"Hurry!"
The four of us desperately ran through the wide doors bearing Canterlot Castle, the buzzing monsters behind us hounding, only a dozen meters or two behind us. The ground was shaking and I could hear the cries of battle outside, the clashing of steel and magic whipping through the air with the might of a war hammer. A drop of sweat ran down my temple, the strong beat of my heart in my head. I made sure that all of us got through, then turned to my second-hand man.
"Isaac! Shut the door!"
A bright yellow unicorn with a jagged hornet mane immediately turned around and pulled the door closed, a light-blue aura encompassing the wooden planks of the entrance and his horn. Dark purple robes trimmed with blue covered his stature with a sparkling band of blue wrapped around the base of his scraggly short tail. A purple hood was partially over his head, somehow staying over it even though it looked like it could fall off any moment. Unknowing to the average player, there were pearly-white silk shoes over his hooves and his cutie mark represented a single lightning bolt outlined in black flying through the air. As the doors shut ribbons of magic flew out of his horn and barred the entrance, energy pouring into the spell as a dark and empty meter appeared over his head, quickly filling.
"Just a moment!" he said, his voice a bit shaky, glancing back one moment so I could see the shine of his green eyes. I turned back to face the room. It appeared as empty as could be, but throughout encounters, I've learned better. I just hoped that I was wrong. We were already strapped for time and energy as it was without an ambush. I didn't think that the game was a dick enough to pull something like that, though.
"Crap, I'm out of potions." a maroon Earth Pony mentioned behind me as the crash of an empty bottle resonated throughout the space after he threw it aside. From memory I pictured his long black mane hanging over the front of his Mithril plate body, the silver steel light enough for increased dexterity but gave more protecting the most other armour from the medium class. Well, most for his level, anyways. The metal extended over his back to the end, and he had Mithril boots to match his set. He technically also had a helmet made from the same stuff equipped, but he had the vanity option checked on, so it didn't appear on his model. Slung across his back was a large black sword, the flat absurdly wide and looked seemingly impossible to carry. The weapon was almost as long as him, but the specialized copper handle was angled over his shoulder in such a manner that he could grab it with his teeth at a moment's notice. His name was Christopher, and he was our Knight.
Our other teammate, Richard, A.K.A. Mr. Stoic, A.K.A. Wolfe, who stood near the one-sword wonder, turned to us after staring at the closed door for a few moments. He too was an Earth Pony, but instead of the somewhat thin armour the other had, he garnered a full set of shining green armour, only labeled as "Stoic Dragonite Full", and wore the helmet that came with the set too. I could see his blue eyes gleam from the open eyepiece of the helm. He has no weapon of sort, but instead had glowing white gauntlets on his hooves, the soles oozing with power, the fronts of the pieces having tiny but sharp claws. His short-cut lime tail poked out of the back, too short for any kind of enemy to catch and hold in place, not like there's a game mechanic like that or anything. "I'm out too."
Isaac finished his channel and the bar disappeared, the door behind us shimmering in a soft blue light, held in place by streaks of light over the gap of the wood. The door violently rattled as invaders from the other side slammed into the front with fury, but I had no doubt the spell would hold. The mage trotted closer to our standing in the middle of the room. "What'll we do?"
"We're gonna have to keep going." I answered, my eyes moving over the tattered red carpet on the floor. We were only in the front hall of Canterlot Castle, but you could tell that there had been a very large battle here. There was debris all over the floor, crumbled stone from fallen pillars and cracks in the normally shining cobblestone floor. The banners that were hanging over the stairs up to the second floor were torn, fluttering in the flowing air in the room, barely a testament to what they once were. Pebbles were scattered along the carpet. There were no ponies to be seen, which made sense in a way because of the private Quest Event our party was holding, but at the same time was unnerving because of the war outside. If there had been a battle here, then where did all the casualties go?
I scratched the back of my head, accidentally bumping my headset in the process. Quickly I fixed them, adjusting the microphone so that I wasn't eating it a much. My eyes were constantly glued to the glowing monitor of my computer and I used my desk lamp to combat the darkness of the room. The moon shone brightly through my window blinds across the middle of my room, but I had positioned my workspace so that I wouldn't be bothered by it. Slapping the alt button on my keyboard with my thumb brought up the map at the upper left corner of the UI, and along with it a periodically blinking yellow marker. Underneath the map was a list of Quest objectives, the most concurrent one right at the top of the box in bold letters while the completed ones dulled in colour beneath.
Just before I barely started forward, Changelings swooped through the front facing windows near the entrance. My eyes widened as their buggy wings buzzed through the air right into my headset. My eyes briefly flicked to my MP counter at the bottom left-hand side of the interface. It was low and still recharging.
"Run!" I shouted, holding down the shift key as I bolted forward, my party swiftly following suit. The Changelings entered in a steady flow through their newfound passages, but at a much slower pace than they would have if they had access to the door. They were only grunts, soldiers that stood at the front line to be eaten up by enemy fire and open up a path for the powerhouses in the back. But, there were so many of them that I didn't want to risk fighting them, especially since we were all getting low on recovery items and MP, and because I wasn't certain that the flow would stop.
