Geralt from Equestria

Blaviken, city that looked as normal as it is in Equestria ever possible. Oh why I hadn't knew better than that? When we crossed the border everything was quiet, ponies were freely walking through the streets and there were this nice feeling in the air that you can find only in the most peaceful of places. Even the always present stares were likely less focused on me and more on the person besides me.

So why I had this chilling feeling that soon everything was going to screw up very badly? I'm not sure, it could be a simple prejudice, but considering what had later happened, I'm tempted to doubt it.

At first all issues went just like in other towns, Jaskier's performance was met with an eager audience that was big enough to fill her stomach with a decent meal and her purse with nice amount of golden bits, so she decided to stay for the night and try another show the next day. I of course expressed my concerns that something hadn't suit me in that town, but she wasn't listening and as you may predict yourself it hadn't end well. We had an argument and in a fit of anger I left for some air.

As I roamed through the streets for a good half an hour, I had finally realized what was wrong the whole time. Whenever I get close to any home, or lonely pony my medallion would go into frenzy as if there was some motor inside.

When only I had understood that, without waiting I had sprinted straight to our tavern to warn Jaskier about possible problems. Only she wasn't there. (For a very long time I couldn't forgive myself for what I had done that night. I was supposed to protect her with my life, because this is what I had promised her to do, in my entire life I had never broken any promise. When I knew that I couldn't keep one I just didn't make it. But then, in the time of real danger I had left her alone because of a half-assed anger that you could call barely a spark of my former emotion. Only later I had eventually came to terms with myself when I realized that if I hadn't left her then it could had ended much worse. After all she had never showed herself without an disguise before, so I wouldn't be able to distinguish signal about her presence from other spells like the ones present in that town.)

But what I met inside the room was about to take me to her, even if I would had to use methods that earlier, or later would be for me too cruel to attend them.

Because what I saw inside of our room was a pair of undisguised changelings that were shamelessly ransacking our stuffs. (How they looked? The same way as in the show only more anthro, uglier and their eyes were green rather than blue, they also had vague differences between each other like different structure of holes that marked their hooves, or a different number of ommatidia in the eyes, stuff like that.) And of course when they had saw me coming they had attacked me at once.

The one that was coming from my left was instantaneously hit in the neck with an blade of the steel sword before he even realized that I was moving. Fortunately for him it looks like changelings belong to the group of enemies that can be cut only with the silver sword. Yay lucky him. Only that haven't save him from sheer strength of my punch, which was strong enough to send him on the wall under which he laid unconscious.

You ask why only the silver sword? Dunno from the books and games I can only remember that it always was that way. Monsters that witchers would stood against always had some kind of weakness. One monster you would kill with a normal sword no matter from what it would be made of. As long as it was sharp enough to cut it was good, but to kill something such as werewolf or vampire you would have to use a blade that was covered with silver. Also there were always monsters that were resistant to it, or even had an carapace too thick to cut and you must destroy a fucking mine to deal with them. Sometimes there were always chance to avoid the whole killing shit but it was rarely the case. These same rules apply to the monsters that roams in Equestria. Manticore for example, is vulnerable to steel, but to actually kill something like a timberwolf you must use silver. I know that it is strange that it works, but it works, so I won't question it in order that it won't suddenly stop working because of some stupid questions. (Don't laugh, Murphy's law is a bitch and can screw even something so simple like that.)

The second thief hadn't even turned around to see the fate of his friend before I had grabbed him by his throat and make a swift throw to the ground with a simple lever, where he couched out splashes of green blood.

As he was lying there in pain, I had decided that it was the best moment to began an interrogation. Of course at first the little bastard was resistant, but after I had showed him that one of my weapons is actually able to hurt him, few times used Aksji on him and connected it all with tortures, I had finally convinced him to speak.

What he had told me was disturbing and at the same time reassuring. You see it looks like Jaskier was very popular between changelings hives as it turned out that she had not so much had been exiled from her home as quite the contrary, she had escaped herself when she decided that ponies weren't just a food and it all would had ended at that point if not one simple problem that she had forgotten to mention to me herself. Namely she wasn't a simple drone that can be replaced due time, no she had to be fucking heir of the queen and as such there can't be any next heir until Jaskier had died, or became queen herself, as the first haven't happened yet despite her being alone for a long time and for latter it would be needed for her old mother to be killed first.

