barrels. I continued galloping and dodging as necessary until the mare finally needed to reload.

I made a sharp turn throwing myself at the mare. She had grabbed a knife and was prepared to ram it into my guts as I flew over her. I dropped to the ground and smashed one of my hooves into her muzzle. The knife fell out of her mouth as she took a few steps backwards. I grabbed the knife and slammed it into the mare’s skull.

“Wait. I thought five ponies were forced into here.” I looked around. I looked up to see one of the barrels swinging. The chain shattered sending the barrel and a small stallion to the floor.

The barrel shattered open and I immediately saw what I wanted. My wing had found it’s way into one of the barrels early on. I galloped towards it not seeing the stallion preparing to ambush me.

I grabbed ahold of my wing only to receive a sharp pain in my gut. The little stallion had a knife held in his teeth. It was dripping with my blood. I slammed one hoof into the stallion sending him to the floor.

I got to my hooves and trotted over to the downed stallion. “You know just for stabbing me I think I’ll kill you slow.” I pushed a hoof down onto his throat. I slowly pushed down harder until I heard a snap. “And just to be sure.” I reared back and slammed my hooves down into the stallion’s skull.

I sat down and put on my wing without using my magic. The idiots who trapped me in here didn’t check to make sure I still had both rings on my horn. I stood up and flipped my wings out. I gave a few practice swings with my wing to make sure I had everything on right. I was satisfied with my work and trotted back to the center of the arena.

“Well folks our newest champion is injured. Will anypony throw him a healing potion?” The announcer waited for a few seconds. “Wait. Did somepony actually throw him a healing potion?”

I looked around until I saw a small glass window. My friends sat behind it watching me as I fought. Midnight had dropped a health potion out the window and was waving me over.

I trotted over as fast as I could. When I eventually got there Midnight had closed the window. I grabbed the potion and drank about half of it. The stab wound started healing slowly. I kept the other half of the potion right below the window.

“Well I don’t know about you but I think this is rather dull. How about we send in the rest of the slaves and watch an actual fight to the death?” The announcer cut out.

The crowd of changelings roared at the idea. They wanted to see me die in this arena one way or another. The gates were opened and ponies started spilling in. I stood and watched as well over one hundred spilled in and began fighting.

“Well shit. I guess know is as good a time as any. You ready old pal.” I flapped my left wing a few times.

Some of those that weren’t currently engaged in combat saw me standing in place like an idiot and charged at me. They had cleared most of the distance by the time I looked up.

I flipped my wing forward sending a knife into the closest ponies throat. The stallion erupted into flames not making a sound. I had punctured his windpipe leaving him without air. I took a few moments to prepare myself for the three that would arrive almost simultaneously.

Two of the three made themselves easy targets as they jumped into the air at me. One swipe with my bladed wing left them bleeding to death with three inch deep gashes across their chests. The third had managed to sneak around me as I cut his friends down.

The stallion held a large knife in his teeth and was preparing to stab me. The window behind him opened up and a hoof hit the knife out of his mouth.

“Why don’t we just jump out there and help him?” I heard Harmony and spun around to see the open window.

“We aren’t highly skilled fighters. If not that then I’m pretty sure helping anypony in one of these fights is not going to be a check mark of approval on our scorecard.” Onyx peeked his head out the window. “Good luck.”

I smiled and put my wing on the downed stallion’s throat. The look of fear in his eyes told me even though he was a skilled fighter that he only wanted freedom. I separated his head from his wretched shoulders and trotted off towards the action.

Many of those who had been forced in here had immediately picked fights so they could avoid fighting a battle they could not win. Corpses littered the floor, most with small stab wounds and others with parts of them ripped off. As I trotted along I killed two ponies who charged me. I stopped when I was twenty feet away from the bloodbath that these ponies were creating.

The fighting stopped as they looked to me. Each group parted ways and stood facing me. Their eyes were filled with malicious intent. One mare stepped forward.

“We’ve been waiting for you.” The mare shapeshifted. “Now we all get to kill you.”

The group behind her all started to shift. Most of the ponies in this arena were changelings who had a bone to pick. None of the unicorns among them had loadstone rings.

I thought of the one thing that always helped in a situation like this. I flipped my wing sending every knife that I had left hurtling towards any and all of the changelings. Four burst into flames immediately but held their ground so they wouldn’t light any of the others on fire.

They all stepped forward as one. Each step they got closer I knew was one step closer to my death. I took steps backwards until I hit a wall. I looked to my right to see an open window.

I looked around for my friends but did not see them. I watched as the changeling horde drew closer to me. I looked around again for my friends but nopony was there.

“Hey you changeling bastards let’s see how you like this!” Onyx was up above the horde opening up one of the barrels.