All four of us sprinted up the stairs to the right, entering a thin hall through the castle with the Changelings right near our backs. The rest of the castle didn't seem as nearly as battle-scarred as the front hall was, but it didn't seem to matter that much at that point. We flew through passage after passage, passing by various paintings and pottery poised up on finely cut oak tables, shined to perfection. The purple doors that were attached to the walls were closed, and I could tell from experience (and by the map) that there was no way we would be able to open them and hide anytime soon. We kept running.
“How big is this place?” Isaac questioned. I guess he was following the map as intently as was. “We’ve been here before, and I don’t think I remember Canterlot Castle was as big and complicated as this!”
“Yeah, you’re right. This seems a lot more maze-like.” I agreed, taking note of the increasing number of winding halls as we moved though the fortress.
“I bet the devs changed it map a bit for the quest.” Richard said into his microphone, his deep and calm Filipino voice bass-y though the amazing FiM:MMO voice engine. “It would get pretty boring if the map stayed the same for each and every quest, if you ask me.”
We passed by a large doorway that was caved in with rubble, but from the map you could definitely tell there used to be something there, or at least there is something there outside of the quest. “Hmm. I guess you’re right.”
We somehow got to the Eastern wing of the Castle, running along the outer wall. We were starting to make distance between the group chasing us even though Isaac and I had to let up on the sprint key once in a while. As Unicorns, we didn’t have the endurance our tanky Earth Pony pals had, and our classes didn’t exactly give us a speed boost over them. But they didn’t leave us in the dust as we fought to catch up. I could see Canterlot though the glass, multiple buildings up in smoke, blasts of magic shooting up and across the streets, arrows flying everywhere and the occasional Pegasus guard squads chasing a group of Changelings, or vice versa. I was thinking in the back of my mind though how nice it was for the developers of Dreamweaver to have let the players travel this long without getting ambushed.
Suddenly the windows in front of us shattered, throwing pieces of glass on the ground as more Changeling grunts spawned from outside, flooding in. They all glared at us, evil blue eyes glowing, grinning at their plan of attack. We all stopped in our tracks, daunted by the ambush.
“Keep going!” I shouted, moving up to the front and casting Turbulence, a wind spell that was mostly effective against winged enemies. A half-pipe of air blasted through the hall, the front of the force in the middle and creating a nice split in the passage way. The Changelings were thrown out of the air, either plastered to the left wall and left Stunned, or were thrown right back out the window and de-spawned. The mass of mobs thinned and we charged forward, narrowly missing various swipes at us as we tapped the sprint key to dodge. I watched the monitor as we dove and rolled through the narrow corridor, our pony avatars wide-eyed and attentive at the dangerous situation they were in.
The Changelings seemed to stop spawning after a bit, and we took a left. “It can’t be far now.” I encouraged my team. My eyes flicked to my MP bar, and even though it was steadily rising higher than half, that was still a little low for my tastes.
Not a minute or two went by and we finally reached the quest marker on our map. The arrow turned into a full blinking circle once we were in range of the map to draw the room. Somehow we made our way past the throne room into the basement, where we entered a dark cellar filled with large barrels. As we got to the back of the cellar, a large rotting door that was covered in black vines came into view. The plants looked absolutely nasty, with some kind of green liquid drooling out of the thorns jutting out from the vines. Every time the thick substance dripped onto the ground, the old stone would sizzle and slowly dig downward. I took a very brief moment to fully enjoy the aesthetics of the game. The amount of detail was astounding and I was surprised my computer could draw such tiny pieces of the puzzle, never mind the fact that Dreamweaver put the time and effort into making those little pieces.
We all slid to a stop at the door. The quest marker was right over it, so I hit the control key and unlocked my cursor, hovering over the vines.
“RUNE THERORY: LVL 63 -or- HARVESTING: LVL 46 required to dispel Black Marrow Vines.” read the text box that appeared next to my cursor. I relayed the information to the others.
“Well, that’s either me or Wolfe.” Isaac said as we all looked at each other.
“It better be Isaac,” Wolfe decided for us, his tone ever solid and neutral with a hint of iron. “He doesn’t have enough defence to hold off the Changelings if we get attacked.”
Suddenly a bunch of red blips appeared near the entrance of the room, rapidly approaching us. I dragged my mouse across its pad to see a hoard of Changeling grunts, elites and bruisers rushing us. I squeaked, and my teammates realized my distress and drew their weapons, turning towards the oncoming storm.
I hit Q and drew out my Battle Spellbook with its green, Unique Lunar-Blessed Dragonite short sword from its brown pack and sheathe on my back, stepping forward. “Isaac, start on the door and get it down. We’ll cover you.”
“Got it!” Isaac answered, facing the door and trotting up to it. Richard and Wolfe joined my side as Isaac’s avatar leaned forward, closed his eyes and started channeling a blue stream of magic up against the vines. The vines began to pulsate and flex, beams of light escaping the gaps between the wood of the door and the evil plants. A progress bar appeared over Isaac, empty and reading “2:28” over it.
“Do you have enough MP for this?” Wolfe honestly asked, forming a battle plan in his head.
“I do, but my Ulti’s still on cooldown. We’re not going flashy anytime soon.”
