A/N: What a day to finish up with this story!
I was at TFCon today, where I met Richard Newman(Cranky Doodle Donkey's voice), John Moschitta Jr., Michael McConnohie and the one and only legend, Peter Cullen: the voice of Optimus Prime!
I even got to hear them do their trademark voices, and they signed my stuff that I brought along. For Peter Cullen and John Moschitta Jr. it was my copy of Transformers: The Movie(AUTOBOTS, ROLL OUT!). For Richard, it was a drawing I did of Cranky for him to sign and he really loved my drawing. It was so good meeting another voice from MLP:FIM just like with Tabitha St. Germain. But do not worry, this early September I will be meeting Tara Strong and I am pretty excited for that as well.
I didn't bring anything for Michael McConnohie to sign, so I just talked with him for a minute about his role as the voice of Tatsu in the 90s Ninja Turtles movies.
Mayhem Fest also rocked as well. I was front row for all four of the bands on the main stage and I happened to wave a ponifed Slayer logo for the members to see. Tom Araya(singer/bassist) noticed the image and laughs then smiles at me. That is not the only time I've had a bassist smile at me.
Review Responses:
sonic3461: Here ya go. Enjoy. :)
Raven 105: Not exactly, but read on and find out.
ctran03931: You're about to find out.
Thrackerzodbrony: I'm writing as quick as I can, but here you go. :)
jvs12: Thank you.
Guest: Thank you for the two reviews. :)
Billykilly: Indeed.
4theworldman: Of course it ain't. It would feel the same way if you were forced to face off in a same situation like that as well.
Guests: Patience.
Twilight's POV
"No!" I could hear myself shouting at the dreadful sight that I saw for whom once my special somepony Brayden was standing there beside the queen of the changelings.
All that the queen of the changelings could do was laugh in that rather dark tone of hers that she always displayed when close to claiming victory on her own part. But, I didn't pay too much attention to her at this point after she revealed my special somepony before us all. He was changed majorly in such a short time… those brown eyes no longer there, all green now just like the changeling queen's eyes. Was it some sort of indoctrination he is going through at the moment?
"Unique, isn't it?" The queen comments to all of us, trotting towards Brayden with the sound of her slimy hooves on the carpet. She places a hoof onto his chin. "You all just wouldn't believe my story on how he randomly stumbles into the Badlands and gets himself captured."
"What did you do to him!?" I can hear Rainbow shout behind me with a tone that I can tell that she was not afraid to begin fighting.
The queen turns her head to look at us again, dropping her hoof from Brayden's chin. "What did I do?" She released a smirk upon her face. "Well, when he told me all about your little break-up… this gave me an opportunity for me to put him into my own hooves and take that to my advantage."
"You monster!" Rarity sounded angry when came trotting beside me to say that to her.
"I'm no monster, I am just doing what is right," The queen said in response. "I was able to use my powers to drain the power of love right out of him which was his affections for Twilight… and the rest of you most likely. Don't think his blade will get him out of the situation though."
"The Song of Order." I stated to her.
"Whatever," She says not even caring about me giving her a correction. "What I used is a powerful dark magic that I ended up collecting a long time ago. It was quite risky to even get my hooves on that sort of power, but it was attracted to the claymore he was holding like no tomorrow. So when one of my workers released the power, it had absorbed itself into the blade, making it more dark and more to my standards. It still works the same, but he will listen to my commands."
"This is your secret weapon to winning this?" Princess Luna says, sounding like she was demanding for the answer to this.
The queen stimulates a chuckle and then says "Of course Princess Luna, if any… this is one of the only ways that I could think of in order to getting whatever I need to have and want. I tried to dominate Equestria before, but with this rarity of a human: It seems like I've won."
"He can still hear us though!" Pinkie Pie says, then becoming a shout in order to get his attention in case he wasn't in complete control of whatever the Queen did to him. "Brayden!"
He totally ignored her way to grab his attention, still having his own eyes on all of us. These eyes of his had a hunger set down on all of us, but I can see that emotion displayed upon his face for that thought. He was angry, so it does explain why he is just holding this glare. I am trying to think of something to do to snap him out of this… but I can't. If only Princess Cadence was here…
"This is so unlike ya Brayden," Applejack says, trotting right past me and standing in front of me on all four hooves, sounding like she holds in some bravery to tell him that he is under the queen's control. "Ah already know that the real Brayden Ah know will never turn his back on y'all of us fer the Changelings at all times! His friends are always with him, like me!"
He moves a few steps from the steps to Princess Celestia's throne. "I do not have friends. The only one for me is the Changeling Queen herself." I heard him say, finally getting out those few words.
What he said to me was breaking my heart inside. I didn't set out some tears yet, but I knew if he was continuing this: it is something that would happen. I can hear the queen make her quick guffaw and trot up right behind him.
"Don't bother trying to tell him things the other way around in your way," The queen said to us. She places the both of her hooves onto his shoulders. "If all other things, I do have some plans ahead with this weapon as well. Once the changeling armies of mine have conquered the majority of Equestria one hoof at a time, I am going to make him the king of the changelings. He may not look like a changeling, but he would lead them really well."
I trotted towards the queen but much faster almost like a gallop but not quite at the same time. "We can tell them off about this! He'll listen us unlike you!" I screamed at her with fury in my voice.
"Temper temper…" The queen comments there after seeing my teeth gritted together and me looking at her in complete rage. "He isn't going to listen to you or your friends. My spell took away his ability to see you guys as close to him. He hates you now, and he will attack you when I command it."
"Enough!" Princess Celestia shouts to her. The queen's head turns to look at Celestia, but I never even turned to see what the co-ruler had to say next. I just kept my eyes right patched onto the queen and for if she had been planning to attack her again, not even looking away. "First you set hoof into Equestria after being told not to come back, and now you're holding a friend hostage to your own needs?"
"Precisely, Celestia," The queen stated, laying her head on top of his. "He'll be what I need to succeed further."
"He'll never be yours you slime!" I can hear Rainbow Dash once again shouting, with the urge to fly at her, but the usual happens and her tail is bit and held onto by Applejack.
"He already is mine." The queen stated and lets out a victorious laugh while letting go of Brayden and trotting up the steps to Celestia's throne.
"As long as his friends are standing, you will never be able to take the throne or Equestria yourself. You make look like royalty yourself," I can hear Nightmare Moon say to her with the sound of her hooves trotting forward to join up beside me. "But you are no doubt as corrupt as anypony would ever be… you probably weren't here when Lord Tirek attacked all of Equestria to steal their magic!"
"Don't know and don't care!" The queen said, putting on a smile that could tell that she didn't really care on what Nightmare was telling her.
The hooves of the rest of my friends are heard trotting up beside me and the princesses by the side of the steps to the throne. Brayden heads up the steps and sheathes the Song of Order out of the cover and holds it close, ready to attack if necessary. No… Brayden, why are you doing this to all of us and yourself to be controlled?
"Don't do this Brayden!" I can hear the soft voice of Fluttershy calling to him as she was frightened and worried about him at the same time.
He coldly turns to look at his closest friend. "Why should I trust you anymore? You all betrayed me, told me that I was no longer wanted in Ponyville. You all sent me into exile." He tells her, and then changes his words to refer to all of us.
"Are you serious? We would never betray you…" Pinkie says sounding worried as well in the condition he was in. "I really don't think you would act this way even at your own parties. You would always look really happy, and it can happen again. You are always the biggest human in Equestria to show that you can party just like all of us."
"You told me that I am quite a party pooper, maybe I shouldn't ever again since you are the one who agreed with your friends to put me into exile," He explained with a bit of anger in his tone starting to rise. "By the look of it, you think your words on parties will make everything feel better?!"