The barrel opened and a sea of acid spilled down towards the changelings. It was too late for those in the middle as they looked up to see acid rain down upon them. I jumped into the air flying towards Onyx.

“What are you doing in here? You could be killed or worse.” I looked into his eyes.

His eyes were filled with a mixture of sorrow and happiness. “I sat by and waited for long enough. I wasn’t going to let a friend of mine be overpowered and killed by a group of these filthy bugs.” Onyx held out a hoof.

I put one out accepting his apology. “So where are the others?” I looked down to the ground to see them waging war upon the horde.

“You tell me.” Onyx smiled. “Now let’s get that stupid ring off your horn.” Onyx moved forward and slipped the loadstone ring off my horn.

“Thanks but I won’t be able to do much magic with this stupid crack in my horn.” I tapped on my horn a few times sending surges of pain through my body.

“Well we don’t need you to. You’ve got your wing and your empatha so I think we’ve got all we need.” Onyx smiled as he dropped towards the ground.

I followed not too far behind landing in the center of all the chaos. Midnight and Harmony fought back to back tearing through the changelings as they attacked. Demo, Onyx, and Stone were all separated and fighting from the outside in. As I stood and watched the chaos a feeling I hadn’t felt in years came rushing back. I felt alive in the thrill of battle.

I let my instincts take control of my body like they once had. A shade of red tinted everything around me as my body took over. I lifted my wing and charged the first changeling I saw.

The changeling turned in times to see my eyes as my wing cut through his body repeatedly. I hit him repeatedly with the full of my blade driving it deeper and deeper until the changeling was a pile of body parts bleeding everywhere.

I continued into the depths of the chaos striking out at anything I didn’t recognize as a friend. The next changeling was a unicorn mare. She did not turn as I approached. She only reacted after I rammed my blade through her spine.

She opened her mouth but the only thing that escaped was a ear piercing shriek as I rotated around her cutting her almost perfectly in half. I put one last slash towards the changeling silencing her shrieking.

I looked for my friends. They were all cornered by a large portion of the changelings. The red haze over my eyes grew darker and my field of vision narrowed. I charged forward leaving the changelings who had surrounded me spinning.

I spun in the air as I passed over the changelings allowing my blade three or four slices for the changelings I flew over. I skidded to a stop next to my friends. We watched as the changelings lingered for a second before falling to pieces.

The red haze faded. “Are you all okay?” I kept my eyes pinned on the changelings.

“Yeah we are. Thanks for saving us.” Midnight stepped forward to my side.

Harmony stepped over to my left side while Onyx and Demo hovered over me. Stone trotted up next to Midnight shying away from me.

I looked around as the changelings regrouped for a final assault. “Well don’t thank me just yet. We still have to survive this and whatever Thorax and Chrysalis try to put us through.” I got back into my battle stance.

“Enough! I want this to be put to an end. Call back the horde and send it in.” Chrysalis’ voice sounded loud enough to deafen me for a second.

The changeling horde scattered towards the gates leaving us. The barrels overhead retracted until they were almost touching the ceiling. I watched as a large gate at the far end of the arena opened.

A suit of power armor stepped out of the gate. The suit was over triple the height of an average stallion. Twin miniguns were strapped to it’s sides with a rocket launcher positioned on it’s back.

“Witness the greatest warrior ever birthed from a changeling hive. He has survived countless run ins with fully grown manticores and walked away without a scratch. You stand before him as ants and you will be killed like you were a harmless bug. Good riddance you foals.” The speaker dropped silent and was replaced by the thudding of hooves.

I looked to my friends to see what kind of gear they had. To my surprise most of them had the weapons they had before we were captured.

“How did you get all your weapons back?” I kept one eye on the giant.

“Thorax has been dumping our weapons in using the barrels. He wants us to live but if he let’s us live we can’t kill Chrysalis.” Midnight drew out the revolver Spitfire had given her.

“Why exactly can’t we kill her? We have almost all of our weapons and gear.” I watched as the giant took a step forward.

The earth shook when the stallion’s hoof hit the floor.
“If she dies the whole wasteland could be thrown into chaos by these changelings. We can’t let the wasteland become worse. We are fighting to make it better.” Midnight fired a shot towards the armored giant.

The bullet pierced the armor but seemed to have little effect on the giant inside. Midnight pulled the trigger again and this time the giant roared in pain. The miniguns started to spin up as the giant turned towards us.

I started trying to use my magic. I was able to pull enough mana to use a weak shield but the pain in my horn was unbearable. I held the shield as the miniguns started to unloaded upon it. We waited for what seemed like eternity before the miniguns stopped firing. I dropped the shield and my friends charged forward.

Midnight’s POV

I shied away from the shield as the miniguns spun up. I kept my gun trained on the giant standing before me.