The wave of buggy ponies rapidly approached us. There were ten in the front, and another ten behind them, and another, and another. I swallowed. I hoped that we wouldn’t get slaughtered and sent back to the last checkpoint. We hadn’t gotten a checkpoint in a while.
“Remember to stay in the back.” Wolfe reminded be before breaking into a sprint towards the unrelenting force heading for us. Richard’s avatar took a few steps forward and broke out into a smile. I shook my head. That good always liked the most immersion out of his games.
As the gap closed between Wolfe and an elite leading the pack, Wolfe leaped up into the air and a channel bar appeared over his character. The enemy charged at him with a sudden burst of speed, mouth wide open and shrieking, fangs gleaming under the light of the torches around the cellar. The animation finished and Wolfe punched the ground, letting out a shockwave against the floor and shaking the screen. The entire wave of Changelings was thrown off of their hooves and sent up into the air stuck in the Helpless state. That was Wolfe’s Ultimate Ability, Shockwave. He immediately performed suppression circle and engaged the elite that previously dove at him, still stunned on the ground.
“Here we go!” Richard called, taking up Wolfe’s left side and swinging his Great sword in a large berth over his head, hitting multiple targets at once. I jumped to the right side and casted focus, gathering data of my foes as multiple crosshairs checked over the multiple mobs I was facing. The three of us formed a semi-circle around Isaac, and his character kept casting some sort of non-descriptive spell at the door.
I quickly lost focus of my other two teammates as I focused on my own foes. The changelings were already losing their Stun, especially the three or so larger Changeling Bruisers that had an innate resistance to Status Effects. I right clicked, opening up my Spell Book on the bottom right corner of my screen. A list of spells appeared, along with the page number “1/4” I scrolled my mouse wheel, hovered over Fire Wave and hit the F key, casting it at the direction my character was facing. A blast of heat plowed through my enemies, making them flinch and causing an Afterburn effect that damaged them even after the spell was cast.
Then, the Bruisers got up and slowly ran over their rising brethren eyes furrowed and heads pointing down towards me. Their lanky body and think limbs made them tower over my tiny Unicorn, but they were slow, didn’t have a very good Fortitude stat for a tanky mob and somehow had dumber AI than the other Changelings. As a Spellsword I didn’t have much access to Status Effect spells, but I did have a few tricks up my sleeve. I kept close attention to my Spell Book and cast Frost Bite. A huge jaw of ice shot out from my horn and hit all three targets, dealing some damage but more importantly slowing them down even further. Then, the elites got up and started moving towards me, activating their Agility buffs to increase their Movement Speed. I tossed a few Fireballs out and hit some straight on, exploding in a moderate radius and dealing some damage to the rest of the Changelings on the floor.
And then the grunts got up, and that’s where I figured that we were going to have a problem.
I could hear the slicing of metal-on-flesh from my teammates, as well as the effects of their abilities going off, so I figured it was time to turn up the heat. I cast Firewall a good distance away from me, eating up a portion of my MP. As Changelings ran through it they were Badly Burned and kept stopping to flinch every time they got hit from the Afterburn. I sent out another Fireball or two and slayed the first half dozen creatures, numbers of experience floating up from where they turned to smoldering ash. The elites were too fast though and they powered through the Firewall, even after suffering flinching from their wings being on fire.
That wasn’t a problem for me. I hit the right mouse button and my Spell Book was dismissed, the list of spells shrinking from view. As a Spellsword, I get many abilities that other fast, one-on-one classes like the Duelist, Sky Hunter and Warrior get. I activated the Battle Flow ability that was mapped to my one key, mashing two in tandem with my left mouse click. As a result my character flew forwards with grace, his hooves seemingly skating on stone as a gleaming yellow light appeared underneath my hooves. He spun around, cutting though the elites charging him and getting a free Dodge with every successful blow. I kept backing up bit by bit, hitting Shift to dodge back in forth in an instant, the ground beneath my character frictionless and allowing for more free movement.
An elite from my immediate right set himself in green fire and blazed forward. I didn’t dodge on time and got nicked in the side, eating up a bit of my HP. My button-pressing became a bit more desperate. I couldn’t take as many hits as Richard and Wolfe could. Technically the right side of our defence was the weakest simply because I was the one defending it. It didn’t look like the others could spare any time or focus on helping me, so I just had to do my best on my own.
I hit the R key once and it shuffled my ability set to another page. My character spun in a circle, shortsword in magical grip, swinging it wide out as it rotated three times. I dashed to one side against a barrel and closed in on a nearby elite, killing it with a stab to the chest. Seeing the Firewall wearing off, I opened up my Spell Book briefly to cast Fire Circle, which did as its name implies. My attacks were suddenly imbued with the power of flames and any Changeling that cross the boundaries of the circle were set aflame. I had a bit of MP left over, so I changed Spell Book pages with R and cast another spell, a Blizzard forming over a small area inside the low-ceiling of the room and freezing over anything that walked underneath it. There was another elite that got me from my blind spot and I took a hit. My HP was down a bit below half. I didn’t have much time left if I was going to play as sloppy as that.