"I just- I'm your friend though…" She responded, sounding very hurt.
"Not anymore, you're not. The only one I need is with the queen and her armies." He coldly states, still having that Song of Order equipped in his hands.
My eyes both catch something on my left side that he doesn't seem to notice yet. It was Nightmare Moon, trying to sneak up onto the stairs. Perhaps in a way to try and snap him out of it; which doesn't seem to be the case because he isn't going to listen to reason.
He finally turns to his right and looks to see Nightmare Moon, the one that he saved coming right before him. He swifts his blade right over slowly with the tip of the sharp and now-dark enchanted blade right at Nightmare Moon's chin. His open mouth shows his teeth gritted together in a fierce quick anger that he displays right there.
"Don't even think that you'll get me out of this!" He shouts at her with such anger in his tone. He's never been like this to any of us before. This is the first time that he had shouted or got angry towards us. He is too blind by the power that the queen gave to him to realize that he is hurting us from the inside.
"Don't plan on such a thing," The queen said, taking her seat at Celestia's throne which does anger all of us including the princess herself. "No kind of words except mine will be able to set him free from what I have put him through to get him to bow before me."
This has to be a dream, but it isn't. If it surely was, then Princess Luna who was standing in the room the whole time would have notified me about it. This is all too real though, even that skin of his looks real. I could place my hoof onto his hand, but I was too unsure about that. He would probably push me away and remember how I broke it off with him.
"Brayden," The queen commands to him. "I have a request in order to have you win the role of the Changeling king from here on…"
"What is it, my queen?" He responds to her with the sound of blank depression filling in the void of his tone. "What is your desire?"
The queen chuckles and says "You are to destroy the six of these ponies, and bring me their heads when you have weakened and defeated them. Twilight Sparkle is of the six, but do not bring harm to the three of these princesses… leave them to me."
He bows before her when he had turned to face her. "It will be done, my queen." He says to her which develops a small cruel smile upon her wicked face. He turns away from her and readies the corrupted Song of Order to use against me and my friends.
"Don't do this!" I can hear Princess Luna begging to him to stop and think clearly about what will happen next between us and him.
"Back off!" He warns, already having the Song of Order in hand, ready to activate at that moment when the green letters carved onto the blade began to shine violently.
The power of the corrupted blade spread throughout him while he was in possession of it yet again, but this time things would be different. From behind his back were ethereal but completely different than wings. It was Changeling wings that had developed behind him with the same ethereal armor that more cruel-looking when he had summoned it. His feet launch him off into the air, ready to strike at any moment.
I turn my head around to the girls. As much as both I and they don't want to fight him, I had to quickly think of a solution to try and snap Brayden out of this. What kind of solution would we find to get the indoctrination out of him though? I do have an idea, but at this rate we don't have an choice but to strike back, but to make sure no permanent harm comes to him.
"Remember," I called out to them. "Don't harm him, we need to make sure he is safe and that we survive this no matter the cost."
"Let's get our friend back!" Rainbow Dash says, flapping her wings and flying up into the air of the throne room, slamming the both of her hooves together.
All of them nod their heads in agreement, and prepare themselves for what is to come in the next few seconds. Fluttershy as usual, is a bit worried and frightened about having to fight him as she has never seen herself as somepony who will assault. Applejack has a rope ready to grab a hold onto Brayden and tie him up when the chance comes.
The queen turns her head towards the position of the princesses to my left and uses her magic from the power of her horn to conjure and cover all four of their hooves in slime so they cannot interfere with the fight between us and him. Not to mention to keep them quiet, she used her magic to slime their faces as well. Though I am a princess myself, she doesn't do the same to me. She knows that she wants to see me suffer and complete her revenge against me.
"Remember all of the bad times you had to suffer through in your life as anger towards them," The queen commands to him with a shout of aggressive amusement. "I'm looking forward to a rather 'bloody' battle ending with your victory! Crush them, use your anger and let it all out on them until they breathe no more!"
Brayden wields the Song of Order up into the air and dives down with a yell of thunderforce towards us, with the flow of aggression building up into his strength. Rainbow backs up and all of us do, though he has his blade set down for the first strike.
I make a jump out of the way, with my wings to give me an assistive push. Brayden lands onto the carpet placing the blade right through a part of it. Having missed the first time, he takes out his blade and growls with fury in his voice.
Rainbow Dash wasn't going to let him attack me though. "Oh no, you don't!" She says. Her wings propel her through the empty throne room, ready to kick him across in a way to knock him down temporarily.
Brayden takes notice of this oncoming attack and is quick enough with the dark singing of the blade in earning to grab her right back hoof tightly and swing her around in many circles, before releasing her and sending her off.
Rainbow is thrown back by this as her wings still propelled her, but couldn't control it over the sharp speed that Brayden was spinning her at. She hits dead onto a pillar, sliding down in a bit of pain while all of us head in to make an offense at Brayden, but more planned carefully. I gallop forward, charging the magic within me to use on him.
I can feel my horn light up and I fire a burst of magic rays right at his face as a distraction. He does a bit of shouting while I am doing this, which seems to work at first… until I saw that angered look upon his face at me. He swings the Song of Order right at me when I don't expect it.
The claymore struck me right near the side, knocking me backwards for bit and creating a cut onto my side of my coat close to my right front leg. I stumble backwards for a bit, mending to the wound he conflicted on me for a brief moment. But I couldn't believe it… he hurt me. He had promised he wouldn't bring harm to me or anypony else. But under the spell of the queen, I don't think he realizes this.
Rarity gallops forward to Brayden with full force and jumps backwards at him with her two back hooves. She bucks him right in the right knee, putting another growl onto him as he is knocked down for a brief moment. He revives quickly and grabs a hold of Rarity, throwing her like a bowling ball towards Applejack.
The both of them were knocked down, with Applejack getting up and using a hoof to help Rarity up and be prepared for another attack. I open up the both of my wings and flap into the air, preparing another spell of offense to use at him. I wasn't angry at him, but I was trying to help him.
He moves a hand towards me, firing a green spell from it to counter with my own. I was holding him there for time while the both of our spells are locked together in a clash. Both of us wouldn't be able to hold them together forever though, as I knew any one of us could tire out from holding the beam.
Applejack unleashes the rope around his body which interrupts his spell. I end my spell quickly, watching as she struggles with Rainbow Dash to pull him down to the ground so that we can tie him together and snap him out of it. Pinkie is equipped with her party cannon, firing a round of confetti right at my special somepony.
I keep myself in flight, but even the wound he inflicted upon me, makes my wings move more rather slowly. It wasn't like I was going to drop down to the tiles below just yet. I will make sure to patch myself up as soon as this all clears up and over with. Only a small bit of blood has seeped from the open cut, but if there is more… then it would worry me about losing that much blood in my system.
"C'mon Twilight!" I can hear Applejack calling me from down there, both her teeth and Rainbow's gripped onto the rope, maintaining that Brayden be kept down while he can. "Perform one of yer spells already!"
I remember the failsafe spell that I tried to use when Discord first returned and was our enemy. Hmm, perhaps this spell could work on our friend if it could. I empower my horn with the spell set into my mind, and direct my horn straight at him. The beam of white light fires at him, and this cast doesn't blind us in the process.
Nothing had even changed when the light had lifted as Brayden was still struggling with the corrupted Song of Order, bound once again to attack us. He grips the Song of Order tight and slashes at the rope that Rainbow and AJ held him down on, releasing him from the grasp of this rope. This only made way to anger him even further.
