The Resurgence of the Shadow
From a humiliated and disgraced pegasus to the King of Changelings and the Lord of Chaos’ favourite only to be a pegasus again only more humiliated and more disgraced. That's what happened with Dark Hole, now Fire Punch. He ventured to fly high by accepting the Lord of Chaos' proposal in to be his lackey and flew even higher when he betrayed Chrisalis and became the absolute King of the Changelings and this caused his fall to become even bigger, something which eventually happened.
He used the excuse of failure to justify his treachery towards Chrisalis, but the failure turned out to be his ruin. He drew up a plan for months with the aim of satisfying his lust for power and his thirst for revenge, having only a single objective: Princess Twilight Sparkle, the sister of his greatest enemy, Shining Armor, and beloved, now wife, of his sidekick, Blue Sword. His plan was to infiltrate quietly, taking Shining Armor’s form to kidnap Blue Sword and so take his place and absorb all Twilight’s love for him, along with the alicorn amulet, becoming the most powerful being of Equestria, while leaving his two greatest enemies, those who caused his downfall in his youth, to suffer because of their failure to defend the most precious thing they both shared.
Of course his plan backfired when a certain Queen, the one he had defeated when she was most vulnerable, the one he had imprisoned and treated as a reproductive object, repaid the revenge by helping Shining and Blue escape from where he had held them, allowing Blue to reach the marriage location at the time that he was about to get what he wanted and to convince Twilight about the truth. Of course that played in his advantage, because Twilight’s love became even bigger, which gave him even more power and he joined it to the power of alicorn amulet. But the game turned when Chrisalis gave another blow along with Shining, simulating a false allegiance to him, being managed to rid of the love he had stolen from Twilight. Of course, that didn’t affect in any way his superiority, how he still had the alicorn amulet and his army of Changelings. But when Blue’s love for Twilight re-established her, the two joined to defeat him, destroying the alicorn amulet and reverting him to his prior form of pegasus pony. After that, he was taken by Chrisalis as her prisoner and she took him back to the Desolate Zone. The one who was at the top had fallen and the one who was down ascended, all because of failures.
In the Changeling nest, the Queen arrived, followed by her Changelings that brought the magic bubble with Fire Punch and all his Changelings. She landed on the island and contemplated the throne that before was Dark Hole’s, sketching a smile. She sat down on it, feeling victorious for having claimed her true place. She turned to her Changelings and told them:
"Take the prisoners to the dungeons. I then deal with them."
Her Changelings waved and prepared to get down by the pit, when Chrisalis called them:
"Wait!"
They stopped and then Chrisalis used her magic to take Fire Punch out of the magic bubble and bring him down at her hooves.
"I want to deal with this traitor right now."
And so the Changelings who were carrying the magical bubble took the prisioner Changelings prisoners to the dungeon, while the others went to feed from the captive ponies.
Fire Punch started up faintly and then he looked to Chrisalis that stared him with hatred and superiority, making him a contemptuous smile.
"Looks like I'm on top now" Chrisalis mocked. "How's it feel to be at my hooves... again?"
"You're going to pay for this" Fire Punch growled, full of hate. "You're going to pay for everything."
But Chrisalis replied with launching her emotion suction spell to feed from Fire Punch a bit, making him groan of pain. When she stopped, he fell again.
"You taste horrible" Chrisalis said. "Intense, but horrible. However, I am willing to suck every drop of emotion that you have inside of you just to have the pleasure to make you suffer. Of course this will not satisfy my revenge, but it will help a lot."
She used her magic to lift and bring him to her and she prepared to go back to feeding on him.
It was then that a black smoke emerged, entering in the nest and freeing Fire Punch from Chrisalis’ magic, sustaining him in the air. Another darkness arose, swirling and then appeared...
"My lord" Chrisalis said, standing up and making a bow. "What an honor to see you again."
The Lord of Chaos appeared, with his arms crossed, with his spear levitating at his side. He made a nod to Chrisalis who rose up, then he turned to Fire Punch, which was still recovering from Chrisalis’ attack and told him with a disapproving look:
"What a great disappointment, Fire Punch. I gave you a chance and tolerated the fact that you held Chrisalis, because I knew you had a lot of potential. But I guess you didn’t stop being that self-confident pegasus that disregards the more simple but powerful thing."
He turned to Chrisalis and ordered:
"I want you and your Changelings to leave me alone with Fire Punch. Go get food, whatever you want, but I don’t want to be disturbed while I am dealing with him."