My sword flew forth and I Wavedashed to and fro, weaving in to score hits on my enemies and back just out of harms reach. My focus was right on the battle and a part of my concentration was on the corner of my eye, right on my Endurance meter as it drained every time I performed an ability or dodged. It suddenly got dangerously low as I hit the dodge key one too many times and I paid for it, taking a blast of green Changeling fire right in the face. My HP dropped. I was about to face my attacker and cut him a new one when a Bruiser slammed into my side and sent me into the nearby wall.
My character was Stunned and I grit my teeth, slowly getting frustrated. I was getting overrun, and a few Changelings got to Isaac and started beating on him. My character got up onto his hooves and I threw a Fireball at the group, incinerating all of them at once. I didn’t how long I could keep it up, and now that the Bruisers weren’t stunned anymore I didn’t think that I could face both them, the Elites and the grunts at the same time. I took a potion or two, tapping the potion key until I realized that I was out too. “Damn it. I’m getting overrun.”
All of the sudden a wall of rock crossed the room from the left side and jutted out of the ground, creating a barrier against a barrel that the Changelings wouldn’t be able to get across. I checked the corner of my hidden map. There was a crossed-out wing symbol. Yep, there was no flying allowed down here, meaning that the Changelings had no way to get through the wall until it crumbled after a dozen seconds.
“That help you?” Richard asked, and I watched his character grab an Elite by the head and swing him towards his comrades, letting go after a full rotation and let heads fly as he hit a strike with his bug bowling. I could only imagine the dumb grin on his stupid face.
“Plenty. Thanks.” I answered back. My MP recharged a bit and threw out another Turbulence, blasting many Changelings aside and Stunning them for a bit. My Battle Flow had run out but I performed it again, eating up a chunk of my Endurance to get a leg up on the opponent and glide through the ranks with grace. My sword entered and exited through many as I swept through the opposition, killing grunts a plenty, a few Elites and even one of the damn Bruisers that was leaning up against a barrel, seeing stars.
Just when things started to look up, I got blasted aside by a Bruiser that I didn’t even see coming. As my avatar was getting up from the Stun, another one came and slammed him on his side, chaining Status Effects.
“What the hell?” I asked, as suddenly Richard’s Ulti ran out and the rock wall disappeared. A gigantic wave of Changelings came forth and I could feel the blood leave my face. I frantically casted Will of Iron Force at yet another Bruiser and a cannonball of invisible strength shot forth, running over the Bruiser as well as a number of baddies behind him. Unfortunately, that also ate up the rest of my remaining MP. I grit my teeth as I realised my mistake and my Melee game went into overdrive, twisting and turning around the blows of elites and grunts as they had a blitz, trying to kite myself like the pros do.
Wolfe grunted, suddenly interrupting the mic silence. “Sorry. I got a bit overrun.”
I checked my map to see where he was and realized all of red dots that was surrounding him, and the one or two that occasionally got through. Because he was the center of the semi-circle, he had to handle the most of the mobs as once. As the tank, that was optimal, but it still didn’t defeat the fact that he couldn’t handle that many enemies at once. The Changeling force was relentless and numerous. And the just didn’t stop spawning.
Richard’s end wasn’t doing too well either, and Changelings were getting through. Four, five, six grunts were wailing on Isaac as his HP began to drop.
“This would be a lot easier if we had Alex here!” he called out, stressfully waiting, wanting to heal himself but couldn’t because of the channel. He was absolutely right, and I had a pang of longing go through my limbs. Alex was our Sky Hunter glass cannon, and she would have at least been able to help out with the Bruisers if not the sheer number of enemies we were dealing with. Having our Cleric here would have been a massive improvement too. I backed up to pick off the grunts with my sword, but that only let in more Changelings from my side of the circle. I watched with horror as the circle collapsed and we all had backed up against the wall near the door, right beside Isaac, fighting back the oncoming hoard.
There was an abrupt sound of slithering vines and a lock unlocking.
“I’ve got it!” Isaac called out. The door that was sealed opened up to darkness inside. “Go go go!”
I attacked one more elite as it reeled up, ready to stomp me. It fell to the floor, a deep cut right across its chest and I turned tail to run into the doorway. Isaac was the first one in, followed by Richard and I. Wolfe had a bit of trouble disengaging from the enemy, but he managed it eventually. We all carried through to the next room, and the darkness of my room was filled with orange as game art filled the loading screen.
The next chamber was large, dark and brooding. I could almost taste the moisture in my own room as we descended down into a spacious cave, stalagmites holding on to the ceiling several dozen feet above us. As we walked out of the corridor that we spawned from the ground hugged the dark-blue stone wall, creating a ledge that lead down a slope to what seemed to be a scraggly rock bridge. Despite its appearance it did not break as we crossed it onto a large circular platform that had a very odd insignia dug into the ground. It was Twilight’s starburst for sure, but what was it doing there? We discussed through the chat as we split up and explored the rest of the catacombs.
We appeared to be in some kind of underground arena. The area was multileveled, lowering down another four floors to the deepest pit that oozed with dank and humidity. There was barely any light to see from except for several different coloured crystals that jutted from the walls of the cave. The glittering glassworks glowed with a certain marvel, creating a warm atmosphere where the deep greens, heated red, starling yellows and bubbling oranges shined over. There were many closed-off pathways between two points such as bridges or corridors that heavily limited movement and could clearly be seen as chokepoints of some kind. The ledges around the cave were the only real spaces you could sit comfortably on and stretch your legs, beside the large platform in the middle that hovered above the entire pit. My map slowly drew itself in as we all explored our surroundings, our map data all shared by one another.