"Well dang nabbit!" Applejack comments loudly. "Ah was so sure that would keep him down!"
"Ropes probably aren't the solution to keeping him there, Applejack!" I can hear Pinkie shout, armed with two whole chocolate cakes with frosting on the both of her pink hooves. "Cake is always the greatest solution to making him feel better."
Brayden turns around and faces Pinkie Pie when she throws the first whole cake at him. He slashes right through the cake she had tossed his way, but with a bit of frosting getting on his face. Blind, he charges right at her, blowing another cut onto her.
"Maybe the cakes weren't a good idea!" She says, trying to fight back in defending herself. Brayden attacks her a couple times, creating various cuts on her.
He grips onto Pinkie with a hand, bashing her against the pillar wall several times before violently tossing her across the room back onto the carpet. The queen of the changelings who is watching this the whole time, smiles as she could see that her plan is possibly already making a turn for her best, but for our worst as a result.
"Please stop at once!" Fluttershy is begging to him. It is no avail though, as he now has his eyes set out on both Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
He fires another bolt of magic out of his left hand towards the both of them. It isn't directly at them, but between the both of them on the floor. The contact upon its tiles unleashed an explosion that sends the both of them flying forwards. Rarity slides forward towards Brayden while Rainbow catches her oncoming fall by her wings.
I prepare another spell and fire it out of my horn right at his shoulder. I can hear a brief grunt out of him, as he grips onto the shoulder and holds it briefly. Rarity gets up on all four hooves, firing a blast of her magic right at his face.
"Terribly sorry to do that to you Brayden," She says to him while attacking. "It's the only thing I can do now to bring you out of this calamity!"
"I don't think so!" He shouts and uses a leg to kick her back. She develops a bruise from the kick, struggling to get up and fight more. Though she was more a fashion designer and not a fighter, she wasn't going to let her friend act like this, but it felt like she doesn't want to hurt him physically even with an offensive spell.
I stop firing a blast of magic at him to recover a bit of my magic. Using too much can wear me out in the end, but even then an alicorn can have limits for how much he or she can fire from her horn or nevertheless cast them.
Pinkie stumbles forward with her party cannon, limping from the bruises and bloody cuts that Brayden brought upon her with the Song of Order. She fires more confetti right at him, which causes a bit of damage to him from the side. "It's not yet-" She says, coughing for a moment after. "Over. Not without confetti!"
Brayden has those green eyes set upon Pinkie once again, gripping firmly onto the Song of Order and ready to attack her once again. He slashes across the top of her party cannon, bound to sever Pinkie's head and have her killed. She is lucky to have ducked her head though the second that he swings it by the side to attack.
Pinkie presses down on the button of her cannon once again, firing out another round of confetti at him which causes him to stumble backwards. This affects him for a bit as I slowly recharge more magic to cast at him. Comings towards her again, Pinkie presses the button again, but nothing comes out of it as I knew this was a bad sign.
He knocked the party right out of his way and throws a couple of slashes with the Song of Order right onto her again, attacking her. More cuts and bruises were put onto her as she had gotten hurt. "I hate… parties!" He shouts at her and kicks her across the room to where the princesses were slimed by their hooves and mouth. She tries to get up on her four hooves and fight again, but she collapses onto the floor, breathing heavily and weakened by the injuries.
Pinkie was down but not out, for she will need a bit of time until she comes back into the battle. I fire another blast right at him. He is quick to hear that I was going to fire at him, so he turns and uses his hand to catch the blast that I sent towards him. With my blast in his own hand floating there, I am expecting him to inflict damage with my own magic that I was going to use on him. But he did turn and fire it at Fluttershy instead who had been trying to get him to stop.
The blast had caused a burn onto her coat right upon her own chest. She lets out a bit of a yelp when the pain was inflicted upon her. She begins to tend to her burning wound, smelling like the fur that was last on there with singed off.
Rainbow makes another flying charge to knock him down, bound on pinning him there with the chance to make him realize what he is doing right now is wrong for him and his friends. I lower my flight to the ground right behind him, ready to take on a bit of a surprise for him with my four hooves making contact with the tiled floor.
Brayden uses his left hand to grab a hold of Rainbow Dash with a touch of magic, throwing her from behind and slamming my friend right into me, knocking the both of us down and sliding for a few moments across these tiles.
Brayden had turned to face the both of us, but when he is hit by the bolt of magic that I could tell from the aura's color it to be Rarity's, he stops. He turns towards her, gripping tighter onto the claymore to power it up. She gallops forward in a charge towards him, using more magic from her horn to make hits across the face. As she got closer, he would use the Song of Order as a shield for himself and to reflect the magic offense, back towards her.
She narrowly misses the reflecting attacks that the blade summoned with its now-ungodly power. She pounces upwards towards him while I watch as everything slows down when she uses a hoof of her own to slap him across the face. I don't seem to notice his returning offense though as he had lifted out a fist with his left hand. He had thrown a punch right at her and I can feel everything speed back up in my mind as Rarity was knocked to the tiles below.
"Impressive moves," I can hear the queen commenting. "But it is not enough to defeat him!"
Rainbow gets back into flight, now stretching out a back hoof to buck him right on the face. He turns right away by the intelligence that the queen had given him during the indoctrination. Grabbing her back hoof, and with that arm in motion and all set on his defensive part, he slams her repeatedly to the tiles a couple of times, causing a couple to contain large cracks from the damage he does.
With the help of the blade, I watch in horror as he creates more cuts upon Rainbow's coat and head, and then placing in another blow to her, slamming her into a tile that he already smashed her up upon. Rainbow tries to move again, but is too weak to try and attack again.
I gallop forward with Applejack galloping at the same time as me for a side and behind attack from the both of us to him. He slashes into the air as soon as we were lifted off the ground by the pouncing all thanks to our back hooves. My wings spread once again in a brief flight as my hoof goes towards him to buck his face. He may still be my special somepony, but hopefully this indoctrination won't be aware that he is hurt, or that we hurt him.
My hoof collides with the side of his face where the cheek was. I notice that Applejack also collides her strongest hooves with the side of his body, narrowly missing the swing of the Song of Order that passed by. When Brayden was making his fall, I grabbed and locked him tight: placing the both of my wings around his body and my hooves around his neck.
Brayden caught his fall though. "Get… OFF!" He screamed and then there is the buzzing of the ethereal changeling wings he had developed by the dark magic spread throughout the blade. The power of the wings flapping its fast wings has enough power to send me flying over his head and then feeling the blade produce another cut across my chest, not too deep.
"Hold still, dang it!" Applejack shouts at him, still holding onto him as he gains flight to shake off one of his closest friends. "Ah'm tryin' to help ya!"
"I don't accept help from you ponies!" He screams again, flipping upward into the air. He grabs Applejack, throwing her upwards and then throwing an uppercut punch right at her chin with his fists. I can hear her groan for a quick moment before he started to kick at her again and again with his own feet.
It was unbelievable what Brayden was doing in the fight and how he achieved these moves quickly. No idea, but I still suspect this it was the queen's doing.
He closes in with the claymore, creating a couple of cuts onto her face and coat and cutting off a bit of mane hairs. Even that hat I've always seen Applejack wear is knocked off during the multi-kick attack he was performing. He grabs at her front leg and tosses her violently into Rarity, slamming the both of them together by the window.
I open up my wings to try making flight towards him, bound to use a restraining spell that would get him to stop. There is the flash of light that emerges from his left hand and I stop with the gaping of my opening mouth. A green ball of energy emerges in his own hand, using his own strength to summon changeling magic that worked just like Equestrian magic, but more destructive like.
