Twilight Sparkle was battered and bruised, and doing her best to ignore the set of long, weeping scratches across her right shoulder. She had eyes only for the being in front of her. The bug. The enemy.

She was much as Twilight remembered her. Tall, proud, shining gloss black and green, and smirking with fangs that, for all the instinctual fear they evoked, were a sideshow to her enemy's true terrors.

They circled each other slowly, Twilight glaring and the bug smirking. The rough rock of the chamber's walls was scarred from their initial probes of each others' defenses, charred and cratered in two or three spots. Twilight was certain now that her enemy was weaker than the last time she'd encountered her, but she was also definitely smarter. Nopony stood with Twilight this time.

Twilight had been suckered, she knew. They all had, of course, but Twilight automatically blamed herself. A few reports of refugee changelings in the forest, and away they'd gone, flush with confidence.

They'd expected the cave, but they hadn't expected it to run so deep. The changelings had waited until she and her friends decided to turn around before attacking. At the time, Twilight had thought herself lucky to slip away, but her current predicament put a mocking lie to that thought. She had still been dancing to the unheard piper's tune.

And her friends. She didn't—didn't even know.

Oh, Celestia.

The Queen struck then, her power whipping across the chamber and lashing Twilight, catching her by surprise. She struck the wall before she struck the ground, screaming at the searing line that ran down her side and masked the pain of the impact. The Queen giggled quietly to herself.

Twilight heaved herself to her feet as her enemy approached, shaking her head to try and clear her vision. She could barely raise her head, but she looked up to watch the Queen's eyes. The bug was smiling

“Oh, Twilight,” she paused, running her tongue idly across a fang, “and here I thought I knew what a perfect day was. But seeing you here, after seeing the last of your friends--”

Twilight's eyes widened in horror for a split second, and the decision was made by instinct. She lunged with an incoherent yell. When the Queen's counterstroke landed, she was not there. She was behind the bug, then was gone again as the enemy's power crashed down and rent the floor where she'd stood.

She flashed into being again directly under the bug's belly. With a half-terrified, half-loathing scream, she jammed her head upward, horn first, and her damp eyes streamed with white light.

***

Twilight retched in the farthest corner of the chamber, as far as she could from the remains of the Queen. The bug. The enemy... but never Chrysalis.

Author's Note

Prompt #527: Her First Kill