There was a door that Richard discovered on the opposite side of the room from where we entered. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so happy seeing it.
“Aw man! Limited entry only?” He voiced, calling all of our attention to him.
“Huh? What do you mean? Did you find a door?” I asked, making my way towards his location. My other friends all joined us at the second basement.
“Check this: “Limited entry. Only one person in your party may continue the quest. The other party members will still participate in a special event, watch the ending of the quest and receive the appropriate amount of Quest Points and rewards. The following special event will be performed:”
I unlocked my cursor and clicked on the door. It easily reached as high as the floor above us and could have easily fit three ponies in the frame all at the same time. It looked like the entrance to an old mining passage, except the wood that made the arch wasn’t old at all, but instead was freshly painted an aquamarine blue. The door itself was a dark purple, and the same cutie mark that was on the platform in the battle arena was an outline on the door’s surface. As I clicked, the boom of a large drum played in my earphones, reaching out to the bass and hitting hit hard with reverb. Richard’s recital relayed in a text box in front of me and Richard’s last line was lost to me as I read it out aloud in my head myself:
“PONY DEFENCE”
I inwardly groaned. Isaac did it aloud for me. “Well this is great.” he said.
“Don’t complain. We’re not through yet.” Wolfe plainly stated.
“Who should go in?” I asked, making my avatar turn to my comrades.
“You should.” Wolfe immediately responded.
I was a bit surprised by his swift answer. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’re the best at one-v-one-ing out of all of us. Your class is the most versatile and your kit allows for kiting.”
“If the quest is splitting us up now, I bet that it’s throwing a boss at the person who does go through.” Richard figured out.
“Eh, well…” I muttered off.
Isaac trotted to me. “Come on. You’re the best one for the job. If Alex was here, I would totally be pushing her through the door head first, but since she’s not, well, you’re next in line, bud.”
“I’ll go, but I want to make sure I’m not stealing anyone’s fun. Does anyone else want to go besides me?”
My party gave me varied answers that all summed up to “No.” As they did so their pony avatars read the sound waves of their microphones and played emotes for their models. It was small animations that didn’t interrupt gameplay, and you could disable them in the options menu, but it was a very, very nice touch that no one expected and honestly seemed impossible without certain technology and genius.
“Well, ok.” I submitted. I clicked on the door again and my pony turned to face it. The textbox appeared again along with the bass of the low drum. “Are you guys sure that you’ll be fine without me?”
Isaac’s character stretched their limbs, a smirk appearing on their face. That dick. “Hey man, I’ve spent the last 15 minutes either loading, running or handling doors. I’m ready for some action already.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Alright. Here I go. Good luck, you guys.”
The returned the sentiment. Below the text were two buttons side-by-side. One said cancel, and the other said proceed. You can guess which one I clicked. The box asked me one last time if I was sure that I wanted to proceed as the single representative of the party. I clicked forward.
My communication was cut with my teammates as I entered another loading screen.
My screen went black for a second or two when I finally entered the next room. My character was standing in a rather tight tunnel, water dripping off the ceiling. For a cave underneath a mountain it was really wet. Anyways, I progressed forward and the clops of hooves on the rock echoed though the smooth cylindrical shape of the corridor. I almost forgot I was in control of the game and not in a cut-scene. Not even a dozen seconds later and high-pitched, unidentifiable noises rushed me from the end of the tunnel up again. I kept going.
There was an eerie green glow that reflected off of the wall after a certain point, and the path gradually turned left. I realized that there was no music playing in the area. It was only ambiance and sound effects, and I was suddenly nervous. I could make out the sounds coming towards me to be grunts and shouts of a scuffle going on. I hastened my pace and turned the slow curve where the end of the tunnel opened up to a large cave.
I was appalled. The cave left off to a leddge that hugged the edge of the space downward to the center space on the floor, which consisted of solid ground. Green glowing Changeling pods hung everywhere from the walls and the ceiling. Sediment pillars that seemingly kept the scene from collapsing were covered in oozing changeling eggs, round orbs that had the same sickly colour as the love pods. Both objects were connected by a series of pipes, or vines take your pick. Most of the pods had pony figures stuck in them, floating as dark outlines, positioned in a very fetal position as they slept and had the life sucked out of them.
But in the center of the floor were two extra-large pods that illuminated their surrounding with a ferocity unseen. I could see two figures in the pods, both larger than the normal ponies, both having two lumps of something on the sides of their backs and both having a horn jutting out of their foreheads. My jaw dropped. I learned early in the quest that Princess Celestia and Luna were taken by Chrysalis, but I didn’t know she would put them in pods! I didn’t think it was possible? How could you take a duo of powerful beings, put them asleep and suck the energy out of them like that? It seemed impossible! And from the energy that flowed from their positions, it appeared that they were getting harvested dry, and fast.