The blast of the green wave emerges from his hand straight at both of his and my friends Rarity and Applejack covering them up with this blast he had unleashed at them. I gasp in silence for I don't even know if this power was as fatal and harmful to them.
The smoke lifted and I can see the both of my friends there on the ground, in total defeat. They are still awake, but are knocked bruised and burnt on the tiles below, sharing the cracks and burns that were suffered from the energy blast. I gallop over to the both of my friends, to check if they are okay. Rarity's mane is messed up, but she isn't panicking about this for the moment as her friend Brayden is already in danger from what was put right into his mind.
"Dang nabbit…" Applejack weakly commented with a following cough coming from her mouth. She struggles to get up, but falls back down. "Nothing ain't workin' at all."
"My mane… My beautiful mane…" Rarity says, now paying attention to her mane at first, but stops when she has burns all over her body.
The queen is laughing from the throne behind me on my left. I am about to turn and face her first, but then there is the scream of my friend Fluttershy. My attention is turned back towards Brayden. I gasp at the sight that I see.
He is mid-air above the carpet in the throne room. His left arm is gripping tightly around Fluttershy as he was going to start choking the innocent close friend of his. In his right arm was the Song of Order, the sharp blade by its side right onto her neck. This looks like it will be stand-off that if he sees me even fly closer: he'll kill her.
I don't think he even realizes now about what he is going through after all the queen did to him. At this rate, he is far too blind to know that he was going to slice her neck.
"Brayden, let her go!" I commanded to him. I know I will never yell at him like this again, but I don't have a choice. "Can't you see that you're about to kill Fluttershy?!"
"Maybe I want to rid her from this life after all she did. She practically agreed that I should be banished from Equestria!" He shouted with those green possessed eyes of his glowing brightly, and then settling.
"N-None of us would ever want to let you go! You and I have become such close friends, and I, nor us don't ever want to let you go even if something bad happened to you!" Fluttershy says, still having the blade right at her neck. "I don't know what the changeling queen put into your head, but it was more hostile than it should be!"
"Silence!" He screams again. His left hand powers another offensive beam to burn her more onto the wings so that the flight could happen for this moment. I think he has something in mind when his eyes were set upon me during the whole thing as if he had been saving me for last among all of my other friends.
I would be the first he would kill and have my head severed and put onto a silver platter by the changeling queen herself, in order for her complete revenge against me.
He releases Fluttershy down towards the ground, with a forceful slam for her when she made contact with the carpeted floor. She is okay, but suffers from heavy burns that he had inflicted onto her. She tries to get back up onto her four hooves, but she collapses. She wasn't out though, as she still had her eyes on the oncoming scene that was bound to happen.
He throws himself forward towards me with the blade, ready to produce another bloody cut onto a part of me. He doesn't seem to feel any remorse nor regret by the actions he was being forced to commit, and that is what frightens me the most. If my words of truth can't help him snap out of it, we'll have no choice but to use our rainbow powers we first used during Lord Tirek's attack.
About a few feet away, the both of his bare feet land onto the tiles. Those ethereal changeling wings close up and he begins to move closer towards me, powering up the Song of Order to use against me. I back up a few hoofsteps, and I would try to reason with him from here.
"Brayden, please think about this!" I said to him as he moves much closer towards me, ready to attack once again at any moment. "I know inside that you are being forced to hurt us, but you do not want to!"
"You hurt me, so I hurt all of you in return!" He shouted and thrust the blade forward. I am just lucky enough to have moved to the side when the dark blade came forward towards me. He brings it back to him, still bent on killing me.
I looked at those eyes of his that were green, which were supposed to be his true brown eyes… but weren't. "Brayden, please listen to me. What I did to hurt you was very wrong, and I am sorry!" I cried out to him, as at this point I don't have any plans to use magic or my own hooves offensively against my special somepony.
"Quiet!" He yells, charging forward and ramming into me with the Song of Order. The blade has yet made more minor cuts on my face, and my mane looks a little ruined after being pushed backwards. "Sorry doesn't cut for what you and your friends did to me!"
"They never did anything wrong!" I shout back.
He thrusts the blade at me, cutting a part of my cheek. Once it retracts back, more bleeding began to come out from the wound. It really stung like the other cuts he was giving me, but I do not want to submit to the pain… not yet, not ever.
I spread open my wings and flap them into the empty air as fast as I can. My left wing is met with his hand, grabbing violently onto it and then throwing me over his head with collision onto the carpet. He slashes again, creating another cut on a part of my left wing and near my flank. When I am getting up, I can feel his right bare foot push down on top of me. Then the fear of my own death comes when he has the blade at my neck.
"Excellent Brayden!" Queen Chrysalis shouts with the clapping of her own hooves to worsen the situation between me and him. "Now sever her head and bring it to me!"
"Don't do this!" I screamed at him.
"Just close your eyes," He growls at me, preparing to raise the Song of Order and be ready for my decapitation. "In a few moments, this will all be over!"
I can hear Princess Luna's muffled shouts for him not to make the execution through the slime. I can hear the muffled noises, but I cannot translate as to what she was saying. I think she is trying to tell him not to do this and there is more to me than he realizes as if she was getting the message across to him that I still loved him and shared affectionate feelings for him just like he does with me the first time he confessed his love for me.
"Brayden, I know you don't think I am sorry… but I am!" I shout to him, developing tears in my eyes that form in my eyes as a misty essence, covering my eyes. "What I did to yell at you and have everypony watching as I yelled at you… that was the biggest mistake that I regret ever making! You have no idea how much regret came to me when I realized that you would always have me in your heart! You are my special somepony and I know you'll always have me as your special one. Truth be told, I don't ever want to let you out of my life… I take every bad thing I said to you back! I care as much for you as I care for my friends, and you have that special spark in you that brings us closer to each other. I don't want you to let go of me… I- I love you!"
Brayden falls deaf to my own plea, now focused on bringing the claymore down to my neck, ready for the severing. With one lift into the air, he lets out a shout as he descends the blade down towards me. I close my eyes and wait for death to come and take me. Even in death, I will love him always.
The death finish never did strike though after I heard the shout get cut off. I open up my eyes slowly and I can see what I couldn't see before. The pupils in my eyes shrink upon seeing this miracle that happened.
I was already in Rainbow form and the Song of Order bound for my neck is stopped by a magical shield that was put between me and him. It was as if this was some sort of last second defensive mechanism that I have developed just in case.
"WHAT?!" The queen shouts, sounding enraged. "That's impossible!"
I get up on all four hooves and ignite the magic inside of my horn to teleport myself into the air, flapping the both of my wings. I can sense that my other friends are starting to gain their rainbow forms and join up with me. Brayden witnesses this and lets out a growl at the both of us, firing a green bolt. It comes right at me, but it is absorbed by the shield that this power blessed upon me.
"That's right Queenie!" I said to her. "There is no possible way that you can overcome the power of neither friendship, nor love as long as it exists!"
The queen in all of her rage, fires a bolt of powerful magic at me. With my friends all joined with me in the shield, the blast is absorbed into the shield as well, no matter how many times it took. It would never bypass nor break this form that we obtained.
Our focus is not on the queen though, but more rather on my special somepony Brayden. He looks rather enraged, but I am brave enough to see that the good side of him wanting to be set free inside. We intend to set him free of the indoctrination placed upon him and we have the magic right for that.
We can feel the flow of friendship pass through the inside of our veins and out of us. I can feel the swirl of the rainbow inside of this bubble and then, comes the firing. Many color beams emerge from the shield and strike our friend Brayden and the Song of Order that had been corrupted in the first place by the queen to assure her victory. When all the colors merged as one, the attack flows in.