After ten seconds the miniguns stopped firing. I hoped they were out of ammo as Silver and his shield fell. I stayed back for one second before charging forward drawing out the fifty cal.

I got as close as I could to the giant and unloaded both of my guns into the armor’s underbelly.

The pony inside reared back in pain and brought his hooves down towards where I was standing. I rolled to the right just as the giant’s hooves came down upon the ground.

I reloaded both guns simultaneously. “Would you die already.”

Onyx and Demo were doing great at distracting the giant by hitting it at random with their hooves.

The giant swung slowly but that didn’t mean they were safe. I watched as Onyx got scraped mid flight. He spun out of control and slammed into the ground halfway across the arena.

That one action was enough to break me. I put both of my guns directly up to the giant’s helmet and unloaded. “Die you son of a bitch!” I stopped when my revolver stopped firing.

The giant staggered for a few seconds. He shook his head and fired off a single rocket towards where Onyx was.

Harmony grabbed ahold of Onyx and dragged him out of the way of the explosion.

After firing the rocket the giant slammed down to the ground bleeding from the numerous bullet holes in the armor.
I reached out with my magic and ripped the helmet off of the armor. The changeling stallion inside gave me a simple look. He knew that he was going to die and hoped that I would make it quick on him.

I put the muzzle of my fifty between his eyes. “You deserve a slow death after what you’ve done.” A dark grin crossed my face. “But I’ll put you down quickly.”

I pulled the trigger once and left the changeling.

Silver’s POV

I was in and out of consciousness. I heard my friends fighting the giant. I heard the gunfire stop and a large thud take it’s place. Midnight came and shook me until I woke up.

“Hey Silver. It’s good to see that you’re alive. We had to kill that stupid thing while you slept. Now get up.” Midnight pulled me to my hooves.

“What! They killed the gigalith! How in the buck did they do that?” The speaker was blown out by Chrysalis’ pure rage.

“Well that made my day. So now what?” I looked around.

Most of my friends were untouched. Onyx had a few holes in his wings. Demo was sitting next to him trying to get him to drink the last of the health potion.

The behemoth of a creature lay still on the ground in a puddle of it’s own blood. My friends had pulled off the helmet of the gigalith. The armor made up most of the stallion’s size. I was surprised that any bullet we had would actually puncture that stupid things armor.

“So how did you kill it?” I kept looking the gigalith over.

“I used two cylinders of the revolver and ten bullets from the 50 cal. That was enough to drive the thing down but not quite enough to kill it. We had to remove it’s helmet and shoot the stallion in the head.” Midnight turned around when Harmony tapped her on the flank.

“So we’re sure that thing is dead? I really don’t want to go through that again.” Harmony had a hoof on her right shoulder.

“Did you get shot?” Midnight was trying to get Harmony to remove the hoof.

“No I took a small bit of shrapnel after that stupid thing fired a rocket.” Harmony removed the hoof revealing a small chunk of metal.

“Demo if he isn’t going to drink that give it here. Harmony has a piece of shrapnel that is going to cause a fair amount of damage when we remove it.” Midnight waved her hoof at Demo.

“See I told you I didn’t need it. Now go give it to Harmony.” Onyx pushed Demo off of him.

“Fine.” Demo trotted over.

“This might sting a bit but trust me you’ll feel better after we get it out.” Midnight put a hoof on Harmony’s shoulder.

Midnight grabbed ahold of the metal chunk with her magic and yanked it out of Harmony. “Son of a bitch. Buck me.” Harmony would have continued but Midnight shoved the potion into her mouth.

“You’ll thank me after the pain subsides. Now then we need to get out of here.” Midnight looked around.

“That won’t be necessary. You killed my greatest warrior and have earned your place.” Thorax trotted towards us from an open gate.

“Don’t you take one step closer to them or I will kill you myself.” Chrysalis was hovering above us.

Thorax raised his voice so the entire hive could hear. “Listen here. I am the undisputed king of this hive. Not this piece of shit Chrysalis who you call your queen. If you have any problem with this then you can take it up with the barrel of my rifle. I will not have any of you try anything stupid while you are under my rule. And to prove it one of you guards bring me my sword.” Thorax looked to the closest guard.

The guard stood his ground in defiance of Thorax.

“Fine then. Derpy throw me my sword.” Thorax’s horn lit up.

A sword came seemingly out of nowhere. Thorax caught it as it came close to his face. He smiled swinging the sword at the guards head. The guard had no time to react and was left dead on the ground.

“Anypony else want to prove their loyalty to the queen? I really hope not because I will kill every last one of you that dares to defy me. Now to do something I should have done many years ago.” Thorax teleported the sword behind Chrysalis. “When you see cerberus tell him I said hi.” With that Thorax rammed the sword through Chrysalis.