There was a violet flare of light that blinded my screen before a scream, followed by the sound of someone falling on the floor. Before my eyes adjusted green fire filled my vision and a girl grunted as I only assumed she took a hit. There was a low rock wall that stood as sort of a railing to the trail that skirted the side of the cave. I hit the duck button and hugged the railing, the third-person view of the camera allowed me to see over the cover and pay attention to anything that happened as I carefully made my way down to base level.
Out of the blast of light I could see Twilight Sparkle, rolling on the ground. When she stopped she sat up, huffed and threw a shield up before heated green fire hit the barrier. She was wearing her signature purple witch robes that were specifically made for her character by Dreamweaver. It looked like shiny silk and wrapped around her entire body, hanging on to the top of her neck and extending down far past the back of her rear legs. Apparently she also had special horseshoes equipped, but they were never given a model because you never get to see below her robes. The clothes also had a hood that she never wore, and strapped across her back was a bag that held her own Battle Spellbook, a special weapon that only she had and was modeled after the Book of Friendship. Since all of her equipment was specific to her character, they weren’t given state, but according to the developers the equipment of the Mane 6 are some of the strongest in the game.
I could see swamp eyes with slits as the pupils glaring down at the downed Twilight, malice and a sick joy in the expression. As the fire deflected off of the purple shield I saw Queen Chrysalis in her full glory, a chitin-based armour covering her stature. You couldn’t see the holes stuck into her limbs, but her signature curved crown was still stuck on her head next to her jagged horn. A twisted smile of joy was plastered on her face and I could see her fangs stick out of her top lip. She reared back and stopped channeling her spell to slam her front hooves on Twilight’ barrier, leaning on it as she shot more fire at it. The shield flickered and Twilight gasped, looking around trying to find an escape without losing focus. She was absolutely vulnerable lying down like that and no chance to turn the tables unless she stood up first.
I kept creeping forward, making sure to be slow as to not notify the enemy of my presence. One might think that they’re in a cut-scene but in actuality in moments like this the game give you full control of the situation, allowing you to make choices as you see fit. You decide when to wait, when to attack, when to watch and when to intervene. The stupid bug was too busy trying to squash Twilight that she didn’t notice my progress down the slope. Even though I was behind cover it didn’t mean that she couldn’t hear me if she tried. Still, I could tell that my sneaking was successful when the game notified me in the chat box that my Sneaking skill had increased to 14.
Twilight teleported to the other side of the room but Chrysalis predicted the move and shot energy of a lime colour to where Twilight appeared. She barely had time to throw up a weak shield that barely deflected the spell before she jumped behind a pillar, huffing.
“You can’t fight forever, Twilight Sparkle.” Queen Chrysalis said, patiently making her way towards Twilight’s location, taking her time so she wouldn’t miss anything Twilight threw at her. Oh, and also to gloat and have her evil villain talk to. That’s probably the other two reasons. “You are outmatched in every aspect. Surrender, and give in to your Changeling queen!”
“Never”! Twilight called back, turning the corner and casting Arcane Bullet, which despite its name was not a bullet made of magic. Chrysalis swatted the hit aside with her own magic, a soft green glow coming from her body. I realized that Twilight would have been winning if not for one tiny little fact.
“You shouldn’t resist the inevitable. I have all the love I need from the citizens of Canterlot. They can give me unlimited energy and power, and I will never tire. I am as close to an immortal as I can get, Twilight Sparkle, and to me you are a simple mote of life, readily squished if I will it. Submit.”
Twilight gave a quick breath and dashed from behind her cover, aiming toward another pillar, circle clockwise around the round cave. Chrysalis let out a flurry of arcane missiles, which either narrowly missed Twilight or had hit the third shield she made. She must have been getting low on MP. I was almost at the bottom, but I still tried to go faster.
“Your princesses are gone, Twilight.” Chrysalis continued, further approaching Twilight’s location. A chill ran down my spine. They got the same voice actresses from the show for the game, giving 100-percent authenticity. It would have been amazing if not for the desperate atmosphere the battle was giving. “You have seen the power they display over Equestria, and I have it all in two pods, right down here in my little paradise of love. I have the will of the moon and sun underneath my grasp, and what do you have?”
Green fire shot up from the ground near Chrysalis and shot towards Twilight’s cover, curving around the pillar. Twilight squealed and the green fire hit something that I couldn’t see from my angle. She stumbled out from behind her rocky barrier, her coat and mane looking a little more than burnt. She had a bit of a glazed-over look, but fought to stay in focus away from the pain as she shook her head and got moving again. There was flash of light-blue light on the tip of Twilight’s horn and a chilling wave of snow flew towards Chrysalis. The bug overlord didn’t even flinch as a green shield of her own materialized in front of her, absorbing the effects of the Frost Wave spell. Everything around Chrysalis was frozen like a crisp winter night.
I got to the bottom of the ramp and quickly found cover against one of the pillars. She still hadn’t seen me. I hoped that Twilight could last a little bit longer for me to sneak closer so I could get a surprise attack on Chrysalis. I had the perfect spell for the job, and if I got the jump on freakazoid then I would get a bonus multiplier of 3. I didn’t know how much health she had, as Unicorns have to cast Scan in order to get basic information from opponents, while the other classes get can get it automatically from a perk. That was a very tiny drawback I had to deal with playing a Spellsword. Never the less, if Twilight got in danger I might need to play my hand early. I already got the hint that if she perished I would fail the quest and would have to restart the boss fight with reduced rewards.