I can hear Brayden's possessed screams as he struggling through the pain of good that was right for him and always. But not only will friendship be part of it, but the power of love that I have for him. My eyes turn brightly white for a moment. His screams turn silent and then everything becomes white.
Brayden's POV
The brightness cleared from right out of my room that I had appeared in. I can feel carpets from which the both of my hands and knees are contacting. My nose can sense that there was some burning at first as if I had been put on fire, but extinguished rather quickly. The smoke extends about and around me like a coiling snake and then begins to settle.
My entire body feels a bit shaky from how I end up here, but I begin to lift myself upwards off of the carpeted floor. I can hear the sound of hooves galloping towards me for a brief moment. I don't turn my head to look quite yet, but I can feel somepony's hoof take my hoof and hold onto it as she helps me stabilize a bit to prevent myself from falling back down in case it still made me feel dizzy.
I recognized that face when my eyes turned to look at her beautiful violet eyes while her warm and soft hoof held onto my gentle hand. It was Twilight herself. She herself looked like she had been through many cuts and a bit of burns and bruises on her.
I had paused for a few moments when I saw her face from out of the smoke I was rising from. I could stare into those heavenly eyes for hours, but remembered what happened when she discovered how I cheated on her with Coco. Why would she be here, and yet enough why am I in Canterlot's castle? "Twilight?" Those were the only words that come out of my mouth when she is in front of me.
I can hear her as she quietly says my name in relief and then comes a part I kind of didn't expect at first. She opens her wings, throwing them and the both of her hooves around me in a hug. It surprises me, but I put my arms around her and hold her close to me. But nevertheless, I found myself here with her and my friends coming into the picture when the smoke settles and reveals the throne room.
"I am so sorry…" I can hear Twilight say to me. I can see those crystal tears sliding down from her eyes when she was saying this. I gently place my forehead onto her forehead, letting the silence between us continue as her tears dropped down onto the carpet. "I truly am sorry…"
I give her a gentle shush while my right hand moves to the back of her mane and gave it gentle, loving strokes to keep her comfortable with me. "It's okay… I understand." I say to her in a calm whisper.
Twilight's hoof behind me is stroking my back and I am rather comforted by this. "I didn't ever want to hurt you… not like that." I can hear her say.
"I didn't want to hurt you either," I whisper to her. "But you're always going to be my first love and you will be there always in my heart no matter how many times we argue or mad at each other, even if it is one of us being the frightened."
I can feel my hollow heart start to build up more love for Twilight that was connected between the both of us, holding each other in arms. It was a good reuniting moment together for the both of us.
There is the sound of buzzing out from the castle windows that have now caught my complete attention. I get up onto my two feet with both Pinkie and Applejack coming by the both of my sides to help me up in case I fell back down. That is when I take a good look from right outside of the windows to the sight of horror I find.
There was a large battle going on outside in the streets of Canterlot. The civilians had begun rallying against the changeling drones that look thirsty with a lust for to feed off their love within. There was pummeling and even magic being blasted at each other for who will win the battles. Some guards look wounded and torn up, but continue with the hope that they can fight back. They weren't going to lose to the changelings.
"What have I done?" I said to myself out loud for all to hear. "I walked into a trap to be used as a weapon… it's my entire fault that I brought an upcoming war to Equestria."
I can feel hooves trotting forward towards me from behind. One gentle hoof touches the top of my hand in support for me. Then there is another hoof that touches the top of my other hand. I turn my head a bit to see who were taking my hands. Fluttershy is there positioned on my right side, with Twilight accompanying me by the left side. I take Twilight's hoof with my left hand and hold onto it.
"You're not to blame Brayden, nopony is pointing a hoof at you for bringing the changelings and their queen here," Twilight says to me. "All of us were unaware that the queen had captured and tortured you."
"I only remember her leeching love from out of my system…" I said to her. I turn my eyes towards the queen sitting seated upon Celestia's throne and watching with a glare upon her face. At this rate upon losing her special secret weapon, she is most likely to be in deep anger about it.
"You'll make it though," Fluttershy says to me, gently rubbing my hand with her hoof. "As long as you have those by your side who love you, you'll never be alone or weak in battle."
"I broke the promise though…" I said, my head lowering with disappointment in my tone while I said this. "I wasn't supposed to bring harm to any of you, but under the queen's control… I did so…"
Rainbow trots towards me. "You didn't have any choice while under her spell. As your friend, no… one of your best friends: I will always forgive you and so will all of us no matter what you did." She told me, showing some sympathy or me while I felt down about hurting them. She was behind me whilst she said this.
"We all make boo-boos Brayden," I can hear Rarity say to me by the time I turn around to look at all of my friends. "You may have brought harm upon me, but I forgive you."
"Ah can tell that yer bein' honest with me like ya always are and were," Applejack says to me. She takes off her Stetson-like hat, placing it upon her chest whilst she talked to me. "I don't dare try to shun nor disappoint ya. Ah'd never leave a good friend like you behind, no matter what ya do."
I motion my hand as a sign to motion my friends to come forward towards me. I bent down onto the both of my knees as they come forward, spreading open my arms for them. Each of them wrapped a hoof around me with the both of my hands wrapping around all of them in a group hug. Pinkie has a warm smile upon her face during the hug. We hold the hug for a few good moments, and then we separate. It wasn't done yet though.
Twilight is still holding on my hoof. I turn to focus my attention on her. She trots closer towards me, allowing my right hand to move forward towards and past her, beginning to gently stroke her soft and silky mane. Her wings open up and I can feel them wrap around me slowly. Then I knew what to expect when her wings pushed me forward towards her.
I felt myself go forward closing my eyes as my closed mouth made contact with her gentle and soft lips, locking together. The both of us were beginning to share another kiss together and it was the first one again after she had dumped me.
Our lips separated after those few precious moments and the both of us continue to gaze at one another, still remembering those moments before the break-up. Gazing began to occur between the both of us much to Queen Chrysalis' disgust who had been watching the whole thing.
"Brayden," She says to me. "I really… deeply am sorry for breaking up with you and yelling at you. I didn't know how to truthfully handle the situation."
I gently press my forehead onto hers, still gazing into her violet eyes whilst she gazes into my brown eyes. "It's alright. I now know that you didn't mean it when you yelled at me for kissing Coco… and I too am sorry for doing it behind your back and not telling you in the first place." I tell her, even having my fair share of disappointment in myself.
Twilight smiles and says "I forgive you for that as well. Since you are my special somepony, I decided to make up a bit of terms to getting back together."
"You did?" I ask when my head rises up.
"Just about now, I realized that you love both me and Coco, so I make another part of the deal. You can love two other mares of your choice, which means you'd be in love with four of them which two of them is me and Coco, but do not go for any more after that. Remember that you must always keep our relationship in the number one priority." She tells me, putting a smile on her face and holding the both of my hands.
"I won't let you down this time, Twilight." I said to her, placing my hand onto her cheek and gently stroking it.
I can see a flash on the ground that caught both mine, her and our friends' attention. It was the Song of Order itself, clearing up all of the corrupted dark magic that had been first bestowed upon it. In a shine upon it from Celestia's sun above seen through the open windows of the throne room, the dark magic had been repelled. The shining glory of the claymore was brought back with those gold shining letters carved on the sides of the blade.
I find myself letting go of Twilight's soft hooves and moving forward, gripping onto the red pommel for its handle, for it was no longer green. I carry the claymore upward and hold it with a shine and humming coming from it. This was indeed the way that the Song of Order was meant to be, and it would always be this way.