Because of this circumstances, there was offered a reward for bringing her alive back to her homehive so she could be properly punished by her mother. That was the good news because I knew that she was still alive.

The other thing was that I had only about half of an hour before she would be transferred out of the town and the problem was showing with the fact that if whoever would try to go and stop that. That person would be killed on the spot, without any unnecessary questions.

So there I was left alone with one hell of a decision to make. The first option was for me to go escape from the town myself as some cowardly rat and abandon the only creature in this world that I consider as friend and maybe, maybe try to track her down and save her from yet smaller group of enemies before Jaskier would stand in front of her mother that may, or may not be merciful enough to let her die painlessly, rather than slowly torn her apart.

Or I could go against whole hive of who knows how many changelings, that were camouflaged inside of the entire town of ponies, (or as it occurred, at that moment, there weren't any actual ponies to begin with) and probably had to kill anyone that would stand on my way, (most likely dying during the struggle,) fast enough to be able to rescue her, before they would be able to took her away.

As you probably guessed yourself the first option was out of the question. That's why against all odds I had decided to kill them rather than let them to indirectly kill her. But before that I had yet to give them one last chance for redemption, so I instructed the still conscious changeling to take his friend and go warn the rest that if they won't release Jaskier and send her unharmed back to me, they wouldn't leave me a choice as to go and fight them all in purpose to retrieve her personally. And to pass them the message that I would kill Every Single Changeling that would try to stop me.

You are probably wondering what an idiot I must be to go and give information about my intentions straight to the enemy, aren't you? Stop it then and listen for a minute. You see just put yourself in my place won't you? I am about to go against force that prides itself on it's skills in stealth attacks and besides that their only other strength lies in the sheer number of strikers, correct? Then tell me if it's better to go into shit vulnerable to any sudden attack from hidden changelings, or maybe to gather all the foes at the one place, where they'll be left open only with their number to protect themselves, hmm. ('Cause chances that some of them would actually consider me as a real threat and would had listen to my demand, or even would had fled in panic were really lousy, weren't they?)

Of course the motherfucker was again trying to disobey me. At first he just he laughed at me and my crazy idea, calling it an impossibility and assuring me that I would never succeed. When that hadn't worked, he was trying to intimidate me with threats that even if I was to somehow survive and save Jaskier from her fate, then I would had to face the consequences of meddling in politics between changeling hives, what's he had assured me, won't end well for neither one of us.

I of course wasn't going to listen to any of that crap. When I believed that he would at least go and inform others about me coming as I had said him to. Without further ado I had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him and his unconscious friend through the window and let go of him that so I had heard the thud of their fall and went to make a quick preparation.

What kind of preparation I mean, you ask? The obvious one would be to try and calm myself 'cause if you haven't realized I was about to fight against the fucking army, so I couldn't went there without the use of Aksji. The second think was even more important but it could be dangerous even before the actual battle. Namely witchers elixirs, the three that were necessary to be used were in turn, Full Moon, (an all-purpose potion that greatly increases the amount of blood that the witcher can lose before he would bleed to death.) Blizzard, (one of the most powerful witchers' potions, it improves reflexes and reaction time.) And finally Swallow (that greatly accelerates regeneration of witcher body,) was held in belt for quick access in case of troubles that were certain to come.

After that was done I had to do only one more before I was ready to go, namely sharpen my silver sword with the use of diamond dust, touch it with the Perun rune, (that will prevent the blade from getting stuck in the flesh) and coat the blade with an Insectoid oil, (that will inflicts increased damage on all insectoid creatures, including the changelings.)

You are probably wondering where the hell I had get all this items, aren't you? The answer to your question lies in the words 'magical bag' that is hanging next to my belt, inside of which lies one of every single potion, oil, alcohol, herb, tools to sharpening and runes that were ever met in the game. (What's more whenever one of this items would be used, as long as the empty flask, or used rune would be putted back to the bag it would be replaced by an fresh one. That fact had solved the problem about which I had already told you.) Plus it is also consisting the already mentioned magical hourglass, that can count from one to twenty four hours and a single notebook that as well is magical cause it consist a written description of every single of creatures that I had fought against, places that I had visited and peoples that I consider as important ones. (Yeah it really feels like cheating, but I like this cheats and I don't want to lose them.)