A spiraling pillar of fire rose around Chrysalis, quickly melting the frost around her, including the ground. I had to bet that Twilight cast the ice spell so she could try and get Chrysalis to slip on the floor (which was a legit game mechanic). It seemed that Chrysalis was too smart for that, and she cackled in glee as a she sent her own wave spell at Twilight – a Heat Wave. Twilight gasped and desperately dove behind another sediment pile before her hide got cooked. I bit my lip. I suddenly realized that I didn’t know if this battle sequence was fixed, where the characters always say the same things, use the same moves and move to the same locations every instance or if it was dynamic, where the game decided what moves they used and how long each opponent survived. I didn’t want to take any chances. I inched further towards the back of my target, rolling between cover.
“You have nothing, Sparkle. Nothing! And I have everything I need to rule a nation, and more! Soon, after I’ve taken the whole of Equestria and converted all of the ponies into love generators, I’ll move on to Gryphonia! And then Dragonia! And then overseas! I have the ultimate power, and you can’t stop me!”
“You’re nuts!” Twilight claimed, barely scraping by another attack. “And you’re wrong! I have do have something! I have my friends right by my side battling you all the way!”
Chrysalis appeared to have started charging up for a killer spell. Uh oh. “Oh? And tell me, where exactly are your friends right now?”
“They’re in Canterlot Castle, fighting their way towards me as we speak!” Twilight shouted, casting Lightning Spark to try and interrupt the channel. Chrysalis easily blocked it with another barrier. I was mere meters away. I needed to get a bit closer before I had my chance.
“Foalish filly, your friends are done for!” Chrysalis exclaimed, firing off what energy she had stored. Twilight screamed. My jaw dropped. She charged the spell that fast? What the hell? That should have been impossible! In the corner of my vision I realized that the two pods containing the royal sisters glowed with a ferocity I had never seen before. The Changeling queen was drawing copious amounts of power from them! I didn’t have much time left. It was do, or die.
Twilight got up from a pile of rubble near the wall of the cave. She groaned and held her head as Chrysalis approached her, standing tall once again. “My Changelings had captured your friends long before you got here. I listened to my network of workers close enough to know when I had crippled the Elements of Harmony rightfully so. And now that they’re out of the picture, I can remove you too!”
Chrysalis started charging her horn again. I had no time. I rushed forward from my hiding spot.
“It’s time to die, Twilight Sparkle!” Chrysalis declared, and took aim.
“Stop!” I shouted through my microphone. I already had my next spell ready, which was Static Web. The following blast of white lightning from my avatar’s horn interrupted Chrysalis’s channel and made her stumble aside. Twilight quickly got up and Teleported to the very far end of the room.
“What is this?” Chrysalis asked, eyebrows furrowed. “Who dares interrupt me in my moment of glory?”
I didn’t give her time to react. I short forward with a simple Spark and Chrysalis blocked it, although with a bit of difficulty. I knew I couldn’t let up on the pressure, and my MP bar was full after resting in the battle arena for so long. I casted Fireball.
“Annoying little misfit!” she cried, the spell breaking her surprisingly weak barrier as twin snakes of green fire rose from the ground and headed straight towards me. I performed a spell that turned altered my dodge and hit the shift key, turning my pony into particles for a brief second as the missiles past right through me. I charged forward, closing the gap between us.
“What? Stay away!” she cried, pulling a very jagged and black sword from behind her back. I rose mine up and clicked, bringing the Dragonite down on her. Her sword clashed with mine, and it was a brief Strength struggle before I backed up and decided that I probably would lose a button-mashing fight against the computer. I got a fair distance away from her and pulled a sneaky trick, casting Overgrowth beneath her, summoning strong vines through the ground and binding her. Before she had time to cut them down, She was slammed in the side by a pink Magic Missile and shot right into the wall of the cave, shaking the screen.
“You apparently didn’t check your workers enough, bitch! ‘Cause my team and I got through!” I taunted, even though I knew Chrysalis wouldn’t have a response for me. It was hard to remember that it was only a game though all the interactive features Dreamweaver did with microphone input. Twilight stood triumphantly a safe distance away behind me, favoring her front left leg as she smirked. Finally I got the change to cast Scan at my enemy, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Chrysalis only had half HP left.
Chrysalis growled and let out a wave of pure energy, drawing love from the pods around her as our surroundings were illuminated with light. I particle-dodged the blast towards her again, increasing my speed with one of my abilities and casted another lightning spell. It hit her square on the chest but didn’t slow her down as she got up and started to strafe around the rock pillars. We traded spells as she let loose with a line of fire and I threw a Fireball at her. I was using up my MP and Endurance Points really quickly, so I tried to devise a plan of attack before I ran out of resources.
Chrysalis suddenly burst into Changeling fire and raced around the room, circling around right towards Twilight. Twilight was almost caught off guard but she yelped and teleported behind me. The crazed menace immediately changed direction and started sprinting full tilt towards me. She screamed, and I let out a cannonball of magic. The two forces met, but my spell made quick work of her and she got blasted to the side, ramming into several of her eggs, squishing them in the process.