I can hear the queen of the changelings gag in disgust at all of us. I turn my eyes up towards her and look at her with fierce glare from my eyes daggered at her. How dare she force me to hurt my friends and corrupt the Song of Order with dark magic!
"Twilight has ruined my plans for the last time! But I still hold all of the cards to this game!" She said loudly from the throne as she gets her flank up off of it and down the steps.
"You will not be holding it any longer while I am standing!" I shouted back at her, knowing what was bound to come up and if she has the tendency to strike me with that jagged horn of hers. "You caused me to hurt my friends when you put me under your control! You all had this planned out when you had captured me and were going to use it to your own advantage for an attack on Equestria!"
The queen laughs at me. "Of course I did, human!" She tells me. "You were the solution to getting my achievement for glorious domination to feed off more ponies with love than we could ever have in the Badlands inside that little hive hole of ours!"
"Don't call me by human!" I growl at her, gripping tightly onto the Song of Order's handle. "You are to call me by the name Brayden!"
"I can call you whatever I want to call you," She says to me. "After all, you were my secret weapon until those ponies and 'princess' Twilight set you free. It's a shame that you'd fall for anypony weak like her in the first place."
I growl again with anger flowing in through my veins. "Don't you say anything about her! She isn't weak you bug!" I yell at her again, knowing that she is already setting me off.
"You dare call the queen of the changelings a bug?!" She sounds enraged when she says this, but howls with laughter after that with a cruel wicked smile upon her face. "I'm used to that."
"Are you going to act like a chicken or will you make your move and fight me?!" I said to her to call her out in case she was acting like a true coward.
"You want to fight a queen?" She asked. "I'm all open for that, human. You just wouldn't survive as my magic is powerful!"
"But I hold a magic in my hand much stronger than yours!" I said to her, knowing that I was ready for battle.
I grip hard onto the blade as I had activated its magic from within to flow inside of me and share the equal power that it had. I can feel it flow through my veins, as it felt more peaceful inside and rather enchanting. The ethereal armor appeared around me with the wings appearing behind me, and they were of normal angel wings and not changeling wings.
"If a battle is what you want," The queen says to me with a glare appearing upon her face and her teeth all gritted and ready for what seems to be war. "Then a battle is what you are going to get!"
"Your move, bug." I insulted her to get her to make the first move.
Queen Chrysalis became offended again when I called her a bug again, and she charges on all four hooves towards me. I take the blade's handle with the both of my hands, ready to strike at her. She screeches as she galloping much closer towards me, opening the both of her wings to accelerate faster towards me.
I let out a yell as well joined with her screech and I begin to sprint forward in the charge towards Queen Chrysalis, ready to strike at her with my blade that began to sing of danger. That danger was her, to what I knew but I was ready to strike the closer I got to her.
At a close enough range, I rose up the blade and it had clashed together with the queen's jagged horn. With a swift release from her horn, I make an opportunity to strike at one of the legs. I throw it right towards her, but surprisingly I had completely forgotten about those holes in her legs, so the blade goes straight through, dealing no harm to her.
The queen laughs when seeing the Song of Order go through the hole in her leg. "Didn't think it was going to be easy, did you?" She comments to me before using her head to head-butt me in the face.
I had been knocked back by the attack towards my head, which the ethereal armor couldn't absorb, so I can feel a real headache upon my own forehead. I can hear her coming at me once again by the blade's singing ability. I swing right back at her, clashing with her horn once again. Single strikes come about while we duel away in the throne room. I kept on making steps back to defend myself while she kept on moving forward with such aggression inside to be let out.
I am stopped by one of the pillars behind my back while fighting away. I strike right at the queen's horn and keep it held there with more aggression filling in to match with hers. "Give it up human! You cannot attempt to defeat a changeling queen yourself!" Chrysalis told me.
"Not so much for you to defeat a human yourself!" I shout back at her. She attempts to strike at me again, and I jump out of the way, letting her horn hit the pillar.
She turns her head back at me, bound for another attack. I spread open those ethereal wings and take flight upwards. I can see her horn charge up with green when she fires a bolt at me. I use the Song of Order and swing it for the blade to hit the green bolt. It goes sailing right back at her, but she swings at the blade with her horn, reflecting it right back towards me.
I swing the blade back at the bolt, but it is more aimed towards her chest by the time that I strike it. The bolt zipped straight back to her, hitting her straight in the chest as predicted. She growls in pain, but I wasn't even done with my aerial assault on her just yet. I throw my left hand towards her, letting it release a blue beam of light right at her.
She jumped right at me with those wings of her pounding away. She collides with me and I am sent flying back, trying to get my wings to focus again. A few seconds of flying about and feeling like I was falling, but I do get a grip onto them again. She makes another charge towards me, but I know what to do more quickly now.
Using the ethereal wings, I fly upward and make a flip upside down with the Song of Order below me by my own hands both grabbing onto it. The blade slashes at the queen, creating a cut across her left eye. I can hear her screech by the time she passed by me. I flip myself right back right-side up, turning to her with a more vicious look upon her face.
I use the power of the blade and I can feel myself teleporting right above and yet behind as in a surprise attack from upper ways. She doesn't turn her head to the direction I am in, as she thinks that I have disappeared. I flap my wings and descend down upon her, my sword readied for the strike the faster I descended towards her.
I collide with my foot right on top of her flank from behind and she is knocked forward in complete surprise by my attack. I keep a hold onto her so that she can slam right into the ground. She collides on those same tiles where I had attacked my friends under her spell. I land on the both of my feet, running right at her with the blade.
"Oh yeah, Brayden! Show her whose boss!" I can hear Rainbow Dash calling out to me.
The queen picks herself up off the ground quickly, attacking at me again with her horn. My blade clashed at her first, so she is the first to block my oncoming move. I can tell she's not going to go down this easily, especially since she still held onto a bit of Shining Armor's love from the last Canterlot attack.
"I'm taking Equestria with you alive, or dead!" The queen makes her demands when she fires another bolt of magic at me.
I move my head to the side when the bolt comes zooming right towards me. With that, I put on a smirk to tease that she had missed me. Getting up on all four hooves, she screeches again, throwing herself right at me. My blade clashes with her horn again, locked in together pushing against each other with the fates bouncing at us for who would be able to win.
"Come on Brayden, you can do it!" Pinkie shouts at me, cheering me on.
"Quiet!" Chrysalis hisses at her to change the flow from there on.
"Queenie, queenie, she's our queen…" Pinkie mumbles out loud with sarcasm in her voice before she changed the tone. "If she can't do it, great!" She still held a bit onto a cheer for me while I was locked in with her.
I move my feet upward, kicking her below her chest, sliding her horn right off of my blade. I then proceed to kick my foot at her a bunch of times to knock her right against the wall. Then I throw my left hand towards her again, firing another blue beam of light at her to cause some damage.
I can see her horn light up with green when she shot another bolt at me, striking me in the arm this time. I can feel as it burnt a bit of my flesh and left a mark right there. I grip the blade again, charging at her and clashing at her horn once again.
The wall behind her fell down and both of us entered the hallway where the Canterlot royal guards were keeping the drones back with their own magic, but we both were in a warzone now, but it felt more better if we fought back in the throne room where the rest of my friends were. Queen Chrysalis said otherwise when her horn came at me, clashing with the Song of Order.
"What a settling place for us to battle in!" She told me with anger in her voice whilst we continue to duel.
I jump right over her head and behind her, ready to strike again. I manage to make a cut right onto her butt. Grabbing the back of her flank, she howls in pain and jumps about. This of course makes me laugh at the sight of her grabbing the back of her flank and doing a little dance right there. Honestly, I can hear laughing as well from the rest of my friends gather by the hole we fell through to watch.