After all the preparations were finished it was time to rescue Jaskier.

Finding the changelings wasn't exactly a hard thing. I just had to go the way where my amulet vibrated the most. What happened after that can be only called as a massacre. Against me stood two hundred seventy three changelings and not even a single one had escaped, what's more as I had suspected, the two that I defeated earlier had joined they friends, sure of their number, they were confident that it will stop my attempt to retrieve her back.

Of course together with their family they were going to be very difficult enemy especially since most of them were actually bearing weapons, but in the end I wasn't going to back out of my promise only because an army had stood on my way, was I?

If you want to ask about who was the one to actually began the whole thing, then with the full confidence I can assure you that it wasn't I. No, it was exactly the same idiot that had attacked me in the room earlier. Why? How the hell I am supposed to know that, maybe he wanted to get a revenge for the previous humiliation, or maybe he was just plain stupid hot-head that was the first to attack. No one will ever know that, because this idiot had went on me alone and if that wasn't enough he had attacked exactly in the same way as he had done in the tavern, only this time I had the proper sword in hand.

As you can probably guess effect of this single motion of my hand had very sad consequences. But it wasn't until this changeling head had rolled to the wall of the closest home and the green blood from his neck had gushed on my form, that the whole hell exploded.

Just a moment before you could had heard falling needle, but that silence had been instantaneously replaced by the buzzing of changelings wings that like a single organism assaulted me with all their might at once. (Believe me if you would be there in my place you would had probably wet yourself in an instant.)

Of course I wasn't going to stay in the same spot meekly waiting until the first one of them would actually come close enough to use a sword, was I? You are probably thinking that after all the fuckers had went into the air and there were no way for me, (a wingless mutant,) to actually went there after them aren't you? Then again stop thinking, because this is exactly what I had done.

But how you ask? To begin the first thing that I had done was to climb on the closest home's roof, from which I would jump to the next, higher one and from that one to the next, all the time running towards the annoying bugs. When I had finally reached building that was closest to the lings I would had them all in the exact spot that I had wanted, still under the roofs level.

They never had seen me coming when I had jumped centrally on the backs of the highest one and the onslaught had began. Firstly I had cut off the head of the guy that I had landed on, from there I began to jump from one flier to another all the time remembering to inflict quite the damage to the nearest guys and the shifters that I had landed on. Believe me if this would had continued to went that way during the entire fight, it wouldn't be long before all the bugs would had fell to the ground.

And probably that was enough of a reason why it hadn't, 'cause it wasn't long after my game in 'GoW' had began that I was hit by a green blast straight to the chest. Oh no, of course I hadn't died there, how would I be telling you about this then? I admit that the beam was probably a strong one 'cause the energy that it was carrying with itself was enough to knock me down, straight back to the ground, but you need something much stronger than that to penetrate barrier made with the use of the Quen sign. (Sure it still wasn't close to the border of it's fullest capabilities, or was as effective against magic as book version of the Heliotrop sign, but it was enough for the changelings magic, that ,while you don't count the one belonging to Chrysalis during the wedding, is much weaker than any spell made by most of even weakest unicorns.)

Even then as I was back on the ground the damage was done, as the whole changeling forces were already depleted of another thirty six changelings, that died and of another two that were moribund, (for that moment I was left with another two hundred thirty four still breathing and ready for another attack insects.)

And next attack they performed. With all the fury of the swarm small group made of six individuals headed at me with full speed engulfed in the green flames planning to crash me with the force that was making craters in stones. They were sure of success and wasn't expecting from me any more resistance as I was still kneeling from the impact...

Only as they were about to experience on their own skins, that wasn't the real reason why I had knelt down. No, the real one was to take time and carefully draw on the ground a single symbol, (yes it was Yrden,) that just before they had reached me, had sparkled with a purple glow of activation causing that the flames coating the six had stopped just before they crashed on the ground painfully, also non of them had found themselves closer to me than in radius of a half meter. Oh yes three from six had survived the impact but a single flick of the wrist had resolved that problem.

After that I had taken advantage of the distraction that this little show made on the rest of hive, to repeat my assault on the guys that were stupid enough to remain in the air. This time however, I had changed strategy from getting on the top of the one that was highest, to grabbing the hoof of the one that was the lowest and use him as a kind of swing to go far upwards, where the whole game would start anew.