Derpy flew over to us in her full armor.

“Hi derpy how are you doing?” Midnight took a step towards Derpy.

“Stop right there. I have a few things to say to you.”

Midnight stopped where she stood.

“Fuck you. You made me miss the best part of a party that only happens once every one hundred fucking years. I had to come save your stupid ass from this bullshit. Fuck you, and you, and you. Not you Silver you’re cool. But Midnight fuck you, fuck your life, fuck your wife. And lastly fuck all of this.” Derpy fired a shotgun into the air and disappeared.

“I’m not sure whether to be offended or not. She kept saying fuck. Silver any idea what that means?” Midnight sat down a bit confused.

Thorax responded. “Basically that’s a way of cursing when talking to one of the other species she talks to in the pocket worlds. It’s just another way to say buck.” Thorax was slicing Chrysalis’ body to pieces.

“So you know of the pocket worlds. When did Derpy take you there?” I trotted up to Thorax’s side.

“It wasn’t Derpy who took me. I think their names were Lyra and Bon Bon. They like to play pranks on the other displaced and thought I would be the perfect pony to bring to a party. That was the weirdest day of my life. Also ended with the worst damn hangover I’ve ever had. They really do like alcohol at those stupid parties.” Thorax shook his head and went back to slicing up what was left of the former queen’s body.

“So can we leave now?” Midnight stayed a ways back from Thorax.

Thorax rammed his sword through Chrysalis’ head before turning to face us. “Yes you can. I think we have held you here long enough. Go to the armory and grab the rest of your gear and the get out of here. I’ll no doubt have to kill more of these drones who think that I will not lead us to glory.”

“What will you do now?” I stepped towards my friends.

“We will continue to do what we were originally meant to do. With Chrysalis dead we will need less love to feast upon. Many drones will still go out into the wastelands to feed off of the love of other ponies but they will now be ordered to be nonviolent in their means of acquiring it.” Thorax trotted back towards the gate which he entered from.

It finally clicked in Midnight’s head what Derpy had said. “Wow. That was entirely too harsh. What the buck was all of that for. The party couldn’t have been that good.” Midnight’s face was a mixture of confusion and anger.

“Well it might have been but we should probably get out of here before any of the changelings try to kill us.” Harmony was looking around suspiciously.

“They will do nothing of the sort or I will kill them myself. Fear nothing when you stand with me.” Thorax pushed open a door and continued trotting.

We followed along in silence always shifting our gaze around to look for changelings. Thorax pushed open the armory door and we trotted in and shut the door.

“Take what little gear that is still here that belongs to you and leave my hive forever. You have caused enough problems that I have to sort out.” Thorax turned away from us.

Midnight and Harmony trotted over to their power armor and started putting it on. I trotted along the walls looking for any gun that might help us. I stumbled upon a large rifle hanging on the wall. I picked it up with my magic and looked it over.

“Oh you found the gauss rifle. I haven’t used that gun since I got it I think. I blew up a bloatsprite with it. That would have been helpful fighting the gigalith.” Midnight grabbed the gun and looked it over. “You could have it if you want. I really have no use of it. I will warn you that the ammo for it is scarce.” She held the gun out to me.

“I’m not that great of a shot so if I do get a gun it should be one that ammo is plentiful for. So you can keep it.” I put the gun into Midnight’s saddlebags.

Midnight nodded before continuing looking over the armory. Thorax was getting impatient and kept casting glances back towards the door.

Finally Thorax spoke. “You all need to leave now. I have let you stay longer than I should have. My drones grow restless and will soon break in here to kill you.” Thorax trotted over to a different door.

“How do you know these things?” Midnight finished looking for any of her weapons.

“I hear all of their voices in my head. Those that have accepted me as their king are always in contact with me and may tell me whatever they need to. It can be quite annoying sometimes especially when the mares are in heat.” Thorax shuddered. “But in the right situations it is helpful.”

I trotted over to the door and walked out into the light of twilight. The moon was just rising and the sun was setting.

“Hey Midnight what time is it?” I kept my eyes peeled for anything that might be a threat.

“Nine p.m. Monday. Looks like Spitfire wasn’t to worried about us. Suppose we did prove ourselves to be good enough warriors for her liking. Now let’s go home. I want to sit back and relax for a few weeks.” Midnight squeezed by me and trotted in the direction of New Appleloosa.

“Well Thorax if we do see you again I hope that we won’t have to kill each other.” I held out a hoof to Thorax.

“We won’t see each other again, and if we do it will end in one of us being left as a corpse.” Thorax swatted my hoof away.

“Well whatever you say. If we do see each other again I hope you’re ready to go to tartarus for your sins against all of Equestria.” I smiled smugly and trotted out.