When she got up and realized what the disgusting goop she was covered in was made of, she let out a scream of rage and got up. “I have had enough! You have come here, stopped me from killing the Element of Magic and are now killing my little babies! This ends here!”
Her eyes started glowing with a deep, resonating power as air started moving rapidly in the room. All the pods became blindly bright and the ponies inside the pods curled up on themselves in pain. Celestia and Luna’s pods shined the brightest and I braced myself for the next attack. Funny enough, as soon as Chrysalis hit the wall that had her eggs she fell below 15% HP. I was a bit giddy for the fact that they gave her a special voice clip if those requirements were met, but I knew I couldn’t get distracted for long. Based on Twilight’s state I didn’t think she could create a shield for the both of us that would absorb the attack and I didn’t have any great shield spells to use for myself. I was too squishy to tank the final shot.
Desperate, I rushed forward, using Battle Flow once more to close the gap between me and Chrysalis. My Scan spell allowed me to see the progress of enemy channeled spells, and Chrysalis was approaching the end of hers with frightening speed. I reached her, swung my sword down once then hit the four key and slit her throat, dealing a good amount of damage based on what health she was missing. But it wasn’t enough. I had no MP left and my EP was almost empty too. My normal attacks wouldn’t cut it, and I wouldn’t be able to do enough damage in time to stop her.
I turned my camera towards Twilight. She stared at my avatar with scared eyes.
And then I felt like an idiot.
I remembered, and I switched ability pages to find that beautiful 2-slot illuminated, ready to use.
My Ultimate was ready. And it didn’t cost anything to use.
A wild smirk grew over my face and I unlocked my cursor. I clicked on Chrysalis, and just as the light around her horn reached an apex, just before she finished the charge and barely prior to her casting the spell I slammed my middle finger on the key to my success.
Every ten levels, starting from level ten, you get access to an ultimate ability. This kind of ability isn’t attached to your spell book because not all classes get one. It goes right onto your ability bar and acts like a normal ability, although with higher costs and an extremely long time before you can use it again. Most Spellsword players use the first Ultimate out of necessity until they reach level 30, where they can use Darklight Binding until they switch again at level 60. But I’m not like most other Spellswords. I keep the first Ultimate. Because even though it may be the weakest Ultimate in theory, it has a lot of flexibility with how customize the effects it can cause to the target with perks and various items. I think the first Ultimate is still relevant because of how it works well in many situations, protecting you, protecting your party, healing you and dealing massive damage to the target.
It was very archaic. But I used it because I saw potential. I believed it was super effective.
“Smite!” I shouted, leaning into the screen.
My avatar lifted himself up off the ground to his back hind legs and threw his right hoof into the air as a spark of static shone from the tip of his horn. A javelin of pure arcane destruction flew from somewhere in the ceiling and struck right into Chrysalis. The yellow arrow of light stuck right into her, driving through her body and pinning her to the floor. Well, it would have if she wasn’t done for anyways. She screamed, and the game slowed down as I finished the battle, the queen falling slowly on her side, the look of shock in her eyes frozen in the moment.
“Noooo!” Chrysalis’s voice echoed as the action slowed down to a close. The game cut to black. The next thing I saw was Chrysalis kneeling down, barely able to stand up, much less look up. She has small scrapes all over her body and she grit her teeth, trying to draw more love from hr factory. The pods refused to glow. She growled in frustration. The camera was at a low angle against the floor and Twilight’s hoof stepped into view. The cut-scene showed Twilight staring at Chrysalis with my avatar right behind her, glaring dangerously at the downed royalty.
“It’s over, Chrysalis.” Twilight proclaimed.
“No! It can’t be over! Not again! My plan was perfect! You can’t do this!”
Chrysalis tried to get up again. She slid back down, her legs unable to support her. I shook my head in pity.
“I’ll admit I admire the teamwork Changelings are able to possess.” Twilight commented. “However, the ponies in Equestria have something that you don’t have, something that I don’t think you’ll have for a long, long time.”
Chrysalis’s eye twitched. “And what, is that?”
“Care, and love, and kindness.” Twilight answered firmly. I nodded, a huge smile on my face, my hands balled up into fists. “You can’t rule with evil and hatred, Chrysalis. That’s not how it works. No pony would want to follow that.”
“I can, and I will!” Chrysalis defiantly shouted.
Twilight shook her head. “Princess Celestia and Luna know the secrets to successful ruling. They’ve been doing it for over a thousand years, and they’ve never shown the uncaring attitude that you like to use over your subjects.”
“Your princesses are a lie! They hide important matters away from your young, oh so innocent eyes! You think that Celestia doesn’t show her merciless side once in a while, well you’re wrong!”
“Don’t listen to her!” I yelled for no reason. My avatar kept staring.
“I understand not everypony’s perfect, Chrysalis,” Twilight said. “Maybe if you showed some compassion we could get along.”
“Over my dead body!” Chrysalis spat.
Twilight sighed wearily. She cast a spell that materialised an arcane cage that suddenly trapped Chrysalis in. The Changeling queen checked around desperately.
“No! What are you doing! Aren’t you going to kill me?”
Twilight smiled solemnly. “That’s not how we do things around here.”