Of course the changelings aren't stupid, so when they had realized what was happening, all at once they began the blasting with their lasers, only problem that I wasn't going to let them hit me again. I was dodging them in the air, covering from them behind other changelings once I had even used original Heliotrop to disable quite accurate shot that almost get me into face the very moment when my Quen stopped to work. (It almost took me down, but I got lucky and had fell on the back of some unfortunate fellow.)

But they had eventually realized that I had the advantage in the air and with a single order from one eyed changeling, (I supposed that he was doing as someone of their commander judging by fact that the motherfucker had similar to me number of scars,) they decided to land.

The situation was quite problematic. I may had diminished their number from over two hundred to mere ninety five but it was still a numerous group. I was deprived of any free space that battle in air was providing and I hadn't killed even four of them before I get surrounded.

I had marched into a corner, before me, there was an army, behind me, there was an army, on my left, there was an army, but on my right, there was single biggest building in the entire town, that's why rather than a frontal attack I had decided to run into the edifice and like the moths to the fire changelings had followed me to the inside of it.

To say that it was mistake on their part is like to say nothing, 'cause the very moment that I had reached first floor I had used Igni to set fire to it. Then I had jumped through the window and repeated the motion on the ground floor. Of course some part of them had remained outside but most of their forces had crowded in the center of fire, only forty had escaped via windows, (before fire had reached the adjacent buildings,) what together with the group that was outside had made for sixty six in total.

I had slaughtered them all, I had slashed, burned with Igni, pushed with Aard, trapped with Yrden and then again slashed them with all my prowess, at the same time trying to repel any spell that they would use against me with Quen. Of course I hadn't escaped their onslaught without getting myself hit many times. (there was only that much what I could had done at that time.)

On my right shoulder was deep wound, (made by the one eyed guy, just before I had beheaded him,) that was profusely bleeding (it was the first real wound.) Under my left knee was quite a burn from one of the blasts, on my chest was big gush that was reaching ribs, just over my right eye there was a cut from which blood was flowing to the eye disturbing my vision. There were also many minor scratches that were already healing thanks to the use of Swallow somewhere in the middle of struggle.

In the end I was looking as if I was about to drop dead at any minute, but I had survived. (You see there is one thing that you should remember for the rest of your life, to never underestimate speed of the witcher, after the elixirs.)

But it wasn't yet a finish, there was still a little group of changelings that wasn't participating in the fight 'cause their whole attention was focused with keeping an eye on Jaskier's limp undisguised body. And so when I had reached them, (limping with the wounded leg,) I recalled more of a demon rather than human. (I was covered in blood and everywhere around me there was an abundance of corpses and a burning town. Show me a better picture of a demon and maybe then we will talk.)

When they saw me coming there wasn't in them any will to fight. Can you really blame them? The group was entirely made of frightened mares and fillies. Besides who would want to fight against the monster that had just destroyed your home and killed most of your family? Only someone incredibly brave, or stupid would be able to do that and from the many things that you can say about them, word stupid you can't. That's why when I saw this single little girl, (with the green mane and cat's eyes, also wielding a sword definitely too big for her,) came out of the group and challenged me to a duel, she exerted on me a considerable impression. Of course the fight wasn't long and after a second she was kneeling on the ground with tears in her eyes. (Have you thought that I had fell so low as to kill a child? You are sick.) She was begging me to let the others go and stop at killing her.

I wasn't listening and just went toward the others and as they had fearfully made enough space for me to go between them, I had grabbed Jaskier's form and went back to the girl.

Then I had asked her about her name. At first she was hesitating, but eventually she had told me it. After hearing her, I just went past her for about a minute, before I had turned toward her with the promise, that in the future we shall met again and until that time she should took care of the guys that lives she just saved, I had also told her that the reason why I had listened to her plead was because as I was ready to sacrifice everything to safe this one friend of mine, she had proved herself being ready to do the same for the ones she cared for.

After that I was gone for good. I had never again returned to that wretched place known modernly as badlands. (While I was already inside of this stone, I had learned that they had became that place because of a mysterious conflagration that had devoured the only city, which was responsible for maintaining that places nature and no pony had ever again wanted to go into that place they had called it cursed, what had ended with destruction of entire ecosystem inside of it.)

That was also the last time when I had saw Chrysalis, the young heir of changelings.