Queen Chrysalis wasn't going to allow me to best her though. "I'll make that sting as well, human!" She makes a comeback at me when she was getting used to the cut I gave to her on her flank.
One changeling drone grabs at me, flying me high up into the air as if it intended on interrupting my fight between the both of us. I spread open my wings and it flies back. I guess these ethereal wings can have a bit of strength in them. I swing my blade right at the drone from behind, knocking it to the walls and onto the carpeted floor below.
I am slammed against the same wall by the queen who holds tight grip onto me with the both of her slimy hooves. Looking down from her eyes filled with the essence of rage, I can see her mouth drooling saliva from the inside of her mouth.
"Poor Brayden," She teased to me with a chuckle upon her smirk. "How will ever get away from my grasp without your friends or Princess Twilight Sparkle to help you out?"
"He will!" The both of us can hear a voice that I recognized on the right side of us accelerating to join beside the queen. It was Twilight herself with her friends down below taking care of the drones and workers that were fighting them in battle. "Because we never leave anypony behind, not even Brayden no matter if he looks unlike any other stallion in Equestria!"
"He's like a weakling to me 'princess'! He'll never match my strength!" She hollers at her with all she got to turn her head so I can make a distraction to attack.
My two legs reach back upon my chest and I throw them forward to kick her in the chest again. With the blade's power flowing through me, it was powerful enough to send her towards the wall opposite side of the hallway. She struck with a bit of splat right onto the wall and slid down it.
"Enough!" She shrieks right at me when I flew down from the other wall. I make my approach towards her while she is angrily bellowing out at me with all she got. "You dare to mess with me, the queen of the changelings? Take a good look at my size! You would fall to your knees upon the sight of the queen herself for I am-"
She was interrupted when I grab her by the horn and begin slamming her into the pillar on the side of the hallway. I can see a bit of the stone layer in the pillar beginning to crumble away with each bash that her head would create, but I was already annoyed enough with trying to rant out to me. Her rants are worse than my good friend Rarity's whenever there is bad fashion about. A few times after that, I throw her onto the ground, her head hitting the tiles face first.
"Puny queen." I commented to her with annoyance in my tone when I am walking away from her.
She slowly began to get up, but shudders for a moment and then puts a hoof to her mouth. "I think I broke a tooth." She stated to herself loudly for me to hear.
The changeling drones and workers had witnessed everything while I had been assaulting their queen that way, but by the looks with the blade in hand with that ethereal armor and wings summoned upon me by its power… I don't think they want to dare mess with the likes of me.
I can hear her chuckle for a moment behind me. "You may have pulled off some good offensive moves right there against me Brayden," I can hear the queen say to me. "But I only have one more card left to pull out!"
"You are already out of cards to use!" I snap back at her. "You didn't catch that attack by surprise."
"Oh?" She says to me, stumbling to get back up onto her four hooves.
I turn back towards her from that distance. "Even though you may feel like you are the strongest, you'll never be as powerful as the magic of friendship is. It is always going to be infinite times powerful. It puts your own power of domination to shame in my honest opinion." I ended up telling her while she stumbling forward towards, bound for another attack.
"I am the strongest though," She says to me. "I can create a new Equestria in my own order!"
"You never will be," I commented to her with the truth in my voice. "I know well enough that if anypony were to take place as the new princess or queen of Equestria, it would be thrown into chaos."
My eyes turn to the right, looking right out of the window. It was the southern part of Equestria from what I could see through this window with the distant desert and badlands there. It ended up getting me thinking that if I get the queen into this spot, I can blast both her and her changeling armies out of Ponyville and Canterlot. But at the same time, something questions me from the inside. I would need to have a powerful magic that would create a shockwave large enough to send them all flying back to where they came from in the first place. But where would I find it?
The queen looks enraged once again, letting out a shriek at me with another charge, but this was weaker than the other ones from minutes ago. She gets closer towards me, and a smile comes upon my face to mock her even further. She gets real close, my left hand curls its fingers into a fist. I step to the right side and throw the first punch straight at her left cheek.
I watch as she tumbles unto the ground as if she were in a drunken stupor and struggle to get back up onto her hooves. She gets up eventually though, and touches the cheek where I had hit her. Sure I knew that I hit her there, but she totally deserves it for making me inflict harm onto my own friends in the first place. All she can do from there forward is glare at me.
"I suggest you and your changelings go back to the Badlands from whence you came," I had told her, putting a harsh tone into my voice. "Your kind is not welcome here after assaulting me, brainwashing me and nevertheless capturing a princess and one that would soon become a princess when you last invaded."
She had tried to say something to me, but my point was already beating her own.
"I bring shame on you and your armies, for doing such a crime! I may not be a prince myself, but I hope that you and those children you call them, go straight to Tartarus!" I call her out on it, pretty much done with having to dealing with her in the first place.
My friends who in shock for me wishing upon somepony to head straight into Tartarus itself where Tirek lie awake in for punishment after what he did. "Whoa…" I can hear Pinkie Pie blurting out loudly in response to all of that which had been happening.
I turn away from Queen Chrysalis herself, and begin to make my way towards all of my friends who are standing there after fighting off a group of these changeling drones. Rainbow was still fighting away to kick any of their flanks whenever they came near them. I can see Twilight's face after she set down back onto the carpet in the fight, watching as I come towards her, still ready from battle.
I can hear hooves behind me though, for they were the queen's own hooves themselves. She doesn't seem to go down, does she? I can see Fluttershy's face and hear her gasp when she can supposedly see her coming in a dash right for me when her jagged horn coming right down.
I turn around on time, but yet I am too late to react. The queen's horn sliced me right on the cheek creating a scratch and I can feel myself being knocked to the side. My friends gasp, gathering over at me in hopes that I am okay. Rainbow and Applejack don't want to risk me getting in more harm in my well-being, so they get in front of me keeping the queen at bay for now when I am getting up again.
"Are you okay Brayden?" Fluttershy asked me with concern in her voice when her hoof held onto my right hand to help me up off the ground.
I look to her and nod. She lets go of my hand, setting it back down onto the floor. I have my eyes daggered right at the queen who'd set her hoof upon and yet even cause a bloody scratch on my cheek. I take the Song of Order from off the ground when I dropped it from her attack on me.
I pounce right forward at her, ramming right into her and going through the open hole that we broke through, back into the throne room we went. The blade pierced right through a part of her left front leg. I can hear her muffled shriek when speeding past before both of us end up on the tiled floor again. I let the blade out of her.
Goo-like slime is on the blade when I had freed it out of the queen's leg. She can barely move that now when she getting up, so she depends now on her magic to defend herself, but yet throw out another attack onto me. She fires a bolt of magic at me, striking me in the leg. I find myself temporarily knocked to the ground on one knee as if I was being forced to bow to her. My right knee was in a lot of stinging pain, but I couldn't give up yet.
I still have another motion in mind. I get up slowly onto my two feet, with that right leg stinging from her attack on me, but I am doing all that I can to last.
I throw my left hand at her, releasing another blue beam at her from under her hooves, getting her to fly backwards. Her spell eventually counters with my own and we are locked together with her green offensive beam fighting against mine with whatever strength was in our systems within.
I found the beam I was using beginning to grow short by her aggressive state. She was going to win and knock me back down, and even then place that horn into my gut which is something I do not want happening.
I can feel my arms lifting the blade high up into the air. The beam of blue I had released shrinks down towards me and I can find myself surrounded by deep shades of a magical essence that resemble a bubble shield. The queen's bolt of magic tries to carve a hole in it to cause some damage at me, but she is unable to.