"Yes, sir" Chrisalis said, making a bow.
She then took off and motioned to her Changelings to follow her.
"Chrisalis!" the Lord of Chaos called.
She turned to him, asking:
"Yes, master?"
"Congratulations with your surprise betrayal" the Lord of Chaos congratulated. "There's nothing I love more than watching my own subordinates betraying each other."
"Thank you, my lord" Chrisalis thanked, bowing. "That means a lot to me."
"Just a word of advice" the Lord of Chaos said. "Next time, choose your allies carefully. I'm not talking about Shining Armor and Blue Sword. I'm talking about the one that released you and gave you that crystal. Don't you dare to ally yourself to my brother, Chrisalis. That’s the same as betraying me. I may think it is fun watching my subjects betraying each other and even enjoy it, but I don’t tolerate betrayals to my person. Are we clear?"
"Completely, my master" Chrisalis said, making another bow.
The Lord of Chaos made a gesture to Chrisalis to leave and she did it, making her Changelings fallow her.
When she left, the Lord of Chaos descended, sitting on the throne and, with a snap of fingers, the darkness holding Fire Punch down and place him on the floor, disappearing after that. Fire Punch stood up, turning to the Lord of Chaos.
"You going to punish me, aren't you?" he asked her. "Come on, go ahead, I'm ready."
Fire Punch prepared for Lord of Chaos to punish his, closing his eyes. However, that didn’t happen. He opened his eyes and saw that he was still sitting on the throne watching him.
"Won’t you go to punish me?"
"I should, but it would be a waste of time and a waste of my powers" the Lord of Chaos replied. "Besides that, despite your greatest failure, which by the way was bigger than Chrisalis’ in the other royal wedding, I still have a certain affinity for you."
"Is that means you forgive me?" Fire Punch asked, putting on his hooves and starting to smile slightly.
"Don't go so fast. Impatience is the enemy of perfection. I'm not going to forgive you... yet. But I'm going to give you the opportunity to redeem yourself."
"Will you turn me back into Dark Hole?"
"Of course not" the Lord of Chaos replied. "I would be an idiot if I made the same mistake twice. But I need your help for something else. Something... bigger."
"What do you mean?" Fire Punch asked, full of curiosity.
The Lord of Chaos didn’t answered immediately, merely extending a hand and invoking a sphere of darkness, who disappeared, leaving nothing but what appeared to be a curved, sharped and red unicorn horn.
"But that's..." Fire Punch started.
"That's exactly what you're thinking" the Lord of Chaos replied. "Is King Sombra’s horn. I found it after he had been defeated for good."
"And what does this have to do with me?" Fire Punch asked.
"As I said before, I need your help for a plan that I have in mind" the Lord of Chaos replied. "A plan that can change everything in this world. However, I need a powerful subordinate and that has qualities that you have. But you are not powerful. For that reason, I want you to link to this horn."
That made Fire Punch being caught by surprise.
"Do you want me to have King Sombra’s horn?" he asked.
"Don't get the wrong idea" the Lord of Chaos said. "I just need you to be more powerful in terms of magic to help me in this plan. Of course, to get the horn, you will have to give up your wings."
That was a very difficult choice to Fire Punch. He wanted so much to have King Sombra’s Horn and so have all its power. But he always had his wings for life and giving them up would be something that would be hard for him to do. However, his desire for power spoke louder.
"I accept" he replied.
The Lord of Chaos made a gesture and then King Sombra’s horn began heading to Fire Punch and then put itself on his forehead, starting to shine with a black aura surrounded by a vivid violet haze with light brilliant green edges. Fire Punch felt a pain that made him groan and close his eyes. He was raised in the air, while a darkness was beginning to involve him. Their wings disappear and Fire Punch opened his eyes that had become brilliant scarlet involved in the same haze of the aura. After that, he landed and then passed his hoof through his new horn.
"I don't believe I have King Sombra’s Horn" Fire Punch said, charging the horn with magic. "I'm looking forward to try it."
"All in good time" the Lord of Chaos replied. "Now I need you to focus on what is most important."
"As you wish, master" Fire Punch said, bowing. "I'm at your service."
"Perfect" the Lord of Chaos said. "Because the great war for the control of this world is about to begin."
And having said this, he started laughing and his laughter echoed throughout the Changeling nest. He was laughing because all the pieces were placed as he wanted, and had at his side a faithful servant whose failure led him to his current situation.