"How?!" She cries out with anger filling that tone of hers. Her teeth are gritting in absolute irritation after she had tried to attack me with bolts of her changeling magic. "How is this possible for a pathetic human like you to possess magic like this?! You are not allowed to have any of that!"
I let out a chuckle. "Because you do not understand the importance on how friendship is and always will be magic!" I shout to her, putting all of my power I could into the Song of Order.
I can feel the power of friendship rise out to power up the shield that protected me from the queen's death rays. With each color it had been processing, I can feel that it was beginning to grow in size. I can feel lightning striking each part of my body, except it isn't hurting me, it just feel rather tingly as a more good feeling. All that Queen Chrysalis can do is watch in horror as the shield expands slowly.
In a whipping flash of light inside of the orb I now rest in, I watch from the inside as the shield expands widely. I can see the queen let out another scream of defeat when the shield knocked her right through the window flying, through shattering glass. The princesses who were still slimed by the hooves and mouth are set free by the spell I cast.
I am unable to move during the spell's procedure, but I can see the queen starting to fly backwards down south with the shield ever expanding and I can hit small hits on the shield with the other drones and workers sent flying away from Canterlot. The shield continues to grow, expanding down into Ponyville where the rest of the invasion was taking place.
I take the opportunity to look inside of the orb I had placed inside during all of this and look at the rest of my body. It was all shining in white all over my body. It was bright, so I end up shielding my eyes to avoid becoming blind. The Song of Order stays above my head in my two hands, shining brightly as the beacon for this shield before me.
Afterwards, the lightning bolts making impact with my skin begin faltering and everything begins to glow white all around me, covering my sight of the environment around me. Through the sound of whooshing beams diving past my ears, there is a loud high-pitched sound and I am eventually covered in white.
The white light fades and the shield as I can see is gone. The Song of Order still shines with its power still ignited, and I knew that it was already done now that the Queen and her armies of disgusting bugs were gone and out of my own sight. I power down the blade and sheathed it right behind me, disabling the ethereal armor and wings that were summoned.
There is the sound of hooves galloping from out under the hole carved in through the wall during my battle with her. I turn my head to see who is coming to me. It's Twilight and the rest of her friends in the aftermath of all this. The princesses and Nightmare Moon come trotting to me from my right side, now witnessing all that I did.
All of my friends come forward and gather around me, placing their hooves around my body in a gentle and friendly group hug. I throw the both of my arms around them, joining with them in the hug. I have my head on top between both Twilight and Pinkie's heads. A few moments pass between the both of us, and then we let go.
I turn my head towards the rest of the princesses to my own concern. Rarity and Applejack make way for me to get to the three of them. I approach both Princesses Celestia and Luna, even having my concerned eyes to Nightmare as well.
All three of the princesses allow me to put my arms around them and join them in a group hug. That is what I did and I can feel their warm legs move around my chest as I was giving them hugs at the same time.
"I know that had to be a sacrifice to save us all," I can hear Nightmare Moon talking to me during the hug. "But all that matters most is that you were here for all of us no matter what you did to fall under her spell. They set you free though, and we're all so glad that you are safe."
"I am so sorry I got them here again." I apologized to the both of them.
I let go of the hug and I can hear Celestia let out a small giggle. "You do not need to apologize," She says to me, placing her white hoof onto my shoulder and looking at me with a smile. "It was hard to overcome her desires even in these times, but you know the light inside to fight for those who love you and hold you close to them."
"I understand this Princess Celestia," I said to her, nodding my head in understanding. "But I hold everypony close to me no matter the difference I can be to them. As long as I hold the power of friendship inside my heart, it will not be penetrated nor can it be broken this time."
I can feel a soft hoof touch and hold onto my right hand. "Brayden?" I could hear Twilight saying to me, since I recognized by how soft her furry hoof was. I turn around and face her with the rest of our friends trotting into sight.
"Brayden, we were all really upset when you ran away. We all just became so worried when you disappeared on us and we were looking all over for you before the changeling attack," Twilight said to me like she had been worried about me running away. "You need to promise us that you will come to one of us from here forward. Running away isn't an option, as we'll look everywhere for you."
I can feel my hands gently taking her hooves and holding gently unto them. I let out a bit of a sigh, knowing that most of the time: it is true they will come looking for me. Twilight's eyes are begging for an answer, so I couldn't let my special somepony down.
"I promise." I said to her knowing that I was being 100% honest this time.
All of my friends put smiles on their faces knowing that I am not going to abandon them the next time I have the urge to run away. Twilight looks at me, smiling and relieved that I will come to her or one of our friends if I ever felt this upset again.
"So would now be a good time to party?" I can hear Pinkie say out loud.
I look at my friend for a moment, saying "There will be plenty of that for tonight, Pinkie."
I turn my eyes right back at my special somepony Twilight. My head is motioning closer towards her. She moves closer towards me as well, slowly closing her eyes. I can feel our lips lock together and the both of our eyes close as we were in another kiss. Those lips still feel so soft, and I can feel her wings curl around my body and keep me in the warmth of our love together.
I release the kiss from her, placing my hand behind her head, gently stroking her mane. She still holds a smile on her face, as she is moving her hoof onto my right cheek, gently caressing it from there… until I began to feel the sting that the queen left there.
"Oww…" I complained softly, as the stinging began to discomfort me.
"Oh my," Twilight stops caressing me and looks at my cut. "Doesn't that hurt you?"
"You have no idea how much it is stinging me right now." I commented to her, trying not to touch it.
"Well, we did suffer a bit of bruises from the fight when you were under the spell of the queen, so I would say that we are in the same place as well." Rainbow Dash said to me.
"Don't worry guys," I can see Spike coming up to all of us. "How about we take you down to the castle nurse and get you all patched up?"
"Where were you the whole time?" I questioned to him, not seeing him enter the moment between me and the rest of my friends. Not to mention that I was blushing when he sees both Twilight's wings covering me in a wing-hug.
Spike pointed with a dragon claw over to the stone pillars by the end of the throne room. "I didn't want to interfere with something so dangerous, so I had to hide until the changelings were gone from sight," He says to us explaining just about everything that he was doing in regards to this. "Changelings don't even know when to give up."
"I know for certain that the queen isn't going to want to come back to Equestria now to conquer it," I said to him. "If she should show her face, she'll meet the Song of Order again to cast her back out to the Badlands again."
"I see," Spike says, pretty much know what'll happen anyway. "Now, let's get all seven of you to the nurse."
"Lead the way Spikey-Wikey." I can hear Rarity say to him. From that point, I had completely forgotten that Spike still has a crush on Rarity. Hmm, I'll have to attempt to work on something to get those two together at some point if they weren't different. But there is nothing wrong with giving it a try for two different species to fall in love with each other. If it can happen with me and Twilight, it can happen with them.
All of us began to head out of the throne room and into the tall hallways of the castle. I am bored at one point, so I decide to poke at one of Rainbow Dash's bruises.
"Ow! Quit it." She says to me each time I poke her around the hoof where it was hurting worse.
I let out a bit of a laugh as we make our way down the hall still poking at Rainbow's bruises to set her off more, straight to the nurse's quarters of the castle. (I think I won't actually piss off Rainbow Dash though, and I don't think she'd get mad at me after what happened.) I can tell there must be a celebration outside of the castle with the Canterlot folk celebrating their victory over the changelings' second attack.
What I say is true though from back in the throne room. I keep my promise that I am never going to run away nor hurt my friends or anypony ever again, even if I am put under a spell. But I knew most of my promise as well for them…
I will not leave their side, ever…